Star Hunter.

Chapter 296 A Head Kicked by a Donkey

(Dandelion) "What don't you know?" Guan Feng retorted irritably. Dandelion

Xilin knew that the robot would definitely report the matter to Guan Feng, otherwise why would the robot simply tell him all the information it knew? That's because Director Guan was watching.

"What's the situation now?" Xilin asked. That robot was only monitoring the nobles from the eleventh star region; it didn't know much about the core details.

"The situation isn't good." Guan Feng sighed. "I really don't know whether to say you're unlucky or I'm just unlucky that you've encountered such a thing at the very beginning of your troubles."

Xilin listened quietly to Guan Feng without interrupting, but it was precisely this attitude of Xilin that made Guan Feng feel helpless. He understood Xilin; this kid sometimes didn't talk much but was extremely stubborn. If he wanted to turn his neck in a certain direction, no one could bend it back.

During this period, the management of the Royal Academy of Sciences has been suppressing the news, and the empire's top brass has also made great efforts to prevent the news from spreading. However, this will not last long. If the situation gets out of control and the antibody is still not produced, or if no effective countermeasure is found, the consequences will likely be severe.

Although Guan Feng wasn't from the Institute of Virology, he was still part of the Royal Academy's management. Since the outbreak of the virus, the management had held several meetings, and Guan Feng's tired appearance showed that the situation was not optimistic.

"Xilin, don't get involved in this. Let the Royal Academy of Sciences and the Black Viper professionals handle the virus issue. We have enough manpower. You don't need to get involved anymore. Even if you do get involved, don't be on the front lines," Guan Feng said. His voice was heavy, though not loud.

Instead of answering directly, Xilin asked, "What is that substance?"

Guan Feng wiped his face. "You're pretty stubborn, kid."

Both sides remained silent for a moment. Guan Feng spoke up, "Think about it again. The virus hasn't even spread beyond the eleventh star region yet. It's a bit premature for you to get involved. You'd be better off focusing on your own affairs."

"it is good."

On the screen, Guan Feng looked at Xi Lin in surprise. He hadn't expected Xi Lin to agree so quickly, and Xi Lin didn't seem to be lying. After a few hasty words, Guan Feng disconnected the communication. He still had meetings to attend. What use was the Royal Academy of Sciences Management Committee other than a bunch of management personnel holding meetings? All talk and no action, no progress at all, yet they pretended to be very busy—wasn't that just torture?

Even Guan Feng, who usually maintained a good temper, couldn't keep up the act lately. Although he wasn't a professional in any particular field, he knew some things. The threat posed by this virus was immense, and yesterday's meeting was a joint meeting of the special departments of the Lansa Emperor and the management of the Royal Academy of Sciences, which ultimately made a decision. If the virus spread beyond the eleventh star region, the Empire would adopt a direct erasure strategy, permanently removing infected planets from the star map. This erasure would be permanent, unlike the temporary artificial removal of the Black Viper area.

If such an erasure method is adopted, it won't just be one planet that is wiped out. At least a hundred severely infected planets across the eleven star systems will be completely wiped out, including some with ancient civilizations and cultural heritage. Erasing them would be a huge loss for the Empire, and Emperor Lanza would not approve such a decision unless absolutely necessary.

After ending the communication with Guan Feng, Xilin stood quietly outside the wedding venue for a while. The wedding venue was bustling with activity, as upper-middle-class nobles were all trying their best to make their presence felt and attract attention. However, if even one of them carried the zebra virus, no one would be spared.

In the current situation, infection with zebra virus means death. Even with a large amount of medication and treatment technology, it is only a suspended death sentence.

It is highly contagious, has a high mortality rate, and a large mutation rate; numerous challenges lie ahead.

Needless to say, the people at the Royal Academy of Sciences, the Black Viper group, are full of stubborn individuals, and there are also people like Neo who, once they dive in and don't find a result, won't come out. Their infection rate is probably much higher than that of the people at the Royal Academy of Sciences.

After thinking for a moment, Xilin opened his communicator to contact Neo. Neo had told Xilin about several of his communication frequencies, and if they were researching the zebra virus, Neo would definitely not let this go.

