Homo Sapiens

On Xing Island, Victor’s face was as black as the bottom of a pot.

He had received a notice from Black Ship Headquarters that two members of the Knights had vanished without a trace while on a support mission in Luzon.

Victor was furious with the Knights’ actions. ’Why wasn’t I notified about this mission beforehand? Do they suspect my loyalty?’

And now that they had simply vanished, they came looking for him.

But Black Ship had suffered disastrous losses in Luzon. Many Converts and Lookouts had gone silent. Making him search now would only expose the few personnel they had left.

What a headache. Victor’s head was pounding.

He then recalled the recent incident in Hongsawaddy, where they had also lost some personnel.

Coupled with the entry restrictions imposed by various countries, it had become even more difficult to adjust and dispatch additional personnel.

But what could he do? Orders from his superiors had to be obeyed. Therefore, he could only pull three teams from the personnel still lying low in Luzon and assign them to investigate Anthony and Christine’s case.

However, to avoid exposure, he ordered these three teams to proceed with caution. He also had the American Embassy in Manila organize an official investigation team out in the open.

Evidently, Victor had gotten smarter this time. He wasn’t relying on a purely covert investigation. Instead, he would pursue an open one, with his own people coordinating from the shadows.

Victor didn’t hold out much hope for this investigation. After all, Black Ship had yet to find a single trace of the targets. They only knew that their targets were active within Luzon.

But what good did it do to know they were in Luzon?

He couldn’t very well interrogate all the Luzon people, could he? And he couldn’t just deploy an aircraft carrier fleet for a direct strike. For now, all he could do was rely on his connections to drag the matter out.

After a while, when the higher-ups had begun to forget about it, he would just casually write up an accidental death report and submit it to close the case.

After all, cold cases like this popped up all over the world every day. It was impossible to investigate every single one thoroughly. This wasn’t an episode of *CSI*. Did people really think the truth came out in every case?

...

「Elsewhere.」

With various countries successively implementing entry restrictions, Hongsawaddy was no exception. Three days ago, it had announced a three-month entry ban and required all individuals recently arriving from abroad to cooperate with immigration control.

Having just arrived in Mandalay, Fang Xinwu found himself reluctantly housed in a classroom at Mandalay No. 1 Middle School.

The school, which had just begun its winter break, was being used as a temporary hospital.

His two underlings who had come with him were no exception.

This mass screening was a joint initiative between the Hongsawaddy government and the Qingye Group. The main reason was that Hongsawaddy’s public health problems had grown so severe that they were affecting both industrial production and daily life.

Diseases such as AIDS, hepatitis B, tuberculosis, malaria, dengue fever, cholera, rabies, and various parasitic infections were all extremely severe.

It wasn’t that many people were unaware they were sick; it was that they lacked sufficient medical resources, on top of having no money.

Fang Xinwu understood this completely. At least Hongsawaddy was trying to find a way to solve these problems.

Beside a large table formed by pushing several school desks together, Fang Xinwu stared blankly at his phone. His two underlings were also playing on theirs.

Suddenly, the school bell rang, and a voice crackled from the loudspeaker inside the classroom:

"Ladies and gentlemen, medical personnel will be here to conduct check-ups shortly. Please prepare yourselves and wait in your room for a knock on the door..."

About twenty minutes later, a knock came at the door of Fang Xinwu’s room.

Five medical personnel in full-body protective suits entered the classroom, accompanied by two armed security guards who were just as thoroughly covered.

A total of ten people were staying in their classroom, which had been temporarily partitioned into small cubicles with wooden boards.

"Come over one by one. Have your identification ready."

Fang Xinwu sat across from a medical worker, who took out a syringe, inserted it into a special sterilizer, then wiped his fingertip, pricked it, and drew a little blood.

The blood drop was applied to a row of test strips. Fang Xinwu, who could read the Hongsawaddy script, saw that the strips were labeled for a total of ten items: AIDS, Hepatitis, Cholera, Influenza, Tuberculosis, Dengue Fever, Rabies, Plague, Typhoid, and Japanese Encephalitis.

For some of the test strips, they also collected saliva samples.

A short while later, the medical worker examined the row of test strips, took out a reference chart, and compared the results.

After another ten minutes or so, the medical worker wrote on Fang Xinwu’s test report: All negative.

"Please step aside and wait," the medical worker said.

"The check-up is finished already?" Fang Xinwu looked at the test report in his hand, a disbelieving expression on his face.

But the medical worker paid him no mind and started testing the next person.

It was perfectly normal for Fang Xinwu to be suspicious. After all, there were no rapid test kits of this type on the market. Given Hongsawaddy’s underdeveloped medical sector, it was indeed unbelievable that they possessed such rapid testing technology.

But Fang Xinwu was wrong. He knew nothing of the speed at which Li Qingye developed new technology.

Especially when it came to biotechnology. As soon as he obtained blood samples from patients, Li Qingye could churn out rapid test strips within a month.

After all, with genetic testing technology that produced results in seconds, it was a simple matter. Once the full genetic sequence of the target virus or bacteria was locked down, a suitable portion could be selected as the target gene for detection. From there, it was easy for the Homo Sapiens Company to mass-produce the test strips.

These test strips were also extremely accurate. They could achieve a 99.99% accuracy rate for currently prevalent strains.

Therefore, after the Qingye Group obtained the technology, it took them just over a week of emergency modifications to adjust their production lines. They were now able to produce twenty kinds of specialized rapid test strips, with a current daily output of 500,000 strips.

Now that they had rapid test strips, the Qingye Group naturally had to put them into application and promote them.

Otherwise, if they didn’t use them, how could they sell them? After all, Hongsawaddy’s medical technology was at a very low level. If they took the strips to the international market now, it would be extremely difficult to get market approval from other regions.

Thus, they had to implement large-scale internal use first, and only then could they bait the hook for bigger fish.

After more than an hour of testing, out of the ten people in Fang Xinwu’s group, one tested positive for hepatitis B and two for dengue fever. The rest were fine.

And their physical examination data would be entered into the newly established Hongsawaddy Information Network.

The reason for such a large-scale operation was twofold. On one hand, it gave the Qingye Group a legitimate reason to tap into public funds. On the other, it was to suppress the country’s public health problems.

For example, if chefs, servers, and workers in the food processing industry had infectious diseases, the trouble would be immense.

After all, the story of Typhoid Mary is a true one. People like her are genuine superspreaders.

Through this comprehensive screening and data entry, Hongsawaddy would at least get a clear grasp on the number of patients within its borders, which would also facilitate future administration.

Fang Xinwu watched as the few people who had tested positive for an illness were temporarily kept behind. Qingye Medical had apparently offered them a discounted treatment plan, but the price was that they could only use new drugs produced by Qingye Medical.

He could only sigh inwardly at this. Qingye Medical’s actions were certainly opportunistic, but he couldn’t bring himself to advise these people against treatment.

Perhaps there is only one sickness in this world.

Poverty.

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