"Did you keep any living samples?" Xia Yibing asked.
"Leave one."
"Dr. Joe is watching?"
"I think so."
"Let's go." Xia Yibing picked up the big hat card and put it on.
"Try to find a good time for me... Let's go to the research institute first."
“I hope this incident can be resolved well.”
Chapter 13 Mysterious Virus
They went out and got into a four-seater jeep. Xia Yibing was the driver and Gare sat nervously beside him.
Driving on the undulating beach road, Xia Yibing looked up at the sky and found that it was still covered by a layer of dark clouds.
Dongquan Island has this kind of white and cloudy weather most of the time. Although the climate is mild compared to other areas in the north, strictly speaking, it is not suitable for humans to live here for a long time.
There were always dark clouds rolling in, and even during the day it was too depressing. She wrote to Hitzfeld that this place had the potential to become a resort - but it was just potential after all.
Seven days a week, I have to thank the goddess for even one sunny day except for the eternal night. I am afraid that if I live here for too long, I will have psychological problems.
So thinking from their perspective, Xia Yibing also admired the veterans on the island. Some of them were people who were tired of running around outside and wanted to come here to make use of their remaining energy, but some of them grew up here since childhood and were the fruits of the family of agents.
"Nachimore is dead," she said suddenly. "There shouldn't be any more changes."
Nachimore is a member of the Dongquan Island Research Base, which is also known as the Institute in spoken language. Her authority level is very high, at level 8. This person is the traitor she found out in the last incident.
The beginning of that incident was very similar to today's. Although not as disgusting, there were also prisoners who died. Their flesh, blood, and spiritual essence were collected by Nachimore. She wanted to hold an evil ceremony on Dongquan Island.
If she succeeded, something like "Desire Anomaly No. 2" might be summoned. Xia Yibing did not dare to be careless at all. She fought wits and courage with the other party for dozens of days. She successfully found and killed her in the early morning of yesterday, and destroyed all the other party's ritual arrangements.
In her opinion, this matter should have ended, but now trouble has arisen again. Is this a backup plan left by Nachimore?
"I don't know." Gare shook his head, "But from what I heard from them, many people think it's very likely that she did it."
"If that's true, that old woman is really cruel..." Xia Yibing frowned.
"I don't think so." Garai tried to talk to her. "It looks more like corruption. This doesn't help the ritual at all, does it? Why would she do this?"
"Don't use the way you think about normal people to figure out the evildoers. They are all a bunch of lunatics!"
Xia Yibing warned the rookie.
"Nachimore has been lurking in Dongquan Island for more than 46 years, and only started to make trouble when she was about to die of old age... Do you think she has ever thought about leaving safely?"
"Well……"
"She didn't want to live." The woman added, "The final sacrifice was herself."
"Perhaps decades ago, her goal in sneaking in was just to investigate what we found, but she didn't expect the security here to be so strict. It's almost a luxury for her to get out."
"She couldn't contact her own people, nor could she escape. Her ultimate goal should be to destroy our research base. I guess she may have had some mental struggles."
"Psychological struggle? Why?"
"You know you are a person who is loyal to your dream. You came to the enemy's camp and disguised yourself for decades for your dream. Decades later, you realized that it was time for you to show your value, but by then you had already immersed yourself in the drama too deeply."
Xia Yibing glanced at him.
"How many people can not hesitate at this time?"
"She used to have such a good relationship with Dr. Qiao, and she rejected his approach many times, which may have been intended to protect him."
"Ah... is it so complicated?"
Gare grinned, thinking that there were too many details involved. Even if Xia Yibing explained it to him clearly, he was still not sure if he could understand it all.
For example, she just said that the other party was an evildoer, and evildoers are lunatics who cannot be understood by common sense.
Then he hinted that the evil followers were also human beings, and they would have human emotions and would hesitate.
Isn't it too complicated? He should just keep quiet and be his assistant for now.
With the sound of brakes, the jeep stopped in front of a white stone building.
This place is huge. Its external area alone is no less than that of a large church - except that it is not as tall as a church, with only five floors at its highest point.
The black owl landed on Xia Yibing's shoulder, pressing her shoulder down and she almost stumbled.
"You go back and look after the house." She lifted the black owl down and gave the order so that it could see her lip movements clearly.
"Don't let anyone in."
"I'll give you a reward if you do well."
"Ga!" The black owl barked to show that it understood. She let it go and watched it fly away.
The atmosphere in the institute was tense; it seemed that what happened today had spread.
Xia Yibing suddenly stopped blaming Galei. It seemed that she was one of the last people to know about it, and Galei at least left her half an hour of rest time.
The corridor was filled with men in black, most of them wearing the black formal uniforms of the secret police. They gathered together and talked in low voices, and when they saw her they immediately saluted her.
"Director Imaar!"
someone shouted.
The crowd made way for her and she walked through it like a king inspecting his territory.
Instead of walking straight in, Xia Yibing paused in the middle, turned around, and scanned the faces of these people one by one.
"Anyone noticed the problem?" she asked.
No one answered.
She sighed and muttered in a voice that only people nearby could hear: "What should I do if I leave?"
He ignored these people and went straight in, leaving them staring at each other in bewilderment.
The layout of the corridor is similar to that of a hospital. Turning left in front is the entrance to the staircase. There is a large room at the top. Through the glass door, you can see people wearing sealed clothing moving around inside.
She and Gare were stopped at the door. The middle-aged female nurse was unkind and required them to wear protective clothing before entering.
This is for their own good, to prevent any problems with the living sample. Xia Yibing appreciated it and obediently went to the next room to put on protective clothing.
