"..."
Time flies.
Four months have passed in the blink of an eye.
The blood mist grew increasingly dense, turning from bright red to dark red, and visibility became extremely low.
Right now.
At the top of Tianlei Mountain, inside the villa courtyard.
A burly, handsome man with bulging muscles sat cross-legged on the ground, with a large number of intermediate-level crystal cores in front of him.
Sizzle! Sizzle!
The arcs of electricity flickered and died down.
It surrounded him, looking incredibly cool.
As the crystal core in front of him was completely absorbed and turned into powder, he gradually opened his eyes.
"well……"
Zhang Hao sighed: "It's still a little short, just a little short of reaching level nine. Unfortunately, apart from sea creatures and mutated creatures, there are far too few level seven crystal cores nowadays. The higher-ups also need more high-level crystal cores."
Several battles had taken place before the Dawn Society.
The harvested crystal cores exceeded tens of millions, but they were all low-level and mid-level crystal cores, with very few high-level crystal cores of level seven or above.
But thankfully...
After the vampire octopus joined.
All those octopus eggs were used for artificial breeding. An octopus can lay 50,000 eggs, and even after accounting for natural mortality, on average, each octopus egg has a survival rate of nearly one in ten.
Don't underestimate this one-tenth.
Before Christine joined the Dawn Society, their population's gestation survival rate was only 0.04 per thousand. If 50,000 octopus eggs were released, only a few would survive.
And not long ago...
Of the tens of thousands of vampire octopuses, a thousand have already laid eggs. After four months of artificial breeding, a total of five million octopuses have survived and developed into adults.
Five million!
What a terrifying birth rate!
Even if a vampire octopus only gives birth once in its lifetime, it would be enough to allow the remaining vampire octopuses to rapidly expand to as many as 50 million within a few years. If the survival rate were to increase by another 10%, the number would reach hundreds of millions.
The vampire octopus grows from birth to adulthood.
It only takes about three to four months, a very, very short cycle. With these five million vampire octopuses, they can not only patrol the shallow waters of the entire southeast coastline, but also gather intelligence on the mid-water areas.
Although there are not many advanced marine creatures in the middle layer of the sea.
But as Klaus mentioned before, high-level sea creatures do not like the dark environment of the deep sea, so a considerable number of high-level sea creatures prefer to live in the middle layer of the sea.
then……
A few days ago, after the vampire octopus went on patrol.
With the help of powerful hunting teams such as manta rays and sea turtles, they harvested thousands of level 7 crystal cores, enabling the Dawn Society's higher-ups to advance from level 7 to level 8, such as Ye Tianfan and Yang Erlang.
But for Zhang Hao...
A level 7 crystal core is far inferior to a level 8 one, and it's still a bit lacking if you want to upgrade.
After these four months, the mysterious doctor has made some preliminary research on antidotes. Although they cannot affect the weakening effect of the blood mist on human constitution, at least they will not make people sick from inhaling the blood mist.
Master Mo Yu...
They finally forged the super-sequence metal bracelet.
The functions of real-time communication and digital currency have been initially completed. However, it is quite difficult to integrate with ordinary metals, so the current stock is not large and can only be supplied to the high-ranking members of the Dawn Society, such as the deputy leader.
The bracelet is mostly black and silver in appearance.
It features the Dawn Society's exclusive sunrise over the sea pattern, with the sunrise glow in red. The surface has a transparent screen that can be used to complete various digital currency transactions.
Seeing Zhang Hao's slight dejection, Honglian comforted him, "It's okay, Brother Hao. If you don't succeed this time, you'll definitely reach level nine next time. And I have a feeling... that a lucky charm will come to give you crystal cores."
"What a coincidence! Level 8 isn't exactly a rare commodity these days."
After Zhang Hao finished speaking...
Suddenly.
A handsome young man walked in through the door.
With a buzz cut and black hair, he was none other than Fang Ping, the devoted fan, though he seemed a little anxious.
"What's wrong, Xiao Fang?" Zhang Hao asked.
Fang Ping said in a low voice, "President, the vampire octopus squad that was patrolling the sea just sent a message saying that the number of sea creatures in the middle layer of the South China Sea is increasing rapidly. The exact number is unclear, but even the current scale... is more than the 50 million last time."
"Hmm? The sea creatures are about to make a big move?"
Zhang Hao raised an eyebrow and asked patiently, "Anything else? The sea creatures alone shouldn't be enough to make you anxious, right?"
"Yes, some strange insects flew over to the outpost not long ago. They seemed to feed mainly on blood. The legion members were very vigilant and didn't let them get close, so they used their long-range abilities to drive them away."
Fang Ping slowly said, "But they went to the neighboring city of Yangcheng. There weren't many of these insects, it seems they were just testing the waters... Although they didn't cause any casualties, it seems there was an epidemic there."
"Disease? What are its specific symptoms?"
"Some suffer from heart failure and paralysis, while others die from a ruptured heart."
Hearing this, Zhang Hao became serious: "What do those insects look like? How big are they? Do they have any special physical characteristics?"
"They are not very big, about 30 centimeters long. What is more obvious is that they all have a mouthpart that looks like a cone."
"An awl? Could it be a kissing bug?"
Zhang Hao's expression turned serious; he couldn't understand it.
Insects from the other side of the Americas have actually flown over here?
That's not right.
These insects migrated three years later in their previous life.
Why did it arrive a year early?
Fang Ping asked, "Triatomine bug? President, are these bugs very dangerous?"
"Their strength is average, but they can transmit a disease that causes heart failure, and this disease is hereditary... Most importantly, once bitten, you are 100% guaranteed to get the disease, which is incurable like AIDS, and that's the troublesome part."
"What should we do now? Should we wipe them out? They don't seem to number that many!"
Zhang Hao shook his head, a ruthless glint in his eyes: "No, no, these insects are just pawns. Killing them won't help... Those insects will eventually target the coastal cities. The most important thing right now is to make everyone vigilant and make sure they don't get bitten."
"But if their numbers exceed expectations, it will be too difficult to avoid being bitten. Have Xiahou Ming return immediately to prepare to study the principles of [tryxobiasis] and make a vaccine. Have the Ghost Doctor and Master Mo Yu prepare to make biological and metal protective suits."
"in addition……"
"Have the vampire octopus expand its patrol range in the sea to find the main habitat of the kissing bugs. They must be on some island outside of Southeast Asia. In any case, these bugs... must be completely eradicated!"
————
P.S.: Goodnight.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
