The municipal government building conference room.
"The areas where parasite larvae have been found so far are mainly concentrated around Guangming Reservoir, including Changgang Town, Xuxiang Town, and parts of Hongshan Town. The affected population is around 170,000 to 180,000. These areas are now under strict lockdown. The waterways have all been blocked, and supplies, epidemic-control personnel, and doctors are in place.
"The main problem now is that this is a new kind of Otherworld parasite, and we don't yet have any targeted medication.
"As of this morning, the confirmed death toll has already exceeded a thousand. The next few days will probably bring a peak in fatalities." A deputy mayor spoke with a grave expression.
Otherworld parasites were highly resilient. To Otherworld Creatures, they might be no more than ordinary parasites like roundworms, but to fragile humans, they were utterly lethal.
Ordinary broad-spectrum antiparasitic drugs were completely ineffective against them. If the toxicity were increased, the people might die before the parasites did.
Therefore, whenever a new Otherworld parasite appeared, researchers studied its weaknesses and developed a new, targeted narrow-spectrum insecticide.
It had been twenty years since the Space Channel first appeared.
Hundreds of parasite outbreaks had erupted across the country. Some had been contained after only a dozen or so deaths, while the worst had claimed tens of thousands of lives. But in recent years, such outbreaks had almost vanished, and reports of them had grown rare. That was all thanks to these medications.
Yet this Otherworld parasite was a species humans had never encountered before.
"Most concerning of all, according to the message from the meteorological station, it's likely to rain today or tomorrow," the deputy mayor continued.
The rain would not only allow the parasites to multiply and spread in great numbers, but would also accelerate