Virus King - Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Slow Evolution Points! Zombies Appear! Seeking Flowers and Votes!

TL: YYang

Jiangcheng University Affiliated Hospital.

Seated in the hospital, nearly everyone here was either accompanying a patient beside them or receiving an IV themselves.

“Cough, cough, cough…”

The sound of coughing echoed around, with every face reflecting a hurried expression.

Some even had ice packs on their heads.

Of course, there were also those who chatted, sharing experiences of relatively mild illnesses with one another.

“Why is this round of flu so severe?!”

“No kidding, almost everyone in our entire building got infected. It’s been hellish!”

Several older temporary patients chatted, occasionally glancing toward a figure not far from them.

Amidst this peculiar scene, a young man sat alone, looking completely out of place. Wearing a baseball cap, he wasn’t there to accompany anyone, nor did he show any signs of fever or cold; he just sat there, eyes closed, seeming lost in thought.

An oddball!

What was he doing thinking here?

Was he training his immune system? Or perhaps testing it?

With such a large hospital and plenty of waiting areas in the hallways, why choose to sit here and think?

There was no denying that the thought process of modern young people, particularly university students, was indeed a bit unconventional.

So, to avoid trouble, most people distanced themselves from the young man sitting there.

Of course, they claimed they were just trying to avoid giving the young man the flu.

Naturally, the young man sitting there was Chen Bai, who had awakened the Virus Sovereign Talent.

Since his awakening, Chen Bai could even faintly sense the viruses and bacteria in the air quickly drawing toward him.

And here, in the flu IV zone, it was practically a kingdom of viruses!

However, Chen Bai wasn’t exactly satisfied with what he had gained.

[Acquired flu virus. Virus Evolution Point +0.001…]

[Acquired flu virus. Virus Evolution Point +0.001…]

[Acquired flu virus. Virus Evolution Point +0.001…]

Chen Bai had expected that a relatively weak virus like the flu—which could only be fatal with complications and spread primarily due to its wide transmission—wouldn’t yield many evolution points.

But he hadn’t expected the evolution points to be this low!

He had been sitting here all morning, and still hadn’t managed to gain a single full evolution point.

Gathering it all together had yielded a mere decimal-point improvement—still not even enough for a single evolution point to enhance his Darklight Virus!

Before the outbreak, every hour held priceless value.

In these rare, early days when he alone could grow stronger, any improvement meant surpassing the rest—guaranteeing his future survival.

Yet after sitting here all morning, all he had gained was this pitifully small boost.

But what could he do?

Chen Bai realized he had been too idealistic.

While hospitals had plenty of illnesses, they also had rigorous disinfection, leaving few places where he could absorb viruses for evolution points.

Serious illnesses often didn’t involve viruses, and some weren’t viral at all.

Take cancer, for instance; while certain viruses can trigger it, cancer itself stems from genetic and cellular mutations, making cancer cells irrelevant to viruses.

Or the virus samples they kept for testing—even if there were viruses around, he had no way to access them.

After spending a full morning here, enduring the odd looks from the elderly, as well as from some nurses, he’d only managed to gain a mere trickle of evolution points.

He was even considering heading to the sewers, catching a few rats to see if the rumored Black Plague virus could give him a decent evolution point boost.

In fact, at the apocalypse’s onset, the sewers were some of the most dangerous places, no question.

Those mutated plague rats, or even zombie-infected rats, formed packs that ruled the city in the early days.

Despite the risk, the boost from such creatures was considerable.

As coughs echoed around him, his naturally accumulating evolution points continued, slowly but steadily.

Yet just as Chen Bai resigned himself to sitting here for the entire day, he suddenly received an unusually specific notification from the Cosmic Will:

[You have acquired a certain level of infectious disease virus. The Virus Sovereign Talent, ‘Infectious Disease Evolution,’ now requires fewer evolution points to activate!]

Hm!? It could work like this?!

Chen Bai froze, just about to check his talent changes per the Cosmic Will’s prompt, when a piercing scream drew everyone’s attention.

“Aah! That lunatic is biting people!”

The sharp scream caused everyone to turn in alarm.

A figure in a hospital gown, with sickly gray skin and fingernails darkened to a grimy black, staggered forward, lunging to bite anyone in sight!

Its sudden lunging speed made it no slower than any horror film zombie—a stark contrast between tortoise and hare.

A zombie!?

Chen Bai’s pupils shrank instantly.

In just a single day, the zombie virus had already started infecting those with initial genetic deficiencies, transforming them into zombies!?

The person even looked familiar—the very one from whom he’d extracted the zombie virus yesterday!

Could it be his own doing? Had extracting the virus from this person’s blood caused the early demise?

Suspicious, Chen Bai took a small step back with the crowd.

He had no intention of intervening.

Even without a weapon, he could easily snap the neck or skull of this lowest-tier zombie.

But why should he?

It would only draw attention, and if he got dragged off to the police station for a few days, it’d waste the most valuable time in these early stages.

No matter how unlikely, he refused to expose himself.

Those who had survived for decades and rose to the top among Evolvers were all cautious by nature!

But at that very moment, an unexpected turn occurred.

Just as the zombie lurched at a young nurse who was paralyzed with fear, the Cosmic Will delivered a new prompt:

[Low-level evolutionary virus failure specimen detected! Due to the trial not having officially started, all experience, currency, and special item drop rates from living creatures are ten times those of the official trial period!]

In an instant, Chen Bai’s eyes lit up, his pupils glinting with a gold-coin gleam!

Now, this clawing zombie was no longer just a zombie but rather the perfect early money pouch for his trial!

…

AN: (the comments and readers are) So deserted… feeling a bit tense

Guys, leave at least one comment please?