CHAPTER 406: 305. THE FARMER AND THE SNAKE

One day later.

Another piece of news burst out.

Inside the hotel.

Anthony was staring intently at the television screen.

On it was displayed a sleek silver-white metal apparatus, looking quite graceful.

A thought popped into Anthony’s mind: "Is this the exoskeleton created by the people of Great Xia?"

This speculation was immediately confirmed.

The host revealed the answer: "Ladies and gentlemen, this is the ’Tianfu Craft Type I’ exoskeleton system developed by Great Xia."

Anthony took several glances and muttered: "Why do I feel this thing is a bit flimsy? Aren’t the people of Great Xia worried about potential problems?"

Many parts of the exoskeleton appeared thinner than chopsticks, making one highly doubt its strength.

The host’s subsequent words explained this doubt: "The material used to construct the Tianfu Craft Type I is a special alloy."

"One of the raw materials of this alloy is the primordial material mined from the Celestial Mountain, which is a gift from the Sea of Death Black Sand.

"And this unimaginably primordial material has granted this special alloy an extraordinarily high strength.

"Compared to the most common titanium alloy, the strength of this alloy is twice as high, yet its weight is about half as light as the titanium alloy."

Upon hearing "half as light," Anthony immediately jumped to a conclusion: "Isn’t this just aluminum alloy? Making it sound so mysterious."

He was promptly proven wrong.

"Given the weight data, I know many people would surely think this is some kind of aluminum alloy material..."

Anthony watched the Great Xia host on the TV dressed in a camouflage military uniform, feeling somewhat puzzled: "Isn’t it?"

The host said with a face full of smiles: "But I must say, you guessed quite wrong. The real answer is something you wouldn’t expect, and that is..."

The host deliberately elongated the tone, paused for two full seconds, and then heavily said the answer: "This is a sodium aluminum alloy."

Anthony was taken aback: "How is that possible?"

The host slightly accelerated his speech: "For those who don’t know what the sodium element is, you should know the salt you eat at home, right?

"The chemical name for salt is sodium chloride, which is a compound of sodium.

"Anyone familiar with the element sodium knows that sodium is a highly reactive metallic element, which would oxidize directly in the air and explode in water.

"In the past history of Canglan Star, a high-strength alloy mainly composed of sodium element was never born, but now history has changed.

"The atomic weight of the sodium element on Canglan Star is 23, while this sodium isotope from the Sea of Death Black Sand has an atomic weight of only 21.

"This is another mysterious phenomenon modern science can’t explain.

"Because in Canglan Star’s chemistry textbooks, apart from the hydrogen element, you can’t find a second element with fewer neutrons than protons."

The host said here, opening a small joke: "If anyone could explain this issue, they would definitely win next year’s Nobel Prize."

The host paused and then laughed: "Of course, the premise is that the Nobel Prize still exists."

Anthony couldn’t laugh.

In the past, the Nobel Prize was the highest honor in Canglan Star’s academic field, with the annual Nobel Prize list receiving worldwide attention.

Since the Age of Calamity arrived, things gradually changed.

Starting from last year, the country Rilia, which awarded the Nobel Prize, suffered consecutive severe crises.

This country was exceptionally unlucky, almost as if it was possessed by a disaster star.

After the poisonous mosquito calamity broke out, dozens of mutant poisonous mosquitoes appeared in Rilia, causing considerable casualties domestically.

While neighboring countries at most had only a dozen mutant poisonous mosquitoes appear.

Since the cold wave calamity erupted, for some reason, an unusually high number of yetis appeared within Rilia, and the proportion of powerful yetis was also significantly high.

The surrounding countries saw notably fewer yetis appearing, and civilian casualties were also lesser.

Because Rilia was a member of the Southern Cross Alliance, its officials sought assistance from the alliance, hoping member countries could provide help.

But most countries ignored it, with only a few providing a bit of trivial material aid.

Facing this situation, His Majesty the King of Rilia publicly cursed the Southern Cross Alliance on social media, deeming it a cold-blooded and selfish alliance.

After this incident occurred, many began to believe that in the near future, the Southern Cross Alliance was very likely to disintegrate completely.

Half a month ago, Rilia ran into bad luck again.

The country unexpectedly saw rare mutant ice mosquitoes emerge.

Although poisonous mosquitoes could endure low temperatures and evolve into ice mosquitoes with better cold resistance.

Yet following the cold wave calamity’s arrival, both poisonous mosquitoes and ice mosquitoes had greatly reduced activity levels, and the number of mutant ice mosquitoes was even fewer.

Globally, the reported quantity of ice mosquitoes barely reached triple digits.

Yet within one week, Rilia shockingly birthed two mutant ice mosquitoes in succession.

One of these ice mosquitoes happened to appear near the Royal Palace and sneak-attacked Rilia’s Royal Family at midnight.

This ice mosquito possessed a rare invisibility ability, stealthily infiltrating the underground security fort of the palace, and wiped out the entire Royal Family.

This event also counted as a major news story.

The entire Southern Cross Alliance lowered their flags in mourning, and countries worldwide sent condolences expressing sorrow.

Now, Rilia’s economy is very troubled, with domestic deaths from hunger happening frequently.

Many people feel that the Nobel Prize will likely become history.