Chapter 186: Chapter 185: Reconstructing the Brain
Before the sharp bone saw, the hard skull was like plastic, easily sliced open.
Shen Feng’s hand was steady. He didn’t even shave the severely infected person’s head, going straight for the incision.
This severely infected person had apparently lost all sense of pain. It was still blinking its eyes excitedly, drool dribbling from its mouth as it let out continuous, low snarls, voicing its craving for human flesh.
Shen Feng gripped the piece of skull and gently pried it back, opening the severely infected person’s cranium.
A completely deformed, mutated brain appeared before his eyes!
The moment he saw the diseased brain, Shen Feng’s pupils constricted and he held his breath.
The thing before him could hardly be called a brain anymore.
Countless cavities and points of atrophy riddled the entire brain. The remaining portions were hardened and plaque-ridden, and its overall color had shifted from the original grayish-white to a dark brown, resembling a shriveled walnut.
The core of the brain retained its original structure, while the outer, residual parts fanned out in a radial pattern.
The brain looked something like an apple bristling with toothpicks.
"What the hell is this..." Shen Feng muttered, his expression grim.
This wasn’t a brain at all, but some kind of mutated organism.
At the same time, he suddenly noticed a faint metallic sheen within the brain, along with weak electromagnetic fluctuations.
It seemed all the metallic elements from the body’s blood had been gathered into this deformed brain.
’That electromagnetic fluctuation feels... familiar...’
"It’s an antenna... and that sphere inside is a bio-information storage unit!" Jingwei’s voice suddenly piped up, tinged with curiosity. "Is this virus out of its mind? Why turn a perfectly good human brain into an antenna...?"
Hearing this, Shen Feng instantly understood why it felt familiar.
He recalled his time in the nuclear wasteland apocalypse mission. While hunting the other two AI nuclear counter-strike systems, he had caught a fleeting glimpse of their antenna arrays.
Some of them had this exact shape!
And that electromagnetic fluctuation from just now... it seemed the brain-antenna was collecting ambient signals!
’The Evil Spirit Virus doesn’t just aim to exterminate human civilization,’ he thought. ’It has other purposes!’
Clearly, the electromagnetic pulse from a moment ago had also been emitted from this brain.
Making a mental note of this development, Shen Feng picked up the bone saw and began to dissect the severely infected person before him.
Even with its cranium laid open, the infected was not dead. It was still writhing, a grotesque smile plastered on its face.
Shen Feng needed to understand the full extent of the infected’s mutations, so he didn’t hold back and continued the dissection.
Its internal organs showed little change, aside from turning a dark brown, clearly a result of the Evil Spirit Virus’s infestation.
Next, Shen Feng methodically dissected the body, even peeling away part of its circulatory system. Upon close inspection, he could see the path of the Evil Spirit Virus’s invasion.
Soon, the entire infected specimen was dismantled, with only its head, upper torso, and central nervous system remaining. Amazingly, it was still alive!
Shen Feng kept placing tissue slices under the microscope and soon discovered that the Evil Spirit Virus was aggregating just like Nanomechanical Insects!
Or rather, the virus behaved more like a biological version of Nanomechanical Insects!
These things had replaced the original human biological systems, providing sufficient energy and physiological support to the body’s major organs, especially the brain.
These infected could no longer be called human. They retained a consciousness stripped of logic, like corpses possessed by Evil Ghosts.
In other words, they were simply ghosts...
Shen Feng then severed the infected’s spinal cord but found that signals were still being transmitted even after the nerves were cut. The transmission was clearly being carried out by the virus itself.
The infected was still twitching its face, even offering a gentle, refined smile. Its face was a mass of black veins, and it continued to mutter about its craving for flesh and blood.
Expressionless, Shen Feng finally reached back into the cranial cavity and removed the diseased brain.
As if a computer had frozen, the writhing, struggling infected stopped moving entirely, its expression locking in place.
Clearly, destroying the brain was still the only way to kill an infected for good.
The brain had been completely corrupted by the virus; it was a viral nexus.
"Jingwei, perform a holographic scan and prepare to upload the data to the Virtual Reality Space," Shen Feng said, placing the brain on a tray. "How is the analysis of the Antiviral Serum’s components coming along?"
A Nanomechanical Robot replied as it scanned the severely infected brain:
"It’s not done yet. The composition is too complex, and cross-referencing the components takes time. It will take at least two or three days... To be precise, the fastest possible time is fifty-six hours and forty-eight minutes."
Shen Feng frowned.
’So slow...’
Reaching out with his Consciousness Antennae, his mind instantly entered the Virtual World, heading for the CDC in the Capital of the True Apocalypse Game 1.0: Stone Statue Apocalypse.
