For Duanmu Huai, once things reached the assault phase, everything became simple. Although that idiot arms dealer had filled the factory with a whole pile of mutated creatures and similar nonsense, none of it meant anything to Duanmu Huai. Not only that, Rebecca and Shirley had even discovered the vaccines that idiot arms dealer used for manufacturing—so next, the remaining problems were no longer problems at all.
"Bang."
A mangled corpse collapsed limply to the ground. Duanmu Huai clapped his hands and looked toward the two people beside him.
"All right, ladies, the mission is over. It's time for you to get going."
"Right now?"
Hearing Duanmu Huai speak, Rebecca felt uneasy. During the whole journey she'd followed him, she had witnessed with her own eyes just how powerful and terrifying this man was. Honestly, Rebecca even doubted whether he was still human. And just moments ago, he had personally crushed that arms dealer to death—so easily it was like squashing a bug.
That only made Rebecca more afraid.
Shirley, on the other hand, looked excited and cheerful.
"So, Big Uncle, are we heading to that Inquisition place you mentioned now? Will they send someone to pick us up?"
"Well… that's a secret for now. But before that…"
As he spoke, Duanmu Huai pulled two black hoods out of his pocket.
"Put these on first."
"...…"
Why did this look more and more like a kidnapping??
Rebecca wanted to contact Christine, but with Duanmu Huai standing right in front of them, and with Shirley already putting the hood on without hesitation, Rebecca could only grit her teeth, steel herself, and put it on as well.
Soon darkness swallowed her vision. Then Rebecca felt a large hand on her back pushing her forward.
The next moment, the hood was removed.
When Rebecca and Shirley opened their eyes again, they were instantly stunned by what they saw.
They were no longer inside that underground bioweapons factory. Instead, they stood inside a magnificent hall in a style reminiscent of a grand cathedral, gilded and resplendent. Through the tall windows, they could clearly see a star and nearby planets.
"Thud… thud…"
Heavy footsteps sounded, and Duanmu Huai—now clad in Power Armor—appeared before them.
"All right, ladies. Welcome to the Inquisition."
He looked at the two of them and spoke.
"Big Uncle, where exactly is this? Space?! Are you aliens?"
Rebecca was completely dumbfounded, while Shirley cried out in shock. Duanmu Huai merely gestured to them.
"Come with me. I'll explain everything on the way."
He turned and walked out the door, and the two girls followed instinctively as though in a trance. As they walked, Duanmu Huai explained the history of the Inquisition, the former Human Empire, the Chaos Gods, the Black Hole Project, and the long arc of human history up to now. To the two of them, this was nothing less than a total collapse of their worldview. Everything they thought they knew about human history was merely a drop in the ocean when compared to a timeline measured in tens of millions of years…
"It's unbelievable…"
When Rebecca came back to her senses, she was already sitting in a chair, staring blankly out the window. Outside, a beautifully shaped warship was slowly sailing by. In the past, she believed such sights existed only in science-fiction movies. But now…
"All right."
Duanmu Huai sat across from them and tapped the table. Soon, Odelle brought in hot tea for all three of them and then stood respectfully at the side.
"Since you now understand where we came from, it's time to talk about the work I want you to do."
"...…."
Rebecca and Shirley tensed up at once. They now had a clear view of what the Inquisition was—an enormous force protecting humanity and destroying all threats against it. Duanmu Huai had told them the Inquisition was currently in a reconstruction phase, but even so, its power was undeniable. And whatever he wanted them to do certainly wouldn't be trivial.
"You've already learned that the Inquisition is waging a war on this planet. And this planet is suffering from a very unusual plague."
As he spoke, Duanmu Huai opened a screen and displayed information and images.
"It's similar to the T-Virus. It corrupts organisms and transforms them into monsters that attack all other lifeforms. Of course, these things don't move like zombies—much faster. They can even infect and transform plants…"
"...…."
Seeing the data and images on the screen, Rebecca and Shirley instinctively held their breath. They weren't sure what was happening, but compared to what they had faced before, this was far more terrifying than the T-Virus.
"So… Big Uncle wants us to continue developing a vaccine??"
Shirley asked after watching everything. But Duanmu Huai shook his head.
"I don't need you to develop treatments or defenses. That's not the issue. What I want is a way to completely destroy this plague. Based on our observations, this isn't an ordinary disease—it's more like a parasitic organism. But we don't have experts in this field, which is why I'm asking you two to handle this problem."
He paused for a moment.
