3.14

[Pupa: Ding! Hidden plot has been triggered! Ling Kai's groundbreaking research!]

Yunyu took a deep breath as Pupa slowly poured the hidden plot in Yunyu's head. The first thing that Yunyu saw was a man, probably in his mid-twenty, writing in his note and checking something under the microscope simultaneously.

He was wearing a lab coat. He was busy in this big laboratory alone, only communicating with his assistant with the intercom. Ling Kai was a young scientist that had a noble heart. His father died when Ling Kai was only ten because of a mysterious illness that rapidly deteriorated his body until he died in his sleep.

Nobody knew what illness had taken his father, but young Ling Kai was determined to discover his father's illness, especially since his mother started to develop the same symptom like his father when Ling Kai was seventeen, but his mother died three years later.

Ling Kai was only twenty when he lost all his family members. He had no other family member, so he was living alone in his house. He was also reclusive and never communicated with his neighbors.

But, young Ling Kai was a science prodigy and through his personal research, he concluded that his parents' bodies would slowly rot, though it took years for them to die. It was like a nightmare for anyone to experience it.

Ling Kai published his research via a sponsor and got government sponsorship and access to a private lab to study about this illness of his parents. He discovered that his parents had been infected with a new virus that came from an unknown animal, probably something that they ate before.

Although Ling Kai couldn't determine the animal that caused the illness, he could develop a cure for this. Ling Kai started his research and recruited a few assistants. His research turned out to be groundbreaking, because the cure that he had developed was able to constantly regenerate the tissue and cell of the patient for a long time.

Although it was still in development, his research became a top secret of the government. Ling Kai was given the best facility one researcher could ever get, and he was only twenty five years old.

Truthfully, aside from developing the cure, Ling Kai had developed another two secret biological agents. One agent would turn a human into a walking, rotting corpse, like a zombie in the movies. And the other would mutate human with unknown possibility, it might be the groundbreaking agent that would turn human into a being with superpower.

Thus, Ling Kai had three completed biological agents, the miracle cure that would make a human could constantly regenerate their tissue and cell, and would be able to heal other people with the same regenerative ability. The agent that would turn humans into immortal, but rotting zombies that he labelled ZX Caution, and last was an agent that might evolve a regular man into a superman that he labelled ZX Mutation. These two researches could potentially endanger the world.

Ling Kai was satisfied with his research, but he didn���t intend to publish his two secret researches other than the cure to the government. He put the ZX research papers and the first finished miracle cure vial inside an envelope. He also took the first two samples of ZX agents that he developed in his pocket, and then he went back home

But it seemed that there was a traitor in his lab, probably one of his assistants. When Ling Kai entered his home, he was shot from behind by an unknown assailant. He fell on the ground, the assailant took the envelope and fled.

Ling Kai was mortally wounded, but he still had enough strength to return back to his room to call for an ambulance. But he was already at the brink of death, Ling Kai desperately took the ZX vials in his pocket, he didn't have enough time to check which one was the ZX mutation. In a desperate attempt to preserve his life, he drank both and slumped on his bed.

His heart stopped beating for one year before the apocalypse started. The government ignored his death, because the assailant told them that he had disposed of Ling Kai's dead body and sold ZX research papers to the government at high price.

When the virus broke out and the apocalypse started, Ling Kai finally woke up as a zombie with consciousness, but without memory.

Yunyu started getting dizzy with all the information that had been poured inside his head. He wasn't prepared with so much information at once.

[So, Ling Kai is the researcher who caused the apocalypse?]

[Pupa: He is the one that created all biological agents, but he is not the one who caused an apocalypse. Just like the world background described, the apocalypse started because the virus leaked from the lab and caused pandemic. The government must have developed the ZX agents by themselves with Ling Kai's research data.]

[Who is that man who shot Ling Kai anyway?]

[Pupa: There is no data about the man, unfortunately.]

[… But Ling Kai is still the researcher who developed the zombie and ability user virus. I don't understand why he would need to develop it though… if he never developed it, there would be no apocalypse.]

[Pupa: I'm sure Ling Kai has his own reason, maybe he wants to see whether using the ZX biological agents would help humans to evolve. But he underestimated human greed.]

[Pupa: Even if Ling Kai never developed the virus, someone else will.]

"Ru Lan, are you alright?" Ling Kai got worried when he saw Ru Lan paused for a while. Ru Lan shook his head and then smiled at Ling Kai;

"I'm alright. I don't know anything about these vials though. But it seems that you are a studious man before the apocalypse. Maybe if we met before the apocalypse, we would be good friends."

Ling Kai smiled sheepishly when Ru Lan said that, "You really think so?"

"Definitely, you must've had a good life with your parents. Your mom would usually cook for you every day. While your father always takes you to fish or play sports every weekend."

"M—Maybe that's true…" Ling Kai's face grew hotter, he meekly lowered his head and hunched his back, as if he wanted Ru Lan to pat his head. Ling Kai was as tall as Ru Lan, so his meek behaviour was not suitable with his image, it was like a big dog.

[Pupa: You are not going to tell him the truth about his research?]

[I was going to… but when I saw him being oblivious like an innocent child. I don't have the heart to tell him about his sin. He went through a lot before his death… maybe being a zombie without memory is his redemption.]

[…]

Ru Lan smiled and patted Ling Kai's head, "You are a good man, Ling Kai. I appreciate you a lot."

[Pupa: Ding! Fatemeter increases to 90%. This is the bonus Fatemeter for unlocking the hidden plot, congratulations host!]