Chapter 898: Countdown

The researcher seated on the chair was as if stuck, his dull eyes staring blankly ahead.

This question seems to have touched upon the cause of his death.

As Lin An was considering whether to pour in more spiritual energy, the researcher spoke in a hoarse voice.

Yes.

When we first realized the uncanny valley effect, we quickly identified zombies as the object of human fear.

Zombies repeatedly appear in history, to the point that we deeply fear them in our genes.

They are highly human-like, yet their behavior can be easily identified by us, and they are widely spread in legends around the world.

Assuming they truly exist.

When we began researching how to 'prevent' a possible future zombie outbreak, an accident occurred.

The conclusion that we fear zombies was overturned..

While speaking, Lin An raised his eyebrows.

Prevention?

He seemed to 'see' how shocked the humans in this world were before realizing the previous conclusion.

Thus, they began to consider what to do about the next zombie appearance.

This place is so similar to reality, I just don't know if the real world does this...

Is it that researching the rabies virus caused the zombie appearing in the memory fragment?

Why was it overturned?

His expression unchanged, Lin An pressed for an answer.

The recovery ability is indeed useful, but it can only obtain information from the dead through dialogue, and the efficiency is still too slow.

If he could directly read the other's thoughts, it would surely be much simpler.

The reason for the overturn is..

We discovered a new problem while researching the prion virus.

The researcher replied dully, pointing directly at the screen with his right hand.

The prion virus was something we studied on the side while researching the rabies virus.

Initially we thought the prion virus was produced by humans to resist 'predation' among themselves.

Or rather, it was produced by organisms between each other to avoid consuming their own kind.

However, under the uncanny valley theory, the prion virus is actually suspected to be a branch of the zombie virus.

And like the rabies virus, the prion virus, upon entering the human body, rapidly attacks the brain, causing neural degeneration and loss of coordination, making humans extremely aggressive and relying on visual tracking of targets, ultimately leading to death.

Its performance and function are extremely similar to the rabies virus, the only difference being that rabies patients fear water sources, while prion virus patients do not.

Rabies patients rely on hearing to track targets, but the prion virus relies on sight.

Many researchers believe that if zombies truly appear in the future, they are likely a combination of the prion virus and the rabies virus.

Of course, there might also be organex, a biological resurrection technology participating.

Lin An, what is o what x..

Little Mo Ling listened somewhat nervously to the increasing number of terms; she felt that although she didn't quite understand what the researcher was saying, it hid crucial information.

She also wanted to understand; this secret concerning the truth of the world really made her too curious.

Without changing expression, Lin An quickly recalled the memory fragment given by the Second Will and gave a brief answer.

It is probably a 'resurrection technology' discovered by the research team of Ameeriken Yelu University in 2022, ten years ago.

They successfully revived a pig that had been dead for one hour; its body could move, but its brain remained close to a dead state.

Afterwards, there was no further research, or rather, no related information was published.

His eyes flickering, Lin An subconsciously glanced at the surroundings, his unease growing stronger.

A nearly absurd speculation surged into his mind.

Like.. too similar.

At first he thought this place was a world similar to a dungeon, but as the information from the researcher's mouth increasingly matched the real world, he couldn't help but suspect that this place might not be the world from ten years ago.

A world without zombies 'produced' zombies.

In reality, the virus waters that appeared before the Apocalypse outbreak... the mother spider of Jianpuzhai..

He couldn't help but suddenly recall that Chu An had once mentioned the existence of survivors, which the military had already discovered twelve years ago.

That... Electromagnetic Cannon with a spiritual energy node!

Suppressing the doubts in his heart, Lin An restrained the urge to fly back and ask Chu An now, controlling the researcher to continue speaking.

In subsequent research, we found that the prion virus actually has a problem.

That is, the infectivity of the prion virus comes from the highly virus-laden head.

In other words, eating the body will not cause infection with the prion virus.

