Chapter 27: Specific Binding
Shoutout to nyanmaru for the commission!
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“This is the current situation of the entire city infected by the Ghost Virus.”
Inside the car, the system spirit projected a light screen, analyzing the current situation with Chu Feng and others. The screen displayed a citywide virus infection risk map, with high-risk areas showing critical red zones:
“Firstly, the hospital in West City is the epicenter of the virus outbreak. Then, we found out that the ghost shadow attacking Lin Lan in the hospital was 7-year-old Xie Shiyu, indicating that the mosquito with the red abdomen flew into the nearby elementary school and bit at least one Little Xie.”
Chu Feng looked at the citywide risk map, and the area of the elementary school was marked entirely in red.
System spirit: “The characters in elementary school are aged 7-12 Xie Shiyus’. Among them, 50% of the elementary school students go home to sleep at night, while the other 50% stay in the school dormitories. After being bitten, the infected Little Xie, first transmits the Ghost Virus to those staying in the school dormitories. Fortunately, the 50% who go home to sleep are still relatively safe for now.”
In Chu Feng’s memory, besides playing with Xie Shiyu at school, they also played together near their homes. So, 50% of the elementary school Xie would go back to the residential building. The residential building was three blocks away from the school and was currently in a yellow-colored medium-risk area.
“There’s another very bad news to tell you, Master.”
The system spirit floated in front of the light screen, pointing at East City: “Because the virus initially broke out from the hospital in West City, and Dr. Xie in West City displays infinite combat power, we all speculated he might be the source, so we thought East City would be safer. But—”
The spirit pointed at a spot in East City, 25 Fenghua Road, marked as extremely dangerous in red:
“This is currently the only shop in the entire city with purple hydrangea flowers, and the doctor visited here tonight to buy flowers.”
Next to this flower shop is East City Junior High School, where children aged 13-15 Little Xies’ attend.
“I tracked the whereabouts of the owner of this flower shop after he contacted Dr. Xie. He visited the junior high school campus to deliver flowers, and the school is currently preparing for its anniversary celebration.”
The entire junior high school section turned red, becoming a high-risk area. Chu Feng frowned slightly. Next to this junior high school was the high school section.
And the youngest nursery Little Xies’, who is the most vulnerable, is currently being looked after in the high school dormitory.
“Is there a risk of infection in high school?” Chu Feng asked.
“It’s hard to say because we don’t know where the ‘core entity’ is right now. Previously, we suspected Dr. Xie was the core entity. But he’s not, there’s someone else.”
The system spirit clicked on the screen, and the cursor turned into a deep blood-red paint bucket, pouring onto the high school section:
“The Ghost Virus spreads in a spider-web pattern centered around the ‘core entity,’ spreading rapidly. If this ‘core entity’ is in the high school section, that area will become the most severely infected.”
The system spirit clicked ‘Undo,’ and the high school section reverted to its original yellow-medium risk color. The spirit continued:
“So our mission remains: to identify the ‘core entity’ at all costs! Dear Master, do you suspect anyone to be the ‘core entity’?”
Chu Feng remained silent. School Bully Xie in high school, CEO Xie in the commercial street, should also have considerable combat power. But… could they really be higher than Dr. Xie?
“I can’t be sure,” Chu Feng said.
If they hastily identified someone as the core entity again, it would waste a lot of time and effort, potentially delaying progress even further.
“I have a question,” Lin Lan raised his hand. “If, I mean if, School Bully Xie is the most powerful in the entire city and is the core entity, how did the virus spread to him? The virus initially broke out from the hospital in West City, so at that time, Dr. Xie shouldn’t have gone to buy flowers, meaning the entire East City should have been safe. How did School Bully Xie get infected?”
“If School Bully Xie is the core entity, then he might have been infected right from the beginning.”
The system retrieved a document titled “Reverse Hypothesis on the Transmission Method and Deconstruction of the Ghost Virus” and enlarged a transmission schematic diagram:
“The Ghost Virus is a type of game virus, different from real-world viruses. Although we all appear as humans in the game, fundamentally, we’re just code. This includes all the buildings, streets, and scenery in your Dream City; they’re all data code.”
On the screen appeared a code analysis of Chu Feng’s Dream City, with transparent stick figures representing buildings and streets, each containing lines of translucent blue numerical codes floating within.
“Initially, a mosquito carrying a line of Ghost Virus code bit the Little Xie in your nursery.”
The screen played a dynamic slideshow, showing a red line of Ghost Virus code entering the body of a particularly small transparent stick figure…
“This virus code entered the data sequence of the nursery Xie, and since Little Xie is in the database of your Dream City, it’s akin to this line of virus code invading the overall database of your Dream City. It quickly finds the character with the strongest combat power from all data codes, duplicates a signal, and transmits it—”
On the screen, the single red line of Ghost Virus code instantly split into two, one remaining within the nursery Little Xie’s body while the other flew out and entered the body of the character with the highest combat power, the ‘core entity.’
