Chapter 258
Chapter 258: He Is Not Small, He Is Very Big; The Decision to Hunt and Burn the Infected Hosts Is Cursed
Kong Que: “…”
[The two of them were snapping at each other and glaring, not getting along at all. What did it have to do with him? Why did they suddenly turn their sharp words on him?]
Zhong Li He glanced at Kong Que, his eyes proud as if he were looking at his own son. He opened his mouth to show off: “My Kong Que might only be a lieutenant general right now, but he cannot stop here. He still has to become a high general, a marshal, and take over my position!”
He went on: “It will take at least three to five years for him to reach my position. I plan to use those three to five years to pick a beautiful, confident, strong woman for him. When that time comes and his career and marriage are both a success, I will invite you to the banquet.”
Chong Ming raised his brows slightly. The corner of his eye swept over Kong Que in a meaningful way: “Oh, so Lieutenant General Kong Que… I can expect to eat your wedding feast within three to five years. When the time comes, you have to personally send me the invitation.”
Kong Que saluted Chong Ming, his voice serious and proper: “Commander in Chief Chong Ming, my strength is still lacking. In three to five years I cannot reach my family’s Executive Commander’s position.”
He added: “Our Executive Commander is very young. Under his rule, the Western Kingdom is prosperous and flourishing, and the population is growing. He will stay in that position until he retires.”
Zhong Li He: “!!!!”
[Stay in this position until retirement? He was already 150 years old. After the Beast God Festival he would be 151!
His biggest dream was to be a free bounty hunter in interstellar space, or a great interstellar thief who robbed the rich to help the poor.
If he stayed as Executive Commander of the Western Kingdom until retirement, when would he ever fulfill his dreams? Was he supposed to be a beast of burden his whole life?
Tch. Whoever wanted to be a beast of burden could do it. He definitely would not.]
Zhong Li He said: “The child is filial and humble and gives me face when he is outside. He is talking nonsense. Do not listen to him.”
Golden light flashed in Chong Ming’s eyes. He looked Kong Que up and down, from head to toe, and said with a hint of something else: “Not small. Very big.”
Zhong Li He did not hear the hidden meaning at all. His chin lifted proudly and his chest puffed out: “Of course. He follows my cub every day. Of course he grows big.”
Kong Que’s ears quietly turned red. His normally firm gaze wavered a little.
The corner of Chong Ming’s mouth curved. He smiled silently, then moved his eyes back to the infected isolation zone.
Jiang Tea Tea, Cheng Yuan, and Cheng Lin Yue worked together with the other bodyguards and staff members. After they forced the medicine into the mouths of the three Infected Hosts, the bodyguards and staff members all left the isolation room.
Only the three of them stayed behind. Two of them were in full protective suits, armed from head to toe.
Only Jiang Tea Tea wore her regular training uniform. Her long hair was tied into a high ponytail. She touched the Flame Staff ring around her wrist and watched the Infected Hosts whose hands, feet, and necks were tied as they struggled nonstop.
Cheng Yuan and Cheng Lin Yue did not dare relax for a second. They were seriously recording every change in the three bodies.
At first, the three Infected Hosts struggled wildly. Slowly, their movements shrank to smaller and smaller arcs. In the end they stopped struggling altogether and lay there like corpses.
The instruments that recorded their data showed all their readings as straight lines. People who knew the instruments would know they were still working normally. People who did not know might think the instruments were broken.
As time passed, the three Infected Hosts lying there like dead bodies suddenly let out piercing screams. Their reason returned, and they shouted loudly: “Kill me, kill me! I do not want to be something that is not human, not beast, not ghost!”
“Ahhh, it hurts, it hurts so much! Kill me, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts so much!”
“Kill me, kill me! Commander in Chief, Crown Prince, kill me! Shoot me, blow my head open, kill me!”
“Dad, Mom, I love you. It hurts, it hurts so much. I do not want to live, I do not want to live, ahhh!”
Their screams, their pain, and their desperate wish to die showed that the medicine worked and brought back their reason.
But in bodies that were rotten all over, with not one healthy place and not one healthy organ, this kind of clear mind was extremely painful.
Also, they had only recovered a little bit of reason. The rot and stench all over them had not changed at all.
Jiang Tea Tea stepped out of the isolation room and said to Chong Ming: “Their bodies are too rotten. None of their organs are intact.”
She continued: “The medicine can only clear their minds. Their bodies cannot be saved. See if you want to notify their families to come see them one last time and decide their life or death, or if you want to let them die directly.”
These living dead, these zombies, already had no working body functions. If they wanted to live, then according to what the demon clan would say, their souls would have to leave their original bodies and possess other bodies through body seizure.
