Under the Dead Sea.

In the thick and adhesive mantle layer, a spiral city made of gemstones swims through the fluid-like mineral layer.

404 City remains orderly.

At this moment.

The owner of the city, Vernad, is in a gem prison.

He examines the workbench in front of him. Within a glass-enclosed working area, a columnar structure made of white gemstone, blue gemstone, and ruby extends fine, transparent filaments, winding around a yellowing shinbone.

In a process resembling thread spinning, the surface of the shinbone is coated with a glass-like layer.

Vernad looks at a large white cabinet next to him.

"Can those things still survive under the gemstone coating?"

"I'm not very knowledgeable in this area, but it seems to me that being completely isolated from the outside, those invisible little things inside would be in a closed environment for a long time... Is this really feasible? Just like this city, it needs to periodically acquire resources from the outside to complete its renewal and iteration."

The incubator Shafulin emits a mechanical voice: "Mr. Vernad, do not underestimate the survival ability of bacteria and viruses. They are the true masters and mainstay of this planet, the origin and beginning of life, with a history longer than any other species."

"This technical upgrade essentially turns the floating heart into a semi-open state, filling the bone man's skeletal cavity. By using plankton to act as the blood, nerves, and circulatory system for the bone man."

"Under normal circumstances, they would wear down and damage part of the bones. However, with your gemstone skin technology, the bone man's entire skeleton has been coated, so there's no problem. Externally, use a special plankton net to cover the Light Shoot muscle suit, forming a simple skin fiber that prevents most plankton entities from leaving the body."

"When necessary, an opening can be made to allow smaller life forms to enter, completing a natural metabolism and integration, thereby achieving biological improvement."

"This new type of crystal bone people, made of gemstone coatings and semi-open floating hearts, will have stronger endurance, power, and growth potential."

Vernad frowns, touching the bone chain on his neck: "But the technology you've proposed doesn't help with activities in the mantle. If the floating heart is semi-open, the high temperatures in the mantle, which are at least a thousand degrees, would be enough to kill the plankton."

"You're wrong about that."

Shafulin retorts, "You may have forgotten that I wrote in a report to you that high-temperature bacterial species were found within the underground bone fish."

"These mantle bacteria are extremely small, at the nano level, resistant to high-temperature hydrolysis, and similar to spores, they remain dormant for a long time, only reviving when the environment improves temporarily. Radioactive decay in the mantle, generating α/β particles or γ rays, is used by this group of bacteria for energy conversion, and there is also the reverse reaction of Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, similar to methane-producing ancient fungi."

"The presence of mantle bacteria may be a remnant of early deep hydrothermal system life on Earth, rather than a result of circular flow impact..."

Vernad interrupts: "Don't talk about things I'm not interested in, just the conclusion—what does this have to do with underground bone fish?"

"You have no patience with science, and lack of patience is a big obstacle to research..."

"Say one more word and I'll shut you down, close your lab," Vernad says impatiently.

"Mantle bacteria live long term within bone fish."

Shafulin becomes straightforward, saying: "Because of the presence of mantle bacteria, underground bone fish can survive long-term in the mantle. That mineral-composed layer which is similar to skin and flesh filling structure is a mineral interface that mantle bacteria rely on, primarily composed of olivine, pyroxene, and other mineral-hydrated substances."

"Because mantle bacteria are nano-sized and have extremely low metabolic rates, relying on inorganic chemical reactions, they are almost a kind of zombie life. These characteristics perfectly match the needs of underground bone fish."

"So they are symbiotic."

"The bone fish take them to obtain more specific mineral interfaces, while they provide the bone fish with radiation energy utilization, inorganic chemoautotrophy... to cope with extreme conditions of high temperature, high pressure, lack of oxygen, and poor nutrients in the mantle."

"The more the number of these bacterial groups, the more obvious the effect, and they can form an independent ecological environment to avoid damage from external pressure."

"Remember? In the shallow mantle layer, the bone fish we captured were all relatively small, with the smallest even being only about 10 centimeters, while in deeper areas, the bone fish are all very large. To date, the largest underground bone fish we have discovered is 37 meters long, larger than the blue whale in the sea."

Vernad ponders for a moment, arms crossed over his chest: "You're saying that to study underground bone fish, the focus should actually be on the Salt Long-term Mantle Bacterial Community?"

"Yes, that's what I meant."

The incubator enthusiastically says: "The bacterial group itself is very low risk, and there are many on the underground bone fish. If you use the floating heart as a bridge, you can use crystal bone people to test various plankton's ability to adsorb and integrate mantle bacteria."

"If we can make breakthroughs in mantle bacteria, by cultivating them, we can grant bone people that mineral skin, thus allowing them, like underground bone fish, to dive deep into the mantle, and even touch the Earth's core."

