Star Rank Hunter

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“Finally! Where were you, what…”

“... what happened to you?”

The circles around Bel’s red, swollen eyes were black and deep. The dispirited prince looked like he hadn’t slept for days, he had probably been crying before he contacted him. His overgrown facial hair was unkempt and untouched. Bel had wanted to say something, but everything died in his throat the moment he saw the stripes on Cillin’s face.

“I’m fine, don’t worry about me. Just tell me if you need anything,” Cillin replied. The prince of the Blazing Eagle, Bel was unreliable at times, but Cillin had never seen him looking this depressed until now.

“It… it can wait. Cillin, how did you catch the Zebra Virus? And where are you? Are you being treated properly?”

“I’m at the eleventh star region.”

Bel: “...” The eleventh star region was a red zone that might be abandoned at any moment.

A short silence later, Bel asked another question. “That day at Gaga’s cousin’s wedding, you left because of the Zebra Virus, didn’t you?”

Bel clearly knew about the virus. Cillin knitted his eyebrows before asking, “Has the infection spread beyond the eleventh star region?”

“Yes.” Bel pressed a finger to his brow and rubbed. The black circles around his eyes looked darker than ever before.

Bel briefly explained his situation. On the way home from a family visit, his mom suddenly showed signs of illness and saw stripes appearing all over her body. In fact, more than eighty percent of the people on that trip were suffering from the same symptom, and those who hadn’t were isolated and observed just in case they showed symptoms later on.

The queen had left to visit her relatives because she was bored, and neither the king himself nor Bel had accompanied her on her trip. When the steward informed them that she had caught the Zebra Virus, forget the king, even the RAS was panicking like never before. At the same time, rumors of the Zebra Virus had begun to spread throughout the empire and warp the people’s perception of the eleventh star region. Everyone was watching their own backs, and the empire’s efforts to assuage their citizens’ fears were mostly ineffective. It was because one of the rumors claimed that the virus was currently untreatable, and those who were unlucky enough to catch it could only wait for death to claim them.

“How’s your mother doing right now?” Cillin asked.

Bel shook his head and said, “Not good. She’s staying in an isolation ward right now, and we aren’t allowed to get close to her at all. Only voice calls and video calls are allowed. But she grows visibly tired if the conversation lasts too long.”

Bel let out a sigh before continuing. “All the medicine the RAS researched could only alleviate the symptoms, not cure the virus. They said they could do it if they found the original pathogen, but no progress had been made on that front so far. My family has mobilized almost everyone we can mobilize, the Royal Guards and the Imperial Guards are searching for it as well, but… Cillin, you…”

Bel hesitated. Cillin was a patient himself, and he knew better than to behave too negatively around him.

“It’s okay, you can ask me anything,” Cillin said.

Seeing that Cillin probably was as nonchalant as he looked, Bel sucked in a deep breath before asking, “The reason I’m contacting you today is because I want to know how we’re really dealing with the virus right now. I trust you to know what you’re talking about, and no one else will give me a straight answer. Tell me, is there really no way to cure the Zebra Virus right now?”

“It takes time.” Cillin didn’t inform Bel about his own research because the results weren’t confirmed yet. He couldn’t guarantee anything until then.

“Time…” Bel covered his face and let out a laugh that sounded like a sob. “Of course I know that, but... it just hurts so much! So much!” Bel jabbed himself in the heart.

Before this, the times Bel returned home per year could be counted on one hand. These days, he spent nearly all his time outside the isolation ward where his mom was kept.

“I promise you things will get better, and it probably won’t take very long. For now, tell your mother to stay strong and use the latest medicines to buy as much time as possible. If even she has given up on herself, she’ll be in grave danger even if an effective medicine was created later.”

“Really? Are you sure it won’t take long?” Bel croaked as if he was offered a plank right before he was about to drown. He thought that Cillin was trying to console himself.

“It’s the truth. But don’t tell anyone, especially the Gen Family about my condition for now. Just be patient and wait for my news. There should be a solution very soon.” A pause later, Cillin added, “I promise!”

To boost Bel’s confidence, Cillin pointed the camera at Wheeze and said, “Here. Does it look like it’s worried about my condition?”

Not at all. The gray cat was snoring like thunder.

Bel envied the gray cat deeply. He hadn’t had a shut-eye since god knows how long because he felt like he would never see them again when he woke up. He was literally forcing himself to stay awake if only to look at his mom for even a second longer.

“Cillin, does Teacher Guan knows about your condition? I can afford you protection if you need it, you don’t have to hold back around me.”

“Thanks, but I’m fine. In fact, I just spoke to him before you called me, so seriously, don’t worry about me. I’m not going on a journey of no return.”

“Take care. If—I’m not saying it’ll come true, just if—if the situation gets really bad, let’s talk to each other again, okay?”

“Don’t worry, things will get better. Really!”

Cillin closed his eyes and fell into deep thought after his call with Bel ended.

