Chapter 966: The Full Story of the SE Virus Incident
"You make it sound so pitiful; anyone would feel compassion." Xu Huo's words carried a hidden meaning.
Gao Zhen didn't seem to care much about his opinion. Today, she had walked into this office, and the Enforcement Team players had witnessed it with their own eyes. How she left—or whether she could leave at all—no longer mattered. A corpse was the best proof.
"The SE virus incident isn't that complicated. It just depends on what inside information you want to know."
The old lady pulled out a chair and sat down, beginning to recount the entire story.
Of course, it started with Luo Changren.
Luo Changren was from W01 Base City. Although he had moved through several laboratories along the way, he was always dedicated to developing better evolution agents. While this goal seemed difficult, human desire was endless. Upon learning that the game's evolution agents weren't that effective, the base stations naturally needed better agents more urgently than other game zones. Even if Luo Changren was a latecomer to the field, there were still people willing to fund him.
Especially after he proposed the research and development of gene-optimized evolution agents. Although all base cities publicly opposed it, Base City 01 was secretly supporting him behind the scenes. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to leave W37 Base Station so smoothly. It was nominally an "escape," but in reality, Base City 01 had given him money for tickets, allowing him to go to game zones with better conditions for his research.
Of course, Luo Changren lived up to expectations and soon brought back the agent.
But whether the agent worked still required experimentation. So Base City 01 naturally handed this task over to him, sending him and a group of experimental personnel to Base City 06. Soon after, the SE virus broke out from a child.
Base City 06 quickly fell, and Luo Changren fled back to Base City 01.
Of course, things didn't end there. Many of the people involved in the experimental project at Base City 06 had run away, but in the end, none escaped capture. They were punished accordingly. As for the source of the incident, Luo Changren and Base City 01, which had sheltered him, eventually became the targets of public criticism.
Base City 01 initially tried to tough it out, but one fist couldn't beat four hands, and they finally had to compromise.
As for the original samples leaking during this period, no one knew whether it happened at Base City 06 or Base City 01—or both.
And Luo Changren didn't know all the inside information as he thought he did. He was actually taking the fall for Base City 01.
Base City 01 had long had plans to weaken other base cities. Related agents and viruses had been under research all along. It wasn't until Luo Changren brought back the evolution agent specifically targeting W37 Base Station that Base City 01 conducted experiments behind his back, successfully merging the virus under study in the lab with the agent. In other words, the evolution agent modified by Base City 01 had actually become a virus. Whether this virus could affect human genes was impossible to assess, and it had nothing to do with Base City 01—they weren't planning to use it on themselves anyway.
With a gene-targeted evolution agent, it was believed that anyone would find it hard to refuse. So Base City 01 chose Base City 06 as the first location.
The result was that the virus mutated faster than anyone imagined. Base City 01 originally intended to use this thing to kill players from other base cities, but the vast majority of those who died were ordinary people.
By the time the virus outbreak was nearing its end, the other base cities finally announced the identification results of the gene evolution agent. The truth was that what Luo Changren had brought back was not a gene-optimized evolution agent targeting the W37 Base Station population, but a gene-destroying agent. Using this agent would cause the evolutionary genes in a person's body to mutate, making them unsuitable for evolution and passing this trait on to future generations.
This agent needed to be taken orally or injected to take effect. Whether the SE virus had this effect was unclear because the time was too short. That's why Gao Zhen let Luo Changren leave, to find a way to save the future of W37 Base Station. And it was for the distribution of antidotes that the various base cities built the Bird Towers.
However, the Bird Towers were never used in the end, because the SE virus had little effect on players, and those ordinary people who seemed to have no talent were considered expendable.
"Two years ago, my laboratory confirmed from the surviving infected individuals that the SE virus does not affect future generations," Gao Zhen said finally.
"Luo Changren doesn't know about this? Why not tell him directly?" Xu Huo asked.
Gao Zhen's smile was hard to read. "You always have to leave people some hope."
Xu Huo was silent for a moment, then said, "Since the SE virus doesn't have such a strong effect, where did Luo Changren find the vaccine?"
"After years apart, I only just saw him today." Gao Zhen's attitude indicated she had little interest in this matter. Even if the developer of the gene evolution agent was the source of W37 Base Station's current situation, that person clearly shouldn't have any connection with W37 Base City. As for the ancestral genes that might be in someone else's hands... there was no strength left to deal with it.
"After the last SE virus outbreak, didn't Luo Changren reveal who gave him the evolution agent?" For a latecomer pharmacist to develop an evolution agent with gene-attacking capabilities within a year was quite difficult. Besides, he later went out to find a vaccine, clearly having a specific target in mind.
"Only Luo Changren has seen him. I heard his surname is Zhang, and he's a doctor," Gao Zhen's voice grew softer. "He should be a very formidable figure too..."
By the time she finished speaking, the old lady sitting in the chair had her head slightly lowered, her eyes permanently closed. At the same time, her detector lit up.
Before the machine could sound the alarm, Xu Huo used a silencing item. He then dialed Gao Xiaoyan's communicator and warned her first, "Find a place where no one can see you to answer the call."
Gao Xiaoyan's breath caught. "Did something happen to her?"
"Don't rush in," Xu Huo said. "I've recorded and saved Mayor Gao's conversation with Luo Changren, as well as her conversation with me. Your little play has only just begun. You don't want it to end in vain, do you?"
"Mayor Gao didn't mention Ren Man at all just now."
Gao Xiaoyan gritted her teeth and lowered her voice. "What do you want to do?"
"So far, I haven't done anything to harm W37. Between you and me, you were the one who broke the agreement first. If you hadn't killed the living sample in the training base, none of this would have happened."
Xu Huo had a general idea of who killed the living sample. The fact that Gao Xiaoyan hadn't pursued him relentlessly in the training base was evidence. And just now, probing Gao Zhen had confirmed the conclusion: she knew the inside story of this incident and couldn't bear to watch the virus enter the base city, but the arrow had to be shot. That's why she only put up passive resistance when he forcibly took the mutant corpse.
He believed that her contradiction wasn't just because of a guilty conscience, but also out of obedience to Gao Zhen. From Gao Zhen's attitude toward Ren Man, it was clear she wouldn't stop the plan because of individual incidents—Gao Xiaoyan should have been well aware of this.
Gao Xiaoyan somewhat agreed with his words. "During the pursuit, I'll find a way to go easy on you."
Xu Huo refused. "That won't be necessary. Just give me an indoor map of the Government Hall and mark Luo Changren's location."
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(Chapter End)