Chapter 11: A Terrifying Suspicion

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Xu Chen looked at Ouyang Xing.

Ouyang Xing had been observing a patient when he sensed Xu Chen’s gaze and turned around to see Xu Chen staring intently at him, seemingly lost in thought.

The feeling of being watched made his scalp tingle.

“Senior,” Xu Chen called out.

Startled, Ouyang Xing replied irritably, “If you have something to say, just say it.”

“Have you ever played Plague Inc.?”

“I have, why?”

Plague Inc. is a game about creating viruses, where the goal is to evolve and spread a virus until it wipes out the world. Players are essentially the villains in the game. Ouyang Xing clearly didn’t understand why Xu Chen was bringing this up.

“If you’ve played it, that makes things easier. Suppose—just suppose—you were to design a pathogenic microorganism with the same goal as in the game, what kind would you create?”

Ouyang Xing scoffed, “Junior, we’re here to cure microbes, not design deadly ones.”

“I’m just saying hypothetically. You’re free anyway.”

Ouyang Xing glanced at the patient on the bed. Even if they administered medication immediately, it wouldn’t take effect right away.

That piqued his interest.

“Alright, then what are the constraints?”

“None, just achieve the goal as fast as possible.”

“In that case, I’d design a microorganism with extremely high infectivity. At least it must be airborne.”

Airborne transmission usually means aerosol spread, or less precisely, droplet transmission. It may not sound impressive, but in modern cities, it’s the most efficient means of spreading.

Unless in sparsely populated, vast areas, the transmission distance isn’t far.

Xu Chen nodded for him to continue.

“Then it must be lethal...” Ouyang Xing frowned, sensing something as he looked at Xu Chen.

In Plague Inc., viruses can evolve either toward high infectivity or high lethality. Usually, the virus first becomes highly infectious, then highly lethal. If a virus is deadly right from the start, the initial hosts die quickly, stopping further spread.

Ebola is a prime example—it killed off patients before a cure could be developed.

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If it’s not lethal, there’s enough time for humans to develop effective drugs, causing the game to fail. Many viruses fall into this category.

“You’re designing this microorganism based on reality?”

“Of course.”

“Then set a fatality period of one to two weeks.”

Most diseases have a death timeline of one or two weeks, sometimes shorter. This timeframe balances lethality with enough time for transmission.

This isn’t the Middle Ages; with today’s efficient transportation, the virus could spread globally in a short time.

“Also, what about drug resistance?”

“Ah, well, definitely drug-resistant. No medicine works. It should survive well in the air, preferably able to enter a dormant state outside the host and make a comeback.”

“Resistant to atmospheric UV rays, tolerant of both hypoxic and hyperoxic environments, ideally impervious to disinfectants including alcohol.”

“Ignoring the human immune system, while attacking the brain, respiratory system, circulatory system, motor and nervous systems.”

After hearing this, Xu Chen gave a thumbs-up. “Senior, impressive. Even the grim reaper should tattoo your name on his back.”

Ouyang Xing smiled wryly. “Such a microorganism is impossible. If it did exist, its DNA or RNA would have to be incredibly complex. How could it survive competition with other dominant strains?”

Viruses and bacteria undergo natural selection too, even more brutally.

Their DNA or RNA is essentially a storage chip with limited information, prone to errors during replication. The longer the sequence, the higher the risk of loss. Therefore, they can only encode the most advantageous traits for survival.

For example, if a virus has genes resisting UV rays but faces heavy drug use inside the body, it may lose the UV resistance while retaining drug resistance. That virus might thrive inside the body but be weak outside.

To excel in one trait, microbes must give up others. A superbly drug-resistant bacterium might have no advantages in spreading or competing with other microbes. Its only strength is drug resistance.

So an all-powerful virus like this is virtually impossible to arise naturally.

Hearing this, Xu Chen smirked toward the isolation chamber. “Isn’t that exactly what we’re dealing with?”

Ouyang Xing was startled and looked at the patient.

Natural emergence is impossible, but if engineered, maybe.

“And hey, let me show you a little treasure.”

Xu Chen tapped the data on his hand, pointing to the figures he’d seen earlier.

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“Although it says propagation and transmission depend on suitable temperatures, from another perspective...”

At first, Ouyang Xing frowned, then he understood Xu Chen’s meaning.

“You mean if it spreads, it tends to kill humans it infects, but for other species, it slows down host death, using their mobility for wider transmission?”

Xu Chen nodded. Humans are the species with the most suitable body temperature for propagation.

“So, who created this virus? What’s their purpose? Aren’t they afraid it might get out of control?”

“Who knows? Maybe it’s the same goal as in the game.”

“!”

Ouyang Xing grew restless and stood up, inviting the other seniors with no current tasks to discuss this. If they could reach a conclusion, they planned to report it immediately.

Even if they couldn’t, they needed to present this hypothesis.

Xu Chen grabbed a stool to watch the discussion.

Ouyang Xing first recounted his conversation with Xu Chen, then shared the data Xu Chen had discovered.

The group was mixed—some skeptical, some displeased, others puzzled—but none dismissed Ouyang Xing’s words outright.

One senior suddenly remembered something. He quickly got up, fetched a record sheet from his desk, and laid it down with a frown, silently staring at Ouyang Xing.

Ouyang Xing picked up the sheet, and Xu Chen tilted his head to look. It contained patient health data.

The patient’s vital signs were extremely poor and worsening daily, except for one stable metric that never changed.

That was body temperature.

If the body has inflammation or injury, the affected area heats up—a physiological response influenced by various factors. But the patient’s skin was extensively eroded, with blood poisoning, yet the temperature remained unchanged. That was clearly abnormal.

“We used to think maintaining normal body temperature was good for the patient, but it might actually be due to this Aspergillus infection.”

“Indeed, if his temperature rose, he might die even faster.”

Ouyang Xing nodded. He hadn’t expected to uncover something new through discussion and immediately decided to report it.