From Titan Corporation to the Empire of Man

Chapter 26 "Flower of God"

In the rainforest.

"Buzz...! Buzz!" The old engine roared.

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

boom! !

With another "roar" from the engine, the van finally climbed up and continued to move slowly north along a path that couldn't be called a road at all.

And inside the car.

"Fake!"

Leon, who was in charge of driving, hammered the steering wheel in frustration.

"I'm sorry...Mr. Joseph." Upon seeing this, the old professor sitting in the passenger seat said quickly: "In order to allow me and my students to come here, I almost spent all my savings, and I can only contribute a small amount of money. I’m truly sorry that I hired you to provide protection.”

?

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

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

In fact, the real reason for Leon's anger has nothing to do with the other party, but it is directly related to money.

Through the professor named Quill Sears and the four students behind him, I learned that the High Heel Club is a gathering place for mercenaries, killers and smugglers. It is not a secret in Lodja.

Secondly, the dirty-mouthed female bartender from earlier told all the information about the rebel army's upcoming attack on Lodja and the disease. After all, these were not valuable news, at most the price of two glasses of wine.

Can…

210 Ah!
  210 US dollars!
  To be honest, after knowing this, Leon really wanted to slap himself.

For this graduation exam, the company provided everyone with 3,000 working capital, which they can use as they wish.

But being cheated out of more than 200 yuan at Romanee-Conti made Leon feel guilty. After all, no matter how rich the company was, it was still the company's money...

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

Fortunately, he has a strong psychological endurance. Leon quickly digested these emotions and gained wisdom. If he encounters this kind of thing again next time, he will definitely negotiate the price "properly" without hesitation. .

Quayle Sears and his group were originally history professors and students at the University of Cambridge in England. The reason why they ventured to Africa was 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 the Congo that could cure all diseases.

That diary mainly tells the story of the captain and crew, driving a warship named "Reappearance of Glory", and following the order of King Manuel I, they escorted a group of explorers into the Congo rainforest to draw maps and mark resources and feasibility. roads to facilitate subsequent colonial development.

This seemingly ordinary experience made Professor Sears willing to spend all his savings to come here, just because the Portuguese captain wrote two paragraphs;

"God bless, if we hadn't rushed to the doctor in a hurry and eaten those red flowers raw, half of us would have died of measles!"

as well as:

"Those flowers are so amazing, they are simply a gift from God! We can all walk out of the rainforest in good health? This is simply unimaginable! It's a pity that we have used them all. If only we could pick a few and take them back to plant... …Let’s wait until next time, hoping we can still find that ancient city.” Measles is actually the smallpox that has been raging for thousands of years since human beings recorded it in writing.

From the 16th to the 19th centuries alone, at least 1.5 million people died of smallpox in Europe. This is still recorded, and the actual number will only be higher.

Being able to cure smallpox and also help the captain and crew members to walk out of the virgin rainforest in good health shows that the red flowers do have extremely high medical and research value.

But it is a pity that the Glory was followed by the British Navy on its way out of Africa, and the last paragraph of the diary is:
  "Ha! Cunning, insidious British! We fought our way through the wilderness, why should we "give" you the map we drew? I would rather destroy it! If we fail to return on time, it means that we have died. In a foreign land, I can no longer fight for the empire...

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

In this regard, Sears speculated that there was a high probability that the captain and crew of the Glorious Reappearance would be captured by the British Navy and eventually executed due to the breakdown of negotiations.

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

There are royal battles within, and powerful enemies such as Britain, the Netherlands, and Spain outside, not to mention that the Age of Discovery also spawned countless pirates. There are really too many factors that can cause the Glory to disappear forever.

As for where Sears got the diary, he went to Amsterdam in the Netherlands five years ago and bought it in a gift shop run by himself.

In addition, this store also has many diaries or letters from sailors and captains from the 13th to 19th centuries, but after all, they are not famous paintings by famous people, and they have not been carefully preserved, so they are equivalent to scraps from antique shopping.

As a professor of history, Sears naturally could not refuse the "temptation" and spent nearly 1000 pounds to buy more than ten copies.

After returning home to read, decipher and try to repair the incomplete parts, I discovered the resume of the Glory. Through other documents and materials, I successfully recreated the crew's foothold before venturing into the rainforest, which was Loja.

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

No one, no institution, believes that investing money will pay off.

The existence of the "Flower of God" has been questioned. More importantly, Sears only inferred the trajectory of the crew before they penetrated into the rainforest, and knew nothing about the subsequent journey.

Send people to explore the Congolese rainforest, which covers an area of ​​about 200 million square kilometers, to find flowers?
  Funny?
  Sears, who encountered obstacles at every turn, firmly believed in the existence of the "Flower of God" and that he would be blessed by the goddess of luck, so he sold all his family property and set foot on the land of Africa with his four most proud students.

After that…

Conflicts continue to surround this ridiculously amateurish teacher-student expedition team.

After listening to Sears and the students' accounts, Leon connected the strange phenomena in Lodja Town. Doesn't this indirectly indicate the real existence of the "Flower of God"?

It's just that something went wrong at some point along the way, causing the plant that could cure the disease to turn into poison.

After reporting the intelligence and personal guesses, Leon happily accepted the reward of 1000 US dollars and took them to the northern village where the infection was the first source.

at this time.

"Mr. Joseph." The girl sitting in the row behind 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.

(End of this chapter)