Chapter 327: In the Name of Justice
"Get all production lines running! Produce Antidote No. 1 at full capacity!"
Regardless of whether they were large, medium, or small pharmaceutical factories, as long as they possessed the relevant production capabilities, they all received urgent orders from the authorities at this moment, commanding them to produce Antidote No. 1, which could suppress the Spirit Devourer virus, at the fastest possible speed.
Under the immense pressure from above and the supervision of inspection teams, no one dared to delay. Employees on leave were urgently recalled, raw material suppliers remained on standby, and both raw materials and finished products were exclusively airlifted by specially approved cargo planes. All procedures were fast-tracked, with everything serving the singular goal of speed.
This new medicine, jointly developed by several nations at any cost, had bypassed approval processes, animal testing, and went straight to human trials. Everything had to make way for speed, because every additional day of delay meant the lives of tens of thousands of ability users.
Many of those infected were key figures in the upper echelons of society. To save more of them, the entire society was mobilized.
Where there was light, there was also shadow. For the sake of saving the lives of more useful people, those participating in the human trials could only be allowed to sacrifice themselves for the greater good. Sacrificing a few hundred people for drug testing in exchange for tens of thousands surviving—numerically, it seemed like a cost-effective solution no matter how one looked at it.
As for the thoughts of those who were sacrificed, after all, this was a democratic era where the interests of the majority took precedence. The dissenting voices of the minority could be completely ignored, especially since their voices couldn't even be heard.
"Should we... make this information public?" After acquiring intelligence regarding the internal details of Antidote No. 1's production through certain channels, the members of the Fruit Pit organization found themselves in deep thought for the first time.
Because the Spirit Devourer virus outbreak was too sudden, the joint research laboratory established to combat it was put together in a rush. Some of their confidentiality measures were far from perfect, allowing the Fruit Pit organization, which was dedicated to exposing various inhumane experiments, to obtain relevant intelligence without much difficulty.
"This is an inhumane experiment! Nearly a thousand people have died during the drug testing process in just over ten days! Why aren't we exposing all of this to the public?! Make them stop such behavior."
"But the purpose of doing this is also to save more people! Developing an antidote against the Spirit Devourer virus one day earlier could save thousands more lives."
"This is doing injustice in the name of justice!"
"Outcome justice is more important than procedural justice!"
"This outcome isn't just at all! Why should those few hundred people have to sacrifice their lives for strangers?! They've even been stripped of their right to resist."
...
Inside the provisional headquarters of the Fruit Pit, such debates were happening everywhere, with people gathered in small groups of two or three.
Every individual capable of joining the Fruit Pit organization possessed a considerably high level of knowledge, and being natural ability users themselves, they could be considered elite members of humanity. Their ideological disputes quickly escalated to the philosophical and moral plane.
The age-old dilemma of whether it's worth sacrificing one life to save five, a problem that had tormented humanity for countless years, had now stepped out of storybooks and become a real-life case perplexing everyone.
"How do you think we should handle this?" a newcomer asked Xiao Changqing, a senior member of the Fruit Pit.
As an elder of the Fruit Pit organization, Xiao Changqing held considerable sway within the group and frequently guided newcomers on relevant struggle experiences, earning the trust of many. Thus, during this divergence, people quickly sought his opinion.
"My conscience opposes such actions, but unfortunately, every one of us is a beneficiary of this medicine, making it difficult to view the issue from a neutral standpoint. Some members of the organization have also been infected by the Spirit Devourer, and asking them to resist Antidote No. 1 at the cost of their own lives is clearly unrealistic."
After years of struggle, the once purely idealistic Xiao Changqing had, unfortunately, been largely smoothed out by the edges of reality.
Before striking against bloody laboratories, he had learned to first investigate the opponent's background, analyze the stakes, and confirm that he wouldn't provoke certain behemoths before finally executing a plan.
Because they lacked the power to completely overturn the table, they had to learn to compromise rather than rush headlong into self-destruction.
To be a pure idealist, to carry one's ideals through to the end without compromise, required a force capable of crushing all obstacles.
Countless people, including himself, were quietly biding their time, hoping to accumulate enough power to realize their ideals. Unfortunately, those who could truly maintain their original aspirations without changing, rather than eventually blending with the dust, were simply too few during this long wait.
Xiao Changqing himself didn't know if he would ultimately belong to that tiny minority of successful individuals.
"I see..." Not hearing the answer he desired, the newcomer was clearly somewhat disappointed, but he said nothing, merely walking silently to another discussion circle, hoping to find more people who shared his viewpoint.
Like many others, he had already made his choice before asking, and what he truly sought was merely agreement from others.
Holding a cup of coffee, Xiao Changqing roughly guessed the truth from the look of disappointment in the other's eyes. In that faint disappointment, he saw a reflection of his past self.
"One day, I will accumulate enough power to prohibit all these immoral experiments!" After being spurred by the expression in the junior's eyes, he swallowed the coffee that had lingered in his mouth and secretly swore.
"Thump-thump, thump-thump..."
In the experimental grounds on the outskirts of Tianqing, a rhythmic sound, like a heartbeat, suddenly emerged. The sound wasn't loud but was incredibly eerie, seemingly able to transmit directly into everyone's minds, causing a resonance.
"Did you feel that?" Chen Xi, who lived in the outer area, paused her hand mid-stroke as she combed Hua Qing's hair, turning her gaze towards the center of the experimental grounds.
"Mhm, my heart seems to be beating to that rhythm too."
As the capital of the Huaxia Federation, Tianqing City concentrated a large population, naturally becoming an epicenter for the Spirit Devourer virus.
Chen Xi, who originally lived within Tianqing City and commuted an hour by car to the experimental grounds for work each day, had, to escape this highly contagious virus, directly moved with Hua Qing into the experimental grounds. After multiple expansions, its area was now comparable to a small city.
On a daily basis, apart from the staff responsible for receiving materials and a small number of guards, the vast experimental grounds were entirely under Bai Mo's control. He and his avatars jointly utilized the hundreds of laboratories spread across more than ten square kilometers.
This sufficiently spacious and safe environment naturally became her first choice after leaving the urban area of Tianqing City.
Ten minutes ago.
In the underground core area of the experimental grounds, a well-proportioned human body was slowly placed into a massive liquid nitrogen sealed storage unit. To the naked eye, there wasn't a single living person around, only a few automatically operating machines continuously maintaining the enormous central storage unit.
"Finally, it's handled."
After Bai Mo's complete fusion, the soul that had emerged from his body meticulously scanned his main physical body, now cryogenically preserved, inch by inch, with molecular-level precision using his divine sense. After confirming there were no issues, he was ready to formally begin the latter half of the Chemosynthesis process: Refining Spirit.
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