Chapter 360: Chapter 359: Plan in Progress, Codename: Disinfection! Chapter 360: Chapter 359: Plan in Progress, Codename: Disinfection! Chlorine gas.

Chlorine, a greenish gas, also known as green gas.

This gas, first synthesized in 1774 on modern Earth by the Swedish chemist Scheler using soft manganese ore and concentrated hydrochloric acid, was initially not found to be particularly useful.

However, during World War I, it showed its terror when the German military first used it in warfare.

The time was 5 p.m. on April 22, 1915.

The location, the Ypres area in western Belgium.

The combatants, the German army, and the Anglo-French Alliance.

At that time, the king of the land, the tank, had not yet been invented; the battlegrounds were filled with machine guns, barbed wire, and trenches, and neither side dared to initiate an offensive, as doing so would lead to heavy losses.

The war was at a stalemate until the German army decided to use their secret weapon.

Accompanied by the order to attack, a total of 180,000 kg of chlorine gas was released from 6,000 cylinders, forming a dense cloud wall moving towards the Anglo-French Alliance positions under the push of a strong wind.

Wherever chlorine gas went, all life ceased to exist. When the German army followed the chlorine gas into the enemy’s positions, they found bodies everywhere, with faces and lips turning a strange blue, a result of the gas cutting off oxygen and causing severe blood hypoxia. Some of the survivors who were not yet dead were gasping for air, coughing, spitting out yellow mucus from their lungs, and dying in agony because the chlorine gas had eroded their entire lungs.

All metals exposed to chlorine gas rusted: buttons on the corpses’ clothes, decorative badges, coins in their pockets all turned a deep green; swords, rifles, and cannons held or scattered on the ground all rusted as if they had been submerged in water for months.

The battlefield was a mess, bodies were strewn everywhere, and in this single battle, 15,000 members of the Anglo-French Alliance were poisoned, 5,000 died directly, and the well-organized positions were torn open in a nearly 10-kilometer gap, allowing the German forces to break through and gain a significant advantage.

Chlorine gas, or poison gas, this powerful and terrifying weapon of war, was thus unleashed.

In an era before nuclear weapons were invented, it was the equivalent of a biochemical nuclear bomb, capable of easily wiping out everyone in an entire region, making it barren for decades.

To use this was inhumane due to its immense power and thus its inhumanity.

In the cemetery, Richard held a heavy cylinder, releasing chlorine gas down the passageway, raising his eyebrows slightly.

Using chlorine gas was indeed inhumane, but he had no intention of being humane towards certain beings in the cemetery or the Insect Army, speaking of bug ethics instead of human ethics.

“Pfff-pfff-pfff–”
Under the extreme pressure in the cylinder, one canister of chlorine gas was quickly emptied, crazily surging into the underground graves. Richard didn’t blink an eye as he returned the empty cylinder to the Space Iron Ring and quickly fetched a new, full cylinder, opening the lid with a “bang” and continuing to release chlorine gas down the passageway.

Richard had decided to thoroughly disinfect the entire cemetery, letting all beings within experience the power of a chemical agent. This was retribution for the setbacks in his successive explorations.

“Pfff-pfff-pfff–”
Soon, the second cylinder was also empty, and he instantly grabbed a third new, full cylinder.

And then the fourth, the fifth, the sixth…

Today, when he came to the cemetery, he brought nothing but cylinders in his two Space Iron Rings.

The seventh, the eighth, the ninth…

Chlorine gas continued to pour into the underground space of the cemetery. Richard knew that because its density was greater than air, it would follow the passageways inside, penetrating deeper and deeper until it filled every space.

By then, most living creatures would die, whether it was the mushrooms in the Mushroom Forest, the Insect Army, or other monsters, all unable to escape the disaster. Even those with strong vitality like the Water Bear would have to hibernate to survive. And mechanical creations without life would be corroded by the chlorine gas and lose all function entirely.

The attack of chlorine gas was comprehensive, pervasive, and inescapable because this was not a battle of equals.

He hadn’t done this before because it was too time-consuming and required the production of a large amount of chlorine gas, which was too troublesome.

But now, he didn’t mind.

He was still recovering from pneumonia and the fading stain from Bacitracin, so wasting a bit of time meant nothing to him.

As for chlorine gas, there was as much as he needed.

However… The only constraint was the transportation of chlorine gas.

To avoid exposure, he could only come to the cemetery at night and transport cylinders filled with chlorine gas using the Space Iron Ring.

Thus, the storage capacity of the two Space Iron Rings was the maximum transportable amount of chlorine gas at a time; if this problem could not be solved, he had to act as a transport worker over and over.

But the problem was clearly insolvable, and he could only play the role of a transport worker.

“Hu–”
Richard let out a breath. With the chlorine gas in the cylinders of the two Space Iron Rings completely released, staying in the cemetery was pointless. He repaired the cracks that surfaced on the ground using the “Earth Stone Control” spell and quickly made his way back.

Back at the laboratory, he began to produce new chlorine gas, liquefied it into liquid chlorine, and filled cylinders, waiting for the next action.

Thus, many nights thereafter, Richard’s figure could be seen at the cemetery outside White Stone City.

Inside the tomb, the concentration of chlorine gas continuously increased until it ultimately became a devil’s lair filled with yellow-green gas.

Richard patiently waited for a while, ensuring that the creatures inside the tomb really were dead, and began the next step of the disinfection action.

…

Daytime.

At the laboratory, a knock sounded on the courtyard door.

“Bang Bang Bang!”

Alex’s very distinctive voice resounded.

“My dearest friend–Lord Richard, I’ve got what you asked for! Open the door, come on!”

The door creaked open as Richard unlocked it, and he saw Alex standing outside, trembling with folds of fat covering his face; after some time, the man had gained even more weight–his double chin had quadrupled.

Behind him were several horse-drawn carriages, loaded with bag after bag of bulging items.

Richard glanced over without saying much, simply saying, “Bring them in.”

“Understood.” Alex nodded, gesturing naturally as porters carried the items in, stacking bag after bag in the courtyard. Some bags couldn’t hold and split, rapidly spilling white powder.

The powder, which looked like snowflakes yet was not snow, like salt but not salt, was…

…