Chapter 3 (Researcher)

Zhao Linong was able to think rationally when she suddenly came to a strange new world, but she was completely devastated after learning that she was a new student at an agricultural base.

The world has changed, why does she still have to continue learning how to farm? !

Zhao Linong stood in the line with an blank face, feeling hopeless.

He Yuesheng next to her obviously had no idea what she was thinking. He was a social butterfly and had quickly started a conversation with the students in front and behind him. He greeted the people in front and behind him, asked them to help save a seat for him, and then slipped out of the line.

A few minutes later, he reappeared with a bottle of water in his hand.

"Here." He Yuesheng stuffed the water into Zhao Linong's hand, pointed at her eyes, and said, "Use it."

Zhao Linong was stunned for a moment, then took it: "Thank you."

"We are all classmates." He Yuesheng waved his hand, "I just asked in the freshman group, and someone happened to have brought water in his bag."

"Is there a group for new students?" The people standing in front and behind heard He Yuesheng's words and asked.

"Yes, you can join the group by scanning me." He Yuesheng swiped his thumb across the bracelet, and a light blue light screen appeared. The people in front and behind him all opened the light screen and scanned the code to join the group.

Zhao Linong unscrewed the bottle cap, and her eyes fell on the silver ring on her left hand. This thing should be similar to a mobile phone. Apart from her identity as a freshman at the Ninth Agricultural Base, she didn't know who she was. If this was a mobile phone, there should be a lot of information in it.

Although she was hit hard by her identity as a freshman in agriculture, she still had to temporarily integrate into the group and figure out the situation.

Zhao Linong used half a bottle of water to rinse the blood from her eyes and face, and then poured some water to wash his hands.

She observed the movements of these people inconspicuously, closed the bottle cap, wiped her hands on her clothes, and imitated them by swiping her thumb across the silver ring dial on her left hand. Sure enough, a light blue light screen popped up.

"I also want to join the group." After Zhao Linong found the place to scan the code, she said to He Yuesheng calmly.

"Scan me." He Yuesheng turned his hand and moved the light screen closer to her.

Zhao Linong scanned and was rerouted. It was similar to the group in her original world, and there was also a group name - Ninth Agricultural Base 41st Grade Freshmen (1173)

She also saw her nickname, which was Farmer Xiao Zhao.

People in the group were discussing what had just happened, and messages popped up one after another.

[There are mutated plants on the base post road. What are those patrolmen doing every day? Why don't they spray protective fluid regularly? So many people have died before we even report to the base.]

[I was standing near the conductor just now and heard him say that there was a shortage of protective fluid recently, so the post road reduction was postponed for two days. I didn't expect that something really happened. ]

[It's not just the protective fluid that's the problem. I was in coach 1, and the police there were even slower than us in reaction. They couldn't even hold their guns steady. They've had it easy for too long.]

[Okay, don't talk about this in the group. The patrol and railway police made mistakes, and someone from the central base will definitely deal with them.]

[Have you seen Luo Fanxue? Her guardian is Ye Changming.]

[Luo Fanxue should be out collecting samples of mutated plants. Luckily they passed by, otherwise we would be finished.]

[I really hope I have a guardian too, so I can be safe in the future. ]

Zhao Linong seemed to understand these conversations, but not quite. She only vaguely understood that Luo Fanxue should be a researcher of some kind, and that researchers would have guards.

"I've inquired. There are about 3,000 freshmen this year. Excluding the 10% mortality rate, there is also a 30% elimination rate." He Yuesheng was chatting with people around him. He counted on his fingers, "About 1,800 freshmen will be able to advance to sophomore year, and the elimination rate in sophomore year is only 15%. If they can graduate successfully, they can at least become planters."

"It would be great if I could become a researcher." The girl in front of He Yuesheng said longingly.

"Researcher? It would be great if I could become a planting officer. My life would not be in vain." The boy behind He Yuesheng shook his head. "In fact, it’s not bad to be a planting officer if I could leave the Ninth Base alive."

Zhao Linong listened to their conversation quietly, and suddenly asked, "Is being a researcher very good?"

