Chapter 398 - Curbing Thirst with Poison? Digging Their Own Graves!

Chapter 398: Curbing Thirst with Poison? Digging Their Own Graves!

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
According to the law of conservation of energy, when the world gained something, it would also lose an amount of energy that was equivalent to it.
This was also true for the game, and also true where this mysterious system was concerned!
Good things did not come without a price. This was what humans had spent their entire lives studying…
They studied how they could utilize the least amount of energy or materials to create reactions that would produce greater energy or stronger, or even new, materials.
However, no one ever had the courage to delude themselves into thinking that they could obtain something out of thin air without paying the appropriate price for it.
The suppressant that was spreading across the whole wasteland ocean, which had weakened all the foreign races and caused them to lose their abilities, was now the subject in question.
“Are you saying that they react to the suppressant differently over a period of time, depending on their previous strength ratings?” Su Mo asked with a stony face.
“Mmm, that’s what Sister Oreo said!”
Su Mo stood at the entrance of the crew quarters on the first floor. Through the small window on the door, Su Mo observed the members of the foreign races that were isolated inside.
At present, the eleven members of the foreign races who were isolated in the crew quarters had all lost their abilities.
Although they did not know what had happened, they did not panic and were glad for the two-day vacation they had just received after Su Mo had stated that their lives would not be in danger.
Judging from their current state, they did not show any abnormalities aside from the great decrease in their physical attributes as well as the fact that they had lost their abilities.
After interrogating some of the survivors, Su Mo also got the reason why the three foreign races who had died looked like that.
“Did Oreo manage to divine the time when the rebound will begin?” Su Mo asked.
Closing the iron cover on the observation window, Su Mo walked toward the deck with Moore trailing behind him.
About half an hour ago, through the game panel and a talk with Lu Yongyi, Su Mo learned that the so-called “Superpower Suppressant” was the countermeasure that the human higher-ups had developed.
Given the effectiveness of these suppressants, all the humans on the wasteland ocean would be able to effortlessly kill those previously arrogant foreign clans during the current period of time.
They could kill them indiscriminately!
There was no doubt that such suppressants had indeed alleviated the critical situation faced by humans at this juncture.
According to Lu Yongyi, the human higher-ups were equipped with sufficient knowledge about such suppressants.
Before using them, they had done three rounds of experiments on the foreign races to ensure that there would not be any problems in the short term.
However…
Between Oreo’s prophecy and the results of those experiments, Su Mo chose to believe in the former!
“About the first rebound, Sister Oreo’s prophecy mentioned they will experience this rebound within one to three days of consuming the suppressant, depending on their previous strength rating.”
“The weaker they are, the faster they will experience the rebound. The stronger they are, the longer it takes for them to experience the rebound. When the rebound occurs, their powers will return to their previous full strength within a few seconds and skyrocket by at least 50% within half a day’s time!”
After saying the first sentence, Moore thought about his words carefully before cautiously continuing, “After their strength soars, the effect of the drug will not stop, and seven days from the moment when the rebound occurs, they will once again lose all their strength overnight, and will become even weaker!”
“The second rebound will occur within one to two weeks, and the rebound period will last for a week!”
“After each rebound, their abilities will be strengthened by at least 50% but, as the number of rebounds increase, their bodies will eventually be unable to support their strengthened abilities, and then they’ll…”
Su Mo walked up to the main deck. Looking at the gloomy expression on Moore’s face, Su Mo’s heart immediately sank and he asked, speculating, “Explode?”
“They won’t explode. The suppressant they have absorbed will no longer extract their strength like the first time if its energy requirements are satisfied. Instead, the suppressant will make them stronger, endlessly.”
“However, there are also… Side effects if they get stronger with this method.”
“Each time, the process of becoming stronger is divided into the Weakness Period, the Rebound Period, and the Strength Period. If one does not gain a sufficient amount of energy during the Weakness Period, and the energy supply required for the Rebound Period is not met, the huge influx of energy will directly impact the creature’s consciousness. This is a severe test. If the creature cannot withstand it, it will become a living thing without consciousness that only knows how to kill and absorb energy. And this kind of monster…”
“Wait, isn’t whatever you’re describing just motherf*cking zombies?”
After hearing the few characteristics that were described, such as “without consciousness” and “only knows how to kill”, Su Mo could not help but swear out loud even before Moore finished describing them.
“Zombies?”
“Forget it. Continue.” Looking at Moore’s bemused expression, Su Mo touched the back of his head, which felt a little cold. Su Mo was panic-stricken for a while.
To the human higher-ups, this move was one that was akin to drinking poison to quench one’s thirst.
However, if matters proceeded according to Oreo’s prophecy, then this “poison” was akin to digging humanity’s own graves!
Not only would the foreign races get stronger and stronger endlessly, but they would turn into a strange version of zombies when they reached a certain point. This was enough to make one’s scalp feel numb out of fear.
When Su Mo imagined how this kind of monster would be ten times more powerful than those portrayed in the zombie flicks back on Earth…
Undoubtedly…
The day when this kind of monster arrived at the New World would be the herald of the real Doomsday!
Seeing the gloomy expression on Su Mo’s face, Moore also realized the seriousness of the matter. He immediately organized his thoughts and continued, “Master, you don’t have to worry too much about it. If the people in the foreign races turn into this monster, they won’t retain… Well, retain the kind of strength they had during the last disaster.”
