<h4>Chapter 212: Artificial Organs (1)</h4>
The untreated wastewater from the paraxylene nt polluted the river. Although it seemed like there was little change, the number of several species rapidly declined, including the caraboides.
And as the weather became warmer with time, suddenly something strange began to happen.
[Asian tiger mosquito: 0]
[Asian tiger mosquito: 12]
[Asian tiger mosquito: 847]
[Asian tiger mosquito: 3400]
[Asian tiger mosquito: 21 740]
—What the fuck
—The number of mosquitoes just skyrocketed
—There’s one more digit every week LOL
—It’s increasing like bitcoin. Is there anyone who hasn’t jumped on this mosquito-coin?
People were fascinated, and the number of mosquitoes didn’t stop.
[Asian tiger mosquito: 821 740]
[Asian tiger mosquito: 3 852 700]
[Asian tiger mosquito: 8 149 100]
[Asian tiger mosquito: 17 847 440]
—What the hell?
—Is the program broken?
—That’s scary. Ten million mosquitos is gross.
People’s reactions started turning into fear. And when the summer heat reached its peak in the simtion...
[Asian tiger mosquito: 27 872 552 000]
At some point, people stopped responding.
“The cause of this phenomenon is the disappearance of an aquatic insect called caraboides. The filters in the paraxylene production nt cannot filter out PCbs, and the wastewater flows out directly into the wends, exposing the caraboides to the PCBs,” Young-Joon said. “Normally, when the weather starts to get warmer and mosquitoes appear, the caraboides will reproduce, eating a thousand mosquitorvae a day. That will reduce the mosquito poption and keep it in bnce. But after the release of PCBs, the caraboides have been almost wiped out in these wends, and as a result, the mosquito poption will rapidly increase by the time summer arrives.”
Reporters, who were watching the live stream, expecting something, quickly started drafting an article. The Korean government also began to investigate the impact of the mosquito outbreak on the country.
“Guangdong will have to prepare for this situation very carefully. If they have already released wastewater, it’s not toote to stop and buy mosquito repellent from A-GenBio,” Young-Joon said. “Laboratory Seven at A-GenBio has developed a powerful mosquito repellent, and it is now in the production stage. Hopefully, citizens and businesses in Guangdong will be able to avoid this biodisaster.”
* * *
“This crazy bastard!”
Yang Gunyu mmed his desk with his fist in anger.
This was a clear challenge against him. Young-Joon gathered people’s attention on Youtube, and he was openly picking apart the core of Guangdong’s economy and environment. The operation of the paraxylene nt was so secret that even the Chinese president didn’t know about it.
<i>‘There’s no way that Ryu Young-Joon did this knowing about it.’</i>
But considering Young-Joon’s fame and recognition, there were going to be people who wanted to investigate the paraxylene nt out of fear.
<i>Bzz!</i>
His phone rang. It was the minister of health.
“Damn it.”
Yang Gunyu put his phone on silent and threw it on the sofa.
<i>Click!</i>
His secretary rushed in as the office door swung open.
“Mr. Yang! A-GenBio is...” she shouted.
“Damn it, I saw it, too!”
“What do we do now?”
“What do you mean? ...Tell them it’s just ck propaganda that A-GenBio is using to sell their mosquito repellent. Tell them there won’t be any problems.”
“... Yes, sir.”
“Wait.”
The governor stopped the secretary, who was about to leave.
“Get the people under you to study the wends. See how many of those caraboides or whatever insects there are right now... Get me like five or six of them.”
“Yes, sir.”
His secretary left. Yang Gunyu chewed his nails.
On the other hand, countlesspanies and citizens in various cities of Guangdong began to hold emergency meetings or contact A-GenBio.
A swarm of more than twenty billion mosquitoes were going to hit Guangdong. It was Young-Joon who predicted this event, which looked like something out of a mediocre disaster movie.
Moreover, the program that predicted this was GRO, the artificial intelligence that predicted the red mold disaster. Koreanpanies, especially those who were infatuated with Young-Joon’s legend, were rushing to contact A-GenBio. Among them, there was one more person who got goosebumps from Young-Joon’s presentation.
It was Jessie, an editor for <i>Science.</i> While surveying wends in Guangdong, she noticed that the concentration of PCBs was gradually increasing. She also looked at caraboides and found that their numbers were declining at an rming rate in the past month.
Young-Joon’s fears wereing to life.
<i>‘This is real.’</i>
Nothing Young-Joon had ever imed had been wrong, but this was a truth that she didn’t want to believe. There were times when environmental changes or abnormally high temperatures causedrge swarms of mosquitoes, flies, and locusts that damaged homes, but this was the biggest yet. As Young-Joon said, the caraboides were going to eat a lot of mosquitoes; she knew this because she saw the number of caraboides increasing when she studied the wends. This was a natural phenomenon.
