Armor-Piercing Munition: Face Me, Carbon-Based Monster!
Chapter 114 - 26: Not Genes, It’s Methamphetamine

Chapter 114: Chapter 26: Not Genes, It’s Methamphetamine

Flower City Sirens.

When Xie Liu mentioned the name, Chen Jian’s blurred memories suddenly became clear again.

He still remembered that the first time he heard this term was in the Blood Skull’s camp.

At that time, they had just slain the leader of the Terror Demons, the Blood Sun General, and in the basement, they found two Flower City Sirens mingling with the Blood Skull.

Everyone suspected that this sudden "mutation" of Flower City had some kind of shady dealings with the Blood Skull, but since this small accident didn’t affect Chen Jian’s subsequent actions, he didn’t dwell on this episode.

But who would have thought that after so many battles and events, this term would suddenly resurface.

Could it be that people from Flower City were active near Wuxue Town?

What are they up to?

Chen Jian glanced at Xie Liu in confusion, and the latter was also puzzled.

She was only temporarily certain that the scent came from the Flower City Sirens, but as for why...

How would she know?

Seeing that Chen Jian’s expression had become somewhat serious, she quickly spoke up:

"I’m sure this scent comes from the Flower City Sirens."

"This scent is very unique; I noticed it when I went to Flower City before."

"The entire city there is shrouded in a faint scent. I asked the people living there, and they said it was some sort of... blessing from life itself."

"I once suspected that it was some sort of aphrodisiac gas, but it turns out it wasn’t."

"This scent itself doesn’t induce desire; instead, it seems to emanate from those who already have desire..."

"Can genes even change that?"

Chen Jian asked in astonishment.

Before Xie Liu could answer, He Shuo interjected from the side:

"It’s probably not genes; it’s Mephedrone."

"What?"

Chen Jian was stunned.

He Shuo coughed and continued:

"Don’t you remember? When we were in Xiao Mengla that year, didn’t a lot of people there have a strange scent on them..."

"But the scent on people using meth is oily, with an iron rust smell—I can recognize that scent. Didn’t Zeng Yi say it smelled like flowers? The difference is too big, right?"

Chen Jian retorted.

"Not necessarily. Who says they’re using high-purity meth? Maybe it’s mixed with other things."

"Of course, I’m just speculating."

He Shuo paused, then continued:

"Look, according to Xie Liu’s earlier statement, Flower City fell suddenly, and the whole process was very short, right?"

"That’s right, very short."

Xie Liu confirmed:

"It should be within five or six years; the whole city collapsed rapidly as if infected by a plague."

"Exactly."

He Shuo spread his hands and continued:

"And the trend of this downfall is lust."

"So what do you think is the most obvious characteristic of using this stuff? Do I even need to say?"

"The people of Flower City clearly show manic behavior, coupled with an expansion of desire; the manifestation is quite obvious."

"Moreover, contrasting with their downfall, they can still maintain considerable combat power. Don’t you find that exaggerated?"

"We used to think it might be related to their equipment. Now it seems that equipment alone is not enough... There might be the influence of drugs as well."

After He Shuo’s analysis, Chen Jian was dumbfounded.

He never thought, in this end-times situation, he would still intersect with this stuff.

But... is it really so incredible?

Not really...

The synthesis of Mephedrone isn’t that difficult; Old Bai could make it in a broken van.

If someone accidentally discovered its formula and then further discovered its effects...

Its widespread abuse makes perfect sense.

Because according to Xie Liu, Flower City, or the former Quan City, inherently had hints of fertility worship.

This kind of thing that could stimulate reproductive behavior might indeed become their "divine drug."

---- But there’s a loophole in this speculation.

"How could the residents of this house use drugs without being discovered? According to Zhao He, they were normal until they died."

"And as long as they touched that stuff, there’s no way they could be normal."

"Captain, you don’t understand."

He Shuo shook his head and replied:

"It’s not the residents here who might have touched that stuff."

"But that monster."

A sudden realization.

