Unlike humans, Black Viper's robots didn't have their own private activities, so they were usually sent out on a mission. The reason why Black Viper's robots were sent out on a mission couldn't be a small matter. Take the "sea blue gold" incident for example. The mastermind behind the incident had directed the RAS academicians who were busy trying to make themselves famous. But ever since then, the research on sea blue gold had progressed by leaps and bounds, and the results were remarkable. This was why it was said that leaders were born strategists.
Speaking of which, Silin hadn't received any news about the Black Viper incident when he arrived here. Guan Feng hadn't completely let go of Silin, and Silin was just getting used to it. Still, there was no way he wouldn't have informed Silin about it if it was something serious.
The robot hadn't told Silin about the incident before, but it wasn't going to hide it from Silin now that he had asked.
"We're here to monitor the suspected carrier of the virus," said the robot.
"The suspected carrier of the virus?" Silin was puzzled. He hadn't heard anything about the carrier of the virus since he arrived on this planet.
"Yes." The robot told Silin the cause of the incident and all the relevant information.
A virus had appeared in the Empire, and it was called the Zebra Virus by the RAS Virology. This didn't mean that the virus was related to zebras, but that the symptoms caused by the virus were striped just like the stripes on a zebra's body.
At first, it would be reflected in the change of color on the surface of the body, with the appearance of two alternating colors. As the disease progressed, from light to dark, the nerves and muscles would be seriously affected. The muscles would soften and harden according to the appearance of the two alternating colors. The alternating softness and hardness would be the same as the color distribution on the surface.
Both overly softened and hardened muscles would cause inconvenience to the human body, and in the end, the patient would lose all mobility. The body's conditioned reflexes would become sluggish, and the body's nerve conduction would be obstructed. However, the nerves in the brain would be relatively normal, and the patient would be conscious enough to know that they were dead.
It had to be said that this was a form of torture. Unable to move, unable to speak, and even facial expressions began to fade. He could only express his emotions through his eyes. As his condition worsened, his pupils began to change color, becoming the same color as the stripes on his body.
At first, a group of patrolling soldiers from the eleventh star region detected an uninhabitable planet's energy signature and went to collect energy ores. However, they found five people who had been dead for many days, and next to them was an energy ore that had been dug out.
The energy mine on this planet was not located on the surface, so it was not easy for the patrol to detect the energy mine deep underground. If the five people had not dug out some of the energy mine, the patrol would not have discovered the energy signal at all.
Since it was an energy mine located deep underground, how did these five people know about it? Obviously, they were not the only five people who had come, because the patrol saw traces of aircraft landing there, but when they arrived on the planet, they did not see any aircraft. This meant that they actually had companions, but their companions had left them behind and left.
The five people who had died did not have any wounds on their bodies. The patrol pulled off their protective suits and saw their miserable state. All five of their bodies were covered in two-colored stripes. Some were greenish-red, some were blackish-purple, and some were bluish-yellow. These were all symptoms caused by different virus mutations.
The soldier who pulled off the five people's protective suits also noticed that something was wrong when he saw this. He immediately reported to the others, then took a bit of the deceased's blood for analysis. The result was that they had died of a virus.
The soldiers were all wearing protective suits. After collecting some information, they returned to the fleet. When they returned to the base, they went to the sterilization room to perform six layers of sterilization. However, not long after, the soldiers' fingernails began to show two-colored stripes. At first, they did not feel any discomfort, but because they had seen the five dead people, the soldiers were quickly sent to be examined. None of them returned to the base.
Because of the existence of this unknown substance, ordinary virus scanners could not detect its existence at all. Analyzers could only determine whether it was caused by a virus or other causes based on the patient's physical condition. Many sterilization equipment could not completely kill this single-stranded virus.
The six layers of sterilization in the sterilization room did not kill the virus, but only temporarily inactivated it. When the conditions were right, it would become active again.
The samples they collected from the five dead people were later sent to the RAS. The RAS's Institute of Virology listed this new virus as a Level 1 dangerous object. At the same time, the RAS named this new virus the Zebra virus.
Soon, the entire patrol team was quarantined. Three days later, under the RAS's special virus scanner, more than 60% of the patrol team were diagnosed with the Zebra virus.
However, there were many people who came into contact with the patrol team. Later, the virus spread more and more, from one planet to another, from one star sector to another.
Because the incubation period of the virus varied, even if the RAS rushed to create a detector to detect the latent virus, it also made the work more difficult. There were so many planets and countless people. How could they capture every single one of them and use a detector to detect them?
Now that the higher-ups had purposely suppressed the matter, Black Viper's people began to get busy. Because it was inconvenient for humans to move around, Black Viper's robots were the ones tracking down the virus' primary mutants and prototypes in secret.