The culprits who led to the queen being infected were most likely the two escaping virus carriers. They were the reason the virus was being spread at an exponential rate.

Cillin had sent their info to Guan Feng so that the latter could capture and quarantine them as soon as possible, assuming that they were still alive at this point of time.

Besides that, Cillin also gave some info regarding the original pathogen. His teacher would act as his mouthpiece and transmit the info back to Black Viper and RAS. Hopefully, they would be able to find better ways to combat the virus. But of course, Cillin didn’t tell Guan Feng that he had found and absorbed the unknown substance that caused all of this. Just like the biochips, it was a secret he would probably take to his grave.

If he hadn’t discovered the unknown substance, a breakthrough would likely have been impossible in such a short time. Even if an effective medicine was discovered, countless lives and planets would have been destroyed by then.

The robots responsible for carrying the experimental drugs into the planet and testing it on severely ill patients finally came back with news. After observing the collected data and the patients’ reactions to the drugs, Cillin summarized his findings and made some changes to it.

A total of fifty patients—all of them so severely ill that they could no longer move—were injected with the first generation medicine. Many of them were literal minutes or hours away from death. Forty one patients showed signs of recovery. Six of the nine that didn’t because their bodies rejected the medicine had to be observed further before a conclusion could be drawn. The last three died not long after they took the injection, but not because the medicine wasn’t working. They were old or weak-bodied people who had led an unhealthy life for most of their lives, and as a result they passed away before the medicine could fight off the virus properly.

But it worked, and that was all that mattered.

Cillin immediately started treating the infected people on the planet en masse after he refined the medicine, but the process was going to take some time to complete. Besides that, he also sent the formula and all other necessary info Guan Feng so that the patients beyond the eleventh star region could be saved as well. It was only limited to those who were severely ill, however. The medicine still had much room to be improved, so the not-too-ill might as well wait until he came up with a better, safer to use medicine.

Guan Feng contacted a pharmacist he was on friendly terms with to produce the medicine after he received the info from Cillin. Although the pharmacist wasn’t among the senior management of the RAS, his achievements were no less greater than those people. He absolutely had the qualification to join them if he wanted to, but he would rather spend his time on researching than politicking. That was the line that separated him and the people in the meeting room.

It wasn’t long before the cure’s formula was passed down to several people-in-charge. By now the seeds of distrust and unrest had grown to full bloom in many places, and plenty of people were shouting at the empire with anger and despair. But after the first generation cure was created and injected to the severely ill, most of them lived and showed clear signs of recovery. The stripes on their body were clearly fading, and their vitals were improving day by day.

The mass panic that was threatening to overwhelm the empire subsided substantially thanks to the success of the first generation cure. However, the shadows of the virus hadn’t been chased away completely. Most people would still rather wall themselves in and live completely separate from the world.

Guan Feng had become so popular in the affiliated schools that his popularity exceeded all the other members of the senior management. It was because he was the one who found the first generation cure to the Zebra Virus when everyone else was busy doing their emergency meetings.

Not long ago, some of these people even accused Guan Feng’s sudden departure from the meeting room to be a sign that he cared nothing about the lives of the citizens of the empire. But now? Guan Feng had used action to prove himself and slapped all those dissenters in the face.

But Guan Feng didn’t claim the credit. He announced through the media that his student, Cillin was the one who was responsible for everything. He told everyone that Cillin was an infected patient himself, but despite his condition he still spent all of his energy and time into researching a cure. Finally, he thanked all the researchers who did everything in their power to research the virus…

The declaration won him massive public support, much to the dismay and disgust of certain members of the RAS senior management. After that, they too shut themselves in their own labs and claimed that they were “researching” whatever. No one knew the truth of what they were doing, and nobody cared. Everyone’s attention was on Cillin right now, and they wanted to know when he could push out the second generation cure most of all.

Although Guan Feng gave Cillin all the credit, his act of “humility” only made him more famous than ever before. Countless people wanted to be tutored by Guan Feng, and even before this everyone knows that Guan Feng’s students tended to become influential people or great contributors to the empire like Cillin. Once the fame was there, the wealth would flow in naturally. Who wouldn’t envy someone like that?

Bel literally cried when he heard of the emergence of the first generation cure. He immediately called his mom and talked about all sorts of things. In fact, he was so excited that he exceeded the normal call time and had to be pulled into bed by the ear by his father.

No one had had a shut-eye since the queen had fallen sick. Everyone was afraid that she would be gone by the time they woke up again. But now that they know that the first generation cure was a massive success, it was truly time for everyone to take a rest. If they kept staying up like this, they would meet the angels first before the queen did.

At the eleventh star region, Gu Xin and Tu Ba were cooperating with Cillin on his operation as “members” of the empire’s special forces. Kristi Hadar and the emperor himself had ordered them to cooperate fully with Cillin on all fronts and given him absolute power over everyone who was working in the eleventh star region. He would be responsible for curing the eleventh star region.

