You were supposed to hoard supplies, why the heck did you hoard zombies!-Chapter 290 - 289 Facing the Crisis

The medical center was still bustling.

Since its establishment, it had been receiving a large number of injured people and those with various diseases every day. Even some rare Mutant Beasts and zombies were brought in as research specimens.

This was a condition Zhang Ye had agreed to early on with Dr. Zhao.

Although he had to appear calming to his subordinates, he was well aware that the threat this time was hardly any less significant than that posed by zombies. Time was pressing, and they had to find a way to respond quickly.

There were no delays on the way to the medical center.

Zhang Ye soon saw Dr. Zhao, who was dissecting a corpse in the lab on the fourth floor.

The man didn’t even look back when Zhang Ye entered, or rather, Dr. Zhao was so immersed in his work that he was almost oblivious to the outside world.

It wasn’t until Zhang Ye came up to him and spoke that the intensely focused man abruptly turned his head.

"Dr. Zhao,"

"The thing I was worried about and told you about before has come true. Overnight, a settlement in the north was destroyed by a horde of rats."

"Oh?"

"Rats?"

A trace of surprise appeared on Dr. Zhao’s face.

However, it was clear that he wasn’t like the others in the company. He showed no sign of doubt, but instead quickly put on a contemplative expression.

"Tell me the specifics."

Zhang Ye nodded, knowing that he couldn’t rush things, and conveyed the information his intelligence personnel had reported from the north in detail.

Then he said with a serious expression, "This time, we might need your help again."

"Otherwise—"

"I understand," Dr. Zhao responded, his expression turning serious.

He then asked a few more questions about the number and aggressiveness of the Mutant Rats before falling silent.

Clearly, the severity of the situation had far exceeded his expectations.

The rat swarm at the Devouring Water Purification Plant wasn’t actually frightening.

After all, there was a distance of at least seven or eight kilometers from the north to the city district, with the Huanshi River, which crossed the entire Sanjiang City, lying in between.

If the rats even thought of swimming across the water, they probably wouldn’t get past the fish and shrimp.

In the end, they would become fish food.

What was truly terrifying wasn’t the sudden appearance of this rat swarm, but the vast crisis of potentially hundreds of thousands or millions lurking underneath the city.

Some might think what Zhang Ye was concerned about was the rat horde moving southward from the north, threatening the company’s base.

But in fact, the Mutant Rat swarm didn’t need to move southward.

They might have already been roaming the land beneath everyone’s feet for a long time, just waiting for an opportunity to emerge like an erupting volcano from various sewers or other caverns.

That would be the truly frightening time.

This threat was utterly indefensible, as the isolation walls and electric fences built by the company could only protect against zombies and wild dogs on the surface, but not the rats breaking out from underground.

What Zhang Ye could do right now was to have his men urgently block all the sewer entrances.

And mobilize everyone in the base to partake in rat extermination activities.

To kill even one was to gain an advantage.

Even though it was like trying to extinguish a car fire with a cup of water, it was still better than doing nothing at all.

But such a method of extermination was ultimately too inefficient. They had to find a new way to quickly control the rat population, which led him to think of Dr. Zhao, who spent all his time secluded in the lab studying Corpse Worms.

Ever since discovering that the cause of the disaster was a type of worm, he had seldom left this lab.

He virtually slept alongside the specimens that filled the room every day.

Even his meals were taken at that very lab table.

A true workaholic.

After pondering for a few minutes, he finally looked up at Zhang Ye.

```

"What do you want me to do?"

Zhang Ye directly replied, "I want you to develop something."

"A virus, or bacteria, or something else, as long as it can massively exterminate the rat population."

This was his real reason for coming here.

It was also the only possible solution he could think of to stop this disaster.

But Doctor Zhao seemed hesitant, as if he had thought of something but was struggling to decide whether to say it. Eventually, he decided to speak.

"I think you might be considering the wrong approach."

"What do you mean?"

Zhang Ye immediately asked.

Doctor Zhao turned his head to glance at the cage beside him, which contained a mutant wild dog that had just been brought in recently. Its large skeleton was covered with a thin layer of skin, giving it a rather gaunt appearance.

These wild dogs were just as ferocious as the zombies.

They were almost constantly in a state of ravenous hunger, perhaps because of the corpse worms inside their bodies, any creature that mutated after infection had an intense craving to eat.

This craving was essentially a demand for energy.

The ever-changing gene sequence was the root cause of this demand.

"You must have heard or read in books that rats are creatures you can never kill off; their reproduction rate ensures the entire species has a strong adaptability."

"It only takes a few generations for the entire species to develop drug resistance."

"By that time, it might be too late to develop new drugs."

However, Zhang Ye frowned upon hearing this, as he was of course aware of the drug resistance of some creatures, but what he wanted was not rat poison.

He was looking for a virus or bacterium that could infect rats and cause their mass death.

That was why he had thought of Doctor Zhao in the first place.

This was his area of expertise.

Before Zhang Ye could speak up to correct the other party’s statement, Doctor Zhao had already turned back to him and explained, "The drug resistance I’m talking about is not confined to any particular drug, it includes but is not limited to viruses and bacteria."

"The result is the same."

"It only takes a few generations for the rat population to develop resistance."

"Damn it!"

Zhang Ye couldn’t help but curse.

"So what do we do now?"

"Doesn’t that mean we’re all screwed?"

Experience more tales on novelbuddy

Doctor Zhao, however, smiled and replied, "It’s simple, just leave this place. For the rat swarm, the corpses in the city are their largest food source."

"They will not leave until they have devoured all the zombies in this city."

"Aren’t there a few towns nearby?"

The source of this c𝐨ntent is freeweɓnovēl.coɱ.

"That won’t do."

Zhang Ye immediately objected.

"The base that I’ve struggled so hard to build, just to give it away to a bunch of rats?"

"Isn’t there any other way?"

The laboratory suddenly fell silent.

Moments later, Doctor Zhao suddenly spoke, "Actually, there is another way, and I suddenly thought of a problem that I’m not sure whether or not I should mention?"

"Spit it out if you have something to say."

"What are you playing at with these riddles at a time like this?"

Zhang Ye said irritably.

At this moment, he had the temperament of someone who could throw a tantrum on the floor at any moment; after all, today Zhao the doctor must come up with a solution for me.

```