"Xilin, come quick, go see the wedding! The bride almost tripped over her long dress!" Gray Cat tiptoed over to Xilin to share the hilarious scene he had just witnessed.

Who is Gray Cat? A cyborg cat! This guy is an automatic camera that can project everything it sees back into the camera.

Seeing the bride's disheveled state, Xilin pinched the gray cat's ear and asked, "What have you done now?"

The gray cat looked away, its whiskers twitching as if it were guilty. "It's nothing."

"Don't give me that crap. I'm finding you to be getting worse and worse."

"No way!! You're framing me!"

"It's a smear. Oh, right, you're here now. Can you lend me a hand? I want to contact Neo, but the Black Viper people might cause trouble. Could you clear the interference signal?"

The gray cat glared: "Didn't you just promise Guan Feng you wouldn't get involved and would focus on your own things? Why did you contact Neo?!"

  

Although Gray Cat was causing minor trouble for the bride and groom at the wedding venue, he was keeping a close eye on Xilin's movements. Because he heard Xilin promise Guan Feng to do more of his work, Gray Cat happily raised the automatic platform under the bride's feet slightly, but quickly lowered it again. In that short time, the bride tripped and almost fell, making a fool of herself. Dandelion

"I did say I wanted to do more of my own things, but I didn't say whether I would participate in this matter."

"You lied! Liars will be reborn as poop!"

Xilin pinched the fur on the gray cat's round face. "What kind of nonsense have you been looking at again? Never mind, I have my own ways of doing things even if you don't help."

Despite the atmosphere, Grey Cat still helped Xilin contact Neo, since it would save time if Grey Cat took the lead.

Xilin looked around and found a secluded spot to contact Neo.

After finally getting in touch with Neo, Xilin's heart sank the moment he saw Neo's image on the screen. Although Neo was wearing a protective suit, it couldn't hide his striped face peeking out from behind the transparent mask.

Neo is currently busy in the lab, a laboratory within the highly isolated Black Viper zone.

"Xilin, what's the matter? Hurry up and tell me. I have other things to do, this 'horse' is really keeping me busy!"

Neo's words showed no sign of frustration due to the virus infection; on the contrary, he appeared full of fighting spirit.

"When did you get infected with the 'zebra'?" Xilin asked.

"It's been about ten days, but I've pointed out a medicine that can alleviate the symptoms."

It only provides temporary relief and doesn't solve the problem at its root. If a cure for the virus isn't available by then, Neo will undoubtedly die.

"How are you feeling now?" Xilin had seen reports of complications in some cases and knew that they certainly wouldn't feel good.

At the mention of this, Neo exclaimed with obvious understanding, "Oh, my dear relatives! Let me tell you, Sirin. This feeling is quite unpleasant. See these stripes?" Neo pointed to his face behind the transparent mask, which had blue and gray stripes. It was another variant of the zebra virus.

"They're still very faint, but I can already clearly feel that some of the muscle cells inside my body are being separated by the cunning 'horse' causing trouble, while others are like a woman in love trying to reunite!"

Xilin: "..."

I really don't understand what Neo is thinking. He's already infected with the zebra virus, yet he can still speak in such a tone. He's so simple and stubborn, like a fool.

Neo saw this as another kind of battlefield—his battlefield against the virus. He must have considered the possibility of death if he lost, but right now, death wasn't his priority. His primary concern was analyzing the virus and conducting in-depth research. Only someone like Neo could maintain such high morale and spirit under such circumstances. If you were to wander into the Royal Academy of Sciences, you'd find that only a very small number of people could do the same—truly dedicated academics.

Xilin asked Neo to tell him the information he had gathered so far, and Neo didn't hold back. On the contrary, he told Xilin all the progress he had made in his research and even discussed his hypotheses with Xilin. His starting point was the same as that of most people studying zebra viruses: to start with the viral pathogen.

"The original source of the virus will probably be hard to find," Xilin said after listening to Neo's analysis.

