Finally, they reached the burial pit.
All six spider armored vehicles slid into the bottom of the pit.
The lizardmen disembarked from the opened hatches, and a strong green toxic gas spewed out with them, the scene almost resembling an explosion.
They sealed the hatches and, turning around, fled, striving to escape the toxic smoke-filled pit. Every single one of them had their anti-chemical suits so black they could drip ink.
More lizardmen were waiting at the edge of the burial pit. They immediately rushed down and began pouring cement onto the spider armored vehicles, quickly encasing the entire pit bottom in concrete.
The toxic gas stopped emerging, sealed off tightly.
After a moment of waiting, the residual toxic gas in the air was blown away. More troops swarmed up, filling the pit with soil until it was leveled.
Finally, they cordoned off the area around the burial pit with caution tape.
Jiang Ye breathed a sigh of relief; the immediate threat was gone.
He took out his phone to check the development index.
As expected, it had dropped, only remaining at 7006 points.
Fortunately, Oil City hadn't been destroyed; otherwise, it would have surely fallen to over six thousand points, or even lower.
The citizens of Oil City returned to their homes that day, but the residents of Binhai City were still temporarily housed in Shale City or other regions.
For the next two consecutive days, the wind was strong, and the toxic fog in Binhai City gradually dispersed.
However, it was still uninhabitable.
The lizardman troops entered Binhai City and discovered that more than half the city was covered in a green powder.
A thick layer of toxic powder coated everything, like some kind of ever-growing mold.
The lizardman troops collected a sample of the green powder in a specimen bag and scanned it in the trading terminal:
[Item: irg-gu-3361 Biochemical Powder]
[Item Description: A biochemical weapon manufactured by the Mil people, produced by the fusion of modified Lee's bacillus and a nitrogen-sulfur compound generator. It is severely carcinogenic and corrosive to the human body, and can cause genetic mutations and protein degradation in various species. Conventional removal methods include flushing with boiling water, flame scorching, or UV irradiation. High temperatures will destroy its powder structure, thereby greatly reducing its toxicity. Small residues can still cause small blisters on human skin, but they can heal on their own.]
[Valuation: None]
With a method for removal, the lizardman troops got busy.
Over two thousand soldiers, clad in anti-chemical suits and temporarily assigned to the lizardman forces, carried flamethrowers or boiling water and began disinfecting the entire Binhai City.
They sprayed fire onto the surfaces of all buildings and doused the interiors with boiling water.
For a full week, the streets of Binhai City flowed with wastewater, with emerald-green hot water bubbling and flowing like a great river. Countless lizardman boots splashed through the water, coming and going, making sounds like rainforest animals.
When the disinfection began on Monday, the lizardmen's uniforms were still deep red. After getting wet, they were soaked, as if bleeding all over.
By Wednesday, they had turned a lighter shade of red.
By Friday, most of the lizardmen's uniforms had changed to banana yellow.
By the weekend, they had finally returned to their original light green.
The entire city became habitable again, though everywhere were traces of scorching or scalding by boiling water. All the trees were uprooted and replaced with new saplings, the asphalt roads were repaved, and individual buildings needed reconstruction. The economic losses were extremely heavy.
The development index dropped to exactly 7000 points; luckily, it didn't fall further.
In the second week, the citizens of Binhai City finally returned to their city.
The scene on the streets was almost unrecognizable; many people shed tears.
At the Termite Real Estate Building, as soon as Xu Yan stepped into her office, a lizardman followed her in.
Xu Yan was startled. She looked closely at the lizardman's face mask and then chuckled, "Jiang Ye, why are you dressed like that?"
"A son of noble birth doesn't tread on unsafe ground. I don't want to get any residual toxic powder on me and develop blisters or anything. There are quite a few people wearing anti-chemical suits on the street; it's become the new fashionable trend. I suggest you wear one too."
The lizardman sat opposite the desk and tried to cross his legs, but the biochemical suit pants were too thick, and he couldn't manage it after a couple of tries. He had to sit properly.
"You're definitely not here to show off your new fashion," Xu Yan said, looking at him inquiringly.
"After this painful lesson, I think the colony is missing something," the lizardman said, his voice muffled through the mask, as if speaking underwater.
"What?" Xu Yan narrowed her eyes, guessing. "An air defense system? You can't build something like that without authorization."
"No, no, no, that's off by one word," the lizardman said, holding up a finger. "What I need is an air-raid shelter."
"That's off by two words; air defense system and air-raid shelter," Xu Yan realized, correcting him.
"It's off by one word."
"Can't you count? Isn't 'system' two words?"
"Isn't 'shelter' one word?"
"It's not calculated that way..."
"Alright, alright, if you say it's off by two words, then it's off by two words." The lizardman raised his hands in surrender. "In short, I need every city to have air-raid shelters, underground bunkers, a place for the entire city's population to hide. If we encounter this kind of alien air raid again, tens of thousands of people won't be running around like headless flies."
"That's very simple. The scale of these cities isn't large yet. Let alone temporary air-raid shelters, even permanent underground cities are no problem," Xu Yan said with confident smile. "Termite Real Estate has undertaken engineering construction projects on various planets for years. Whatever you want to build, we have extensive experience! Tell me your requirements?"
"First, they need to be large. These cities will be expanded in the future, and the population will grow. Each city needs at least one air-raid shelter that can accommodate 100,000 people," the lizardman said.
"Second, they need to be sturdy, able to withstand small nuclear weapons. I've noticed that combat power is expanding these days, and every interstellar armed force has nuclear weapons; they're more common than firecrackers. Are alien arms dealers selling three pounds of nukes for a dollar?"
"Not that exaggerated, but nuclear weapons are indeed too common. If they're cheap and easy to use, who wouldn't use them? I remember there were treaties limiting nuclear weapons in ancient times, but in the end, everyone used them more and more," Xu Yan smiled.
"Third, they need to be resistant to biochemical weapons. We can't have aliens casually throwing cheap and deadly gas bombs and killing a bunch of people; that's too tragic. The air-raid shelters must have air purification devices, and even be able to isolate gas exchange with the outside, producing their own oxygen."
"Easy peasy," Xu Yan nodded. "Not only can the air be self-sufficient, but water and food can also be completely self-sufficient."
"Exactly! That's the last point I wanted to make. These air-raid shelters should allow people to survive underground for a long time without worrying about food and drink. They can't stay for a while and then be unable to get out, run out of food, and start cannibalizing each other. That would be even more tragic than suffocating to death from gas bombs!" The lizardman slapped his thigh hard. "What else do you think needs to be added?"
"Fifth, transportation needs to be convenient, so people don't trample each other to death in a rush," Xu Yan said, counting on her fingers and speaking rapidly. "Sixth, we need to ensure signal communication with the outside world, so people underground don't know anything and get killed as soon as they emerge. Seventh, we need to designate locations for the military and police, for counterattacks and maintaining order underground..."
Xu Yan rattled off over a dozen points in one breath, each one hitting the mark.
The lizardman happily slapped his thigh until it was sore. "You're truly professional! Give me a quote!"