In the rainforest.
"Buzz...! Buzz!" The sound of an old engine roared through the forest.
A camper van was struggling to cross a muddy slope.
With another angry roar from the engine, the van finally made it up and continued slowly along a path that could barely be called a road, heading north.
Inside the van.
"Damn it!"
Leon, who was driving, hammered the steering wheel in frustration.
"I'm sorry... Mr. Joseph," said the old professor sitting in the passenger seat hurriedly. "I spent almost all my savings to bring my students and myself here. I could only afford to hire you for protection. I'm really sorry."
"It's not your fault," Leon replied, waving his right hand dismissively. "It's just... never mind."
"That's good to hear," the professor said, relieved.
Leon's real frustration had nothing to do with the professor, but it was indirectly related to money.
From Professor Quill Sears and his four students, Leon learned that the High Heels Club was a gathering place for mercenaries, assassins, and smugglers, which was no secret in Loja.
Moreover, the foul-mouthed barmaid had informed him that the rebel army was about to attack Loja, bringing with them the disease. These weren't valuable pieces of information, worth at most a couple of drinks.
But...
$210!
$210 USD!
Honestly, knowing this, Leon wanted to slap himself. The company had provided each of them with $3000 in operational funds for their final exam, allowing them to spend it as they saw fit.
Yet, Leon felt guilty for being swindled out of more than $200 by Romanée-Conti, even though the company was rich, it was still company money...
Additionally, being recognized as a newbie by the barmaid had led to Leon's self-doubt. Fortunately, he had a strong psychological resilience and quickly digested these emotions. Learning from this experience, he resolved to negotiate prices better in the future.
Quill Sears and his group were originally history professors and students from Cambridge University in the UK. They ventured to Africa in search of the so-called "God's Flower."
Sears had deduced from a diary written by a Portuguese captain that there was a plant in Congo capable of curing all diseases.
The diary described the captain and his crew navigating a ship called "Brilliance Restored," under orders from King Manuel I, escorting explorers into the Congolese rainforest to map resources and viable routes for future colonization.
Though it seemed an ordinary journey, the reason Professor Sears spent his savings to come here was two particular entries in the diary:
"God bless, if we hadn't eaten those red flowers in our desperation, half of us would have died of smallpox!"
And:
"Those flowers are miraculous, truly a gift from God! We managed to leave the rainforest healthy, something we could hardly imagine! It's a shame we used them all. If only we could bring some back to plant... perhaps next time, if we can find that ancient city again."
Smallpox, a disease that has ravaged humanity for millennia, killed at least 150 million people in Europe from the 16th to the 19th centuries, according to records. The actual numbers are likely higher.
The red flowers that cured smallpox and kept the crew healthy in the rainforest were indeed valuable for medicine and research.
Unfortunately, "Brilliance Restored" was intercepted by the British Navy while leaving Africa, and the diary's last entry read:
"Hah! Cunning, treacherous Brits! We risked our lives through the wilderness, why should we 'gift' you our maps? I'd rather destroy them! If we don't return on time, it means we've died far from home, unable to serve the empire anymore...
May the king restore the empire's brilliance soon!"
Sears speculated that the captain and crew of "Brilliance Restored" were likely captured by the British Navy and executed after negotiations failed.
Although the Portuguese Empire was the first global empire and the longest-lasting colonial empire, it was in a dark period in the late 15th century.
Internal royal strife and external threats from Britain, Holland, and Spain, not to mention countless pirates during the Age of Exploration, all contributed to the disappearance of "Brilliance Restored."
Sears bought the diary five years ago in a small, privately-owned gift shop in Amsterdam, Holland, among many other diaries and letters from 13th to 19th-century sailors and captains. Not famous works, they were essentially antiques.
As a history professor, Sears couldn't resist the temptation and spent nearly 1000 pounds on over a dozen such items.
Back home, he read, deciphered, and tried to restore the damaged parts, discovering the history of "Brilliance Restored" and retracing the explorers' steps to Loja.
When he reported this to his school, hoping for funding to find "God's Flower" and benefit humanity, the response was, "Are you joking?"
No one, and no institution, believed investing in this would yield returns.
The existence of "God's Flower" itself was questioned, and more importantly, Sears had only traced the explorers' steps before they entered the rainforest, knowing nothing of their subsequent journey.
Exploring the approximately 2-million-square-kilometer Congo rainforest for a flower? Ridiculous.
After continuous setbacks, Sears remained convinced of the flower's existence and fortune's favor, so he sold all his possessions and brought his four best students to Africa.
Since then, they faced unending obstacles.
Listening to Sears and his students, Leon connected the eerie phenomena in Loja with the possible existence of "God's Flower," deducing that something went wrong, turning the medicinal plant into a toxin.
Reporting his findings and speculations, Leon gladly accepted the $1000 payment and headed to the northern village, the initial infection source, with the group.
At this moment.
"Mr. Joseph," a curious girl sitting in the back asked, "why did you become a mercenary?"
"Of course, for the money..."
Boom!!
But before Leon could finish, an explosion suddenly interrupted him.
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