Virus

Thames Tower.

In a large conference room, Roger and his four teammates sat nervously in their chairs.

The faces of ambassadors from various countries flashed across the enormous screen overhead. The hall teemed with people, with over a hundred reporters facing their cameras, ready to broadcast live.

Although they knew perfectly well that this was not reality, they still felt out of place among so many senior officials and political leaders.

And uneasy.

"Frank went off to hide by himself?"

"He was the one who wanted to kill the other team. Now he hasn't even found them, and he's using us as bait!"

With Frank absent, one teammate could not resist calling him by name, his voice full of resentment.

"What else? He made it sound nice, saying we needed to split up so we wouldn't all get wiped out together. Really, he's just afraid of dying."

Roger frowned deeply and rebuked his teammates for fighting among themselves:

"Enough. Frank's decision is understandable. He controls the military. As long as he survives, the other team will face retaliation even if they kill us."

"In a sense, what he's doing is also a deterrent."

"But we'd already be dead by then..."

A brown-haired student gave a bitter smile. Still, he knew they had no choice. Setting the thought aside, he simply asked about something else that worried him:

"Roger, do you think doing this will really lower the difficulty?"

"I'm afraid that even if it works, the difficulty after the zombie outbreak will still be worse than we expect. Honestly, I think we should contact the other team while we still can. Even if it's just to exchange information?"

"Didn't they choose the second option? Maybe that scientist has a cure, or even a way to make us immune to the virus."

Roger fell silent.

Listening to his teammates' persuasion, he hesitated for a moment, but ultimately refused.

"Stop talking about this."

"Cooperation isn't possible. Frank holds the authority. Even if we agree, it won't make a difference."

"As for whether the difficulty will decrease, I believe it definitely will."

"We've already deployed the army and every armed force to guard the key routes. Even if the virus breaks out somewhere we don't know about, it won't spread that quickly."

"Besides, we've already contacted other countries through the government. As long as they follow our instructions, the risk of it spreading will be kept to a minimum."

Before Frank could offer his teammates any further reassurance, a senior military officer suddenly approached:

"Mr. Roger, the minister is looking for you. He would like to ask about the zombies' weaknesses on behalf of the other countries."

Roger paused. Looking at the senior military officer before him, he nodded, then rose and followed.

As he passed a window, he instinctively glanced toward a nearby tower. The pinpricks of reflected light came from the snipers Frank had stationed there.

There was still half an hour before the conference. He only hoped those people would not ruin their plan.

Much less walk straight into their trap.

University of Southampton.

Three refrigerated trucks carrying medical supplies slowly drove into the university and entered the underground parking garage.

Once the truck stopped, He Zheng leaped out as though fleeing for his life, rubbing his hands and feet together like a fly.

"Fuck, I'm freezing! Freezing!"

His face was red from the cold. To avoid being tracked by surveillance cameras, they had been forced to hide inside the refrigerated compartments with all their gear.

As they jumped down from the trucks one after another, Zhang Tie glanced in puzzlement at He Zheng, who kept hopping around, and scratched his head:

"He Zheng, was it really that cold? I thought it was all right..."

He Zheng shot him an irritated glare:

"Try carrying two axes on your back! Damn it, it was like carrying two blocks of ice. My back's practically frozen solid!"

For the first time, he hated the fact that Bloodline weapons could not be lost. He could not get rid of them even if he wanted to. No matter how strong his body was, he could not withstand being chilled the entire way.

An Ke could not help laughing at the sight. Hu Jia, the last to get out, also snickered. It was the first time he had seen He Zheng in such a sorry state.

As though remembering something, An Ke glanced at her watch and quietly reminded Ye Lin:

"Ye Lin, there are four hours left before the outbreak. We don't know how many zombies will appear here, but I still suggest setting aside two hours to evacuate the city."

"We only brought three doses of the Antidote each. If we get caught in a prolonged fight, we could easily run out early."

Ye Lin nodded without speaking. After checking the information, he headed straight for Carlton's location.

Two hours would be enough for them to make contact, take him with them, and escape.

The other five followed, moving quickly through the underground passages.

No one spoke. Only their footsteps echoed. The deserted underground parking garage was cold and unnervingly quiet.

To prevent their exposure, they had already made arrangements with the staff in advance. They had not only shut down the surveillance cameras but also sealed off the entrance, all to ensure they would encounter no one before meeting Carlton.

