Chapter 212: Artificial Organs (1) |
The untreated wastewater from the paraxylene plant 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
—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 simulation…
[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 plant cannot filter out PCbs, and the wastewater flows out directly into the wetlands, 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 mosquito larvae a day. That will reduce the mosquito population and keep it in balance. But after the release of PCBs, the caraboides have been almost wiped out in these wetlands, and as a result, the mosquito population 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 too late 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 slammed 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 plant was so secret that even the Chinese president didn’t know about it.
‘There’s no way that Ryu Young-Joon did this knowing about it.’
But considering Young-Joon’s fame and recognition, there were going to be people who wanted to investigate the paraxylene plant out of fear.
Bzz!
His phone rang. It was the minister of health.
“Damn it.”
Yang Gunyu put his phone on silent and threw it on the sofa.
Click!
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 black 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 wetlands. 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, countless companies 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. Korean companies, 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 Science. While surveying wetlands 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 alarming rate in the past month.
Young-Joon’s fears were coming to life.
‘This is real.’
Nothing Young-Joon had ever claimed 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 caused large 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 wetlands. This was a natural phenomenon.
The weather was getting warmer, and the mosquitoes were laying eggs. The biodisaster was just around the corner.
Jessie immediately published a new article in Science 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 planning 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 plan linking Hong Kong, Macau, and nine cities in Guangdong. Many foreign companies had already moved into southern China, banks were being built, and financial products were being marketed with huge amounts of capital invested.
‘And twenty-eight billion mosquitoes are going to swarm over a place like that.’
Young-Joon’s simulation was enough to scare the investors, but there was stronger evidence to back it now.
[More evidence in support of A-GenBio’s simulation.]
This data that Jessie made with scientists from Guangdong University was real data measured in the wetlands. And they confirmed that large 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 plant was being built began to rally and march again.
“You promised to talk to the residents, but you secretly started the plant behind our backs, which is why PCBs have increased in the wetlands!”
Citizens complained 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.
“Mosquito larvae 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 Science 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 too late, since we announced that we were going to put the paraxylene plant 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 plant 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 the companies 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 Korean companies.”
* * *
It first began in the small wetland 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 alarming rate.
Mosquitoes had four life stages: egg, larva, pupa, and adult. After reaching adulthood, female mosquitoes mated and then laid their eggs in the water. The eggs hatched into larvae two days later, pupated, then became adults.
One female mosquito layed about one hundred fifty eggs each time. Normally, most of those eggs were eaten by predators during their larval 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, pillars, 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 collapsed 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 similar began to happen in the city. Only instead of livestock dying, it was businesses, shops, and banks that were being paralyzed.