Wu Fan stared at the number on the system panel as it jumped, changing from 18,760 to 8,760.
Ten thousand points, just like that, gone.
The cyan reagent tube on the screen was glowing, with "Universal Virus Serum · Prototype" written next to it.
He clicked exchange, and a perfectly sealed reagent tube appeared out of thin air in his drawer.
He picked it up to take a look; it was no different from an ordinary vaccine—a transparent glass tube, pale cyan liquid, with only a line of serial numbers on the label.
He put the reagent tube back into the drawer and leaned back in his chair.
Ten thousand points.
Even if that guy Merle spent a whole month out there killing Walkers, it wouldn't be enough to cover this amount.
But he needed this thing.
Not to use now, but to give that group in the laboratory a direction.
With a sample and a goal, replicating it is always faster than starting from scratch.
He stubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray and picked up the phone: "Have Edwin, Candice, and Abraham come over."
Ten minutes later, the three of them stood in front of his desk.
Edwin was still wiping disinfectant off his hands, Candice was holding a notebook, and Abraham's glasses were still stained with traces of some unknown reagent.
"Sit."
Wu Fan placed the reagent tube on the table.
All three pairs of eyes were drawn to it simultaneously.
The cyan liquid emitted a faint luster under the fluorescent lights, and they had never seen the serial number on the label before.
"A batch of new equipment has been approved from above..."
Wu Fan said, "The advanced virus laboratory on the fourth floor of the Hive has been unlocked. The equipment inside is much more advanced than the set on the third basement level. Give me your access cards, and I will authorize you to enter the fourth floor."
The three of them handed over their cards, and Wu Fan operated the computer one by one, then returned them.
"And this..."
He pushed the reagent tube over: "A type of influenza vaccine. Study it and see if you can replicate it for mass production."
Candice picked up the reagent tube and held it up to the light: "An influenza vaccine?"
"Yes."
Wu Fan kept a straight face: "After the apocalypse, the flu can also kill people. Better to be prepared early."
The three looked at each other.
Abraham wanted to say something, but Edwin shook his head slightly.
Candice carefully placed the reagent tube into the interlayer of her notebook.
"Understood..."
She said, "We will analyze the components as soon as possible."
After they left, Wu Fan leaned back in his chair and let out a long sigh.
He didn't tell them what it was.
Universal Virus Serum, something that could kill the wildfire virus.
If he told them, he would have to explain where it came from, and after explaining, he would have to face even more questioning.
Tricking them into thinking it was an influenza vaccine saved trouble.
The door was knocked on again.
Amy poked half her body in: "BOSS, Guillermo from the nursing home is here."
"Let him in."
Guillermo stood at the door, wearing a faded shirt, his hair combed neatly, but it was obvious he was very nervous.
He didn't know where to put his hands, so he ended up keeping them straight along the seams of his pants.
"Sit."
Wu Fan pulled out an unopened pack of White Dragon cigarettes from his drawer and tossed it over.
Guillermo caught it in a fluster, looked down, and saw it was a pack of cigarettes.
"Don't be nervous..."
Wu Fan lit one for himself: "Just think of it as friends chatting."
Guillermo was stunned for a moment, opened the cigarettes, and lit one.
The smoke circulated in his lungs, and his tense shoulders slowly relaxed.
"BOSS, you called for me... what for?"
"I've looked over your file."
Wu Fan said, "After the apocalypse broke out, you didn't run. You stayed behind to take care of those elderly people, led them to hide, led them to find food, and led them out of Atlanta."
Guillermo lowered his head, his fingers rubbing the cigarette: "That was what I should have done. If... no one took care of them, they would have died."
"That's why I value you."
Wu Fan flicked the ash: "In this world, not many people don't abandon the elderly and children."
Guillermo looked up, his lips moved, but he didn't say anything.
"I want you to be my personal bodyguard."
Wu Fan said.
Guillermo was stunned.
Personal bodyguard?
He looked at Wu Fan's eyes, which didn't look like they were lying to him, and then recalled the people he had seen in the base these past few days.
Merle, Rick, Sandra—those people who frequently saw Wu Fan were the ones the BOSS trusted the most.
They could fight, had experience, and had seen blood.
And what about him? He was just a nursing home caregiver who hadn't even touched a gun many times.
"I..."
His voice was a bit hoarse: "BOSS, I'm afraid I'm not qualified."
"I don't judge people by whether they can fight or not."
Wu Fan stubbed out the cigarette butt: "What a bodyguard needs isn't fighting ability, but trustworthiness. You are trustworthy."
Guillermo's eyes suddenly felt a bit hot.
After the apocalypse, he had led those elderly people hiding here and there, and no one had ever said he was trustworthy.
He stood up, his voice trembling a little: "BOSS, my life is yours from now on."
"Sit, sit."
Wu Fan waved his hand: "Don't make it sound like an oath."
He took out a few more packs of White Dragon from the drawer, stacked them together, and pushed them over.
"Take these cigarettes. You just arrived, your points aren't enough, so take these to smoke first."
Guillermo looked at those packs of cigarettes, then at Wu Fan, reached out to take them, and tucked them into his shirt.
"Come report tomorrow."
Wu Fan said, "Also, if those people from the nursing home are willing, bring them in too. It's not just about protecting me; those researchers also need people to watch over them. They are the hope of all humanity, and that's not just talk."
Guillermo nodded, stood up, walked to the door, and then turned back: "BOSS, don't worry. I won't let anything happen to any of those doctors."
After the door closed, the office fell quiet.
Wu Fan stood up, walked to the window, and looked downstairs.
Guillermo was walking out of the main building's entrance, his steps much lighter than when he arrived.
His back disappeared in the direction of the container yard, and Wu Fan withdrew his gaze.