Following behind Ye Lin and watching his silent figure, He Zheng could not help asking quietly:

"Ye Lin, are you still thinking about that?"

"Honestly, I think our current strength is far beyond this scenario's difficulty."

"Look at that team. Even their strongest member has the same number as me, which means he's C-rank at most. With an average difficulty below C-rank, someone as strong as you has nothing to worry about."

Before Ye Lin could answer, An Ke also voiced the question she had been considering throughout the journey:

"Ye Lin."

"I think the difficulty here might be that zombies evolve after too many of them are killed, or that they can evolve by eating people."

"The prompt was [Newborn]. New ideas are born from the corpses of the old era, and biological evolution works the same way..."

"A breeding ground, nourishment... one body."

"I think those clues mean that after large numbers of zombies are eliminated, the remaining ones will mutate. The other team may seem to have the military's help, but it's actually a double-edged sword. They'll be eager to kill huge numbers of zombies, and then the difficulty will skyrocket."

"That's possible."

Ye Lin nodded. He had also noticed the information the system had provided.

Combined with the fact that the difficulty was related to the number of infections, the logic formed a closed loop.

But...

"It's too simple..."

Ye Lin sighed.

He, too, hoped he was overthinking it, worrying too much.

Ever since enhancing Observer, he had been receiving vast amounts of information from the outside world every moment.

Useful or useless, every person he had seen, every breath, and every heartbeat had been recorded.

This information was like a sixth sense. He could not identify its source, yet it kept leaving him deeply uneasy.

Suppressing the distracting thoughts, Ye Lin took a deep breath.

The immediate priority was to find that professor. Only after obtaining the information he possessed could Ye Lin work out what the difficulty actually was.

Ten minutes later.

"This should be it?"

He Zheng raised his head and looked at the aging faculty apartment building before him, a little taken aback.

At odds with the surrounding buildings, the entire faculty residence looked like something from the previous century. Its red brick walls were mottled, rust had eaten into the structure, and it was utterly dilapidated.

Judging by the windows, few people seemed to live here. Although it was midsummer, they actually felt a hint of chill standing beneath the building.

"Isn't that guy a professor? Why would he live somewhere like this?"

Frowning, He Zheng instinctively asked.

"Maybe because he was ostracized? The information we gathered mentioned that seven years ago, he proposed an anthropological theory that turned mainstream scientists against him. They even stripped him of his professorship."

An Ke looked toward the third floor, uncertain.

"What kind of theory would make people hate him that much?"

He Zheng paused, but Ye Lin shook his head beside him, signaling that they should go upstairs first.

"No one knows exactly what it was. Or rather, it was suppressed."

"Let's go up first. Everyone, be careful."

They nodded, tightened their grips on their weapons, and quickly climbed the stairs. There should not have been any danger. Since Carlton had been listed as the second option, he most likely knew how to develop a vaccine or stop the virus from spreading.

Otherwise, the system would not have treated him as one of the correct answers. Yet for some reason, they all felt a little uncomfortable.

Footsteps echoed through the building, where water seeped through the walls.

Soon, under the nervous gazes of Zhang Tie and the others, Ye Lin slowly raised his hand to knock.

Just as he was about to knock, the door suddenly opened.

In the dim light inside stood a man with scruffy facial hair and sunken eyes, wearing a filthy white coat. He stared at them in astonishment.

"Who are you...!?"

"We're here to see Professor Carlton..."

Before Ye Lin could finish, the man's expression changed. Perhaps frightened by them, he instinctively tried to shut the door.

Before Ye Lin could decide whether to force his way inside, something interrupted him.

After several coughs, a somewhat feeble voice suddenly came from within.

"Riley, let him in."

"His voice sounds rather familiar..."

Familiar?

Ye Lin raised an eyebrow, and the others behind him froze as well.

But they soon realized that this was probably the "identity" the system had given them. Without it, gaining his trust would be difficult.

Under the assistant's wary gaze, the six of them entered.

The apartment was cramped, with only two bedrooms and a kitchen.

Several battered tables were covered in bottles and jars. The light was dim, supplied by a single oil lamp.

The curtains were drawn tightly shut. A gaunt old man lay in a rocking chair, staring at them with clouded eyes.

