Jiang Ye's mind stirred, and he went upstairs directly, entering the remote control cabin.
It was nighttime on Birong Star. Every time he had visited before, there had been the rumbling sound of logging near the camp. This time, however, it was unexpectedly quiet. Jiang Ye sat up and looked out the window. There were no mecha lights in the rainforest; the entire camp was dead silent. Had everyone been killed?
But all the facilities were intact. The close-in weapons systems were still slowly rotating, with no signs of breach. If ground dragons had swarmed and exploded the camp, it would have been a mess of rubble, smoke, and fire, certainly not so "hygienic."
Although the camp hadn't been breached, Jiang Ye had a bad premonition.
He bought a swordsman mecha, put it on, and headed straight for the fortress.
As soon as he entered the main gate of the fortress, he was stunned.
The corridors were filled with people, more than a dozen men and women, wearing only thin clothes. Each of them lay on the floor, sweating as if they had been washed, their eyes wide open staring at the ceiling, their eyeballs rolling around. Some were breathing rapidly, like dogs on a hot day, while others were desperately taking deep breaths, their bellies puffing out and then deflating like pufferfish.
Urine and feces had soaked through their pants and were flowing across the smooth floor.
They were all infected!
Jiang Ye dared not remove his helmet, nor did he dare to dismount his mecha. He didn't know if the mecha had any antiviral properties, but wearing an extra layer was better than none. The preliminary reports on the virus hadn't specified how this "happy flu" was transmitted, but isolating the environment was definitely the right move.
"Hey! Get up, everyone!" Jiang Ye roared.
The people on the ground twitched. They could probably still hear, but they were simply unable to stand.
Jiang Ye was speechless. He stepped over the half-dead soldiers littering the ground and headed for the elevator.
As the elevator doors opened, he was dumbfounded.
The elevator was packed with people, all squeezed together, completely naked. Everyone had a strange expression, their eyes darting around. Vomit and excrement slid down their legs, like a can of sardines, but living sardines.
Jiang Ye pulled them out one by one and threw them onto the ground. It turned out that half of them were already corpses. He had no idea how long they had been trapped in the elevator. As for how so many people had been crammed into one elevator, whether they had entered themselves or been forced in, that was anyone's guess.
The scene was no different from a horror movie.
Finally, after clearing everyone out of the elevator, Jiang Ye entered the empty cabin. The walls and floor were slick with liquid. He pressed the button for the top floor.
Unexpectedly, there were even more people on the top floor.
There were at least seven or eight hundred people lying on the ground, more than half of them dead. The scene was reminiscent of countless salted fish laid out to dry in a fish market, their white bellies facing up, arranged in rows. There were also some people who looked identical, perhaps dead soldiers who had revived and tried to drag away the corpses, only to be infected and collapse again. The incubation period of this virus might be very short, causing rapid onset of illness and incapacitating the entire camp.
Chaotic laughter echoed everywhere. There were still many living people, all laughing happily. But the atmosphere was not joyful at all; instead, it was eerily unsettling. Even if a group of ghosts were laughing here, the effect wouldn't be much different.
In the distance, one or two people shivered as they tried to get up, grabbing the walls and desperately trying to rise. The smooth walls were scraped, emitting creaking sounds. But their bodies were as soft as if they had no bones, and their legs refused to obey. Everyone had become a mollusk, like slugs, jelly, or worms.
Jiang Ye sent a message on the team channel, "Is anyone still conscious? Reply!"
Giggling laughter erupted densely, like the ghosts of a multitude. Many of the people lying on the ground probably had consciousness and could hear Jiang Ye speaking, but they could no longer speak themselves, so they collectively burst into laughter. The strange laughter from all directions surrounded Jiang Ye.
If Jiang Ye were a comedian, he would have been delighted by such laughter. At this moment, his face was longer than a donkey's—damn it, not a single one was left.
He entered the control room to find Isabel.
Isabel was lying by the window, also having lost control of her bladder and bowels. Her eyes were rolling around, her face was full of smiles, and she was desperately taking deep breaths. Honestly, she looked quite terrifying in this state.
Jiang Ye raised his great saber and brought it down, severing her head.
After waiting for two minutes, Isabel's voice came through the headset.
"Damn, this virus is too powerful! I've been so high for the past few hours that I couldn't move!"
"How did everyone get infected?" Jiang Ye asked. "What do we do now?"
"It seems only the fortress has the virus. I don't know where it came from. Didn't you send the third team charging forward earlier? The third team rushed over a hundred kilometers and found another camp, belonging to the Meteorite Hall team. The people in that team were also incapacitated by the virus. The entire Birong Star is like this. If you don't believe me, check the world channel; no one is making a sound," Isabel said.
"Damn, the Mill people have really succeeded this time," Jiang Ye mused for a moment. "Let's have all the soldiers log off, and then figure out how to disinfect the fortress?"
"That's the only way," Isabel replied. "There are assault rifles in the fortress basement. Let's meet there."
Jiang Ye took the elevator to the basement and happened to encounter Isabel, who had changed into a charging technician mecha.
Both of them grabbed a large box of magazines in their left hands and assault rifles in their right. As soon as they went outside, they started killing. They approached the lying soldiers one by one, regardless of whether they were dead or alive, and shot them cleanly in the head. The reason for using assault rifles was that their power was low, and they wouldn't ricochet and damage the fortress. After all, such a fortress was very expensive, and they couldn't use heavy weapons in their own territory.
Jiang Ye pinned a message on the team channel, telling all soldiers to log off and return to Jiang Ye Star for rest.
The gunfire continued for nearly half an hour, finally clearing the entire fortress.
Then came the task of dragging the corpses. With the mechas' assistance, both of them were immensely strong. They each grabbed a person's ankle in their left and right hands, simultaneously flinging two corpses out the window. After more than an hour of work, with no more corpses in the fortress, Jiang Ye and Isabel left the fortress, gathered wood outside, and set it ablaze.
They not only burned the corpses but also the entire camp. All the buildings were fire-resistant, and they burned them with all their might. They refused to believe that any virus could survive after such a conflagration.
The close-in weapons systems frantically turned their heads, looking around at the flames in confusion. In their programming, fire was a typical threat, but upon closer inspection, these fires were set by their own people. They were bewildered and dared not open fire.
"Jiang Ye, I've realized that my position in your heart might be higher than I usually think," Isabel suddenly said out of the blue.
"You mean..." Jiang Ye put down the torch he was holding, "you think I'm your dad?"
A piece of firewood flew from the thick smoke and hit Jiang Ye's helmet with a clang, sending sparks flying.
"Your sister! I'm talking to you seriously!" Isabel yelled angrily.
"Why do you say that?" Jiang Ye picked up the firewood and continued to burn the grass on the ground.