“Let’s take Wolf Three as an example. Let’s say his current strength is 1. Even if his strength subsequently evolves to 5 during the Rebound Period, he won’t retain that strength when he can no longer withstand the energy requirements of the Rebound Period and becomes a mindless monster. It will fall to half of what it was before, which is 0.5.”
Wolf Three was a werewolf who was currently in the isolation room.
After being nourished by the psychic energy water, Moore’s intelligence had invariably increased significantly. He could even use complex terms and analogies easily.
“They can’t even beat Moore with their current levels of strength. After their strength is reduced by half, Moore will be even less afraid of them. Master, don’t worry!”
“However, these mindless monsters have a special ability. The living beings that they bite will turn into living beings just like them, in the sense that they’ll enter the Weakness Period, Rebound Period, and then the Strength Period. Once they cannot withstand the process of becoming stronger, they’ll lose their consciousness and turn into mindless monsters that only know how to kill.”
“Humans won’t be infected by this drug, but humans won’t be safe if they get bitten. This is the biggest threat that Sister Oreo mentioned!”
This was as expected. They would have the ability to infect other living beings after becoming mindless monsters.
Su Mo was not surprised in the slightest. He nodded heavily and asked the most critical question, “In which round will the foreign races undergo this dramatic change? Has Oreo predicted that?”
“Woof woof woof!”
“The fourth?”
Oreo, who was lying on the ground, nodded her head. Seeing that, a solemn expression appeared on Su Mo’s face.
Judging from the current cycle of rebound, becoming stronger, and weakening, four rounds would not exceed three months of time at most.
Even if everything went smoothly, the humans would need one to two months to reach the New World.
In other words, less than one month after the humans reached the New World and settled down, they would be swamped by an unprecedented wave of attacks.
If one took into account that there would be one or two more disasters during the process…
Oh, humans were done for!
Su Mo considered the short-term effects of this move. The time when the war of the three races would start was coincidentally during a key moment of the foreign races Rebound Period.
A day later, which would also be the sixth day of the tsunami disaster, the strength of these foreign races would return gradually, depending on their previous levels of strength.
On the last day of the tsunami, which was the second day after the foreign races’ strength had disappeared, at least half of their strength would return completely!
After the foreign races’ strength was back, not only would they not be weakened, but they would also become stronger to a certain extent!
At that time, when the humans once again assumed cheerfully that they could easily kill the foreign races and rushed up to meet them head-on, they would feel the cruelty of the wasteland once again!
After being targeted by the humans, the foreign terrestrial races and foreign marine races would certainly ally together.
At that time, ordinary humans would be subjected to attacks that were ten times more violent than before.
“Sh*t, we humans really lifted stones to smash our own feet this time. What the f*ck are these “suppressants” really?”
“Who the hell is the genius who invented this thing? If they sent this into the foreign races’ home worlds, that would be excellent indeed, but isn’t this just creating an advanced version of Resident Evil on the wasteland?”
Su Mo sorted out the situation that the humans were about to face, and then he remembered that the humans would have to face thousands of zombies upon relocating to the New World. Even he felt his scalp become numb.
If the previous difficulty of the wasteland was deemed to be at the ordinary level, the difficulty had risen directly to an unprecedented hell level after that incomprehensible move.
Restoring the game difficulty was a way to go, so Su Mo thought that the only way to do so was to…
Use his authority!
He could use the God of Cooking’s authority to create a specific food product that could purify the drug’s effects, which would lift this crisis.
However, the problem was that the scope of this crisis was simply too large!
The current number of foreign races who had been infected had far exceeded billions. If Su Mo gave each of them a portion of the food item he created, the game would immediately realize that something was wrong despite its stupidity.
“Forget it. It’s pointless to think about what will happen in three months. These survivors might not even reach the New World. What’s the point of telling them about this now?”
“For these people, the biggest problem they have to face is how to survive that critical moment in the war between the three races when those foreign races start fighting back. They just have to hang in there until the foreign races are weakened again!”
After thinking it through and identifying where the problem was for now, Su Mo also did not intend to keep this knowledge—of the impending catastrophe that the humans would face—to himself.
Now that he knew that the foreign races would start to recover after a day or longer, depending on the level of their strength, he could run to the World Channel and tell those ordinary survivors, “Hey, these idiots look weak, but they’ll recover their strength again in three days and become stronger too!”
He could use such a statement to make them stop killing foreign races indiscriminately out of panic, but it was ultimately pointless.
At this time, the more foreign races they killed, the less obstruction they would have to face when the war between the three races started.
“Contact! I have to contact the human higher-ups immediately, and we must all join together to mobilize the human race to launch a massive attack on the foreign races right now!”
“Within two days, all humans must quickly kill off all the foreign races at sea to minimize the resistance we will meet when the war starts!”
Su Mo slammed his palms on the table. After thinking of the only way out that remained, Su Mo directly summoned the game panel, and sent a curt message to Lu Yongyi asking for the contact information of the human higher-ups.
On the other side, Lu Yongyi did not delay in the slightest. In under two minutes, the information of a person named Long Anguo was sent to Su Mo.
“This is…?”
“The leader of China’s strongest official shelter? Dragon Flag Shelter?”