Chapter 102 (1/2)

For almost a month, Zhizhi, Jing, and Chang spent their days in peace.

There was a troop of soldiers chasing them, but Chang and Zhizhi were able to backtrack the pursuers before they got close. Countless times, the troop hunted for nothing. In the end, they would disappear from Zhizhi's olfactive perception range, probably just returning to the military as they aborted the impossible mission.

In the city of Zhengzhou, quite a few explosive news spread.

The first news was that a month ago, which was five days after Chang retrieved their worm box, The Agent Orange plan was well-implemented and completed in time. Most of the non-cultivation fields were sprayed with the chemical. And as Zhuo had antic.i.p.ated, these affected areas became barren. The devastated plants lost their color, and their feeble stems lay flat on the ground.

Once Zhuo's goal was achieved, the government and the military tasted the sweetness of convenience. They also began clamoring to clear the highways that connected the cities using Agent Orange.

However, the clamor only lasted for a few days. The decision was stalled for a long time, and in the end, still not made. No one knew whether it was because the regional political struggle made the authorities yearn for more power and hence they didn't want to connect with the central government that would take away their freedom to do as they wished, or it was because the research inst.i.tute ran out of Agent Orange, which resulted in the mission having to be aborted since the amount of the chemical was insufficient to implement the plan. Either way, the clamor was settled down.

Civilization restored itself once the plants, which were shelters for predators, withered. The animals were either killed off by the army or fled to the jungle as Zhuo had expected.

Once the citizens were granted safety, it meant that the old industrial activities could be resumed, and the people were a.s.signed to different infrastructure projects. Their wages were the seeds of the Crystal Pea—the more they worked, the more they would be awarded; and if they chose not to work, they wouldn't get any seeds since the distribution stations were going to be cancelled soon. It was a simple solution, and Zhuo's ruled civilization continued to flourish.

And that was the first news.

The second was a political storm.

During the prolonged political struggle in Zhengzhou, the military, which owned all the armies in Zhengzhou, took over the control of the city. It also disintegrated the government, completely transforming the city into a city-state with political and military power fused together. During the revolution, Zhuo was again pushed to the center of the storm, becoming one of the most influential and powerful men in the newly born system.

Zhuo was like the sun s.h.i.+ning high in the sky.

But while he was desired by both the system and the people, the food preservation method based on irradiation that he had endorsed caused unexpected mutations. Almost all the higher-ups in Zhengzhou were affected.

A hypermutable bacteria that was born during the irradiation process ravaged the military government, causing more than half of the high officials to die from infections. The bacteria had strong multidrug resistance, and the current antibiotic treatments failed to suppress its replication. Those who were infected were isolated, and had to wait for death to bring them away from their torment.

The hierarchy of the ruling system became fragile again…

In the research inst.i.tute.

In Group Alpha.

”Qing Shui, what is all that mess?” Zhuo stood beside Qing Shui, his brows tied. ”The preservation method I used should be perfect, that hypermutable bacteria simply shouldn't exist.”

”The irradiation method was absolutely safe to preserve food if you used it before this apocalypse,”Qing Shui answered in calm voice, gently shaking the testing tube in his hand. ”But irradiation has become unstable now that it became extremely easy for the bacterias and viruses to mutate and evolve. Not to mention the effect of the surroundings, the red fog. I told you not to use this method before, but you were too rash in making that decision.”

”I do admit it's all my fault. But I still think this hypermutable bacteria wasn't a usual occurrence.” Zhuo glanced on Qing Shui's expressionless face, then continued, ”It wasn't a bad thing either. The infection wiped out quite the amount of higher ups, so we'll have less opposition from now on.”