As he walked, Su Han passed a shop distributing food. Residents of Long Country could buy their seven-day ration after identifying themselves with their resident ID and face scan. Su Han glanced at the sign hanging outside. The total amount listed had decreased, with more fruits and fewer staple grains rich in starch.
The blight had not affected fruits and vegetables with low starch content, so many countries on Blue Star relied on them for sustenance. The presence of fruits and vegetables prevented Blue Star from immediately descending into a post-apocalyptic famine. However, the lack of staple grains meant a lack of carbohydrates, and consequently, all countries inevitably fell into famine. After all, even if fruits and vegetables were eaten as meals, there weren't enough of them to feed so many people.
The nutritionists who had tirelessly advocated for increased fruit and vegetable consumption never imagined that what they themselves could not achieve would be accomplished by the blight.
As Su Han walked past the pedestrians, a little girl, accompanied by her mother, was queuing.
"Mom, I'm hungry."
"We'll have food soon. I'll give you half an apple later."
"Mom, I want to eat rice."
"Be good, there's no more rice. Fruits and vegetables can be eaten too."
Due to this peculiar situation, netizens in Long Country had changed the idiom "Why not eat meat?" to "Why not eat fruits and vegetables?"
Hearing the little girl's words, Su Han felt a pang in his heart. He had to accelerate the development of the Dinosaur World. After all, without developing the Dinosaur World, Long Country wouldn't dare to fully release its grain supply.
With the heavy responsibility on his shoulders, Su Han took a look around and returned to the temporary base of the Otherworld Development Department.
Upon his return to the temporary base, Su Han received a piece of bad news: the high-starch plants found in the Dinosaur World had also contracted the blight and withered after being brought to Blue Star.
Su Han also heard that Bai Lang, the head scientist of the Otherworld Development Department, had thrown a tantrum and smashed several cups.
Just as Su Han finished listening to his subordinate's report, Bai Lang came to find him.
"Deputy Minister Su Han, the high-starch plants brought from the Dinosaur World have also contracted the blight. Does your portal have any way to prevent the high-starch plants of the Dinosaur World from contracting the blight?"
Su Han shook his head and said, "I can't do anything about it. You've seen the function of the portal; it's just like that."
"Can't your portal prevent bacteria and viruses from passing through? Doesn't it have some radiating function?"
"There really isn't. If there were, there would be no blight in the world, and my portal would have solved it."
Su Han's conversation with Bai Lang left Bai Lang deflated like a punctured ball.
"Alas, it seems that the method of bringing high-starch plants from the Dinosaur World to Blue Star to cultivate new staple grains is not feasible," Bai Lang said with great disappointment. "It seems we can only fully implement the Otherworld Development Department's other plan."
"The other plan?" Su Han asked.
"Young Su Han, as the Deputy Minister of the Otherworld Development Department, you don't know about the other plan? It's that plan, the plan to cultivate grain in the Dinosaur World!"
Hearing this, Su Han immediately recalled that when he was still undertaking the main quest in the Dinosaur World, there had been a meeting discussing transplanting plants from the Dinosaur World to Blue Star to solve the blight problem. The other plan was to cultivate grain in the Dinosaur World.
Of course, these two plans were being carried out simultaneously. Even if the plants from the Dinosaur World were not affected by the blight, grain cultivation would still proceed in the Dinosaur World. Now that the high-starch plants from the Dinosaur World were contracting the blight on Blue Star, it was imperative to focus all efforts on grain cultivation in the Dinosaur World.
Immediately, this plan was put into action.
By the afternoon, a large group of scientists had gathered in front of the portal.
Bai Lang held a glass box containing several kilograms of hybrid rice seeds.
Bai Lang said to Su Han, "Deputy Minister Su Han, the hybrid rice seeds in these glass boxes have all contracted the blight. This glass box can ensure that the blight inside does not spread. I will take it to the Dinosaur World for testing. This way, we will know if the portal can eliminate the blight. If it cannot, this glass box will also ensure that the blight inside does not spread."
Actually, Su Han was not worried at all. After all, everyone had some blight on them. So many people had gone to the Dinosaur World, and yet the blight had not appeared there. The reason was that the portal had eliminated the blight during passage.
However, the scientists had more faith in their experiments, hence the current test. To conduct this experiment, the transport of supplies between the two sides had been temporarily halted.
Su Han nodded and said, "Begin the experiment!"
At Su Han's command,
Academician Bai Lang carried the box and entered the portal.
The scientists present followed behind him.
Su Han naturally also followed.
After passing through the portal into the Dinosaur World, Su Han saw that a temporary five-story building had already been erected about a kilometer behind the portal. This building mainly housed various scientific research equipment and served as a laboratory. Next to the laboratory building were many container-style modular houses, serving as dormitories. Numerous soldiers were constantly patrolling the area to ensure security. Several kilometers away, a busy construction site was underway. Further out, more than ten kilometers away, lay a large military camp with tents.
The reason for this distance was to provide the scientists with a quiet research environment and to reduce noise for the residents. After all, the construction site operated twenty-four hours a day, non-stop.
As soon as Su Han and the others arrived, someone drove a vehicle to pick them up and take them to the laboratory building.
Bai Lang took the glass box into the laboratory for observation.
Meanwhile, in the military camp several kilometers away, Chu Shi was organizing a dinosaur hunting mission.
"According to statistical calculations, we will hunt three hundred and seventy-two adult Diplodocus and twenty-fifteen Tyrannosaurus Rex in this area... This will not affect the local ecosystem. Let's start the plan. First, use drones to lure them to suitable locations and then sedate them with anesthetic. We absolutely must not act in the dense forest. Once large dinosaurs fall in the forest, they are very difficult to transport out. These are important food sources. Even their blood must not be wasted. Also, collect the uncollected plants identified by the drone..."