Chapter 104 - Innate Vigorous Energy Extractor
Humans of this age didn’t have the ability to build such weapons. However, Himmel Soan, the 200-year-old man, had successfully built one. Because of the space cannon, people began to believe his age.
Maybe he was the key to saving Earth!
The original plan was to spend two hours on the space cannon and one hour on the underground shelter.
However, the audience was so intrigued that they kept bombarding Himmel Soan with questions. After three hours, they were still inquiring about the space cannon. Himmel Soan cleared his throat, saying, “I think we should stop here. I’ve told you the space cannon’s overall structure and principle, and you’ve seen the diagram. Let’s move on to the next subject. I’m going to tell you why I find the arks unreliable and why we have to build underground shelters!”
The audience took out notebooks and listened carefully.
Himmel Soan started from the beginning.
“I have my own theory, and I don’t like using existing units. Before I get into the details, I’ll introduce the units in my system. I use T to represent power and Z the hardness. The two correspond with each other. The power of iT can destroy an object with the hardness of 1Z. That’s all you need to know.
“From my observation, the hardness of the super meteorite is close to 5 billion Z-4.9 billion Z, to be more precise. The power of the energy cannon is between 50 to 80 thousand T. It’s never going to be powerful enough to destroy the meteorite!
“1.2 billion T of power could destroy the solar system. That is to say, the meteorite is harder than the sun and even harder to destroy. It’s not what the energy cannon is designed to do!
“The meteorite is approaching Earth at 1/360 the speed of light. With its hardness, one can only imagine what damage it will do to Earth. The impact will exceed over 10 billion T. Do you think a mere ark can withstand that kind of impact?
“Of course, I’m going to stop it with the space cannon, but the meteorite will still affect Earth when it approaches us. Tsunamis and volcanic eruptions are unavoidable, and earthquakes are expected. The arks can withstand all of that. However, they won’t withstand the broken pieces of the meteorite!
“Nothing can completely pulverize the meteorite, not even the space cannon. After it’s blown up, small pieces of it will still enter the atmosphere and land on Earth. The power of those pieces will be between 60 thousand T to 1.7 million T.
“That’s to say, the energy cannon may not have the power to destroy even one piece of the meteorite. Do you think the arks can withstand the energy cannon? Of course not! The defensive power of the arks is within 20 thousand Z. They’ll be destroyed by a small piece of the meteorite.”
Someone raised their hand, asking, “Mr. Soan, will the underground shelter withstand it, then? What if there’s an earthquake?”
“Regarding the underground shelter, the depth between 500m to 1km underground is the possible safe zone, whereas anywhere deeper than ikm will be the absolute safe zone. Because of the meteorite’s shape, when the broken pieces hit Earth, they’ll create pits at most 400m deep. There can be exceptions, which may reach beyond 500m. Therefore, the deeper the underground shelters are, the safer they will be.
“Then, there are the earthquakes. The falling meteorite pieces and earthquakes can cause the underground shelter to collapse. Therefore, we need another substance, the
IVE!!
Of course, that was short for “innate vigorous energy.” Using the abbreviation made it sound much more sophisticated.
“What’s IVE?”
“It’s another substance. It’s not as powerful as SE, but it’s much more pliable and durable. It can sustain the entire underground shelter. Even if the ground caves in, the shelter will maintain its structure. Bring forth the device.”
Viclan waved his hand, and some staff carried the giant Innate Vigorous Energy Extractor onto the stage.
Himmel Soan said, “This is the IVE Extractor. It needs a human factor to work because one of the elements it needs comes from the human body. One only needs to put their hand on the device, and it’ll produce IVE. It’s already in mass production in my country. A thousand devices are needed for a shelter that fits a million people. Of course, we can always upgrade the capacity. That way, we may only need ten or a hundred devices.”
Someone asked, “Mr. Soan, in that case, can we have this device on the arks?”
“No. The device has to be set on a steady, level surface. The arks are too bumpy. A little tilt and the device will stop working.” “What if we steady the ark?”
“Are you sure you can do that? Once the earthquakes and tsunamis hit, how are you going to stabilize the arks? When the arks tilt, the device will stop working, and the arks can be destroyed by the meteorite pieces at any moment!”
The audience finally understood why Himmel Soan insisted on building the underground shelter. That also explained why he had called the arks unreliable.
“I see!”
“Mr. Soan knew it all along. Why didn’t he tell us before?”
“That’s right! He knew all along! Why is he only telling us now? Why didn’t he tell us as soon as he discovered the meteorite?”
“Do you believe him?”
“Don’t you? We don’t have much time left!”
“You deserve to die!”
“You’re all idiots! Do you believe everything other people tell you? Arks are the more reliable choice. That Himmel Soan sounds so fake!”
Henry also brought up those questions at the conference.
Himmel Soan ignored the people who still wouldn’t believe him.
“I told the world a meteorite was coming as soon as I discovered it. Did any country believe me? Some people still doubt me now, but that’s all I have to say. My country is giving out the blueprint of this device for free. You’re all welcome to make a copy. We still have time to build some more. Moon also needs to build a lot of extractors, so we won’t be able to help other countries. I’m sorry!”
In Neige.
When Oraman heard this, he shouted at his secretary, “Get a blueprint now! We’ll start the production right away!”