Hunter of Mysterious Creature-Chapter 471 - 82: Gu Breeding (Part 2)

On the wall of the cold storage, there are over a dozen metal cylinders, each one meter in diameter and three meters in height. After Yuri input a series of commands on the control panel at the entrance, all these metal cylinders rotated, turning their transparent sides to the front.

Sun Hang could see that most of these metal cylinders contained human corpses. Due to the low temperature, the skin of these corpses appeared bluish-purple, with a thin layer of white frost covering their bodies.

"Zombies?"

"No, these are not corpses... all these people are still alive," Yuri said.

"Isn't this the containment room for the crimson spores? What's with these froz... these people turned into popsicles?" Sun Hang asked.

"Crimson spores and their toxins are difficult to preserve. They must use living hosts for preservation... These people are actually 'seedbeds,'" Yuri explained.

"All these people have crimson spores parasitizing inside them?" Sun Hang moved closer to observe these "seedbeds" through the thick glass.

The states of these seedbeds varied—some looked like normal frozen human corpses, others had a deep red fungus-like layer covering the skin surface, and some mostly normal bodies had clusters of long rod mushrooms sprouting from their mouths and nasal cavities...

Yuri was right; these people were indeed the seedbeds for the crimson spores.

Rather than calling them people, Sun Hang felt they resembled decaying tree trunks fallen in a damp forest. The fungus had entirely eroded them from the inside out, leaving only a human-shaped shell behind.

"The growth rate of crimson spores slows significantly below minus sixty-five degrees Celsius. Even so, the preservation time for seedbeds hardly exceeds ten years," Yuri explained as he walked over.

Sun Hang noticed that many metal cylinders were empty—either prepared for "new seedbeds" or vacated because the "old seedbeds" were disposed of.

"Although these 'seedbeds' are all infected with crimson spores, we categorized them into over a dozen different strains based on the different mutations of the spores," Yuri pointed at the labels on the metal cylinders. "The numbers, dates, origins, and characteristics of these strains are all written on them."

"Are there significant differences between the different strains?"

"Very significant... because the differences in their hosts are also vast," Yuri said. "Strains number seventeen and twenty-nine infected a twenty-one-year-old young man and a thirty-nine-year-old middle-aged woman, both ordinary people. Strain number twenty-six infected a forty-five-year-old middle-aged man, a former Mysterious Creature Hunter. Strains number thirty-five and thirty-six infected mysterious remnants... as for strain number forty, it infected a fully enigmatic creature."

Sun Hang stepped in front of the metal cylinder labeled "forty." As Yuri mentioned, the "seedbed" inside was a humanoid monster—it had a human head, torso, and limbs, but its back was densely covered with arms. Judging by their size, these arms seemed like those of infants... but at present, they were all wrapped in mottled deep red moss, resembling some kind of tube worms living deep in the sea.

However, Sun Hang could hardly feel any mimetic fluctuation from this creature anymore... in essence, it was merely an empty shell of a bizarre-looking monster.

"Bing858 · Child-Eating Monstrosity, first appeared in the Lunar Calendar year 4703, Suzhou," Yuri explained. "It broke into a maternal and child health hospital late at night, killed two nurses on duty, and devoured four newborns under care in the hospital... Over the next three months, it committed multiple attacks, increasing the death toll to eighty people."

After a pause, Yuri continued, "Later, it vanished for a while, until the Lunar Calendar year 4711, when it reappeared in a small town in the Suzhou countryside, breaking into a pregnant woman's home, brutally cutting open her belly, and taking the unborn child... The next day, the creature was captured, sent to Dubhe Tower Headquarters in Chunming City for preliminary research."

"In the Lunar Calendar year 4715, after receiving approval, Bing858 was removed from the containment list, transferred as 'experimental material' to the crimson spores research project. By the Lunar Calendar year 4716, it was contained as a seedbed for the crimson spores, until today."

"So, is there anything special about this strain?" Sun Hang asked. "Is it related to Bing858 as the seedbed?"

"That remains unclear," Yuri shook his head. "Many characteristics of the crimson spores are still not understood... Our current equipment cannot even observe the complete mutation process. Eighty percent of the known strain mutation process results from computer-simulated data..."

Yuri walked to the metal cylinder labeled "seventeen" and said to Sun Hang, "If you're going to consume, I recommend strain seventeen because it's the most 'primitive' strain, almost without noticeable mutations."

"Didn't you say the seedbeds for crimson spores couldn't be preserved for over ten years?" Sun Hang puzzled, "Where did this 'primitive strain' come from? Or is it 'relatively primitive' compared to others?"

"Seedbeds can be 'updated'... Strain seventeen's seedbed is not a natural human but a clone," Yuri explained. "We've cloned numerous 'Seventeens.' When an existing seedbed deteriorates, we transfer the strain to a 'new seedbed.' Since they are nearly identical, the strain seventeen hardly mutates."

"I see, I thought these seedbeds were picked from death row inmates," Sun Hang nodded. "So, this 'Seventeen's' source, that's the poor guy first found to be infected with the crimson spore?"

"No... The first infected person was already a puddle of blood when we found him, making it impossible to collect his genetic data. The genetic source of seedbed number seventeen comes from a temporary investigator unfortunately infected on the scene. Since he recorded his genetic information upon employment, we could clone him."

"Why not make a platter," Sun Hang suggested thoughtfully. "Taste the primitive, savor the new—only then can it be considered comprehensive."

"Platter?" Yuri was taken aback, clearly not understanding Sun Hang's suggestion.

"I mean, extract a part of each strain and make a platter," Sun Hang glanced at him, explaining, "Haven't you ordered takeout? Never had a combo meal, a two-way or three-way?"

"Huh? But doing so might cause conflicting reactions between different strains..."

Before Yuri could finish, Sun Hang interrupted again: "Speaking of platter, I suddenly thought of a better idea."

"A better idea?" Yuri suddenly felt a twinge of unease.

"Raise Gu!" Sun Hang lifted a finger. "Put all these different strains onto a new seedbed, let them battle each other, and the last one standing, occupying the new seedbed, will surely be the strongest strain... The concept of survival of the fittest."