Silin counted the days and asked, "Was this the reason why Xi Kai had to leave during the Black Viper handover meeting?"
"Yes, but the Mist Bodhisattva Emperor contacted Lord Xi urgently."
"But if this virus is so dangerous, why haven't I heard anything about it for so long? Also, why would the three kings let Gen Xingming and the other two run around if the situation was bad?"
"The Wind Chief said not to tell you yet. The virus is still contained in the eleventh star region, so there are many things that haven't been made public yet. I think the three kings must have felt that this place is too far away from the eleventh star region, so they didn't restrict the three princes. If an infected person appears in this star region, the people protecting the three princes will definitely kidnap the three princes and bring them back. "
Silin shot him a glance. Guan Feng hadn't completely handed over his authority yet, so his words still carried more weight than Silin's. However, the reason Guan Feng didn't want Silin to get involved wasn't because he didn't want to give up his authority, but because he didn't want Silin to get involved.
Guan Feng hadn't been involved in virus research in the past, so he hadn't participated in any research projects related to viruses or molecules even though he was an academic in Black Viper. But Silin was different. Guan Feng was afraid that Silin would get involved. The initial research of a new virus was the riskiest, and this was Guan Feng's way of protecting Silin.
No wonder Guan Feng hadn't handed over his authority even though Gu Changan and Christian had already handed it over. It was because he knew about this a long time ago, and that was why he hadn't given up yet. It was because a verbal handover didn't count. Black Viper's robots would set up a new program after the actual handover. The people responsible for changing the program were the decision maker, the royal family member, and the executor, Xi Kai. Both of them had obviously been notified by Guan Feng beforehand.
"How high is the death rate right now?"
"Ten percent of the infected are dead, thirty percent are in critical condition, and the rest are in the early stages of infection. This virus mutates very quickly, and there are many derivatives of it. That's why we haven't produced a satisfactory antibody yet. The medicine we produce is only able to prolong the patients' lives a little longer, "the robot said.
"You haven't determined the route of transmission yet?" Silin asked again.
"It's spread through the respiratory tract, body fluids, and bodily secretions. Up until now, everyone who came into contact with the patients has been infected."
"What's the situation with the foreign races?"
"The foreign races aren't immune either. The virus mutates even faster in their bodies."
Silin fell silent for a moment.
The robot continued, "Later on, the military and Black Viper conducted a two-pronged investigation and discovered that the planet discovered by the patrols was not the origin of the virus. Now, there are two viewpoints. One is a conspiracy theory. They believe that this is a conspiracy, that someone deliberately arranged such an incident to release the virus in order to take revenge on the Dynasty. As for the other point of view, it's mostly people from the Royal Academy of Sciences. They've taken out some experimental results as a basis and believe that this virus molecule isn't man-made, but a new type of molecule formed naturally. There's a great deal of chance. "
"You got the molecular diagram, right? Let me see, "Silin said.
The robot's eyes flashed, and two beams of light shot out of them to form a three-dimensional image in front of it. The image showed the structure of a high-level mutated virus. The molecular diagram of all the atoms that made up the virus was clearly displayed. It was a single-stranded virus molecule.
Human DNA was a double-stranded helix, so it was relatively stable. However, single-stranded DNA like this was much less stable, let alone a single-stranded virus like this.
Silin pointed at a black circle on the molecular diagram and asked, "What does this represent?"
"Unknown substance."
"No clue at all?"
"No, this is a substance that has never been seen before. The people from the RAS and the Black Viper's research group haven't come up with any useful information so far, but they have pointed out that to understand this substance, we have to start with the original virus. So far, only a small portion of the virus samples have been obtained, and the original virus has never been seen before."
It was because of this that the RAS 'virology department rejected the conspiracy theory and supported the idea of natural formation. However, was there any use in arguing about this at a time like this? Either way, there was no progress on either side.
"Send me all the information you have on this Zebra virus." Silin turned on the communicator in his hand. This communicator had a secure receiving function and could store a large amount of information.
The robot didn't refuse and directly transmitted all the information it knew to Silin.
"You came to this planet because you found a carrier of the virus?"
"We're not sure, we're just following them. A noble from the eleventh star region came out of the wedding, and although the eleventh star region is currently in a closed state, they're still lenient toward the nobles. They didn't find any virus when they came out, but the higher-ups told us to follow them and take immediate action if we found any."
Silin nodded. "Who are you following then? Where is he right now? "
The robot named a person, and this person was one of the people who entered the room later.
"Keep watching and notify me if anything changes."
"Got it."
Silin waved a hand, and the robot's figure faded away once more.
Silin stood outside for a while longer to digest the information the robot had given him. Finally, he returned to the room. The room was as noisy as ever. Naimi was talking about Vege-Fritter with a couple of people, and Gen Xingming and the others were talking about how they made a lot of pocket money from betting on the flying car race.
