"Huh? Edible asteroids?"
Yang Tianyi, who was a little confused by this name, thought about it carefully and felt that it seemed familiar. So after the engineering ship's mission on the Spirit Star was completed, he ordered the spacecraft to set sail and change direction and fly to the unnamed asteroid that had been transformed by the Origin Points.
After confirming the actual purpose of the asteroid, he will name it himself.
Only a few minutes after everyone boarded the ship, the engineering ship cruising at a normal speed once again landed on this asteroid with a diameter of about 100 kilometers. Except that the surface is not as shiny as the metal-rich Psyche, it looks no different from an ordinary asteroid.
"Release the drone to scan the entire asteroid, and I'll go there myself."
After turning around and ordering the engineers to release the exploration drone, Yang Tianyi put on the life-support equipment that could help him withstand low temperatures and vacuum, and set foot on the surface of the unknown asteroid with several scientists whose enthusiasm for scientific research had been completely ignited.
Since the metal content is far less than that of Ling Shen, scientists have put on heavy-duty space boots specially prepared for low-gravity conditions, paired with fourth-generation and a half exoskeletons exclusive to scientific researchers. Even though the gravity is dozens of times smaller than on Earth, They can still walk normally on the surface of any asteroid.
A few minutes later, the drones that had not flown very far transmitted the images they took with high-definition cameras. Through the photos and videos that appeared on the helmet, Yang Tianyi could clearly see the existence of countless cracks on the surface of the asteroid. There are some kind of milky white crystals. According to the inferences of drones and scientists, there should be more milky white crystals under the cracks.
"Let the robot take the lead and let's see what these crystals are."
Yang Tianyi became interested and insisted on going to investigate with them regardless of the scientists' dissuasion. In order to protect the safety of him and the scientists, Harland dispatched all the heavy-duty Z-1s in the engineering ship and carried them on his shoulders to the nearest milky white crystal vein.
Each step taken by the heavy-duty Z-1, which is more than four meters tall, is worth three steps taken by the scientists. Not long after, the robot at the front of the queue used its head sensor to capture the milky white fluorescence emitting in the dim environment. Crystal, soft light shines on its cold armor, full of a holy beauty.
"Everyone is busy with their own business, don't worry about me."
Jumping off the shoulder of a robot with a swish, Yang Tianyi walked with relaxed steps among the milky white crystal clusters like a jungle. From time to time, he touched these crystals with extremely smooth surfaces with his palms wearing thermostatic gloves.
"Is this an edible asteroid? These crystals don't look edible!"
After having such an idea in his mind, Yang Tianyi couldn't help but hold a relatively small protruding crystal on the giant crystal cluster with his hands. Before he could exert any force, the milky white crystal rod was easily broken, which was far from the indestructible he imagined. Very far.
Bringing this "crystal" that was not a crystal close to his eyes, his vision comparable to that of a microscope immediately discovered that the structure of the milky white crystal was completely different from that of ordinary crystals.
Compared with the crystal clear silica crystals on Earth, the interiors of these crystals are filled with small and complex channels. Through the interior of these channels, various mineral nutrients broken down into tiny particles are continuously transported to the surface of the crystal, rearranged and combined to form new milky white crystals at a speed that is difficult to detect with the naked eye.
The crystal rod that he broke off lost its original holy milky white light not long after it left the main body, probably because it used up the remaining "nutrients" in the channel.
Looking at the transparent crystals in his hand that had lost their light but still maintained a light milky white color, Yang Tianyi frowned and thought - such a structure is not something that minerals can have at all. Compared with crystals, these magical crystal clusters look like plants. , through some temporarily unknown method, slowly devouring the surrounding materials to proliferate itself.
In order to verify the idea in his mind, he punched a huge crystal column that protruded four or five meters from the ground into pieces. Then he kneaded the small crystal rod in his hand into powder and sprinkled it on the broken place of the crystal cluster. Slowly observe.