But they were not from the demon clan. They did not have that forbidden technique. They could not body seize other people’s bodies and move their own souls over.
Chong Ming was silent for a moment, then said: “I will have people notify their families and let their families decide their life or death.”
Jiang Tea Tea nodded: “Good. It has to be fast. Their reason will not last long. At most two or three hours.”
Chong Ming inclined his head: “That is enough.”
Within two or three hours, the families of the Infected Hosts on the capital planet could be brought over from anywhere using the fastest speed-type abilities.
On the way, the families of the three Infected Hosts were told about all of their loved ones’ symptoms. When they arrived and looked through the glass, their tears burst like a broken dam and would not stop.
Inside, the Infected Hosts’ roars, screams, and cries for death were let out from the isolation zone and echoed outside.
Hearing their voices, the families of the three Infected Hosts cried in pain. At the same time, they wished they could take that pain on themselves.
Chong Ming looked at them and said with apology: “Everyone, I am sorry. The Empire’s Medical Department can only restore a bit of your families’ reason. We cannot make them normal again.”
“They are suffering a lot. You are in great pain for them. I am very sorry that something like this happened in the Empire while I am in charge, and that it cannot be saved.”
“Your family members are in the isolation zone right now. Their clear minds will not last long. Maybe at the very next second they will turn back into Super Virus Infected Hosts. Please come…”
“I agree!” One Infected Person’s mother spoke through her tears, cutting off Chong Ming’s words: “Your Highness, I agree to have my son hunted down and destroyed.”
The golden light in Chong Ming’s eyes dimmed: “All right. Thank you for your understanding. Later, the Nation will start a special compensation program. When the time comes, you…”
“No need, no need, no need.” The Infected Person’s mother cut him off again and said three times in a row: “Our family is not very rich, but everyone has a job, a place to live, and a small piece of land. We do not need the Nation’s compensation.”
She choked as she said: “It is him who has caused too much trouble for the Nation. He has caused too much trouble for you, Your Highness. You handle so many things every day, and yet you still worry about him, personally come to see him, and receive us. We really should not have put this burden on you.”
Chong Ming held the Infected Person’s mother’s hand: “Your child has not caused trouble for me. This is my failure. It is because I did not rule the Nation well. It has nothing to do with your child. Your child is a victim.”
The Infected Person’s mother did not want to cry, but the tears would not stop. When Your Highness Chong Ming held her hand, she felt seen and respected. Still, she stubbornly believed it was her child who had caused trouble for the Nation and trouble for Your Highness.
“Your Highness, we agree too.” The father, mother, brothers, and sisters of the other two Infected Persons spoke through their tears: “We also agree to have our children hunted, burned, and destroyed. They are in too much pain.”
“Yes. The Super Virus infection in the Western Kingdom two thousand years ago, even though we did not experience it ourselves, we all know there was no cure and no way to heal it.”
“Now our family members have recovered a little reason, and we can see with our own eyes that their bodies are already rotten. Their organs can no longer support the work of their bodies. Only by hunting, burning, and destroying them can we protect more people.”
“Our Empire has only been peaceful and stable for a few decades. It has only just started to walk the path of becoming a strong nation. We cannot let one incurable Super Virus infection in our families waste the Empire’s medical resources and military power, and also make you, who are already so busy, stand here worrying about them.”
“Death is release for them. It gives them more dignity. We are willing to sign and start the procedure to hunt, destroy, and burn them.”
“All later consequences, and any possible reputation problems out in interstellar space, we as family are willing to bear. We will never let anyone smear the Empire or smear you and the Crown Prince.”
“The Empire is prosperous because it has you and the Crown Prince. We will unconditionally support all of your decisions. Please give the order.”
They were full of reluctance and did not want their loved ones to die. But things had already come to this point. Only death could calm the storm of this Super Virus infection hanging over their country’s name.
They had been following the news, following the Nation’s situation. They knew that many StarNet friends from other nations were stirring up trouble and pouring dirty water, trying to label their Nation as a Super Virus infected star system.
Some other nations had even moved groups of warships to the edge of the Zhen Lin Empire’s star system, circling under the name of “patrol” while watching like tigers.
To protect the border of their star system, their Nation had already entered a wartime state. As common citizens of the Zhen Lin Empire, they knew all of this.
Chong Ming looked at them and asked: “Thank you for your understanding. Do you want to see your family members one more time?”
The families of the Infected Hosts asked carefully: “Is that allowed?”
Chong Ming nodded: “Of course.”
