Kingdom of Corrosion
Chapter 850 - 372: Hiding_2

Chapter 850: Chapter 372: Hiding_2

...

Night had fallen, and everything was as usual. Lin Xue sat in front of the TV eating dinner while watching it. During Blood Meng, he managed to make a few phone calls and learned some information. The Chief of Police had personally inquired about the case. He not only rescinded the warrant for Lin Wu’s arrest but also ordered the police not to pursue the case, and even the owner of the Gold had voluntarily dropped the charges.

Blood Meng explained, "The mayor is elected by the citizens, and the Chief of Police is appointed or dismissed by the mayor. If the Chief does a poor job, it affects the mayor, and if the mayor does poorly, it also impacts the Chief. The Chief will definitely try to clear the mayor’s name. The whole thing is about some righteous detectives in the police force trying to use this case to bring down the mayor."

Lin Wu asked, "Can’t the Chief just fire these troublemakers?"

"It’s not that simple. After all, there’s a police union. The Chief can only act on matters, not on people. It’s like in Blue Star, where you can’t be denied entry to a good school just because you’re ugly. You can only be denied if your overall grades are insufficient," Blood Meng said. "The media has noticed this incident, and it will probably be dealt with quietly at first. Even Bodde wouldn’t be so brazen. We should be more concerned about how the zombie virus will break out tomorrow."

Lin Wu said, "The zombie virus exists in two forms. The first, like rabies, won’t cause a large-scale outbreak suddenly. The news also didn’t mention any strange diseases. I think it might be the second form, where the infection is transmitted directly through bites."

"Or possibly both," Blood Meng said. "After the incubation period, the infected person turns into a zombie, bites a human, and soon after, maybe within a minute? The human loses their sanity and becomes a new zombie."

Blood Meng took out a tablet, and after searching, the locations of several large hospitals appeared on the map. Blood Meng said, "We should avoid these routes tomorrow."

"Why the big hospitals? It could just be regular fevers, mistaken for ordinary cold or flu."

Blood Meng said, "When the Illness starts, the family’s first response is to call an ambulance. Even if the family members are bitten, the patient will still be taken to the hospital. Pay special attention to these infectious disease hospitals. The zombie virus might be misdiagnosed as the rabies virus. Oh right."

Blood Meng seemed to remember something and dialed a number from the hospitals listed on the tablet, "Hello, this is the police station. Has anyone in your hospital been vaccinated against rabies today? Okay, thank you."

While waiting, Blood Meng explained to Lin Wu, "At that time, there was no specific medicine for rabies. The rabies vaccine had to be administered within 24 hours of being bitten. Judging by the symptoms, it conforms to the characteristics of rabies, so those who are bitten by patients are very likely to be vaccinated first."

"Okay, thank you." Blood Meng dialed a second, a third, and a fourth phone until the seventh one, "Oh? A suspected rabies patient bit a nurse while receiving emergency treatment an hour ago, and no other news related to the rabies vaccine? Okay, thank you."

Blood Meng drew a circle on the tablet, "South City. South City has especially vibrant nightlife. The virus isn’t likely to appear at eight in the morning tomorrow, but rather explode around that time."

Blood Meng contacted the command center, claiming his identity, "If you receive any reports of people being bitten, please contact me. Person biting person, yes, thank you."

Lin Wu took out the phone Blood Meng had given him, "What’s the number?"

Blood Meng took Lin Wu’s phone and called his own number, securing the contact. Lin Wu asked, "Do you have anything prepared, like a biohazard suit?"

Blood Meng opened his coat, took out an envelope from inside, and handed it to Lin Wu, "Take a look for yourself."

The contents of the envelope answered Lin Wu’s questions. There were two ways to be infected by the virus; the first was through consuming contaminated water sources. The system offers a humanized protection; players can visually detect whether food or water is contaminated by the zombie virus during consumption. Therefore, the only way players could be infected is through zombie bites. Once bitten, depending on the type of the virus, the onset of the disease could range from 1 minute to 12 hours. The system explicitly stated: there is no antidote, no Serum. Once bitten, death is inevitable.

