Extreme germ phobia

Chapter 340 In-depth Investigation
After receiving orders, each of the participating teams received some balloons, and the results of the inspections were quickly reported to the command center.

Data shows that balloons carrying spores account for approximately 30% to 40% of the total.

The command took the matter very seriously and immediately dispatched additional drones to intercept the enemy.

However, the technical department soon discovered that as the altitude continued to rise, a large number of balloons inflated, burst, and fell to the ground.

This result was quite unexpected. All the tension we had felt was just due to some ordinary balloons that didn't have the potential to fly far at all.

While feeling relieved, they also felt something was amiss. Adhering to the principle of "better safe than sorry," the command repeatedly reviewed the videos taken during the mission and quickly discovered the differences—most of the balloons were indeed ordinary, but a few were different from others, not only being larger in size but also having larger hanging boxes.

Because the image was too blurry to see any specific details, it is speculated that it may be a miniature flight control device used to control altitude and direction.

The command center immediately tensed up. The seriousness of the situation had exceeded the authority of the regional command center. They immediately reported to a higher-level command and also informed their allies through foreign affairs channels.

Just minutes later, two aircraft carriers, four amphibious assault ships, and more than thirty warships of various sizes on the Pacific blockade line received emergency orders at the same time. All ships immediately sounded the alarm and rushed to the west coast of South America at full speed.

The fleet has no shortage of means to deal with balloons, with laser air defense weapons being the top choice. These weapons were originally designed to target drones, and using them to shoot down balloons is like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut—both economical and convenient.

Secondly, using drones is also a good option.

The current problem is how to shoot down all the balloons before they spread.

Upon receiving the news, the allied nations also realized the seriousness of the problem and successively dispatched warships to the west coast of South America. However, shortly after they set sail, they discovered that all of the East University's escort ships and some destroyers suddenly returned to port to continue their blockade mission. Only the main force, including aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships, continued to head to the west coast of South America.

All parties were very confused. At this critical juncture, everyone was worried that they had not mobilized enough warships. Why did the University of Tokyo withdraw the warships it had sent out?
Sell ​​Delin.

The drones are still circling in the air, but there are few targets on the ground that need to be struck from the air.

Following orders, the various teams involved in the operation left their hiding places and moved toward their respective objectives.

The moment they stepped out of the building, everyone was involuntarily stunned.

Collapsed houses, broken windows, messy roads, blackened walls, wrecked vehicles lying haphazardly, and corpses everywhere.

The vast majority of the corpses were incomplete; some had missing hands or feet, others were missing limbs, and the most severely mutilated were completely dismembered.

Some were quite fresh, with swarms of flies buzzing around the corpses, enjoying a rare and delicious meal. But the vast majority were gruesome, rotting corpses that made one instinctively look away.

The empty, sunken eye sockets seemed to still hold a trace of lingering affection.

Ou Yang looked up and was stunned to see a large chunk missing from the middle of the building behind him. The remaining steel bars at the break were all bent from the inside out, and a very irregular piece of concrete was hanging from a twisted steel bar. It swayed in the wind as if it was about to fall down.

He took a deep breath, and the smells of spores, corpses, gunpowder, mold, and damp earth all rushed into his nostrils. Ouyang instinctively held his breath and endured the discomfort by breathing repeatedly until the smells gradually subsided.

Everyone else had a similar reaction.

Ouyang was the first to snap out of his daze, turning to face the crowd: "Welcome to the apocalypse."

At a different time and place, perhaps some people would laugh out loud, but here and now, everyone feels only heaviness in their hearts.

"Let's go," Lu Wei said. "Be on guard!"

The environment is not a reason to let your guard down; the more complex the place, the more careful you need to be.

Who knows which rubble is hiding under which enemy is preparing to fight to the death!
Once the direction and location of the target were determined, the drone led the way, with the group following closely behind with the robot dog. They trudged through piles of rubble, bypassed several corpses with mushrooms growing on them, and passed through gaps between walls, making their way towards the target with uneven steps.

The harsh environment and complex situation made everyone lose the will to speak.

The destination wasn't far, just over three kilometers as the crow flies, and only about seven kilometers in reality. The road was littered with corpses and ruins, and piled high with garbage and debris.

At first, everyone, including Ouyang, had a somewhat unfocused gaze, but the scene was similar everywhere, and they couldn't avoid it no matter where they looked. Before long, everyone got used to the wreckage and corpses that were everywhere, and they could even ignore the bones that were right next to them.

