Chapter 1202: Trouble Has Begun

At this moment, New York was also enshrouded in an incessant torrential rain.

Anyone who stayed outdoors for more than ten seconds was guaranteed to end up completely drenched from head to toe.

The rain was so heavy that it was painful when it slapped on one’s face, a dull pain. It was also icy cold, and like the fingers of the dead, it strived to take away all warmth from the living.

But it was in such weather that every inhabitant of the temporary base, from the young to the old, had poured outside and congregated on a large open area, packing the area full. They looked towards a huge platform in front of them with complicated gazes.

Hundreds of thick pipes surrounded the platform, meandering like giant snakes and twisting about like blood vessels. They were connected to some ugly large folds in the middle of the platform. A dull roar rose from the machines under the ground, and the earth shook. The pipes also began to wriggle like they had lives of their own. A large amount of gas started to be pumped in.

The air being pumped was not helium, that was normally used in airships, but an inert gas called mirium, which Dr. Octopus had developed recently. Not only could this inert gas provide three times the buoyancy of helium and was non-combustible, it’s production cost was just one fifth that of helium.

The biggest problem with this gas was that the pollution from its preparation process was very troublesome to deal with. The pollution would cause the carcinogenic rate of local residents to increase by 7,000% and would take at least several decades to remove under normal conditions, but considering the current circumstances, it was no longer a problem.

A behemoth of an object gradually took shape as mirium was rapidly pumped into the balloon. The airship was an astonishing 318 meters in length, 60 meters in diameter, 300 tons in weight, and 300,000 cubic meters in volume. This meant that it was more than three times the length of a Boeing 747 and more than six times the diameter. The interior of the balloon was further divided into 128 sub-airbags, an intricate design.

Soon, the enormous lifting force produced by the balloon stretched the steel cables of the airship taut. According to experimental data, the actual lifting force of the airship was 921 tons, 10% higher than the design objective. There was no abnormalities with the steel cables connecting the balloon to the carriage compartment. All the experimental result was quite normal.

People were now allowed to go into the airship to inspect it. They found that the accommodation inside the airship were divided into two types. The first kind was a simple and wide room akin to a barrack.

In order to reduce weight, the bunk beds inside were specially designed and assembled. To put it bluntly, the bunk beds were just two pieces of rubber boards, one on top and one below, fixed on the bulkhead and supported by rubber pillars. One could sleep after laying clothes or something on them.

Each barrack-like room could accommodate thirty people and had its own bathroom. The excrements were directly poured out of the airship without much thought for the environment. Drinking water and food were supplied by the airship management in limited amounts. Electricity use was also restricted to two hours a day. As for water for domestic use, the water tank in the toilet will be filled at noon every day. There would only be one tank of water per day.

The second kind of accommodation was similar to the rooms of a humble inn. Each room could accommodate four people, and there was no restriction on domestic water and electricity usage. The inhabitants could also make orders and shop in the restaurant on the airship. But, they need to pay or make contributions to the airship.

Basically, all those present were almost certain to live in the second type of accommodation.

Of course, the so-called payment was not made in currencies like dollars or euros, but a kind of token issued within the alliance. They could not find the relevant machinery to make coins in such short notice, so they just made some simple changes to the machinery that made Coke bottle caps to produce the tokens. That’s why the tokens were also known as “caps”.

There were two ways to obtain tokens. First, there were specially prepared exchange points on the airship where people could trade in hard currencies like gold and diamonds for the tokens. Second, those who made contributions to the airship would get wages or rewards in the form of “caps”.

Next, various different tests were carried out. First, the airship’s cabin was filled with a large amount of soil to simulate the airship’s full load or even mild overload. The numbers reflected that its performance was satisfactory, without any abnormalities.

The last test was the damage resistant test, mainly testing for the airship’s performance after sustaining permanent damage. The airship was subjected to a relentless collaborative attack from the vampires and the X-Men. When the destruction of the airship balloon while it ascended reached 20%, it could still maintain 90% of its transport capacity, but when the destruction reached the critical point of 50%, the airship’s transport capacity declined rapidly. Despite that, the airship still persisted for 10 minutes before it started crashing down. The quality could be considered to be very high.

The solid and lightweight cabin of the airship could easily float on water, which was a security measure in case of an emergency landing.

