Could it be some unique genes in Morioka's body that easily trigger the virus?

Gu Ji felt something was off, and recalling Morioka's strange behavior earlier, he hurriedly turned and left the infirmary.

Ten minutes later.

In front of the cruise ship's surveillance room, a figure clad in a white protective suit appeared and knocked on the door.

"Who are you?"

Inside, a round-faced staff member asked curiously through the circular window on the door.

"Xiangzhou CHP, Jian Na."

Along with the cold tone, the face reflected in the circular window on the door was none other than Gu Ji impersonating Jian Na.

"Oh, I know, I've heard your voice at the main desk."

The round-faced man immediately opened the door, "Please come in!"

After entering the room, Gu Ji got straight to the point: "I need all the surveillance footage on Mr. Morita in the cruise ship!"

"Uh... okay."

Although unclear about the command's purpose, the round-faced man nodded in agreement.

After all, Gu Ji was now in charge of the cruise ship's prevention and control.

Near the afternoon, the surveillance staff finally found all the videos related to the kitchen's food. He started browsing backwards at triple speed from the fire corridor, slowing down at key frames for repeated viewing.

First was Morioka escaping from the guest room, then in the morning, a kitchen staff secretly pushed various meals to him, and he remained holed up in the suite. Before that was last night's virus outbreak on the cruise, Morioka heading to the suite...

The more Gu Ji watched, the more he felt something was wrong.

Although the surveillance footage wasn't very clear, the body movements showed that before the first wave of virus outbreak last night, Morioka hadn't shown any obvious symptoms, not even a cough.

From his infection and onset to death, it was only a little over ten hours!

The speed was exaggerated, even more so than the most terrifying viral hemorrhagic fever from Africa: Ebola, which couldn't kill within half a day.

Unless Morioka ingested a large amount of the virus at once, skipping the initial replication stage and causing rapid organ damage inside his body.

In a natural state, beef infected by ticks wouldn't carry such a large virus load.

So.

Was it man-made?!

Gu Ji's spine tingled with fear, reminding him of the infamous anthrax attack, a bioterrorism incident in the United States in 2001, where anthrax-laced letters were sent to the White House, resulting in 5 deaths and 17 infections, shocking the world!

Compared to traditional weapons like knives, guns, and explosives, biological attacks are quieter and more terrifying.

He shuddered, wordlessly turning away from the fire escape.

If it was a man-made biological attack and the attacker used food, then everyone with access to the food was suspect. The primary target was the kitchen staff who secretly delivered meals to Morioka!

Just as he was about to find the police to control this staff member.

"Ah!"

A sudden loud shout erupted inside the cruise ship, followed by vigorous jumping on the deck above. Gu Ji hurriedly looked out the window and faintly saw a tinge of green by the endless sunset waves:

It was land!

Jeju Island Port!

He raised his wrist to check the time, realizing he'd lost track while watching the surveillance. It was already 5 p.m.

"Great! We're saved!"

"Tasuketa (Saved)! Hahaha..."

"Oh! Oh!"

...

In an instant, the whole cabin was filled with the tourists' excited screams and cheers. The two staff members on the deck hugged each other, crying tears of joy.

Anyone would be driven nearly mad after enduring such high-pressure crisis for a whole day.

At that moment, the phone suddenly rang; it was Tanamura Katsushin, the Minister of Health from Japan.

Gu Ji picked up the phone, and before he could speak, Tanamura's cold voice came through the earpiece: "Negotiations failed. The South Korean military refused to allow docking due to the risk of a bioterror attack and the potential spread of an unknown, highly infectious virus."

"What!?"

His pupils contracted sharply. He had just speculated a possible biological attack, how could the South Korean military have known sooner?

"Someone uploaded videos of the virus outbreak on the cruise online and spread words suggesting a bioterrorist attack, causing panic. The Crisis Management Center's chief suggested redirecting the cruise to Xiangzhou."

"Xiangzhou? Changing course to Jeju Island already deviated completely from Xiangzhou's direction, and now changing again would take another three days..."

Just as Gu Ji objected, his keen counter-surveillance skills quickly caught a glimpse of a boot's shadow around the deck's corner.

He immediately realized, "Did you investigate my identity?"

"That's right, we've contacted Xiangzhou CHP. The head of the epidemiology department doesn't recognize your identity, and Xiangzhou has never had a similar hemorrhagic fever case. Your actual job is a nurse at Tokyo Medical Association's Takeda Hospital..."

"Don't move! Hands on your head, lie down!"

"Lie down!"

As Tanamura spoke, two police officers suddenly jumped out from the corner, aiming their guns at Gu Ji, scaring the two staff members on the deck to quickly lie down.

Gu Ji squinted without resisting, slowly crouching down:

"I might have faked my identity, but you should be aware of my professional skills. The virus situation on the cruise is under control, you can confirm this with Dr. Matsushima. I hope you can continue to trust me, I genuinely want to save everyone on this cruise..."

"Precisely because you fabricated your identity and possess knowledge not matching your profession that makes me suspicious, what is your true goal?"

Hearing this, Gu Ji's eyelids twitched, "Are you trying to say I orchestrated this outbreak?"

Tanamura didn't answer directly but paused and continued, "If it was you, you can state your demands, the cabinet will try its best to meet them."

To hell with your demands!

Gu Ji wanted to curse, but doing so would play into the terrorists' hands.

Exactly.

From the viral outbreak videos leaked online to the advance circulation of "biological terror attack" rumors, these operations were clearly aimed at arousing strong fear among governments and the public, preventing the cruise's docking, and disrupting his command over the virus control on the ship.

The terrorists remained hidden in the shadows.

Their goal was to take everyone on the ship down!

"Lie down!"

At this point, the two police officers, guns drawn, had approached him. Perhaps recalling Gu Ji's previous maneuvers, they did not rush him.

Gu Ji pressed the phone to speaker mode and tossed it to the ground, taking a deep breath.

Stay calm, absolutely calm.

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