"Wow, mysterious plants!" KIKI blurted out in amazement, "In our world today, it seems that everything, whether people, animals, organic or inorganic matter, is influenced by that damn night."
"What use is this thing?" asked Lin Xian, frowning.
"That’s still uncertain."
The skinny scientist named Han Qiming also came forward, tremblingly saying, "We have conducted some biological experiments and found that this thing directly causes mutations in creatures, quite similar to the contagion of the night."
"Dark night contagion?" KIKI asked. "What is contagious in the night?"
"Well..." Han Qiming, looking nervous, glanced at the three people and then at Ding Junyi, before saying, "In fact, our research teams have already generally reached a consensus, but this consensus..."
Lin Xian couldn’t help raising an eyebrow, smiling, "What, even in this situation, you still have to keep secrets for the Federation Government?"
"It’s not about keeping secrets, strictly speaking it’s about not being rigorous and irresponsible. As researchers, making conjectures without experimental results is irresponsible, and it can cause misguidance and panic to the public. However, if you want to know these unverified conjectures, we can share them with you," Ding Junyi said directly.
"Right, let me explain then. The research teams around the world believe that zombies and mutations are not due to bacterial or viral contagion," explained Han Qiming, tremblingly lifting his thick glasses with one hand.
"The reason this inference cannot be disclosed is firstly to avoid panic, and secondly, it’s also not rigorous. Mainly because whether it is from the perspective of biological pathology, research on bacterial strains, or live zombie investigations, there’s no accurate judgment. Zombies themselves are not a rigorous concept biologically speaking. From a biological standpoint, such an individual organism does not exist."
"What does that mean?" Lin Xian asked, puzzled.
Han Qiming answered, "For instance, an adult with very poor bodily functions cannot suddenly have strong vitality and physical strength without caloric metabolism. A body damaged by a virus would only worsen, so how could it suddenly become vibrant and attack people and survive for so long?"
Lin Xian paused upon hearing this, realizing the logic in that.
"On Apocalypse Day, during the first outbreak of extreme night, the global population significantly decreased exponentially. We have a very advanced IoT surveillance, but we couldn’t find any source of contagion or transmission routes, which is why many national institutions and armies quickly collapsed. We just don’t know where the virus came from, whether it was through the air or blood, or some other channel, until we discovered the concept of Spirit Swinging Value. We then realized that the only intersection where these mutation phenomena occur is during the night!"
"As soon as it enters the night, a large number of people mutate into zombies or other nocturnal creatures, completely unforeseeable. We have even suspected that surviving survivors might possess some genetic trait or specific defect, so we tried methods like tagging and recapture, molecular biology, but... we have found no commonality."
Upon hearing this, Lin Xian felt a chill down his spine.
He looked at KIKI, recalling the invisible monster that appeared in the car when she was Falling.
So if KIKI’s superpower had not evolved but had Fallen, would she become a monster like Tang Hai, neither human nor ghost?
Thinking this, the ordinary night and the Dark Tide of Star Abyss seemed to be two completely different concepts. The Dark Tide is not merely ordinary darkness. Mysterious monsters appearing next to you, taboo items being infected and mutated, the Blood Calamity Disaster Plant growing out of flesh, and the unpredictable zombie mutations—all these strung together suddenly made Lin Xian understand the term Han Qiming had mentioned.
Dark Night Contagion!
65th floor, railway terminal platform. Chen Sixuan pressed the intercom button, and the light turned red after Lin Xian and his group entered the elevator to ascend. She knew this might be due to signal penetration from underground, not necessarily indicating any trouble.
However, on the train at this moment, to avoid attracting monsters from the darkness, all lights were turned off, and blackout blinds were lowered.
Sha Sha and Chen Sixuan, each holding a gun, stayed in the first carriage, quietly listening to the noises outside.
On the platform, there are occasional buzzing noises from the flickering light bulbs and the faint rustling sounds from the dark depths. There might be some zombie monsters lurking inside, or it could just be the sound of air flow in the underground tunnels.
Staying on the train generally feels safer, but after the incident with the Mysterious Radio, Chen Sixuan has become more sensitive to these bizarre occurrences.
"How long have they been gone?" Sha Sha sat on the sofa, swinging her legs back and forth, much braver than Chen Sixuan.
Chen Sixuan looked at her watch: "Almost 40 minutes now, they should be arriving soon."
At that moment, the intercom in the cockpit beeped. Although the sound was very faint, it seemed to shatter the silence, making one’s heart tighten. Chen Sixuan and Sha Sha exchanged glances and hurriedly got up to head there.
"Hello, Teacher Chen, we’ve arrived. Is everything okay on your end?"
Through the intercom, the voice of Lin Xian came through, causing Chen Sixuan and Sha Sha to visibly relax.
"No, everything’s fine here, no issues."
"That’s good, it’s getting dark soon, be careful."
Chen Sixuan turned off the intercom and looked at Sha Sha. In this Underground City, everyone knew how things could turn after dark; they needed to remain cautious.
On the 52nd floor, in the scientific hall of Sector F13, Lin Xian’s gaze turned to Ding Junyi.
"Now that we are here, why don’t you hand over the management authority to us first, and then tell me about the location of the Gemini 11R Nuclear Power Electric Locomotive you mentioned."
As soon as he said this, Zhao Yan and Xu Wen’s expressions suddenly changed.
"Well, we are more familiar with the systems here, and they are very complex..."
At that moment, KIKI started operating on the mobile terminal in the lab and soon opened a backdoor program, then walked over and handed it to Ding Junyi, "Sister, please authorize this."
For KIKI, as long as she had time, Lin Xian believed she could definitely find a way to hack into the system directly, since she had done such things in the past.
However, now that Ding Junyi had high-level administrative rights, she didn’t need to go through much trouble.
Yet, Lin Xian’s actions made the others tense up immediately, as currently, their only visible bargaining chip was Ding Junyi’s management authority. If handed over directly, all four of them would truly become burdens.
Holding a machine gun, exuding a murderous aura, Big Bulky now stood in front of Zhao Yan and the other two, exerting immense pressure as if they were about to be executed.
They had no doubt that this huge guy could literally tear the three women and one man apart with his bare hands!