During the journey, intense gunfire suddenly erupted in the distance, and everyone immediately stopped and quickly dispersed to take cover.

In a moment of panic, Ou Yang rushed behind a car, only to find a highly decomposed body lying next to him after he had taken cover.

The person's clothes were soaked through with the fluids from the corpse, making it impossible to discern their original color; one could only barely tell that they were women's clothing.

Fat maggots with long, thin tails moved in and out of the exposed, rotting flesh.

Ouyang's cheeks twitched unnaturally, and his stomach churned violently; he almost vomited on the spot.

He considers himself to have a pretty good mental fortitude, but mental fortitude is one thing, and whether or not one rejects something is another.

Being able to tolerate something doesn't mean being able to accept it.

Fortunately, Ouyang still had some sense and didn't leave the cover immediately.

Then, he saw a friendly fire alert flashing on his tactical goggles, but it quickly disappeared. Lu Wei immediately sent out an all-clear signal.

"What happened?" Ou Yang asked in a low voice.

"It's alright," Lu Wei said. "Our friendly forces encountered a few isolated enemies, but we've already taken care of them."

Ouyang suddenly realized.

He thought it was friendly forces that had been ambushed, and from this, it seemed that friendly forces had launched an attack.

As the sun rose higher and the temperature increased, the lingering smell grew stronger.

After moving away from the bombed-out base, there was less debris on the road, and the speed of travel increased slightly.

After crossing a pile of rubble that was more than two people high, and going around a crater more than two meters deep, the group finally saw their target.

Yes, a factory building was reduced to rubble, with only half a wall standing stubbornly, the rest had all collapsed.

Beneath the rubble, you can still see burst balloons.

Lu Wei warned, "Listen up, everyone be careful. Scout first, then search. If you're unsure, send the robot dogs. Don't let them get injured or crippled, just adding to the country's burden!"

The words may not have been pleasant, but the concern shown inside and out was genuine. Everyone agreed at the same time, immediately dispersed to maintain vigilance, first letting the drone fly around the factory, and then expanding the reconnaissance range with the factory as the center.

After confirming there were no problems, two people were left to act as sentries while the others went into the ruins to search.

There's not much to search for, the place was blown up too badly. If there were more people, they could dig through the ruins and maybe find something useful. But there are only seven people in the whole team, and they don't have any digging equipment. How long would it take to dig with their bare hands?
Therefore, from the very beginning, everyone's eyes were drawn to that wall.

They discovered there was another half-house behind the wall!
It looked fine, but the wreckage itself was extremely dangerous. Lu Wei wouldn't allow anyone to get close and still flew the drone in.

The camera panned around and found more than a dozen cardboard boxes stacked together, one of which was overturned on the ground, with several transparent plastic bags scattered on the ground, filled with colorful balloons.

As the drone flew closer, its camera focused on the cardboard box, Lu Wei took a clear screenshot and sent it to the command center.

Apart from that, nothing of value could be found, and everyone immediately evacuated the ruins.

Just as he was about to leave, Ouyang suddenly noticed a small truck buried under the rubble, with only half of the cargo box sticking out. Taking a closer look, he immediately saw several gray steel cylinders, each about half a person's height, painted with a prominent "H," but no other markings.

As is well known, hydrogen is flammable and explosive, so helium is safer for airships and balloons.

However, hydrogen is very easy to produce; it's simply a matter of electrolyzing water. Both the principle and the equipment are quite simple.

Helium, however, is an inert gas. Let alone large-scale preparation, even in the laboratory, no one knows how to prepare it.

"Search!" Lu Wei waved his hand, and everyone rushed forward, intending to clear the area and see if they could find any useful clues.

Ouyang picked up a steel cylinder and suddenly realized that it was much lighter than he had imagined. He turned on the valve, and it was empty!

Looking at the other gas cylinders, they were all empty.

"Let's just blow it up!" Ou Yang suggested.

Lu Wei threw away the half-brick in his hand and nodded: "Then let's blow it up!"

He's a soldier, not a policeman. It's impossible for him to investigate every detail like a case. If he can't find it, he can. If he can't find it... well, there are always friendly forces, right?

With a muffled thud, bricks, tiles, and gas cylinders flew everywhere in the carriage. After a thorough search, no useful clues were found.

