Immediately following was a frantic electronic voice communication, ringing out directly in the communication circuit of the abandoned area:

"Sector S-9! Immediately halt all processing operations! Repeat, immediately! Contamination alarm! Await the cleanup team! Damn it... how did the contamination spread to the abandoned area?!"

The sound disappeared. The heavy machine noise subsided. Only the lingering echo of the warning from the broadcast, "Unknown pollution signal...weak...suspected spread...", still faintly reverberated in the air.

It's paused...

Because the pollution spread to the abandoned area?

Jiang Chan immediately focused her attention on "sniffing".

Previously, this place was filled with the smells of disinfectant, chemicals, and decaying life... But now, beneath this mixture of smells, a new, extremely faint odor has quietly emerged, like a lurking venomous snake.

A faint... almost imperceptible...

A sweet, cloying aroma.

It's like those cheap fruit candies that have been left out for a while and have a slightly rotten sweetness.

But mixed in with it was a... more like the faint, nauseating smell of meat that slowly spoils in a hot and humid environment.

It was cloyingly sweet with a hint of decay.

The scent was so faint that it was almost completely masked by other, stronger aromas unless one specifically looked for it. But it was definitely there. And it seemed to be... lingering right around the area where she had piled it up?

The cloying, rotten, unfamiliar odor grew stronger in the cold air of the abandoned area. Like spoiled fruit fermenting in a stuffy corner, mixed with a hint of rust and the sourness of stale disinfectant, it stubbornly seeped into Jiang Chan's remaining senses, refusing to leave.

It's done.

It's not just Gardener S.

The plague has truly begun to spread.

No system notification was needed; the odor was the most direct announcement. It came from the discarded containers piled up near her, the remains of those, like her, drained of their value and awaiting disposal. They were infected. The "sweet poison" created by the system was indeed like the stickiest syrup—once it stuck, it couldn't be shaken off.

Just then, the system's cold notification sounded in her darkened consciousness, carrying an almost cruel calm:

External information flow capture and analysis completed. Key intelligence summary:

[The End of Gardener S]: "Mr. S, a top global financial oligarch, passed away in his private nursing home early yesterday morning. The official obituary stated that he died from rare postoperative complications. However, according to reliable internal sources, Mr. S's death was extremely gruesome—the area in his chest cavity where he received a heart transplant and the surrounding region experienced large-scale tissue necrosis and liquefaction within just a few hours, exhibiting a bizarre purplish-black putrefaction characteristic, accompanied by a strong, sweet, and foul odor. His medical team was helpless, the cause of death is highly suspicious, and it has already caused a small-scale panic..."

[The Collapse of the Surgical Team]: "The three core medical team members involved in Mr. S's transplant surgery (Dr. Kamran Aziz, Dr. Lee Min-jung, and Technician Rajiv Patel) successively developed the same terrible symptoms within 48 hours of Mr. S's death. Skin itching, spreading purplish-black reticular patterns, and local tissue liquefaction and disintegration. The three have been placed under the highest level of isolation, their condition continues to deteriorate, and their chances of survival are slim..."

[Disaster at the Harvest Organ Bank]: "Highest level internal alert detected: 'An outbreak of an unknown, highly infectious pathogen has been detected in areas A, C, and F of the core organ bank! The source points to samples reinfused during 'Gardener S' surgery and the areas he came into contact with! The contamination index is rising exponentially! Routine disinfection is completely ineffective! The emergency isolation protocol has been activated but... it appears to have failed! Repeat! Appears to have failed! Requesting authorization from headquarters for a full meltdown procedure! Requesting authorization!'..."

[A Chain Reaction to the Plague of the Elite]: "Fragmented intelligence indicates that in the past 72 hours, at least four top clients who received organ transplants from 'Harvest Club' (codenames: 'Gardener K' (liver transplant), 'Gardener M' (kidney transplant), 'Gardener P' (heart transplant), and 'Gardener V' (lung transplant)) in different locations around the world suddenly developed the same symptoms on the seventh to ninth day after their surgeries—intense itching, spreading purplish-black lines on the skin, and tissue liquefaction and decay! Among them, 'Gardener K' and 'Gardener P' have been confirmed dead, while 'Gardener M' and 'Gardener V' are in critical condition! Panic is spreading rapidly through secret channels! Multiple 'Gardeners' have urgently canceled their scheduled surgeries and issued stern inquiries!"

Each message, like a cold, venomous snake, burrowed into Jiang Chan's dark consciousness. Each one carried the sweet, pungent stench of rotting flesh and the deafening roar of a collapsing power.

She could "imagine" those scenes:

In the luxurious hospital wards, those once arrogant and powerful figures who controlled the lives of countless people watched in horror as the transplanted parts of their bodies, which had been infused with "youth" or "health," turned black, collapsed, and oozed foul-smelling pus, as if they had been doused with strong acid! Their expensive silk pajamas were soaked through with the rotting tissue!

They screamed and cursed, turning into puddles of human-shaped mud in extreme pain and incomprehensible fear!

Those top doctors, who received exorbitant salaries and believed they held the key to life, were now staring in horror at the purplish-black lines spreading across their hands and bodies, feeling an uncontrollable sense of disintegration beneath their skin! Their cries of despair echoed in the sterile isolation room!

The core organ bank, which the "Harvest Society" was so proud of and which was as clean and sterile as a temple, is now probably a real hell.

In rows of containers and refrigerators preserving "fresh parts," organs that were once vibrant and beating are now quietly taking on an eerie hue, their internal structures undergoing a horrific collapse at the microscopic level. Deadly toxins, like invisible mold, are proliferating and spreading wildly on the cold culture medium and the surfaces of delicate instruments.

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