The hundred-plus medical elites were still anxiously awaiting a message from the Commander.
The Commander had just told them he was in the Tokyo Epidemic Zone looking for a place to conduct experiments. No one knew what the situation was or what was happening.
’The epidemic zone is too chaotic and dangerous. If something were to happen to the Commander, it would all be over...’
Just then, a virtual figure materialized, and Shen Feng appeared in the Virtual Space.
Before anyone could ask, Shen Feng waved his hand. Virtual images materialized in the empty space before them: the diseased brain, models of the virus, models of the infection process—the results of his recent dissection and analysis.
These models also contained vast amounts of detailed data for them to reference.
Shen Feng said:
"This is a model of the Evil Spirit Virus, its pathogenesis, and a recording of the dissection I just performed. Please take a close look."
Everyone present was a veteran medical expert who had seen it all, but they couldn’t help but gasp in astonishment at the sight of the virus and infection models.
They could hardly believe their eyes, especially when they saw the diseased brain.
And when they saw the footage of the severely infected person surviving the dissection, one doctor’s voice trembled as he spoke:
"Good God... this... this is like an Evil Ghost from Hell... an Evil Ghost that has possessed a corpse..."
Shen Feng nodded and said:
"Corpse Ghost? That’s a fitting name..."
After their initial shock, the doctors, knowing that time was of the essence, immediately began analyzing the data, ready to use their expertise to find a way to counter the virus.
Microscopic footage of the Antiviral Serum was also provided for their collective reference.
After all, while Jingwei was powerful, pooling everyone’s brainpower was the wisest choice at a time like this.
Watching the group immersed in their research within the Virtual Space, Shen Feng slowly said:
"The Evil Spirit Virus is minuscule; standard hazmat suits are ineffective against it. If any of you handle physical samples of the virus, you must be extremely careful!"
The experts all nodded in unison while continuing their work.
As medical professionals, they understood even better than Shen Feng what a virus like this truly signified.
Judging by the virus’s activity, common disinfectants would likely be completely useless.
Even so, they were still eager for the chance to handle real-world infected individuals and virus samples, no matter how dangerous.
Shen Feng pointed to the partially analyzed Antiviral Serum and said:
"Currently, it seems this serum can inhibit the Evil Spirit Virus’s activity and delay the onset of symptoms. However, its exact composition is still unknown and under analysis. You can all make some preliminary deductions based on the holographic test footage."
At his words, the experts were first taken aback, then nodded one after another, their faces lighting up with joy.
Seeing the medical elites already deep in their research, Shen Feng’s consciousness didn’t linger. He instantly left the Virtual Reality Space and entered cyberspace.
The network connection in the Tokyo Epidemic Zone hadn’t been severed, so he could still use cyberspace to get an overview of the global situation.
All of East Japan was now in a state of emergency. The Self-defense Force and the Eagle Country troops stationed there were converging on the Tokyo Region.
But it seemed they were too late.
The epidemic was spreading rapidly. In addition to the areas surrounding Tokyo and Kanagawa, such as Yamanashi, Shizuoka, Saitama, and Chiba Prefectures, infected individuals had now appeared in Toyama and Ishikawa Prefectures—regions relatively far from Tokyo.
Though the numbers were still low, it meant the epidemic zone had already cut across the entirety of Honshu Island, connecting the seas on both sides, and was clearly beginning to spread both north and south.
The Eagle Army’s command headquarters, located near Tokyo, was in chaos. Roughly a third of the soldiers had become infected and were put down on the spot.
During the chaos, however, the infected soldiers had even known how to open fire on humans, displaying a horrifying level of intelligence that was bone-chilling.
Meanwhile, the crowds fleeing the Tokyo Region had formed a refugee tide that was about to crash into the hastily assembled first line of defense.
Shen Feng sighed, and his Consciousness Antennae shot toward North America.
Besides East Japan, the New York Region in Eagle Country was the second-largest epidemic zone.
What drew his attention most was the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention in New York, Eagle Country.
Outside the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the streets were eerily quiet. Dozens of fully-armed SWAT officers in tactical gear had quietly surrounded the building, preparing for a breach.
These officers belonged to a special counter-terrorism unit of the New York Police Department.
A short while ago, they had received an order: terrorists had taken the CDC hostage. They were to breach the building and rescue the medical personnel inside.
The order came from their chief.
Reportedly, the chief had met with a CDC official that very morning, and this order was issued shortly thereafter.
Dozens of officers now had the building surrounded from the front and back, ready to move at any moment.
Go!
The team leader, Jerry, gave a hand signal. Flashbangs were tossed into the first floor, and with a series of deafening bangs and the sound of shattering glass, the officers began their assault!