Chapter 397 - Magical Virus
Chapter 397: Magical Virus
Chapter 397 – Magical Virus
Half an hour later.
The infection and spread of the virus were rapid.
At this time, the various cities around the world were already on the brink of annihilation. The streets of these cities were filled with roaring and staggering zombies. And upon spotting living humans, these zombies would swarm them and devour them alive.
The situation on the Super Floating Castle, though, was still relatively stable.
Under Hermione’s and the Rhythm Virus’s control, casualties in the castle were kept to a minimum.
Even so, the number of people getting infected was still rapidly increasing. If one merely looked at the “snake” team, one would find that only 17 people remained uninfected; nine more people had fallen to the virus during the past half an hour.
Inside the medical department’s laboratory…
Professor Sun carefully picked up a reagent and poured it into a distillation flask. He then observed the changes to the information displayed on the screen in front of him for a while before turning to look at Chen Yu.
“Headmaster, can you give me some more muscle tissue from one of the infected?”
“No problem.” Nodding, Chen Yu snapped his fingers and said, “The one in front, take 20 steps forward.”
In response, the lanky boy at the front promptly advanced forward by a dozen meters or so, followed closely by the team behind him. Shortly afterward, the infected people at the rear of the line appeared outside the laboratory’s shattered glass wall.
With a scalpel in his left hand and a petri dish in his right hand, Professor Sun stepped forward and looked at the panda to his left. He then sent a glance at the infected to his right and asked, “Can I cut some of that panda’s flesh?”
“Do whatever you want. You can dissect it completely if you want to.”
“I won’t be polite, then.” Licking his lips, Professor Sun raised his scalpel and stabbed it into the panda’s abdomen.
The surrounding spectators: “…”
Slice!
Roar!
Accompanied by the crisp sound of muscle tissues being cut, the panda’s abdomen was cut open. Black, mud-like material then flowed out from the wound.
“Is that infected fat?” Professor Sun’s eyes lit up in excitement. Hurriedly, he collected the fat using the petri dish and stored the sample in a refrigerator.
Afterward, Professor Sun used the same “butcher” technique to collect muscle samples from two infected humans.
“You can come back now, Headmaster.”
“Okay. The one at the front, make a U-turn.”
“Understood!” The lanky boy nodded and turned around, dragging the team with him as he made a U-turn in the narrow hallway. He then stuck to the “tail” of the line, bringing Chen Yu back to the laboratory’s front.
“I think the crazy virus infecting you all now is much more powerful than this mutated virus,” Professor Sun said.
“It’s called the Rhythm Virus! It’s not a crazy virus!”
“Okay. Rhythm Virus, then.” Taking a step back, Professor Sun inspected his protective suit for half a minute. After verifying that none of his body parts were exposed, he sat down on a chair and said, “My research on this mutated virus has already borne some fruit. Although my understanding of it is still shallow, I can explain its transmission mechanism.”
“That’s more than enough,” Chen Yu said. He then adjusted the camera angle and gave the central position to Professor Sun.
“Do I begin now?”
“Wait a minute. Before you start explaining, I have a question to ask you.”
“Please ask away.”
“All of humanity will be extinct soon, and the disaster experience will end in, at most, one day. So, why did you collect so many sample materials? You can’t possibly use up everything, right?”
“I actually came prepared,” Professor Sun said, smiling as he pointed at his fully-enclosed protective suit. He then turned around and showed the portable oxygen tank on his back. “When you were broadcasting the asteroid disaster, I already knew that the virus disaster simulation would come eventually. Hence, I changed into my equipment ahead of time. Right now, I should still be healthy, and there should be no possibility of infection.”
“Oh!” Realization dawning upon him, Chen Yu asked, “Do you plan to linger in this apocalypse for a while and study this virus?”
“Yes.” Professor Sun nodded. “I am a virus researcher. I can make considerable growth and gains from studying this never before seen virus.”
“In that case, please give the audience an introduction to this virus,” Chen Yu said as he pointed at the camera.
“Where should I start from?”
“Just start from the very beginning.”
“Oh.” Nodding, Professor Sun cleared his throat and said, “In the early universe, gravity attracted atomic clouds and shaped them into stars and the Milky Way. The formation of stars was bound to…”
Chen Yu: “…H-Hold on for a second. Isn’t that a little ‘too’ early of a beginning? How about moving ahead a little?”
“I’ll start from when I was young, then. I was born in a small county in Sichuan Province in 1962. My father was a local doctor in the city…”
“Start telling your story from half an hour ago,” Chen Yu interrupted. “Just focus on the virus. You can leave the rest for when you’re writing your autobiography.”
“Half an hour ago, is it.” Shrugging regretfully, Professor Sun said, “Okay. In short, this virus is a variant of a common virus. However, its infection mechanism is ingenious and far beyond the imagination of ordinary people. The fact that it is capable of causing this kind of crisis has really broadened my horizons.”
“Common virus? Which one?” an old professor standing at a side and whose face was covered in black veins asked.
“The bacteriophage,” Professor Sun said, his eyes glowing inexplicably.
“The bacteriophage?”
“That’s right. It is the most indispensable virus to nature, especially living creatures.”
[What’s a bacteriophage?]
[Ditto.]
[It’s one of the most commonly seen viruses. They are specialized in killing bacteria.]
[I’ve seen pictures of it before. It looks very much like an alien spacecraft.]
[+1. Whenever I see an image of the bacteriophage, I keep thinking it comes from outer space.]
[Don’t bacteriophages kill bacteria? Why would they attack humans too?]
Blinking his eyes, Chen Yu said, “Professor Sun, although I am knowledgeable of bacteriophages, most of our audiences aren’t aware of what they are. So, please explain in detail what bacteriophages are.”