“The transmission speed of electromagnetic waves is the speed of light. That means, the moment the nursery Little Xie was bitten, the duplicated virus signal was transmitted out, and one of the characters with the highest combat power in your city immediately became infected, becoming the ‘core entity.’ Fortunately, this virus only emits signals at the speed of light when it’s seeking a host to parasitize; when infecting other characters, it’s not at the speed of light, nor is it 100% infectious.”
The system spirit continued to demonstrate on the screen, showing the nursery Little Xie’s data sequence initially becoming chaotic, then gradually stabilizing, and the red code being expelled from the body—
“The data sequences of characters themselves have a certain exclusivity, similar to the immune system of a real human body, capable of spontaneously excluding abnormal data sequences. The nursery Little Xie’s likelihood of being killed decreased to 1% because you rescued him from the fire, so his data immunity was enhanced. After being infected with the virus code, he spontaneously expelled this abnormal sequence.”
—So, although the nursery Little Xie was bitten, he didn’t get sick.
“However, after the fire, you sent the nursery Little Xie to the hospital for treatment, so the virus code was passed on to Dr. Xie, and then transmitted to others, continually amplifying. Because Dr. Xie is not the core entity, there is still another ‘core entity’ in your Dream City, continuously passing on the virus to characters around the ‘core entity.'”
“That’s about it for the current situation,” the system spirit, like a small teacher, with the tuft of hair standing on its head like a teacher’s pointer, said, “Do you have any more questions?”
Chu Feng: “This game virus infects the data sequences in my city?”
System: “Correct.”
Chu Feng: “Then non-character data sequences, such as streets and buildings, could be infected?”
“Yes,” the system spirit said, “Do you remember when you first entered the hospital and noticed that the lights on the first floor were flickering like in a horror movie, and the second and third floors were completely engulfed in darkness? That’s the consequence of the building’s sequence being infected, causing the building to become somewhat… abnormal.”
Lin Lan: “So, does this mean that other non-character ‘organisms’ in the city could also be infected? Like cats, dogs, or birds?”
System: “Yes. Animals will also become… relatively abnormal, similar to how buildings behave. The specific type of abnormality depends on the specific data sequence.”
“I understand!” Lin Lan suddenly had an epiphany and exclaimed, “We’ve been stuck in a misconception all along, thinking that the highest combat power must be a certain character, but could it be that this top combat power is actually an ‘[animal],’ like a cat!”
The black system spirit’s dumbfounded antennae drooped down: “Exactly. If my master were to own a city full of ‘Lin Lans’ and had your combat level of 5, I would indeed advise my master to focus on searching for cats and dogs in the city, because you might indeed be unable to defeat a cat. But considering my master owns ‘Xie Shiyu’… you get it.”
Lin Lan: “…Thank you, I feel slightly offended.”
Chu Feng: “Is it possible that the ‘core entity’ is a ‘[building]’?”
“Not possible,” the system spirit said, “The Ghost Virus requires active data streams for propagation and prefers living hosts. It may disturb the data sequences of ‘buildings,’ but it will never consider a ‘building’ as its core entity. Therefore, the ‘[core entity]’ is still the character with the highest combat power in your dream city, ‘Xie Shiyu.’ Please do not be distracted by other thoughts. Our most important task is to capture the ‘[core entity]’!”
X: “Will this virus infect players?”
Chu Feng had contact with both the nursery Little Xie who was bitten by a mosquito and the infected Dr. Xie.
System: “It’s possible, but the likelihood is low. Just in case, I’ve just finished creating my defense code! I’ll give it to my dear master later.”
Lin Lan: “What about me? What should I do? I came to the hospital to tell Brother Xie a bedtime story and ended up being bitten by a mosquito!”
Unlucky Lin Lan got infected with the “Ghost Shadow Virus,” resulting in the appearance of Ghost Shadow Lin Lan. With a water gun, Little Shiyu and the Ghost Shadow fell off the cliff together and died. Chu Feng used the regret medicine to change his choice and chopped Ghost Shadow Lin Lan to death in the hospital. However, the “Ghost Shadow Virus” on Lin Lan’s body was not removed.
System: “I sympathize with your situation, but there’s nothing that can be done. Those who are infected can only accept their fate. When you start experiencing symptoms such as dizziness and nausea, simply exit the ‘Dream City,’ and you’ll be fine back in reality!”
Lin Lan: “…”
Chu Feng: “Can this defense code be given to all the characters in the city?”
“I’m sorry, that’s not possible. If it were, I would have done it already,” the system spirit pulled out a green capsule containing the defense code and handed it to Chu Feng.
“Player sequences and character sequences are different. Your player sequence is open because you often enter and exit the game, so I can implant the defense code. Character sequences are fully closed, making it impossible to implant the defense code. To remove the virus, we must find the ‘[core entity].'”
Chu Feng swallowed the green capsule containing the defense code and glanced at X beside him.
