411: Leaving Blue Star is the only solution

Iron Dude and Dr. Qiao had a psychic contract with Tian Ming. Although they were of the corpse race, they stood on the side of humanity. All zombies were bound by layers of psychic contracts.

Iron Dude and Dr. Qiao faced great difficulties in the beginning. Their psychic contracts were with humans, and any Corpse King with greater strength than them could detect that something was amiss.

A year had passed since they were assigned, and every day was either spent being hunted by the corpse race or on the way to being hunted. Dr. Qiao was also discovered by a Gold-Eyed Corpse Kings a few months ago and suffered a great tribulation.

After Jiang Chen lifted the infinite reproduction ban on all zombies through the psychic contract, Iron Dude immediately fled back. The corpse race had gone mad, and he had managed to evolve into a Gold-Eyed Corpse Kings, gaining a significant increase in intelligence. Naturally, he would not choose to perish with the corpse race.

Tian Ming walked to the main seat, sat down, and said, "This is Iron Dude. I presume no one here is unfamiliar with him. He did not sign a psychic contract with Jiang Chen, and a lot of information has been provided to me by Iron Dude and Dr. Qiao. Currently, Iron Dude knows more about the situation than I do. Let him explain it to you, and then we can discuss a plan."

After Tian Ming finished speaking, he gave Iron Dude a look.

Iron Dude stepped forward, his golden eyes gleaming under the lights. This was the mark of his evolution and proof of his countless struggles on the brink of death. He paused, then began to recount everything he knew.

"The corpse race has a clear hierarchy, layer by layer downwards. When the corpse race assimilates a certain element, they gain the ability to split and replicate. However, this ability is under a ban. Due to the constraints of the psychic contract, the Corpse Emperor Jiang Chen only allows a very small number of zombie Corpse Kings to split and replicate to replenish their forces. Such Corpse Kings are called 'progenitors.'"

"Will these progenitors keep splitting indefinitely?" someone asked.

Iron Dude shook his head and said, "No. For example, my body is composed of a super alloy of tungsten and titanium. If I were to choose to split and replicate, I would need to ingest tungsten and titanium elements equivalent to my body weight. Furthermore, my intelligence would be equally distributed among the replicated bodies."

Everyone present gasped. Someone couldn't help but ask again, "You mean that infinite reproduction will cause the intelligence that the corpse race painstakingly evolved to regress?"

Iron Dude nodded and said, "Yes, everything has a price. Once intelligence disappears, the constraint of the psychic contract will become ineffective. In the end, these replicated bodies will only have instincts; they will continuously ingest elements compatible with their own elements and continuously split and replicate, even their own kind. Therefore, after Jiang Chen's ban is lifted, except for Corpse Kings with reason, zombies below the Corpse King level will directly lose control."

Everyone fell silent. Iron Dude's meaning was clear: Jiang Chen was simply overturning the table and refusing to play anymore.

"Do your zombies not need energy for such replication?"

Iron Dude frowned and said, "Do you know the mass-energy equivalence? Mass itself is energy, and during the element recombination and replication process within zombie bodies, a portion of the mass is consumed. This is their energy source for replication. Only a very small amount of matter is needed. If the replicated zombies do not develop intelligence, they can only survive on the energy from the matter transformation during replication. This energy is only enough for them to live for about 3 months. Each additional replication can increase their lifespan by three months. Therefore, driven by instinct, they will continuously seek compatible elements for replication. Even between the progenitor and the replicated bodies, there will be a competitive relationship."

Bai Yan stood up and said, "Tian Quan, based on the information provided by Iron Dude, simulate what quantity of zombies will reach a saturation state."

AI Tian Quan immediately began the simulation and, after a moment, said, "On the surface, with perfect utilization of stable elements in the Earth's crust, the number of zombies will reach over 100 trillion. According to the laws of biological competition, similar to the reproduction pattern of bacterial colonies, there is competition among the same species, coupled with the limited living space of the Earth's surface area, the number of zombies is expected to stabilize between 800 billion and 1 trillion."

AI Tian Quan continued, "Infinite zombie reproduction will reach stability within one year. The number of zombies per square kilometer on Earth will roughly stabilize between 164 and 200. Calculated by the total mass of Earth, the zombie consumption of material mass is extremely small. Even at full consumption, it would be enough to consume until our star becomes a white dwarf."

The conclusion of 200 zombies per hectare, while seemingly leaving humans with a foothold, was calculated by Tian Quan based on total area. Excluding the 70% occupied by oceans, and considering the aggregation effect, the land would likely be like a constant Spring Festival travel rush, and that would be the true mountain of corpses and sea of blood.

Bai Yan and the others fell into a long silence.

"Iron Dude, do you mean we have no way to stop it?"

"Eliminate all zombies within a five-minute replication cycle. Without progenitors, infinite reproduction stops," Iron Dude said.

"Five minutes? That's impossible!" Bai Yan shook his head and said.

"There's another way: find an asteroid over two hundred kilometers in diameter and have a major collision with our Blue Star, turning the entire Blue Star into an ocean of magma. That could also stop the zombies' infinite replication."

Tian Ming interrupted their conversation and said, "Stop discussing. I originally wanted to drag it out for a while, waiting for our space station to be completed before transferring the population. Humanity has only one way out, and that is to become a starfaring civilization. At the very least, we must go into space to have any hope of survival."

"Become a starfaring civilization?" Everyone looked at each other. This goal seemed somewhat distant to them. Based on current technology, how long would it take to build a space station capable of accommodating two million people? Even with Tian Ming's help, it couldn't be built overnight.

Tian Ming saw their doubts and said, "Actually, I've known for a long time that Jiang Chen would take this step. Iron Dude reported the intelligence to me early on. So, after the war started, I spent most of my time busy with the space station. I wanted to buy some time, sigh, but unfortunately, I hadn't even set up my table before Jiang Chen overturned this table."

"Now, our top priority is to accelerate the construction of the space station and at the same time formulate an effective strategy to deal with zombie interference to the base. The current space station can only accommodate over 600 people. Even with expansion, it requires a large amount of materials and related equipment. The current base is our only production base for entering space, and we need to ensure its absolute safety," Tian Ming said seriously.

After listening to Tian Ming, everyone fell silent. After Jiang Chen's infinite reproduction ban was lifted, it seemed there was only one way to survive: to become a starfaring civilization. Otherwise, there was no solution.