1 | Turning it into fiction — a plausible techno-thriller timeline Year Plot beat Scientific twist 2028 A biotech start-up CRISPR-edits P. microspora to express a thermostable PETase + MHETase cassette from Ideonella sakaiensis.   Now the fungus can attack PET at 25 °C, albeit slowly. 2029 To cut landfill costs, the company releases the strain in a pilot dump. Spores hitchhike on recycled cardboard pallets leaving the site. Cardboard supplies the missing nitrogen and shields spores from desiccation during transport. 2030 Outbreak in a humid coastal megawarehouse: bottled water shrinks, soda loses carbonation as walls thin, labels peel, pallet-wraps tear. Enzyme diffusion creates “etching” on PET, enough to compromise pressure vessels long before total mass loss. 2031 Supply-chain chaos: food spoilage, chemical leaks, panic purchases of glass and metal containers. Governments mandate fungicidal UV tunnels and shift to biobased PHA packaging. The mutant’s weakness — it still can’t digest HDPE or PP — lets industry pivot.

Welcome to the world of 2031! The PET-eating fungus crisis has reshaped society. Supply chains crumble, new technologies emerge, and panic grips the globe.

Where do you want to begin your story? Are you a biotech researcher trying to contain the outbreak? A supply chain manager dealing with the chaos? A government official implementing new policies? Or someone else entirely?

What location calls to you - a contaminated warehouse, a research lab, a government facility, or perhaps the streets of a city adapting to this new reality?