On the eve of the pandemic.
A strange report has been received by the Survival Assurance Agency.
A report that a disease is spreading widely in the current otherworldly society.
A strong and pungent smell of disinfectant floated in the pure white room. Large and small precision instruments filled the room, which was not particularly large. Elizabeth was wearing a set of airtight protective clothing, standing under the shadowless lamp and speaking with unprecedented seriousness. attitude, using protective glasses to dissect a mummy on the morgue that looked like it had been dead for decades.
"Is the news about the fungus master's resurrection true?"
The gray-haired doll girl opened the door, applied dozens of different extraordinary protections to herself, and asked.
"Nine times out of ten..."
Elizabeth's tone was solemn, her hands didn't even shake, her eyes were always fixed on the mummy, and she continued the dissection process.
The mummy's body is now covered with slender plants that burst through the skin from the inside out, as lush as weeds.
All this can be traced back to the strange enemy who attacked them during the trip. The opponent was obviously a supernatural person but did not use any supernatural power. He attacked like a zombie but was kicked away by her repeatedly. The doll acted as a danger reliever. Professional custom found something wrong after investigating it, and sent it to the agency's research laboratory for further research.
Sure enough, a problem was discovered.
The body of the strange enemy who attacked them had long been hollowed out. All the muscles and internal organs had been eaten away. Only the epidermis and bones were left intact. Things like mold filled his body instead of internal organs and muscle tissue to violate the rules. Common sense maintains the biological functions of the creature itself, and what is even more terrifying is that from the previous encounters, Elizabeth has connected to the other party's mind that has fallen into madness and despair...
Even if the body has become like this, the other party is still alive and even retains a fairly complete mind.
It's not a zombie, it's not a fake corpse, and there are no traces of the use of necromancy.
This terrifying and weird biological state prompted the agency's researchers to conduct in-depth research on it. At the same time, Elizabeth, who is proficient in biological research, also stayed to participate in the research, and the doll girl also had a new mission-to start targeting this kind of creature. Diseases are investigated.
Elizabeth carefully opened the cranial cavity, pulled out a grave grass from the corpse, and pulled out a lot of mycelium: "It's still the same, the inside of the body has been eaten away, the mycelium has completely replaced the nervous system, and the brain is at the end. The one who was eaten...look here."
As she said this, she turned the human mummy over and peeled back the shriveled skin on its back to expose its spine.
It was a severely deformed spine. The vertebrae were no longer closely connected. Thick white hyphae like downy hair grew out of the vertebrae and forcibly opened the gaps between the bone connections, especially from the thoracic vertebrae to the cervical vertebrae. Thick hyphae The layers are stacked up to completely cover that section of the spine, which looks like the furry tail of an animal, making people feel chilling.
"This is the place where the nerves are first invaded, so there are more hyphae remaining. Looking at the chest cavity, fungal spores infect the lungs through the respiratory tract, causing primary pulmonary fungal infection. Then the fungi will erode the original biological tissue and infect the lungs. There are a large number of divisions and replications here, and then spread throughout the body through the circulatory system to invade the central nervous system of the spinal cord. The Cordyceps fungus will gradually deprive the host of body control. When the parasite reaches the final stage, it will break through the blood-brain barrier and launch an attack on the brain..." ….
"In other words, the host's mind is equivalent to gradually losing control of the body in a waking state. The mind issues instructions but the hands and feet fail to obey. It can only watch like a prisoner in despair as the Cordyceps fungus takes over the body and takes him step by step. The abyss of death..."
"Other patients are not much better. This fungus obviously has the characteristics of 'intelligence'. It shows an unstable mutation ability that is completely unlike fungi. During the confrontation, it can even mutate countermeasures against me. If At the early stage of the disease, I can still think of ways to interfere with the cycle of mycelium growth and replication to prolong the time to enter the next stage, but once it enters the middle and late stages, it will be very difficult to cure..."
"If it was just a guess before, it's almost certain now."
The girl turned her head and looked through her goggles with green eyes.
other side.
"The fungus master Wei Buer who once lived in the Age of Gods has been resurrected in this era."
"The most important thing is..." She glanced at the mummy and hesitated, her expression more serious than ever before, "This time the owner of this corpse is not an extraordinary creature, but an ordinary person..."
To be precise, the owner of this corpse was one of the many blood slaves raised by the vampire company during his lifetime.