“What about him?”
X was somewhat surprised that player Chu Feng cared about him.
“I’m fine,” he said.
System: “The data sequence of the regulator is absolutely impenetrable! The virus will not infect the regulator. Players can rest assured that the game company and regulator center will always protect your safety!”
Chu Feng: “…”
System: “Do you have any particular suspicions about which Little Xie has exceptionally high combat power? Any clues are welcome.”
“Probably the one from high school,” Chu Feng said, “He didn’t… have a good time during his high school days.”
“High school,” the system circled the East City high school section on the map, “Anything else? Combat power is linked to the host’s mental strength, so it doesn’t necessarily have to be someone older; younger individuals could also have high mental power.”
Chu Feng thought for a moment and shook his head. When Xie Shiyu was younger, Chu Feng was also young and didn’t have as keen observation skills as he did in adulthood. Besides, memories from that long ago were difficult for him to recall now.
System: “Alright then… I’ll start with a broad search and investigation. Do you have any other ideas?”
X: “Can we find them through combat power rankings?”
The ‘core entity’ of the Ghost Virus is the character with the highest combat power. To conceal this ranking, the virus encrypts the rankings of several characters with combat power close to the highest.
X: “Those characters’ codes might have a few extra characters compared to others.”
The system spirit’s antennae stood up in realization!
“Darn it, why didn’t I think of that!”
Chu Feng: …
Lin Lan: “That’s a great idea! No wonder you’re a pro. System! Try it quickly.”
The system spirit tapped away on the light screen, analyzing the code: “This method is indeed good! Dr. Xie’s character code does indeed have an additional encrypted character compared to other normal characters!”
Lin Lan: “Quick, who’s the next character with extra characters in the code?”
“Don’t rush me!” The system spirit was busy with a complex computation program. “There’s a lot of data in my master’s dream city, so it’ll take some time to sift through it. Plus, the virus might confuse us by encrypting characters that don’t actually have high combat power, making us think they’re the ‘[core entity].'”
Lin Lan: “Regardless, it’s better than searching blindly throughout the whole city. Let’s first identify all the characters with extra characters in their codes. These Brother Xies are all prime suspects, and then we’ll narrow it down to the true ‘[core entity]’ from the suspects! Cousin, what do you think of this plan?”
Chu Feng: “Fine.”
System: “Then leave it to me! I’ll analyze the entire city’s data codes tonight and aim to draft a list of ‘[core entity suspects]’ by tomorrow morning!”
It was getting late, and it was almost time to log out of the game. Lin Lan glanced at his cousin, then at the gaming prodigy X sitting next to him, and then at the ice sculpture of Dr. Xie lying next to his cousin…
Lin Lan thought it might be better for him to log out of the battlefield first.
BEEP
Lin Lan’s brain waves disconnected.
The system spirit closed its eyes, quietly analyzing the data.
The night breeze gently blew, enveloping the car in silence.
Chu Feng was preparing to stay behind to spend the night with Dr. Xie. He had frozen Dr. Xie, and he didn’t know how much mood points he would lose when he unfroze him later. He needed to comfort him properly.
However, X hadn’t left yet, and Chu Feng was waiting for him to leave.
Tick, tock, time passed second by second.
X sat next to him like a statue, showing no intention of leaving whatsoever.
Chu Feng couldn’t bear it any longer and cleared his throat lightly.
“You… aren’t you going to rest?”
Chu Feng’s intention to politely usher him away was evident to anyone with even a bit of social experience.
X: “It’s okay. I slept during the day.”
X seemed completely oblivious to Chu Feng’s implied hint to leave and innocently asked him in return, “Why haven’t you gone back yet?”
Chu Feng: “…”
It seemed the system had heard their conversation. The black spirit opened its big eyes and said innocently,
“Oh! My master still can’t leave yet. I need to teach him how to activate the defense code!”
Chu Feng: “Isn’t it just a matter of taking the capsule?”
“No, you need to activate it. You know about the specific binding of target cells and receptor proteins, right? Like in biology. The mechanism of this defense code is similar to that. The defense code is like a specific protein, a piece of clay. It needs to bind with the virus code once, molding this ‘defense clay’ into the shape of the virus code. The next time the virus invades your body, this ‘defense clay’ will bind with the virus code and activate the self-destruct program. That’s how it works as a defense.”
Chu Feng: “Can you simplify it?”
System spirit: “Simply put, the defense code in your body needs to bind with the virus code once.”
Chu Feng: “So?”
“Uh…” The spirit hesitated for a moment, glanced at X, then looked back at its master. “So, you need to… um, make contact with an infected character.”
Chu Feng: ?
System spirit: “Okay, I’ll be blunt. Master, you can’t leave tonight. You need to go sleep with Dr. Xie.”
—Completing the specific binding of the code activates the defense effect.
X: …
The night wind blew, bringing a chill.
Chu Feng turned to look at X.
“Now, are you ready to leave?”
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