Chapter 521: Chapter 464: Silence

Rainwater trickled down the cobblestone pavement, the red sphere atop the octagonal observatory room of Greenwich Observatory, nearly two hundred years old, descends at one in the afternoon sharp to synchronize time for the ships on the Thames, appearing like a blurry sunrise amidst the mist.

No one at the scene spoke, while on the player forum live stream, the comments were already in an uproar.

“Where’s the picture, where’s the picture? Why is it a black screen?! Moderators, do your job!”

“Damn it, I pay thousands every month for Whale Song’s internet fees, and the network signal is like this?”

“Matrix (Whale Song President), when are you gonna die.”

When Dr. Noah was still sitting in the rocket escape pod, he used his GOC privileges to turn off the video signal from the near-earth orbit spy satellites, causing the live stream to go black.

Forum players, watching with interest, suddenly had nothing, each one fuming and cursing Whale Song Guild for being incompetent.

[User ATXZc136032 has been silenced for 360 days]

The moderators immediately took action, banning one of the most offensive players, but this only provoked the other users, who began typing,

“Remember Matrix’s statement from four years ago, ‘Our Whale Song might go bankrupt, but it will never degrade.'”

“Moderators are funny, the comments ask him what he thinks of some early players forgetting their roots after getting rich, and he tells me not to start a Matrix rhythm.”

“After GOC Michael disappeared, during the Lv40 Transcendent gathering, when asked who’s the boss of the killing field now, everyone kept silent, and only Matrix waved his hand: No, no, no.”

The dense comments floated across like horizontal rain, obscuring the screen.

Meanwhile at the observatory, Li Cheng extended his hand, gathering a handful of rainwater in his palm, calmly said: “ADE effect.”

A Clock Tower Guild illusion system master furrowed his brow, “What?”

“Antibody-Dependent Enhancement, full name is antibody-dependent enhancement.”

Li Cheng calmly said: “Virus infection begins by attaching to the cell surface, achieved through the interaction between viral surface proteins and specific receptors and ligand molecules on the target cells.

Normally, specific antibodies against the viral surface proteins can inhibit this step. Meaning once a patient is infected by a virus, they won’t be infected again later.

However, in some cases, the virus utilizes this effect, deceiving the antibody, using the antibody to bind to immune cells and complete the invasion.

It means once a patient is infected by a virus, their subsequent resistance doesn’t increase but decreases, allowing for re-infection, possibly even repeatedly.”

The Clock Tower group finally reacted, the ill-tempered shaping magic master subconsciously clenched his fists, growling lowly: “Did you release a deadly virus in the rain?”

“Precisely speaking, not deadly, but enhancing.”

Li Cheng tilted his head slightly, calmly said: “The virus separated from the Insect Lord Demon primordial cell,

dispersed throughout London City via rain in droplet form. Mist born from rain, all London citizens exposed to the air are now infected.

Phase one, the virus invades the pituitary gland, controls growth hormone to accelerate secretion, continuously synthesizing myosin to enhance muscle and skeleton.

Infected individuals become extremely hungry, eat rapidly, while becoming stronger.

Phase two, muscles continue to grow, body temperature rises to 39°C, yet infected individuals feel exceptionally good. Whether it is strength, agility, reaction speed, all are superior to before.

Phase three, bone density skyrockets causing bone deformation, neural pain sensation dulls — the virus massively targets the prefrontal cortex, inducing neuronal apoptosis, gradually shutting down the brain which consumes 20% of human daily energy, using all energy to strengthen the body and beast-like nature.

Phase four, infected individuals’ bones twist, forcing them to walk on all fours, intelligence degenerates to the level of herd beasts.

At this moment, infected cannot be referred to as individual, but as creatures.

Their sense of smell, hearing, vision, physical fitness, self-healing speed, hunting instincts, etc., are all enhanced.

In the killing field judgment, this is considered an evolutionary benefit, not classified as [injury], [disease], [infection], thus most treatment skills and items from the killing field system are ineffective against it. Including the Life Potion.

Estimated number of deaths, 8.5 million.

Time, 21 days.

I have named this virus the Primordial Era.”

Humans living in modern cities will revert to primal beast-like nature in fifteen days.

The shaping magic master’s eyes almost spewed fire, he roared: “In order to achieve your purpose, you will bring down 8.5 million people with you?! Those London citizens are innocent!”

“Don’t you find this sentence odd?”

Li Cheng tilted his head slightly, said indifferently: “When Mobius rejected my initial proposal, insisting on using this city as the battleground, he had already placed London citizens in danger.”

The illusion system master turned to his colleague specialized in prophecy system spells, the latter nodded grimly.

Pifu was not bluffing, most of the known means so far, whether they’re items and skills under the killing field system, or supernatural systems outside the killing field, have no effective solution to this virus separated from the Insect Lord Demon primordial cell.

Hornheim extended a finger, pushed up the glasses on his nose, calmly said to Li Cheng: “Will this virus infect and spread to other places?”

“As long as I’m here, it won’t.”

Li Cheng said: “Primordial Era in the wild has humans as its only host, the first wave virus will only spread through rain and mist, not using hosts as carriers for secondary transmission through droplets, blood, etc.