A personal bodyguard, did he need one?
The Red Queen watched the entire building, could lock down passageways at any time, and the defense system could turn intruders into sieves.
But his office had no defense system.
If someone snuck up, the Red Queen could only watch helplessly.
He didn't move into the Hive and stayed above ground so that those who couldn't get underground could see him.
"The Son of Heaven guards the national gate"—if the boss lives in the most dangerous place above ground, what else do you have to complain about?
As for why he chose Guillermo, he had been observing this person for a long time.
He had been a security guard and knew the security check procedures.
More importantly, this person was pure.
Fierce to enemies, good to his own people.
In the apocalypse, this kind of person is much more reliable than those who only know how to profess loyalty.
Hive, basement level four.
The moment the elevator door opened, everyone forgot to breathe.
The third basement level was already advanced enough, but compared to the fourth, it was like an ox cart parked next to a supercar.
An entire wall of display screens extended from the floor to the ceiling.
The laboratory benches were made of black matte material, cool to the touch and resistant to fingerprints.
The fume hoods were fully enclosed, with real-time airflow data projected onto the glass.
Incubators were lined up along the wall, temperature and humidity controlled, with green lights flashing on the doors.
And there was equipment they had only ever seen in papers—fully automated gene analyzers, high-resolution electron microscopes, and P4-level biosafety cabinets.
Dr. Arthur Hawthorne was the first to walk in, his hand gently stroking the edge of the lab bench, like caressing a baby.
"This is... the latest model from Zeiss, Germany..."
He stood in front of that electron microscope, his voice trembling slightly: "It was just released before the apocalypse; one unit cost two million dollars. I thought I would never see the real thing in my lifetime."
Dr. Elias Benson was already squatting in the corner, studying that row of incubators.
"Constant temperature and humidity, independent temperature control, and it can even simulate air pressure at different altitudes—you could grow anything in this."
He turned back to look at the others, his eyes full of light.
Candice did not join them.
She took two assistants and chose an independent laboratory at the end of the corridor.
"I'll analyze the composition of this drug first..."
She said to Edwin, "The task the BOSS assigned, better to finish it early and have peace of mind."
Edwin nodded: "Go ahead. We've got this here."
The laboratory door closed.
Candice placed the reagent tube into the safety cabinet, put on gloves, and began to calibrate the instruments.
The assistants skillfully prepared the samples, aliquoted them, labeled them, and loaded them into the machine.
The first round of testing used a common influenza virus.
The moment the cyan liquid dripped into the petri dish, the virus under the microscope was like paper meeting fire; it began to curl, shrink, and disintegrate from the edges, and in a few seconds, nothing was left.
The assistant was stunned for a moment and swapped in a different virus.
The same result.
Swapped again.
Still the same result.
"Dr. Candice..."
The assistant's tone had changed: "Come take a look at this."
Candice walked to the microscope and squinted at it for a long time.
She looked up and said to the assistant, "Switch back to the influenza virus and test it again."
The result was the same.
The virus was wiped out completely.
But the analyzer could not read the composition of this cyan liquid.
It was not any known antibody structure, nor was it any protein combination recorded in any database.
It was like something from another world.
Candice took the reagent tube out of the safety cabinet, clutched it in her hand, and walked quickly out of the laboratory.
Edwin was in the main laboratory calibrating the gene analyzer when she grabbed his arm and pulled him into the corridor.
"What's wrong?"
Edwin looked at her clenched fist.
Candice lowered her voice: "I analyzed that influenza vaccine the BOSS gave us."
"Hm?"
"It can kill any virus."
Candice stared straight at him: "Influenza virus, coronavirus, adenovirus—it can kill them all, in seconds, completely."
Edwin was stunned for a moment, then laughed: "Impossible, there's no such drug—"
"See for yourself."
Candice shoved the test report into his hand.
Edwin looked down and finished reading, and his smile slowly faded.
He looked up and looked at his wife.
The two of them were silent for a long time.
"You want to try it with the wildfire virus?"
He asked.
Candice nodded.
"The BOSS asked us to analyze this thing and replicate it. He wouldn't give us an 'influenza vaccine' for no reason. He knows what this is."
Edwin was silent for a moment, turned and walked into the laboratory, and took out a sealed test tube from the refrigerator.
The liquid inside was a cloudy dark red, and the label read: wildfire virus · Active Sample · P4-level Protection.
He handed the test tube to Candice.
"Be careful," he said.
Candice took it, walked to the safety cabinet, and put on the white biochemical protective suit.
Sealed, pressurized, airtightness tested.
She walked to the microscope, took a deep breath, opened the wildfire virus test tube, used a pipette to take a drop, and dripped it onto the slide.
Then she opened the cyan reagent tube, took a drop, and dripped it onto the same spot.
She leaned down and pressed her eyes to the eyepiece.
Under the microscope, the wildfire virus looked like a burning flame, its edges constantly churning, full of aggression.
The moment the cyan liquid dripped in, it was as if a basin of cold water had been poured over that flame.
The churning edges solidified, the burning core was extinguished, and the viral particles began to disintegrate from the point of contact, spreading outward like dominoes.
In a few seconds, the entire field of view was clean, with only the drop of cyan liquid slowly spreading.
Candice looked up and said something into the microphone.
The voice came through the safety cabinet's speaker, a bit distorted, but every word was crystal clear: "It's destroyed."
Outside, Edwin watched the real-time image on the screen, completely stunned.
He opened his mouth, unable to say a word.
Arthur walked over, looked at the screen, then looked at him, and pushed up his glasses: "What is this?"
Edwin shook his head, his voice hoarse: "I don't know, but I do know one thing."
"What?"
"What the BOSS gave us is not an influenza vaccine."
~~~~~~`
A/N: Thanks for reading!
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