Starting as a Mechanical Hunter

Chapter 651 - 182: Hidden Among the Grassroots

The difference between a virus and an antibody is that a virus can infinitely evolve, capable of splitting into tens of thousands of mutant strains, with increasingly terrifying mutation abilities, ultimately forming a large viral family.

This is also the evolutionary source of the ’Biochemical Brain Machine’.

The stronger the virus, the greater its developmental potential.

But antibodies work the other way around; after killing the virus, the antibodies automatically disappear from the body.

Then, quite ironically, something happened—

Previously, executives from other groups were painstakingly trying to solve the ’virus’ transmissibility, but to no avail.

Now it’s the other way around, the Vinos Life Safety Group tries all means, yet cannot resolve this type of antibody.

Countless dangerous biological experiments were conducted, and the conclusions were disappointing.

No viral subvariant could escape this antibody.

"If the tenth generation mutant virus fails, then let’s develop the eleventh generation virus!"

"The new virus temporarily cannot connect to the Network Cloud. What’s the reason, is there a problem with the Sensory Signal frequency?"

"The experimenter experienced large-scale physical mutations and has been cleared."

"Mobilize resources from all major biological laboratories, let the headquarters help too. In any case, we must complete a more advanced viral carrier as soon as possible."

"A large-scale antibody incident was detected in the 9-4-513 area, with network signals failing in this region, quickly dispatch people to investigate!"

"An S-Level Mutant in the security department showed symptoms like fever, suspected ’antibody’ activation, and he is suppressing memory cells in the body to prevent the division of more antibodies."

"Why is there a problem with the security department? Isn’t the S-Level Mutant the most evolved body?"

"Uh, precisely because their bodies are strong, once an antibody appears, the speed at which they expel the virus is a hundred times that of ordinary people."

"Can he connect to the network now?!"

"Probably not."

"His S-Level capability data has not been fully uploaded to the Network Cloud, damn it! Bad news follows one after another."

In just one week, bad news followed one after another, making the top executives’ heads ache and explode.

Who would have thought that the opponent of the painstakingly developed ’Brain-Machine Virus’ is not some Super Corporation but a suddenly emerged specific antibody.

Judy hurriedly carried a stack of documents to Cain’s office.

The office door was half open, and the strong voice of criticism could be faintly heard.

"Cain, you have disappointed the board members too much. It’s only a regional-level war, yet you let the group recuperate, controlling the virus scale. Despite the steep costs the group incurred to develop the virus, you haven’t utilized any of its greatest capabilities!"

"Don’t find excuses, you are a ’Vinos’, and the family creed of ’Vinos’ is that failure means death. I’ll give you one month; within this month, you must create an evolutionary subvariant of the new virus and spread the virus to at least three planetary regions. Our ranking in the Mother City has already dropped below 50."

"Even Mother has expressed disappointment in you!"

’Bang’

Cain’s fist slammed the desktop heavily, creating a dent, his handsome features full of ferocity.

"Are the board members all idiots," ’Judy’ pushed open the door and coldly said: "If we don’t rapidly develop a virus targeting antibodies, the more the virus spreads, the worse it will get in the future. Once all the Brain-Machines go out of control, don’t they realize what the outcome will be?"

’Cain’ let out a gloomy laugh:

"How could they not understand, they’re just shirking their responsibilities. With such a large resource input from the group, if there’s no result at all, the consequences are imaginable."

"You are a ’Vinos’," ’Judy’ exclaimed in surprise.

"But the family doesn’t have just one ’Vinos’," ’Cain’ rubbed his temples, showing a grim expression: "This mess is not my doing, why should I take full responsibility for the wreckage left by the last ’me’!"

"Don’t say such things anymore, ’Judy’ is just Judy, and ’Cain’ is just Cain!"

’Judy’ quickly stopped the speech, as a critical taboo in Cloning Technology is the separation of ’self’ with ’self’, which can bring about a series of troubles.

"Let’s stop talking about this," ’Cain’ beckoned, taking the materials from ’Judy’ and leafing through them slightly.

"All bad news, can’t our many renowned laboratories find an evolutionary subvariant of the virus?"

’Judy’ said:

"Originally, according to the plan, as the ’Brain-Machine Virus’ spreads, the viral subvariants would naturally evolve along with it."

"But we can’t do that now, because once the enemy acquires the antibody to the virus, and we haven’t yet developed an evolved version of the ’Brain-Machine Virus’, then we’re doomed."

’Cain’ nodded; a Corporate War is like a Beast Fighting Arena. If other enterprises know that the Brain-Machine Virus has produced an antibody, it’s certain that all participating enterprises in the Southern Hemisphere would join in the siege, even those enterprises that signed cooperation agreements would turn around to clobber you.

