Two weeks later.
In the infiltration pond selected by the engineering team, excavators are still continuously expanding the excavated area.
In the center of the pool, there are icebergs of varying heights, with the shortest reaching over ten meters in height. Reflected by them, even the scorching sunlight appears cold here.
Moreover, due to the massive melting of these glaciers, the ground has changed from being dry to muddy and difficult to traverse. Some areas have even turned into lakes, making it impossible for people, let alone ordinary tracked vehicles, to pass through.
Only mechs can work in this environment.
Large mechs can even traverse environments like the ocean floor, so this little bit of mud is nothing to them.
Of course, calling in a large mech just for this small task would be too wasteful of fuel, and besides, a mech that's too big isn't actually convenient for doing the work.
Surrounded by icebergs are actually small mechs, each less than twenty meters long.
These mechs were prototypes designed by Mako Mori before. They can be operated by one person and generally have good performance and battery life.
If it weren't for the need to use more system materials for modifications, and the desire to wait for the special building " Mecha Factory," large-scale operations would have already commenced.
It is precisely because these small mechs are so well-made that they were assigned to work here.
Bang!
Raleigh Becket stood inside the mech's cockpit, manipulating the mech's arm, which was originally supposed to house a small plasma cannon, but had been temporarily converted into an impact drill...
Hearing the drilling sounds outside, and watching the ice blocks, some tens of meters high, being shattered by his actions, he was amazed.
Raleigh took two steps back, avoiding the large chunks of ice that had broken off from the iceberg, and stood in front of the Spacetime Tunnel waiting for the next piece of ice, while he couldn't help but sigh inwardly.
He had joined the Support Team No. 0 with the expectation that he would continue fighting monsters in the No. 0 Spacetime, but instead of fighting many monsters, he was transferred here to work as an ice-breaking worker.
He's been breaking ice here for ten days, and his heart is as cold as those ice blocks.
Behind Raleigh, after he finished breaking the ice, other slightly larger mechs approached and quickly used their grappling hooks to drive the ice blocks into the ice.
The block was dragged to a farther location.
The pilots of these mechs are the Wei Brothers...
They have been operating in this way for the past few days, and the results have been remarkable.
The groundwater reserves in this area have increased significantly, and with the recharge work around the city, water can now be drawn from wells in the city.
After staring blankly for a while, Raleigh saw another large chunk of ice being pushed through the Spacetime Tunnel in front of him.
Across from him is Antarctica in the Day After Tomorrow Spacetime; his previous partner, Zhang Qing, was the one responsible for pushing the ice blocks.
Raleigh turned on the impact drill again and began a new round of work.
Outside the ice-breaking site, a large group of scholars from various disciplines, mostly paleontologists, gathered. They treated the site as their workshop, conducting on-site testing and research, creating a lively atmosphere.
Raleigh and his mech pilots had been busy in Interstellar Spacetime for nearly three months, playing the role of "Wang Wang" every day, responsible for breaking ice in various infiltration pools, before the newly trained mech pilots took over and gradually replaced them.
The timeline jumps to December 2067 in Interstellar Spacetime.
During these three months, the changes in Interstellar Spacetime were minimal.
Yuan Heguang has been pushing for the restart of industry while ensuring social stability. Thanks to the replenishment of groundwater, water sources in various places have gradually begun to recover.
Leaving aside industrial water use, at least domestic water use is no longer a problem.
Moreover, the Legend Spacetime also ushered in its first bumper harvest of food after sowing. This food was mainly provided to the Wandering Earth, Finch, and Interstellar Spacetime through Economic and Trade Organization in the form of loans.
Interstellar Spacetime takes the lion's share.
After all, the famine was most severe here.
Moreover, in order to alleviate the famine, Yuan Heguang opened the granaries to distribute grain, which greatly reduced the grain reserves, and now there is an urgent need for a large amount of grain to replenish them.
With food in hand, one has nothing to fear.
In short, although various problems still exist, the atmosphere of gradual recovery is already quite evident under Yuan Heguang's coordination.
Moreover, Yuan Heguang has already set his sights abroad. The Mutual Aid Society and the delegation he jointly dispatched have set off in various directions to conduct on-site investigations into the current situation in various countries.
In contrast, North America has seen a situation of intense competition.
In mutual rescue
With the aid of the association, the total grain reserves occupied by the starving people have reached 19 million tons, and the number of people has reached a staggering 7 million.
In other words, from the other side's perspective, there are currently seven million rice weevils living in their granaries.
Zhang Tianyuan didn't know exactly what percentage of North America's total grain reserves this reserve represented, but he was certain that the proportion was already quite high.
Because that huge brewery was actually forced to shut down.
In addition, the massacre of starving people in the desert and the frequent collisions with the Mutual Aid Society's convoys have prevented the operation from achieving any significant results, hindering the operation on the flanks.
The National Guard's operations to recapture food warehouses on the front lines became increasingly frequent, and various biological and chemical weapons were used incessantly. Even with all the precautions, the starving people's will to resist was gradually weakening.
There were also instances of starving people surrendering during this period.
There were three large granaries where 400,000 starving people negotiated with the guards, accepted their terms, and surrendered the granaries.
The Mutual Aid Society issued several risk warnings in response, but did not intervene forcefully, even though Amelia and Professor Brand repeatedly requested intervention from the Mutual Aid Society's headquarters or branches.
In the end, Zhang Tianyuan simply dispersed the tens of thousands of dissenting starving people in the three granaries to other granaries for resettlement.
What happened next was exactly as everyone expected.
In this world, no one is willing to support 400,000 starving people for nothing...
In short, only about 20,000 of the 400,000 people escaped within half a month of surrendering.
The lives of 380,000 people are nothing more than a simple elementary school subtraction problem in the face of various deadly weapons.
Despite past grievances, the Mutual Aid Society dispersed the 20,000 people and resettled them in other granaries controlled by starving people.
After that, no matter how many people died, the granary and the guards never negotiated a surrender.
Besides the plight of starving people in North America, another eye-catching event occurred during this period.
That is, the Mutual Aid Society sent an unmanned spaceship to Planet No. 3 in the New Star, which is a planet with habitable conditions.
Planet No. 3 is located far from the New Galaxy Black Hole, requiring nearly a year to reach. Coupled with unfamiliarity with the orbit, even with unlimited acceleration, the unmanned spaceship took over two months to arrive...