Eh? You want to try the humanoid girl's iron fist too?

Although they were very worried, the researchers were also very curious to know how much of a surprise the girl born from replicating the relics could bring them.

"Have I improved?" Raphael countered.

Such conversations have happened before, but not here. That hazy, innocent time seems to have occurred a long, long ago. Everything is long gone.

“Of course,” the director affirmed.

He paused for a moment, then abruptly steered the conversation back to Griffin's team's recovery plan:

"The failure of Griffin's team is not something we 'intellectuals' can interfere with."

He emphasized the word "literati" very much.

"If we could use bombs made with collapse fluid on a large scale in the Vietnam War in the 70s, we would also have to endure attacks from similar weapons. And the pollution it causes to humans and the environment is unprecedented."

"Collapse fluid... bomb, what is that?" Raphael asked immediately after grasping the key words.

"The relevant data is being transmitted. Listen to me first. The radiation level in the dark zone is still within your tolerance range, right?"

"The data from two days ago was 17 roentgens per hour, and only three days have passed since the initial value of 6 roentgens was detected."

Raphael first reported the radiation readings, then added, "Yes, I can still handle it."

"Find the lost goods and then handle them properly."

"It might cost extra."

“No problem, I can guarantee that,” the director said. “But after the recovery mission is completed, I think we need to talk.”

"I think so too, we should talk."

Raphael hung up the phone and stood up, trying his best to understand the information sent by the director.

Deciphering the massive amounts of data from SHD agent terminals requires a huge amount of computing power, and reading data sent by DARPA also requires computing power to understand.

When she stood up, she realized she could barely stand, and all she wanted to do right then and there was sleep, to shut down and hibernate properly.

She questioned herself, "Does it seem that even humanoids need rest?"

Raphael returned indoors, confirmed that the alarm settings on the doors and windows were functioning properly, and then went back to the attic to rest temporarily.

……

"Pathological Analysis Report of ELID Infection" From: ■■ Military Intelligence Department; To: Northern Theater Command Intelligence Department; Classification: Top Secret/SCI; Reading Permission: 4

--------------

"...collapse radiation directly induces mutations in cells undergoing mitosis: and these gene mutations induced by collapse radiation are regular, directional mutations."

The new mutated cells will not only continue to divide, but will also produce a completely new type of organelle, which will release radiation in the same wavelength as the collapse radiation. This is the reason why infected individuals are infectious and exhibit abnormal metabolism.

New radiation sources generated by organelles within mitotic cells and those generated by cell collapse outside the body.

These three factors constitute the way in which mutated cells proliferate.

We have thus discovered the nature of α-Time and β-Time: after α-Time, the rate at which immune cells eliminate mutated cells can no longer keep up with the rate at which mutated cells increase, just like with cancer.

β-Time is the dividing line between when the number of mutated cells increases to a level sufficient to trigger complete ELID infection. ELID symptoms are distinguished into early, middle and late stages by the dividing lines of α-Time and β-Time.

In the early stages, patients experience accelerated metabolism, an increase in red blood cell count, and a decrease in white blood cell count, exhibiting symptoms of immunosuppression.

Mild auditory and visual hallucinations may occur, and the electroencephalogram (EEG) shows unstable alpha rhythms with high-amplitude beta waves in some areas. Simultaneously, theta wave activity is significantly increased, sometimes appearing in all areas. At this time, the patient's internal organs and bones show no abnormalities and appear no different from a normal person.

In the middle stage, patients will still be in a state of high metabolism. The number of red blood cells and white blood cells will return to normal, but the body will lose its normal immune function.

Simultaneously, the patient experiences severe visual and auditory hallucinations, occasional altered consciousness, and exhibits strong aggression. Alpha wave activity slows or disappears, while beta waves significantly increase.

Occasionally, large-scale clusters of high-amplitude delta waves are observed. At this time, irregular silicification will appear in the patient's internal organs and skin—this is a phenomenon caused by the accumulation of silicon in the body by mutated cells during metabolism, which absorbs silicon from the natural environment.

After the β-Time stage, which is the late stage of ELID, or after ELID-Infected, we can no longer verify the patient's brainwave status.

Autopsy findings and blood analysis reveal that in the later stages, red blood cell counts decrease while white blood cell counts increase, leading to a hyperimmune state. Patients exhibit increased bone density and significant silicification of internal organs and skin.

Autopsies revealed that the macroelements in ELID-Infected individuals had undergone severe changes—carbon decreased from 18% to 13%, while silicon increased from less than 0.1% to 5.1%.

Those with congenital immunity appear to have immune cells that naturally possess antibodies against this ELID variant cell antigen.

Unless exposed to high-intensity collapse radiation, the rate of mitosis and organelle irradiation in mutated cells will be slower than the rate at which the body's immune system can clear them, and eventually all mutated cells in the body will be eliminated...

The document is incomplete; we can only glean the meaning of "collapse" from the text.

The statement that the damage caused by "radiation fluid" to the human body is directly proportional to the time spent in the radiation zone means that the longer one remains in the radiation area, the greater the degree of harm to the human body.

The document also clearly points out some characteristics of ELID infection, such as the previously observed silicification and the corresponding increase in bone density;

An abnormally accelerated metabolism—speculated to be the reason for its immense strength and rapid self-repair—may lead to accelerated aging.

It even mentioned the possibility of "naturally exempt individuals" who possess a specific immunity to ELID infection, having natural antibodies against ELID mutant cell antigens.

The existence of “naturally exempt individuals” seems like an anomaly.

Book 1: The World Before the Great War: Chapter 37 Ingenious Ideas

The pathology report, classified as "Top Secret/SCI," answered many questions. Raphael roughly understood the reasons for Griffin's team's failure and the source of the mutants' high resilience.

