Enforcer Manual
Chapter 1036 - 916: Fruit of Hope_2

He didn’t know where the Oasis Peace Company had originated, but ever since that name had come into existence, they had established a long-term partnership with the Brotherhood, who could provide them with a constant stream of experimental material. They would take these "experimental samples" directly to the leader of the Oasis Peace Company, where their research team would then perform all manner of inhumane experiments on these living humans.

He had once seen the horrific conditions of those "experimental samples."

Those injected with the drugs could no longer maintain human form; their bodies were transformed into grotesque monsters, their consciousness completely lost, reduced to mere livestock that knew only feeding.

Human experimentation.

This was a project consistently prohibited by the United Government and the Covenant Nation, yet it thrived on the lands of Oasis.

And people like him, one of their duties was to help the Brotherhood and the Oasis Peace Company cover up their deeds. Even if accidents occurred during the experiments causing disturbances, they would help smooth things over.

For this, both the Brotherhood and the company paid them a hefty compensation every month.

Brock knew the related departments were stacked with letters of report from people, and in the border city, missing-people posts were everywhere: every now and then, someone would disappear without a trace.

The Oasis Peace Company was undoubtedly a selective "employer"; aside from the "experimental samples" delivered by the Brotherhood, they also scouted out individuals from various cities who fit their experimental criteria, including the local people of Oasis.

Every year, there were internal government officials who questioned the company’s actions, suspecting the company’s motive for regularly extracting samples from local residents and considering it an overreach.

They feared the company could trigger an epidemic in Oasis whenever they wished.

But such questions were ultimately deemed groundless worries.

He, an Executor of the Foreign Department, had once personally delivered the list of the most vehemently opposed officials to the Oasis Peace Company.

The company’s intervention was immediately effective.

Most of the opponents eventually agreed with the company’s actions, while a few stubborn ones suddenly disappeared without a trace.

However, the disappearance of people had become a tradition in Oasis; they all tacitly agreed, pretending as if nothing had happened.

And now, all their fears had been realized.

The first to contract the virus was his daughter, and when he hurried home to check, his wife’s skin had also begun showing signs of decay.

Retribution had descended upon him and those he cherished.

"The Oasis Peace Company has always been secretly conducting a large number of human experiments. I’ve preserved a lot of direct evidence. This pandemic must also be their making. If only, if only we could find their laboratory, perhaps we could locate the source of the disease and find a remedy," Brock said, becoming increasingly agitated. But he was well aware that, as a Sinner of the nation, he had neither the right to redemption nor any authority to condemn the company’s actions.

It was he who had personally pushed those who could have prevented this plague into the fire.

"Is that all you have to say?"

The person by the hospital bed asked calmly.

"There’s more. The true leader of the company is an extremely secretive individual; even we have never seen his true face. But one time, I happened to hear how the company’s people addressed him," Brock recalled that dreadful memory, which he would have preferred to leave buried in his heart if not for the pandemic that had taken everything from him. "That person has no name; the company’s people all refer to him as ’Corruption.’"

He had never heard of anyone who would choose such a name for themselves.

It was filled with an aura of death and ominousness.

"I understand," said the person by the bed, turning away. Brock’s tone became even more urgent, "Wait, wait a moment!"

His gaze once again swept over the apple on the bedside table. Knowing he had no right to make any demands as a Sinner, he still couldn’t help but ask, "This fruit, can it save this nation?"

Brock had never thought that one day he would pin the hopes of Oasis on a spoiled apple.

He couldn’t think of anything crazier.

"Save this nation?"

The retreating footsteps halted.

She turned around, came to the bedside table, and gently picked up the apple that had been bitten into.

She walked to the window, allowing the cool evening breeze to sweep through every corner of the room.

"That depends on how strong your desires are," she stated quietly.

With a gentle toss, the apple was thrown out the window, vanishing with the evening breeze into the dawn that was about to break.

The next moment, Brock heard a roaring sound.

The roar spread through every corner of Lira like the tolling of a bell, seemingly signaling to all those who were huddled in their homes with doors and windows bolted.

Then came the violent shaking.

Everything in the hospital room shook violently with the sudden earthquake, and Brock, with his eyes wide open, witnessed the arrival of dawn and the rapidly growing plant that, in the blink of an eye, surpassed any skyscraper in Lira.

Something entered through the open window and extended all the way to his hospital bed.