And whether it is the rabies virus or the prion virus, if they are truly precursors of the zombie virus, why is their infectivity so low? Moreover, they cause the host to die in a short time.

This does not conform to transmission principles. On the contrary, it seems like it can control the infected group from growing larger.

But if it is not a large-scale presence, how could it make all of humanity feel fearful?

Regarding this, we have proposed a new speculation.

Could it be that, in the uncanny valley effect, what we fear is not zombies, but another unknown, highly human-like existence?

This hypothesis is too bold; we must therefore examine it from the characteristics of the two viruses.

For example, if the rabies virus and the prion virus are like puzzle pieces, merely a block of the zombie virus.

The former hopes the infected will flee water sources, be extremely aggressive, and enhance hearing.

The latter fills the brain with prion virus that cannot be consumed, enhances vision, but worsens bodily coordination, enabling humans to identify them at a glance.

When the two traits are combined, they paradoxically turn into a strange but logically consistent existence.

The infected, under those two traits, become a biological weapon that cannot be 'eaten,' with their vision and hearing enhanced.

After all, if we assume something still wants to eat us, the prion virus's principle can only be explained this way.

The more he listened, the more astonished Lin An became; he never expected that the people of this regional world would actually speculate about zombies from this angle.

It must be said that, after assuming another type of person exists, their hypothesis about zombies holds up.

Taking a deep breath, Lin An's mind stirred, and he sensed a large number of infected approaching.

Naturally, the first to arrive was the zombie cradling that skull.

"So, when you discovered the crystal skull, you realized that zombies couldn't possibly have such a skull."

"Therefore, we are even more certain that highly human-like 'they' exist!"

"How did you discover the skull? And what happened afterward?"

Staring intently at the researcher, Lin An was ready to cut off his spiritual energy output at any moment.

The most critical point, and also the issue of contacting the crystal skull, has arisen.

Inside the laboratory, the researcher nodded woodenly:

"Yes. That crystal skull cannot belong to a zombie, which necessarily indicates that a highly human-like biological entity exists."

"They are more terrifying than zombies, to the extent that in our speculation we believe humans were forced to become zombies in order to evade their predation."

"We discovered the skull... no, it suddenly appeared."

"And then, what happened after.."

"Creak"

Suddenly shaking, in the dim lab the researcher, who was clearly dead, yet while speaking about the skull's information, he—who should have lost all feeling—had his face contort and his body begin violent spasms.

"We.."

"We..."

His face maddened, under the Recovery Skill he suddenly braced himself on the chair, the bullet hole in his forehead continuously oozing a red-white fluid as he shook.

It was as if he had touched an unfathomable, death-transcending fear.

As if on the verge of collapse, the researcher, under Lin An's forced control, suddenly bellowed:

"I.. saw him! I know who he is! I saw the truth of the world!"

On high alert, Lin An instantly drew his sword, the spiritual energy connecting them ready to be severed at any moment.

"What truth!?"

"Who is he!?"

A harsh shout.

In the shocking turn, Lin An stared fixedly at the trembling researcher, his anxiety nearly peaking.

Spiritual energy erupted without reserve, even if it would burst the opponent's body, Lin An also needed to know what the answer actually was.

"Fake... it's all fake!"

Under Recovery Control, the researcher's expression shifted between fear and calm, he cried out in pain.

One second later, that face, almost on the verge of twisting and deforming, suddenly froze, staring fixedly at Lin An.

Like a final flicker of consciousness, the researcher seemed to squeeze out those words from deep in his throat:

"We are... one entity.."

"He is.."

"Boom!!"

In an instant, a dark red shot suddenly burst forth from behind Lin An.

( "Dodge!!" )

Almost as the beam reached him, the ever-silent Second Will suddenly changed expression.

Gooseflesh rose.

Feeling this deathly light laden with ultimate destructive power, Lin An's anxiety instantly erupted.

On the system panel, the final countdown suddenly hit zero.