Unlike a human being, Black Viper’s robots didn’t indulge in private activities. This meant that they only went out when they had a mission to execute. Worse, anything that involved them was normally a big deal just like the Sea Blue Gold incident. That incident had been a plan to snap the RAS scholars entirely too engrossed with gaining fame than furthering their studies out of their delusion, and it worked very well. Research on the sea blue gold had progressed at an astonishing speed ever since. It was no wonder that leaders are also natural strategists.
Cillin hadn’t heard about anything important from Black Viper when he came here. Although Guan Feng hadn’t relinquished all of his power yet, and Cillin was in a period of adaptation, it was no reason for him to be kept in the dark if the business was that important.
Although the robots had kept quiet about their mission, they had no reason to hide it from Cillin now that he was asking them directly.
“We are here to observe and track down any suspect viral carriers.”
“Viral carriers?” Cillin asked. He hadn’t heard anything like this when he came to this planet.
“That’s correct.” The robot then told him about the cause of the incident and all of the relevant information.
A new virus named the Zebra Virus by the RAS Institute of Virology had appeared in the empire. Despite its name, the virus wasn’t related to zebras in any way. It was a reference to the symptoms where the infected’s skin became covered by stripes.
First, parts of the skin would turn lighter or darker, giving the infected patient a dual-colored appearance. As the sickness gets worse, the muscles and nerves also become severely affected. The lighter part of the flesh would grow softer, and the darker part of the flesh would harder. One way or the other, the sickness slowly cripples the patient until they lose the ability to move completely. Their conditioned reflexes would become slower, and nerve conduction blocks would start appearing more and more, but the patient’s cranial nerves were left mostly intact. Basically, they would be fully conscious as their death came closer and closer.
It was basically torture. The patients wouldn’t be able to move or speak. Eventually, even expressions would be beyond their ability to make, meaning that eye contact was their only way of communication. As the sickness became even more severe, their very pupils would change color share the same stripes as their bodies.
The first discovery was made at the 11th star region. A group of patrols had gone to an inhabitable, unmanned planet to mine energy ores after picking up an energy signal. Instead, they discovered five long dead bodies and the energy ores they dug.
The ores were below the surface of the planet, and the patrols didn’t have the right equipment to probe further into the ground. They wouldn’t even have a signal to pick up if these five dead people hadn’t dug out some of the energy ores.
So, if the energy ores were deep below the ground, how did these five people discover them in the first place? Plus, they clearly weren’t the only people who landed on the planet. The patrols discovered traces of a spaceplane landing on the ground, but they didn’t see anything like that when they came to the planet. It meant that these five people weren’t alone, and that their companions had ditched their bodies and escaped by themselves.
On the surface, the patrols couldn’t find any external wounds, so they took off the deceased’ protective suits for a deeper check. It was there they discovered that the deceased bodies were covered in stripes: One had green and red stripes, another had black and purple stripes, and one more had blue and yellow stripes. The reason the colors were different was because each of them caught different variants of the virus.
The patrols immediately realized that something was wrong the moment they saw how odd the bodies looked. They immediately reported their findings and took a blood sample. The results indicated that the deceased had died from viral infection.
The soldiers were all wearing protective suits, and they went back to their squad after collecting some information. They went through six different sterilization processes in the sterilization room before they were allowed entry to the ship, but they soon discovered that stripes were appearing on their fingernails. Although no one felt unhealthy at the start, they had all seen what had happened to the five victims. The soldiers were sent away for a checkup, and not one of them had returned to their squad since.
The average virus detector couldn’t detect the unknown substance at all, and the analyzer could even determine if the patient’s symptoms were caused by the virus or something else. Even the sterilization equipment they had couldn’t one hundred percent kill the single-stranded virus.
The entire patrol squad was quarantined very soon. Three days later, it was discovered using the new machine the RAS created specifically to detect this virus that more than sixty percent of the patrol squad had been infected.
The incubation period of the Zebra Virus wasn’t fixed, so even with the new scanner the task of finding the infected were made even more difficult than it already was. There were many planets and countless people they needed to check. They couldn’t just grab everyone and scan them with the new scanner.
For now the higher-ups were keeping a lid on the matter, and Black Viper was asked to help with the matter. This was a virus infection, so humans weren’t a good choice for field work. Besides the empire’s special operations, Black Viper’s robots were also sent out to track down the primary variant and the original virus.
Cillin counted the days before asking, “Did Xi Kai left during the succession meeting because of this?”
“Yes. The emperor himself had contacted him to deal with the emergency.”
“If this virus really is as dangerous as you say, why haven’t I heard anything about it until now? Also, if the situation really is that bad, why are the three kings allowing their kids to run wherever they please?”
“Leader Feng is the one who told us to keep it quiet from you. Currently, the virus hasn’t broken through the eleventh star region yet, so there are many things that aren’t publicized yet. Also, I think the three kings didn’t try to restrict the three princes because this planet is quite far from the eleventh star region. If an infected does show up here, I’m sure their guards will take them away by force if they have to.”
Cillin shot the robot a glance. Guan Feng hadn’t surrendered all of his power yet, so for now his words had more sway than Cillin’s. However, it wasn’t because he couldn’t bear to part his power. It was because he didn’t want Cillin to get involved with this.
Guan Feng had never researched anything related to viruses, so even if his focus in Black Viper was academics he had never taken part in any research that involved viruses and molecules. But Cillin was different. Guan Feng was terrified for Cillin’s stake because the initial research of a new virus was also the riskiest. To keep him out of the loop entirely was how Guan Feng planned to protect Cillin.
No wonder Guan Feng hadn’t surrendered his power even though Gu Changan and Kristi Lang had done it already. It was because he knew about this, and that the actual transfer of power only took place when Black Viper’s robots were reprogrammed to obey Cillin’s command. Two people were responsible for the reprogramming: the emperor’s representative and the executor, Xi Kai. Clearly, Guan Feng had spoken to both of them beforehand.
“What is the current mortality rate of the virus?”
“Ten percent of the total infected are dead, thirty percent are in the critical stage, and the rest are in the preliminary stage. This virus mutates quickly, and it has more derivatives than usual. So far, no satisfactory antibody has been created yet. At best, they extended the patients’ life a bit longer,” the robot said.
“Have you confirmed the method of transmission?” Cillin asked.
“It’s confirmed that the virus can be transmitted through body fluid and the respiratory tracts. Skin secretion is also a possibility. Up until now, anyone who came into contact with the patients have been infected.”
“What about the humanoids?”
“The humanoids aren’t immune either. In fact, the virus mutates faster inside their bodies.”
Cillin fell silent.