Or rather, staring at Ye Lin.

"I think... I've seen you before. More than once, too."

"What brings you here?"

"Cough, cough..."

The old man coughed, his face flushed. He appeared to be in very poor health.

Signaling his teammates behind him to be careful, Ye Lin sat down and simply went along with the professor's words, playing the role the system had assigned him.

"Yes, Professor. We met not long ago."

"We've come to ask you a few questions."

Ye Lin paused briefly, then went straight to the point:

"Do you know about zombies?"

After speaking, he carefully observed the professor's expression. Behind him, the others watched nervously as well.

Professor Carlton showed no reaction to the question. Instead, he looked at them in puzzlement:

"Zombies... what are zombies? What a strange name..."

"Professor! Zombies are monsters that eat people!"

He Zheng blurted it out, but that only confused the professor further.

"Monsters that eat people?"

He seemed to turn the words over in his mind. The others paused; judging by his expression, he had never seen such a thing.

Ye Lin shook his head slightly, signaling He Zheng to stop.

In fact, he had considered the possibility that the man knew nothing about zombies.

Before coming, he had consulted a great deal of information and discovered that not only did this world's history differ from Earth's, but there was not a single piece of information about zombies.

"Professor, let me ask another question. Have you discovered any highly infectious viruses that can spread through wounds, saliva, or even the air?"

"The infected are extremely aggressive and feel no pain. They then spread the virus further by attacking other targets."

"Saliva? Aggression?"

"Cough, cough..."

After a bout of coughing, the professor nodded, apparently having thought of something.

"Do you mean the rabies virus, or mad cow disease? But neither makes people eat others."

The professor managed a strained smile and picked up a rusty cup from the table.

"It seems we really have spoken before. Everything you mentioned is something I study."

Ye Lin frowned deeply. Apart from He Zheng, who did not understand, even Zhang Tie knew this was not the answer they wanted.

Both shared similarities with a zombie virus, but they were fundamentally different.

The rabies virus, for example, usually caused madness in people bitten by infected dogs. But infected people had difficulty spreading the virus, let alone eating anyone.

Mad cow disease only drove people mad and was almost noncontagious.

Were we wrong? Not only does the professor not know what zombies are, he's never seen monsters that eat people. That makes it unlikely he could have developed anything like a vaccine...

Ye Lin raised his head and signaled Zhang Tie to search the other rooms. If questioning yielded nothing, perhaps whatever they were looking for was hidden somewhere.

"Professor, may I ask what theory you proposed back then? Was it related to these two things?"

The moment he finished speaking, the professor's eyes abruptly shifted. His clouded eyes seemed to light up with sudden excitement. He sat up eagerly and stared straight at Ye Lin:

"My theory? No one has asked me that in a long time. It seems you're... cough, cough... truly interested in these things!"

The professor grew furious:

"They... wouldn't even let me talk about it...!"

As though he had finally found someone to confide in, the professor spoke eagerly after a fit of harsh, dry coughing:

"Do you know about prions? I've studied them for many years!"

"I know a little."

Seeing the professor so excited, a flicker of something unusual crossed Ye Lin's eyes.

They exchanged glances, realizing they must have asked the right question.

"Ahem..."

"Mad cow disease... or prions."

"That was once my mentor's field of research. Later, I carried on his work."

"Many years ago... he happened to discover that some cattle would suddenly go mad. To find an answer, he spent a long time trying to understand why."

"After about five years, he discovered that those cattle had eaten feed made from the meat of their own kind and become infected with a virus. This virus damaged the structure of proteins in the brain, causing them to exhibit... signs of madness."

"But, p-professor, wasn't researching this a good thing?"

He Zheng sounded a little impatient:

"Why don't you keep it short and just tell us why you were ostracized?"

He could barely understand what the old man was saying. All he cared about was what the old man had done to provoke such outrage, and whether it had anything to do with the zombies.

Despite being interrupted, the old man showed no displeasure.

But before he could continue, the assistant beside him suddenly spoke:

"Everyone."

"The professor isn't feeling well. Let me explain."

"Professor Carlton was ostracized because of something he discovered back then."

"Namely, that we have been eating people all along."

"Or rather..."

"Starting in ancient times, our ancestors ate every last human."

After saying that, the assistant swept everyone with a cold, sinister gaze, as though testing something.