N-A-A Chapter 51 Hope
Chapter 51 Hope
Chapter 51 Hope (Seeking First Subscription)
The laboratory became quiet.
Father Alpha held up a vial of reagent.
It contained a pale golden liquid that shimmered with a captivating glow under the light.
"Success, advisor!" the priest exclaimed excitedly. "Perfect 'antibody enzyme'!"
"It cannot eradicate the plague of filth, but it can act as a firewall, deceiving the virus's recognition mechanism."
"Once injected, our soldiers will be able to endure longer and suffer fewer casualties in the fog of plague."
Lo Wei nodded.
The deal is complete.
He traded a life destined for destruction for a small chance to survive.
This is an excellent asset swap.
He turned around and looked at Mary, who was slumped on the ground.
Buck was trying to help her up.
However, the woman seemed to have her bones removed; she curled up into a ball, her eyes vacant.
"It's over." Rowe walked over, his tone calm. "Mrs. Mary, my condolences. Your husband—made an outstanding contribution to the granary."
After a long while, Mary slowly raised her hand and wiped away the tears on her face.
Her movements were somewhat slow and mechanical.
Then, she covered her stomach with both hands.
It's like protecting the last spark of life in the world.
"I will live on—"
She murmured to herself.
"I will give birth to this child. No matter how difficult the world is, no matter how much hardship I have to endure—I will raise him to adulthood."
"My husband, he's not a monster, he's a good man—a really good man—"
Hope rekindled in her eyes.
What sustained her through that hellish experience after losing her husband.
As a manager, Luo Wei knew very well that the safest course of action at this moment was to go along with what she was saying.
Arrange a job for her.
Let her spend the rest of her life in lies.
However, this score is not yet settled.
There is also a fatal "hidden debt".
If it is not cleared now, it will destroy the entire granary in the future.
Lowe pulled another report out of his pocket.
Father Alpha did it casually before.
Bio-scan atlas of the fetus in Mary's womb.
"I'm sorry, Ms. Mary."
Lowe spoke, breaking Mary's self-hypnosis.
"For the safety of everyone in the entire Seventh Grain Depot, I must tell you one more thing."
Mary looked up blankly, seemingly not understanding what Rowe was saying.
"Your husband truly loves you. The test just now proves that he restrained the urge to give you a sacred kiss and didn't turn you into his kind."
"However, love can be restrained, but the biological instinct to reproduce cannot be completely erased."
Luo Wei began his report.
Pointing to the shadow of the deformed embryo above, which was growing at an alarming rate.
"Do you know why your belly swelled up like a balloon in just two days?"
Mary's face turned deathly pale instantly.
She instinctively shrank back, trying to cover her ears.
She had already sensed something was wrong, but dared not delve into the truth behind it.
"It's because I've been eating a lot lately—it's because—"
"It's because it's eating," Rowe told her the truth.
"According to the genetic laws of Teren Bio, the first child born to the fourth-generation hybrid, oh, that is, your husband, and a pure-blooded human woman, is neither human nor hybrid."
Luo Wei paused for a moment before continuing, "But rather—the fifth generation of purebloods!"
"That is, the most primitive, most ferocious, and purest Tyran gene thieves."
"It's not your child, Mary. It's a monster that's been living in your womb."
"It is frantically plundering your calcium, bone marrow, and vitality, preparing to burst out of your body."
"No!!! You're lying! You're all lying to me!!!"
Mary screamed shrilly.
She shook her head frantically, clutching her stomach with both hands.
It was as if they were protecting the last glimmer of light in the world.
"My husband was looking at me—he kept staring at my stomach until the very last second before he died—"
Mary cried out, her voice shrill and broken.
Trying to use the logic of emotions to fight against the cold reality.
"This is love! He is looking after our children! He is praying for our future!"
"You're wrong. This is terror, and belated regret."
Luo Wei said directly.
There was no room for Mary to have any illusions.
"Your husband didn't know you were pregnant."
"He thought that as long as he restrained himself from giving you the sacred kiss," as long as he didn't inject Tyrone's genes into your bloodstream like a virus, you would be safe, and you could live as a human being."
Luo Wei paused for a moment to allow her time to prepare mentally.
"He naively thought that he could have a normal married life with you like a normal human man, without paying a price."
"However, he underestimated the curse etched into his genes."
"The reproductive cells of fourth-generation hybrids are themselves the most efficient invasion weapons. No kiss is needed," merely combining is enough to give birth to fifth-generation purebloods.
"He stared at your stomach before he died, not out of love. It was because, in that instant, he finally understood—"
Lo Wei bent down.
Staring into Mary's eyes, which were on the verge of collapse, he said in a deep voice, "He understands now. It was his self-righteous love, his craving for human tenderness, that planted a bomb within you that was about to hatch."
"What he fears is that he tried his best to protect you, but in the end, he turned you into a breeding ground for monsters and their first meal."
These words shattered Mary's last mental defenses.
She lowered her head blankly, staring at her swollen belly.
That place is no longer a symbol of hope.
It's a biological bomb that's on its countdown.
It was an alien that was devouring her flesh.
"ah!!!"
Desperate wails echoed through the empty laboratory.
Mary's world collapsed.