From head to toe, the families of the Infected Hosts put on full protective suits and went into the infected isolation zone.
The Infected Hosts who still had a bit of reason left saw them and struggled and shouted: “Dad, Mom, it hurts, it hurts so much. Kill me. Ask the Commander in Chief to kill me. I do not want to live like this. I do not want it.”
“Big Brother, something is eating my heart and stirring up my guts. It hurts. My whole body hurts.”
“It hurts so much I can feel my flesh and blood. It stinks. It is foul. It is rotten. I do not want to rot. That is not me, it is not me.”
“Dad, Mom, kill me, kill me…”
The families of the Infected Hosts could not say a word. They could not bring themselves to touch their children. They could only harden their hearts, look for a moment, then turn and leave.
As soon as they stepped out of the isolation zone, they were led away. Killing and burning the Infected Hosts was left to the team inside. Jiang Tea Tea raised the Flame Staff in her hand and lit them directly.
They were indoors, but under her spiritual power’s control, the five-colored fire only burned people and did not burn anything else.
Zhong Li He’s eyes almost popped out of his head. He knew his phoenix fire had somehow been turned into Jiang Tea Tea’s fire.
It did not affect him in any way, but he had never imagined she would use it so fiercely. Even when he used his own supernatural abilities to send out phoenix fire, he could not control it with such precision and such a clear range.
In particular, the phoenix fire wrapped around the staff in her hand. That staff seemed alive and aware. It could grow and shrink without limit and change into any shape she wanted.
He had never seen such a special weapon before. He even felt lucky that this era was one of hot weapons and interstellar space. If this were the cold weapons era or ancient times, with a weapon like that, she would be unstoppable and unmatched.
In one isolation room, three balls of flame burned for half a quarter of an hour. The three Infected Hosts were burned into three piles of dry charcoal. Specialists came in to clean them up and placed them in urns according to their identities.
In the Infected Hosts’ isolation area, Chong Ming formally recorded a written and video announcement about how they would be handled: “Hello everyone, I am Chong Ming. In recent days, a large-scale Super Virus infection broke out in Nisu Town on the Empire’s capital planet. It caused 21,580 Empire common citizens and foreign tourist common citizens to become Infected Hosts. Three hundred sixty people have died. Three thousand five hundred Aberrant Beasts have been infected.”
He continued: “After research by the Western Kingdom’s researchers and healers and our own researchers and healers, we have found that the Super Virus infection cannot be cured. We can only use certain medicines to give the Infected Hosts a short period of reason.”
“After my decision, we will abandon all healing efforts for the Infected Hosts. Within three days, we will hunt, burn, and destroy all of them.”
“If the families of the Infected Hosts want to say a final goodbye, they may apply to the Imperial Military Headquarters within three days. The Imperial Military Headquarters will provide potions so the Infected Hosts can regain short-term reason and say farewell to their families. Thank you, everyone.”
Specialist researchers and healers from the Western Kingdom and the Zhen Lin Empire had all run out of ideas. They could not find any way to cure this.
Jiang Tea Tea’s potion was the best one so far. It could restore the Infected Hosts’ reason, but it also made them wish they were dead.
Instead of dragging things out, worrying, wasting time, effort, and manpower, it was better to do what Zhong Li He had said and cut the mess cleanly with a sharp knife.
Two thousand years ago, the rulers of the Western Kingdom had not taken decisive action. That was why eight million people died from the infection.
Now, more than twenty thousand Infected Hosts were all under control. After hunting, burning, and disinfecting, they could completely cut off the chance of further infection.
Chong Ming’s written and video announcement caused a storm of hot search discussions on StarNet. A large crowd of StarNet friends from other planets spoke with vicious doubt.
“What is this? A virus from two thousand years ago, and two thousand years later they still do not have a cure. So what exactly have they been developing these two thousand years?”
“I do not think it is about what they developed these two thousand years. Killing is just easier than finding a detox agent. Commander in Chief Chong Ming just does not want to spend time, effort, and manpower. He wants to kill them all and be done with it.”
“Right. The Zhen Lin Empire follows only Commander in Chief Chong Ming’s word. He does whatever he wants. No one else even has the chance to object.”
“Too cruel. On the battlefield he is a beastman covered in blood. He is heartless, cold, and cold-blooded. From the start, when he said he would do everything to rescue them, he was only pacifying the ignorant common citizens.”
“Now that the ignorant common citizens have been fooled and he has gathered all the Infected Hosts together, he starts to hunt and burn them cruelly.”
“And also, that Jiang Tea Tea from their Nation, who is said to be the only mutant healer in the M31 Star System, is just a useless show-off.”