Thanks to Bel's care, Libero and Lunani weren't harassed by anyone when Silin left. In fact, they even made a couple of friends and started a new conversation.
Huimao, on the other hand, was having a lot of fun. Sometimes he would join Gen Xingming and the others in jeering, but his twitching ears told Silin that he had been paying attention to his surroundings all this time, including Silin's meeting with the robot and their conversation.
Huimao stopped eating when he saw Silin. He jumped onto Silin's shoulder and asked, "What are you going to do?"
"Let's wait and see. I'll research that thing after the wedding."
Huimao looked absent-minded. He clenched his claws and scratched Silin's shoulder. It took him a long time before he finally said, "I think it's best if you don't get involved."
"Why?" Cillin walked over to the sofa and lay down. He kicked the red-faced Gen Xingming who was about to come over and drag someone to drink with him to the side.
"I think this virus is very dangerous."
"Even you think it's dangerous?"
"Not really. I'm sure I can resist it. If the robot isn't afraid of me, why should I? But you can't. You're a complete organic lifeform, and this virus is different from the ones I've come into contact with before. That unknown substance especially, I can't figure out what it is. "Huimao said while his ears drooped.
Silin didn't say anything. Huimao had the same thought as Guan Feng, but Silin didn't want to avoid it just like that.
"Sigh, Silin, can we just ignore that? We can just give up our position as Black Viper's leader and be a free hunter. "Huimao missed his old life in the League of Stars a little.
Silin picked Huimao up from his shoulder and scratched his chin, "Do you want to go back?"
"Mn, I kind of miss them." Huimao tilted his head and showed his chin for Silin to scratch.
Silin naturally knew who Huimao was referring to. Why wouldn't he want to go back? But he couldn't go back.
Silin's thoughts returned to the Zebra Virus while he scratched Huimao's chin. According to the robot's message, Black Viper had collected ten thousand highly active virus samples from ten thousand patients. However, more than half of them were high-grade mutants of the Zebra Virus, and the rest were mostly mid-grade mutants. Just like the robot had said, there were very few low-grade mutants, and there was no way he would be able to find answers from the virus itself.
Whether it was artificially synthesized or naturally formed, the higher the level of mutation of a virus, the more it would conceal its original method of formation. The robot did not have the analytical diagram and diagram of the primary mutant virus, so if Cillin wanted to know, he would have to personally ask for it. However, if he asked for the information of the primary mutant virus, then Cillin would truly be participating in this work.
Silin wasn't afraid or averse to this kind of research, but Guan Feng probably wasn't the only one who objected to Silin's participation.
It made sense. If it really was a high-risk virus, then there was no one who could replace Silin if something happened to Silin. At the very least, no one had found a suitable candidate yet. Even the members of Black Viper who weren't familiar with Silin probably wouldn't agree to it. Their objection wouldn't sway Silin much. After all, Silin was one of the three leaders of Black Viper. It was just that it might be a little troublesome when the time came, and there were definitely going to be a lot of delays.
"Hey, Silin, what are you thinking about?!" Bel shoved Gen Xingming to the side and put his arm around Silin's shoulder. He came over and told Silin about the beautiful girls he saw just now.
Silin listened with a smile on his face. When Bel offered to introduce a few girls to Silin, Silin turned down the offer. He wasn't used to the nobles' way of doing things. It felt like he was selling himself. The way the girls looked at Gen Xingming and the others reminded Silin of the wolves in the forest. It was a very uncomfortable feeling. If Gen Xingming and the others hadn't displayed their unpredictable temperament in public, those girls would've probably forced themselves on them already.
Cillin had been paying attention to the robots' movements all this time. Although the gray cat was very reluctant for Cillin to interfere, it still had to pay attention to the robots' movements at all times. The gray cat pondered in its heart. If it discovered an infected person, should it forcefully kick Cillin unconscious and drag him back to his second grandpa's master to lock him up, or should it use a soft policy of feigning illness?
Either way, the past two days were relatively peaceful. Nothing major happened during the race with Naimi and the discussion with a couple of racing enthusiasts.
Just like that, the wedding finally began. Silin delivered the gifts with Gen Xingming and the others, and the core members of the Lore Family and Gleeson Family who received them were smiling so widely that their faces were practically blooming chrysanthemums. They didn't dare to mess around with Gen Xingming and the others, but they didn't dare to mess around with Silin. After all, there was a difference in the treatment between those with royal blood and those without.
Silin felt goosebumps all over his body when he saw the meaningful and overly friendly smiles on their faces. He found an excuse to leave the room and catch his breath. But Silin's communicator rang before he could catch his breath.
Silin looked at the character code on the communicator and answered, "What's up, Coach Guan?"
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