"According to ’Life Supreme Laboratory’s statement, researching this type of virus took three years and selected many special breeds for modification, it will not have problems on its own accord."

’Life Supreme Laboratory’, the group’s most powerful laboratory, also the first lab to develop the ’Brain-Machine Virus’.

"Logically, even if there were antibodies, they should not have been born at this moment."

In their conception, in the mid to late stages of Corporate War, which is when a global war begins, perhaps some peers would develop virus antibodies.

But by that time, their virus would probably have evolved over ten thousand generations.

’Cain’ and ’Judy’ exchanged a glance, both pondering a possibility they shouldn’t have entertained.

The only person capable of knowing all the ’gene sequences’ of this virus and conducting a reverse-engineering of a large virus model could only be one person.

"Did you see ’Mother’?" Cain asked.

Judy shook her head:

"I went to the ’Starry Sky’ more than twenty times and still didn’t see ’Mother’."

She hesitated for a moment and couldn’t help but say:

"What did the board say."

"The board," Cain paused, then said, "you know, they’re too entangled with ’Mother’. Every one of them, starting from their genetic code, was edited by ’Mother’, so they can’t question ’Mother’."

The two glanced at each other but said nothing, yet there was a mutual understanding between them.

Others were edited by the ’Vinos First Generation’.

But they weren’t, they were just clones taking the blame.

Even though the emotions were the same, the memories were the same, but as long as there was a slight deviation in self-awareness, the thoughts would be completely different.

"I’ll go with you once more."

"Alright."

The two connected online, and with the help of a network cloud platform, their consciousnesses reached the stars. Unexpectedly, in the endless digital soup over the stars, they saw ’Mother’.

"Mother!" "Mother!!"

"Good children, you’ve come," the woman kindly waved, and a boy and a girl ran over with little legs.

"Come, eat candy."

Without a word, the woman took two pieces of green candy and stuffed one into each of the little girl’s and boy’s mouths.

"Mother, while you were away, we encountered a lot of things," the little girl hurriedly reported the ’Antibody Event’.

"I know, I know. The reason Mother left was also to resolve this matter."

"Have you found a way?" Little Judy’s eyes sparkled with radiance.

"I’ve found a clue. Soon, new, real life will be born," ’Mother’ slowly said:

"Life is a thief. To meet its growth needs, living cells have learned to separate molecules to steal electrons needed for energy reactions."

"And what we have done is merely reclaim the evolution that only ’life inheritance’ could represent, back into the hands of 380 trillion ’real individuals’."

The so-called ’real individuals’ refer to viruses.

The two soon left.

’Mother’ leisurely stroked her belly, not saying a word.

"Pua-ing your own employees is not the style of a good boss, you know."

A lazy male voice suddenly sounded.

In the ’Life Soup’ below, countless numbers began to pile up, genetic codes threaded through them, a shadowy figure with indistinct features appeared in front of her, letting out a signature laugh of a certain cheeky young man.

"How is it, after all that effort, did you ’birth’ me out?"

"Unable to ’birth’ me, yet instead, I used your power to deduce the antibody. Doesn’t that feel ironic?"

’Mother’ kept her smile unchanged, only a hint of darkness appeared on her face.

"The fusion power of the fusion route is beyond your imagination. Soon, you will be me, and I will become you. I will help complete the expansion of the ’Brain-Machine Virus’."

"But by then, who Vinos Life Safety Group actually belongs to, that would be hard to say."

"What should be done then? Your algorithm has been infiltrated by me, turned into a sieve. You don’t dare tell others, because once the news leaks, those high-level members with thought steel seals may have other thoughts. After all, the seal has shown cracks. Well, you might want to consider painless..."

Before Gao Gong finished speaking, ’Mother’ narrowed her eyes, and the next moment, the figure opposite exploded again.

At the same time, her belly slowly swelled.

"You will eventually become me, and I will replace you."

This sentence was spoken from ’Mother’s mouth.

...

"Great, it seems Mother has found a way. Soon, the genetic sequence of viral subtypes will be passed down."

Judy let out a long breath, looking at Cain.

"Yes, it can finally end," Cain smiled and said.

"Are you okay?" Judy suspiciously looked at him, "Why do I feel like something’s off about you."

"Maybe I’m just too tired; I haven’t had a good sleep for the past half month."

"Take a break, corporate war is a long-term battle."

Watching Judy’s departing figure, Cain’s eyes flickered. Finally, he made up his mind, opened his mouth, and a piece of green candy, mixed with saliva, was spit out.

After the ’candy’ hit the ground, it emitted a puff of green smoke. A vague human face struggled within it, finally disappearing along with the smoke.