When the two of them followed the tattooed man to the spot of the accident, they saw a black wave of rats crawling out of the gaps in the trash mountain like a tidal wave. They bared their teeth and pounced on the humans.
The recyclers swung their shovels and fought against the rats. It was as if they were playing baseball. They hit the rats that jumped high into the air and sent them flying.
But the rats did not care and just jumped around.
There were also people who were scratched or bitten by the rats, and bloody wounds appeared.
Fortunately, the rats were rather small and looked like normal rats. They could not compare to the Rapid Biting Rats Meng Chao had encountered during the practical test of the national college examination. They could not deal much damage to the "giants" that were humans.
'Strange. Normal rats are the most cowardly. Why would they dare to attack humans in broad daylight?'
A brilliant light shone in Meng Chao's eyes. His Bloody Flame shot forward with the chain behind it. It accurately wrapped around a rat's neck and dragged it over.
He brought out harvesting tools from his waist bag, put on gloves and a mask, and started harvesting on the spot.
To the current him, dissecting a normal rat was even easier than dissecting a child's toy.
With just a few moves, the creature's abdominal cavity was opened. Its organs, tendons, spine, and brain were all laid out clearly.
It was clear that the rat's tendons were also lacerated because it had used too much strength.
There were also different degrees of edema in the various regions of its brain.
There were faint spots on its spinal cord. When Meng Chao sent spirit energy ripples of different frequencies into them, they were either very slow or very excited.
'This rat's nervous system was destroyed by the virus.'
Meng Chao was deep in thought. 'Based on the results of the dissection, it looks like it has the symptoms of mutated rabies. I have to bring it back for a virus test. Wait, did the recyclers here not get sick after they were bitten?'
Most of the mutated rabies could be infected by humans. The incubation period was not long, and there was practically no specific medicine for it. Once it acted up, the fatality rate was very high. “
The tattooed man shook his head and said, "No, this thing is just annoying. Their wounds were cleaned, so they were fine. Oh, two of the recyclers had a fever, but they were fine the next day."
"Is that so?"
Meng Chao frowned a little. "Have you been vaccinated?"
"He has been injected. After all, it's a matter of life and death."
The tattooed man said, "It's common sense to get an injection immediately after being bitten by a rat or a rabid dog."
"Vaccination won't help either."
Lu Siya knew what Meng Chao was thinking about, so she said softly, "The current mutated rabies vaccine in Dragon City only targets the ten common subtypes, but based on the information we have, the three biochemical pets in Blessed Paradise are infected with new subtypes of the virus.
"If you suspect that these rats and the biochemical pets are infected with the same virus, then since so many recyclers were bitten, it is impossible for the incubation period to be more than a week. Logically speaking, someone should have been infected a long time ago."
"Perhaps the virus is weakening?"
"The virus' invasion of the rat's organs and brain isn't as great as that of the three biochemical pets. Perhaps it's continuously getting weaker during the mutation process, and it lost its ability to infect humans."
"Compared to that, I'm more interested in how these rats were infected with the virus. Did Jin Yongqiang come here half a month ago, catch a few normal rats, and inject the virus into their bodies?"
Lu Siya mumbled to herself. She exchanged a glance with Meng Chao, and both of them said at the same time, "It's Giant Sandworms!"
Then, Lu Siya frowned and shook her head. "Can Giant Sandworms be infected with mutated rabies?"
"We've never discovered any cases of Giant Sandworms being infected with mutated rabies, but no one can say for sure about the things in the Other World," Meng Chao said.
"There are four main subtypes of rabies on Earth, and they are only spread among cats, dogs, wolves, badgers, and bats. There have never been cases of rabies being spread by rodents after they bite humans.
"But after we transmigrated to the Other World, the virus mutated, and even rats can spread rabies.
"Logically speaking, Giant Sandworms are terrestrial invertebrates belonging to the oligochaete class of annelids, so it's impossible for them to be infected and spread rabies.
"But the Giant Sandworms here are biochemically modified products of Spirit Creations Creatures. To make them eat more types of trash and digest a large amount of non-biodegradable substances so that they can become smarter and more obedient to humans' orders, the experts of Spirit Creations Creatures inserted a lot of other monsters' gene fragments into their genetic chains.
"You can think of these Giant Sandworms as … the amalgamations of super earthworms and mammalian monsters that have been magnified hundreds of times and have strengthened bones, muscles, and organs.
"I don't know whether these messy things will be infected with a brand new mutated rabies that has gone through all sorts of mutations."
Lu Siya thought about it for a while before she asked the tattooed man, "Do you know where the Giant Sandworms fled to after they went out of control half a month ago?"
The tattooed man was stunned. He shook his head and said, "I don't know."