The weather was getting warmer, and the mosquitoes wereying eggs. The biodisaster was just around the corner.
Jessie immediately published a new article in <i>Science</i> based on her research. It was sent directly to the next week’s issue without editing as she was an editor.
—Jessie, what is this?
Shortly thereafter, Jessie got a call from Samuel, the editor-in-chief.
“We have to run that story. It might not be limited to Guangdong. It’s going to cross central China. A swarm of twenty billion mosquitoes is going to take over this region. Doctor Ryu is right!” Jessie shouted into her phone.
* * *
Samuel, who was nning to run Young-Joon’s YouTube broadcast as tomorrow’s breaking news, included Jessie’s article with it. This news quickly attracted global attention, and not just because of Guangdong’s importance to China’s economy, but because it was also an important economic hub for the rest of the world. China was building a Silicon Valley on the Southern tip of the province. It was called Yuegangao Dawanqu (Greater Bay Area), a high-tech urban cluster development n linking Hong Kong, Macau, and nine cities in Guangdong. Many foreignpanies had already moved into southern China, banks were being built, and financial products were being marketed with huge amounts of capital invested.
<i>‘And twenty-eight billion mosquitoes are going to swarm over a ce like that.’</i>
Young-Joon’s simtion was enough to scare the investors, but there was stronger evidence to back it now.
[More evidence in support of A-GenBio’s simtion.]
This data that Jessie made with scientists from Guangdong University was real data measured in the wends. And they confirmed thatrge amounts of PCBs were released.
Soon, investments were pulled out of banks, and dozens of big contracts, which were being signed daily, were canceled. On top of that, the citizens in the area where the paraxylene nt was being built began to rally and march again.
“You promised to talk to the residents, but you secretly started the nt behind our backs, which is why PCBs have increased in the wends!”
Citizensined in front of foreign reporters, who flocked to Guangdong.
And in the midst of the rapidly descending chaos, Yang Gunyu, received the worst news of all.
“Mosquitorvae are swarming...” the secretary reported to Yang Gunyu.
“Is it true?”
“It didn’t take long for me to look into it. There was already some research done at Guangdong University with a <i>Science</i> editor named Jessie.”
“Damn it! If that’s the case, why wasn’t it reported to me?”
“They said they were going to report it to you soon... But they were toote, since we announced that we were going to put the paraxylene nt on hold. They were looking for a reason for the increase in PCBs...”
“...”
“What should we do?”
It was a dilemma.
“First, stop the factory. And we have to say that we’ve never started the nt before.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea. No one will believe us.”
“We don’t have a choice. Send out that announcement for now, and contact A-GenBio for all their mosquito repellent...”
“That is...”
“Is there another problem?”
“I already contacted them. They said they don’t have any left...”
“They don’t have any left?”
“Their facilities are running at full capacity, but they’re still running out. All thepanies in Guangdong already bought all of their stockpile.”
“Damn it!”
Yang Gunyu swung his fist in the air in frustration.
“Damn it... What do we do?”
“They said they would send it to us as soon as it’s produced, but...”
“But?”
“Since the situation is like this, there will inevitably be an order of supply. A-GenBio said schools, hospitals, and health centers will be the first priority, followed by Koreanpanies.”
* * *
It first began in the small wend and nearby farms located at the end of the tributary to the Pearl River Basin. It was the most polluted area, as the PCBs that flowed through the currents were collected here. It was also the warmest area in Guangdong.
At first, it was no different than every spring. The mosquitos appeared one by one as the weather warmed up, and the farmers sprayed repellent and burned mosquito coils.
But in just a week or two, they began to multiply at an rming rate.
Mosquitoes had four life stages: egg,rva, pupa, and adult. After reaching adulthood, female mosquitoes mated and thenid their eggs in the water. The eggs hatched intorvae two dayster, pupated, then became adults.
One female mosquitoyed about one hundred fifty eggs each time. Normally, most of those eggs were eaten by predators during theirrval phase, but not this time. Basically, one female mosquito became one hundred fifty mosquitoes.
“Oh my god...”
He Xueying, who took a break from working on the farm because of the raging mosquitoes, doubted his eyes as he looked out the window. He could literally see a swarm of mosquitoes. He could hear them buzzing and flying around.
“W—Wait...”
Feeling dizzy at the unbelievable and shocking sight, he remembered something and ran outside in a panic. The barn right behind the house was made up of crude walls, pirs, and a roof; it had holes all around. The Asian tiger mosquito also bit animals; they even attacked birds.
“No!”
When He Xueying arrived at the barn, he copsed onto the floor. Four of his goats were dead, covered in mosquitoes. The rest of the goats were also suffering from the mosquito attacks, frantically running around to get rid of them.
Within a few days, something simr began to happen in the city. Only instead of livestock dying, it was businesses, shops, and banks that were being paralyzed.