Given the effects of high radiation on the human body and the vast disparity between friend and foe, she was fairly certain that the team had become one of the many ELID infected individuals in New York.

Both she, who was in New York, and the decision-makers who decided to send this team were well aware of this.

It's no longer important who delivered the weapons made from the collapse fluid to New York.

The key question is whether the collapse fluid weapon still has any value for recycling, and what areas it might affect in the future.

If Congress, the Supreme Court, and the White House act quickly enough, they may have already chosen locations for the new White House, Capitol Building, and courthouses, and have already broken ground.

Although the location obtained from analyzing IP addresses was not very accurate, Raphael was certain that the Department of Defense and the Advanced Research Projects Agency had both left Arlington County.

This suggests that New York's problems may be more complicated than imagined, for humanity.

Not only that, she also thought of her initial experience when she entered the Dark Zone, where two groups of people were fiercely fighting in the radiation zone, and now there should be very few left.

People with low tolerance to high concentrations of radiation will quickly decompose, while many of those who manage to escape death will develop "ELID" infection, and by then they should all have become the severely infected individuals described in the data.

The skin surface ulcerates, and the body's muscles and blood vessels also harden.

At this point, the flesh will inevitably silicify, then lose its rationality and become extremely aggressive before completely turning into a metallic lump.

In short, the losses were devastating.

She certainly played a part in this; not only did she cut off all communication networks in the war zone, but she also stirred things up for a long time.

She would join whichever side showed signs of weakness, perfectly executing the "balance of power" strategy.

Join forces with the less powerful side, unite with them, and defeat and thwart the powerful side.

Regardless of who he is or which faction he represents.

The only problem was that she didn't have enough time to choose sides, which turned the battle between the two sides into a three-way melee.

If she had the time, she would even like to take some time to write a short paper on the application of balance of power strategies in practical work.

Use that battle as an example in the case analysis; it has a high probability of impressing those nitpicking editors.

After all, one can use scientific and logical articles to ridicule the British, who are isolated overseas and claim to be an important force in maintaining European security.

In this respect, both academia and editors particularly enjoy doing this kind of thing.

Raphael didn't mind adding fuel to the fire and making their feud burn even brighter.

Before long, the draft of this short paper was finalized, and all that was left was to find time to refine it before it could be sent out.

However, the writing speed was slightly slower than she had expected, as the parallel execution of the three threads caused a slight strain on computing resources.

After all, a portion of the computing power is needed to maintain the personality and keep the various subsystems of the body running. The device that truly consumes most of the computing power is that powerful electronic countermeasures device.

If we're talking about who was the first to use collapse weapons, it was the Americans, who were enthusiastic about war.

According to the records, the collapse fluid was discovered at the D-9 Beta-Zuma site in November 1967.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) quickly conducted nine months of testing on the collapse fluid.

After confirming the dangerous properties of the collapse fluid, the Pentagon, overjoyed, encouraged the president to be the first to use it in the Vietnam War.

The president, eager to save face from the Cuban Fools crisis, did not hesitate to issue the order to use collapse fluid to bomb North Vietnam.

There is also a 30-second low-altitude reconnaissance video.

The images show occasional glare, which optical imaging experts believe is the residue left by strong ionizing rays on the film.

This is the same type of light spot that ARPA observed during its experiments.

This suggests that the bombing site was filled with intense ionizing radiation, so much so that even reconnaissance aircraft flying at an altitude of 2000 meters were exposed to it.

Based on sustained observation of the bombing sites, ARPA's Relic Technology Researchers noticed the presence of numerous alien bears with protruding teeth and silicified skin in the area.

The half-meter-long metallic spider can also spray highly corrosive acid to hunt other creatures in the bombing zone.

In a sense, the ecology of the bombing zone entered another biosphere cycle.

Here you'll find silicified and crystallized trees, ELID-infected organisms, and even mutated silicified fungi that turn dead ELID-infected organisms into silicon compound particles.

Thus, they drew their preliminary research conclusions:

The radiation mutation effect of a liquid collapse bomb is far greater than the radiation hazard caused by a nuclear explosion.

For the US military at the time, since the collapse fluid bomb was so effective, they had to let the Vietnamese monkeys in the jungle have a good taste of it.

Among the large amount of data sent by the Department of Defense's Advanced Research Institute, Raphael found the log files from that time.

The military developed a defoliant called "Agent Orange," which was planned to be sprayed by low-flying, slow-moving aircraft onto the forests, jungles, and vegetation where Vietnamese people were hiding, causing trees and other plants to lose their leaves.

They destroyed their hiding places, forcing the North Vietnamese army to leave the jungle.

Once they acquired the Collapse Liquid weapon, the "Orange Agent," a useless toy, was immediately thrown into the trash by the commander at the time, and the first batch of Relic Technology bombs were dropped on the Vietnamese as quickly as possible.

As for the jungles in Vietnam, whether in the south or the north, they have now become de facto no-man's-land.

The more materials Raphael looked at, the more absurd everything that was happening in New York seemed.

As permanent intelligence agencies with counterterrorism responsibilities, the FBI and CIA turned a blind eye to terrorist activities and allowed extremely dangerous weapons to enter the city.

During the same period, bioterrorists also brought artificially modified smallpox virus into the city and released it during Black Friday shopping festival without anyone noticing.

It's an intractable mess.

Humans have always been full of ingenious ideas when it comes to slaughtering their own kind.

Ah, the roar of jet engines came again. Raphael interrupted his thoughts and turned his attention to the C-130 Hercules transport plane flying low overhead.