Chapter 286 - Giant Sandworms
When they followed Uncle Li and reached the site of the attack, they saw a mass of fierce rats that was so big that it looked like a black tidal wave. They crawled out of the gaps between the trash and bared their teeth at the humans.
The recyclers swung their steel shovels like baseball bats and sent the fierce rats who had jumped high into the air flying.
The rats did not care and continued jumping around.
Some people were scratched and bitten, and bloody wounds appeared on their bodies.
Fortunately, the rats were rather small, and by the looks of it, they were just normal rats. They could not compare to the Rapid Biting Rats Meng Chao had encountered during the practical test of his national college examination. They could not deal much damage to humans, who were like giants to them, either.
‘Strange. Normal rats are cowardly. Why would they dare to attack humans in broad daylight?’
Meng Chao’s eyes flashed. His Bloody Flame shot out when he yanked the chains about. With great accuracy, the saber wrapped itself 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.
To his current self, dissecting a normal rat was even simpler than disassembling a child’s toy.
With just a few movements, the creature’s abdominal cavity was cut open, and its organs, tendons, spine, and brain were spread out.
Meng Chao could see obvious tears on the rat’s tendons. It was an injury from when someone used too much force to achieve their goal.
There were also various degrees of edema in multiple parts of the rat’s brain.
Faint spots spread out on its spine, and they either reacted rather sluggishly or really excitedly when Meng Chao delivered spirit energy ripples at different frequencies into them.
“This rat’s nervous system has been damaged by a virus.” Meng Chao thought about it. “Based on the results of the dissection, it looks like it has the symptoms of mutated rabies. I have to bring it back to conduct a pathology test. Wait. Did the recyclers show any symptoms of sickness after they were bitten?”
Most of the mutated rabies could infect humans. The incubation period was short, and there was practically no cure for it. The fatality rate of the virus once it activated was also very high.
Uncle Li shook his head. “No. These things are just annoying. Once we treat our wounds, we’re fine. Oh, there were two recyclers who got a fever, but after a day, they were okay.”
“They were?” Meng Chao frowned a little. “Have you been injected with vaccines?”
“We were. After all, this concerns our lives,” Uncle Li said. “But anyway, we’re supposed to take injections after we’re bitten by rats or mad dogs. This is general knowledge.”
Lu Siya knew what Meng Chao was thinking about, and she said faintly, “It’s useless even if you’re injected with a vaccine.
“The mutated rabies vaccine we have in Dragon City targets the ten most commonly seen subtypes. But based on the information we have, the three biochemical pets in Blessed Paradise who were infected had contracted a brand new subtype.”
“If you think that the rats and the biochemical pets were infected with the same type of virus, it doesn’t make any sense. There are plenty of recyclers here who have been bitten, and the incubation period would never go past one week. If you were right, someone would have shown symptoms of rabies by now,” Uncle Li said.
“Perhaps the virus is growing weaker? The virus’ invasion of the rat’s organs and brains isn’t as strong as in the three biochemical pets. Maybe it’s getting weaker while mutating, and it lost its ability to infect humans.”
“Compared to that, I’m more interested in how these rats were infected by the virus. Did Jin Yongqiang run here half a month ago, catch a few normal rats, and inject the virus into them?” Lu Siya mumbled and looked at Meng Chao.
Both of them spoke at the same time. “It’s the Giant Sandworms!”
Then, Lu Siya frowned and shook her head. “Could Giant Sandworms have been infected by mutated rabies as well?”
“We’ve never discovered any cases of Giant Sandworms being infected by rabies before. But this is the Other World, so we can’t say that it’s impossible,” Meng Chao said. “There were four main subtypes of rabies on Earth, and they only spread among cats, dogs, wolves, badgers, and bats. We’ve never discovered cases of rabies being transferred to humans after being bitten by glires-type animals.
“But after we transmigrated to the Other World, the virus mutated, and even rats can spread rabies now.
“Giant Sandworms are invertebrates living on land. They are oligochaetes, a sub-branch under annelids. It’s impossible for them to be infected by rabies and spread it.
“But the Giant Sandworms here are products modified by Spirit Creations Creatures. To ensure that they can eat more types of trash and digest a lot of non-degradable materials, to make them smarter and more obedient to human commands, the experts at Spirit Creations Creatures implanted a lot of other monsters’ genetic sequences into their genetic chains.
“You can say that these Giant Sandworms are… the amalgamations of super earthworms and mammals, so they’re hundreds of times larger, have strengthened skeletons, muscles, and organs.
“It’s hard to tell whether these messed up creatures can be infected by the brand new mutated rabies, which has gone through all kinds of mutations, or not.”
Lu Siya thought about it for a moment before she asked Uncle Li, “Do you know where the Giant Sandworms ran off to after you lost control of them half a month ago?”
Uncle Li was stunned for a moment, then shook his head. “I don’t know.”
