Mars City, outside Port 10, temporary laboratory.

Academician Ding Xueming looked at the indicators in front of him with concern and sighed deeply.

"It's hard...it's hard!"

Even though various physical cooling measures were taken, the body temperature of these six starship pilots remained above 38 degrees.

This will undoubtedly cause great damage to the human body!

Just when Ding Xueming was worried, a researcher walked quickly to Ding Xueming with a document.

"Old Ding, the blood sample test results have come out."

Hearing this, Ding Xueming quickly turned around and took the document handed over by the researcher.

The moment he saw the data, Ding Xueming's brow frowned instantly.

"The percentage of white blood cells and neutrophils increases, the c-reactive protein increases, and the red blood cell sedimentation rate increases..."

He murmured softly: "This is a typical inflammation caused by bacterial infection!"

At this moment, he breathed a sigh of relief.

The bacteria are good, as long as it is not a virus!

Bacterial infections are relatively easy to solve according to previous experience.

"Have the pathogen been found?" Ding Xueming turned his head and asked the researcher beside him, "Where is the lesion?"

The researcher's eyes showed a little hesitation.

"Old Ding..."

"Hmm?" Seeing the researcher's appearance, Ding Xueming couldn't help but feel a little shocked, "Say! What's going on?"

"…The pathogen has been found, but we have found this bacteria all over the patient's body." The researcher said bitterly, "Now six patients have different degrees of inflammation all over the body, which is also the reason why the high fever does not subside.

”

Ding Xueming's face instantly looked a little ugly.

“Has the drug resistance screening experiment been done?”

“Does our antibiotics work?”

The researcher shook his head slowly: "Old Ding, as of now, this bacteria has shown extremely strong resistance."

"The best antibiotic can only play a little bit."

Although he had expected this result, Ding Xueming only felt a chill rising from behind when he heard the researcher's answer.

He swallowed slightly and asked the last question dryly: "Where is the transmission speed and reproduction speed?"

The researcher's face became increasingly ugly.

"We have determined that it can be transmitted through the air, and the rate of transmission is … more than any of the bacteria we have found at this time."

“The reproduction rate is the same.”

The moment he heard this result, Ding Xueming felt nothing before his eyes.

It spreads fast, has strong reproductive ability, and there is no cure for it...

He has never seen such bacteria since he was born in infectious science!

Humans, finished?

...

Inside the biological laboratory.

Lu Yongchang and Mao Zhengzhi carefully observed the samples from Gael Crater through a microscope.

"Huh?" Lu Yongchang's eyes lit up, "This structure is quite similar to the Martian fungus we discovered before."

Mao Zhengzhi nodded quickly to agree.

"Yes, the cell wall and cell membrane with an extraordinary thickness...this should be the reason why they survived the Starship's disinfection measures."

Lu Yongchang shook his head: "It should be more than just a stop."

As he said that, he reached out and dripped a drop of disinfectant on it.

The stimulation of the disinfectant made the movements of these bacteria become a little more intense in an instant.

The next moment, an incredible scene appeared in front of everyone.

The bacteria began to cling to each other spontaneously.

Just like ants encountering floods, countless ants will form an air compartment as soon as possible to protect important queens and some ants.

Even though the ants on the periphery will be dispersed by the flood, there will still be a steady stream of ants to fill in the gaps without hesitation.

The reason is very simple.

As long as the lives of the queen and the middle ants are saved, their population will not perish.

The behavior of these bacteria is similar to that of the behavior of ants!

"No wonder..." Looking at the picture in front of me, Lu Yongchang murmured to himself, "No wonder they can survive the disinfection measures of Xuannv No. 2."

"yes."

Mao Zhengzhi's eyes showed a little emotion.

"They just want to survive."

"It's just that they survived, it's not good for us."

Lu Yongchang nodded gently: "Continue to test and count the number of bacteria in each sample."

...

"Zero, sort out the data."

Lu Yongchang raised his hand and gently rubbed his shoulders through his protective suit.

The huge holographic image quietly unfolded, wrapping everyone present in it.

That is a complete 3D modeling diagram of Gael crater.

The next second, red dots with different colors appear in the 3D picture.

The depth of the color means the number of unknown bacteria in the sample.

The darker the color, the more bacteria it is.

Due to the different sampling depths, the location of the red dots also changes in depth.

Through this holographic projection, the researchers clearly discovered the rules.

The lightest red dot is located on the outermost surface of the Gael Crater.

At the foot of Mount Sharp, located in the center of Gael crater, there are a series of dense dots that are red and black!

Lu Yongchang took a deep breath and muttered to himself: "Maybe he was really hit by this kid Fang Xu..."

"What?" Mao Zhengzhi on the side was stunned, "What did Academician Fang say?"

"...He said that there might be magma activity under the Gael crater, which just explains the phenomenon of wet water vapor underground." Lu Yongchang said as he reached out and pointed the red dots in the holographic image.

"You see, as the depth of the red dot increases, the color depth of the red dots increases."

"The closer to the center and the deeper the underground, the more bacteria there are."

"This also shows that the more suitable the environment there is for bacterial survival." Lu Yongchang turned his attention to Mount Sharp in the center, "Perhaps, there is really residual magma under the mountain."

Mao Zhengzhi shrugged: "Whether there is magma or not, our top priority now is to understand this bacteria."

"Old Ding had already sent the inspection information just now."

Lu Yongchang's eyes moved and he quickly asked, "How is it? How is Bai Yixuan and the others?"

Mao Zhengzhi reached out and dragged a holographic projection screen to Lu Yongchang: "You can take a look at it yourself, the situation is not optimistic."

"With the help of a large number of antibiotics, six drivers are out of danger, but for the moment, we cannot cure these stubborn bacteria."

"As long as there is a little relaxation, even if there are only a few remaining bacteria, they will quickly reproduce to the initial scale!"

"And... the large amount of antibiotics can easily lead to bacterial resistance."

“In other words, these six drivers are now in a state of chronic death.”

Looking at the various test data sent by Academician Ding Xueming, Lu Yongchang fell into silence.
Chapter completed!