Chapter 6: Terrifying Disaster, People are Concerned about this Resources

Since Li Tianran's post was quickly deleted, very few people saw it.

And even if someone did see it, most would consider it a prank and not pay attention to it.

In online communities like Tieba, which are filled with mixed elements, there are countless clickbait posts published every day, such as "I, Qin Shi Huang, am giving out money..." or "I am the human form of Ultraman Tiga, after 24 hours, Golza will invade the Earth. Please provide 300 yuan for the travel expenses to the Land of Light to recharge energy. By the way, Gaia and Taro are accompanying me..."

For those highly sensationalized posts, Li Tianran's doomsday message had nothing new to offer. Those who accidentally opened it immediately clicked the "x" in the top right corner.

Furthermore, at this moment, the forum was flooded with posts, causing the request to find Li Tianran's post to quickly scroll down and end up on dozens of pages.

Li Tianran rubbed his chin, closed the forum, and had no intention of contacting the other person proactively.

In this dangerous and chaotic apocalypse, exposing one's identity would be tantamount to seeking death.

Who knows what the other person's intentions might be?

After closing the forum, Li Tianran turned on the television and prepared to watch the news.

However, all major TV stations were playing recorded videos at this time, without any reports on the anomaly. The evening news, which was supposed to be broadcast on time, was already seven minutes overdue.

The television was still showing some nutrition-less soap operas.

Seeing this scene, Li Tianran's mood became even heavier.

If even the evening news couldn't be broadcast normally, what did that indicate?

There are only two possibilities.

One, the media signals were also affected by radiation and in disarray, unable to conduct normal live broadcasts.

But this possibility was almost zero because he had just logged into the forum, and the internet signal was normal.

The second possibility was that the consequences and losses caused by this anomaly were too severe. Even the authorities dared not report the truth of the matter to the public at this time, fearing it would cause greater and more uncontrollable chaos!

"Could people have started dying already?" Li Tianran stood in front of the window, hands gripping the railing, a trace of worry appearing on his forehead.

...

The reality was even worse than Li Tianran had imagined.

7 PM.

Central City Hospital.

The emergency ward was already full, and some patients, unable to secure a bed, could only lie in the corridors, groaning in pain.

A gloomy and tragic scene unfolded, resembling hell on earth.

"Director! Patient in Bed 2 is experiencing rapid breathing, rapid drop in blood pressure, and blood oozing from the chest cavity!"

"Dr. Liu! Patient in Bed 6 is experiencing cardiac arrest!"

"Notify the operating room for resuscitation immediately, prepare to administer epinephrine!"

"Director... the operating room is full!"

In the hospital, numerous doctors and nurses hurriedly rushed around, their figures crossing paths amidst the cries of pain. They had to shout to communicate with each other.

Within three hours, the central hospital received 132 critically ill patients.

They all had the same symptoms.

Rapid pulmonary fibrosis, rapid intestinal perforation.

It was learned through questioning that they were all residents from nearby suburbs who either consumed vegetables stored in their own vegetable cellars or ate mutated cattle and sheep. Within ten minutes, they experienced rapid breathing symptoms, followed by rapid deterioration. By the time more than fifty people were brought to the hospital, they had already stopped breathing.

Dr. Wang, the head of the emergency department, had bloodshot eyes. Even with his forty years of medical experience, he couldn't find any treatment methods to deal with this sudden critical condition.

He could only mechanically support the lives of these critically ill patients with machines and strong heart stimulants.

But he could only sustain them for a few more hours at most.

After a few hours, these patients would unavoidably stop breathing due to multiple organ failures.

"This is an acute poisoning symptom, but it is completely different from the effects of any known element in modern medicine! We can't find targeted drugs!" Dr. Wang forcibly calmed himself down and instructed his assistant, "Immediately issue a public announcement on behalf of the hospital, notifying the media and the publicity department, that all residents of Central City should stop consuming the vegetables and fruits they have stored!"

"Also, find a patient's family member and have them go to the suburbs to obtain some samples of those vegetables that caused the poisoning and send them to the laboratory!"

"Yes!" The assistant replied with a resounding voice.

Li Tianran was well aware that this was because they had consumed vegetables, fruits, and some mutated livestock meat that had been irradiated.

He underestimated the curiosity of some food enthusiasts.

For certain "food bloggers" who could eat even centipedes and bats, vegetables and fruits that had been irradiated and mutated livestock didn't scare them at all; instead, it piqued their interest.

What shocked him even more was the reports stating that there had been nearly a thousand cases of mutated beasts and even mutated humans appearing in various parts of the world.

Li Tianran had thought that a 2% probability wasn't high, so there shouldn't have been so many cases of mutations. But he forgot one thing: even though the probability was low, considering the large global population and the grazing wildlife in some nature reserves, when multiplied together, even a 2% probability resulted in a terrifyingly high number!

At the end of the report, in striking red font, it stated:

"Warning to all citizens of the Yanhuang Federation: Until further notice, please refrain from consuming home-stored vegetables and fruits, and do not consume livestock meat that has undergone significant physical changes!"

The entire report was not very long, comprising just over 200 words.

Compared to news articles that could discuss social and moral issues in thousands of words, this report on the world's environmental changes was miserably short in length.

But Li Tianran knew one thing about news reports.

The fewer the words, the greater the impact!

He continued scrolling down and saw that within ten minutes, there were already hundreds of thousands of comments.

"Looking to buy! Our city is under lockdown, and we have no more food supplies. Can anyone sell some to me at ten times the price?"

"The largest grain merchant in our city was arrested for price gouging!"

"Terrifying! I just threw away all the fruits and vegetables from my refrigerator and washed my hands with disinfectant three or four times..."

"All the farmland was destroyed within a few hours. Could we be facing a famine? The rice and noodles in the supermarket downstairs have been looted. I'm planning to go to the countryside to purchase a batch!"

Li Tianran looked at these comments, and his guess was correct. When disaster showed its fangs, people were most concerned about food resources.

Just then, his phone suddenly rang.

The caller ID read... Zhong Ling.