I became a god by treasure hunting after arriving 500 years early

Chapter 57 - 54: Has Lu Yuan... died?

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Everyone hurriedly finished their breakfast and rushed to the lab.

Zhang Hui, the head of the project, was sporting dark circles under his eyes, too excited to have gotten much sleep the previous night: "Good morning, everyone."

"Don’t just focus on peaches and rice, and those weeds and trees—they have mutated too and are worth researching... Let’s do this, we’ll divide the research topics and arrange personnel accordingly."

"Who wants to study that big peach tree?"

Almost everyone raised their hands.

"How about the rice?"

About half of the people raised their hands.

Zhang Hui smiled secretly to himself, who wouldn’t want to research the projects most likely to yield results?

Well, actually, he wanted to study the peaches too: "Ahem, everyone, there is no Nobel Prize anymore."

"All our research achievements belong to Yunhai City, to the collective."

"So, I guess I have to be the bad guy and directly assign the researchers."

He chose several authoritative professors to divide the major topics, especially regarding medicine and food, which were of utmost importance at the moment.

Everyone was quite cooperative, after all... it was an extraordinary plant, certainly better than other cities which had nothing to research.

After the work was assigned, Zhang Hui casually asked, "How is Lu Yuan doing? Are you still keeping an eye on him?"

After all, Lu Yuan hadn’t completely lost his mind; he was just using that big metal ball as a clock and wasn’t trying to contact human civilization all day long.

He had placed the metal ball in a room filled with trash.

The camera was only able to capture images of gold, silver, and various kinds of rubbish.

It was difficult for the researchers to obtain more useful information.

Under these circumstances, the doctoral students were no longer watching. It had fallen to the master’s students with lower academic qualifications to keep an eye on it.

"It seems to be winter over there, there has been a heavy snowfall," a young female student indicated with her hand, "Looking at the speed of the ice formation, it’s at least -20 degrees Celsius, and the air humidity is quite high."

For the people in the Safe Zone, in just three days, Lu Yuan had already experienced summer, autumn, and winter—three seasons had quickly passed.

How could this not evoke a sense of wonderment?

Frankly, most people probably wouldn’t survive that length of time.

"It’s really tough... Thankfully, he made a leather coat," Zhang Hui shook his head and sighed, "I hope he can safely get through the winter. Even if he doesn’t have any more information to give, it’s good if he can just stay alive."

"Professor Zhang, he hasn’t been home for several days now," the young woman said timidly, looking somewhat embarrassed, "His wolf-dog often runs out as if it’s in a hurry."

"But it hasn’t brought its owner back."

"Lu Yuan still hasn’t returned... Although not much time has passed for us here, I reckon he’s been missing for a week over there."

The meeting room suddenly fell silent from its lively atmosphere, with only the sound of people’s breathing and rapid heartbeats audible.

Sweat began to form on Zhang Hui’s forehead.

What did it mean to be missing in -20 degrees Celsius conditions?

Frozen into a block of ice, for sure!

It wasn’t just him; a chilling dread had risen in the hearts of everyone privy to the information.

In this icy and snowy environment, having been missing for over a week, believing that Lu Yuan was still alive would be self-deception.

Zhang Hui immediately went to the room where the metal ball was located.

The image on the screen was motionless; at first glance, one might think it was just a garbage room.

Gold, silver, steel, and other various metal refuse mixed with plenty of firewood were piled together, making this dump seem rather luxurious and high-class.

It had to be acknowledged that even in most of today’s human cities, gold and silver still held value—as long as humans didn’t think the world would end the next day, the steadfast value of gold was cemented.

And could the large batch of gold owned by Lu Yuan potentially cause the price to collapse?

"This screen hasn’t moved at all, and it’s been like this for a very, very long time." The female student was a bit nervous in the presence of so many impressive figures.

"Fortunately, I can see the snow flying outside the window, otherwise I might think the machine had frozen..."

"Lu Yuan would visit this room several times a day, on average about three times, but this past week, he hasn’t come at all."

Everyone fell silent, staring at the screen for several minutes, then began to mourn in silence.

Yunhai City had achieved this Milestone reward largely thanks to Lu Yuan’s contributions.

Otherwise, even if the Milestone had been completed, their ranking would have dropped significantly.

They might even have been squeezed out of the top 100,000, receiving no reward at all.

Just then, the call requests from other civilizations coincidentally came through.

"Professor?"

"Connect it."

"Professor Zhang, your Mr. Lu from Yunhai City who is stranded outside, has been missing for quite some time... Do you know what has happened?" the spokesperson from Dongjin City asked bluntly.

Standing next to him was the current Emperor of Dongjin City.

He had wide cheekbones and a sharp chin within a rather flat face, appearing just like an average man.

The old man’s eyes drooped, whether from lack of spirit or because he was a political puppet was unclear.

Zhang Hui knew that some people took pleasure in others’ misfortunes, but he still politely replied, "Regrettably, I am not aware of the specifics."

"He must have had his own thoughts and confidence to venture out in the dead of winter."

"Alas, so many days without being able to return home, our humanity’s foremost Explorer, may very well have passed away... We must brace ourselves for this possibility," said the spokesperson from the third branch of humanity, Old Deli.

This man, Di Mo, was an elderly person with white hair, of average build, usually wearing traditional ethnic attire, a leader with considerable prestige within the third branch.

"My friends, from now on we must rely on ourselves to explore the Pangu Continent."

"Any and all information we discover, I hope we can share with each other, as this will significantly increase our chances of survival."

Zhang Hui frowned at this.

The subtext of these words was, your Mr. Lu from Yunhai City indeed made numerous contributions, and everyone is saddened.

But from now on, Yunhai City will not be a solitary force; everyone should communicate on an equal basis.

He sighed softly; politics was indeed a cold and cruel affair.

Of course, this request from the other party was not unreasonable.

If Lu Yuan was dead, what right did Yunhai City have to act as the leader of humanity?

"To think this gentleman met his demise on the Pangu Continent, it is truly... regrettable." Leaders from numerous cities sent their condolences.

"Amidst the icy wilderness, ten days gone, even Eskimos could not endure."

"May his soul return to God’s embrace, amen..."

How sincere their words were, no one could tell.

After all, human beings are diverse creatures. Although part of the same human civilization, different ethnicities had varied characteristics, but everyone was proficient in keeping up appearances.