"My goodness!"
Upon witnessing the hellish scene, Wang Xuance couldn't help but exclaim.
In this environment, no flora or fauna could possibly survive.
Fang Er retrieved several gas masks from the cabin and distributed them to everyone. "Put these on. Volcanic lava may erupt with viruses sealed underground. Be careful!"
"My Lord, with the situation outside like this, what should we do?"
Xue Rengui asked casually after receiving a mask. Given the current external conditions, finding a place to land seemed impossible.
"We'll retreat for now, find a place to stop, and wait for this volcano to subside."
Fang Er was also helpless and could only temporarily withdraw from the area.
"Rumble!"
Not long after they ascended, a deafening roar came from Mount Fuji.
The sound was so immense that it felt as if their eardrums were about to burst.
Wang Xuance subconsciously adjusted the helicopter's direction and looked towards Mount Fuji through the windshield. The towering peak was undergoing earth-shattering changes.
Through the binoculars, a black fissure was visible, stretching from the summit all the way to the foothills, and it was continuously expanding.
With the appearance of the fissure, the lava that was originally erupting into the sky seemed to have found a new outlet and poured out ferociously from it, like a tidal wave.
"Not good, retreat quickly!"
Fang Er instinctively shouted at Wang Xuance. He clearly saw a visible shockwave rapidly spreading out the moment the fissure appeared.
The helicopter carved an arc in the air, escaping to a distance at the fastest possible speed.
In just a moment, the fuselage was violently thrown forward as if struck from behind by something.
"Beep~ beep~ beep~ beep~"
The control panel of the Ka-27 emitted a rapid beeping sound, as if to signal something.
"Steady!" Fang Er reminded, seeing Wang Xuance's nervous expression.
"Small, frequent inputs, maintain consistent stick and rudder, make correctional movements!"
"Right, maintain stability!"
"Use the horizon as a reference, lock onto relative positions!"
The insistent beeping alarm caused everyone in the cockpit to hold their breath.
Fang Er's words at this moment were like a shot of adrenaline, and everyone's eyes were fixed on the outside world.
Fortunately, Wang Xuance finally managed to stabilize the helicopter, and everyone's tense hearts relaxed.
Flying nearly fifty kilometers away from Mount Fuji, the helicopter landed in an open area.
The four of them stayed there for three days. From the moment the eruption began, Mount Fuji remained quiet for a full week.
When they returned to the vicinity of Mount Fuji again, they could still see the fissure on the mountain still oozing lava with lingering power.
"My Lord, why did you ask us to stay here? Is there something you need to do?"
Wang Xuance jumped off the helicopter, closed the cabin door, and asked Fang Er.
"I'm not sure if my guess is correct yet, let's see how things develop."
Fang Er dropped a casual remark, picked up a wrist-thick wooden stick from the ground, and began to probe his way towards Mount Fuji.
Wang Xuance and Xue Rengui exchanged glances, seeing confusion in each other's eyes.
"Kid, thirty meters ahead, there's an energy source I can use!"
Suddenly, the System Sister's voice echoed in his mind, invigorating Fang Er's spirit.
The system had never mentioned finding energy sources before. He had always thought the system ran on gold and silver, and he never expected there to be other forms of energy.
But then he thought of something and asked the system.
"System Sister, why haven't you given me similar reminders before?"
"The energy density was too low, and I couldn't sense it. Is this reason enough?"
Uh!
Alright, that reason was indeed sufficient!
He cautiously moved forward, probing the hardness of the ground with the wooden stick, careful not to step on any unsolidified lava.
"Ssshhh~~~"
A wisps of green smoke emanated from the end of the wooden stick. The spot it touched sank like jelly, and in the next second, the stick began to burn.
"Damn it!"
Fang Er quickly stopped and detoured.
The area indicated by the system was distinctly different from the surrounding areas.
Unsolidified lava was scarce elsewhere, but here it was everywhere.
The wooden stick in his hand was already charred, and several trekking poles from the warehouse had been ruined. After detouring nearly fifty meters, Fang Er finally reached his destination.
When he poked the ground with a new trekking pole, a blinding white light emanated from the spot he had pierced.
The light was intense, brighter than a thousand-watt light bulb.
"What the hell is this thing!"
Blinded by the white light, Fang Er couldn't see what was glowing. He instinctively shielded his eyes with his left hand and asked the system in his mind.
"Oh, it's nothing, just a radioactive and highly toxic metal."
The System Sister's nonchalant words almost made Fang Er collapse on the spot.
"Without protective gear, approaching radioactive material this closely, are you trying to kill me?!"
"I recently heard a saying: 'Good people don't live long, and calamities last for a thousand years.' "
"Oh, and another one: 'The doomed bird faces upwards; the immortal lives for ten thousand years.' "
Fang Er:......
"Do you feel like you're cursing me?"
"Be more confident and remove the 'feel'!"
"You idiot, with me around, this bit of radioactivity is nothing~"
Hearing the system say this, Fang Er immediately felt relieved. Indeed, at such critical junctures, the system had never failed him.
He took out an iron bucket from the warehouse, filled it with mineral water, and used the trekking pole to lift a piece of semi-solidified lava into the water to cool it.
"Sizzle~~~"
After a burst of steam, the originally bright red lava turned silver-white, and its color continued to change to gray at a visible rate.
What metal was this?
Fang Er quickly searched the periodic table in his mind.
Platinum? No!
Titanium? Similar, but this substance was not radioactive.
Thorium?
The moment this word appeared in his mind, Fang Er felt as if he had been struck by lightning, his body stiffening in place.
Thorium: a silver-white metal that gradually turns gray when exposed to the atmosphere. Relatively soft and malleable.
Melting point 1842°C, boiling point 4788°C, density 11.7g/cm³. Below 1400°C, atoms are arranged in a face-centered cubic crystal; when heated to this temperature, they change to a body-centered cubic crystal.
It is radioactive and highly toxic.
But none of these were the main point. The key was that thorium, when bombarded with neutrons, could produce uranium-233, which is nuclear fuel!
It took Fang Er a full five minutes to regain his senses.
"System Sister, this joke is a bit too much, don't you think?"