Just as everyone was feeling disappointed, Dafei suddenly shouted, "Something's up!"

The tactical goggles showed that the drone detected an infrared signal belonging to humans in the ruins dozens of meters away.

Everyone instantly forgot their disappointment, and the drone quietly approached the target, quickly pinpointing its location.

There were three enemies in total, hiding in a half-collapsed house, and no weapons were found.

Under Lu Wei's command, the group dispersed and approached, capturing the enemy alive with two flashbangs.

"Interrogate them separately!" Lu Wei waved his hand, and the soldiers immediately led the prisoners away.

Because of the language barrier, one of the prisoners thought he was going to be shot, and he was so frightened that he wet himself and kept speaking in a foreign language that he couldn't understand while crying.

The tactical glasses' real-time translation mostly consisted of pleas for mercy, similar to the situation of having an eighty-year-old mother to care for and a three-year-old child to raise.

Lu Wei immediately made the guy a key target for interrogation: "Medic, give him an injection!"

What kind of injection?
Truth serum, of course!

Truth serums are actually some anesthetics with special effects. You can often see doctors talking to patients during surgery online, answering any questions they are asked, which is due to the anesthetic.

There have even been cases where, after the surgery, the anesthesia hadn't worn off, leading to various unexpected consequences.

For example, constantly repeating the name of one's first love while showing no reaction to the calls of one's current partner.

The medic immediately gave the guy an injection, and before long, he was like a half-asleep, half-awake salted fish.

Lu Wei personally interrogated him: "What's your name?"

The tactical glasses could translate foreign languages, but they didn't have the function of translating back; he could only try it in English.

Unfortunately, the other party didn't react at all.

Don't understand English?

It shouldn’t be!

He simply took off his headphones and put them on the other person's head, then had the command center translate remotely.

When asked again, this time there was finally a response: "Sanchez, my name is Sanchez!"

"Very well, are you one of the Apostles' men?"

"Yes!"

What are your responsibilities?

"Send balloons..."

Through repeated questioning, the guy quickly revealed several locations. Lu Wei checked the system and was surprised to find that one place had actually avoided their bombing and was still intact.

Everyone agreed that it was likely another balloon factory belonging to the enemy.

Lu Wei immediately reported to the command post and received orders to proceed with the reconnaissance mission.

This time the distance was even closer, only about one kilometer in a straight line. In just over ten minutes, the group arrived at the mission location and found that it was not a factory, but a church with a rather large area.

Ouyang was surprised to find that the spore smell was stronger in this place than in other places, but there was not a single infected corpse to be seen nearby, making it much cleaner than the areas he had passed through before!

However, he didn't think much of it, assuming that the wind had blown spores from other areas over, and that the buildings had caused some sedimentation.

As is customary, the drone approaches first, and no abnormalities are found after a week of flight.

The group approached cautiously and found the gate tightly locked. They tried to push it, but the thick gate wouldn't budge!
There's not much to say, just fry it.

A muffled thud blew open the door, and before the smoke had even cleared, a strong smell of spores suddenly rushed into Ouyang's nostrils.

He instinctively covered his mouth and nose: "Back off, back off quickly, put on your protective gear!"

No one questioned Ouyang's reminder; everyone put on their masks immediately.

"What's wrong?" Lu Wei asked.

Ou Yang shook his head and didn't say anything.

A drone flew into the church, and the footage captured a scene that everyone would never forget, and that would even leave a psychological scar – countless corpses were piled up in the huge space, each covered with white mycelium, and every corpse in sight was covered with mushrooms of all sizes.

The Arhat stammered, "Where is this place? Is anyone collecting the body?"

Foreigners get married in churches, are baptized in churches, and have funerals in churches. Collecting nearby corpses and piling them up in the church, while far from being buried in peace, at least serves to preserve the remains and prevent them from being left to rot in the wilderness.

Everyone thought Luo Han's speculation made sense, but Ou Yang had a gloomy look on his face: "Wrong, it's not about collecting corpses, but about cultivating phantom lung bacteria and collecting spores!"

Everyone was deeply shaken.

Yes, if there's no place to produce spores, where do those spores on the balloons come from?
Everyone's gaze instantly turned extremely sharp.

So this is a spore factory?
Are the apostles crazy to dare to artificially cultivate phantom lung bacteria?

(End of this chapter)