From Titan Corporation to the Empire of Man

Chapter 26 "Flower of God"

In the rain forest.

"Buzz...! Buzz!" The roar of the old engine resounded.

I saw a van camper, crossing the muddy slope with great difficulty.

Boom! !

With another "roar" of the engine, the van finally climbed up successfully, and continued to move slowly northward along the path that could not be called a road at all.

And inside the car.

"Fuck!"

Lyon, who was in charge of driving, hammered the steering wheel unhappily.

"I'm sorry... Mr. Joseph." Seeing this, the old professor sitting in the co-pilot hurriedly said: "In order for me and my students to come here, I almost spent all my savings, and I can only pay so little money to hire you to provide protection. I'm really sorry."

?

Hearing this, Lyon waved his right hand lightly and said: "It has nothing to do with you, it's... hey... forget it."

"That's good, that's good." The professor was relieved.

In fact, the real reason for Lyon's anger was indeed unrelated to the other party, but it was directly related to money.

From the professor named Quill Sears beside him and the four students behind him, he learned that the High Heels Club is a gathering place for mercenaries, killers and smugglers, and it is not a secret in Logja.

Secondly, the foul-mouthed female bartender told him all the information about the rebels' upcoming attack on Logja, including the disease. After all, these are not valuable news, at most the price of two glasses of wine.

But...

210!

210 US dollars!

To be honest, after knowing this, Leon really wanted to slap himself.

For this graduation exam, the company provided 3,000 action funds for each person, allowing them to allocate them at will.

But he was cheated of more than 200 in Romanee-Conti, which made Leon feel guilty. After all, no matter how rich the company is, it is the company's money...

In addition, the female bartender saw that he was a newcomer at a glance, which made Leon even doubt himself.

Fortunately, Lyon quickly digested these emotions with a strong psychological tolerance. He learned a lesson and would definitely negotiate the price without hesitation if he encountered such a thing again next time.

Quill Sears and his team were originally professors and students of the history department of Cambridge University in the UK. They ventured to Africa to find the so-called "Flower of God".

Based on a diary written by a Portuguese captain, Sears concluded that there was a plant in Congo that could cure all diseases.

The diary mainly tells about the captain and crew, driving a warship named "Glorious Reappearance", escorting a group of explorers into the Congo rainforest to draw maps in accordance with the order of King Manuel I, marking resources and feasible roads to facilitate subsequent colonial development.

It seems like a very ordinary experience, but the reason why Professor Sears would rather spend all his savings to come here is because the Portuguese captain wrote two paragraphs;

"God bless, if we hadn't tried desperately and ate those red flowers raw, half of us would have died of smallpox!"

And:

"Those flowers are so magical, they are simply a gift from God! How can we all walk out of the rainforest healthy? This is simply unimaginable! It's a pity that we have used them all up. If we can pick a few and take them back to plant... Let's wait until next time. I hope we can still find that ancient city."

Smallpox is actually smallpox, which has been raging for thousands of years since humans have written records.

From the 16th to the 19th century alone, at least 150 million people died of smallpox in Europe, and this is still a recorded case. The actual number will only be higher.

The fact that it can cure smallpox and help the captain and crew walk out of the original rainforest in good health shows that the red flowers are indeed of extremely high medical and research value.

Unfortunately, the Resurrection was followed by the British Navy on its way out of Africa, and the last paragraph of the diary was:

"Oh! Cunning and insidious British! We risked our lives to cross the wilderness, why should we "give" you the drawn map? I would rather destroy it! If we fail to return on time, it means that we have died in a foreign land and can no longer fight for the empire...

I hope your majesty will restore the glory of the empire as soon as possible!"

In this regard, Sears speculated that the captain and all crew members of the Resurrection were very likely to be captured by the British Navy and finally executed due to the breakdown of negotiations.

Although the Portuguese Empire was the first world empire and the longest-lasting colonial empire, it was in a dark period at the end of the 15th century.

There were royal struggles inside and powerful enemies such as Britain, the Netherlands, and Spain outside, not to mention that the Age of Exploration also spawned countless pirates. There were too many factors that could lead to the eternal disappearance of the Resurrection.

As for where Sears got the diary, it was purchased in a private gift shop when he visited Amsterdam, the Netherlands five years ago.

And this shop also has many diaries or letters of crew members and captains from the 13th to 19th centuries, but after all, they are not famous paintings, and they are not carefully preserved, which is equivalent to the corner goods of antiques.

As a professor of history, Sears naturally could not resist the "temptation" and spent nearly 1,000 pounds to buy more than ten copies.

After returning home to read, decipher and try to repair the incomplete parts, he discovered the resume of the Glory, and through other documents and materials, successfully reproduced the crew's foothold before the deep rainforest expedition, that is, Logja.

However, when Sears reported this discovery to the school, hoping to get investment to find the "Flower of God" and benefit mankind, the result was "Are you kidding?".

No one and no organization believed that investing money would pay off.

The existence of the "Flower of God" was questioned. More importantly, Sears only deduced the trajectory of the crew before they went deep into the rainforest and knew nothing about the subsequent journey.

Sending people to explore the Congo rainforest with an area of ​​about 2 million square kilometers to find flowers?

Funny?

Sears, who encountered obstacles everywhere, firmly believed in the existence of the "Flower of God" and believed that he would be blessed by the goddess of luck, so he sold all his property and took four of his most proud students to the African land.

After that...

The obstacles continued to shroud this ridiculously amateur teacher-student expedition team.

After listening to the narration of Sears and the students, Lyon linked the strange phenomena in Logja Town, which indirectly indicated the real existence of the "Flower of God"?

It was just that some links in the middle of the process went wrong, causing the plant that could cure diseases to become a poison.

After reporting the intelligence and personal speculation, Leon gladly accepted the $1,000 reward and took them to the northern village where the infection first originated.

Just then.

"Mr. Joseph." The girl sitting in the back row asked curiously: "Why do you want to be a mercenary?"

"Of course it's for money..."

Boom! !

But Leon's next speech was interrupted by a sudden explosion.