Xu Yajun stared at the news report on the television screen and said with some surprise, "The authorities are telling us to get this rabies vaccine—could it be related to that so-called Zombie virus you mentioned?"
"Yeah, probably something went wrong in the Western Continent," Li Dong replied, his eyes fixed on the screen before glancing at his younger brother, Li Tiang.
Li Tiang nodded solemnly in response.
It was clear that this news report was anything but ordinary. Most likely, the transmission route of the Zombie virus had changed, evolving into multiple pathways—or perhaps its infection rate had increased significantly.
Who knew what those small nations in the Western Continent had been up to lately? There was a high chance the Far Star Union, Europa Federation, and Polar Bear Federation were involved as well.
Truthfully, Xu Yajun had seen zombie movies before and knew what zombies looked like—she just wasn't interested in them. Like most women, she didn't enjoy violent, gory films, finding them rather pointless.
After all, the country had been at peace for so many years.
"So if we get this rabies vaccine, does that mean we won't get infected?" Xu Yajun asked nervously.
Having lived her entire life in a peaceful nation, she couldn't even imagine what would happen if the monsters from those movies appeared in real life.
Waking up one day to find the streets overrun with endless hordes of zombies?
Creatures that only knew how to bite and devour humans?
That would be terrifying.
Their peaceful lives would be shattered.
"That depends on fate," Li Dong explained. "The vaccine might offer some protection, but if you don't get it, the infection rate after being scratched or bitten will definitely be much higher than for those who did."
No one knew just how far this suspected Zombie virus would continue to mutate.
Moreover, Li Tiang didn't have much information either. The main thing he knew was that once infected, humans would lose their rationality, turn violent, and become monsters that only knew how to attack, bite, and feed—
Much like the zombies in movies.
But the zombies from films wouldn't appear in reality.
In the real world, after death, the digestive, motor, nervous, and muscular systems—along with other organs and tissues—would immediately cease functioning.
The body would be unable to move, blood would coagulate, and decomposition by microorganisms would begin.
Unless the Mutated virus inside the human body took control of these systems, forcing them to continue operating.
Here's a hypothesis: After entering the body, the Mutated virus first destroys the immune system, then consumes blood and cells to gather energy.
Once it has enough energy to proliferate, the virus rapidly multiplies.
When the virus reaches a certain threshold, it swiftly attacks the body's various systems, seizing control.
Finally, it assaults and destroys the brain, either taking it over or replacing it entirely.
Once the brain is damaged, controlled, replaced, or dead—
Other viruses may parasitize it, mimicking the electrical and chemical signals needed to deceive the nervous, motor, digestive, and muscular systems, as well as organs and tissues.
This causes the original, still-functioning organ tissues and various system tissues to mistake these signals for electrical and chemical messages sent by the original brain, continuing their operations accordingly.
It might even allow some mutated viruses to simulate and generate organ-like tissues and control systems resembling those in the human body.
Once the original organ tissues and control systems exhaust their energy and die off, they are quickly replaced by the viral organ tissues and control systems simulated by the mutated viruses.
Whether the host is truly dead or not, they will ultimately lose control of their body.
Moreover, these mutated viruses seem to behave like cancer cells—constantly growing and never satisfied.
After taking control of a human body, they continuously consume various substances to gain more energy, proliferating the mutated viruses within.
They endlessly attack humans and all living beings.
Of course, the above was merely Li Tiang's conjecture. Though derived from information in his future memories, it wasn't the actual scientific explanation—he wasn't a biologist and couldn't delve into that field.
As for when the zombie-like mutated viruses in the Western Continent would stop mutating—who the hell knew?
The nobles, financial backers, corporate elites, wealthy individuals, and ruling classes of the Western Continent were still conducting all sorts of experiments, forcing the virus to mutate endlessly.
Compounded by natural influences, it had become even more uncontrollable.
Even if they wanted to stop, they couldn't.
They could only barrel recklessly forward.
This made Li Dong wonder if the higher-ups of the Europa Federation, Far Star Union, and Polar Bear Federation had gone mad.
Perhaps they had indeed been driven insane by those meteorites from space—some shadowy old monsters behind the scenes, realizing they had no hope of achieving immortality, were gambling desperately before death, trying to decipher the secret of human longevity.
Or perhaps they were trying to accelerate human evolution.
Because once those meteorites struck, they wouldn't have such ideal experimental conditions anymore.
"So when are we getting vaccinated?" Xu Yajun asked again.
"Tomorrow. Tomorrow, our whole family will go to Pengcheng First Central Hospital to get the rabies vaccine," Li Dong said.
This suggestion was also agreed upon by Li Tiang and Song Weiwei.
No joke—Li Dong even planned to offer free vaccinations to all supermarket employees, factory workers, and laborers at the Shelter construction site.
Better safe than sorry.
Although the mutated virus from the Western Continent wouldn't reach the Great Xia Nation anytime soon, according to his younger brother Li Tiang, this virus also had an incubation period.
That was just outrageous.
Capable of destroying the immune system and having an incubation period? It was practically a death sentence.
Most ordinary people, kept in the dark, still didn't understand the implications of tonight's news report urging them to get the rabies vaccine.
Meanwhile, some sharp individuals who had caught wind of the news early had already gone to the hospital for their shots.
Compared to them, Li Dong's family—planning to get vaccinated tomorrow morning—was already considered late.
Of course, the Great Xia Nation would enforce mass vaccination—whether people wanted it or not.
...
Thanks to the 7:30 PM news broadcast, the doomsday shelter chat group was buzzing tonight.
One after another, members who had seen the news voiced their opinions in the group, speculating about the meaning behind the report.
[Do you guys think the Zombie virus from the Western nations or the Europa Federation might have spread to our Great Xia Country?]
[No way?]
[Damn, if the Zombie virus appears domestically, we're screwed. There are so many people here with such high density. I need to find some remote suburban area to hide.]
[Stop making wild guesses. If it really spread here, domestic and international media platforms would definitely have related videos. My video crawler has been monitoring them constantly—even if they get deleted, I can retrieve them.]
In the group chat, a member who seemed like a big shot posted this.
Judging by his tone, he was probably a senior technician or veteran hacker.
Then, a member named 'Canned Food Factory Dragon Girl' chimed in: [Could it be that the virus's transmission route has changed?]
[Dragon Girl, you might be onto something there.]
[Yeah, if the transmission route has changed, it's even more dangerous.]
The group member 'Ordinary and Unremarkable Young Rich Man' posted: [Anyone who hasn't gotten their rabies vaccine
should go get it tomorrow. If you don't listen, people could really die.]
[Hey, Rich Man, did you get some inside info?]
[No, I don't know, don't ask.]
[I get it!]
[You get it? You don't get squat!]