Chapter 745.3: Fourth Stage Of The Kingdom Of Heaven
Chapter 745.3: Fourth Stage Of The Kingdom Of Heaven
"No need." Chu Guang glanced up at the gray fog covering the sky and answered casually. "I've already ordered the airship to withdraw."
According to the radar aboard the airship, a swarm of aerial targets was approaching the Guardian Manor Plains from the south.
If nothing unexpected occurred, they were likely the same Winged Mutant Humans encountered previously in Brocade Lake Municipality. Or perhaps, they were an improved variant.
The Loyalty had apparently also detected the approaching threat and was already moving northward. Allowing those creatures to board the airship would be troublesome especially since Chu Guang wasn't on board, and there weren't many players stationed there either.
Thus, he had ordered the airship to pull back and continue serving as a flying artillery platform and carrier.
As for himself, Chu Guang wasn't particularly worried. He simply didn't fight very often, but that didn't mean he couldn't.
Lu Bei still looked worried and attempted one last time to persuade him. "But..."
"I don't want to hear any more of it."
Seeing that Chu Guang had no intention of changing his mind, Lu Bei finally lowered his head. "Yes."
Satisfied, Chu Guang nodded. "Now take me to the temporary laboratory."
The moment the crisis erupted, he had already ordered half of the Guard Corps to reinforce the temporary research facility. Not only were Alpha Mobile Task Force's wounded being treated there, there were also prisoners rescued from the front lines. All of them were already addicted to Na Fruit.
Sure enough, they had also become infected.
Fortunately, the Guard Corps had arrived quickly. Had they relied solely on the handful of security guards stationed at the laboratory, they probably wouldn't have been able to stop over 100 infected patients.
To be fair, the pathfinder on Ten Peaks Mountain had really surprised him.
While everyone focused their attention on taking the mountain, the real bomb had already been buried beneath their feet.
Chu Guang had previously considered the possibility that the Kingdom of Heaven around Guardian Manor Plains had already reached completion. During the Fourth Stage of the descent of the Kingdom of Heaven, its continued existence no longer depended on the pseudo-Hive as a physical entity.
Perhaps, that had been the true reason the Torch Church evacuated the local survivors. Not because they feared the coalition and voluntarily contracted their defenses.
However, neither the New Alliance Biological Research Institution nor the Enterprise researchers had discovered any traces of fungal filaments within local soil samples.
Everything seemed to have hidden themselves deep underground, concealing their very existence. They had even learned how to bait their enemies.
That was the strange part.
"I'm sorry..." Hyrja's face was deathly pale and her lips trembled with regret.
Her white lab coat was stained with blood, the blood of the security personnel who had died protecting her.
She blamed the entire disaster upon her own oversight. Thinking of those who had died because of it, a sharp pain gripped her chest. She couldn't stop herself from quietly sobbing.
Unlike the guilt-ridden Hyrja, Chu Guang didn't believe any of this was her fault. Any doctor confronted with a disease they had never encountered before would inevitably be caught off guard. Especially when the thing in question had already gone far beyond conventional scientific understanding.
From his perspective, the Torch Church’s latest move bordered on outright magic.
She had done everything she possibly could. The problem was simply that the people opposing her, her former senior colleagues from the same school, had over a decade more experience than she did.
Giving her a comforting hug, Chu Guang waited until she gradually calmed down before speaking gently. "This isn't your fault. You did everything you were supposed to do. But we can't possibly predict every card our enemies are holding."
"And I have to admit, they concealed this one exceptionally well. Even I almost believed the Mutant Humans on the mountain were their only trump card."
"Instead of mourning those who've died, what we need now is to solve the problem in front of us."
"You're the expert in this field. I need your experience, we all do."
Apparently feeling embarrassed by her emotional outburst, Hyrja accepted the tissue Chu Guang handed her and wiped away the tears on her cheeks. After blowing her nose firmly, her usual composed, capable expression quickly returned. "... How are things outside?"
Chu Guang answered patiently, "You don't need to worry about that. We've brought the situation under control."
"And those infected?" Hyrja asked.
After consulting Little Seven, Chu Guang replied, "Those who can be restrained are being restrained. As for those whose infections have progressed too far... They've had to be executed on the spot."
For example, the clones from the Army of Glory. They were simply too dangerous! Once they went berserk, they didn't merely stab people with bayonets, they opened fire indiscriminately.
In fact, before Chu Guang could even issue an order, the Army had already begun executing them.
The Wislanders had even wanted to execute the uninfected clones as well, just to eliminate every possible future risk.