"Time is not on our side. As you know, this planet has suffered from civil war and war with the Beastmen. The global population is down to only twenty or thirty million. If we let the plague spread further, then I'll have no choice as an Inquisitor but to authorize an Exterminatus."
"...…"
Both women swallowed hard.
"Exterminatus?"
"Simply put, it means blowing the planet into fragments."
Duanmu Huai said calmly.
"Only that can prevent the infection from spreading once and for all."
"I… we understand."
Rebecca and Shirley exchanged pale looks and nodded. They had considered the consequences of an outbreak before—the last city had been destroyed by missiles.
But this time… they were talking about destroying an entire planet…
Rebecca took a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down.
"I understand. I'll cooperate. But I need equipment…"
"We've seized several abandoned biological research facilities. You can take a look and decide which one is best for your research. But you don't need to leave this battleship. All your work will be done remotely."
"All right."
This made sense to both of them. Remote control was the best isolation method. Even if samples leaked, there would be no risk of infecting researchers, nor any chance of someone smuggling the virus out. Such incidents only happened in trash-tier sci-fi movies.
After arranging everything, Duanmu Huai finally left the guest room and let out a sigh.
Whew… finally dealt with.
With Rebecca and Shirley joining, he could relax a bit. Just as he had told them, satellite data had revealed several abandoned biological research stations. But the real problem was that none of his people knew how to use any of it. This kind of work required professionals—otherwise, you might end up spinning mung bean soup in a centrifuge.
But honestly, the technology on this planet was trash…
Standing at the window, staring at the war-ravaged planet in the distance, Duanmu Huai curled his lip. People said war was the catalyst of technological progress, but this planet's development was garbage. According to satellite data, this world had only one continent, so wars had continued since ancient times. Their energy use had gone from coal, to wind and nuclear power, and even their uranium was nearly depleted before they turned to Im Energy…
So you hollowed out nearly all the planet's energy resources, and you STILL didn't build a single spaceship?
Forget spaceships—couldn't you at least develop nuclear fusion?
But no, nothing?
What the hell did you develop after all these years?
Truly a bunch of useless fools… other than war, you're good at nothing.
Oh wait—even in warfare you failed to develop anything worthwhile.
After all these years, and you still don't have single-soldier exoskeletons. Only that chainsaw rifle is somewhat interesting, the rest is all standard ground equipment… Honestly, what kind of tech tree did these people even invest in?
If this were a game, Duanmu Huai would say they never unlocked a single specialization in their tech tree.
They were like students scraping by with 60 percent in every subject—mediocre to a maddening degree.
Now Duanmu Huai could only hope that Rebecca and Shirley would bring him some good news.
And indeed, the biotech world's tech tree was no joke. Just a few days later, Rebecca and Shirley brought him news—good news:
They had found the source of the plague!
It was…!!
"Im Energy??"
Duanmu Huai stared at the report in confusion, while Rebecca nodded.
"Yes. We examined all infected samples and areas and discovered the plague is concentrated around this so-called Im Energy. At first, we thought the parasites were simply attracted to it. But after analyzing Im Energy samples, we found that Im Energy itself is actually a collection of parasitic organisms!"
"So… Im Energy isn't an energy source, but a parasitic lifeform?"
"Yes. The longer the exposure and the higher the concentration, the easier the infection. I suspect the earliest infected individuals got sick while mining this microorganism called Im Energy. In fact, there are records of this."
As she spoke, Rebecca pulled up the data.
"We retrieved this from satellite intel. Before the Pendulum War, an organization discovered that miners who worked long-term with Im Energy developed a condition known as Rusted Lung… and there were even reports of Im Matter causing infection and mutation. But it seems no one took it seriously."
"...…."
Are this planet's scientists all idiots? You can't even tell the difference between an energy source and parasites?!
"But now, the parasites no longer require high concentration or long exposure to spread."
"Yes. Based on the samples, compared to the dormant parasites within Im Energy, the ones infecting organisms have undergone some degree of evolution and mutation…"
"Evolution and mutation…"
Hearing this, Duanmu Huai frowned—and then shuddered internally.
Damn it, don't tell me the God of Decay has taken interest!
Thinking that, he immediately looked at Rebecca and Shirley.
"I need you to find a way to completely wipe out these parasites. Any method is acceptable. Don't worry about collateral damage."
"Th-that…"
Rebecca and Shirley exchanged looks.
"We still need some time. Maybe we can isolate the parasites' core genetic sequence."
"Hurry. I fear we don't have much time."
Duanmu Huai shook his head and looked out into the starry sky.
If the God of Decay was involved…
That would be a real problem.
(End of chapter)