Chapter 124: Scientific Romance

“It’s alright. You should consider keeping me.”

Ding Junyi’s face was calm. She pointed to a workbench in the distance where there were several exquisite petri dishes. They contained the plant seeds that Lin Xian and Kiki had brought back from the 89th floor. It seemed Ding Junyi had already sorted and packaged them.

“Your plan is to cultivate green plants on the train, and I happen to be an expert in this field. Although academic biological research and forestry cultivation are essentially the difference between theory and practice, there should be no one on this train more suitable than me to carry out your plan. Moreover, you have two Cole-3 biological science research cars, which can be used separately. One for my research workshop, and the other as a cultivation car. I have already made some progress in the research of the Blood Calamity Plant. Plus, with more than one metahuman on this train who can assist with experimental observation, keeping me can help you open up more fields.”

Lin Xian looked at her curiously. “As far as I know, there’s a team from your Dawn Project in Yubei City. There might even be people from the Phoenix Society and the Iron Guard Brigade there. With your status, you could totally join an official organization. Why do you keep wanting to get on my train?”

Ding Junyi tilted her head slightly and looked at Lin Xian seriously. “I believe I told you last night.”

“What?”

“I enjoy a higher level of physiological pleasure. Staying in the underground city suppresses my emotions. Besides, the underground city isn’t safe either. Hasn’t that been proven?”

Lin Xian found it truly difficult to understand and frowned. “Are you saying you’ve grown to like the thrill of being on the run?”

“I don’t completely rule out that possibility.” Ding Junyi said with righteous conviction, “To greet death on a speeding train racing towards the dawn is more romantic than science. What’s more, I can have both science and romance at the same time.”

To think that such a prim and proper female academic would have such a crazy idea. Lin Xian was secretly amazed. No wonder many people said that those who appear calm on the surface possess a true fanaticism within. From this Director Ding, Lin Xian had seen a glimpse of it.

“Alright then.” Lin Xian took a deep breath and replied, “If you still have this idea after Yubei City, I’ll agree to let you on the train.”

“Thank you.”

Ding Junyi glanced at him, then turned back to continue her work seriously.

Lin Xian walked towards the rear cars, preparing to wake up Dalou and get the armor for the nuclear locomotive done first.

At that moment, the light screen in front of him flashed, and a notification came from the Research Center.

[Blue Sky KK-93 Reverse Osmosis Water Purifier blueprint upgrade research successful. Please acquire the new blueprint.]

Lin Xian’s face lit up with joy, and he immediately chose to acquire it.

With a flash of light, a brand-new blueprint appeared in the Research Center.

[Congratulations, you have obtained the A1-Grade Subcritical Reverse Osmosis Water Purifier (Blueprint).]

“Subcritical Reverse Osmosis Water Purifier?”

Lin Xian looked at the strange blueprint and was momentarily dumbfounded. “What is subcritical reverse osmosis? Is this even part of this world’s tech tree?”

He stopped halfway, then immediately turned back and found Kiki.

“Kid, let me ask you something. Do you know the term ‘subcritical reverse osmosis’?”

“You’ve got me there…” Kiki frowned. “What is that? Something related to water purifiers?”

Lin Xian went to find Ding Junyi again.

“Director Ding, do you know about subcritical reverse osmosis water purification technology?”

Ding Junyi turned around and adjusted her glasses. “RO, the reverse osmosis method. If you’re referring to a water purification device that uses a reverse osmosis membrane under pressure to separate solvents and solutes in a solution, achieving a filtration accuracy of 0.0001 microns, many laboratories or living areas with high water quality requirements use this technology to obtain pure water.”

“And the ‘subcritical’ you mentioned should refer to the state conditions of a substance. In engineering, it refers to a substance that exists as a fluid at a temperature above its boiling point but below its critical temperature, and at a pressure below its critical pressure…”

Before she could finish, Lin Xian left directly. Ding Junyi glanced at him, then turned back to her work with a blank expression.

“Maybe I was overthinking it. It’s just a relatively high-end water purification technology that many people haven’t heard of.”

Lin Xian thought for a moment, then suddenly put the blueprint back into the Research Center to see if this research upgrade had an end.

But when he placed the blueprint in, the Research Center directly prompted him: [Mechanical Manufacturing level is insufficient. The highest standard for this blueprint has been reached.]

“Alright then…”

He then opened the Fabrication Plant. By now, his decomposition space had already acquired a considerable amount of high-energy solid propellant. Now he wanted to build this water purifier first, which required the basic material for the reverse osmosis membrane.

Lin Xian tried to convert it from steel and plastic, but found that this reverse osmosis membrane material was a level 2 material. Using level 1 materials to convert it increased the material requirement several times over!

“Damn, that’s really not worth it.”

Fortunately, he had a decent amount of level 2 materials now, and the amount of material required for this reverse osmosis membrane was not much. So he directly used carbon steel for the conversion. After about 20 minutes, he finally succeeded in fabricating it.

Lin Xian took a deep breath. A faint light of creation appeared in his hand, and countless materials flew out, assembling in mid-air.

Soon, a white water purification device was slowly created. It was a set of equipment composed of several white cylindrical tubes and some kind of pressurizing device.

“Wow, this looks very high-end.”

“Let’s test it first.”

Lin Xian was eager. He immediately took the water purification device to Car 1, connected it to the locomotive’s water tank, powered it on, and started it.

The machine made almost no sound. After waiting for a few seconds, a stream of clear, pure water flowed out.

“It looks…”

Looks like crap.

How could he possibly see microorganisms with his naked eye?

Lin Xian took the water directly to the laboratory in Car 3 and found Ding Junyi again.

“The lab has a water quality tester, right? Help me test the quality of this water.”

Ding Junyi had no questions. Hearing Lin Xian’s words, she immediately got up, took the water from him, and began testing it with the water quality tester. She quickly came to a conclusion.

“If you want to test water quality, there are many requirements: particles, turbidity, organic matter, pH, and so on. But I know you’re asking about the standard for drinking water. In conclusion, this water quality meets an extremely high drinking standard. However, I don’t have effective testing equipment for the energy carrier of the dark contagion here. Perhaps the Phoenix Society or headquarters has made progress, but that’s not my field of research.”

Lin Xian took the water, hesitated for a moment, and then drank it all in one go.

The filtration standard of his water purifier already exceeded that of the bottled pure water stored on the train. If there were any other invisible contagious effects, there was nothing else he could do.

However, so many people on the train had been drinking bottled water, and there had been no problems so far.

Another point was that the isomeric cube helped him isolate the influence of the dark-side power of the night on the train. Thinking this way, he guessed that the drinking water problem should be guaranteed.

If even this couldn’t be guaranteed, it was hard to imagine how other convoys could survive.

Feeling a little more at ease, Lin Xian now chose to put the blueprint for the M556 light machine gun into the Research Center.

[Please select the research direction for this weapon:]

[Firepower] (13 hours)

[Mobility] (09 hours)

[Precision] (12 hours)

“Firepower!”

Lin Xian responded in his mind with practiced ease.

Instantly, a line of text appeared on the light screen: [M556 Light Machine Gun] Firepower Upgrade (12:59:59), and the countdown began.