Chapter 428 - 375: The Dispersal Device’s Core
Chapter 428: Chapter 375: The Dispersal Device’s Core
The seven researchers, who had been forced into servitude by Flora Bloom, began their experiments in the villa she had prepared for them.
Villa No. 3 was absolutely secure. It was far more reliable than the former Thorne family’s research lab back in Argent. Its defense system, stretching from the foundations of Morhaven all the way to the fortifications outside Villa No. 3, would hold against anything short of a devastating attack like an atomic bomb.
Of course, someone like that man in white from outside the Argent base could still break through her defenses. However, with Lex Cross and the others at the base, she wasn’t afraid of that white-robed pervert.
The seven researchers lived together in a large villa located behind the three villas used by Flora Bloom and her team. Just like with Maeve Preston and Shelly from the medical team, the ground floor was cleared out and fitted with research equipment. Power and water were fully supplied, handled by the person on Flora’s team responsible for such matters. The second floor housed their seven bedrooms.
Flora Bloom had strictly forbidden them from conducting any experiments that harmed human subjects in Morhaven. However, drawing blood samples from a few willing superpower users was permissible.
So, Flora Bloom posted a notice outside the Villa No. 3 district, requesting blood samples from superpower users of various types for the researchers’ work.
As for the people on her own team, first of all, there was no way she, Lex Cross, and the other core members would give their crucial blood samples to the researchers.
Secondly, when members of her team saw that no one had responded to the notice yet, they volunteered to donate blood, but Flora Bloom stopped them all.
With the exception of Cynthia Grant and the few others who had been injected with the serum, if the unique properties corresponding to her other team members’ superpowers were discovered through blood analysis, there was no guarantee they wouldn’t become targets for certain people in the future.
In the end, Flora Bloom decided to use the Mission Hall’s system to post a quest that no one could resist.
Anyone who came to Villa No. 3 and voluntarily donated 100cc of blood would receive a three-day supply of food from Villa No. 3, specifically including meat, vegetables, and fruit.
Morhaven Base wasn’t exactly short on food. That was, however, only in comparison to other cities in the post-apocalyptic world.
There were many mutated beasts outside the base, but few small animals. It often took a team of twenty or more Initial-stage Superpower Users working together to successfully hunt a single normal-sized carnivore.
The amount of food each person received was actually quite limited. Once it was gone, they had to form another team and go out to hunt again. In doing so, everyone also faced significant personal risk.
But this quest offered not only meat, but also vegetables—a scarce food that few in the base had managed to grow successfully. Even more shockingly, it included fruit, which they hadn’t seen since the first week of the apocalypse.
It was simply an irresistible temptation.
Not even five minutes after the quest was posted, a long line had formed outside Villa No. 3.
Flora Bloom had just returned to Villa No. 3 and was taken aback by the scene.
’Heavy rewards bring forth brave men, as expected.’ These people were certainly brave. Villa No. 3 had been painted as a mysterious and sinister place by certain individuals in the base, yet they still dared to come to such an "unsafe" location.
But this was exactly the effect she wanted.
Whether they were unawakened ordinary people or superpower users of all kinds, she would take them all.
The seven researchers had moved a few small tables out to sit in front of the wisteria arbor, with all the blood-drawing equipment ready. Maeve Preston and Shelly were there helping as well.
Cynthia Grant, Caleb, Lisa, and Selina were off to the side, registering those who had given blood and handing out each person’s three-day food supply.
The chance to exchange one hundred cc of blood for three days’ worth of rich, rare food was an offer no one could refuse. For three consecutive days, the entrance to Villa No. 3 was crowded with people from dawn till dusk, only dispersing at dinnertime.
It was only when the seven researchers told Flora Bloom they had enough blood samples that she went to the Mission Hall to cancel the quest.
Meanwhile, Quinn and Seth Warren, who had been too proud to go get free food before, could only watch as members of their own team—both ordinary people and superpower users—went to Villa No. 3 as many as six times over the three days, donating a total of 600cc of blood.
One donation meant three days of food. Six donations, 600cc, and that person wouldn’t have to worry about food for half a month.
When Quinn and Seth Warren finally lowered their heads and decided to go donate blood, they were told that the quest to exchange blood for food was already over.
Unlike Seth Warren and Quinn, who were too concerned with saving face, Sepherdine was different. As the public leader of the base, it was well-known that he was on Flora Bloom’s side. Plus, since he frequently went to Villa No. 3 to freeload meals anyway, this little bit of food was nothing special in his eyes.
But for the sake of Flora Bloom’s great research endeavor, Sepherdine brought everyone from his team to Villa No. 3 to donate blood. He even used it as an excuse to freeload meals there for three days straight.
How could a three-day food reward possibly compare to the meals cooked in the home of Flora Bloom, the team’s core? Add to that Ethan Monroe’s masterful cooking skills, and Sepherdine’s team members were reluctant to leave after every meal.
The rice seeds Lex Cross had found for her in the City of Argent had already been planted in her spatial Spirit Field, and the stalks were now taller than she was.
She had already harvested the first batch of rice and stored it in her space, ready to be taken out when needed.
The only problem was that husking the rice was a real hassle. Flora Bloom discussed it with Caleb Bloom and Sherman Lynch, deciding they should find time to make a trip to the nearest grain production base to Morhaven. There was bound to be a rice husker there.
Flora Bloom’s days in Morhaven passed just like that. The researchers were just starting to make some headway on the awakening serum and its antidote when, one day, Professor Micah excitedly sought her out. He told her the sonic dispersal device had entered its final testing phase.
Hearing this, Flora Bloom’s eyes lit up. "What else do you need?" she asked.
"Hehe, Flora, no, no, Captain Cross already got me everything I needed. It’s just that my device is missing a tiny drive core. Once this core is installed, the sonic driver can be used."
"A core? What kind of core?"
Micah looked a bit embarrassed as he explained.
"Well, you see, once this sonic device is activated, it emits the mimicked magnetic field of a specific creature in a hundred-mile radius, frightening nearby creatures and keeping them from approaching.
The core is like the battery in a remote control; it needs a powerful energy source to drive the device. And this core determines the strength of the magnetic field it emits."
Flora Bloom listened to Micah, tilting her head. It took her a moment to understand. "You mean this core is something found inside a living creature?"
Micah nodded. "If we’re facing a horde of zombies, we can install the Crystal Core of a High-level zombie. The dispersal effect it emits will then affect the entire zombie horde below that level.
Similarly, if we want to repel airborne beasts, the core we need must be related to a flying creature.
The Crystal Core of a powerful flying creature could repel basically all flocks of birds."
When Micah said this, the first thing that came to Flora Bloom’s mind was the Golden Crow.
’When it comes to powerful flying creatures, the King of birds has to be that damned Golden Crow!’