Chapter 3309: Blood-Stained New City (Sixty-Nine)

Just as Schiller had anticipated, the Ordain Company wasn't actually conducting any other human experiments. They were indeed recruiting people to test their machines, but the machines likely had issues—the kind they were confident no one would discover.

Quite a few test subjects didn't notice anything wrong. They simply sat or lay down, let the machine scan them for a while, and walked away neither tired nor uncomfortable, all while receiving a decent amount of money. Could there be a better job in the world?

Word spread quickly. Soon, the vast majority of residents in the surrounding area knew that this newly moved-in company was recruiting medical equipment testers. There were no side effects from experimental drugs, and the pay was good—why not give it a try?

Although the former municipal office building was located here, it wasn't exactly a high-end neighborhood; it sat right on the border between the Upper and Lower Districts. Aside from a middle-class community to the west, the conditions in the other neighborhoods weren't great.

Because of Bourbon Street, many people here were addicts. Even among the middle class, quite a few had the habit of using drugs.

Drugs in America aren't cheap; in fact, they are arguably the most expensive in the world. Taxes are even baked into the price, and New Jersey's taxes are exceptionally high. Many people have to scrimp and save just to buy a little.

To satisfy their cravings, they would dare to do any kind of work. Now that there was such an easy way to make money, they naturally flocked to it.

Furthermore, they discovered that a particularly effective drug had recently become popular in the community. Even those veteran junkies who had been using for over a decade and had fried their brains could still get high on it.

It was said to be a new drug still in the experimental phase. It was cheap, and the supply was plentiful—unlike some chemical drugs that were being strictly cracked down on, making supply scarce.

With a new source of income and a good product available, these people naturally stockpiled it in bulk. Since it wouldn't spoil, there was no harm in buying extra while it was cheap; if the price went up later, they could resell it for a profit.

To earn money for stockpiling, they participated in the experiments even more enthusiastically. The queue in front of the company grew longer every day.

Just as Schiller had expected, the Ordain Company wasn't testing machines at all; they were using faulty equipment to mass-produce cancer patients, thereby strengthening market demand for their machines.

In other words, their stated quota for personnel was a complete sham. Their real requirement was "the more, the better"—they turned no one away.

Sure enough, once the initial quota of 2,000 was filled, more people kept showing up. The Ordain Company simply made up an excuse and recruited them for testing as well. Eventually, they stopped pretending entirely and took everyone who came.

However, Schiller noticed they only allowed a person to participate five times. If they came back after that, they were turned away. Schiller suspected that the machine was designed to induce cancer after exactly five scans.

With the "Red Pills" Schiller provided circulating through the community, he used his Mist to collect enough samples to confirm his hypothesis. Everyone who had participated in five tests had developed tumors.

At the same time, Schiller discovered that the attending physicians at the three nearest community clinics had been replaced. After having Lila investigate, he found that all of them had received funding from the Ordain Company.

Schiller couldn't help but sneer. It seemed the next step was for these doctors to conceal the patients' symptoms until they reached the terminal stage, then refer them to large hospitals for treatment.

Schiller wouldn't give them that chance. He used his Mist to erase the tumors from these people's bodies directly. The Mist could perform cellular-level operations, ensuring not a single cancer cell remained.

And so, a strange phenomenon emerged.

The Ordain Company waited and waited, but no one went in for check-ups. At first, they thought the junkies had fried their brains so badly they couldn't feel the physical discomfort, and that they just needed to wait a little longer.

But they waited and waited, and still, no one came for treatment. It was as if they had truly just undergone a routine equipment check and hadn't been affected at all.

The company realized something was wrong, so they called back the people who had already completed five tests, claiming they needed a "follow-up" and would perform a thorough physical examination.

They checked and checked, but found nothing. There were no tumors, not even a single cancer cell. Aside from the mental issues caused by drug use, they were actually quite healthy.

The Ordain Company was bewildered. They assumed their own machines were malfunctioning and performed various repairs, tinkering with them repeatedly, but they couldn't find the source of the problem.

To confirm what was wrong with the machines, they had no choice but to recruit more volunteers and use a process of elimination.

They used to only run tests during the day, but now they were operating 24/7. This meant their labor costs had doubled.

This money flowed into the hands of ordinary people, and quite a few of them used it to buy drugs—specifically the capsules Schiller provided. In effect, the money ended up back in Schiller's hands.

