Rust - Chapter 618



Only Krnovel

RUST -618

It’s only been a few days since the field mouse was pushed in.

Everyone looked dismayed at the story of a maddened rat population that had turned Toledo into a den of barnacles and wiped out four or five generations of rat pups there. The renegade rat population that had taken over Toledo was thought to be a danger to humanity in the future.

Raising cockroaches to make food. And of all things, cockroaches. Cockroaches can eat and reproduce on almost any organic material, including plastics and petroleum compounds. Raising cockroaches to make food meant that there was an infinite supply of food, which meant an infinitely growing swarm of rats.

I was seriously considering whether I should plant a hydrogen bomb underground. It was so easy to clear out the rats that had been such a headache.

“Hey. This is really. I have nothing to say.”

“Yes. I did think about using field mice to control barbarians, but I didn’t know it would be this effective…”

Ki-sun and PD were surprised by the results. It was literally overwhelming. The war between the rats of Toledo who had lost their faith and the field mice who had faced death right before their eyes was almost like a one-sided massacre.

PD and Maru predicted a double defeat, but they were completely wrong.

“If I had known this would happen, I wouldn’t have given you the medicine and the bombs.”

“No, it’s not. It was because there were drugs and bombs that we could increase our faith.”

It was the same even if you knew that drugs and bombs were made by humans. That human was also a believer of the god of death.

The rats of Toledo, without medicine and bombs, and the field mice, with medicine and bombs. It was clear who was receiving the grace of the god of death. The only price for doubting and changing the mind of the god of death was death.

“Uh- So. They say they destroyed the cockroach farm and the mushroom cultivation room.”

“Can you believe it? If a field mouse had become smarter, wouldn’t he know what cockroach breeding and mushroom cultivation meant? Surely he would come out and say something about the future of field mice.”

If there was an unlimited supply of food, it meant that the number would increase indefinitely. He wasn’t a rat who didn’t know this. The nurse’s gaze turned to the floor at Ki-sun’s question.

“That may be true. But if you get caught, the people around you will kill you.”

The reason the rat colony in Toledo was exterminated was because they had deceived the god of death and had become apostates. What would happen if there were field mice that wanted to farm pagan cockroaches? The surrounding field mice would not just leave them alone.

Hood took up the nurse’s story. She waved the new scripture and began to cry.

“Now that they’ve become smarter, there might be some rats among them who have figured out how to raise cockroaches. Still, it would be difficult to raise them openly. It’s written in the scriptures that cockroaches belong to the gods, and rats who covet them will surely be killed.”

When did you fix that? Everyone was amazed at Hood’s quick response. Hood enjoyed the attention for a moment and continued his story.

“By the way, what are you going to do with the bomb rats, the sacred rats scattered throughout the region? Aren’t there rats that were taken from here and settled in Newport News?”

“It’s okay over there. Those kids are too busy competing with the new rats to move around.”

According to Kim Yang’s confirmation, the fire rat and the acid rat were competing with each other. There was no problem because the religious and competitive spirits were triggered. If one side showed any signs of being strange, the other side would immediately bite them.

“Well, that’s good. But there are a lot of scattered colonies in the border area outside of Newport News. Are they okay there?”

“It’ll be over if we just send the field mouse that did the deed to the Inquisitor.”

Everyone was impressed by Kim Yang’s cleverness.

‘The Inquisitor?’

‘Hoo- that’s a good idea.’

‘The field mice will fight over who gets the credit.’

Ms. Kim added, shrugging.

“For those that smell strange or those that have started to change in taste after 4-5 generations, you can just send in some fresh field mice to wipe them all out and then plant your faith again.”

Either be good or be left good. Either way, there was only a good ending. Everyone agreed with Kim Yang’s opinion.

“So, do you plan to continue to go with the rat in the future?”

“Since there’s no realistic way to exterminate rats, we might as well consider going together. And there’s also the cockroach problem.”

Maru answered Gisun’s question immediately.

In the past, it was said that it was removed because it was difficult to communicate with rats, but now, after a year, it is able to communicate to some extent. Let’s say it understands about 70% of what the nurse says?

To that extent, traffic control was possible, albeit regrettable. The problem was food, but if food was secured by attacking other rats, the numbers were naturally organized and the food problem was solved.

“cockroach?”

“This happened in New York. It seemed like a cannibal was controlling the cockroaches.”

They don’t evolve as quickly as rats and aren’t as smart, so they seem to have a hard time carrying out complex commands, but the cockroaches’ unique quantity and survival skills make them very dangerous.

“Control? Are you saying that the cannibal is controlling the cockroaches?”

“It’s not a sure thing, but if you look at the results, it’s very likely.”

Everyone fell silent at Maru’s answer. If that was the reason, it was not a waste to waste the field mouse that had developed faith.

“Wouldn’t it be okay to just get rid of all the rats and cockroaches?”

“Let’s exterminate them? Is that possible?”

“It will take time, but as experiments on mosquito breeding blocking show, it is not impossible.”

Na Ju-yeon said that she wanted to apply the technology to reduce mosquitoes using genetic engineering. The experiment involved releasing males that had been engineered to be infertile and allowing them to reproduce.

“Didn’t you say that it’s ineffective? Even at first glance, the limitations are clear. Let’s try making seedless watermelons. It’s pointless if the ones with seeds are just running around. And I think I saw similar research results last time.”

When a group of mice with their reproductive abilities removed were placed in a group, the group noticed this like a ghost and ate the test subject.

It was a common occurrence in the rat pack, where cannibalism was common. Injured rats, barren females, weakened males, etc. The pack moved ruthlessly.

