126 The Origin of the Virus

"The government issues my team in the special forces to acquire this secret drug after receiving information from an informant. The first thing we did was try to meet with the informant when we arrived at City A, but he went missing. The informant was supposed to provide us with information on the location of the secret drug."

"We spent the first few weeks tracking down the informant. When we finally did, we found him half dead in an alleyway. He was getting beaten by a group of people, most of our team went to chase after them while I stayed with him. He was in very bad condition and seemed to be on his last leg. I volunteered to rush him to the hospital but he adamantly refused, insistent on providing us with the information first. After obtaining the information, I called an ambulance but they had trouble finding us so I went to get them. When I returned, he had disappeared. The odd part of it all is that given his injuries, he shouldn't have been able to get very far. This means that either one of those men who were beating him returned or he chose to hide away despite his poor condition."

"After that, we did spend some time looking for him, but didn't have any success. Our higher ups ordered us to focus on the secret drug and to leave the informant's disappearance alone for now. Complying, we went to the location he provided and broke into an underground lab that was filled with a lot of strange equipment. It looked very different from the standard lab. It did contain many expensive equipment that a scientist's lab would have, but there were also many occult-like items in the lab as well."

"At that time, none of us thought much of it when we entered. It seemed like an atypical job, but most of our jobs were fairly nonstandard so we just focused on executing the tasks we were given. However, something strange happened in that lab. All of us remember entering the lab and observing the surroundings but couldn't remember anything after we entered the lab."

"We all woke up the next day in our respective homes, none of us could recall how we got there. I somehow woke up with a tube in my hands with a note that said, 'Handle with care. Only share with my dearest.' in neat script. The corner of the card had the same scythe insignia as the one on my necklace."

Aida's eyes widened when she heard that. The scythe insignia was her personal brand, who would copy it? Clearly the person who wiped Lucifer's memories was trying to use him to communicate to her. It was due to pure coincidence that they actually managed to be acquainted among the millions of people living in the city. If she hadn't chosen to save Ace and take him to the airport, they would never have encountered each other. Why would this mysterious person attempt to send her a message with such low odds?

"I suspect this knife that I wore as a necklace is what kept us alive." Lucifer palmed the necklace fondly. The mysterious figure had indirectly saved him yet again.

She asked, "Did you go back to the lab?"

Lucifer nodded, "Yes, we went back to the underground lab afterwards, but it was filled with dusty old books and cobwebs. It was entirely different than before and looked as if nobody had been there in ages. If I didn't receive that tube and the note, I would have believed it was all just a dream."

He paused for a minute before sharing his hypothesis with Aida, "I continued to investigate on my own, but to no avail. A few days after we obtained the tube, the outbreak occurred."

"Did you inform your higher ups about your experience?"

"Yes."

"Did they believe you?"

"It seems so. They told us to standby as they sent a separate team to extract and transfer the drug. My team and I were waiting for the second team to arrive before leaving City A. A few days later, the CDC suddenly approached us and demanded the tube sample that we obtained."

"At the time, I was suspicious. Their timing was simply too perfect and we hadn't heard anything from our higher ups about them. They somehow had the right documents to show though, so we had to hand something over. Due to my suspicions, I gave them a decoy tube diluted with water and flour rather than the real tube of medicine. It was just a safety precaution for us in case they weren't truly who they claimed to be. Who knew they would turn around and betray us?" Lucifer said with a bitter smile.

"Noah and the others must have reached the city and then realized after testing that they had been tricked. That's why they're chasing after me now. I really wonder what was in that tube."

"Where is the tube now?" Aida asked curiously.

"It fell when my team and I were fighting against the Reaper ambush at the mall in City A." Randy looked down in sorrow as he thought back to his dead brothers.

"And the note?"

"It just disappeared one day, I'm not too sure what happened to it."

"I see…" Aida commented before drifting off into silence.

It seems they may have stumbled upon the origin of the virus. This was big news. Ordinarily, Aida would have no interest in pursuing the truth about the virus, but it seems she was doomed to be dragged into it seeing as the mysterious person specifically called her out and even called her "dearest."

Aida tapped her chin as she stared thoughtfully into the distance. Her dream of a carefree life in the apocalypse would have to wait as more and more mysteries came up. Noah and the others clearly had some idea on what was contained in the tube and perhaps even where it came from, otherwise their timing wouldn't have been so perfect. Their answers could likely be found in City M.