The First Evolution

Then Delto sent someone to pick Fang Linyan up and told him that there was a new breakthrough in the laboratory.

After Fang Linyan followed in, he found that when he was sleeping, Delto seemed to have overcome all kinds of dangers and successfully broke into the power supply room.

The perimeter of the entire abandoned laboratory had actually been powered on. After entering, he saw that the lighting chandeliers at the top of the work area had all been lit. Probably because of disrepair, at least one-third of the ceiling lights were not on, but it was enough to drive away the previous darkness.

Delto in the tunnel even arranged a lot of traps, booby-trapped mines, mines, etc, seeming to be preparing the prevent possible attacks from hostile companies.

After some inquiries, he found out that after Delto requested help from the headquarters, the scientific research department of the Duckland Company quickly found a countermeasure.

The thing that could turn people into mummy before was a kind of biochemical weapon that the Blood Umbrella Company had developed halfway: it is called Eumenides, which was the name of the legendary deity of vengeance.

Specifically, Eumenides was a strange mutated fungus created by mixing gene fragments of 3 organisms.

Of the 3 parent species that created this fungus, the most important one was a fungus called Ophiocordyceps unilateralis.

They still exist today, parasitizing on the ant called Camponotus leonardi. They can secrete chemicals to control the ant.

After making the ant moves to the most suitable environment for fungi reproduction (according to statistics, such places are generally in the north-facing forest, about 25cm from the surface, humidity 94%-95%, temperature 20-30℃), it will climb on the leaf and bite the leaf with all its strength.

The more exaggerated scene was yet to come. When the zombie ant bites the leaf, the fungus will quickly destroy the muscle fibers in the ant’s jaw and destroy all the mitochondria that generate energy.

In this way, the poor ant can no longer control its jaw and be forced to die on the leaves without moving.

This bizarre behavior pattern is called “Death’s Bite”.

After that, the fungus will begin to proliferate between the soft tissues of the ants and soon kill the host. When a large number of mycelium multiply in the dead ant’s body, they will eventually burst out of the ant’s exoskeleton, forming a terrible parasitic scene.

After breaking out, the Ophiocordyceps unilateralis fungus on the ant’s corpse will release spores on this leaf and continue to reproduce offspring. The entire process can take anywhere from 4 to 10 days.

Another female parent is very famous, called Cordyceps sinensis.

The last female parent is an animal named Gordian nematode, which lives in the body of the praying mantis. It can control the host to go to the water, drown the host with water and then come out of the host.

The biological weapon Eumenides was mainly transmitted through spores. Whether it was contacted or inhaled, the original design concept was that after inhaling its spores, it would quickly absorb the water in human body and secrete a paralyzing toxin that killed the person in a short time.

Then it would absorb the nutrients in the human body, mature in a short time, and continue to spread the spores wildly. The maturity cycle was about 2 and a half hours. Under the ideal state of the original design, Eumenides could eliminate the soldiers of an entire barrack.

However, Eumenides had a very fatal flaw, which was the sudden death of the population due to genetic defects. This was also a common problem of artificial creatures.

This meant that when these artificial organisms reproduce for several generations, due to some flaws in the design, there would be mutations, which would directly lead to the sudden death of the entire population.

This kind of defect was difficult to solve. Just like a mule, which was a hybrid of a horse and a donkey, it had no reproductive ability. A liger, which was a hybrid of a tiger and a lion, had no reproductive ability, and it also had obvious defects in IQ and a short lifespan.

The scientific research department specially designed a special countermeasure spray for the defects of Eumenides, then they sent it to Delto by means of ultra-high-altitude drop.

This spray contained the nutrients and hormones that Eumenides needed most, allowing it to multiply in a short period of time, which could easily trigger mutations. After a mutation occurred, a virus would destroy the Eumenides.

However, the missing person had not been found.

When Fang Linyan slept, the peripheral had been cleaned up, and some secrets about the Veronica Laboratory were also discovered.

The reason why the laboratory was divided into 2 sections, A and B, was because section A where they were at hid a shocking secret!

