Chapter 1 Disaster

"Disaster,"

Alphonse seemed lost in memories. He lowered his head and said quietly, "Have the people on the ground forgotten the truth of this matter?

"Heh, that's normal. After all, even I've forgotten how long it's been. Twenty years, or thirty..."

Without waiting for the player to urge him, Alphonse took a deep breath and said, lifting his head, "Where should I begin...

"I am Alphonse Anderson, a multi-billionaire, the most outstanding biochemist of the 21st century, a philanthropist, and also the owner of the Libra Corporation.

"When I took over my father's position, Libra Corporation was just a local, unremarkable juice factory in Boston. But by the second millennium, Libra Corporation had grown into a monopolistic giant, providing chemical bliss to people all over the world."

Mentioning these things, Alphonse's tone became lively. He glanced at the silent player in the protective suit and sighed softly,

"You may have forgotten the name of this company, but at the time, Libra Corporation symbolized wealth and hope.

"Libra Corporation made its fortune with functional drinks. Countless people attributed my success to my talent in biochemistry,

"But they didn't know that my biochemical talent was only outstanding, not top-notch.

"Most of my achievements are due to the 'Master Edition.'"

Stonemason frowned and said, "Master Edition?"

"To be precise, it's a biological Master Edition."

Alphonse said somberly, "After my father died, I was depressed for a long time. On a friend's advice, I went to the Keweenaw Peninsula in northern Michigan for a trip.

"In a fractured shale layer in the wild, I dug out a plate-like object composed of chitin, hair, and carapace, similar to a computer motherboard.

"I took it back to Boston, and in the process of preparing to take it to the university laboratory for testing, I accidentally cut my finger and dropped a drop of blood on the Master Edition..."

Alphonse Anderson paused, seemingly lost in some bad memories,

"As I watched, it absorbed the blood like a sponge and quickly transformed it into some kind of powder.

"I took the powder for testing and found that its composition was similar to methylphenidate, a psychiatric drug that can adjust dopamine.

"After constant experiments, I found that as long as the Master Edition came into contact with organic matter such as dead skin cells, hair, chitin, and enamel,

"It would absorb it and transform it into random compounds.

"Some of these compounds were already known to humans, while others had never been discovered..."

Alphonse Anderson smiled miserably, "At that time, Libra Corporation's business was not good. Seeing that the company was about to go bankrupt,

"I used the gifts of the biological Master Edition, pretending that I had invented new compounds, and introduced the compounds into functional drinks.

"The new functional drinks were very popular, and the company was revived. I, who had been worried about being discovered the existence of the Master Edition, gradually became bolder,

"Spent money to build a hidden laboratory, constantly exploring the functions of the biological Master Edition.

"Within a dozen years, using the biological Master Edition, I 'invented' harmless cigarettes, efficient and pollution-free pesticides, new biological fertilizers, chemical patches... and accumulated a lot of wealth.

"I invested in charity, fighting against hunger, ignorance, and disease.

"People frantically praised and respected me, hailing me as the most outstanding scholar and the most conscientious businessman..."

Li Ang raised an eyebrow. It seemed that Mr. Alphonse Anderson's early life was like a web novel about a top student.

*The Top Student's Biochemistry System, I Just Want to Be a Quiet Boston Top Student, Rebirth as a Boston Top Student*

"But, hehe, once the word 'but' is added to a perfect story, it symbolizes the arrival of tragedy."

Alphonse Anderson smiled miserably, "All the gifts of fate are secretly

"Marked with a price.

"In November of the second millennium, an autopsy report of a Libra Corporation employee who died of overwork caught my attention.

"His brain contained a very small amount of abnormal DNA, similar to that caused by prions."

Prions were discovered in the 1950s by American biochemist Stanley Prusiner in the Fore tribe of cannibals in Papua New Guinea.

Although named a virus, it is not a virus. It has no DNA or RNA.

Strictly speaking, it is not even a living thing, but merely some structurally abnormal proteins that do not contain nucleic acids.

It cannot replicate itself, but rather polymerizes with normal proteins, transforming them into proteins identical to prions, which accumulate in human central nervous system cells, eventually damaging the brain and making it spongy.

Alphonse continued, "Since prions usually accumulate in the central nervous system, the most common way to spread them is by eating brains, so it is difficult to spread them on a large scale except for cannibalism.

"I checked the employee's living records and did not find that he had any experience of eating people.

"Feeling uneasy, I immediately arranged a physical examination for the entire company and found that all employees, including myself, contained a small amount of structurally abnormal proteins.

"I was so frightened that I immediately collected samples from all over the world and found that humans all over the world were 'infected' with this structurally abnormal protein."

Twilight Knight couldn't help but say, "How is that possible?"

"Yes, how is that possible? Every time I used the compounds provided by the biological Master Edition, I would carefully check them again and again to ensure that they were harmless to the human body.

"After careful searching, I found that this type of structurally abnormal protein came from a type of bio-fertilizer produced by our Libra Corporation in the early 1990s.

"This new type of fertilizer, which is produced and sold all over the world because of its efficiency, environmental protection, and low price, will pollute forage. When cattle and sheep eat it, a very small amount of protein in their bodies will misfold, producing structurally abnormal proteins similar to prions.

"This new type of structurally abnormal protein is rare, and has no 'species barrier', so it can be transmitted from beef and mutton to humans.

"Because the number of abnormal proteins is small and the incubation period is long, it seems harmless and has not been discovered by the public for more than ten years.

"By the time I noticed it, at least 40% of the world's population had been infected by it."

"Wait a minute," Li Ang interrupted, "What do you mean by 'seemingly harmless'?"

Alphonse Anderson said leisurely, "The new type of structurally abnormal protein is extremely similar in structure to a normal protein in the human body, and will not cause the immune system to attack. Moreover, it does seem harmless.

"It just replicates similar proteins in the human body at an extremely slow rate—at the rate it accumulates, it would take at least two or three hundred years to attack the human central nervous system.

"But, as I suspected, the biological Master Edition was deceiving me from the beginning.

"This is all a conspiracy of the Master Edition."