After all, according to the information the contestants provided, the surface of the earth will be submerged in sea water for a month at least. The violent force of sea water came from the movement of continental plates, so it was estimated that sea water would only rise for half a month, while the remaining half a month would be the fading period. Therefore, designing the airship to be usable on both air and water could very well save countless lives.

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Everyone cheered at the good result, including the X-Men and the vampires. After all, the better the performance of the airship, the more secure their lives were.

The cheers made Dr. Octopus beam with pride. He was swelling with a sense of accomplishment. In the subsequent meeting to discuss the initial inspection, he emphasised that the acquisition of precious and rare metals was still indispensable.

That’s because if every seven airships were to form a formation like they had designed, the requirement for the connecting steel cables was extremely high. Not only must they be able to bear astonishingly high tensile force, they must also be able to be cut instantly if necessary. And yet, grouping the airships into formations was a must. Therefore, they could only choose to compete with other forces in a fight for survival.

***

“Only eight hours left.” Zi frowned.

They had yet to complete their mission.

The mission required them to obtain five kilograms of tritium, seven hundred grams of uranium and mercury, as well as one thousand kilograms of rhodium in seventy-two hours. At the moment, they still lacked 300 grams of tritium.

Tritium has actually made an appearance in a Spider-Man movie before. It is a material used to make hydrogen bombs. The accident which happened to Dr. Octopus was precisely caused by his research on tritium. It was said that if an accident were to occur during the handling of a tritium the size of a fingernail cap, it could possibly destroy the whole New York.

Party Ace were currently sitting around a table. Sheyan could find no response to Zi’s words. He was only someone who was a little smart, not an oracle. He could not just divine where they could find 300 grams of tritium.

Professor X’s voice suddenly transmitted into their minds. The voice felt a little tired. “One of the vampires, Count Hunter, has just return from his investigation. He seems to have brought back some useful information.”

“Good,” Sheyan’s spirit was instantly lifted when he heard the news, but he could not stop himself from asking, “Are you all right, professor?”

So far, there had been eleven waves of enemy attacks here, some tentative attacks and some serious ones, but they were all crushed by the strong defence laid down by Professor X. They were like huge waves splashing onto a reef, only to be broken down into nothingness.

Professor X could reach the strength of a lower Class 5 mutant with the help of the powerful Cerebro, at the cost of his mobility. However, this time, Professor X only needed to focus his Class 5 mutant power on the base and its vicinity. The effect was shocking. Within this area, he was as good as a god!

Even legendary superheroes would often find their mind controlled by the professor if they got slightly careless, turning towards their allies and attacking them. A crisis from the inside would always be the number 1 enemy of a team no matter how powerful the team was. And in this place, any team targeted by Professor X would find themselves facing a crisis from the inside!

However, the heavy workload was obviously exhausting Professor X. The image of the professor that appeared in the contestants’ minds had bloodshot and sunken eyes. The eyes were still sharp though, as if they were able to see into the depths of one’s heart.

Professor X’s main personality and alternate personality could take turns to rest, but there was nothing that could be done about his physical exhaustion. The one currently controlling the body was Professor X’s main personality.

“I’ll be fine. Jean should wake up in less than three hours; she can take my place and give me a chance to rest. If that doesn’t happen, Dracula has also shared with me a secret skill of the vampires that can quickly restore my energy,” he replied slowly.

A blurry figure suddenly appeared outside the window, and in flew a large bat with golden stripes on its wings. The bat turned around and became a middle-aged European man with a polite demeanour.

He smiled at them and said, “I’m Count Hunter. I just received information that a batch of tritium retrieved from Fukushima, Japan, is being transported here, but this time, it’s escorted by the government.”

“That seems a bit odd. Since all the nations have an agreement, these tritium should be shipped directly to China where the arks are being built. Why are the United States keeping these tritium?” Sheyan asked doubtfully with a frown.

Count Hunter hesitated for a moment before he replied, “This should have something to do with a rumour that surfaced about seven hours ago. It’s said that the Chinese government, while manufacturing the arks, is also taking advantage of the resources that are shipped to China from all over the world to start building pirated arks of their own based on the original ark blueprint. It’s said that they’re planning to build more than 1,000 arks!”

“This news has yet to be confirmed, but it has aroused great vigilance in all the other nations. I heard this batch of tritium has been held back precisely because of this rumour.”