But when the Primordial Era virus reaches phase four in infection, the virus will gather in the lungs of infected individuals, and can spread through respiration.

Unless your side has the courage to make sacrifices, drive all 8.5 million London citizens into the killing field entity, let them fend for themselves, otherwise the entire British Isles will face a second outbreak of plague.

As for the method of interruption…”

Li Cheng turned his hand sideways, pouring out the rainwater from his hand, ”

We need to have a second rainfall, which will contain another kind of homologous virus. Using the ADE effect, it will easily invade the cells, allowing them to synthesize special proteins,

thus triggering the automatic apoptosis mechanism of the [Primordial Era] virus, interrupting the infection process, and causing the virus to permanently self-destruct.”

The Illusion Master’s eyes flickered, and Li Cheng seemed to guess what he was thinking, smiling, “Using illusion techniques to control me so that I voluntarily reveal the virus interruption method is also not feasible.

Before coming here, I had already removed a part of my brain containing the related memory, so even I, in a conscious state, don’t know the way to dissolve the virus.

Only when the email auto-sending program sends me information, telling me where I buried that part of the brain, can I retrieve the virus solution.

The second rainfall and the concentrated outbreak of the Primordial Era in London City are separated by less than a day.

In other words, I have kidnapped 8.5 million people.”

Hornheim gazed at the distant city; the time flow rates in the killing field’s script world and the real Earth were different. He had witnessed and experienced too many things, accumulating far more memories than when he was an ordinary person.

Walking all this way, even he felt his own humanity growing fainter.

But… this is, after all, his homeland.

Thinking of this, Hornheim pulled out a piece of parchment from the void, waved his hand to sign his name on it, and handed it to the Shaping Magic Master beside him.

“This is the highest-level magic contract of the killing field, thus ending the matter. The Clock Tower Guild Mage Council cannot use any means, including but not limited to pursuit, bounty, capture, control, etc., against Pifu.”

The sheepskin scroll was passed among the upper echelons of the Clock Tower, each signing their true name.

When it reached Edith, she pursed her lips tightly, remaining silent until Hornheim said, “Mobius will have a way.” She silently signed her true name and passed it to the next colleague.

The signed scroll was given to Li Cheng, but he did not take it. Instead, he grinned and said, “There’s one more thing…”

————

West bank of the Thames River, Whitehall, underground bunker.

The EMP electromagnetic pulse released by the previous mechanical swarm was blocked by thick layers of rock, so there was still power in the underground bunker. They could even connect to Starlink satellite through a signal station to restore communications.

The Cabinet Secretary pressed his hands against his knees, buried his head looking at the phone screen. The live stream room of the player forum once again had pictures, clearly showing Hornheim and other top mages of the Clock Tower had returned to Greenwich Observatory,

but the instigator of all this, Pifu, not only didn’t die but was swaggering, flying low towards Whitehall.

“Heh.”

The Cabinet Secretary suddenly let out a relieved laugh; it was all over.

The underground bunker was noisy and restless as high officials were still trying to command security personnel to go to the surface to see what was happening now.

The Cabinet Secretary quietly got up from his seat, walked to the corner of the secret room, patted a soldier on the shoulder. Without waiting for the soldier to react, he pulled out the handgun from the soldier’s waist.

Bang!

The sound of the gunshot echoed in the confined space, deafening, as some office personnel screamed and hid under the tables.

The Cabinet Secretary killed his close subordinate, with whom he had worked for over a decade, with one shot, then turned the gun to shoot down the Prime Minister’s secretary.

The third shot was right in the Chinese Defense Minister’s forehead.

The fourth shot hit the Minister of Justice’s thigh.

“Ahh! What are you doing?!”

The Minister of Justice screamed in pain, clutching his bleeding thigh, sweating profusely as he shouted at the security personnel nearby, “He’s mad; quickly, shoot and kill him!”

“The Clock Tower has already compromised. Every person in the decision-making chain has to die.”

The Cabinet Secretary gave a miserable smile, threw down the handgun, his frail body bursting with strength, forcibly pulling up the obese Minister of Justice, who was unable to walk, “Let’s go, if you go out now, you can still retain some dignity.”

“No, let go of me!”

The Minister of Justice screamed in fear, struggling desperately, seeking help from those around but getting no response.

“We made our choice a long time ago, didn’t we?”

The Cabinet Secretary slipped his hands under the Minister of Justice’s armpits, holding him tightly step by step, walking up the stairs out of the underground bunker, muttering, “Now is a turning point in worldwide changes unseen for hundreds of years, a shift in human civilization;

For the UK’s future fate, we made a choice, and this is just paying the price for that choice.”

Bang!

He pushed open the last metal door, through the corridor outside, they could clearly see Li Cheng and Gray Rain standing in front of Whitehall long ago.

“Huh? Why is there a self-help service for sending heads?”

Gray Rain looked at the Cabinet Secretary who proactively showed up, smacked his lips, took out a camera, and snapped a cheeky photo of himself and the ruins of Whitehall. He then liquefied his arm into a blade, slicing off two heads.

Thud-thud-thud—

The two heads rolled out of the corridor, landing outside the door of Downing Street, while the last layer of the Whitehall roof also collapsed with a rumble.