After the survival guarantee institution was established, the supernatural was hidden, and humans and science dominated the planet, most vampires took advantage of the unique advantages of longevity species and the amazing wealth accumulated in the past to invest in industries, build factories, and establish companies in human society, which was not seen in the past. The vampires of light suddenly became the much-anticipated elite in human society.
It usually squeezes the residual value of employees, uses the funds obtained from squeezing employees to invest in many fields such as medical care, scientific research, biology, finance, etc., establishes long-term cooperative relationships with major hospitals and blood supply stations, and controls several legal and illegal blood supplies. The channels are brought under control, potential blood donation targets are marked, and these precious resources are reused and squeezed...
And this blood slave is a mobile blood bag that sells blood through illegal channels and is marked with the blood clan mark.
The parasitic fungus that once disappeared at the end of the Age of Gods and could only parasitize extraordinary creatures has made a comeback and its infected targets are no longer limited to extraordinary creatures. Even ordinary people without extraordinary powers are now infected. What does this mean?
The doll looked heavy: "It is no longer limited to extraordinary people..."
Elizabeth's expression was serious: "There is currently no way to rule out whether it is directly transmitted through blood-sucking behavior. I can only speed up the research to determine whether this fungus has the characteristics of being widely spread among the general population..."
During the Age of Gods, extraordinary power was a necessary factor for the development and growth of the Ophiocordyceps fungus in Weibull, so it could only spread among groups of extraordinary people. But now the Cordyceps fungus has successfully grown in ordinary individuals, indicating that it at least has the ability to grow in ordinary individuals. ——Supernatural power may no longer be a necessary condition for its growth and development...
The atmosphere in the room suddenly fell silent.
After a long time, the puppet finally asked: "What is the specific way the fungus spreads?"
"Fungal spores that are diverse and have extraordinary powers are even more unreasonable than ordinary pathogenic bacteria. High temperature and high pressure, antifungal drugs, and disinfectants can only temporarily inhibit the activity. Bodily fluids aside, air, water, and food can all As a vector of transmission, the symptoms caused by different invasion portals are also different.”….
"After being exposed to polluted air for more than ten seconds, fungal spores can enter the lungs through the respiratory tract to complete the infection and parasitize, depriving the lungs of oxygen and prompting the host to further increase the breathing rate; if contaminated food or water is consumed, the fungal spores will be released within three hours Rapidly parasitic in the stomach and small intestine, the symbiotic fungus will release a special digestive enzyme to speed up digestion and rob nutrients, strengthen the host's aggressiveness, and keep it hungry for a long time, causing bulimia; as for blood transmission, it will be faster, Fungal spores will directly skip the infection stage and directly try to parasitize the central nervous system through the circulatory system..."
"In short, this crazy fungal spore is full of spreading ability."
Elizabeth listed almost everything she knew, and then spread her hands towards the doll: "The only good news is that this thing can't directly penetrate the skin to complete the infection."
The doll listened to her story quietly, and its prosthetic eyes made of inorganic materials gradually shone with light.
Data was flowing in the doll girl's computing core. In just a few breaths, a huge transmission chain model appeared in front of her eyes. The girl pointed her finger, and then a three-dimensional map of the city also appeared on her augmented reality (AR) in vision.
Reports on the initial infection cases, the number of extraordinary people infected at this stage, the total number of extraordinary people in the city, the incubation time of the fungus, calculation of potential infected people based on the epidemic spread model...
Soon, she calculated the direction of events in the near future.
There is still room for recovery. As long as we act as soon as possible, the outbreak of cordyceps among the group of extraordinary people is very likely to be avoided!
The puppet didn't speculate any further and turned around and walked out.
"According to my experience
, now... huh? Where are you going! "Elizabeth looked at her and turned away without knowing why, and asked in a loud voice.
"We must issue a warning immediately!"
…………
"The situation is very serious now. The fungus owner Weibull has confirmed that it has recovered. The Cordyceps fungus has mutated into a pathogen that can be transmitted to ordinary people. As a risk reliever, I am now applying to the survival guarantee agency: dispatch a disposal team to carry out emergency treatment of the Cordyceps disease and cut it off. The infection path of extraordinary people is to control the subsequent pandemic that may occur among the general population!"
The doll girl stood in the grand and majestic hall of the survival guarantee institution. The strange nebula above her head kept changing its shape and emitted little bits of light. She had forgotten that this was the first time she had addressed the big shots sitting on the round table. A warning was issued about the deteriorating status quo.
