Hunter of Mysterious Creature-Chapter 469 - 81: Immunity Test (Part 2)

"It's best not to...unless absolutely necessary, we don't want to use any coercive or violent means!" Sun Qiong quickly said.

"Then can I hypnotize her?" Sun Hang asked, "Don't be quick to deny it, just hypothetically speaking, suppose I can hypnotize her without anyone knowing, making her obedient and compliant; and after lifting the hypnosis, even she wouldn't notice anything unusual... If these conditions are met, can I hypnotize her?"

Sun Qiong fell silent.

"Alright, I understand what you mean." Sun Hang smiled and patted Sun Qiong on the shoulder, "You can trust me with the person."

Having dealt with Sun Qiong, Sun Hang then approached Yuri.

"Take me to the containment room of the 'Crimson Spore.'" Sun Hang said directly.

"Are you sure you want to ingest the 'Crimson Spore'?" Yuri asked, "That thing's biological toxicity is not what you imagine..."

"Is this 'Crimson Spore' as dangerous as E-423?"

"It's impossible to compare the dangers of the Crimson Spore with E-423; they are two completely different types of enigmatic entities..." Yuri sighed, "Since you insist on engulfing the 'Crimson Spore,' according to my previous suggestion, you should first try to see if you can withstand the spore toxin diluted four million times. If so, we can then consider the matter of engulfing the enigmatic entity itself."

"Alright." Sun Hang agreed.

The "poison testing" was chosen to be conducted in another fully-enclosed vacant containment room. Outside the containment room, a medical team of more than fifty people was on high alert. Inside, besides Sun Hang, there was only a remotely-controlled multifunctional medical robot.

"We will inject 0.1 ml of the spore toxin, diluted four million times, intradermally. If a poisoning reaction is detected, we will immediately amputate the limb on the side that received the injection to prevent the toxin from spreading..." Yuri's voice came from the loudspeaker.

"With just such a small amount of toxin, even if I am poisoned, my body can metabolize it away, right?" Sun Hang wondered.

The strength of toxicity is always linked to the dosage and the target's weight — the same drop of pesticide is deadly to a small insect, but for a human who weighs a hundred thousand times more than the insect, this small amount of toxicity can at most cause some mild discomfort... or even no discomfort at all before the toxin is metabolized away by the body.

"The toxin of the Crimson Spore is different... It's more resembling a virus, seizing the target's cellular energy and nutrients quickly and replicating itself rapidly..."

"Isn't that just a virus?"

"But the toxin of the Crimson Spore lacks a complete cellular structure and nucleic acid... Once detached from the spore body, even the enigmatic memetics cannot detect it, so we don't consider it a biological or enigmatic entity, but rather categorize it as an extremely unusual 'toxin.'"

"Does this toxin spread?" Sun Hang asked again.

"Yes, it can spread through air, liquid, or direct contact." Yuri confirmed, "But this toxin is so potent that those poisoned die within a short time, and in the absence of 'nutrients,' it loses activity in the natural environment within just one hour... As long as the 'Crimson Spore' is not spreading, the pure spore toxin is difficult to widely propagate."

"But didn't you say earlier that this thing can't be used as a weapon?" Sun Hang questioned, "Why don't you use spores, instead of extracting the toxin and weaponizing it?"

"The toxin is difficult to preserve, no matter what means we use, the extracted toxin can't be stored for more than an hour... thus it's hard to turn into a weapon."

As soon as Yuri finished speaking, a sealed test tube slid out from a tube loaded with numerous protective measures and landed accurately into the gel sleeve attached below.

The liquid inside the test tube was clear and transparent, appearing just like water.

"This is the freshly extracted Crimson Spore toxin, already diluted four million times, yet still capable of killing any known living organism." Yuri said.

The multifunctional medical robot removed the metal seal from the test tube, inserting the needle of a syringe into it, and after withdrawing exactly one milliliter of liquid, the robotic arm holding the syringe turned towards Sun Hang's right arm, which he had already rolled up his sleeve.

"Prepare for injection." Yuri softly reminded, in his voice it seemed he had already held his breath.

The needle approached slowly, accompanied by a slight sting akin to a mosquito bite, the sharpest part of the needle pierced slightly into Sun Hang's skin.

As the piston pushed, under the robot's precise control, a tenth of the liquid in the syringe was injected into Sun Hang's skin.

A shallow bulge appeared.

Three seconds passed.

Thirty seconds passed.

Five minutes passed.

Thirty minutes passed.

The liquid injected beneath the skin was fully absorbed, the swollen area had also flattened, yet Sun Hang did not feel any discomfort, and none of the multitude of monitoring devices connected to the medical robot triggered any alarms.

"The VIP's vital signs are all normal!"

"Meme frequency is all normal, no changes!"

"No poisoning reaction detected... the toxin disappeared immediately after entering the VIP's body!"

The successive reports from the subordinates plunged Yuri into deep self-doubt — even though he had anticipated before the skin test that it was plausible for Sun Hang to be immune to the Crimson Spore's toxin, when faced with the truth, he was still overwhelmed by a strong sense of unreality.

"Everything is normal... this in itself is the greatest abnormality." Staring at Sun Hang in the containment room, Yuri muttered to himself, "No, what's abnormal is not this lab, not the Crimson Spore, and not even this world... the abnormality is him, he's practically like..."

Yuri sighed, opened the microphone, and said: "Good news, you seem to really be immune to the Crimson Spore's toxin. For safety's sake, I suggest increasing the toxin concentration by four times, diluted to one million times, and performing the test again..."

"Aren't you getting bored?" Sun Hang snarked, "First, it's diluted four million times, then one million, what's next? Five hundred thousand? One hundred thousand? One thousand? A hundred times? How many tests are you planning?"

"For your safety, gradually reducing the dosage is the most prudent approach."

"Just go with the undiluted toxin, test it one last time, and if there's no problem, take me there directly." Sun Hang said, "However, I think, based on your description, there seems to be no difference between a dilution of four million times and undiluted."

"Huh?" Yuri was taken aback.

"You said this toxin would pillage the host cell's energy and nutrients like a virus, rapidly replicating itself, so as long as the dosage entering the body isn't zero, over time it should replicate exponentially... yet up to now, you haven't detected any toxin presence in me, doesn't that mean it can't replicate inside my body? If that's the case, what difference does it make between four million times dilution and undiluted toxin?"

Yuri wanted to say that it could also be that the toxin, diluted by four million times, perished before contacting any of Sun Hang's cells... but he couldn't bring himself to voice this thought.

Because they previously conducted an experiment, using a four million times diluted Crimson Spore toxin, same as before: a 0.1 ml intradermal injection... except the subject was a 3.7-ton hippopotamus...

That hippopotamus only lasted for 415 seconds after the injection before completely dissolving into a pool of blood.