This secret even directly caused a split in the senior level of the Blood Umbrella Company. Some people invested huge amounts of resources here while others thought it was not worth investing here.

If there wasn’t any internal strife, the Blood Umbrella Company, which was flourishing in the past, was severely damaged. It was difficult to say whether this behemoth would be forced to divide under the pressure of the government.

Another secret was that at this time, the nature of Section A was a research base while the Section B base was a logistics base.

The specific location here was not near the Pamir Plateau as Fang Linyan had guessed before, but in the mountains on the south side of the Karakum Desert, 300 kilometers west of the Pamir Plateau.

In Base B, there was a large natural underground river that had been transformed into an underwater channel, which could stretch for nearly 70km and directly connect to the Caspian Sea!

The supply of the entire base was regularly transported by a mysterious U-shaped submarine.

The trajectory of the submarine was to go upstream in the underwater and enter about 300 meters after entering the estuary of a large river. It was located underground and had been specially opened up.

The Blood Umbrella Company built a large docking terminal here, transporting living and scientific research materials to the dock, then transferring them into the logistics base through a series of methods.

With such a concealed method, it was no wonder that this base had not been discovered for so many years.

Hearing what Delto said, Fang Linyan’s previous doubts were solved. Although he was good at planning, the intel he knew was too little.

Fang Linyan was almost certain that Delto didn’t tell him everything, but this wouldn’t affect his plan!

As a result, Fang Linyan contacted Goat again. After they exchanged information again, an evil plan started…

***

At this time, Delto took Fang Linyan to another place.

Behind Delto, the expressionless subjects still followed faithfully.

Where they were now was in front of the main passageway that connected the peripheral work area and the core experimental area.

This gate seemed to have been carefully inspected. It was made of titanium steel. The surface was as smooth as a mirror. There were some marks on it, but they did not damage its sturdiness at all.

Delto said to Fang Linyan,

“According to the information we have collected so far, the inner section of Veronica has formed a separate and independent system from the outside world. It does not rule out that the inner section even has its own special ecological environment cycle.”

When Delto said this, Fang Linyan still didn’t know what he wanted to express, but he heard Delto continued,

“To open this door, we need a key… You have also read the diary of Lungie Hale, do you have any clues?”

Fang Linyan looked around and found that Delto did not bring Ishida with him at this time. This should be the calculation of the superior — Ishida, who presided over the investigation of the peripheral laboratory, already knew a lot of things, so the following exploration wouldn’t include him anymore — Fang Linyan was able to sleep soundly for 3 hours was probably due to Delto’s deliberate decision.

After these thoughts flashed in his mind, Fang Linyan looked at the door in front of him and said tentatively,

“Can this thing be broken with force?”

Delto said lightly,

“The experts at the headquarters believe that this method should not be used unless it is absolutely necessary, because according to their analysis, there is a small amount of nerve fibers inside of this door, and it still maintains a considerable degree of liveness.”

“That is to say, it can be regarded as a semi-living body with intelligence. If we use force, it is likely to select an optimal plan from the database and make us lose everything.”

Fang Linyan pondered for a while and said,

“Clues… I indeed have some, can you show me this door?”

Delto said,

“Sure.”

Fang Linyan nodded and walked forward under the lead of Kaur. He first observed the door and felt that it was really impeccable.

Immediately afterward, Kaur took him to the side and found that there was still a small passage here, only about 6 meters deep.

At the end of the small passage, there was a box the size of a coffin, the material of which was like wood and stone. There were some mysterious patterns engraved on it.

And on this box, 3 strange giant palms stretched out, and they were arranged unevenly. The surface of each palm had the same texture as wood patterns. The palms only had 3 fingers.

Looking closely, he only realized that the essence of these giant palms was similar to the gear handle of a car. They could be held and pulled at will. In other words, in order to successfully open the door, they must pull these 3 giant palms to a certain position!

Faced with such a situation, Fang Linyan understood why Delto brought him here instead of the programming expert because such password was completely beyond the scope of programming and computers. No matter how good the expert was, he would be helpless!