Perhaps the tightrope walk of life, confronted with the cruelty and death of the herd, was the driving force behind the rats’ characteristic mutations and awakening.

“···It’s different if you use the latest genetic engineering technology.”

The idea was to use ‘gene drive’ technology, which would insert genetically modified scissors that would make mosquitoes infertile, rather than simply infertile.

“Gene drive···.”

“Are you saying that genetically engineered traits are inherited?”

“Yes. In the case of mosquitoes, it has been shown that theoretically they can be exterminated in just 8 generations. It will definitely be effective against rats and cockroaches as well.”

“······.”

Talk about using gene drive technology to wipe out rats and cockroaches.

“Because it’s genetic manipulation, there’s no way resistance can develop like with drugs, and as the number of individuals that can’t reproduce increases, the number will definitely decrease with each generation.”

“What about the simulation? Did you run it?”

“Yes. The simulation results showed a 95% chance of being effective, so I think it’s worth a try.”

If the gene drive-based sterilization strategy is successful, it would only take four to five years for rats and cockroaches to become extinct.

Considering the fact that field mice have formed colonies of over a million in a short period of time, it would be tempting to try genetically engineering them to reduce their population.

Ki-soon, PD, and Hood were in favor. Ms. Kim and the nurse were neutral, not in favor, but not opposed either. Still, Maru couldn’t readily say to do it.

‘I feel uneasy.’

It was because I felt uneasy for some reason. It was a bit stuffy because Maru was the type of person who wouldn’t just let this feeling of unease go.

‘Genetic manipulation. Genetic manipulation. Virus manipulation?’

If you look closely, the mutant virus incident was also an incident that broke out by tampering with the virus’ genes.

‘Yeah. Pregnant.’

Another thing that was concerning was the fact that once the powers were awakened, natural pregnancy became almost impossible. Two years had passed since the incident broke out and the power users were born, but not a single child had been born among the power users.

Of course, the scope of the sample survey is limited to the Holy Kingdom, but this happened in Japan as well. The reason the refugees were able to survive without being completely wiped out was because of those who had awakened their abilities. And no children were born among them.

Children were only born between normal people. There were cases of children born to normal people awakening, but there were no cases of children being born between awakened people.

‘Does that mean that humans have also been genetically engineered?’

I’m not sure, but the current situation is not natural. Who would have thought that it would turn out like this starting with the mutant virus incident?

And there was similar content in the experimental data that Riser had experimented with. Most of the experimental results showed that if one gene was touched, problems would inevitably occur somewhere else.

‘The cannibalistic Geese Raiser tried to use genetically engineered clones as replacement food, but failed.’

After the mutant virus incident, conventional wisdom and laws were collapsing. In this situation, genetic manipulation was not a high-risk activity.

“Rats and cockroaches can be controlled by field mice that have developed a sense of faith. Unless they become uncontrollable, they will not be exterminated through genetic engineering.”

Maru opposed the plan to use gene drive technology.

While Ki-soon was attending a meeting in the Detroit Ark Tower conference room, the Naru clones who were cleaning up after the fact were furious.

“The weather is bad.”

“I didn’t know Green-Soon would do that.”

“I really hate you! How can I just throw you out?”

“······.”

The Naru clones were part of a decoy unit being chased by rats. The moment they were about to abort the mission and retreat, He descended.

I could see him from afar, in the middle of a tsunami of rats, who had fallen into the water. I had to climb up a ladder to look through my binoculars from almost a kilometer away.

“You came all the way here, so why didn’t you just look at us and leave?”

“It’s all your fault, Bon-Byeon-Nyun.”

“Body year?”

“Yeah. That girl is such a jerk.”

“···Uh. Hmm.”

In that case, there was nothing to say. In their eyes, the main girl’s antics were always abundant.

“Still, Ki-soon is bad. He took Hee-yeon and her clones.”

“They just took them away while we were working.”

“That’s right. This is betrayal. Betrayal. Betrayal.”

“Knowing how much we’ve missed you.”

“I can’t forgive you!”

“Revenge!”

“What should we do?”

“Let’s wake him up.”

“So how?”

What could possibly make Ki-soon shiver?

ah?!

“We’re all cosplaying as the main character.”

“The lethal dose is quadrupled. Let’s destroy Ki-soon’s mind.”

Since there were fragments of the main body that had been in contact with the kisun, the Naru clones wondered if this would be okay.

“You’re going to spit out blood from your mouth?”

“I feel like I might shed tears of blood.”

“Ugh- but I don’t like that. Imitating a real bitch. Ugh-”

“I guess I can’t do it.”

“That’s a lot. What if Green Soon-i tells him that we’re all bitches?”

“ah?”

“huh?”

“uh!”

The opinion that we should cosplay as the main character to punish Ki-soon changed from 2:2 to 0:4 in an instant. That wasn’t it. Even without that, it felt like we were excluded because of what the main character did.

“Let’s just hit it.”

“Yeah. Let’s just beat it up cleanly.”

“He’s the governor?”

“······.”

One of the clones, who had been thinking hard about revenge, clenched his fist.

“Let’s run away.”

“Run away?”

“where?”

“To the Ark Tower.”

I don’t know if this is home.

okay.

Let’s go see my brother.

At the news that the Naru clones were simulating a runaway, Hee-yeon, who was taking a bath in her main body, suddenly stood up and slipped with a thud.

Ako-

There’s nothing more frustrating than a sore butt.

“When did Dora come back?” (Did he come back?)

Are these guys crazy as a group?