Without anyone realizing it, Calamity had suddenly struck.
It arrived silently, yet stirred up monstrous waves.
Giles silently watched Kincaid, who was in a state of 'frozen age', his gaze heavy.
As long as the power was cut, the tubular nutrient tank lost its freezing effect. Then, as the temperature rose, the life of the infant Kincaid would begin to regress, as if time was flowing backwards solely for him.
From middle age to youth, then to adolescence, followed by childhood, and then to infancy...
That was the Calamity Kincaid was suffering. However, the phenomenon of life regression did not stop at infancy... it continued back to an undeveloped embryo and finally turned into the most primitive form invisible to the human eye.
Essentially... disappearing into thin air.
Currently, under the ravages of this unknown Calamity, less than one in ten of the 600,000 people transported to the New Continent remained.
The coastal cities built in the early stages had long become lifeless ghost towns.
That unknown Calamity had spread like a plague at an uncontrollable speed towards the areas inhabited by humans.
The prosperous scenery built with massive cheap labor had collapsed in a short time.
Over 500,000 people were gone in an instant. Some fled into the mountains with their whereabouts unknown. Given their overall survival skill level, dying in the mountains was only a matter of time.
The ultimate survivors included the core military forces of the Kakin Empire and the elite teams of various mafia groups, all of whom had been transferred to the underground base built by the Kakin Empire.
Through months of struggle and experimentation, these few remaining people in the New Continent had discovered the weakness of the unknown Calamity… freezing.
Ordinary people afflicted by the Calamity, regardless of age, would regress to their most primitive state within three days and then vanish from the world.
Only freezing could halt this regression phenomenon.
This measure was termed by researchers as… [Frozen Age].
However, even though they had a method to stop the regression phenomenon and controlled hundreds of frozen specimens, no matter what methods the researchers employed, they couldn't find any leads from the specimens.
That's right, they still didn't even know the true nature of the Calamity and couldn't determine its transmission routes or methods.
In front of the tubular nutrient tank, Giles stood quietly like that, not disturbing the researchers moving back and forth around him.
The Calamity was something they brought back with them.
Moreover, it was a Calamity not recorded in the [Journey to the New World], more troublesome and uncontrollable than the five known Calamities.
If this Calamity were to spread to the Six Continents, the consequences would be unimaginable.
In fact, regarding the possibility of the Calamity reaching the Six Continents, no high-ranking official within the base dared to draw a conclusion.
Coupled with the fact that they still didn't know the Calamity's true form or specific transmission routes, they wouldn't leave the base lightly.
At the very least, they had to wait until the researchers identified the true nature of the Calamity... otherwise, the risk of leaving the base was too high.
"I never understand what meaning you find in coming here every day. The only thing that's certain is that you're very much in the way."
A cold, hoarse female voice suddenly came from behind.
Without turning around, Giles knew it was Salsa, one of the heads of the research team, a fifty-plus-year-old woman who was still a virgin.
Not responding to the displeasure in Salsa's voice, Giles remained standing there.
Seeing this, Salsa frowned slightly, then soon relaxed.
She found Giles annoying, coming every day but not helping at all.
However, even though she was irritated, she couldn't do anything about Giles. He had permission, after all.
Salsa snorted coldly, walked to the instrument panel of the nutrient tank, picked up a pen and paper, and noted down the day's monitoring information.
She wrote very quickly, her handwriting as neat as if typed by a printer.
The rustling sound of the pen tip moving across the paper couldn't help but pull Giles into memories.
He believed the Calamity was something they brought back.
But, putting aside the two-month-plus sailing time from the Dark Continent to the New Continent, even just from the coastline of the New Continent to the city built by the Kakin Empire would take another half month.
However, during those three long months, Kincaid, as an infected individual, showed no signs of 'regression' even many days after entering the city.
Instead, it was a group of elderly people who first showed the 'regression phenomenon', turning into middle-aged people overnight.
Initially, the people in the city thought it was a miracle. Little did they know, it was the beginning of a catastrophic disaster.
Within less than a week, the rapidly spreading regression phenomenon caused 90% of the city's large population to simply evaporate.
It was only around that time that Kincaid began to show abnormalities. However, while most infected people evaporated within three days, Kincaid was different.
Moreover, his regression speed was very slow, not like the elderly who turned into middle-aged people overnight, and middle-aged people into young people overnight.
Thus, he, having regressed to an infant state, became one of the specimens brought to the lab.
In fact, the method of using 'freezing' to halt the 'regression phenomenon' was thanks to the existence of the special case that was Kincaid.
Because the slow regression speed gave the researchers ample time, they were able to find a way to halt it.
"How much longer do you plan to stay here?"
Salsa had finished recording the information. She tilted her head to look at Giles, who was a head taller than her, her attitude and tone very poor.
Giles snapped out of his memories, ignored Salsa, and walked directly towards the exit.
Salsa watched his back, snorted softly, then put away her pen and book. She gazed intently at the blond baby inside the nutrient tank.
...
NGL Autonomous State, Eastern Coastline.
Several kilometers from the coastline, a black shadow lay anchored on the sea horizon.
The shadow had been there for about five days before being discovered by a passing fishing boat.
Upon seeing the shadow's appearance, the fishermen thought they had encountered a once-in-a-century, super-giant black whale. They were almost scared out of their wits at first.
Only when they saw the super-giant black whale not moving at all did they muster the courage to approach and check.
Then, they discovered something strange, thus confirming that this black behemoth was not a whale.
Days later, news about it was inserted into broadcasts across various regions of the relatively isolated New NGL Autonomous State. Media from other continents and countries also swarmed in.
The reason: that black behemoth was the Black Whale ship manufactured by the Kakin Empire.
NGL Union State, Sammy City.
In a two-story, warmly and brightly decorated small building, Komugi sat cross-legged on a cushion, holding a cup of hot tea.
Across the low table, Meruem sat with a very relaxed and unrestrained posture.
At that moment, the TV was broadcasting images of the Black Whale ship, accompanied by a pleasant female voice giving live updates.