The final result was exactly as he expected. Powdered crystals were obviously easier to absorb than those minerals still rooted in the stone. This was quickly discovered through the channels on the fracture surface of the crystal clusters, which were in direct contact with the crystal powder. The mouth slowly absorbs the particles into the body, and based on the transformed "nutrients", new channels and crystals are built on the cross section.
However, the conversion efficiency seems to be low. A piece of ore the size of a football can only produce crystals the size of a fist. However, considering that even plants will suffer losses when converting nutrients, this is an unprecedented novel discovery for the scientific community. .
At this time, researchers not far away also collected enough samples with the assistance of robots, preparing to take them back to the engineering ship for a rough study. After all, the scientific research value of these plant-like crystals is frighteningly high. Even if it is just some powder that is insignificant compared to the mineral veins, it is enough for them to win prizes and gain mercy.
...
In a temporarily vacated laboratory in the engineering ship, a scientist was carefully observing the milky white crystal powder under an electron microscope. It didn't take long for him to come to the same conclusion as Yang Tianyi.
These crystals are not minerals, but some kind of "lithic plant."
"Hey, do you think these crystal particles look like, um, sugar?"
Looking away from the picture that was magnified millions of times, the scientist swallowed and said to his colleague: "I know this sounds crazy, but I want to have a taste of it."
"You're crazy! We don't even know what these things are, so aren't you afraid that there will be alien parasites or poisons?"
The colleague who was wearing gloves and cutting the crystal obviously scorned the scientist's statement. After rolling his eyes, he continued to use the cutting machine to slowly cut off a smaller protrusion from the crystal, preparing to observe the structure of the crystal cross section.
"The boss said that science requires dedication, and there is no way to test the taste of these things with a monkey!"
Feeling slighted, the scientist mysteriously pulled out a glass rod from the equipment rack on one side, dipped some in the box containing the crystal powder, then put it in his mouth and tasted it carefully.
Fortunately, this mysterious crystal will lose its ability to swallow matter after "death". Otherwise, the scientist will definitely die this time. I am afraid that before the engineering ship returns to the earth, his internal organs will be eaten away and he will be alive. It hurts to death.
"What are you doing!?"
Colleagues on the side noticed that the scientist was actually tasting these weird crystal powders with a smile on his face. He quickly raised his hand and pulled the glass rod out of his mouth, and also brought out a string of saliva along the way.
"Hehe, sweet."
He was tasting the delicious food. Oh no, he was not angry after being interrupted because he dedicated himself to science. Instead, he turned to look at his colleagues who were full of panic and worry. He smiled and said: "I guessed it right. This The stuff is edible!”
After waiting for a few minutes, the researchers who discovered that the scientist did not appear to be mutated or poisoned all looked at each other in shock. Although they did not dare to try it themselves like scientists, they already believed that their colleagues were doing the right thing this time by dedicating themselves to science.
At this time, in the cab of the engineering ship on the return journey, Yang Tianyi also took out a few crystals broken into pieces the size of fingernails from his pocket under Harland's surprised look, picked one up casually and threw it into his mouth, with a look on his face. There is a smile that most humans will unconsciously show when tasting delicious food.
While scientists were still debating the origins and functions of the crystals, he had even thought of a name for the delicious candy.
"It's produced from an asteroid. It looks like crystal. It tastes sweet but not greasy. Let's call you Moon Crystal Sugar."
Yang Tianyi said this in his heart as he looked at the crystal-like candy that seemed hard but actually melted in his mouth.
One thousand and five hundred origin points were exchanged for a crystal candy that can be used. It would be false to say that it didn't hurt. But considering that there are trillions of tons of moon crystal sugar stored in this asteroid with a diameter of 100 kilometers, he felt a little better.
We must know that even in the Elysium of 2155, the earth's annual food production will not exceed four billion tons. Even conservative estimates suggest that the moon crystal sugar stored on the asteroid is enough to feed 10 billion people for hundreds of millions of years.
It is very suitable to be another flagship product of the group besides arms.
