Chapter Fifteen: Tremendous Improvement

Over the course of these ten years, Li Qingsong increasingly felt the weight of a single, pressing problem. This issue severely constrained his pace of development, preventing him from accomplishing many tasks and from constructing numerous facilities and factories he had envisioned.

That problem was population.

At present, there were barely over a hundred people in total. With such a small number, even if there were no internal conflicts and perfect coordination and cooperation were achieved, how much strength could truly be exerted?

In fact, a considerable portion of the equipment Li Qingsong had built remained idle.

For example, some generators in the energy industrial zone were manufactured but then left unattended. Of the sixteen tractors he had built, only seven were in regular use.

It wasn’t due to a lack of transportation demand. On the contrary, the blast furnaces, generators, and plantations all required a vast supply of external ores and resources.

Yet there simply weren’t enough hands to operate them.

For ten long years, Li Qingsong suffered deeply under this constraint.

Fortunately, after focusing on chemical engineering and gradually increasing the output of the plantations, he finally managed to produce a barely acceptable batch of nutrient solution for the clones.

Inside a cave repurposed as a chemical plant, Li Qingsong gazed at the large glass jar filled with pale blue liquid, his heart brimming with excitement.

This was only enough nutrient solution for one clone. Yet even this small amount had taken two clones an entire week to prepare.

There was no alternative. At this stage, nearly every task had to be done manually, akin to "customized" work in a laboratory, unable to achieve automated mass production.

But it didn’t matter. If two clones could prepare enough nutrient solution for one person in a week, then by reallocating fifty clones from elsewhere, twenty-five batches could be produced weekly.

That meant two hundred batches in two months.

Li Qingsong set the target for the first batch of “self-produced” clones at two hundred.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to produce more. Rather, beyond nutrient solution, the entire process required matching power supplies and the production of incubation tanks. Considering the current technological level, Li Qingsong deemed two hundred the optimal number for the first batch of incubation tanks and nutrient solutions.

Besides, once the tanks were built, they could be reused. When the workforce increased, the quantity could be expanded.

Thus, Li Qingsong boldly diverted fifty clones from the already strained factories and facilities to focus fully on producing nutrient solution and manufacturing incubation tanks.

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Within the Deep Space vessel, the two remaining bodies tirelessly carried out the initial cell processing day and night.

As a result, the other clones had no choice but to devote even more time and energy to their work.

Their daily working hours increased from twelve to sixteen, barely enough to maintain the rest of the system without mishaps.

These were genuine sixteen-hour shifts!

The clones’ sleep time was compressed to six hours. All other activities—meals, bathroom breaks, brief rests, and travel—had to be squeezed into the remaining two hours.

To sustain their mental and physical strength, Li Qingsong generously opened up supplies from the plantation: vegetables, eggs, meat, and most importantly, flour and rice.

Every day, the kitchen cooked a large pot containing two hundred jin of meat and boiled hundreds of eggs for the clones, just enough to barely keep them going.

Originally, Li Qingsong had not wanted to push things so hard, but he had waited far too long.

Communication with Earth had been lost for over a decade. He was eager to develop rapidly.

Even if he could not change the fate of civilization, he at least wanted to understand what had happened.

If not for the sake of civilization, then at least for himself, Li Qingsong dared not slacken.

Could the forces or entities responsible for humanity’s disappearance one day threaten him?

This was a question he could not avoid.

Throughout the base, the hundred-plus clones worked as if wound tightly, each endlessly busy.

Under such conditions, two months finally passed.

Two hundred incubation tanks were all completed, lined up neatly inside the clone production factory.

This was a brand-new facility. Li Qingsong had specifically found a cave deep enough, with thick rock layers and low background radiation.

Clone embryos, unlike adults, could not tolerate any radiation; otherwise, they would likely fail to develop or become malformed. Hence, they had to be housed in a place with sufficient radiation shielding.

Inside the factory, the temperature was not a comfortable 26 degrees Celsius, but rather matched the human body’s 37 degrees Celsius.

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Only at this temperature could the embryos develop comfortably.

Two hundred batches of nutrient solution were poured into the incubation tanks, followed by two hundred batches of initial cells from the Deep Space vessel.

Like seeds sown in soil, these cells—still invisible to the naked eye—began to grow slowly.

With fifty clones withdrawn from the nutrient solution preparation room, the others finally could relax a little.

They had been exhausted.

Filled with hope and anticipation, Li Qingsong began what was ostensibly only a six-month wait, though it felt interminable.

“Grow quickly… so many tractors await your operation, so many blast furnaces need your control, so many crops require your care…”

As time passed, the initial cells in the tanks developed into masses of flesh, gradually taking on human forms.

Yet some embryos developed abnormally, clearly malformed.

“There’s no avoiding it. The nutrient solution I prepared myself and the incubation tanks we produced can’t match the originals,” Li Qingsong muttered, shaking his head.

He directed a clone to destroy the malformed embryos and discard the nutrient solution.

Despite these setbacks, only a small fraction failed.

After half a year of waiting, a total of 182 clones developed successfully.

They were carried out and laid on beds. After a brief pause, these 182 clones slowly opened their eyes.

Li Qingsong’s consciousness instantly extended to them, and in the next moment, he felt as though he had 182 new brains and bodies.

Brand new, untouched by contamination or damage!

His memory, logical reasoning, learning, and research abilities—all brain-related faculties—had more than doubled compared to before!

Not only his mind, but the number of bodies he could command had skyrocketed from 134 to 316 in an instant.