Chapter 286 - Giant Sandwor (1/2)

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation  Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

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?”