The special forces worked overtly while the robots worked covertly. Both sides worked together to bring the situation under control and force the military and the governments ruling the planets to provide their full cooperation and support. Those who refused were dealt with accordingly.

Some time later, Cillin went back to the underground shelter to test out the second generation cure. He injected everyone and the puppy with it.

A couple of armies descended on the planet and quickly took control of the situation. A large quantity of robots were cleaning up the devastated streets as well. All the extremists who went too far down the deep end were executed without mercy. These people were probably warped even before the virus came and infected everyone. The virus just happened to be the spark that blew up the powder keg.

The second generation cure was much more successful than the first. Although the researchers in Black Viper managed to come up with a couple of medicines on their own based on the info Cillin supplied them and their analyses of the first generation cure, Cillin’s second generation cure was still a tad better than theirs.

But Cillin still wasn’t satisfied. The second generation cure still contained a few flaws that he didn’t know how to fix in the time period he was provided, so he decided to bring together the Black Viper researchers who were involved in this and come up with a solution. Among these researchers was Neo, who to this day still refused to receive treatment. Apparently, the stubborn idiot would rather die than be cured by a medicine that he hadn’t had a hand researching. Even better, he wasn’t the only one who shared the same thought. Luckily, their condition wasn’t so serious that they had to be cured against their will, but their stance still appeared idiotic to most people.

Meanwhile, the second generation cure was being mass produced and distributed in many places, further bolstering the people’s confidence. Now that the momentum was swinging in their favor, the governments began encouraging the people to verbally attack those who continued to spread “rumors” of doom and gloom to this day.

Cillin paid no attention to that mess. His focus was fully on discussing the second generation cure with the researchers he gathered and improving it. He had his way of dealing with these stubborn weirdos, and it wasn’t long before he got them all to start talking.

This was a summit where zero RAS members were involved. Some time later, the summit would be known as the Zebra Summit, although the public’s knowledge of it was limited at best. Some people thought that it was a gathering of all the folk geniuses who hid themselves from the world. Some even guessed correctly that a lot of them were infected with the Zebra Virus, though probably not in the order they imagined. A lot of people actually went to the eleventh star region to search for their mysterious “hermit” as a result of their hermit. There were so many versions of the rumor that even Cillin had to facepalm from time to time when he heard them. Still, he had to admit that the rumors did some good for the world. A lot of experts and academicians who would’ve been overlooked before this were unearthed and brought under the light. But that's another story for another day.

Speaking of which, the researchers Cillin had invited to the meeting were surprisingly more open than normal. According to them, the empire was filled with chimpanzees and “strangers”, and it was perfectly natural that they couldn’t hold a conversation with those “things” because they absolutely didn’t belong in the same level of intelligence, wavelength or frequency. Now that they had found their own “kin”, they were talking as if they had known each other their whole life.

The discussion was incredibly intense and in-depth. It was doubtful that a normie who dabbled in the same field of study could understand all that was being discussed in the summit completely. To borrow Tu Ba’s words, it was deep enough to make his hair stand on end just listening to it, and this was considering that he was an active soldier. Soldiers generally knew how to operate all kinds of machines, interact in codes and analyse all manners of signals, but virus research to them was like trying to comprehend a heavenly book as mortals. They just didn’t belong in the same plane of existence.

After the summit was over, the third generation cure was finally complete. Everyone agreed that it was the best possible cure, and not only did it work on patients who were fragile, sensitive or allergic, it didn’t leave behind any side effects as well.

The Blazing Eagle queen recovered quickly after she received the third generation cure. As the third generation cure became common, so did the “Zebra Summit” that led to its creation and the name “Cillin”. Cillin didn’t claim all the credit, but Black Viper was a national secret, so any and all critical information was wiped away.

Cillin watched the recovering planet from space. It was no longer covered in flames or gray. The city he stayed briefly was regaining its liveliness, and the sky had cleared up enough that white clouds weren't in an impossible formation anymore. The sky looked so blue that it made the people living under it wished that it would stay that way forever.

The virus outbreak hadn’t really lasted all that long. In fact, it had only been several weeks since the day when all hell broke loose. But this memory was destined to linger in every person’s hearts for years or even decades to come. For some, it was a gray memory they would never forget until the day they died.

The woman in the underground shelter was standing in the open. She chose to lean against a wall and stare at nothing in particular instead of bringing out a chair. Beside her, the little girl was hugging the only pet dog to survive this ordeal and enjoying the sunlight beside the cleaned streets of the city.

A couple of children were running on the streets. The stripes hadn’t faded from their faces completely, but it was only a matter of time before they made a full recovery. They were all running and jumping to their heart’s content. After this tragedy, the people of this planet would grow to appreciate the mobility heaven gave them much, much more.

The adults didn’t react excessively. They didn’t throw their arms or shout themselves hoarse even though they survived what had seemed like certain doom at the time. They were happy, sure, but right now, they would rather just watch the running children and smile.

The devastated city looked nothing like what they remembered, but the golden light reflecting off its surface still made them feel like crying.

Things will get better.