Plague Bane: The Pillar Industry Driving GDP Growth
The three severely infected individuals were all wiped out. Moreover, due to the stimulating effect of the "Super Plague Bane," these three people prematurely ended their lives and were transformed into Plague Undead —according to Zombie Doctor's data collection, even the most severely infected of the three should have been able to survive for about three more days.
Li Shuyi said, "It seems the antidote wasn't a success... The other two groups seem to be doing better, but who knows if they'll mutate again?"
Bonita looked at the Zombie Doctor with a suspicious gaze.
Zombie Doctor waved his hand and said, "Another mutation? Impossible. From a scientific point of view, the development of the Plague Bane can be considered a success. The first two groups, as long as they take the medication according to the prescribed course, will definitely be able to eradicate the plague virus and recover their health within seven days. As for the premature mutation of the severely infected individuals, it's because the experimental subjects had weak willpower, and they couldn't withstand the pain brought by the Super Plague Bane..."
Bai Xiaowen nodded and said, "Zombie Doctor is right. We can't completely deny the effectiveness of the antidote just because of the unexpected case of the severely infected group. Currently, most of the residents of Redleaf City are mildly infected, and there is still hope for them to be saved."
Prince Nicholas issued a two-step Heroic Tier side quest, [Anti-Plague], with two objectives. According to Bai Xiaowen's investigation, for quests with multiple objectives, unless otherwise specified, at least one objective must be completed. The completion rate of each objective is calculated separately, and then the results are aggregated according to the proportions to obtain the overall completion rating of the quest.
Mission objective A is to develop an antidote for the Necrotic Plague. The success rate of this mission objective will definitely be judged by the quality of the antidote.
But how do we determine the quality of an antidote?
It's unreliable to expect the scholars around Prince Nicholas to make a judgment. The fact that they haven't developed an antidote for so long shows that their level is far inferior to that of Zombie Doctor. Can you expect elementary school students to grade university students' exam papers?
Therefore, as the actual person who issued the task and awarded the reward, Prince Nicholas's standard of judgment must be based on the number of Redleaf City residents who survived.
In fact, Prince Nicholas had mentioned this point before, especially emphasizing that things should not get out of control and that the city should be filled with the dead, otherwise Bai Xiaowen's title and fiefdom would be stripped.
This can be understood as a "task penalty".
As for mission objective B, eliminating all undead creatures transformed by the Necrotic Plague in the Northern Frontier, this mission is far too difficult. The S-Tier difficulty of the second step of the Heroic Tier quest is likely due to this.
There are more than a dozen territories in the Northern Frontier. How many Plague Undead are there? And how many more are quasi-undead with the plague virus Stealth within them, yet to be transformed? Nobody knows.
Bai Xiaowen estimated that to complete this mission, he needed to achieve a higher position within the Human Allied Army —an important status on par with Prince Nicholas and Archbishop Arlo —and then take sole command, dispatching a large army to conduct a comprehensive search of the entire Northern Frontier, killing any Plague Undead and administering antidotes to any virus carriers he encountered...
As for why it's described as "dictatorial," it's because the entire Human Allied Army would certainly not agree to this. Everyone is defending Blackrock Fortress against the attacks of the Sinlands Remnants, so where would they find so many troops to spare?
Therefore, task objective B is basically impossible to complete, and the final task evaluation will definitely not exceed 50%, which is unsatisfactory. However, unsatisfactory is better than task failure, as there will still be a reward.
Even with reduced rewards, the final reward for S-Tier Hero Tier side quest is still incredibly generous; after all, even a weakened camel is bigger than a horse.
Bai Xiaowen then formulated a plan for the next seven days.
Zombie Doctor was in charge of guiding the large-scale production of the Plague Bane and organizing the residents of Redleaf City to take the medicine according to the different degrees of plague infection.
Mildly infected individuals require the Lesser Plague Bane, which is relatively easy to manufacture using the Plague Undead Antibody from the Standard Template. However, moderately infected individuals require the Greater Plague Bane, which necessitates the Plague Undead Antibody from the Elite Template, making the material source quite scarce.
As for those severely infected, we can only strategically abandon them— the Super Plague Bane, which was originally made using the antibodies from the undead BOSS of Redleaf City, only amounted to a little over forty pills.
Based on the calculation that it takes 14 Super Plague Bane to cure one severely infected person, these forty-odd Super Plague Bane can't cure many people at all. What's more, there's an absurdly high rate of premature mutation. Except for those elites and Boss Tier with strong mental Toughness and high Elite Tier, ordinary people simply can't withstand it, so there's no need to waste them.
As for who to give the medication to first and who to give it to later, this morally challenging dilemma did not trouble Bai Xiaowen for long.
Bai Xiaowen first distributed a course of the Plague Bane to the volunteers who had volunteered to be experimental samples and their families, and then marked the prices of the three types of Plague Bane and sold them throughout the city.
The price he set was quite expensive; a middle-class family's savings of gold coins could at most buy one or two courses of treatment, enough to treat one or two people.
Bai Xiaowen had no choice. The gold coins he earned from selling medicines couldn't be taken out of this world. Although the wealth was considerable, they weren't very useful.
The reason for the price was simply that the number of Plague Undead corpses used as raw materials was relatively small in the initial stages, and the production of medicine was limited—even in the disaster movie 2012, a single ship ticket cost a billion euros. Were those world leaders who set prices really short of money?
No, they were simply trying to quietly draw a line—a line between the saved and the abandoned—without letting the public know the inside story. When the end comes, the euro will be no different from a piece of waste paper.
Of course, when building the Ark, the large sum of Euros collected by selling tickets can make it easier to purchase some construction resources, but this is not the main point and need not be discussed further.
Bai Xiaowen's actions were also drawing a line—if no conditions were set and anyone could receive the medicine, Redleaf City would definitely descend into chaos.
Even so, Bai Xiaowen still ordered the bandit guards to patrol day and night, focusing on protecting the Plague Bane production site of the Lord's Manor Laboratory and preventing any disturbances.
Although the Plague Bane was expensive, it was a matter of life and death, so the residents of Redleaf City tried every means to raise gold coins to buy it. In no time, the value of gold coins in Redleaf City soared, and stalls selling cheap goods filled the streets and alleys.
Unable to contain his burgeoning creativity, Bai Xiaowen secretly ordered his men to buy up small quantities of goods at low prices and store them. On his Lord Panel, the inventory of food, building materials, and other resources was rapidly increasing every hour.
Moreover, the gold coins that flowed out would eventually return to Bai Xiaowen's hands through the sale of Plague Bane. The Plaguebane Industries is definitely a pillar industry that drives GDP.