“Oh?” Surprised, Professor Sun asked, “You know about bacteriophages as well, Headmaster?”
“I know a thing or two,” Chen Yu said humbly.
“In that case, why don’t you tell us what bacteriophages are instead?”
“…Professor Sun, how much is your annual bonus?”
“No, no, I won’t ask anymore.” Waving his hands hurriedly, Professor Sun said, “I’ll do the explanation.”
“Go on.”
“Bacteriophages are viruses that infect bacteria. They are mainly parasitic on living bacteria, and they attach to specific receptors on the surface of bacteria. Generally speaking, they are the nemesis of bacteria, so they play an indispensable and important role in Earth’s biological world. Without this virus, the reproduction speed of bacteria will leave no room for other organisms to live in. Therefore, bacteriophages are also one of the few viruses that are beneficial to humans.”
“Is the source of this virus disaster the bacteriophage?”
“Correct.”
Thoughtfully, Chen Yu asked, “Since it is a beneficial virus, why would it attack humans?”
“It isn’t attacking humans.” At these words, Professor Sun stood up and waved his hands excitedly. “This is the interesting part! From beginning to end, the phages aren’t attacking humans at all! They are still attacking bacteria!”
“If they’re only attacking bacteria, why would it result in such a condition?” Chen Yu asked as he turned to look at the infected at the back of the line.
“This is because they have become more aggressive. Phages originally only have one tail, yet this mutated version has four. A string of RNA is stored separately in each of these four tails. This mutation increases its aggressiveness against bacteria by countless times. Meanwhile, after a phage injects its genetic information into the host bacteria, to extend its survival, the phage will cleverly help the bacteria to accelerate its reproduction speed.”
After saying so, Professor Sun picked up the tablet on the table and showed the camera an image taken by an electron microscope. “Look here. There were originally only 100 bacterial cells here. However, after being infected by the mutated phages, the bacterial cells rapidly multiplied to tens of millions. Meanwhile, whether it is humans or animals, which part of their bodies houses the most bacteria?”
“The intestine.”
“That’s right! The intestine! When the intestine’s bacteria multiplies uncontrollably, they will cause the intestinal tract’s capillaries to rupture. The bacteria will then flow into the blood circulation and subsequently invade the liver, lungs, brain, and muscle tissues. At this time, under the mutated phage’s control, the bacteria will release a special enzyme that causes errors in the human body’s electron transfer chain. In turn, this increases the probability of electrons being given to oxygen so that oxygen is reduced to hydrogen peroxide. Does anyone know what hydrogen peroxide can be used for?”
“It can kill bacteria!”
“Yes. It is an incredibly potent bacteriacide.” Professor Sun nodded. “The production of hydrogen peroxide leads to the large-scale death of bacteria. This, in turn, would lead to the mutated phages escaping from the dissolved bacteria. The escaped phages would then move on to infect other bacteria, repeating the hydrogen peroxide production process yet again. As this cycle continues repeating itself over and over, the human body will eventually crumble.”
“Isn’t there something wrong here?” the elderly professor who was partially infected asked, frowning. “The phages infect bacterial cells, causing them to reproduce and produce enzymes. The enzymes then stimulate the human body to produce hydrogen peroxide to kill the bacterial cells. At the end of this cycle, the phages will be freed to repeat the entire process again. Isn’t this process too troublesome? Isn’t it more reasonable to break the cell walls of human cells like other viruses?”
“This is the part that makes these mutated phages magical!” Pointing at an infected, Professor Sun said, “Haven’t you noticed that these zombies are spitting out bubbles?”
“Are you telling me…” The elderly professor reacted in shock.
“Yes. When hydrogen peroxide comes into contact with blood, it will decompose into oxygen, thereby producing many bubbles. And because the blood is full of dead bacteria, you can imagine just how many phages the bubbles carry.”
[Crap. How magical…]
[I understand now. When the produced bubbles burst, they will spray the virus far away. So long as even one virus is absorbed by an organism, more bubbles will be created. Dammit, I’m getting goosebumps.]
[There is no shortage of bacteria in Earth’s ecosystem, so there is basically no solution to this virus.]
[There’s no way such a virus can be born naturally.]
[If future humans wish to destroy us, they can probably do so just by sending a biologist…]
[The more advanced technology becomes, the more vulnerable human civilization becomes.]
“Okay, the explanation ends here.” Facing the camera, Professor Sun said solemnly, “To summarize what I just said, the mutated bacteriophages inject their RNA into bacterial cells, manipulating the bacterial cells to speed up their cell division process as well as produce more viruses.
“Because bacteria can be found mostly in the intestines and stomach of humans, and energy is needed for cell division, the bacteria will stimulate the hunger of their host organism. This is the origin of the so-called zombies. At the same time, the bubbles the zombies spit out can enhance the transmission of the virus.
“Moreover, when an infected person is injured, and their blood flows out, the blood will come into contact with the oxygen in the air, drastically increasing the hydrogen peroxide produced. Once the generated hydrogen peroxide kills off all of the bacteria in the blood, the mutated viruses will become free to infect other bacterial cells. Meanwhile, the leftover hydrogen peroxide will react with the blood to produce millions of bubbles, carrying the freed viruses to new hosts.
“This is how the mutated virus’s transmission mechanism works.
“Just by artificially modifying the gene of the bacteriophage slightly, it is possible to turn an irreplaceable, beneficial virus to living creatures into a devil that destroys the entire ecosystem.
“Hence, in my opinion, disasters such as artificial intelligence crises and asteroid impacts are far less cruel and ruthless than artificially modified viruses.”