Seized by the System

The news about the invention of the all-purpose bacteria was soon spreading within a circle.

After all, the Biosphere Plan was initially a joint effort by many countries. To achieve complete secrecy was an impossible feat.

The Greater Rat Underground Kingdom.

“We must get our hands on this newly invented all-purpose bacteria,” said Bai Shixin to a few trusted personnel in his study.

“The said all-purpose bacteria is just some little insects that can’t be seen. Is it really that important?” Excluding Bai Shifu stood in quiet agreement, the others had some doubts.

“It’s not important, but extremely important. Because of its appearance, now we can completely solve our problem of land capacity,” Bai Shixin explained patiently.

“The Land of Culinary is divided into four parts. The Venerable Dragon God’s land is in the middle, ours in the northeast, the Culinary God’s in northwest, and the God of Plagues’ in the south. Among these four pieces of land, as long as we invest enough funds and manpower for a large-scale development while the other three are left untouched, their need is far less urgent than ours.

“This all-purpose bacteria can significantly increase the capacity of the ecosphere. With it, this one fourth of the arcane realm land, despite being only around thirty thousand square kilometers in area, could still support the survival of the entire clan and become our base. Since this particular arcane realm requires clan energy from our Greater Rat Clan to sustain itself, remaining with the current arrangements would be the safest option for us. The other three gods won’t do us any harm.”

Hearing all these, his confidants began nodding, finally comprehending the importance of the all-purpose bacteria.

Only the arcane realm was a truly safe place. This point had already become the consensus in the Era of Mystery.

The outer world had been seeing an endless emergence of ghosts, monsters, and various forces of evil as well as a variety of mutated beings produced from the interweaving of mystery and technology. This situation had brought disasters that caused the current state of instability.

Now, following the deepening of the power of the mysterious side, these strange and inexplicable things had been growing in number as well.

It was said that their emergence were not only found on Earth, but had even spread to the nearby Mars and Venus. These creatures were just like an ulcer that was spreading across the entire universe.

Even if Vigilante A, the Eastern Pharos, could previously prevent the harm caused by these evil beings in advance, now the hero would be mostly playing the role of a police officer in the movies… Only arriving when lives had been taken, although the perpetrators would not be able to escape in most cases.

Nonetheless, those who were clear-headed would not complain much about this, because it was a known fact that the opponent was overwhelming force to be reckoned with. Usually, within a second, disastrous events could simultaneously occur at dozens of places all over the Earth.

It was very challenging for the hero too…

“I heard that it’s still undergoing repeated tests. It probably won’t have any latent dangers, right?” Bai Shifu raised a concern.

“There’ll definitely be some hidden dangers involved. This was the God of Plagues’ creation, and since when did he have any kindness in him? Destruction was his nature. If I didn’t guess wrongly, this all-purpose bacteria will definitely have some kind of a valve that can only be controlled by his divine power. Once this valve is opened, this bacteria will instantly become an all-devouring wicked spirit,” Bai Shixin said impassively.

“Then, what should we do?” Bai Shifu became terrified, for he understood very clearly what the person was describing. If that became a reality, how horrible things would be then.

“Don’t worry. If I can think of this, so can those people. They’ll surely find a way to manage such a risk, even though the price to be paid will be very large,” Bai Shixin said, shaking his head.

“I see. Then, what should be our next move for now?” Bai Shifu asked.

He used to work as a spy, so he knew how tricky this matter could be. There were many big forces involved in this. If one of them was not handled properly, they could easily bring trouble upon themselves.

“This time, we’ll be relying on public opinion…” Bai Shixin calmly said.

Then, he explained to them what they needed to do next.

…

It was before daybreak at a city somewhere in Southern China.

The manhole cover of a sewer was suddenly turned over. A nimble Greater Rat was carrying a bundle of newspapers as it came out of the sewer.

During the earliest revolt of the Greater Rats, they made use of the ubiquitous underground passages to enter each and every city.

Until today, although they had achieved a balance with the humans, these passaged were still well-preserved.

Soon, the Greater Rat had posted the newpapers in every street and alley.

Meanwhile, just like it, there were a few million other Greater Rats carrying out the same task.

As expected, when morning came, everyone noticed these newspapers on the walls.

Quite a few of them had even took pictures of these with their phones and uploaded them online…　”The all-purpose bacteria is the common wealth of all beings on the Earth!”

…

When Fang Ning woke up to this news, he did not know whether to laugh or to cry.

This was obviously a product that resulted from the joint investment from a few countries. Meanwhile, its development was started by the God of Plagues, and was completed by Monk Zhi Nan. It was already a stretch to consider it the wealth of all humanity, but for these people behind the scenes to forcibly call it “the wealth of all beings on the Earth”, their intention became clear as day.

“This must be the work of those wicked beings. As for the question of which one of them in particular, it can’t be easier to know. Ever since Cang Lang was imprisoned, the Demon Alliance had collapsed, so those must be the only demons left with the forces to act as such…” Fang Ning shook his head.

“Does this affect us in any way?” Sir System asked curiously.

“Not really, since we aren’t aiming to make money with this. Actually, with the progress we’ve achieved right now, we don’t have to concern ourselves with such low-level mindset of making money anymore. What we need is to develop our production capacity and enhance our ability to manufacture the item instead of focusing on earning money from others,” Fang Ning went straight to the point.

“I don’t understand. Can you speak in a language that a system can understand?” Sir System said frankly.

“It’s quite simple. The products we need the most are various types of pills and some related herbs as well as those seeds of malevolent spirits. The production of these items is most important, for no matter how much money we earn, if the money can’t be converted into these products, then it’ll all be meaningless.” Fang Ning understood the situation very clearly.

“I see, so even if the production method for this all-purpose bacteria were to be disclosed, it wouldn’t pose us any problems, because we only need it to enhance our production capability for these daily commodities.” Sir System came to a sudden realization.

Fang Ning nodded. “That’s how it is, so we can just observe from aside for now.”

At the same time, those who were also feeling unsure whether to laugh or cry included Ren Ruofeng and other relevant personnel.

“These rats are really interesting. Do they really that by inciting public opinion, we’ll then let them use this arduously developed product for free?” an administrative secretary said with disdain.

“You’re wrong. They’re not that naive. The truth is, their goal is very simple, that is, to remind us that they’re also aware of the existence of this product. If we use it only for ourselves without promoting it, then they’ll hold a moral upper hand that they can use against us in the future,” Ren Ruofeng explained while shaking his head.

“I see.” That administrative secretary finally came to an understanding. “If we promote its usage, it’ll still be easily obtainable from the market. If we don’t promote it, however, the other human nations will certainly not be pleased.”

“It’s not just them. Even that master wouldn’t agree that we use it only for ourselves, since he’s not Chinese like us,” Ren Ruofeng said with resignation.

“It seems like we’ve been put in checkmate again,” the people said in dissatisfaction.

“That’s not true. This product was never ours in the first place.” Ren Ruofeng did not share their disappointment. After all, his true goal would not be affected by this turn of events.