The reply of the projection of the high-level warlock who is on duty at the Survivability Guarantee Agency is always...
"No approval, continue to observe."
"Why!"
The doll girl was not afraid to question the projection of the high-level warlock in front of her who represented the survival guarantee agency.
"You should be very aware of the consequences of the spread of Cordyceps fungus! The extraordinary beings closest to the gods in the Age of Gods will gradually weaken and die. Do you think you can escape if it becomes popular among ordinary people?!"
"You don't have to worry about this. The Laplace demon has already made calculations about this."
The high-level warlock pushed up his glasses and whispered softly. The clouds and mist containing extraordinary power were flying and condensed into a stack of paper reports in his hands. ….
"According to Laplace's demon's calculations in the near future, the Weibull Cordyceps fungus this time is much milder than in the Age of Gods. The new Weibull Cordyceps fungus no longer robs the host of nutrients like the old Cordyceps fungus, but is more inclined to It coexists symbiotically with the host, constantly transforms the host's body, and will show a stable trend after several generations, eventually coexisting stably with the host."
"The theoretical fatality rate is less than five percent, which is even much lower than influenza in human society,"
"What..." the doll argued, "but this is an extraordinary event! It will have an indelible impact on the secular world! Isn't the purpose of the survival guarantee institution to protect the normal development of the secular and extraordinary worlds!"
"That's the crux of the matter, Laplace."
The high-level warlock projection sighed, and he snapped his fingers. The nebula on the dome began to shrink as if receiving some kind of instruction. Stars collapsed and exploded. The shining stars flickered and then disappeared one after another. Then the nebula began to collapse and turned into A continuous stream of data flowing with mathematical symbols and calculations.
Every moment, new calculations are generated from within the data flow, and then there is an answer that eliminates the calculations themselves. In the midst of the birth and death of data, the data flow gradually wriggles to form an outline that resembles a human being.
Concrete things gradually become abstract concepts.
And this group of ever-changing concepts is the Laplace Demon - the treasure of the survival guarantee organization, the highest masterpiece jointly created by the church, the agency, the Warlock Association, and the Hunting Group, and it is also the guardian and guide of the future.
And Laplace's demon's abilities are just like his name.
Know everything, understand everything.
The planet itself is a database that stores massive amounts of information. Based on this principle, the Warlock Association created spiritual bodies that are good at information processing to connect to the planet database that stores past information. The agency created a physical port for outputting information, and the hunters were given the ability to collect current information. Dreams and minds, and the church... They cited scriptures and imitated miracles to solidify the miracle of predicting the future on this spiritual body.
Laplace's Demon was born.
Record the past, gain insight into the present, and predict the future.
It can be said that Laplace can give answers to any questions as long as they once existed in this planet system.
At this moment, as long as he exists on this planet, Laplace can understand everything that is happening through dreams and minds.
As long as the future still belongs to this planetary system, the predictions made by Laplace will surely come true.
"The deduction of Laplace's Demon allows us to see a new future.
"
"According to the samples you sent us, we detected traces of extraordinary power in the bodies of ordinary people. Originally we thought it was the extraordinary influence caused by the parasitism of the Cordyceps fungus, but after repeated tests we found that those traces were left by the infected themselves. Coming down...do you know what this means?"
"Using the Cordyceps fungus, we will have the opportunity to transform more of the same species without any loss."
"Using the Cordyceps fungus, we will have the possibility to go further."
"This is an opportunity." At this time, the old bishop representing the church on the round table in the hall spoke. "Seize this opportunity, and we can make the extraordinary world great again and let the extraordinary return to this land."
"Are we going to have to sacrifice countless ordinary people for this?"
No one answered the doll girl, or in other words, they answered her question with silence.
"I know what you mean."
After a long silence, the doll girl whispered.
"I hope you can understand this decision, which is also for the sake of the overall situation."
The doll girl ignored the high-level sorcerer's words. She just nodded slightly and unilaterally cut off contact with the survival guarantee agency.
In an instant, the hall, round table and projection collapsed, disintegrating into dancing light particles and dissipating in the wind.
When all the projections turned into extraordinary particles and suddenly dissipated, the twinkling light in the doll girl's eyes became firmer.
"If you don't save me, I will save you."
Fishing King Lufei
