De M-anila University Affiliated Hospital.
In the waiting lounge, some were accompanying patients, while others sat simply to feel the sterile hospital air.
A chorus of coughs echoed through the room, as anxious faces turned toward the source of the sounds. Some patients even had ice packs on their heads to combat fevers. Amid the mix, there were groups chatting about their relatively mild illnesses.
"This flu is brutal, huh?" one older man said.
"Right? Almost everyone in my building is down with it!" another replied.
As they exchanged complaints, their eyes drifted toward a lone figure sitting nearby—a young man who stood out in the crowd. He wore a peaked cap, wasn't accompanying any patient, and didn't appear to be sick. Instead, he sat still, eyes closed, as though deep in thought.
A weirdo—was the thought that crossed their minds. Was he trying to strengthen his immune system? Or was he testing its limits?
Hospitals had many places to rest, so why did this strange young man choose to sit here of all places? The older patients found the young generation, especially college students, a bit perplexing. To avoid any unnecessary trouble, they quietly shifted away from him. Of course, they would justify their actions with excuses like not wanting to pass their flu to him.
That young man, of course, was Novak—the one who had awakened the Virus King talent.
After his awakening, Novak could faintly sense the viruses and bacteria in the air, as though they were being drawn toward him. In this flu-infected ward, the air was teeming with viruses. It was a veritable kingdom of pathogens.
Yet, despite the abundance of viruses around him, Novak wasn't satisfied with his progress.
- [You have absorbed the influenza virus. Virus evolution points +0.001…]
- [You have absorbed the influenza virus. Virus evolution points +0.001…]
- [You have absorbed the influenza virus. Virus evolution points +0.001…]
Is that it? Novak thought to himself. Despite the widespread nature of the flu, its low lethality meant that it wasn't yielding many evolution points. After sitting here all morning, he still hadn't accumulated even a single full evolution point.
In total, he'd only gained a fraction—far less than what was needed to upgrade the Blacklight Virus even once!
Time is precious, especially in these final moments before the apocalypse erupts.
Every hour was a window of opportunity to become stronger, to secure his survival in the future. Yet, after an entire morning, Novak had barely made any progress. It was disappointing, to say the least.
But what choice did he have? Hospitals might be full of viruses, but they were also sterilized regularly. Outside the hospital, finding viruses that could offer large amounts of evolution points was even harder.
Some severe illnesses, like cancer, weren't caused by viruses at all. Even those that were virus-related didn't always yield evolution points. Novak couldn't exactly touch a virus sample to collect it.
By midday, he had endured the strange looks from uncles, aunts, and even nurses all morning, and his evolution points had barely inched forward.
He even considered going down into the sewers to catch some rats, hoping that the plague, or Black Death virus, might give him a significant boost.
In the early days of the apocalypse, the sewers were among the most dangerous places. Mutated giant plague rats and even zombie rats infected with the zombie virus roamed in packs, ruling over the underground world.
Dangerous, yes—but Novak knew that defeating those creatures would offer substantial improvements to his evolution points.
As the sound of coughing continued around him, Novak's evolution points trickled in steadily. However, just as he resigned himself to sitting here for the rest of the day, the Cosmic Will suddenly delivered an unexpected message:
- [You have absorbed a virus with infectious disease properties. The evolution points required to activate the Virus King's talent, "Infectious Disease Evolution," have been reduced!]
What? It works like that?! Novak was startled. Just as he was about to investigate the change in his talent tree, a sharp scream shattered the stillness of the hospital.
"Ah! He's biting someone!"
Everyone's attention snapped toward the scream. A figure in a hospital gown stumbled out of a room, his skin an unhealthy gray, nails grotesquely long and black. He lunged at anyone nearby, moving fast—much faster than the stereotypical zombies seen in movies and TV shows.
A zombie?!
Novak's pupils contracted in shock. In just a single day, the zombie virus had already turned one of its initial victims into a full-fledged zombie. And that person looked familiar—he was the one Novak had extracted the zombie virus from the previous day!
Did my actions trigger the early transformation of this zombie? Novak wondered. He retreated with the rest of the crowd, not wanting to draw attention to himself.
Even though this was just a low-level zombie, and Novak could easily kill it with a well-placed blow, he had no intention of acting. Drawing too much attention, especially now, could be dangerous. If the police got involved and detained him for three to five days, it would waste precious time—time that was critical for his preparations.
Even if the odds of such a situation were slim, Novak didn't want to take any chances. Surviving in the apocalypse for decades and becoming one of the top evolutionaries had taught him the importance of caution.
But then, something unexpected happened.
Just as the zombie lunged toward a terrified nurse, a new notification from the Cosmic Will appeared:
- [Low-level evolutionary virus detected! Due to the pre-apocalypse trial period, all creatures offer ten times the experience, currency, and special item drop rates!]
What?! Novak's eyes lit up, and his pupils seemed to gleam with the prospect of treasure. At that moment, the zombie before him was no longer just a mindless monster—it had become a walking, snarling money bag, brimming with rewards for the taking.