Schiller then handed this money over to Gordon, who invested it into community development, continuously improving the environment of the Lower District.

Although working at Gordon's construction sites required actual labor, it was long-term employment, which was better than the one-off nature of these experiments. Once the benefits and pay improved, more people were willing to go there.

Many people went to work at Gordon's sites, and since it took time to travel back and forth, they stopped going to the Ordain Company for tests.

Yet, because the company couldn't figure out what was wrong with the machines, they assumed it was the volunteers' fault and kept expanding their recruitment.

To attract more people, they had no choice but to raise the pay, eventually even removing the five-test limit—as long as you showed up, you got paid.

This behavior of throwing money around was naturally welcomed by the local residents. Since the people who went for tests didn't show any adverse reactions, why shouldn't they go and try it?

More and more people came. The company was both happy and frustrated. They were happy because if the machines recovered, their conspiracy could proceed; they were frustrated because the machines simply wouldn't recover, making the money spent feel like it was being thrown into a void.

Schiller recovered a large sum of the money they had scattered through the capsules and funneled it all to Gordon for community construction.

Estimating that the time was right, Schiller planted a clue, making them notice that many of the people coming for tests had recently taken a new type of drug—the "Red Pill."

This nickname came about because Schiller's capsules were red, but when opened, they appeared empty. People assumed the capsule itself was the drug, hence the name.

After noticing the Red Pill, the Ordain Company began investigating and discovered that everyone who had taken the Red Pill showed no signs of cancer, while those who hadn't did.

They didn't necessarily think the Red Pill was a cancer cure; they just felt some ingredient in it was interfering with the machine's effects. They figured they just needed to tell people to stop taking it.

But would junkies listen to them?

They earned money specifically to buy drugs. Since this new drug worked so well, why would they stop taking it just because the company said so? If it weren't to buy drugs, why would they bother earning the company's money in the first place?

Unable to convince them, the Ordain Company had to start researching what exactly was in the Red Pill that interfered with the machine's effects.

But research wasn't that easy. After opening the pills, they found nothing inside, and testing the red capsules themselves revealed only standard capsule ingredients with nothing special.

The Ordain Company had been in this field for quite a while and had never encountered such a strange drug.

At first, they thought it might be a gas that evaporated upon opening, but closed-environment experiments revealed nothing.

They thought it was a scam—that the so-called Red Pill was just an empty capsule—but the junkies insisted it was good stuff. Brain wave scans confirmed the drug was indeed effective.

It was baffling. After confirming the drug wasn't the issue, the Ordain Company began to reflect on themselves.

After all, they were in the business of making equipment, not drug research. Perhaps they weren't professional enough, so they had no choice but to hire some experts.

Just like that, the Ordain Company created several drug research positions out of thin air, all to study the composition of this mysterious Red Pill.

Lila quickly arranged for her people to get hired. The drug research experts took over the Red Pill project while simultaneously observing the company's internal operations.

At first, everything seemed normal. They went through the motions of research, pretending to study the empty capsules.

But soon, they discovered that something was wrong with the company—most notably, the technical staff's skill level.

Although this was a multinational corporation and the R&D headquarters should have been in the UK, wasn't a branch office supposed to handle local sales and maintenance?

Setting sales aside, their maintenance skills were abysmal. Whenever any machine had a problem, they only knew how to ship it back to the UK headquarters.

These instruments weren't small, and the logistics of shipping precision equipment internationally were complicated and costly. Shipping them back to the UK was arguably the least cost-effective choice.

Besides, if they were going to ship everything back to the UK anyway, why bother keeping these maintenance workers on the payroll? Was it just burning money for fun?

Lila quickly organized these anomalies and handed them to Schiller. As soon as Schiller saw them, he knew it was because these machines were beyond the reach of ordinary people. Even if they hired the best mechanics, they couldn't fix them, so they just hired some average people to play the part.

According to Lila's observers, the machines were generally of good quality, usually only suffering from external wear and tear, rarely requiring a return to the UK headquarters. This was the only reason they could afford the shipping costs.

But just because they were good quality before didn't mean they would remain so after being targeted by Schiller.

Just as Schiller was looking for an opportunity, he suddenly heard that a superhero calling himself "Angel of Death" had appeared in the Lower District and started fighting crime just like Batman.

(The novel is absurd, but reality is actually even more absurd.)

(End of Chapter)