Virus King - Chapter 49

Chapter 49: The Wheel of Revolution! The Arrival of an Era’s Tidal Wave!

TL: YYang

June 13, 9:30 AM.

Time remaining until the full outbreak of the apocalypse: 1 day, 14 hours, and 30 minutes.

Zhang He sat bored at home.

He watched as messages flashed quickly across the group chat on his screen, feeling more and more agitated in his heart:

“Dammit, where the hell did this stupid zombie virus come from?! If things don’t go back to normal soon, how am I supposed to pay my mortgage?!”

Clearly, complaints like these were utterly pointless.

Especially when, in every group chat, there were those horrifying images that made Zhang He’s heart tremble with fear.

Everyone had seen zombie movies. Everyone had a certain level of understanding about zombies.

This understanding led Zhang He to realize that if it really was that kind of zombie, then it actually wouldn’t be that terrifying.

With modern military forces, the government, and all the weapons on Blue Star, if they really wanted to completely isolate it, it wouldn’t be any problem at all.

But the impact on society, the blow to the economy—there was no need to even discuss that.

This was the source of Zhang He’s current worries.

He idly scrolled through the group, joining in on the chatter.

He looked at the conspiracy theories, the nonsense everyone was spouting, and the strange images.

Someone posted about a massive banyan tree that had grown dozens of times its original size over the past few days. Someone else claimed they’d seen a wild tiger on Changbai Mountain that had gained intelligence…

More often, it was images of giant zombies in foreign countries.

Without even thinking, Zhang He could guess that these were obviously photoshopped.

However, suddenly, someone in one of the groups shared a peculiar link, along with an odd question:

“Hey, do you guys think that if zombies exist in this world, there might also be people with special abilities? Could there really be Evolvers?!”

Zhang He sneered when he saw this question. Special abilities?! Evolvers?!

Where the hell had you people left your materialist values, you fools?

But, with nothing better to do, Zhang He clicked on the link anyway.

To his surprise, it led to a forum post on Qiandu Tieba.

And the name of this forum was laughably ridiculous!

“Cosmic Will Evolution Pioneer Forum?!”

At first glance, Zhang He felt it was pure nonsense. Was this some gaming guild? Or maybe some kind of new religious cult from abroad?

Still, since it had been shared in that group, and given the nonsensical question, Zhang He didn’t think too much of it and continued reading.

Immediately, he saw post after post from people who were clearly just as idle and bored as he was, spamming and joking around.

[Is this some new game forum? Cosmic Will Evolution? I searched it up, and it doesn’t look like there’s any game or gaming guild by that name!]

[All hail the White Emperor! The Green Emperor returns! /doge]

[Lol, the forum admin is so cringe, but it’s kind of funny! Where’s the admin from? Are they handsome~?]

[Are there really Evolvers out there?!]

[…]

However, besides these posts, Zhang He then noticed the pinned post from the forum admin, someone known as the “White Emperor.”

As Zhang He read, he nodded slightly to himself:

“Gotta admit, they almost make it sound believable!”

But, that was just it. Those kinds of groups that gained traction online—take the FFF Group or those CPU clubs, for instance—they all made themselves look pretty legit, almost enough to make people wonder if some kind of special containment organization really existed out there.

But wasn’t it all just bullshit?!

Zhang He shook his head, but then he noticed another post.

This post, without a doubt, was currently the hottest topic in the forum!

What surprised Zhang He was that the poster’s username was actually “Evolver Group Chat No. 001 Administrator”!

“Has this forum really gained enough traction to make people go this far with the act? They’re taking it pretty seriously!”

The post’s content was simple.

Though well-written, it could be summarized in just one line:

“Evolvers can search for Group Chat No. 001 and join it! For those interested in the coming transformations and the tide of the new era, this group will serve as a platform for mutual assistance and equal communication among Evolution Pioneers!”

Group Chat No. 001.

To sum it up, that one phrase was the whole point of the post!

Zhang He thought for a moment, then opened QQ. He typed the keywords into the search bar in his groups list: “Group Chat.”

He wasn’t sure if this was supposed to be a group ID, or just the name itself.

As a group ID, it would be impossible—unless this nonsense group was backed by Pony Ma. Otherwise, there was no way they’d use such a simple name as a group ID.

But if it was just a group name, well, that would be much more common, and there’d be way too many results. If he really wanted to join, using just that name wouldn’t get him anywhere!

Zhang He then opened his WeChat. Obviously, that was even less likely to work.

After all, WeChat didn’t even have a group ID feature, and you couldn’t join groups by searching for them either.

So what was this all about?!

Wait a minute!

Zhang He chuckled to himself. He really had let this zombie virus mess with his head—this was clearly a joke post meant to troll people, and he’d actually fallen for it? He’d even tried searching for it?!

Shaking his head, he scrolled down, reading through the replies below, and sure enough:

“Damn it, I actually fell for it and searched for it like an idiot! They made it sound so real!”

“Where’s the White Emperor?! I demand the White Emperor speak with me personally, because I am the new king among Evolvers!”

“The world’s about to go crazy again. Can’t these internet freaks take a break for once? This is ridiculous…”

“…”

As expected, there were people complaining, others expressing disgust, and a few just playing along with the joke.

But the more he read, the more Zhang He began to feel like something wasn’t quite right!

“Whoa, I kept private messaging the White Emperor, and he never replied. Finally found the organization!”

“…”

“Applied to join! Admin, please approve quickly!”

“…”

“I’m so scared. I won’t end up dissected like a lab rat, will I?”

“…”

“It actually exists! They paid a whole gold coin to create the group—someone really has that kind of cash and is willing to use it to form a group? The White Emperor is truly impressive!”

“…”

“Interesting! I’m in. My ID number is 059. Let’s see who’s ahead of me in the rankings! I’m an A-Rank talent! And the White Emperor? That guy’s a God-King!”

“…”

“Is the countdown really real? Is it really happening?”

“…”

Every dozen or so replies, there’d be an extremely unusual one.

At first, Zhang He thought it was all just part of the joke, people using the “Emperor’s New Clothes” trick to tease gullible readers.

But as he read further, with every few words hinting at more details, he began to feel increasingly bewildered and unsettled.

Somewhere in the hazy mist of the future, beneath a world gradually piled high with the zombie virus, there seemed to be a group of people already moving stealthily through the fog.

They had arrived at the very forefront of this imminent era of transformation, standing at the edge of the coming winds, preparing to spread their wings and take flight!

And he, along with countless others, could only wait, confused and helpless, as the wheels of this era rolled inexorably closer.

They would either rise against the current or be crushed, reduced to mere blood and bones in the path of history.

…

Just search up “QQ app China”.

Emperor’s New Clothes is a folktale where “only the wise can see the clothes”, however everyone in the king’s court pretended to see the clothes and the king ended up going into public naked.