I can upgrade the shelter-Chapter 582 - 480: Heading to the Seed Bank

The Seed Bank constructed by the Lucians is not located in their capital, but rather closer to the Arctic Circle.

This is not because the Lucians are foolish, knowingly building the Seed Bank in a place prone to cold, but because the construction of the Seed Bank was part of a plan that existed long before the disaster struck.

In fact, countries around the world began similar projects over a decade ago, such as the most famous international Seed Bank that has been in operation for more than ten years, built in Norway, more than a thousand kilometers from the North Pole.

The Lucians also drafted a similar plan at that time, but due to poor economic conditions in the country, the project did not receive sufficient funding and thus progressed irregularly.

The chosen location for the Seed Bank was an abandoned missile silo from the Suyia era, and even the refrigeration equipment for preserving seeds was only gradually acquired after the Seed Bank became operational.

Therefore, during the initial construction of the Seed Bank, there was an intention to use the Arctic Circle’s cold to protect these precious seeds.

However, nobody expected to encounter a world-class disaster like a meteor impact, which happens only once in millions of years, nearly destroying human civilization.

Once the disaster was confirmed to occur, Lucian officials urgently initiated a series of plans to ensure the nation’s continuation, naturally giving the Seed Bank attention and securing sufficient funding and resources for its successful establishment, storing a large number of plant seeds, animal embryos, and even five thousand genetic samples.

According to the Lucian officials’ plan, if the countries of the world at that time could not prevent the meteor impact, and if Lucian suffered devastating damage, driving the nation toward collapse, the Seed Bank would represent the last hope of restarting Lucian.

What no one expected was that post-disaster, global temperatures would drop to such a terrifying level.

With temperatures plunging over minus one hundred degrees, the missile silo built during the Suyia era struggled to resist, turning the entire Seed Bank into a genuine ice cellar. Not only was refrigeration no longer a concern, there was even a need to find ways to heat the interior, preventing such low temperatures from directly freezing the plant seeds and animal embryos.

During the previous winter, the Seed Bank barely survived with the support of Lucian officials, but its interior still sustained considerable impact.

Originally, they could just about hold on, but with the invasion of diseases, all of Lucian nearly collapsed, leaving officials without the strength to support them further, making the situation at the Seed Bank critical; they couldn’t survive the next harsh winter.

Moreover, many of the Seed Bank maintenance workers fell ill due to the cold, with insufficient manpower, resource shortages, and the coming extreme cold threatening to completely destroy this already precarious Seed Bank.

Sitting on the plane, listening to Lucian staff introducing the Seed Bank situation and feeling the slightly hostile gaze from a female scientist beside him, Chen Xin felt as though he had taken on a hot potato.

Although well aware it was a trap, he had no choice but to step in, a situation that could roughly describe Chen Xin’s current predicament.

Nonetheless, a mental preparation was made, and Ye Yu and others were ready, so Chen Xin didn’t consider the trap too dangerous for himself.

His only concern was whether the Lucians might resort to underhanded tricks.

If it’s merely trying to extract key technologies from him during the construction of the Energy Tower, Chen Xin believed they couldn’t obtain much, especially since he was aware of the Lucians’ intentions, and with Ye Yu and others’ reminders, Chen Xin felt he could keep the secrets.

But if the Lucians were to deploy a KGB ’swallow’ to play a seductive strategy, even if Chen Xin could keep the secrets, it would still bring many unnecessary troubles.

Don’t think such things are impossible; during the Cold War, KGB swallows were notorious, with many scientists who defected to Suyia being seduced by them.

They were espionage elites carefully selected and trained by KGB, particularly adept at luring targets and stealing various confidential information, earning a formidable reputation that struck fear into people during those times.

If an example must be given, the Black Widow in "Avengers" is a classic portrayal of a KGB swallow, though the real swallows’ ability to steal information was even more terrifying.

However, despite the concerns, work still needed to be done.

The transport plane Chen Xin and his team were on was carrying one of the three Energy Tower cores purchased by Lucian officials from Flame Country, intended for constructing an Energy Tower at the Seed Bank, sufficient to ensure its stable operation during the forthcoming harsh winter.

"Mr. Chen Xin, once the Energy Tower is completed, it will deliver a large amount of heat to the Seed Bank to fend off harsh winter, but after the winter, when we no longer need so much heat, how do we adjust the Energy Tower’s output?" on the plane, an engineering technician sent by Lucian officials was asking Chen Xin some technical questions.

As the Seed Bank was already near the Arctic Circle, under the current extremely cold conditions, the Lucians had few viable transport options, so they borrowed a Flame Country transport plane to deliver the Energy Tower core along with engineering technicians to the Seed Bank.

This also gave Lucian engineers a chance to interact with Chen Xin.

Faced with such a question, Chen Xin thought briefly before explaining, "The output power of the Energy Tower is adjustable; it’s quite simple. When the Energy Tower is not needed, just close the pipeline for the transport medium."

Although Chen Xin answered the question, he did not intend to provide a deeper explanation.

However, the Lucian engineer was evidently not satisfied with this answer, so he pressed further, "Wouldn’t this affect geothermal extraction? Would insufficient pressure in the transport medium cause damage to the underlying strata?"

"As far as I know, there isn’t," Chen Xin replied evasively, "in our southern regions, even winter temperatures aren’t below yours, and our Energy Towers operate well. I expect your Energy Tower will also operate well here." Feeling a rising alert against further inquiries, Chen Xin did not continue.

After giving a perfunctory response to the Lucian engineer’s question, Chen Xin stopped talking to him and instead asked the Lucian officer in charge, "How much longer until we reach the destination?"

"At our current flight speed, we should arrive in about half an hour," responded the Lucian official overseeing the Energy Tower construction, checking his watch and respectfully answering Chen Xin.