"Of course, researchers have a special status." He Yuesheng took the initiative to explain, "Once you successfully graduate from the Ninth Agricultural Base, you can become a planter. When you are assigned to work in other bases, you can get 20% off on food and 10% off on other things. If you graduate with good grades and are selected as a planting officer, you can get 50% off on food and 30% off on other things."

He paused and added, "As for researchers, they get a 10% discount on food and a 50% discount on other items. In addition to the basic salary, they also receive a subsidy of up to 100,000 points per month. Most importantly, the central base will assign a dedicated guard to each researcher to ensure their safety at all times."

Zhao Linong couldn't help but think of the guardian named Ye Changming. She slowly asked, "The planters and plantation officers don't have guardians?"

"There is a guard team, but no dedicated guards." He Yuesheng knew all kinds of information. He shrugged and said, "It's better for a plantation officer. Usually, their work and life are under the jurisdiction of the guard team. When there is an emergency mission, they can apply for a guard to follow them. Basically, their life will not be in danger. However, a plantation officer can only have the guard team when they are working. At other times, they are no different from an ordinary person."

The salary of a researcher sounded very good, Zhao Linong thought, if she graduated successfully, she could be a planter, and if she got good grades,she could be a planting officer. So what were the requirements to become a researcher?

He Yuesheng sighed: "Well... basically only those who have made contributions to the planting field can become researchers at the Central Agricultural Research Institute."

Zhao Linong thought for a moment and said, "That's why I can become a researcher after graduation."

"Not necessarily." He Yuesheng pointed in the direction where the heavy armoured off-road vehicle left. "People like Luo Fanxue who are talented and have achieved planting results early can bypass the Ninth Agricultural Base and directly apply to become a researcher."

Zhao Linong slowly digested the information she had obtained. She did not think too much about her original world. Things were done, and since they could not be changed, she could only look forward.

"Look, the patrol police are here!" someone shouted, pointing into the air.

Zhao Linong looked up along with everyone else and saw two military green helicopters hovering above the train tracks. The wind they brought caused the pebbles near the tracks to begin rolling.

At the same time, the line in front suddenly began to move.

He Yuesheng jumped up, looked at the front and said, "The rescue vehicle is here."

The incident happened suddenly, and the rescue vehicles that came out of the same base were not all the same. They should be buses and military transport vehicles that were temporarily assembled.

"The danger in the carriage has been eliminated. All freshmen can return to the carriage to retrieve their luggage." After several patrolmen walked up to the conductor and said a few words, the conductor began to shout, "You have fifteen minutes, hurry up."

The carriage where Zhao Linong was located had tilted at a considerable angle because the carriage in front of it was damaged, so it was a bit troublesome to go in and get the luggage.

The most troublesome thing was that she didn't know which luggage was hers.

Zhao Linong simply fell behind, wanting to wait until everyone in the carriage had taken their things before going up to get them.

After a while, He Yuesheng, who was trying to recruit new students to join the group, came over and saw Zhao Linong behind him: "Why haven't you entered yet?"

"...I'm a little scared and don't dare to go in." Zhao Linong made up an excuse.

He Yuesheng looked at her carefully and suddenly realised: "Student Zhao, do you have facial paralysis?"

"No wonder there was no fear on your face, but your legs were so weak that you couldn't even walk." He Yuesheng felt that his inference was perfect.

"Let's go in together." He Yuesheng said enthusiastically.

There were people in the carriage who hadn't taken their luggage. Zhao Linong walked to her seat, but she had no idea which suitcase was hers.

"Yours." He Yuesheng reached out and took down a 20-inch brown diamond-chequered cloth suitcase and pushed it to Zhao Linong.

Perhaps she couldn't hide the surprise in her eyes, he explained, "You were carrying this when I saw you get in the coach before."

Fortunately, there was a kind and enthusiastic person like He Yuesheng sitting next to me, otherwise I would have died soon after I opened my eyes.

After He Yuesheng and Zhao Linong lined up to retrieve their luggage from the coach, what was waiting for them was a military transport vehicle. There were no seats, so everyone had to sit on the ground. There was no back door, so it was completely open.

All the people who went in first moved in, leaving only two empty seats on the outside.

