“How many people aboard the ship have already been infected?”
“Guard Jiang Qiao, please get up and proceed to the conference room. You have a meeting this morning and a three-hour patrol mission this afternoon.”
At six in the morning, 028’s mechanical notification sounded right on schedule.
Wendy opened her eyes and changed into her training uniform.
Mingmei also sat up from the opposite bed. The two exchanged a glance before quietly getting out of bed and going to wash up.
Near the cabin wall of the dormitory, a thin girl was sleeping soundly on two thick mattresses laid out on the floor. Dried tear marks still remained on her face.
Previously, Feng Jianan had been rescued onto the ship together with the Wang family, and since she was indeed Wang Tianci’s girlfriend, they had been assigned to the same cabin by default.
But now that Feng Jianan had chosen to completely cut ties with the Wang family, there was naturally no way she would return to the cabin assigned to them.
The original evacuees scheduled to be transferred aboard 028 had not all arrived for various reasons, so there were vacant cabins available. Normally, with her lieutenant’s authority, Wendy could arrange another cabin for Feng Jianan.
But Feng Jianan refused.
After enduring long-term psychological control and physical abuse, she had developed a fear of being alone.
She was afraid that once she was separated from the guards’ protection, Wang Tianci would forcibly take her back again.
She would never be able to escape him.
Considering Feng Jianan’s psychological state, as well as the current situation, Wang Tianci certainly wasn’t going to give up easily. So Wendy and Mingmei simply let her stay in their dormitory.
After tucking the blanket around Feng Jianan, Wendy walked over to the washbasin.
The moment she turned on the faucet, she frowned slightly and shut it off.
“What is it?” Mingmei asked quietly when she saw this.
“Maybe some part of the water pipe has rusted. There’s a smell of rust.”
She frowned as she answered, then used the remaining points to exchange for some purified water.
The washrooms at Xingfuji Orphanage had been like this too. Every faucet had been covered in rust, and the pungent-smelling water children used to wash themselves would splash onto the floor, mixing with hair and grime before being trampled into filth by people coming and going.
She had a cleanliness obsession. Every time she smelled rust, she couldn’t help remembering the washrooms from her childhood, so she hated this smell.
“Huh?” Mingmei froze when she heard that. She turned on the faucet, cupped some water in her hands, and smelled it.
“It’s actually not that bad. This is much better than what we had at military academy.”
She muttered, but still came over and picked up the remaining purified water.
Seeing that almost half of the purified water was already gone, Mingmei clicked her tongue.
“Sure enough, you’re someone who earned seventy points in one go yesterday. So extravagant. I wouldn’t even bear to exchange points for drinking water, and you’re using it to wash your face!”
“Miss Jiang Qiao, the Great Millionaire, surely you don’t mind letting your good friend experience a luxurious life too, right?”
Mingmei teasingly nudged her.
Wendy gave her an amused look.
“Fine, fine, hurry up. We’re going to be late.”
After the two finished washing up and getting ready, there were only fifteen minutes left before the meeting. They hurried through the corridor, took the elevator, and finally arrived at the conference room just in time.
The weekly Monday meeting was routine. On the podium, Liao Chengyu summarized the problems that had occurred aboard the ship during the previous week.
Wendy found this kind of meeting boring. She diverted a strand of her consciousness to keep an eye on the outside world before entering her consciousness space to observe the sea people.
The reconstruction of the royal capital was mostly complete. The magnificent prehistoric city was no longer as decayed and ruined as before, and had regained its former splendor.
The several Sea Hunter subordinate cities that had been awakened later had perhaps benefited from being smaller than the royal capital, while the Sea Hunters themselves were physically stronger. Although they had been awakened several days later, their reconstruction progress was already roughly on par with that of the royal capital.
The sea people had already returned to a normal daily routine.
Looking down upon the several cities, Wendy noticed that trade had already begun appearing on the streets of some of them.
There was processed sea-beast meat that had been obtained through hunting, as well as various algae and fruits.
The sea people bustled through the streets, while groups of Sea Hunters carried packs on their backs and swam toward the Magnetite Stones suspended high above the stone altars.
They were all able-bodied members of their clans, heading to the royal capital to participate in the legion selection three days from now.
“That will be all for today. Dismissed.”
After Liao Chengyu finished covering everything, he announced the end of the meeting.
Wendy promptly withdrew from her consciousness space and walked outside with Mingmei.
Suddenly, a familiar smell of rust drifted over.
She frowned and followed the scent toward the person who had just passed by her.
One glance was enough for her to realize something was wrong.
It was Huang Jieshu.
The man who had been so arrogant just yesterday had, in the span of a single night, become waxen-faced and listless.
He trudged forward lethargically, his steps unsteady. His eye bags were dark, swollen, and heavy, making him look as though he hadn’t slept for several nights.
The smell of rust was coming from him.
And it didn’t seem like something he had gotten on himself somewhere. It was more like… the smell was emanating from inside his body.
Back when they had still been in Huaijiang City, people in the latent stage of Fish-Scale Disease had also carried this faint, fishy stench.
The smell of rust in the water, Huang Jieshu’s obvious abnormality, and the strange odor that only she could smell…
A parasitic variant.
The prey had taken the bait.
Wendy lowered her eyes, concealing the unusual gleam within them. She said goodbye to Mingmei, who was heading out on patrol, then quickly went to a sink in a blind spot outside the surveillance cameras.
She turned on the faucet.
Water carrying the smell of rust flowed out.
She sent her spiritual energy into it, probing deep into the escape ship’s water supply system and inspecting it inch by inch.