Lu Siya smiled. "Looks like I was too generous just now and gave you the misconception that I'm a fool with a lot of money. Do you think that I'm easy to deceive?"
The tattooed man took half a step back and stepped on a rat that ran over madly.
He cursed under his breath and kicked the rat more than ten meters away. Then, he looked up and said sincerely, "I really don't know. I'm in charge of managing these recyclers. Giant Sandworms are Spirit Creations Creatures' business. It has nothing to do with us."
"Listen."
Lu Siya was unmoved. "You should have seen the news as well. The biochemical beasts modified by Spirit Creations Creatures have gone out of control. Soon, investigators will come here and turn the entire trash site upside down. All secrets are no longer secrets, so it's meaningless for you to hide them.
"I'll ask you one last time. Do you know, or don't you?"
Lu Siya's gaze was like a blade that scraped against the tattooed man's tattoo through the mirrored sunglasses.
The tattooed man shuddered and stuttered, "I-I really didn't see it. No one saw where the out-of-control Giant Sandworms went. But they should have run through the drainage pipes."
"Where's the drainage pipes?" Lu Siya remained calm.
"In the northwest corner of the biochemical treatment plant," the tattooed man said.
"That place was originally an industrial waste treatment plant, and there were complicated drainage pipes underground. Later, it was attacked by monsters, and the entire treatment plant was destroyed. Many of the drainage pipes collapsed or were blocked. The cost of repairing them was very high, so it was better for them to rebuild a new treatment plant. That's why it was completely abandoned.
"Later, the size of the trash site continued expanding. When we started the second phase of the project, we built a biochemical treatment plant there.
"After the Giant Sandworms escaped, the technicians from Spirit Creations Creatures suspected that they crawled underground through the cracks in the drainage pipes.
"But the drainage pipes were originally used to treat industrial waste. There might be poisonous or corrosive liquid in the depths of the pipes. The people from Spirit Creations Creatures didn't dare to go in to investigate, but they also didn't want to invite professionals from the outside to cause a ruckus. In any case, the Giant Sandworms are very tame, so they left the matter unsettled."
"Alright."
Lu Siya nodded. "Bring us to the northwest corner of the biochemical treatment plant. Then, you won't have to do anything else."
…
If they ignored the stench that came charging at them and the astonishing size of the Giant Sandworms, the biochemical treatment plant was like a fertile farm.
More than one hundred Giant Sandworms crawled around the endless trash farm and ate the remnants of human civilization. They excreted an astonishing amount of nutrients, which were then sent to the fertilizer factory. Once they added all sorts of trace elements, they would turn into new food or fertilizer.
It was because of this recycling that Dragon City was able to satisfy the survival needs of tens of millions of people in such a small space.
After Spirit Creations Creatures worked tirelessly, the current generation of Giant Sandworms no longer needed monster controllers to control them with their brainwaves.
Instead, through the internet, they could control the chips embedded in each of their ganglia from afar.
The control room for the Giant Sandworms was located in the southeast corner of the biochemical treatment plant.
There were no workers in the northwest corner. There were only three entrances to the abandoned drainage pipes that had a diameter of more than two meters. They stood at the edge of the sea of trash.
Once he obtained Lu Siya's permission, the tattooed man ran away.
Lu Siya knelt down on one knee and focused on studying the traces at the entrances to the drainage pipes.
"Big Sis Ya, have you researched Giant Sandworms as well?" Meng Chao asked curiously.
"Of course," Lu Siya said faintly.
"When I was in university, I learned how to explore and mine crystal mines. When we explore underground, we often bring Giant Sandworms that have been genetically modified to eat rocks and dig tunnels.
"Also, once many wild Giant Sandworms eat different crystals, the smell and shape of their excrement will be slightly different. By analyzing their excrement, we can learn the composition and purity of the crystal mines nearby. This is the basic skill of mine explorers.
"That's right. There are indeed traces of Giant Sandworms crawling here. I can also smell their excrement deep underground."
Lu Siya sucked in a deep breath and stood up, but she swayed a little and nearly fell to the ground.
Meng Chao quickly supported her.
Her limbs were weak, her face was pale, and her lips quivered. She looked so disgusted that she wanted to vomit but could not.
"Big Sis Ya, what's wrong?"
"It's nothing. It's just too smelly."
It was only then that Meng Chao remembered that Lu Siya was a Spirit Sensor.
She had also gone through the dual impact of the Red Radiance Jades and Blue Origin Crystals, so her senses were much sharper than those of a normal superhuman. She had to use equipment to block her senses, or else her thoughts would be affected.
That included her sense of smell.
Even Meng Chao could not stand the horrible stench of the trash site, so he wondered how Lu Siya had managed to endure it.
In front of the tattooed man, she could still pretend to be as cold as ice.
But once the tattooed man left, she broke down.
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