Chapter 103: Other People's Buildings

Our Apartment Complex Transmigrated… Again

"This thing... I remember they seem to be colonial creatures." Qin Ziwen frowned, recalling the contents of the guidebook. It recorded that the Forest Giant Mayfly was a type of aquatic insect that lived long-term at the bottom of lakes and rivers.

In this form, they generally maintained it for 3 to 4 years.

During this period, they usually gathered at the bottom of broad water bodies, feeding on small fish, algae, and aquatic plants.

As they approached adulthood, they would generally swim upstream, moving closer to the forested areas along the upper reaches of the river, while also gnawing on any aquatic creatures they encountered along the way.

On one hand, it was because the forested areas had more abundant food, and on the other hand, it was a kind of "return" for them, similar to the upstream migration of certain salmon species.

Every year when producing offspring, they would swim upstream from freshwater lakes and rivers, returning to the place where they were originally conceived.

However, the Forest Giant Mayfly had a fatal weakness during its aquatic form.

Its static vision was almost zero. When facing it, as long as one maintained a motionless posture, it would basically regard the other as a piece of wood and choose to ignore it.

But once the other party chose to swim, they would swarm all at once.

Since these insects weren't at the river bottom before, it indicated that this area wasn't their usual habitat. Their appearance now meant they had already begun their migration.

After the Forest Giant Mayfly began its migration, it would take at most a week, at least two or three days, before entering the pupation stage.

Their pupation was collective. When one individual began to pupate, it would secrete a special hormone, causing all its counterparts in the nearby watershed to complete pupation within a day.

After pupation, the Forest Giant Mayfly's mouthparts would completely degenerate, losing their feeding ability, and their lifespan would be reduced to only a few hours to three days. During this period, they would dance, mate, and reproduce freely above the river surface and in the forest canopy, laying egg masses into the water, the grass by the riverbank, and the crevices between stones.

Therefore, these Forest Giant Mayflies would begin collective pupation in at most a few days. The insects in the river were troublesome at this stage, but it wouldn't last long.

Because to aid their pupation, they would attack all moving living creatures in the water during this period to help themselves accumulate energy.

Qin Ziwen pondered, wondering what benefits he could gain from this.

After thinking for a moment, he felt the simplest thing was to purchase those fishing and angling tools.

Since the river now had a large number of Forest Giant Mayfly larvae, these tools would definitely depreciate in value.

Buy them low first, then sell them high later, and he could absolutely make a profit from the round trip.

But after thinking about it, he felt it wasn't necessary.

Making pure disaster profits, that kind of money felt too hot to handle.

And since everyone was poor, he couldn't earn much anyway.

Qin Ziwen and Zhao Pu walked back together. "Doctor Zhao, how is the infectious disease situation now?"

Zhao Pu said, "It's okay, much better than a few days ago. It's barely contained for now. Those households with sick family members have also formed two hunting teams.

Currently, this disease has a relatively high fatality rate, primarily targeting the elderly, children, and patients with underlying conditions. The mortality rate for the elderly and children after infection is around 60 percent, while for healthy adults it's around 25 percent."

Hearing these numbers, even with psychological preparation, Qin Ziwen's heart still sank.

"When you say underlying conditions, you mean..."

Zhao Pu said, "Diseases like diabetes, hypertension, kidney disease, liver disease. These diseases weaken the immune system, leading to low immunity."

Speaking of this, Zhao Pu smiled bitterly. "This infectious disease progresses relatively quickly from the incubation period to onset. Fortunately, it's not the kind with a long incubation period. Also, the price of Western medicine has been skyrocketing recently, basically making one medicine hard to come by."

As they talked, the two arrived downstairs.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

The sound of someone banging on a door came from upstairs, very close.

Zhao Pu said, "It should be that team specifically for moving corpses. Within the Alliance, there's a team specifically responsible for handling corpses. They're usually almost never seen. Whenever someone dies, they come to the door to move the bodies. They're probably breaking into unit 202 right now."

Qin Ziwen went upstairs. On the second-floor corridor, he saw the mysterious team Zhao Pu mentioned.

There were seven people in total. One person was in charge of directing, two stood behind with their hands in their pockets, two were using hammers to smash the door handle, and the remaining two were carrying two simple stretchers.

Except for the person directing and the two with their hands in their pockets who had short hair, the other four all had long hair. They were silent and had sallow complexions.

Qin Ziwen stopped. He recognized at a glance that these four with long hair were definitely not modern people but recruited ancients.

Their aura was even more familiar.

It was almost identical to the refugees who had fled to the Porridge Shed.

They carried an aura of exhaustion, numbness, and oppression.

These four people... they also seemed to be ancient refugees?

Qin Ziwen almost simultaneously thought of the Porridge Shed.

Someone within the Alliance must have obtained a building card for the Porridge Shed and then recruited a large number of refugees from it.

They were making these refugees work for them.

Using refugees to discard corpses, even if a refugee accidentally got infected with germs, they only needed to abandon the refugee, drive them away, and stop providing porridge to sustain them. The refugee carrying the germs would naturally leave.

And after the original resident was moved away, all the things in the original house would become their resources.

This business was indeed profitable.

Qin Ziwen sighed inwardly, but this was also a good thing.

After all, if corpses weren't handled and were left at home for too long, they would rot. Combined with the germs in the corpses, it could even lead to germ mutation, causing secondary infections and breeding more terrifying diseases.

Using these refugees compared to using the original residents of the residential complex was indeed the most "cost-effective" method.

This also opened up a new use for him.

The refugees in the Porridge Shed could serve as "consumables" in critical moments.

At the corridor corner, the man responsible for supervision glanced at Qin Ziwen and them and spoke up, "Wait a moment."

"Bang! Bang! Clang~"

The sound of banging on the door didn't stop. With a clang, something fell to the ground.

The door was pulled open.

In the corridor, the man responsible for supervision took a mask out of his pocket and put it on. "I suggest you step aside, otherwise it won't be easy to carry them downstairs."

Qin Ziwen and Zhao Pu came out of the corridor and stood outside the unit door.

Zhao Pu looked left and right, then leaned in and said in a low voice, "Four of them inside don't look like they're from our residential complex."

Qin Ziwen said, "They should be recruited."

Getting Qin Ziwen's confirmation, Zhao Pu just felt it was extravagant. "I heard one Recruitment Card can only recruit one person. Such a precious thing, and they actually use them to carry corpses? Aren't they afraid of getting infected with diseases?"

Like this kind of obedient, intelligent, and physically sound adult male, anyone who obtained one could treat them as their "second pair of arms."

Yet such precious recruited members were actually used to carry corpses of those who died from infectious diseases. If they accidentally got infected, wouldn't that card be directly wasted!

And sending out four people at once, Zhao Pu couldn't imagine how extravagantly wealthy the person behind this must be.

If Qin Ziwen didn't have the Porridge Shed, perhaps he would have sighed the same as Zhao Pu.

But he also had a Porridge Shed and understood the logic behind it, so he found it rather ordinary.

Qin Ziwen asked Zhao Pu, "Do you know who sent this team?"

Zhao Pu shook his head. "I don't know. I only know it's from the Alliance's higher-ups. As for who specifically sent them out, I'm not clear either."

Just as the two were talking, footsteps sounded behind them.

They turned around. The four people behind them passed by carrying two stretchers.

The stretchers were covered with bedsheets, so faces couldn't be seen.

But in the air, a faint smell of corpse decay drifted.

......