In the apocalypse, I hoarded goods and handed over my storage space to the government.

Chen Changhe pulled over a chair and plopped down in it.

"Substantial help?"

He took a deep breath, suppressing the excitement in his eyes, "Xiao Su, science doesn't work overnight; there are no miracles."

He tossed the thick stack of data boards on the table and tapped them lightly with his fingers.

"But these 5,000 genetic maps of foreign awakened individuals do indeed provide us with great reference value."

Chen Changhe slowed his speech, and his tone regained the rigor of the older generation of scientists.

"Our previous samples were too homogeneous, and the genetic sequences of the Daxia people showed too much convergence during the mutation process."

This makes it easy for us to get stuck in a dead end when refining awakening potions.

Su Ran leaned back in her chair, her fingertips tracing the rim of her coffee cup, without saying a word.

"However, as you sent the gene sequences of awakened individuals from all races around the world back to the Pangu supercomputer, we did discover some hidden commonalities through system comparison."

These commonalities provide a very clear direction for the Chinese Academy of Sciences' next research efforts.

Chen Changhe's eyes lit up.

"In the past, we were navigating uncharted waters in China; now, it's like having a blurry global genetic navigation map."

"That should speed up the process considerably," Su Ran nodded.

"That's how it is in theory."

Chen Changhe suddenly sighed heavily, his face falling.

"But now we're being held back. We lack equipment and top-notch hardware."

Su Ran paused, her hand holding the coffee cup still.

"Hardware?"

"Director Li, you know the situation in our country better than I do."

Chen Changhe looked at Li Guodong, his tone revealing helplessness.

"The Great Xia has fully transitioned to a wartime system, with all productive forces being directed toward military and heavy industry."

The high-precision medical and scientific testing equipment production lines under the Academy of Sciences were shut down long ago; the factories were all taken over by the military to manufacture components for nuclear weapons.

Li Guodong frowned, lit a cigarette, and did not refute.

This is a fact.

The Great Xia Dynasty needs to arm a 12 million-strong expeditionary force, and its production capacity must prioritize supplying the soldiers at the front lines with guns and cannons.

Scientific research equipment can only be prioritized later.

"How about Lao Wei? Can we borrow some equipment from the No. 01 Physics Institute?"

Li Guodong exhaled a puff of smoke.

"That involves high-energy physics and nuclear energy; it's completely different from our biology!"

Chen Changhe waved his hand and raised his voice.

"Even if you mobilize central administrative power now and forcibly change the production line back, it will take at least several months just to readjust the equipment and produce precision optical lenses and centrifuges."

He subconsciously glanced in Su Ran's direction.

"The rate of evolution of mutated organisms is accelerating every day, and we can't afford to wait these next few months."

Now that things have been said this far, Su Ran would be a fool if she still didn't understand.

"Understood."

He looked at Chen Changhe with a smile, "Old Chen, you really don't come here unless you have a reason."

Chen Changhe instantly averted his gaze and coughed twice.

"You're such a blunt kid. But it's true, no one but you could have done this."

He reached out and quickly swiped a few times on the tactical projector.

The global situation map on the big screen zoomed in rapidly, focusing on the east coast of North America.

Three striking red circles are marked on the map.

"Before the catastrophe, North America's position in the fields of bioscience and gene editing was beyond question."

Chen Changhe pointed at the screen,

"These three places are Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Boston Genome Research Center, and Fort Detrick's high-level biosafety laboratory."

He looked at Su Ran with burning eyes.

"Satellite photos have confirmed that these three locations are currently closed off, and there is a high probability that they have readily available, state-of-the-art equipment."

It has high-magnification electron microscopes, fully automated gene sequencers, and ultra-clean workbenches.

Chen Changhe said solemnly, "We need these devices, we desperately need them."

Throughout the entire Great Xia Dynasty, no one could compare to Su Ran when it came to long-distance transoceanic raids and the transport of supplies without damage.

Those delicate and precise instruments are ruined if they are bumped or knocked.

Only Su Ran's infinite space can achieve the physical meaning of "packing up and taking away".

"No problem. Leave it to me." Su Ran agreed readily.

When the "judgment" tasks were assigned a few days ago, the Great Lakes region of North America was a key area of ​​focus.

He only changed his route and went to Siberia first because of the "black swan" event in the Far East. North America did not involve the deployment of Great Xia ground troops, so its incorporation was already a lower priority.

"No one but you could bring those delicate and sophisticated instruments back intact."

Chen Changhe patted Su Ran on the shoulder, his eyes full of earnestness.

"Xiao Su, please. The sooner these devices are sent back, the more likely the soldiers on the front lines will be to survive."

"Understood." Su Ran nodded.

Having received a satisfactory reply, Chen Changhe didn't linger for a second and rushed out of the command center.

He had to rush back to the lab to further analyze the thousands of newly acquired data samples.

Watching the old man's hurried back, Su Ran turned to look at Li Guodong, who had remained silent.

"Old Li, it seems we need to move this trip to North America forward."

Su Ran rubbed her temples. "I'll rest tonight and take Ye Xiao and Bai Lu directly to the Great Lakes region tomorrow morning."

Li Guodong walked to the tactical sand table, braced his hands on the edge, and looked somewhat strange.

He remained silent for a few seconds, pondering how to begin.

"Xiao Su, things have changed a bit over the Great Lakes area these past few days."

"What do you mean?" Su Ran looked up. "Those people are used to the freedom of America and are unwilling to cooperate?"

"That's really not it."

Li Guodong's expression was indescribable.

"The forces in the Great Lakes region are currently the only forces in the world that actively use high-power wireless equipment to continuously broadcast across the entire frequency band, strongly demanding cooperation with Great Xia."

The holographic projection shifts, revealing a topographical map of the Great Lakes region of North America.

Between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, a large, conspicuous red area was illuminated.

"The survivor camps in that area formed a large alliance and declared that they had established a nation."

These words were spoken.

Su Ran was stunned.

He even suspected that he had exhausted his superpowers too much in the past two days and misheard a few keywords.

"What the hell did you say?"

"Nation-building?"