Rust - Chapter 613



Only Krnovel

RUST [RUST]-613

Everyone was speechless at the results of Na Ju-yeon’s ingredient analysis.

‘Is this why you felt uneasy?’

The reason I used my precious information extractor on rats was because I felt a bit uneasy. The first time I felt that way was when I killed a swarm of rats that numbered in the tens of thousands.

Separately from the hordes of rats surrounding the snowmobile, Kim Yang was also surrounded by hordes of rats following the raccoon. Tens of thousands of rats were mobilized simultaneously on both sides.

Even if that was the case, after killing and re-killing dozens of rats several times, Maru couldn’t ignore the growing sense of discomfort.

‘Can so many rats live in the empty city of Toledo?’ The question is, even though they mutated and became smarter, bigger, and had longer lifespans, their rat characteristics did not completely disappear.

It was also necessary to have a large amount of nutrients to maintain a strong metabolism. That was also the reason why the war against rats in the empire intensified.

The rats multiplied by feeding on the refugees flocking to the city of lights that never sleeps, New York, and using their increased numbers as a weapon, they took over the underground of New York.

And they were leaving the underground and aiming for the surface. They wanted to swallow up New York, a metropolis with a population of over ten million.

“If it’s a fungus, is it a mushroom?”

“It’s difficult to tell whether it’s a mushroom or a mold because the mutation is so severe, but the simulation results give us a rough idea of ​​the effect.”

Na Ju-yeon uploaded a video of extracting the ingredients and running a simulation in virtual reality. After eating the rice cakes, the mice in the virtual reality showed improved motor skills and showed significant pain tolerance.

“It appears to be made using a fungus that has both stimulant and analgesic effects.”

The PD raised his voice at Na Ju-yeon’s words.

“Are you saying that you copied the medicine we provided?”

“That’s not true. First of all, it doesn’t have any antibiotic effects, and it doesn’t have any clear effects like pain relief or enhancing physical abilities. Since it’s just a fungus with those properties that was ground up and added, it’s hard to say that it’s a copy of the medicine. However, it’s certain that the rats were able to distinguish between mushrooms and molds that had medicinal effects.”

PD and Hood’s faces turned pale as they immediately understood the meaning of those words. If they had started to grasp the abstract concept of medicinal efficacy, it meant that they would continue to search for natural plants or minerals with medicinal properties.

‘Is it really that scary?’

Ms. Kim tilted her head and opened her mouth.

“Can’t we just blow up Toledo with a hydrogen bomb?”

Not just a small tactical nuclear weapon, but something big and beautiful like a hydrogen bomb.

“···That’s not a good idea. We don’t have a hydrogen bomb right now, but if we use tactical nuclear weapons that powerful, it will have a big impact on Detroit.”

Toledo and Detroit were too close together, and there was no guarantee that they would all be caught. Hood agreed with the PD.

“They say that rats and cockroaches can survive even after a large-scale nuclear war. It would be difficult to catch them all with just a small amount of nuclear weapons.”

“If one blow is too hard, two blows. If two blows are too hard, three blows. Just keep hitting until you get it.”

It was Maru who skipped Kim Yang’s nuclear love for the time being.

“Let’s talk about nukes later. Is there no other way to catch them besides nukes?”

The nurse, who had been feeling the mood, cautiously opened her mouth.

“Etto- a raccoon? What if we raised a natural enemy like that?

The monster badger that Kim Yang caught was relatively small, only 2m long. Because of this, it was not only able to squeeze through holes dug by rats, but also had good fighting skills.

A bite force strong enough to break a rat’s cervical vertebrae and spine in one blow.

Leather that is impervious to the teeth and claws of mutant rats, powerful enough to gnaw through reinforced concrete and armor plating.

And above all, tireless stamina and rapid regeneration ability.

As you can see from the video extracted by the information extractor, the monster badger showed a terrifying affinity that shook the rat’s shallow faith.

It was truly an amazing raccoon, as rats that were being killed in the tens or hundreds every day voluntarily offered two each as offerings.