Zhao Linong had no sense of belonging to this new world and was less afraid than the others. Without much hesitation, she sat at the outermost part of the transport vehicle.

He Yuesheng sat opposite her and within a few minutes he started to have lively conversations with the people in the car.

Zhao Linong lowered her head slightly and turned on the light screen. After thinking about it for a while, she roughly knew how to use this thing. This silver ring is called an optical brain, which is very similar to a mobile phone.

She even found a camera and looked at her face for a long time, and found that her face in this world looked almost exactly the same as her face in her original world, except that it was paler and more delicate, and there were no calluses on her fingers.

There were also admission photos in the album. In this world, her name was also Zhao Linong. Coincidentally, her home address is really in the Central Base.

Zhao Linong recalled everything she experienced since she opened her eyes. All of it,made her feel a little strange.

Right now, what she needs most is to understand how this world works.

Zhao Linong found the search engine on the optical computer and typed the word "base" in the search box. A flat circular diagram instantly popped up on the light blue screen.

The words "Central Base" were written in the centre of the circle. From this centre, "M" lines appeared, with a number written on the top of each line. North and south were one and two, east and west were three and four, north by west was five, north by east was seven, west by south was eight, and east by south was six.

This flat circular diagram was not a perfect circle. There is a nine between one and eight.

In the figure, the Central Base and the Ninth Agricultural Base are connected by dotted lines, and the other numbers and the Central Base are connected by solid lines.

Apart from these, there are no annotations on the figure.

Zhao Linong continued to flip through the pages, and found a large amount of information. She picked out the most important information and looked at it quickly, then she realised that the Ninth Agricultural Base was established the latest, and the high walls on both sides of the base post road between it and the Central Base had not been completely built, so they were marked with dotted lines.

High walls...to block giant mutated plants like the one just now?

However, plants have always been tenacious, and an ordinary high wall alone would not be able to solve the problem once and for all. Zhao Linong thought for a moment and continued to scroll down.

This world is very much like the end of the world, except that there are no zombies. The plants mutated easily, and during the mutation process,like the Zeqi before, they like to devour and absorb living things, especially human blood.

Plants mutated wildly, and animals also began to evolve, but humans were the only ones who did not evolve and seemed to be abandoned by nature.

Human survival is under severe threat and obtaining food has become very difficult.

In the struggle against natural evolution, mankind made great sacrifices and gradually formed ten bases. Except for the central base and the ninth agricultural base, the remaining bases had a clear agricultural division of labour.

These bases provide crops to the central base, and the Central Agricultural Research Institute provides crop seeds. These seeds have all been screened by them, greatly reducing the mutation rate.

As for the Ninth Agricultural Base, it specifically recruits agricultural students who are 20 years old or above for a four-year study and is responsible for providing reserve forces for each base.

Even with seeds provided by the Central Agricultural Research Institute, plant mutations often occurred, so agronomy became a high-risk major.

Generally speaking, people who come to the Ninth Agricultural Base are either very ambitious and want to become planting officers or even researchers; or they are extremely poor and want to take a chance for their future life.

Zhao Linong stared at the light screen for a while. After thinking about it, she exited out and started searching for "researcher".

In this world, research is the highest-ranking and most respected profession.

Zhao Linong slowly turned off the computer and thought that she might as well continue to learn farming. Being a researcher here can not only bring honour to the family, but also provide good benefits. If her parents knew about this, they would definitely be happy.

I just don't know how they were doing in her original world.

Zhao Linong recalled the time when she fell off the ridge of the field. She probably didn't break her head. She didn't feel any pain when she lost consciousness. It was more like she fell asleep.

"Hey, look over there." He Yuesheng on the opposite side nudged Zhao Linong with his shoes, signalling her to look outside, "They have started spraying the protective liquid."

Zhao Linong turned her head and saw that all the freshmen had boarded the bus. The two planes that were originally circling dispersed and sprayed out misty liquid. A pungent and sour smell immediately spread around.

Rescue vehicles lined up in a long queue and moved slowly, their bodies swaying on the gravel road. In the distance, two green military  planes were spraying protective fluid in the sky and moving farther and farther away. Only the derailed train remained where it was.

In the sunlight, everything seemed so orderly and yet extremely strange.