Chapter 39: The Medical System

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[There are many species of fungi in the world capable of secreting carcinogenic mycotoxins. The most common among them include Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus ochraceus, Penicillium, and Aspergillus species. These fungi typically thrive in damp, warm, and poorly ventilated environments, such as harvested crops, stored grains, fruits, and animal feed. When these substances are infected by such fungi, carcinogenic mycotoxins are produced.]

[Aspergillus flavus can produce a variety of toxins such as aflatoxins B1, B2, G1, and G2, while Aspergillus ochraceus generates toxins including ochratoxins A, B, and C.]

[At present, other fungal toxins known to have carcinogenic effects include those secreted by Aspergillus niger, Gibberella, Botrytis cinerea, Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, Stigmina, Fusarium, Alternaria, and Beauveria species.]

"Recent international reports indicate that customs have detected a large volume of cargo navigating the oceans, mostly carrying variant Gibberella, and a small portion carrying Botrytis cinerea. Inspections reveal that these goods were mostly infected during local handling. Situations of this nature are emerging endlessly, and illnesses caused by mycotoxins have already placed extreme pressure on local healthcare systems..."

"Aspergillus ochraceus infection has been detected in Australian kangaroos. Post-mortem examinations revealed hepatic and renal lesions..."

"The medical system in India has collapsed, leaving tens of thousands of people with no access to medical treatment..."

Xu Chen was reading through documents while searching for news related to the relevant keywords. He would never have known had he not looked, but what he found was deeply alarming. It turned out that this bizarre fungal infection had swept across the globe, placing enormous pressure on the world's healthcare systems, with medical infrastructure in quite a few regions outright collapsing.

Following the initial brief outbreak, many nations had suppressed information to protect their public image. Eventually, when containment became impossible, the outbreaks erupted all at once, and now practically everyone was scrambling for help everywhere.

A healthcare system is a nation's most vital public health indicator. Its collapse means that the majority of the population cannot receive medical treatment. Aside from those already admitted to hospital wards and those wealthy enough to buy their lives with money, everyone else is simply left to await death.

Once a medical system collapses, it implies a drastic surge in mortality rates.

Yet, given modern medicine and healthcare infrastructure, making a medical system collapse is actually a very difficult feat.

If one were to introduce the Black Death, smallpox, and the Spanish influenza—diseases that nearly annihilated nations in past history—and have anti-human, anti-moral extremists release them within a city, the death of a few hundred people would merely be considered government inaction, while a thousand deaths would directly constitute a major catastrophe.

However, to reduce the population proportionally? To bring society to a grinding halt? That would likely prove somewhat difficult.

To break a modern healthcare system, one must rely on diseases that have never previously broken out and for which no specific antidotes exist.

Xu Chen noticed that the fungal infections abroad seemed different from those along the domestic coastline. The overseas infections did not appear to have reached such a terrifying degree. One had to remember that the patients he had witnessed in his internship group barely even looked human anymore.

Abroad, however, it seemed the infection was merely spreading through the environment, with very few cases of direct human infection.

The people who fell ill overseas had essentially ingested massive quantities of mycotoxins from their surroundings.

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Xu Chen had learned during his time in the internship group that the most immediate effects of mycotoxins are actually liver damage, immune system suppression, neurotoxicity, and digestive system problems. In the case of fetuses, there are also developmental issues. As for the risk of cancer, it is only induced by small doses over long periods.

The Aspergillus flavus strain, on the other hand, was an upgraded version. It also possessed the ability to directly plunder nutrients and tissue fluids from the human body. Symptomatically, it could infect and destroy deep tissues, far more aggressive than the overseas version. Liver damage and the like were trivial issues by comparison.

Fortunately, due to its conspicuous infection patterns and timely reporting, this Aspergillus flavus outbreak had been forcefully contained. Nevertheless, to prevent the re-transmission and spread of this mutated fungus, the state was still organizing personnel to develop medications.

Xu Chen wrote a line of text on a piece of paper.

[Outbreak of weakened fungal infections abroad]

Aside from this line, the paper on his desk also contained what he had written earlier:

[Song Tian's father falls ill with cancer]

[Mycotoxins can cause liver damage, immune system suppression, neurotoxic effects, digestive system shutdown, and cancer]

[Outbreak of strengthened fungal infection domestically; has been contained]

[Domestic outbreak of the 'Taihao' pathology; has been contained]

He gazed at the notes for a moment, then crossed out the last item. Xu Chen frowned as he looked at these paragraphs, feeling a lingering sense that something was amiss. An intuition told him that the problem might lie right here.

Suddenly, he recalled a piece of news he had accidentally stumbled upon earlier and jotted it down:

[Domestic healthcare and public health pressure surging drastically]

After writing it down, he stared at it intently. After pondering for a while, he shook his head helplessly, crossed out everything he had written, and jotted down a conclusion at the bottom:

[The sudden surge in pressure on domestic public health services may be caused by tritium-laden water entering the inland water cycle, leading to an increase in patients...]

Before he could finish writing, his heart skipped a beat, followed by a wave of suspicion and unease.

Why was he so certain? That the surge in domestic public health pressure was caused by tritium water? That didn't make sense. Shouldn't he have verified the facts first before jumping to conclusions?

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Xu Chen looked at the words he had crossed out and copied them down again. As he read the final sentence, he felt a flood of thoughts erupting in his mind, yet every single thought was intensely chaotic, their contents completely obscured.

He tried to write. Even though he was thinking of nothing at all, what flowed from his pen remained... [The sudden surge in pressure on domestic public health services may be caused by tritium-laden water entering the inland water cycle, leading to an increase in patients...]

Xu Chen suddenly thought of Elder Ge. He had previously mused that since this Cthulhu entity could deal with Elder Ge, it could naturally snuff him out just as easily.

Right now, it might be targeting him.

Terror gripped him, followed immediately by a surge of defiance. He cast a glance around; the dormitory was completely normal. Realizing that since he had already clashed with it head-on, it was glaringly obvious the entity would not let him go, he decided to find out whatever Cthulhu was trying to conceal. Even if it killed him, he suppressed his fear and took to the internet to search.

He quickly noticed a news article detailing how, after the initial alarm had been raised domestically, authorities had responded promptly. In remote, unpopulated areas along the first tier, they had carried out large-scale artificial precipitation to intercept moisture in the air, implemented strict monitoring of subsequent rainwater that had already entered the inland regions, and constructed numerous water treatment plants.

One could say that outside of the coastal areas, the impact elsewhere had been reduced to an absolute minimum—so low that it could by no means place pressure on local healthcare systems.

Then Xu Chen conducted further searches and discovered that this time, the places experiencing a sudden surge in domestic medical pressure were not just coastal regions; inland areas were also experiencing outbreaks of bizarre illnesses. This could by no means be attributed solely to tritium-laden water vapor.

Because, as Xu Chen observed, there was a high volume of immune-related disorders. These could not be triggered by radioactive substances, nor could they be simply caused by toxins.

Suddenly, he thought of Song Tian's father. He opened his phone, flipped through his father's medical records, located several reports he hadn't understood earlier, and captured the key phrase: It is hypothesized that the bone lesions are caused by immune system dysfunction.

He froze for a moment, then picked up his pen and wrote on the paper:

[Because its previous methods failed, Cthulhu is suspected of using alternative means to sicken domestic personnel]

[Did Cthulhu take notice of us because of our countermeasures? Is it employing pathogenic methods different from those used against other countries?]

[Cthulhu's objective remains the reduction of the world's population, much like an exterminator clearing pests from a field. If one poison fails, it simply switches to another.]

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