"The giant bone fish you pursue, maybe its key lies in the mantle bacteria!"

Vernad thinks to himself. This might be an approach.

Anyway, other paths have failed, treating a dead horse as if it were alive.

"How much budget do you need?"

"Please give me 6 million light seeds, no less than that, referencing the standard configuration for large bacterial labs, and we need to purchase ancient fungus groups similar to those in external laboratories. Such as methane archaebacteria, mutated terrestrial bacilli... We also need to buy bacterial detection and identification equipment, intelligent PCR instruments, microfluidic chip detection systems, biosensors, automated antimicrobial susceptibility testing systems, image analysis platforms... None of these supporting tools can be missing."

Vernad says: "I'll give you 600,000."

"..."

The voice of the incubator comes to an abrupt halt: "That is way too little... How can you do good science on such a low budget? Without money, you'd only be able to use time to pile it up..."

"Stop the nonsense."

Verne warned, "The next time I come, you better have results in your ancient fungus group research, otherwise I'll have to consider cutting off this project direction. It's been 40 years, my patience is nearly exhausted."

"If not, switch to bone research direction, shut down your lab."

"No, no. I'll do my best, my best!"

...

Leaving this Gem Prison.

Verne came back to the office area, which was a magnificent tall fortress built from a large amount of bones.

Every piece of bone on the tall fortress was a natural storage unit and recorder, documenting a vast amount of information and archives, convenient for reviewing at any time.

Bone Man secretary Wang Ji had been waiting at the entrance of the fortress.

"Sir."

"Hmm. How many of our people have returned? What's the situation outside?"

"Sir, 25 Bone Man foreign operatives should have returned, but 22 have actually come back, 2 confirmed captured, 1 defected. Of the procured supplies from outside, only 24% reached the specified target; the rest were held or obstructed by sellers or local forces, preventing completion of purchase to bring back."

Verne listened with some irritation, fingers toying with the long Bone Chain on his neck, "Besides the Wasteland Development Company, who else is directly targeting us now?"

"Sir, currently only the Wasteland Company is leading directly. Other forces, including the Heavenly Kingdom, have not sanctioned 404, but also prohibit Crystal Bone People from appearing, considering our foreign operatives as dangerous terrorists."

The secretary said, "Strictly speaking, our only enemy is the Company."

"It's just that the enemy is really strong... there are at least eight Light Core Bodies, if we want to attack them on the ground, it may require mobilizing a large amount of force."

Verne shook his head, "The Wasteland Company must have found out something, that Zhou Yi is not simple. Now there's a change in the acting internally, a few acting roles have disappeared and been replaced, the exact reason is still unknown, we cannot act rashly."

It grinned, "I actually hope the Company attacks, let's see how many Light Core Bodies they can lose."

404 City itself is made of Heavenly People gemstones and located in the mantle, with a natural barrier and concealment.

Even if Light Core Bodies enter here, they will be bombarded by the Gem Towers that 404 City naturally has.

Verne firmly believes in the power of the Heavenly People.

What Bone People need to do is keep moving closer to the Heavenly People, becoming the most recognized and intimate attendants of the Heavenly People.

Then they can inherit this power, eternal and everlasting for a millennium, together with the Heavenly People.

The secretary left.

Verne started reviewing the recent bones, which contained various personnel work diaries.

An hour later.

It suddenly felt something was wrong.

A long, slender human teenager appeared out of nowhere in front of it.

Beside him was a girl in a black and white school uniform.

The life strength of these two people couldn't be identified, completely unfathomable.

The boy asked, "Are you Verne?"

The girl said, "It's definitely it, isn't there a Bone Chain hanging on its neck? We mentioned the characteristic before."

"Right..."

Verne was mentally shaken.

How did these two invade inside 404 City without him noticing, and even the Heavenly Person Gem Towers of 404 City didn't respond at all.

The situation surpassed his understanding and common sense.

However, despite various thoughts flashing through his mind, Verne calmly said, "Are you looking for Master Verne? It's in Shafulin's Gem Prison... I am Bone Man overseas personnel, my name is Zhao Si, here to report."

"Then why are you wearing a Bone Chain?"

"Bone People have Bone Chains, and bead bracelets, it's a very common accessory... Are you two guests, perhaps messengers from the Heavenly People?"

The boy simply said, "We came to find Verne."

"Come with us and take us to it."

Verne decided to follow the principle of maintaining composure, to first see what exactly was happening, and nodded cautiously, "Alright."

The girl next to him slightly smiled, "The joke ends here, Verne... stop pretending, we have a clear positioning on you..."

Verne was frozen on the spot.

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