The love was real, but the outcome was devastating.
Lo Wei didn't look at her again.
The bad debts have been identified; the next step is to implement stop-loss measures.
He turned around and walked towards the laboratory exit.
As he walked, he gave the final instructions to the medical servant standing beside him.
"Take her to the medical area and perform an induced labor immediately. Remove the purebred embryo, but don't kill it."
"This material is a living biological weapon material, even more precious than antibody enzymes. It has been handed over to Father Alpha for safekeeping and research."
As he reached the door, Luo Wei stopped, turned his head slightly, and added, "As for this woman—after the surgery, erase her memory."
"If she wakes up and isn't insane, arrange a closed-off job as an archivist for her."
Tell her the baby was stillborn. This is for her own good.
The heavy lead door slowly closed.
He shut out the woman's desperate sobs from behind.
In the corridor, the dim emergency lights flickered on and off.
Lo Wei took out a brass pocket watch from his pocket and glanced at the time.
Four o'clock in the morning.
In two hours, the morning shift bell will ring.
Tens of thousands of workers will wake up like worker ants.
They toiled tirelessly for a mouthful of murky green soup.
At this moment, Luo Wei had to admit it.
I've been busy for three weeks since I transmigrated here.
During this period, they experienced many life-or-death crises.
But dealing with Mary's matter tonight was the time he hesitated the most.
After waiting for about an hour, Mary finished the surgery, and Lowe returned to the lab.
He went to the workbench covered with metal pipes and picked up the tube of pale gold reagent.
Under the cold white operating lights, this liquid, known as "antibody enzyme," refracts an almost sacred luster.
This was earned with a life.
"What about production?" Lowe asked.
"I'm sorry, consultant."
Father Alpha is busy at the control panel.
Several mechanical tentacles deftly disassembled the extraction equipment that had just been used.
"This is a biological 'one-time miracle'."
"The outbreak of Sample 004 was based on specific emotional stimuli and genetic collapse. These extreme physiological conditions cannot be replicated in the Abundance II through industrial means."
A red light of regret flashed in the priest's electronic eyes.
"The current extraction volume, after the highest precision centrifugation and dilution, can only produce a maximum of 10 standard injection solutions."
"If there's any more, the effective ingredient level will drop below the critical value, turning it into a meaningless placebo."
10.
Luo Wei silently recited the number in his mind.
For the current population of over 100,000 at the Seventh Grain Depot, this amount is not even a drop in the ocean.
However, for him...
This is a valuable "strategic reserve asset".
It's not enough to save all living beings, but it can be used to protect core assets.
"Seal it up and put it on the list of top-secret supplies."
Luo Wei took out his notebook from his pocket, turned to a new page, and unscrewed his pen.
He quickly wrote down the allocation plan on the paper:
[Bark: Defense Commander, core of force, must survive. Allocate 1 unit.]
Old John: Logistics Manager, a key figure in maintaining the operations of hundreds of thousands of workers. Assign 1 unit.
[Heavy Weapons Squad: Three machine gunners who performed exceptionally well in the last battle, the mainstay of the defensive line's firepower. One machine gun for each.]
[The remaining 5 units: sealed away as redundancy for handling unforeseen circumstances.]
After writing this, Luo Wei paused for a moment.
He did not write his name down.
As a manager, his position was mostly in the command center at the rear, rather than in the front-line trenches filled with the fog of the virus.
Injecting oneself with such a scarce resource is a serious misjudgment of the input-output ratio.
"By the way, I need a precise figure regarding the limits of the drug's efficacy." Lowe closed his notebook, looked at the priest who was packaging the reagent, and asked seriously, "How long can this 'biological shield' last?"
Father Alpha's electronic eye.
After flowing through a complex waterfall of data, it finally came to a stop.
"Based on the cell decay rate of sample 004, it is estimated to be approximately 72 Terra standard times. Beyond this time limit, the antibody enzyme will be metabolized and broken down by the receptor's immune system."
"Three days."
On the cover, Lowe noted down this crucial time window.
"What about the side effects? I don't want my soldiers to suddenly die on the battlefield."
"You won't die suddenly, but you'll experience severe withdrawal symptoms." The priest pointed to the restless pale gold in the reagent. "To maintain the high activity of the antibodies, the metabolic rate of the receptors will be forcibly increased threefold."
"This means that the injector will experience an intense hunger that can consume their reason, as well as an uncontrollable primal urge to attack."
Luo Wei paused for a moment with his pen.
Then, following the "Side Effects" section, two lines were written heavily:
[This should be served with high-calorie foods.]
[Do not approach civilian areas within 24 hours of injection.]
After dealing with this "asset".
Luo Wei turned and walked towards the isolation zone deep inside the laboratory.
A thickened reinforced glass wall.
Behind it was a giant petri dish filled with a pale green nutrient solution.
In the middle of the petri dish, a creature the size of a fist is suspended.
It was curled up, like a human fetus that was not yet full-term.
However, its skin is not pink and tender, but rather a sickly pale purple.
Its back is covered with a thin layer of chitinous carapace.
Sharp, bony claws grew from the tips of the fingers, which were not yet fully developed.
This is what was taken out of Mary's stomach.
Gene stealers.
The fifth generation of purebloods.