Chen Jian suddenly felt that many of the mysteries here had an explanation.

"So this monster is likely related to Flower City?"

"Is it possible that this monster was actually cultivated by them?"

"They can supply weapons to the Blood Skull near Han Shui City, so raising a monster here seems reasonable, right?"

"It’s possible."

He Shuo frowned and replied:

"If these scents really are remnants of drug use, Flower City might be attempting to use such things to control monsters, to control humans."

"This probably also explains why they would collaborate with the Blood Skull. They might believe they already have a method to control the Blood Skull."

"What I can’t understand, though, is why they would have this monster attack Wuxue Town?"

"The experiment isn’t over yet; they have no reason to do this, right...."

"That’s another question, but at least we have a direction now."

Chen Jian let out a long sigh of relief, while beside him, Xie Liu was dumbfounded.

She couldn’t even comprehend how all this reasoning unfolded.

From her perspective, so far, there were only two relatively credible clues discovered in the whole "monster murder case."

The first clue: the monster is human.

The second clue: there’s a scent from Flower City here.

Just with these two clues, you could piece together those previous fragmented bits of information and finally form such a reasonable conclusion?

She looked at He Shuo and Chen Jian, who were discussing, and her gaze already carried an air of admiration.

Noticing her gaze, Chen Jian raised his hand to interrupt He Shuo and said to Xie Liu:

"You don’t have to be so surprised."

"At present, everything is just speculation, merely a rough determination based on current circumstances."

"In fact, none of us can guarantee the correctness of this speculation, because the intelligence is constantly updated."

"However... you could indeed learn this kind of thinking."

"On the battlefield, making a swift decision is actually more important than the accuracy of intelligence."

"Understood."

"Understood."

Zeng Yi and Xie Liu answered successively, and Chen Jian nodded in satisfaction. After a brief thought, he spoke again:

"If we speculate along this logic, then our search range is further narrowed."

"Mayor Zhao, have any merchants from Flower City been to Wuxue Town over the past few months?"

"No—well, not none, it’s just that even if there were, we wouldn’t know."

Zhao He quickly responded:

"In recent years, Flower City’s reputation hasn’t been great, and many people avoid them."

"Under these circumstances, even if there were merchants coming and going, they wouldn’t mention the name proactively."

"Of course, we wouldn’t ask deliberately either..."

"So there were?"

Chen Jian interrupted Zhao He and asked.

".... I believe there should be."

"That’s good."

Chen Jian turned to He Shuo and continued:

"Continue surveillance with the drone."

"If this monster is related to Flower City, then someone must be responsible for it."

"In other words, this monster cannot live alone; rather, it’s possible that a small settlement is formed around it."

"Similar to how the Mechanical God Sect groomed ’Mongolia,’ Flower City must also have a complete system to control and train monsters."

"The scale isn’t too small, and if they’re near Wushan Lake, it shouldn’t be difficult to find them."

"Understood."

He Shuo nodded immediately, and then Chen Jian continued:

"On the other hand, we need to conduct a screening of the merchants coming and going here."

"If they’re training monsters, they definitely need supplies, and the most convenient way to get supplies is through merchants."

"They likely wouldn’t openly carry things directly to Wushan Lake, as it’s in the wild and too conspicuous."

"However, if someone shows up here but doesn’t show up at the next stop, then we can basically narrow down the investigation targets."

"... That’s difficult."

He Shuo spread his hands and said:

"This world neither has ID cards nor surveillance, investigating in this direction is too extravagant, isn’t it?"

"Let’s just try."

Chen Jian said indifferently:

"Anyway, if the drones don’t produce results, we can only stay here and wait for the next attack to happen."

"Given that, we might as well do more, try different directions."

"By the way, we need to contact Wang Lizhi from the Ring Chamber of Commerce."

"Things have developed beyond our expectations; this is not just a monster, it may involve quite a powerful force."

"We need him to bring up the contract price for me."

"Otherwise, I won’t work for him for free!"