"Of course I know! I did the calculations, and with this 'horse's' mutation rate, the probability of finding the original virus is less than one in a billion. Moreover, I speculate that the original probably no longer exists. Even the primary mutants won't exist for long. In ten days, more than half of the primary mutants will undergo secondary mutations, making it even more difficult to find the primary mutants."

"so?"

"So I'm approaching it from another angle!" Neo, his face covered in stripes, his eyes gleaming, said smugly, "I've started building the original model of the virus. I've already calculated one-tenth of it based on the experimental results. This one-tenth can't verify whether the model is right or wrong, but when it reaches three-tenths, we can be certain!"

Constructing the original model of a virus requires a massive amount of computation. Even the most powerful computers available today cannot help; they can only help calculate the results. However, each piece of data requires people to infer the calculation methods and approaches. Some parameters need to be obtained through experiments before the computer can calculate them.

"How long will it take to calculate three-tenths?" Xilin asked.

"At the current pace of the experiment, it will take at least 332.16 days."

Xilin: "..." By then you would have long since gone to meet the gods.

"Didn't Black Viper assign you any assistants? You could also ask other virus researchers for help; Black Viper should have many people researching this."

"That won't do. I don't trust anyone else, and their ideas are different from mine. Yesterday I met someone who proposed the hypothesis of bond energy restoration across atoms, and I truly witnessed what it means to have a brain that's been kicked by a donkey..."

Xilin again: "..."

Listening to Neo ramble on and on, Xilin felt like crying but had no tears. People like Black Viper were really hard to deal with. They had a genius side, but also a stubborn side, so stubborn that it made people grit their teeth. They couldn't get other people's opinions to work in many situations. If slapping someone was effective, Xilin would not hesitate to slap them.

After talking with Neo, Neo went back to his experiments. According to the experimental plan and schedule he had drawn up, his experiments would continue for a very, very long time.

After the communication was disconnected, Xilin felt a tightness in his chest, unable to exhale no matter how hard he tried.

"Xilin?" The gray cat poked Xilin with its paw. "Snap out of it."

Xilin looked down at the gray cat poking his ankle and said, "Purr, give me another hand."

The gray cat's ears drooped as it scratched at Xilin's trouser leg: "Let's not worry about this, okay?" Seeing Neo's eloquent face, the gray cat really couldn't put its mind at ease.

Meanwhile, deep within the Black Viper's territory, Xi Kai was busy in his workspace. Suddenly, the data on the main screen began to fluctuate rapidly, and the system immediately issued an alarm. Xi Kai and a robot beside him looked over in surprise.

"Someone is stealing data," said one of the robots nearby.

If Xilin were here, he would surely find that this robot is different from the other robots he has ever seen. This robot is more intelligent and human-like, more like Sigma. You can tell from the way it frowns and ponders.

"It's someone from Black Viper, otherwise he wouldn't be able to get into this system at all. And what he stole was all about the Zebra virus." Xi Kai entered some commands on the pop-up screen, but the commands quickly became invalid. He couldn't stop the intrusion for the time being unless he shut down all the machines.

One minute later, the data fluctuations began to subside.

"He's gone. He must have known there were people here. Such a forceful intrusion would definitely be intercepted by us guarding this place. So, does this mean that the intruder's intention was to steal openly and let everyone know?" The robot next to him tilted its head and thought for a moment, then also opened a light screen. Without using its fingers, although the light in its eyes flickered, the data on the screen automatically started jumping.

After a long pause, the robot stopped moving and said in confusion, "This person is very powerful, no, perhaps it is not even human."

"You mean, robots?" Xi Kai asked.

"I can't quite put my finger on it, it's a really strange feeling."

Before Xi Kai could figure out the reason, his communicator rang; it was Guan Feng.

"What's wrong, Chief Feng?"

"Be careful over there. Xilin might try to force himself on you. If it doesn't work, turn off all the machines." Guan Feng's tone was helpless. He really didn't want Xilin to get involved in this mess.

"If you're talking about the Zebra virus, I think you're too late. He's already got the information he wanted. That guy just brazenly stole all the data and information right in front of us."

Guan Feng: "..." Dandelion