Lu Siya smiled. “Looks like I was too generous just now. I gave you the impression that I’m stupid and have a lot of money. Do you think that I’m easily fooled?”
Uncle Li took half a step back and ended up stepping on a rat, which had run over madly.
He cursed under his breath, brought his leg up, and kicked the rat more than ten meters away. Then, he looked up and said sincerely, “I really don’t know. I’m only in charge of the harvesters here. Those Giant Sandworms are related to Spirit Creations Creatures. They have nothing to do with me.”
“Listen.” Lu Siya was unmoved and continued. “You should have heard the news. The biochemical pets modified by Spirit Creations Creatures have gone out of control. Very soon, investigators will come here and search through the entire waste treatment center. All secrets will no longer be secrets, and even if you hide it, it’s useless.
“I’m going to ask you one last time. Do you know or do you not know about where they went?”
Lu Siya’s gaze was like an icy knife that shot through the sunglasses and touched Uncle Li’s tattoos.
Uncle Li shuddered and stammered, “I-I really didn’t see them. No one saw where the Giant Sandworms who lost control crawled off. But they should have fled down the drainage pipes.”
“Where are the drainage pipes?” Lu Siya remained calm.
“In the northwest corner of the biochemical treatment factory. It was originally an industrial waste treatment center, so there are a lot of complicated drainage pipes there. Later, the area was invaded by monsters, and the entire treatment center was destroyed. Many of the drainage pipes collapsed or were blocked. The capital required to repair those pipes is very high, so it was better to just build a new treatment center, which left that one completely abandoned.
“Later, the waste treatment center grew larger, and when we went through the second phase of expansion, we built a biochemical treatment factory over there.
“After the Giant Sandworms fled, the technicians from Spirit Creations Creatures suspected that they fled down the cracks of the damaged drainage pipes and crawled deep underground.
“Those drainage pipes were used for industrial waste, so there might be poison or really corrosive residual fluid in them, so the people from Spirit Creations Creatures did not dare go deep into the pipes to investigate, and they didn’t want outside professionals to cause a ruckus. Anyway, Giant Sandworms are gentle, so this matter was left unsettled.”
“Alright.” Lu Siya nodded. “Bring us to the northwest corner of the biochemical treatment factory. Then, we’ll have no other business with you.”
If they ignored the stench that came wafting into their noses and the shocking bodies of the Giant Sandworms, the biochemical treatment factory was actually a really fertile land for crops.
More than one hundred Giant Sandworms crawled about in the endless trash site and ate the residue of human civilization. They excreted a shocking amount of nutritional substances, which were sent to fertilizer factories. They added all sorts of micronutrients to them and turned them into new feed or fertilizer.
Because of it, Dragon City was able to satisfy the needs of tens of millions of people in such a small space.
Through Spirit Creations Creatures’ hard work, this generation of Giant Sandworms no longer required monster controllers to control their brainwaves.
Instead, with the help of the Internet, they could be controlled remotely by giving commands to the chips implanted to every bundle of nerves in their bodies.
The control center of the Giant Sandworms was located at the northeast corner of the biochemical treatment factory.
There were no workers there, only three entrances to the abandoned drainage pipes. Each one of them was more than two meters wide. They stood above the sea of trash with their black mouths wide open.
With Lu Siya’s approval, Uncle Li ran off like the wind.
Lu Siya knelt down on one knee and examined the marks at the entrance of the drainage pipes with a focused look on her face.
“Big Sis Ya, you researched Giant Sandworms before?” Meng Chao asked curiously.
“Of course,” Lu Siya said faintly. “While I was in university, I majored in crystal mine exploration and mining. While exploring underground, we often bring specially modified Giant Sandworms to eat rocks and dig tunnels.
“Also, the smell and shape of the excrements left by wild Giant Sandworms are slightly different after they eat different crystals. By analyzing them, we can learn the composition and purity of the crystal mines nearby. This is a basic skill of mine explorers.
“Right, there are indeed marks of Giant Sandworms crawling through here before. I can also smell the scent of Giant Sandworm excrements coming from the underground.”
Lu Siya sucked in a deep breath and stood up, but she swayed a little and nearly fell on the ground.
Meng Chao quickly went to support her.
She seemed to have no strength in her limbs. Her face was pale, and her lips trembled a little. She looked so nauseous that she was about to puke, but she could not vomit.
“Big Sis Ya, what’s wrong?”
“It’s nothing. It just stinks too much.”
It was only at that moment that Meng Chao remembered that Lu Siya was a Spirit Sensor.
Her strength had increased because of the spirit energy from the Red Radiance Jades and Blue Origin Crystals. Her senses were much sharper compared to those of normal superhumans, and it was to the point that she needed to use various instruments to block off those senses. If she did not, her thoughts would be affected.
One of her heightened senses was her sense of smell.
Even Meng Chao was unable to stand the stench of the trash site, so he did not know how Lu Siya had managed to last until then.
She had pretended to be cold and aloof in front of Uncle Li, but once he left, she completely broke down.