Read Novel Full Chapter 402: Skylí Virus
Chapter 402: Chapter 402: Skylí Virus
Before they could react, he waved his hand.
Several bodyguards appeared. Fear shot through Moona and Maxi’s veins.
’Do we fight?’
Before either of them could move, the lab doors were suddenly pushed open.
Researchers flooded in.
Voices overlapped as they spoke all at once.
"We knew it, he is such a snake. Let’s kick him out!"
"We suspected him long ago. Should have taken action before!"
"He really was corrupt."
In the chaos, they dragged the corrupted researcher down. The bodyguards who dared to help him were beaten and thrown out as well.
The truth soon became clear.
Everyone had known all along. They had deliberately pretended to leave, consciously sending people away and granting the bodyguards leave, knowing the greedy ones would accept bribes and reveal themselves.
It was a trap. And it worked perfectly.
Without hesitation, the corrupted researcher and his bodyguards were expelled.
From that day onward, Moona and Maxi finally understood something with certainty.
They were in the hands of well-educated, principled people.
And for the first time in a long while, they truly felt safe.
Now that they finally felt relieved, truly relieved, that they didn’t need to struggle constantly and that they were protected, time slipped by almost unnoticed.
Another month passed quietly, and once again their attention returned to the red apple hanging from the plant.
Curiosity gnawed at both of them.
Finally, Moona reached out and plucked the apple from the branch. The skin felt cool and smooth against her fingers. She hesitated for a fraction of a second before taking a bite.
The flesh crunched softly between her teeth. She chewed slowly, carefully, as if waiting for something terrible to happen.
After a moment, her eyes widened slightly.
"It’s... really sweet."
Hearing that, Maxi’s throat bobbed. She instinctively took a step forward, wanting to taste it as well. But Moona raised her hand and stopped her.
"Wait," Moona said firmly. "Let me take the risk first. If it’s poisonous... then at worst, I’ll die. If I’m fine, then you can eat it too."
Maxi didn’t argue. She nodded, though her fingers curled anxiously at her sides.
Time stretched. Seconds felt unbearably long.
Maxi watched Moona’s face with intense focus. Suddenly, her eyes widened in disbelief.
"Moona..." she muttered, pointing shakily. "Your face..."
Moona frowned. "What about my face?"
Maxi’s heart slammed painfully against her ribs. She was already sensitive about the dark patches on her own skin, and now hearing that something was happening to Moona made her panic. Her voice trembled.
"It’s... it’s pulsing."
Moona’s breath hitched.
Fear surged instantly.
She rushed toward the bedroom, nearly tripping over herself, and stood in front of the mirror. The moment she saw her reflection, she froze.
The black mark. It had faded...noticeably.
Her pupils shrank in shock. Over the past month, they had vaguely sensed something changing.
The food they consumed and the rest slowly and imperceptibly healed the black marks. It hadn’t been obvious at first, but now the change was undeniable.
And after biting the apple...
Her skin glowed faintly.
Moona clenched her fists, her nails digging into her palms. The glow lingered for a heartbeat, then slowly receded, melting back into her skin as if it had never existed.
Her eyes widened.
Behind her, Maxi had rushed in and was staring at the mirror too, completely stunned.
Moona turned around slowly. "You... you’re seeing this too, right?"
Maxi nodded vigorously, her voice breathless. "I’m seeing it."
For a moment, neither of them spoke. Then realization struck Moona like lightning.
"We need to tell Jay," she said urgently. "This could be important. Really important."
Maxi nodded without hesitation.
Meanwhile, far away from them, Ivy wasn’t idle at all.
During this time, she had been investigating relentlessly, piecing together fragments of information like a puzzle that refused to stay still.
Her first step had been inviting Bella over. From Bella, she learned about the researchers... about her parents.
The moment Bella revealed their real names, something inside Ivy clicked.
Helena and Victor later confirmed it.
They were indeed the same researchers who had once worked alongside them on a highly confidential project.
That confirmation made Ivy’s heart sink even deeper.
Calm on the surface, she looked at her parents and pressed for more details. Only then did the entire story unfold.
It turned out that the being they had captured hadn’t appeared randomly.
Ten years before its arrival on Earth, an interstellar object had been detected... an object traveling at the speed of light.
That alone shattered known scientific limitations. No Earth-born technology was capable of such a feat.
’Which means... there are beings out there who can.’
The implication chilled Ivy.
It suggested the existence of another planet, possibly within or beyond their solar system, inhabited by beings advanced enough to create such technology.
From that place, this being might have arrived.
That was Ivy’s main line of thought.
However, her father proposed another theory.
"What if it didn’t come from outer space?" he said. "What if it came from underground?"
At first, Ivy couldn’t grasp the meaning at all.
Only later did her parents explain. There had long been theories suggesting that beneath Earth’s crust, beyond the layers humanity had managed to drill, there might exist an underworld, much like unexplored deep oceans.
Areas so inaccessible that no one truly knew what lay beneath, all the way down to the core.
It was possible, they said, that the being had emerged from within the Earth itself.
Yet that theory didn’t explain the interstellar object.
Because of that, Ivy leaned more toward the idea of another planet.
Her belief strengthened when she remembered a strange dream she once had... a dream where a highly advanced screen appeared, announcing the acknowledgment of a princess. At the time, she had dismissed it as nonsense.
Now, she wasn’t so sure.
Another thing gnawed at her mind.
The Skylí Virus.
She remembered the moment her temporal storage had asked whether she wanted to store a human infected with the Skylí Virus. Back then, she had assumed it was an error.
Now, looking back, she wasn’t convinced.
’What if the Skylí Virus isn’t from Earth at all?’
What if it was a virus originating from another planet, somehow introduced here, triggering the zombie apocalypse?
The more Ivy thought about it, the clearer it became.
This apocalypse didn’t feel natural.
It felt planned.