Star Rank Hunter

Chapter 295: The Zebra Virus [Part 2]

The robot continued with his explanation. “After the military and Black Viper investigated the incident together, they concluded that the virus didn’t originate from the planet the patrols discovered. Currently, the higher-ups had two theories to offer. The first one’s a conspiracy theory. They believe that the virus was intentionally released, and the reason the culprits did it was to take revenge against the empire. The other theory was supported by most of the RAS. From the results of their experiments, they believe that the molecules that composed the virus wasn’t something that could be artificially created. It is a natural, new type of molecule that came to be mostly by chance.”

“You have a map of the virus already, don’t you? Show it to me,” Cillin said.

Light appeared from the robot’s eyes to form a 3d hologram. The hologram displayed the structure and atoms of a highly mutated virus; a model of the single-stranded virus.

The human DNA was a double helix, its structure lending to greater stability. A single-stranded DNA was much more unstable, not to mention that this was a virus.

Cillin pointed at a black, round object on the molecule map. “What is this?”

“It is an unknown substance.”

“Did no one figure out what it is yet?”

“No, it is an unknown substance that we had never seen before. At the very least, the research teams of both the RAS and Black Viper hadn’t been able to produce any useful information just yet. Both teams pointed out that obtaining the original virus is a must if they wish to figure out what it is, but up until now we’ve only managed to obtain an extremely small amount of primary variant virus samples, much less the original virus.”

This was the main reason the RAS Institute of Virology rejected the conspiracy theory in favor of the natural evolution theory. But what was the point of this argument? One way or the other, neither side had made any progress.

“Send me all the information you have on the Zebra Virus,” Cillin said while activating his communicator. The device had an encrypted reception function that could store a huge amount of data.

The robot didn’t reject his request. It sent all the data it had to Cillin as ordered.

“Are you here because you found a virus carrier?”

“We don’t have confirmation yet. We’re here because there are nobles from the eleventh star region who are attending this wedding. Although the eleventh star region is currently under lockdown, the upper nobles are given some leeway. No one seems to be infected when they passed through the scanners, but just in case the higher-ups sent us to watch them and take the necessary measures the moment we discover anything amiss.”

Cillin nodded. “Who are you tracking? Where are they now?”

It was one of the people who entered the room after they arrived.

“You may return to your duty. If anything happens, inform me right away.”

“Understood.”

Cillin waved a hand at the robot, and it turned invisible once more.

Cillin stood outside the room for a moment to digest all the information he obtained from the robot. Only then he returned to the room where his friends were having fun. Things were as noisy as ever. Naimi and the car lovers were still talking about Vege-Fritter, and Gen Xingming was boasting about the huge sum of money he won during the grand prix.

Thanks to Bel, neither Libero nor Lunani were given the cold shoulder while Cillin was gone. On the contrary, they had found an acquaintance or two they could speak with and were enjoying the conversation.

Wheeze was receptive to all forms of fun, and sometimes it made noises with Gen Xingming and the others. However, its darting ears revealed to Cillin that the gray cat was really paying attention to anything and everything around it, including the conversation he had with the robot just now.

Wheeze stopped chowing down the snack on its plate and jumped onto Cillin’s shoulder when he returned. It asked, “What do you plan to do after this?”

“For now, I plan to wait and see what happens. We can research this after the wedding is over.”

Wheeze looked distracted as it kneaded its paws on Cillin’s shirt. A long time later, it finally said, “I think it’s better if you stay out of this.”

“Why?” Cillin walked to a nearby sofa and sat down, kicking a drunken Gen Xingming out of the way before the latter could invite (force) him to have a drink.

“I have a feeling that this virus is very dangerous.”

“Even you think that it’s dangerous?”

“It’s not dangerous to me. If a mere robot can resist the virus, then I can too. But that doesn’t apply to you. You’re a carbon-based lifeform through and through, and this virus is unlike anything you’ve come into contact before. That unknown substance is especially dangerous, even I couldn’t analyze it and find out what it is,” Wheeze replied with slanted ears.

Cillin didn’t say anything. Just like Guan Feng, Wheeze didn’t want him to get involved in this. However, he had no intentions of avoiding this.

“Hey, why don’t we just forget about this virus, Cillin? Worse comes to worse, you can leave the responsibility of a leader to someone else. It’s much better to be a free Hunter, isn’t it?” Wheeze missed its old life at GAL a little.

Cillin put Wheeze on his lap and scratched its chin. “You want to go back?”

“Mm. I miss them a little,” Wheeze replied while arcing its neck.

Of course Cillin knew who Wheeze was referring to. He missed them too. But... they couldn’t go back, could they?

Cillin’s thoughts wandered back to the Zebra Virus while he was scratching Wheeze’s chin. From the data he received, he knew that Black Viper had gathered many highly active virus samples from around ten thousand patients. However, more than half of the samples they got were viruses that had mutated beyond recognition, and the rest were viruses that had mutated at least twice. Just like the robot had told him earlier, the number of primary variant virus samples were few and far between, and the original virus was nowhere in sight.

Be it artificial or natural, the more a virus mutates, the more its original structure was overwritten. The robot didn’t have the analytical model or the molecule map of a primary variant virus, so he would have to ask for it himself. But the moment he did that, there would be no backing down from this project.

Cillin himself wasn’t afraid or averse to this type of work, but he was almost sure that Guan Feng wasn’t the only one who didn’t want him to get involved in this.

Their sentiment was understandable. If the virus really was as deadly as it seemed, it was only natural that they would want him to stay out of it. After all, no one who could replace Cillin if anything were to happen to him. At the very least, no such replacement had been discovered yet. Even those in Black Viper who didn’t know him would probably disagree with his involvement, not that their rejection would matter too much. He was one of the three leaders of Black Viper after all. However, someone would definitely try to stall him out or put him through some hoops before he could get what he wanted.

“Cillin! What are you thinking so intensely about?!” Bel knocked Gen Xingming aside with his butt and put a shoulder over Cillin. He then started talking about the beautiful ladies he encountered earlier.

Cillin smiled and listened to his comments. When Bel asked if he wanted an introduction, he turned him down politely. The way nobles carried themselves in the norm felt a tad too close to prostitution to him, and he wasn’t so oblivious that he didn’t notice how the ladies were staring at him and Gen Xingming like they were sheep. It was just awkward. If the three princes didn’t look somewhat unstable on the outside, he suspected that they would’ve taken matters into their own hands already.

During this time, Cillin kept a close eye on Black Viper’s robots. Although Wheeze really didn’t want Cillin to get involved in this matter, it had no choice but to watch the robots closely as well. If an infected victim really did show up, Wheeze wondered which way would be more effective: knock Cillin out and drag him back to master grandpa two for temporary imprisonment, or play sick?

Regardless of what Cillin or Wheeze was thinking, the next two days passed in relatively peacefulness. He had raced Naimi a couple of times, and he shared his thoughts and experience with the flying car hobbyists. Nothing noteworthy had happened during this time.

Finally, the wedding began. Cillin had presented his gift together with the three princes, and the core members of the Rolle Family and the Gleason Family were smiling like blooming flowers when they saw him. They might not dare to rope the three princes into their schemes, but Cillin was free game in their opinion. A prince with royal blood in his veins and without were different even at this day and age.

Cillin felt goosebumps crawling all over his body the moment he saw those people’s meaningful and overly familiar smiles, so he voiced an excuse and slipped out to catch his breath. He didn’t manage to breath enough air before his communicator interrupted him.

Cillin accepted the call after seeing the symbols on the communicator. “What is it, Teacher Guan?”