A is in StarCraft, just disembarked from the Zerg Prince spaceship.

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......

The Prince's ship rushed back to Earth at top speed with the Crown Prince and Crown Princess and their entourage.

Fortunately, the wormhole technology between Earth and the central planet of Lehrnia is now very advanced. It only takes about six hours to travel from the central planet of Lehrnia to Earth.

In the past, when people would be gone for a month at a time, there was no point in going; they might as well just wait to die.

Gao Tian still hasn't woken up and remains in the medical pod.

It's better for him not to wake up. If he wakes up, his energy expenditure will increase, so it's better for him to remain unconscious now, as it consumes less energy.

The Keystone Elixir is keeping him alive, at least for the next few days. As the elixir's effects wear off, a new dose is injected, keeping his lifespan relatively stable.

The Crown Prince now spends most of his day by Gao Tian's medical pod, afraid that Gao Tian might suddenly wake up and not see him.

The trivial matters of the empire are handled by Bishen, important matters are handled by submitting documents directly, and even the most important matters are handled through holographic meetings, so there is nothing inconvenient about it.

Qin Qin, Gao Xing, and Lu Jianan were still in the laboratory on the spaceship researching data on Earth viruses.

The information on all viral strains recorded on Earth over thousands of years is vast and numerous.

Qinqin and Lu Jianan were truly overwhelmed in a physical sense; their brains were about to explode.

Fortunately, the Prince ship arrived on Earth quickly and landed near the First Military District Research Institute of the Human Federation.

Gao Tian's medical pod was immediately moved to the highest-level intensive care unit, where it was jointly cared for by the top medical teams of both humans and the Zerg.

Lan moved her office outside the ward, remotely handling the aftermath of Blackwater Star's collapse and the turmoil within the Empire, while guarding that door that separated life and death.

Qin Qin and her two companions rushed directly into the virology research center at the deepest part of the research institute. Their access was upgraded to the highest level, and a vast database was opened to them. Top human virologists were already there, ready to defend them.

saved.

They began a frantic screening process. Parameters were set: targeting Alphas, genetic breakdown, high risk, rare...

There are so many different kinds of viruses on Earth, it's overwhelming.

If Apocalypse has already conducted human experiments with this virus, then it proves that this virus has definitely appeared in the world, but it just hasn't broken out yet.

Is it hidden in the virus database or not?

Could it be hiding somewhere in the virus database right now, its true purpose yet to be discovered, and they just overlooked it in a moment of inattention?

Or perhaps they're on the wrong track, and it's just a legend, with the Apocalypse Organization possessing something else entirely.

Or perhaps this virus never existed in the world at all; it was just obtained by the Apocalypse Organization by chance and never existed in the virus database.

There are just too many types of viruses.

There are tens of thousands of viruses that humans are currently aware of, but there may be more than 100 million viruses in existence. It's as if they are searching for a grain of sand of unknown color in an endless desert.

They only had a few days left.

Lu Jianan slapped his forehead.

That won't work; searching for a virus with an unknown function in the virus database is like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Gao Tian said that the virus was hidden under the earth's crust. Although he didn't say which part of the earth's crust it was, it should be widely distributed and in large quantities, otherwise it wouldn't have been able to cause a global crisis.

It's better to search directly from the Earth's crust than to search the entire Earth like this.

They don't need to search for a needle in a haystack in a sea of ​​known viruses; what they need is to predict the possible hiding places of this theoretically underground doomsday virus.

Qinqin immediately rushed to the control panel and quickly switched between database and search modes.

The screen was now half filled with a list of viruses and half with a global geological structure map, the distribution of crustal activity zones, ancient stratigraphic profiles, and even some confidential exploration reports about unknown underground cavities and abnormal energy reactions.

Because Director Li is not a virology expert, he did not participate in this research effort.

However, even other virologists like Lu Jianan have to call him "teacher".

He grabbed the sleeve of the institute director and shook it frantically, saying anxiously, "Professor Ji, quick, quick, contact General Qi and ask him to urgently recruit geologists from the Federation. We need geologists!"

The person in charge was Dr. Ji, who had conducted the paternity test for Gao Tian and Commander-in-Chief Qi. Knowing this secret, he dared not be negligent and immediately said, "Okay, okay, I'll call Commander Qi right now."

Upon hearing this sensitive keyword, Qinqin couldn't help but look at Gao Xing.

Gao Xing was pale, still staring at the crustal analysis diagram on the screen, as if he hadn't heard anything.

But Qinqin knew he had heard them. Xiao Lu and Dr. Ji hadn't deliberately lowered their voices, and even she had heard them.

Gao Xing has acted as if nothing is wrong for the past twenty-odd years, but Qin Qin knows that he has never really gotten over it.

Since leaving Qi Wan, Gao Xing has often suffered from insomnia, lost in thought, and felt dazed during the day.

This situation became even more serious after the baby was separated from her.

He is still alive, but that's all.

For the past twenty years, he has been like a dazed ghost, stuck in the past, looking at the sky every day and praying that the nightmare will pass.

......

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......

Geological experts arrived quickly as well.

Instead of screening for already discovered viruses, they began to study where viruses were most likely to be preserved underground.

Screening for crustal depth, geological stability, possible ancient biological barriers, anomalous energy readings...

The geologists quickly screened the samples and engaged in heated discussions.

Assuming it is an ancient virus, the fact that it can remain underground means that it needs an extremely stable geological environment to remain dormant, undisturbed, and unreleased, thus preventing it from infecting humans.

Plate boundaries, areas of frequent crustal activity, and sites of volcanic eruptions... these places can all be ruled out. If the virus were in these locations, it would have already emerged.

That most likely means there's only one region with the most suitable conditions for virus preservation.

Antarctica.

Antarctica is the only continent in the world without permanent human habitation, covering an area of ​​1400 million square kilometers.

The continent is covered with ice that has remained frozen for thousands of years, preserved from five million years ago, with an average thickness of more than two thousand meters.

The average temperature in Antarctica can reach -90°C. At such extremely low temperatures, the air cannot hold moisture, and all the moisture will freeze to the ground. Therefore, the air here is extremely cold and dry, making it a natural low-temperature dry storage chamber.

Low temperature, dehydration, drying, and protection from light are the best conditions for preserving viruses.

In theory, if a virus is preserved in the rock beneath the Antarctic ice sheet, it can survive indefinitely.

Moreover, Antarctica has not always been a world of ice and snow.

Exploration has revealed abundant coal resources and plant and animal fossils beneath Antarctica, indicating that Antarctica was once a warm and humid continent with abundant vegetation and life 200 million years ago.

It is entirely possible that a virus could have originated here.

Later, Antarctica drifted to Antarctica and became a natural giant refrigerator, freezing the virus underground.

Antarctica is uninhabitable and its ecosystem is extremely fragile, so mining and invasion have always been prohibited. As a result, the ancient landforms have been preserved intact, the geological layers remain undisturbed, and the virus has not been released.

Where is this ancient virus hidden beneath the Earth's crust most likely to be found? Antarctica, of course.

Finding the virus might require mining the rock layers of Antarctica, piercing through the entire crust, and harming the Earth.

But for the sake of the child, the ball should agree, right?