Fortunately, Chu Guang had stopped them.
At present, what worried him most wasn't the hundreds of thousands of zombies surrounding the military base. Against modern weaponry, those things were little more than cannon fodder and probably no more dangerous than Crunchers.
On open terrain, they posed little real combat threat. The troublesome part was that they kept emerging endlessly, making them impossible to guard against completely.
However, knowing the Torch Church as well as he did, Chu Guang doubted this was their only trump card.
Most likely, just like last time, the creatures crawling from the earth were merely bait, meant to distract everyone's attention. Something else had already set its sights on them.
Their opponent's true counterattack had finally begun.
Upon hearing that survivors still remained alive, Hyrja buried her face in her clasped hands, took a deep breath, and suddenly spoke with renewed composure. "B strain..."
Chu Guang looked toward her with a frown on his face. "What?"
"The type B strain we collected in the Baiyue Province! In clinical trials, it suppressed the growth of the J strain. Since it can't reproduce effectively outside Baiyue Province, we extracted it into a concentrated solution."
"According to our experiments in Singularity City, specially processed extracts have shown significant therapeutic effects on Na Fruit-infected patients. It should allow patients whose symptoms haven't progressed too far to recover."
Chu Guang immediately asked, "Do we have enough extract?"
Hyrja nodded. "It's not difficult to produce, but ideally, treatment should be administered outside contaminated areas."
Chu Guang tapped the side of his ear. "Little Seven, order the 100th Mechanized Mountain Division to assign one battalion to transport all restrained patients to Singularity City for quarantine and treatment. And notify Frost to prepare quarantine facilities capable of housing at least 3,000 people."
"Understood!" Little Seven’s reply came swiftly.
After issuing the orders, Chu Guang looked out the increasingly darkening window and frowned. The Winged Mutant Humans circling nearby were probably waiting until nightfall before launching their attack.
Moments earlier, he had received word that the Enterprise's 7th Air Squadron already had their aircraft standing by on the runway.
Considering the enemy's numbers and the possibility of having their forces dispersed, he chose not to launch an immediate sortie.
Those, however, were merely tactical considerations. Even without his direct involvement, the coalition forces would carry out their battle plans methodically.
His real concern lay at the strategic level. The Kingdom of Heaven blanketing the Guardian Manor Plains had finally revealed its fangs. Its endlessly emerging puppets would become an enormous drain upon the coalition’s logistics.
That was unless they could completely eradicate every trace of Na Fruit around them, but sterilizing the entire region through physical means would require an astronomical amount of fuel. It would be no easier than leveling Ten Peaks Mountain itself, perhaps even harder.
After all, the spores wasn't dormant. It continuously drew energy from the soil.
The only thing capable of defeating magic, was magic!
To eliminate it completely, they would need to fight it using something similar. For example, the New Alliance's greatest strength, biotechnology.
Suddenly, inspiration struck Chu Guang. "What if we inoculated Little Feather's sub-entities with the B strain and then let them produce spores?"
Although sub-entities cultivated directly by Little Feather couldn't produce spores, those grown inside the massive nursery beneath the center of Clearspring City could.
They simply lacked the ability to communicate through those spores.
He remembered the Mutant Humans of the Bloodhoof Clan. Those creatures had apparently served as living incubators for spores created by the Hive they called the “Alpha.”
If they used a similar method, allowing Little Feather's sub-entities to become hosts for the type B strain, they might overcome the strain's inability to reproduce outside Baiyue Province. They might even accelerate its spore production.
And if they ever wanted to eliminate it later, that would be easy enough. They could simply have Little Feather herd all the infected sub-entities back to the Baiyue Province.
Although the idea was still immature, Hyrja froze for a moment after hearing it before slowly replying, "I don't know, but, it might actually be worth trying. Judging from the clinical data, spores produced by the type B strain also inhibit the type J strain."
As she spoke, it was as though a door had suddenly opened inside her mind and her eyes lit up.
Seeing that there was genuine potential, Chu Guang immediately decided. "Then begin the experiments immediately. You'll have all the samples you need."
"Whether it's the Type B strain or any other equipment, I'll arrange aircraft to fly everything here. If you need anything else, just ask."
"If the New Alliance can't provide it, I'll find a way to get it from the Academy or the Enterprise!"
After all, what they were facing wasn't merely the New Alliance's problem anymore. It was a problem shared by every member of the Mutant Slime Mold Research Committee!
He believed those old bastards wouldn't simply sit back and watch.