My 100th Rebirth a day before the Apocalypse novel Chapter 500

"Send in another chicken and take it out when it looks like it’s dying again," Tristan ordered.

Mike stepped into the coop, grabbed another rooster, and placed it in front of them. Before the bird could run or even flap its wings, the STAU had already flicked his wrist, swiftly pulling the rooster into his space.

Just like before, the rooster panicked, flapping its wings and searching desperately for an escape.

The rooster must have sensed the imminent danger of death in that space, triggering its survival instincts and making it restless.

Its movements grew weaker by the second, and just before it collapsed, the STAU pulled it from the space. The rooster hit the ground, motionless.

Slowly but surely, the rooster began to stir. It took a full five minutes before it managed to stand, as if it had just narrowly escaped death. Another three minutes passed before it regained its energy, moving with renewed vigor.

"I see," Tristan murmured. Both Mike and the STAU turned to him, waiting for him to explain what he had concluded after observing the rooster. Tristan didn’t disappoint.

"I think the reason the chicken died earlier was due to a lack of oxygen in your space," he began. "While there’s no restriction on what you can store inside, there’s also nothing to generate oxygen."

"Without it, no living creature can survive for long. In comparison, this territory can sustain life because it has a complete ecosystem."

"So, maybe if we could place plants inside—ones that can convert the carbon dioxide animals exhale into oxygen—then the animals could survive in your space," Tristan explained.

"But with the number of animals we plan to transport, we’d need something close to a small forest, which would be difficult to achieve."

He paused, reflecting on the challenge of finding plants as large as trees to sustain the animals stored within the space.

"And besides the plants, we’d also need sunlight," Tristan added, frowning. "Your space doesn’t have enough room to accommodate not just the trees, but also the sunlight necessary to produce oxygen." He looked visibly frustrated, realizing this method wouldn’t work.

Still, they needed a solution. To make their plan convincing, they would have to temporarily store the animals in the space and then remove them just before bringing them into the base. This way, the survivors would believe the livestock had been gathered from outside.

"Hmm, maybe we could equip them with some oxygen tanks?" Mike suggested absentmindedly, scratching the back of his head.

He didn’t fully grasp everything Tristan had explained, but he understood one crucial point: there was no oxygen inside the STAU’s space, and without it, the animals would die within minutes of being placed there.

Since it had already been established that placing plants inside the space to transform carbon dioxide into oxygen was too complicated without sunlight, the only simpler solution Mike could think of was using oxygen tanks.

"Ha ha ha," Mike laughed awkwardly, his voice trailing off as Tristan fell silent, staring at him. The prolonged silence made Mike squirm, embarrassed, and he began to wonder if his suggestion had been foolish. "You don’t—"

Before Mike could finish his sentence, Tristan cut him off. "Of course! The solution is so simple! Why was I overcomplicating it?" Tristan exclaimed, nodding appreciatively as he patted Mike’s shoulder.

Sometimes, solutions didn’t need to be complex—humans just had a way of making things more difficult than they needed to be.

"But where are we going to get the oxygen tanks? And how many animals are we planning to transport?" the STAU asked. "Or do we need to make multiple trips like we did with the cargo trailers?"

Though the solution seemed simple at first, it wasn’t without complications.

Oxygen tanks weren’t something they could easily get anywhere, and they were meant for farm animals, not humans.