Chapter 93: Prehistoric Bacteria

The water source was hidden deep in the mountains. To the Falcon Investigation Team, it was indeed a fine place, lush with peaks and clear streams.

Looking at the cold mountain spring water flowing through the river, the team could hardly believe that this was the very source of the problem.

The young owner, staring at the crystal-clear river, felt aggrieved as well. According to him, he had drunk the spring water from this river since childhood and had never once imagined it could cause trouble. There had even been a bottled-water company that once favored this source and came to inspect it, but for reasons unknown, the matter had simply come to nothing. Later, he thought that since he lived so close to it, it would be a waste not to make use of it, so he set up this little factory of his own. He had dreamed of building a brand under his own name, but that was far too difficult. So he turned to private labeling instead. All along, nothing had ever gone wrong...

Listening to the young owner's account, the Falcon Investigation Team did not think he was lying. And looking again at the water here, they almost wanted to take a sip. But then they thought of all the people who had fallen ill after drinking it, and in the end they restrained themselves.

The Falcon Investigation Team went over the entire sequence of events once more, from beginning to end, feeling that something had been overlooked. Since the contaminated water had flowed out from here, and since the young owner was so certain the water had been fine before, then where exactly had the problem begun?

Following the river upstream from the factory, their instinct told them there must be some secret hidden here. Sure enough, perseverance pays off. After passing through the dark forest and reaching a broad open stretch, they discovered something unusual.

It turned out that part of the river's course ran through a battlefield from the war a few days earlier. The military withdrawal had been so hasty that nothing had been cleaned up. In particular, some enemy personnel and the beasts that had been shot dead were simply left unattended. By then they had rotted and stank, and the odor could be detected from far away.

They collected some water there, then took additional samples farther upstream. After that, the Falcon Investigation Team returned the way they had come. They needed to send the samples to the testing center to confirm whether the pathogen responsible for this plague had originated here.

The testing center analyzed the samples brought in by the Falcon team. They found that the water upstream was indeed fine. But after it flowed through that battlefield, they detected a superbug similar to, yet not quite the same as, the pathogen that had caused this plague. In other words, this place was very likely the source of the outbreak.

After further genetic sequencing and comparison of the superbug, the testing center basically confirmed that the superbug responsible for the plague had indeed come from here. It may have been carried by a prehistoric organism artificially revived by humans. The bacteria itself was harmless to those creatures, but humans were another matter entirely. Just like the SARS virus or the Ebola virus back then.

As for how these superbugs had escaped into the world, the greatest possibility given by the researchers was that, after the organisms decayed, the bacteria entered the natural environment. With no natural enemies, they rapidly multiplied and mutated. Still, one could not rule out the possibility that someone had deliberately released a virus, much like the bacteriological warfare once waged by Japan's Unit 731.

Now that it had been confirmed that the culprit behind the plague was a prehistoric superbug, would things begin to move in a better direction?

In fact, they did not.

Although scientists had already decoded the bacterium's genetic sequence, they still could not determine the mechanism by which it caused disease. More terrifying still, although this bacterium had never undergone antibiotic selection, it had somehow evolved resistance to antibiotics. Coupled with the fact that it mutated and evolved faster than any other known organism, finding a suitable treatment became even more difficult.

But the patients could not wait. Despite containment efforts, the plague had already spread across the globe. Vast numbers of people could not receive treatment, especially in remote and underdeveloped regions, where corpses littered the land and became a breeding ground for the superbug.

At this time, Wu Jianxue, recovering on a deserted island in the South Pacific, had already learned through the internet that the plague was ravaging the world. He was secretly delighted. He had never imagined that the gift he had left behind for Golden Ridge City before departing would prove so powerful. He truly had to thank the man who had manufactured those counterfeit mineral waters for such divine assistance.

Now governments around the world were scrambling to respond to the disaster, and the experts and professors at the famous research institute were equally focused on cracking the superbug, leaving them little energy for anything else. For the organization, this was tremendous news.

Over the past few months, internal strife had caused the organization to retreat at every turn. At last they had time to catch their breath. This time, by some strange twist of fate, they had achieved a major accomplishment.

Within the dark organization itself, people also took an optimistic view of the plague sweeping the world. The government forces had been pressing in step by step lately, and it had been truly vexing. If they had known that one superbug could reverse the tide of battle, they would have acted long ago. There would have been no chance for Wu Jianxue to claim the first great credit.

Of course, none of that was important. What mattered was keeping watch over the vaccine. They had spent nearly two years developing it, and it absolutely had to be guarded carefully. If another traitor like Jin Ming appeared and carried the vaccine out, then trouble would follow.

Although the old fossils at the Academy of Sciences could probably produce it as well, by the time they reached any result, the little blue planet might already be devastated, with nine homes out of ten empty. That was exactly what they were happy to see. By establishing a base in a place far from human habitation, they no longer had to worry about anyone interrupting their so-called "god-making plan."

Oh, no, that was not quite right. In truth, they were very compassionate and did not wish to see so many innocent people die. If anyone came to seek refuge with them, they could provide the vaccine free of charge...

Unlike the easy atmosphere on the dark organization’s side, the experts and professors at the Academy of Sciences remained grim-faced. A month had already passed since the outbreak began. Everyone was waiting for them to produce a complete cure, yet they had no solution at all. At this rate, the situation might truly spiral out of control.

When the Falcon Investigation Team received the test results, they had briefly rejoiced as well. They had truly not expected to celebrate so soon. The superbug still had not been conquered, and as laymen, they could do nothing but worry.

The only thing they could do, perhaps, was to dispose of the bodies of the infected in a timely manner by incineration and distribute antibacterial and antiviral medicines to the general public, along with a few other basic measures...

As for the European investigation delegation, trapped in Golden Ridge City, they were also growing anxious. They had heard that their own countries had also fallen into the epidemic, but with all international flights suspended, there was no way for them to return...