Maru responded negatively to the nurse’s story that it would be possible for a badger to run wild in Toledo, where there were estimated to be at least a hundred thousand rats.

“That’s difficult.”

“Is it because we don’t have enough badgers? We have clone technology, so if we just pull out a bunch of them, it should be fine.”

“How many badgers do we need to release to solve this problem?”

“···many?”

The reproductive capacity of rats is beyond what can be generally imagined. If we only consider the arithmetical calculations, one pair can produce up to 1,250 rats, which is a truly terrifying fecundity.

When it was said that one badger can eat two mice a day, it was difficult to figure out how many mice would need to be released.

Moreover, the rats had already entered the early stages of hunting, gathering, and herding. Not only were they breeding cockroaches, but they were also growing mushrooms or molds.

In this situation, how would the rats respond if suddenly there were ten thousand monster predators instead of just one or two?

When you sacrifice several of them a day, you probably think that there is nothing you can do about it since it is an unavoidable monster.

But would it be acceptable to call it a tribute if tens of thousands of people die every day?

If you pass, it means you can get that much out, so it was scary, and if you don’t pass, it means you’ve chosen to fight your natural enemy with all your might, so you can’t be at ease with that either.

“There is no guarantee that other problems will not arise when so many badgers are released. What will happen when there is an abundance of food and many badgers? What if the target of the trouble changes from rats to badgers?”

“Can’t we just let it out after neutering it?”

Was it because of the talk of mass production of raccoon clones? Na Ju-yeon supported Ms. Kim.

“No. It’s dangerous to try to manipulate something in a situation like this. It’s hard to say for sure that you can control it.”

“but···.”

“We thought we could control it with drugs and bombs right away, and then this problem happened? It’s not just us. Didn’t the things we thought we could manipulate and control end up being even more dangerous later? After experiencing that firsthand, are you going to make that choice again?”

The mutant virus incident was caused by trying to manipulate and control viruses. The mutant humans were created by trying to manipulate and control infected humans.

What emerged from using mutant cockroaches was cannibalism and cannibalism. Even though rats and cockroaches were rampant, they didn’t pay attention, and the rats ended up setting up a cockroach farm.

We knew that GMOs were a problem, but we just ignored it, and now we are in a situation where we don’t know what will happen as mutant viruses and herbicides react with plants.

Just looking at this, it seemed like the entire ecosystem was going to be in chaos.

Even if you just look at it briefly, it’s like this, but how many units of clone raccoons should we release here?

Maru didn’t think so.

‘Isn’t there another way?’

If it was difficult to exterminate the rats, at least the cockroach farms created by the rat babies had to be destroyed. If things were to continue as they were, we might have to burn down the Earth with a nuclear weapon to stop the rapidly increasing rat hordes.

To destroy the cockroach farm deep underground, it would take at least 100,000 troops fully armed with exosuits.

‘Is nuclear weapons the most realistic method, as Kim said?’

They had to use the nukes as effectively as possible, and most importantly, reliably. Didn’t they see how they ended up like ‘fragments of the altar’ when they were used clumsily, like when they dropped strategic nukes on Tokyo, Japan?

Maru’s gaze turned to Na Ju-yeon.

“You ran a simulation in virtual reality to find out the effects of the rice cake?”

“yes.”

“Is it possible to simulate various situations, such as releasing a cloned badger into Toledo, or the response of a pack of rats after detonating a bunker buster equipped with a hydrogen bomb?”

“···That seems difficult.”

“Why?”

“The reason we were able to simulate the effect of the ball is because we just had to scan the rats and then scan the balls and put them in. However, it is not realistically possible to scan the entire city of Toledo and put them in. Even if we could, it would be impossible to simulate the individual reproduction and mutation of hundreds of thousands of rats, even if we mobilized all the quantum computers and bunches of grapes.”

“Okay. Then, if we simply use a bunker buster, we can simulate the aftermath, right?”

“It’s difficult to explain in detail. As I said earlier···.”

“No. No need to go into detail. If you were to use nukes in bunker buster fashion to destroy a cockroach farm, how many nukes would you need to fire and how powerful would they be? I think that would be enough to get around it.”