After finishing the deed, I went inside and saw a cylindrical glass jar placed in the center. Inside was a creature with a lower body like a snake and an upper body like a human, with its entire body covered in blood and flesh.
Everyone active here was wearing protective clothing. Xia Yibing walked under the "can" and patted the person in front of her with her hand.
The other person turned around, and his face behind the transparent mask was full of wrinkles.
This is Gray Joe, or Dr. Joe as they call him.
He and Nachimore were almost from the same batch of researchers. They have never left the island in all these years and have been contributing their research results to Sarah.
It is said that many papers on nightmares come from Dongquan Island, and many equipment improvement plans also come from here.
As far as Xia Yibing knows, that kind of small battery technology was deduced by the researchers here based on ancient documents.
Dr. Qiao is an expert in this field and has in-depth research in biology and medicine.
"Hello, Doctor."
"Hello Imaar, you guys are here at the right time."
The doctor's voice is a little unclear, and ordinary people need some effort to distinguish some words at first glance.
This is because he is too old and his physical functions have seriously declined. He probably won’t have many years of good life left.
Xia Yibing had long been accustomed to hearing this, and there was no obstacle in communicating with him. She pointed at the can and asked the doctor: "Is this thing still considered a human being?"
She means biological significance, not things that seem obvious.
"Forget it." The doctor shook his head. "Even the internal gene fragments have been rewritten... It should be a bacteria or virus. From this moment on, we must be on guard."
"What are the results of the tests so far?"
"It's all here."
The doctor handed her a notebook and introduced it to her while she was reading.
"This thing... its internal structure has been changed, and a new reproductive system has grown inside it."
"That is to say, they are hermaphrodites. They can mate with each other, but I don't have a second specimen, so I'm not sure whether this mating behavior can produce offspring normally."
"Is this why they target humans for reproduction?" Xia Yibing narrowed her eyes.
Because they themselves were transformed from humans.
So when they act, there may still be some past consciousness... or instinct left in their brains?
There is nothing more disgusting than this.
If this is a virus-induced aberration, how did it come about?
"Two guesses," said the doctor.
"One is... Nachimore. Her talent is no less than mine. It is not surprising that she has achieved such results after years of accumulation."
"The other one is 'Spirit Sea'."
"Maybe they led us here from the gray fog."
Chapter 14: Boundaries in Letters
After a day-long investigation, Xia Yibing drove back to her residence on the island.
It was already dark. She took out the car keys and sat in the driver's seat, looking at the lights of the small town in the direction she came from, frowning and lost in thought.
The investigation has reached a deadlock - if that can be considered a case.
What happened was basically explained by Gare, but apart from capturing a monster alive which died in front of her, there was almost no gain.
Yes, that thing is dead.
She can still remember the scene: she was chatting with Dr. Qiao casually downstairs, and suddenly a researcher next to her exclaimed.
Then she looked up and saw that the half-human monster that was very lively a few seconds ago and even kept banging against the glass... its body was decomposing.
First it was an arm and claw, then the chest, the waist and abdomen... and finally the twisted lower body that looked like a snake's tail. The entire body completely disintegrated into a solution in the can.
The process was so fast that Dr. Qiao's emergency treatment had little effect, including the subsequent test results of the jar of blood - this time, even the unknown virus could not be found.
According to Dr. Qiao, the virus and the vector died together. It is possible that the reason why this thing collapsed on its own is because the virus destroyed the genetic structure in its body and destroyed all tissues.
"I don't understand..." Dr. Qiao's voice was still echoing in her ears, "Generally speaking, viruses have evolved over a long period of time, and they usually don't cause too much fatal harm to the host...even if they have turned it into this."
"But this virus seems to be aiming to destroy the vector and the host. It didn't leave us any fragments. It's all broken and completely disrupted genetic code... What on earth do they want to do?"
I don’t know what they wanted to do, but the investigation had to be suspended.
Dr. Qiao consulted Xia Yibing and asked for a few more days because he still wanted to do experiments on the jar of blood to see if it would react to the existing, newly extracted human genes.
"But there's not much hope." These were Dr. Qiao's original words. "I just looked at some images under a microscope. They have lost their basic vitality. They should be completely dead."
"What about Jia Lei and the others?" Xia Yibing asked him, "And me?"
"No need for quarantine." Dr. Qiao knew what she was asking. "This thing has survived its life cycle in the outside world. You are all fine."
"But Gareth used fire to kill the others..."
Burning, and in a sealed space like a dungeon. The roasting of flesh and blood would produce a large amount of volatile gases, and she believed that everyone present at the time would inevitably inhale some.
"It doesn't have that ability." Dr. Qiao still comforted her, "From the data analyzed so far, once it enters the human body, its ability to interfere with human genes and cells is extremely strong. It is impossible for it to remain dormant without any symptoms."
The implication is that if something really happened you would have been dead long ago, but now that you are alive you are fine.
This stinky old man, how come any serious problem seems like a trivial matter to him... and he just brushes it off lightly?
Dr. Qiao insisted on doing an extended test tomorrow, but he himself didn't actually have any expectations. He also told Xia Yibing and others not to have any expectations, and even suggested that they just treat it as "part of Nachimore."
Indeed... On the bright side, this might be a virus that Nachimore had spread in advance. This virus could turn people into hermaphroditic soft-bodied monsters, but because the virus was not developed maturely, its life cycle after being hosted by the carrier was too short, and its ability to spread was insufficient, so it was very lucky that it did not spread.
If you really think this way, then there is no need to worry about what happened today.
Nachimore is dead, the virus no longer has any replenishment, and the death of the last mollusk means their complete extinction.
"If it were that easy..."
Looking at the lights of the small town, the woman curled her lips and muttered something. She opened the door, got out of the car, and walked towards home.