Lin Wu knew his own identity too. He was thirty-seven years old, an extreme sports enthusiast who was active in Day After Tomorrow activities. He had flown in a Bat suit, summited the highest peaks, and several times free-climbed the top ten tallest buildings in the world. His arm strength, endurance, and physical strength were all S-ranked, he was healthy and suffered from no chronic illnesses. He had cohabitated during four romantic relationships.

Outdoor extreme sports were very costly, and after Lin Wu went bankrupt investing in them, he had a falling out with a sponsor. In need of money, Lin Wu turned to theft, which landed him in jail for eighteen months. After his release, Lin Wu remained unemployed at home until three days ago when someone contacted him to steal something, offering ten thousand dollars as payment.

Yesterday morning, Lin Wu arrived at a motel as arranged by the employer and checked into Room 211. That evening, he drove a car left by the employer at the roadside and, following the car’s navigation, arrived at the targeted building. After receiving a call from the employer, he ascended to the 57th floor of the Trade Tower under cover of darkness with an empty briefcase, and sneaked into a room to take another briefcase.

At this point, there was a problem—Lin Wu did not follow the employer’s instructions.

The employer had instructed Lin Wu to transfer the gold into the briefcase he was carrying and to take away the originally empty briefcase. Instead, Lin Wu swapped them out directly, taking the owner’s entire briefcase.

At this time, the employer was still unaware, and the employer’s henchman met with Lin Wu, took the empty briefcase Lin gave them, checked it, and then transferred the remaining eighty thousand dollars into Lin Wu’s account, settling their transaction.

The 15 kilograms of gold, valued at 800,000 dollars, was hidden by Lin Wu in the motel owner’s pickup truck.

Based on available information, the owner, having reached a secret agreement with the mayor and received 15 kilograms of gold as payment, reported the gold missing to the police immediately upon discovering the theft. After an overnight investigation, the police not only identified Lin Wu as a suspect but also uncovered an inside story involving the gold. Therefore, this morning, the police conducted a surprise arrest of Lin Wu in hopes of finding the gold, thereby uncovering information connected to the mayor. At this point, the police were unaware of the trick with the briefcase and believed that finding the gold could lead to evidence of the scandal.

For Bodde, without the gold, there was no chain of evidence, and the recordings he had wouldn’t constrain the mayor. The mayor, oblivious to the existence of the recordings and frightened by the fact the owner had reported the gold missing, felt anxious. Bodde’s worse strategy was to eliminate those with knowledge of the incident, namely Lin Wu. The better strategy was to find the gold, allow the police to label the case as a simple gold theft, wherein the recordings naturally could become leverage against the mayor; this plan, too, required eliminating those in the know.

Originally, Lin Wu faced a deadly situation caught between forces on both sides of the law, but his chance for life unexpectedly came from the impending outbreak of a zombie virus. Once the virus broke out, be it the police, the mayor, or Bodde, none would care about such trivial matters. Humanity was on the brink of annihilation, and money and power would lose all significance.

Conversely, he was still in danger before the virus outbreak.

Considering these factors, Lin Wu thought it likely he might fall behind, and asked, "Big Sister, do you have a radio?"

Blood Meng raised her cellphone, "There’s a radio in here. As long as it has power, even without a network signal, the radio function on the phone can still be used."

Lin Wu fiddled with it for a while and said, "No, it has to be accessed through an app to listen to the broadcasts."

"Is that so?" Blood Meng was unaware of this but took the phone and inspected it for a while, confirming what Lin Wu said about needing an app to connect to the radio, which meant that without a network, they couldn’t listen to broadcasts.

Blood Meng walked to the shadowy bedroom, pulled back the curtains, and looked outside for a while before returning and saying, "I’ll get a couple of radios. We really need them."

Blood Meng said, "Come keep watch. Check for any changes in the surroundings when I leave. Contact me if anything happens."

Lin Wu replied, "No problem." He admired how thoroughly Lin Meng thought things through; in the real world, she would squash him into oblivion. Not quite—Lin Wu had his wealthy brother Stone and the Guards Army led by his second brother Maya. After all, real-life combat was a game of resources.

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.