Before the apocalypse, the E-rank variant Scale Leech parasitized fish. After becoming infected, the affected sea fish would die and be carried to shore by ocean currents. Humans who ate them became secondary hosts and mutated into fish-scale monsters.
Even such a limited source of infection had been enough to bring the entire Huaijiang City to ruin.
And now, there was clearly something wrong with the water supply aboard the 028 escape ship.
Huang Jieshu had become infected in just one night.
That could only mean—
This variant didn’t need an intermediate host. It could directly parasitize human bodies.
The smell of rust had only begun appearing in the ship’s water supply this morning. That meant the variant had entered the ship sometime last night at the earliest.
It was currently ten in the morning.
Assuming the variant had entered the ship around midnight last night, at least ten hours had already passed.
During that time, there were probably already quite a few people who had become infected.
Wendy’s eyes gradually darkened.
Her spiritual energy continued traveling through the water supply system.
Finally, the things hiding inside the pipes were forced to reveal themselves.
Densely packed, dark-brown insects hung upside down from the upper walls of the pipes, their antennae swaying constantly in the flowing water as their bodies contracted and writhed vertically.
A notification sounded in her mind at the perfect moment.
【You have discovered an E-rank variant — Parasitic Mosquito Larvae.】
The short-haired girl in a guard’s training uniform stood motionless in front of the faucet, seemingly lost in thought.
But beneath the strands of hair covering her face, blue light shone within her dark eyes like a whirlpool in the depths of the sea.
At the same time, inside the unseen water supply pipes, vast amounts of spiritual energy merged into the flowing water and surged rapidly through the system.
The variants hiding within were instantly reduced to ashes.
【You have killed E-rank variant — Parasitic Mosquito Larvae ×60. Obtained Action Points ×300.】
Listening to the notification in her mind, Wendy clicked her tongue softly and opened her combat wristband.
Another parasitic variant.
Parasitic variants are generally very low-level when they first appear, but through parasitic differentiation, they have an extremely high chance of evolving into high-level variants.
The awakening of the Magnetite Stones drives away the variants in the surrounding waters, while the escape ships above the sea are natural bait chambers that variants simply cannot resist.
She had entered the 028 escape ship waiting for variants to take the bait so she could hunt them and obtain Action Points, but she never wanted the ship to be destroyed because of parasitic variants.
She was very satisfied with the temporary identity of Jiang Qiao. The rank of lieutenant, simple relationships, real authority, and an identity that was easy to play.
She had only just completely mastered Jiang Qiao’s information and planned to use this identity to enter Noah’s Ark and investigate it thoroughly. So even though parasitic differentiation could yield more Action Points, she had no intention of doing so.
E-rank variants were already nothing to her now. Her spiritual energy could easily deal with them. What mattered at the moment were two questions:
How had these insects entered the escape ship?
How many people aboard the ship had already been parasitized?
She flipped through the mission records on her combat wristband, and one particular time caught her attention.
00:12 — Drainage port automatic closure malfunction. Team A dispatched to investigate and repair the issue.
That should have been when something went wrong.
With that thought, Wendy turned and headed toward the drainage compartment.
The elevator descended steadily. When it reached Level B3, it let out a ding, and the doors slowly opened.
Wendy stepped out of the elevator. Taking advantage of the flickering light in the drainage compartment, she walked toward the drainage pipe that had malfunctioned the previous night.
The mechanical sounds of the water-pumping system were incessant. She focused her gaze downward and saw that the barrier was half-open.
Seawater that had undergone no filtration or screening whatsoever was flowing unhindered into the ship’s water supply system.
She frowned and quickly pressed the shutoff button on the nearby cabin wall.
Team A had come to repair the system because the automatic closure mechanism had malfunctioned. Before they left, the barrier should have been thoroughly inspected and closed.
Someone had opened the drainage pipe after Team A left…
But if that were the case, 028’s AI should have sounded an alarm.
Wendy’s brows drew tightly together. She looked toward the surveillance camera in the corner of the drainage compartment and raised her combat wristband to her lips.
“028, help me retrieve the surveillance footage after 00:12.”
028’s AI was responsible for collecting data within the ship, and surveillance was also part of its functions. Normally, if an unauthorized person tampered with a critical facility, 028 would detect it and issue an alarm.
But the guards had received no alarm last night, so she decided to check the surveillance footage herself.
Unexpectedly, after she issued the command, 028 gave no response.
Wendy repeated herself.
“Sorry, Guard Jiang Qiao. I cannot understand your request. Could you please use more precise wording?”
This time, 028 responded.
But its response made Wendy’s expression even more solemn.
The AI had malfunctioned.
Although 028 was only a weak artificial intelligence, the escape ship relied heavily on it for task assignments and data monitoring.
If 028 had malfunctioned and the people aboard the ship failed to notice in time, it could very likely lead to a major disaster.
No.
It would be more accurate to say that the disaster had already begun.
Wendy looked at the drainage pipe she had just completely shut.
She lowered her eyes.
Had Liao Chengyu noticed something was wrong?
Now that she couldn’t directly retrieve the surveillance footage through her combat wristband, the only way to view it was to go to the central control room.
And that meant she would inevitably have to get past Liao Chengyu.
As she walked toward the elevator, she thought about what explanation she should give him.
The elevator rapidly ascended.
Soon, accompanied by the arrival chime, the doors opened, and she stepped out.
Liao Chengyu’s office was located at the far end of the top level of the escape ship.
Wendy stood silently before the silver-white alloy door for a moment before gently knocking.
Knock, knock, knock.
The top floor was very empty, and the sound of her knocking echoed down the corridor, even producing a faint reverberation.
“Come in.”
Several seconds later, Liao Chengyu’s voice came from inside.