Chapter 115

Not only that,

Sun Qian's tone grew increasingly grave as she pointed to a patient inside the observation room, his whole body violently trembling, foaming at the mouth.

"Look, his nervous system has begun to suffer irreversible damage. According to my preliminary diagnosis, after the virus destroyed their immune system, it has started attacking their central nervous system."

She paused, drew a deep breath, as if summoning all her strength, before uttering that most cruel conclusion.

"City Lord, this is no ordinary virus. It is a new type of biochemical virus formed by mixing multiple mutant viruses! Its source is very likely the contaminated water long consumed by those new residents."

"These viruses likely lay dormant in their bodies for a considerable time, and after entering our relatively 'clean' Xuanwu City, they were activated by some unknown factor and then... erupted completely."

Outside the observation room, a long silence fell.

Lin Yue stood there silently, saying nothing.

Half a month ago, when Sun Qian told him of this situation, he without hesitation exchanged in the System Mall the best medical equipment he could obtain.

【Antiviral Serum Synthesizer】, 【Gene Sequence Analyzer】, 【Ultra-clean Sterile Lab】……

But the result……

It was still of little effect.

"Did those few vials of antiviral serum I sent you a couple of days ago work?"

As if something had occurred to him, Lin Yue asked.

This is the antiviral serum he exchanged in the System Mall a couple of days ago; the System Mall describes it as able to inhibit replication, transmission, or alleviate symptoms of 90% of current-world viruses.

Logically, with these antiviral serums, the situation should not have deteriorated to this point.

"City Lord, they're useless."

Seeing Lin Yue mention those few vials of antiviral serum beforehand, Sun Qian gave a bitter smile and shook her head,

"This is a brand-new composite biochemical virus; its genetic structure is extremely unstable and continues to mutate at a terrifying speed. The vials you sent a few days ago cannot effectively combat this virus."

She pointed to a gene sequence analyzer spinning rapidly inside the lab; on its screen, the helical gene chain was visibly breaking apart and recombining, presenting a dizzying chaotic state.

"Look, this is a virus sample we extracted from a patient half an hour ago. In just half an hour, its gene sequence has mutated by over thirty percent; ordinary drugs cannot lock onto it."

Although Lin Yue's antiviral serum from the System Mall only works against 90% of current-world viruses, given how vast this world is, he never thought it would fail when he exchanged it—yet he never expected this low-probability event to happen to him.

"Is there any other way?"

Since the antiviral serum from the System Mall is useless, we must find another method!

"A method…… is not entirely nonexistent."

Sun Qian said somewhat uncertainly,

"City Lord, all changes stem from the same source. Although this composite virus keeps mutating, the gene sequences of its few core original strains must be relatively stable."

"If we can find those few original toxin strains and extract their gene samples, we might be able to develop a…… broad-spectrum antiviral serum effective against all variants!"

"Original toxin strains……"

Lin Yue's brain began to race,

"Where should we go to find them?"

"City Lord, this is exactly what I was about to report to you."

Sun Qian turned, quickly tapped a few times on the tactical tablet beside her, and pulled up a detailed map of Suchen.

"These past days, our medical department has conducted detailed inquiries of all newly arrived survivors."

"We have marked on the map the movement tracks of all infected individuals and the shelters they once stayed in."

She pointed to the dozen or so dense red dots on the map.

"Look, these are the areas where the 'Black Wolf' shelter's people once operated, mainly concentrated in the western industrial ruins of Suchen."

She then pointed to another area.

"These are the 'Flying Tiger' shelter's…… they mainly operate in the southern commercial district."

……

Sun Qian's finger moved across the map, clearly marking the activity ranges of those dozens of small and medium shelters one by one.

"At the same time, we also conducted in-depth interviews with the yet-uninfected survivors who have stronger resistance—the 'fortunate ones'—asking them in detail about all possible contamination sources they might have encountered before entering our Xuanwu City."

She called up another document, its pages densely recording hundreds of entries.

Drinking water sources, food sources, activity areas, contact history……

Every detail was recorded clearly.

"Then what?"

Lin Yue naturally knew why Sun Qian was asking these, but he wanted to know what she had discovered from them.

"Then,"

Sun Qian immediately overlaid and compared the maps of the two datasets.

"We discovered a very surprising commonality."

Her finger pressed heavily on a spot on the map marked with a red circle.

"All infected individuals, no matter which shelter they came from, have over the past year, more or less, had some contact with this place!"

Lin Yue's gaze was instantly drawn to that red circle.

Suchen, northern district, abandoned chemical industrial park!

"This is it!"

Sun Qian's tone was unprecedentedly certain!

"According to the survivors' descriptions, shortly after the apocalypse, this abandoned chemical industrial park suffered a violent explosion that leaked massive amounts of chemical raw materials, turning the water and land within tens of kilometers into a deadly toxic zone."

"But precisely because of that, few mutant creatures roam there, making it a place where some desperate survivors occasionally go to 'scavenge'."

"I am confident that the few core original toxin strains constituting this new biochemical virus are hidden somewhere in that industrial park! Very likely, they are at the epicenter of that explosion!"

Lin Yue stared at the red circle on the map, silent.

Originally Lin Yue only wanted to peacefully build Xuanwu City here, but now it seems they have to return to Suchen.

Looks like this trip is unavoidable.

Lin Yue slowly exhaled a mouthful of turbid qi.

However, since we have to go, we might as well bring along all the survivors willing to join Xuanwu City.

PS: New book, please urge for updates and collect!