“If it’s a simulation like that, I think someone else would be better at it than me.”

Na Ju-yeon slowly pulled away, but Maru just didn’t let go.

“Even if you leave that to someone else, I want Juyeon to take care of the part about radiation mutations that may occur due to the nuclear fallout.”

“Radioactive mutation?”

Na Ju-yeon shows interest in this area.

“Yeah. How would a rat or a cockroach mutated by radiation change? You could do that, right?”

“Of course.”

Toledo was the city where the Chinese nuclear bomb was dropped. Maybe the reason the rats changed so drastically was because of the aftermath. Maru told Najuyeon to check it out.

“A simulation of nuking Toledo. Can’t I do that?”

“you?”

Now that I think about it, it was Ms. Kim who was in the control room in Japan, fiddling around with various things. I remember thinking it was very surprising at the time.

“We can do well if we work with artificial intelligence.”

Ms. Kim shouted with her eyes, ‘Leave it to me.’

She couldn’t stand it. It was called virtual reality, but the virtual reality of the Holy Kingdom wasn’t just any virtual reality.

Real. Seriously. A virtual reality that feels real.

How can you resist the opportunity to fire your nukes to your heart’s content?

‘Please give me permission.’

‘Can you do it moderately? If it consumes too much computational power, it will be stopped right away?’

‘Don’t worry! Trust me!’

‘under-‘

Maru nodded at Kim Yang’s burning eyes.

“Let’s have Kim Yang do the hydrogen bomb simulation.”

======

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Since I decided to use nukes, the feeling of unease seemed to have subsided a little, so the possibility of the situation getting worse seemed low. However, thinking about the little rat made me feel uneasy.

‘I’m going crazy. Is New York okay?’

Suddenly, I remembered the information that Ki-soon had sent me. It was about how Dan Brown had argued that the Empire needed to arm itself with clone troopers in order to survive.

‘It seems like the New York underground is overrun by rats. I don’t know if it’s a joke or not, but the troop exchange rate seems to be getting dangerous.’

‘There was a reason why we couldn’t give up on the Naru clones. It was because of the productivity when mass producing clones. Dan Brown and the Empire would never give up on the clones.’

Ki-sun assessed the situation in the empire as follows. On the outside, it seems like they are going about their daily lives as usual, but on the inside, it is dangerous.

‘The underground waterway is completely closed, and even though heavily armed troops are blocking the entrance, the number of missing people is increasing. So far, it has not been a big problem because the disappearances are mainly refugees whose residences are unknown, but I don’t know what will happen after winter.’

At first I thought it was a joke. But after experiencing the rat hordes that took over Toledo myself, I realized that there might be no answer going forward.

======

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Canada. The Governor’s Residence in Ottawa was noisy again today.

“Gisun. This time, we’ll go supply the fortress.”

“Don’t worry.”

“We have to pay for our meals too.”

“······.”

Ki-sun just looked at the lively Naru clones and…

Hee-yeon, who was watching from the side, shook her head. The Naru clones rushed over to see the 5~6 year old kid shaking his head seriously.

“cute!”

“Is this what cuteness is?”

“In times like this, I put a dog in front.”

“Remember the year you were born?”

“huh.”

“Dog-so cute.”

“······.”

“Fall down. I said, fall down, don’t stick together!” (Fall down. I said, fall down, don’t stick together!)

Beep

[Governor. The regular supply ship heading to Fortress 11 in Sector D has not returned.]

“Everyone, be quiet.”

The Naru clones slowly dragged Heeyeon aside at Kisun’s shouts. It was as if they were imitating the scene of a mass kidnapping.

‘Fortress number 11, Sector D. Number 11, Sector D.’

It was a makeshift fortress built in an area returned from the empire.

A terrain of low mountains and plains. When the fortress was built, there didn’t seem to be much danger in the surrounding area.

‘The closest place to send manpower···.’

“We’ll go, Kisun.”

“We’re really good at that.”

“Once you try it···.”

“······.”

Ki-sun pressed her temples and wrote down the order.

‘I guess I should send that woman away.’

A knife-wielding woman with a mechanical arm.