Half an hour later.
Deep in the waters of the eastern part of Jianghe City.
The temporary headquarters of the Snowwind Mercenary Corps aboard the cruise ship.
"An entire armored battalion has been wiped out."
"Also, a tactical squad has been infected with an unknown virus."
The two pieces of bad news completely destroyed Lan Yu's good mood from a successful start and a peaceful night.
For the moment, he couldn't bother to investigate the details of the armored battalion's destruction.
His attention shifted immediately to the infection issue.
"Has the infection spread?"
"The entire 7th transport ship, where the tactical squad was stationed, has been confirmed as completely contaminated."
"Currently, the biohazard control team has been sent to the 7th transport ship to manage the situation."
"According to their preliminary investigation,"
"This virus may have originated from a previous plague outbreak here."
Tong Ming quickly summarized the key points.
"They just returned about ten minutes ago."
"That's fast."
Lan Yu's brow furrowed deeply.
The 7th transport ship wasn't small.
To contaminate the entire ship in such a short amount of time was a terrifying indication of the virus's highly contagious nature.
"What's the opinion of the biohazard control team?"
"Major He Liang, the commander of the biohazard control team, suggests we try extracting serum from local residents to find antibodies against the virus."
Tong Ming responded.
Jianghe City had recently suffered an outbreak of plague, and everyone had received vaccinations, so handling it might be manageable.
"Let's start immediately."
"And before a vaccine is produced,"
"Order all units operating outside to return to base."
"From now on, all areas within the corps should be subject to epidemic control regulations."
Lan Yu pondered briefly and chose a conservative approach.
An unknown viral infection was no small matter.
Even though it seemed a solution was at hand, without an effective vaccine, he wasn't willing to risk the lives of himself or the entire Snowwind Mercenary Corps.
Plundering could happen at any time, even if they had to give up. But every life was precious.
---
Official Shelter 1, Jianghe City
In the large conference room.
To respond to the invasion of the Snowwind Mercenary Corps, the meeting had been ongoing for two full hours.
The significant gap in military power between the two sides left the department heads from various shelters at a loss.
After much discussion, they still hadn't come up with a feasible plan.
Just as the atmosphere began to reach an impasse, a staff member hurried into the conference room.
He handed a file to Shuang Chenfeng, the head of the intelligence department.
Shuang Chenfeng quickly scanned the document, and his expression slightly changed.
He stood up and chose to project the information onto the screen in the conference room.
"Everyone, just a few minutes ago,"
"The Snowwind Mercenary Corps has completely stopped their external invasion actions."
"According to our intelligence personnel,"
"It's possibly because some of their members have been infected with the Rola Virus."
The information brought by Shuang Chenfeng didn't allow the members in the room to breathe a sigh of relief.
Instead, it caused more faces to darken.
"How could they have gotten infected with the Rola Virus?"
"Did Arshi Shelter intervene?"
One minister reflexively asked.
"It wasn't them."
"It's a small shelter that managed to hide the virus from our joint search."
"That shelter is now completely wiped out."
Shuang Chenfeng's answer left the questioning minister in frustration.
The people were dead. There was no one left to hold accountable.
He couldn't help but vent his frustrations.
"I said it before."
"We should have released the virus on them last night."
"You were all too afraid."
"And now, it's too late to take them all down."
"It's useless."
"After infection with the Rola Virus, it takes between 15 minutes to 24 hours to become fatal in an open area."
"And not everyone shows symptoms immediately after being infected."
"It could take two or three days before the symptoms appear."
"Those two to three days are enough for them to easily extract serum from a local and create a vaccine."
"Or even if they don't have a vaccine, in the time before they die,"
"they could go crazy and cause unbearable damage to us."
Some people disagreed with the minister's opinion and argued with him.
The meeting room quickly became noisy, descending into some confusion.
Sitting at the head of the table, Bai Rui'an didn't stop the bickering but instead carefully flipped through the new document that Shuang Chenfeng had brought.
After a while, he looked up and quietly asked his secretary beside him.
"Has there been any response from the Federation?"
"Not yet."
"None of the requests have received a reply."
"Maybe—"
The secretary trailed off, not finishing the sentence.
"At this point, no reply is an answer in itself."
Bai Rui'an sighed.
He closed the file in his hand and looked at the tablet on the conference table, which was displaying information about the Snowwind Mercenary Corps.
In just one night, the Official Shelter had gathered enough background information from the Federation's public database about the Corps.
The so-called Snowwind Mercenary Corps was actually a unit stationed on the main island of Honshu, several hundred miles off the coast of Eastern Province.
It was a division of the Federation's military forces, responsible for coastal defense.
Though their combat strength wasn't top-tier globally, they were a legitimate and well-equipped unit.
They had a complete mechanism to handle various natural disasters.
They were not the type of enemy that Jianghe City's local security forces could easily deal with.
However, what remained unclear was why they had traveled a thousand or two thousand kilometers to Jianghe City, deep in the inland area.
Logically, Honshu Island was over 200,000 square kilometers in size, with many higher-altitude regions.
It wasn't likely to be completely submerged by tsunamis or floods.
Moreover, the environment and facilities there should be far better than in a third-tier city like Jianghe City.
After a moment of thought, Bai Rui'an lightly tapped his fingers on the table.
The room quickly quieted, the others sensing the importance of what he was about to say.
"I'll speak a few words."
"Regardless of the reason, the Snoww
ind Mercenary Corps has temporarily shrunk its activities due to the viral infection."
"This is our only chance."
"We must defeat them before they develop a vaccine."
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