Book 6: Chapter 61 - How To Use Worms
Love Code At the End of The World
Raffles finally noticed everyone’s awkward expressions and smiled sheepishly. “Sorry, I was too inconsiderate.”
“I want to get a check-up!” Lucifer abruptly hollered, “I want to do a body check! What if that worm already reproduced in my body just now?! Hurry up! Hurry up and do a body check for me!” Lucifer panicked, his originally pale face turning green.
Everyone shot him sympathetic looks.
“Hahaha! I will accompany him to get a check,” Uncle Mason rubbed Lucifer’s head. Lucifer quickly pulled Uncle Mason along with him and ran. Only now does he know to get scared. Who told him to eat any random thing he likes?
“Raffles, look. It’s dying.” Haggs pointed seriously at the wriggling earthworm, which wasn’t growing anymore.
Raffles immediately turned back to the worm. “What happened? It’s a mutant, and a mutant earthworm at that. It should be able to survive even in an environment without oxygen. Hey, little buddy, your life force shouldn’t be this weak.” Raffles’ affectionate gaze gave me the chills. The way he looked and spoke to a worm was even gentler than towards me, as though it was his child.
“Found it. The cause is the antibacterial agent found in the onion, which affected its vitality.” Haggs pointed at the screen.
Hearing Raffles and Haggs’ conclusion, everyone looked at the dying worm. Right now it was lying weakly in the sample cabinet, occasionally twitching as though it was making its last struggle before death.
“But it’s a worm. What can an onion do to it?” Pelos asked confusedly.
Everyone wore baffled expressions.
“In the post-apocalypse, any living worm would be a mutant. However, any onions now would also naturally be mutant onions.” Raffles looked around at everyone with a smile. “You can think of the worm as an enlarged germ. Hence, the antibacterial agent of a mutated onion could adversely affect the worm too.”
“So... does that mean it could affect the host of this thing too?” I gazed questioningly at Haggs and Raffles.
“Theoretically, yes,” Haggs answered solemnly. “However, this superpower of a human being able to turn into a worm is really rare.”
“And it’s turning into a big fat worm!” Ghostie emphasized in terror. The water in his helmet was clean now.
“According to the size of its body, the amount of antibacterial agent required would increase too.” Raffles and Haggs started discussing the worm intently.
“Not necessarily so. We wouldn’t need a lot of onion if we just attack the host. Once the host loses its vitality, its subs should lose control too. The earthworms are controlled by the main brain.”
“That’s right. As long as the host dies, the subs will turn into real earthworms. Real earthworms are brainless. They won’t pose any threat to us.”
“As for the subs…” Haggs glanced at Raffles smilingly. “Raffles, don’t you think we can keep them? It is hard to find earthworms in such sizes.”
Raffles eagerly nodded in agreement. “You are right! The soil at the end of the world is mostly polluted. Plus, it’s tough and not suitable for plant growth. The big earthworms can help to loosen the soil!”
“So, we can just eliminate the metahumans and keep these huge earthworms.”
Did I hear them right?
These two were calmly discussing how to use the remains of this metahuman after he died. These earthworms that they were talking about were what the metahuman had turned into. In other words, weren’t those the remaining body parts of the metahuman, like his arms, legs, ears or what not?
In this moment, I fully felt just how cruel and cold a scientist could be. They were even a little… crazy.
No wonder Hagrid Jones had been so crazy back then. From the scientists’ point of view, any life form, even a human, was merely an object to study and dissect.
Ghostie, He Lei and the rest of the people stared awkwardly at Raffles and Haggs as the two discussed how to use the metahuman’s ‘dead body’.
“Haggs, Raffles, I’m sorry to cut you off,” He Lei raised his hand to interrupt. Haggs and Raffles glanced at him simultaneously. He Lei knitted his eyebrows and his face turned glum. “Can you discuss how to use this guy’s dead body after we kill him?”
Haggs and Raffles exchanged a glance and nodded. Then, they both turned to me at the same time. “We shall not hold up your discussion of your war plan. Hand this worm to us then.” With that, Raffles and Haggs disappeared before us. The sample cabinet also dropped back into the platform.
It was a relief to have the worm out of sight.
“If Earth Monster is an earthworm, there is the possibility that any of our attacks would be nullified,” He Lei said seriously. “On the contrary, it might even stimulate the worm’s reproduction.”
The meeting room finally returned to the usual war discussion mood.
“Yes, it will grow too!” Pelos emphasized.
“Not just in size but also in numbers.” Ah Zong supported himself with one hand on the table lissomely.
“Can I withdraw myself from this war?” It was Ghostie’s first time putting forth such a request. No, actually, it was exactly in line with Harry’s character. Harry had always been unable to deal with unhygienic and disgusting metahumans.
“Are you kidding?” He Lei gaped at Ghostie in disbelief. He thought Ghostie was making a joke.
Ghostie replied in disgust, “No, I am serious. I can practically feel a worm in my mouth. Retch!” Ghostie turned away to retch.
Turned out that what Uncle Mason had said had made Ghostie seriously discomfited.
He Lei looked at him helplessly, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. “Then again, your superpower might not be suitable to fight against the worm.”
“That’s right, that’s right…” Ghostie kept his head turned away and waved awkwardly, as though he had something stuck in his throat.
We would need suitable metahumans to deal with different types of metahuman attacks.
We couldn’t cut, chop, electrify or burn the worm. It could survive in any environment.
Zi Yi’s atmospheric pressure might work. However, Zi Yi’s superpower range wasn’t that huge.
Raffles and Haggs had been thinking about using the Earth Monster’s dead body. But the problem was, we hadn’t even seen the principal host of the Earth Monster. Had the monster turned into one of the earthworms or had the monster just hid under the soil?
Plus, this could be considered a division superpower. For some abilities, the host could shift between each divisionary body. In other words, as long as one of the bodies wasn’t dead, the host would not die.
For example, every Silver Snake replicator was considered a host. Unless you killed all of his hosts, you couldn’t defeat him. Thank God he was on my side. Otherwise, his superpower would be a great headache.
What we knew now was that the piece that Lucifer had bitten off wasn’t the host and the antibacterial agent in onions could adversely affect it. Because Lucifer had eaten a lot of onions earlier, he’d carried a lot of antibacterial agents in his stomach fluid.
Lucifer had first eaten and digested the onions, which extracted the antibacterial agent from the onion and concentrated its intensity. Hence, the antibacterial result had become more effective.
The digestive process was a bit like extraction.
Mm, this could be useful.
If we just tossed onions at it, we wouldn’t be able to achieve the peak effect because the antibacterial agent in the onions would not be extracted so quickly.