Chapter 157 - The Capital - A Bone To Pick With
When Daniel removed the barrier around the now deserted area, a large number of powerful cultivators started to appear on the spot.
These cultivators arrived from various different parts of the capital, and only now were they able to notice that something had happened in this particular part of the city.
The area of the city where Daniel had appeared, was one of the less populated and poor areas of the entire capital, and if it wasn't for the still functioning teleporting platform present in it, people would have completely abandoned the place long ago.
The experiment from the group 'The Poisonous Rose' had been well thought, and prepared.
In an area like this, even if people suddenly stopped arriving out of the blue, people would not put too much attention in the matter. It was more likely that they would think that, after being left without maintenance for so long, the formation would have simply stopped working.
Around the area, a spatial illusion that showed a minimal and yet present population had been activated. Daniel had noticed it when he was forced to take over the burden of keeping the people stuck inside.
He had had to hold the spatial barrier and the illusion long enough for the infected people stuck inside the barrier to die, for him and Der to recover, and to purify their clothes and bodies from the virus.
Another reason why he did that, aside from wanting to keep the infected in, was to avoid people in the outside from noticing what had happened too soon.
If a nosy cultivator arrived while the people were still on the verge of dying, they could have broken through the barrier with the intention of helping, and let the virus spread through the entire city instead.
He really had no other choice.. He had to cut the finger in order to save the hand.
"What the hell happened here?!" Shouted one of the cultivators that had arrived first. She was a middle aged woman dressed in a loose brown and green robe, and appeared to hold a higher position than others, as the others kept quiet while she talked.
It didn't take long for the cultivators to notice Daniel and Der.
They approached them, and while looking at Der, the middle aged woman asked in a domineering tone "You. Start talking."
Der turned to look at Daniel, and then back towards the middle aged woman. He then said "It's better if you ask him. He knows way more than I do."
The various cultivators turned to look at Daniel, and one of them aid "Start with who the two of you are."
"We are merchants. We have been teleported about half a day ago from another city, after we've received a permission to expand our company in the region. When we arrived here, there was a spatial blockade in the area. Later we found out that an experiment on the toxicity of a new sort of highly contagious poison-like substance was being held in it.." Responded Daniel patiently. He could see that this woman had a temper, so he decided to cut to the chase.
The brows of the woman narrowed as she heard Daniel's words. She then asked "Do you have any proof? And why is there your mark in the spatial essence within this area?"
"I have no physical proof, as I had to destroy everything which could have been infected for safety reasons.. I had some means that I've used to threaten the culprits into leaving.. Unfortunately, they weren't kind enough to leave a cure behind. I've recreated the blockade the very moment they released it.. Aside from me and him, nobody survived." Said Daniel with a plain tone which became slightly broken as he reached the end of the phrase.
"That's quite the story.. Do you have anything that can convince me that you two aren't the culprits yourself?" Said the woman coldly. She didn't seem to be wanting to be cold, but that that was her usual demeanor.
"We only have a few names.." Responded Daniel right away.
"I am listening.."
"The Poisonous Rose, and the Transparent Thorn." Said Daniel as clearly as possible.
After hearing these two names, the face of the middle aged woman twisted in a hateful expression that sent shivers down Daniel's back. "Describe him to me."
"Late sixties, bald with white hair on the sides and the back, around a hundred and seventy-five centimeters in height with a slightly bent back, short temper, he believes that researching poison is like researching any other kind of alchemical compost.."
The more Daniel spoke, the more visible the anger of the woman became.
Unable to hold back anymore, she burst out saying "Why did he leave you alive? Why did he tell you his name, and the group he is part of?"
"I assume his ego is at fault. He was so sure that his virus would have killed us, that he had no problems in telling us about it." Responded Daniel while shrugging his shoulders. "He also mentioned that his creation kills in twelve hours, which meant that according to him, I didn't have more than an hour or so left to live."
Daniel's words made sense. It seemed like he had prepared himself for this kind of interrogation, and in fact, he had. He had distracted himself from the sound of the people dropping dead on the ground, and desperate crying, by preparing the explanation he would be required to give soon.
"Is that why the area is in this state?" Asked the woman with a confused tone.
Daniel nodded slightly, and said "Yes, the virus was airborne, and if I didn't purge the area entirely, it would have definitely spread around, once one of you would have tried to push through my spatial blockade.. Everything that might be carrying the virus, is now floating in the void inside of a pocket dimension with no connection to this world."
"This is the first lie you've told me so far.." Said the woman while looking sternly at Daniel.
She had seen right through him. The truth, was that Daniel had kept a sample of each type of methods of infection. He had kept a deceased person's blood, saliva, corpse, clothes, and a few cubic meters of infected air.
The reason why he had kept these items, was that he wanted to have Lucious examine them, and possibly find a way to kill this virus.
Lucious had spent most of his life studying infectious substances from many angles in order to find a cure for his people's corruption, so, even if he had failed, not many in the universe would have his experience in that field.
"You've kept samples of the poison?" Asked the old woman.
Daniel looked at the woman with an extremely conflicted face, and said "You can't find a cure to something you don't have."
"You will have to give me what you have." Said the woman after hearing Daniel's confirmation.
"With all due respect, but you haven't even presented yourself yet. I don't know who you are, I don't know who you represent, and most of all, you don't seem to be knowledgeable about poisons and viruses.. While my company has a specific department whose main purpose is studying that very subject." Responded Daniel with a matter-of-fact tone.
Despite the shocked faces of the various cultivators in the area, Daniel couldn't be more right.
This woman knew nothing about engineered poisons and viruses, the entire reason why she wanted the samples, was to satisfy her need to feel in control of the situation, but in the end, she would later be forced to go looking around for an expert that could conduct the examination for her.
That, was if she didn't mishandled the samples, and caused the population of the world to go extinct.
The woman felt slightly offended by Daniel's crude remarks, but despite her wanting to always be in control, she wasn't a fool either. She knew that there was a reason why Daniel and the member of his group had survived, so, just for this once, she decide to back off.
"Alright, come with me then, we have people to report the matter to, and you need to be present for that."
-----
A few minutes later, Daniel was standing outside of a large double door, within a building that looked like the core of the capital's government.
The people all around were extremely respectful of the place they were in, and also very busy. They would hardly stop to greet each other, and keep going with their tasks right after.
If Daniel had seen these people in any other setting, he would have thought that they were workaholics, but since he had the chance to see how immense and organized the capital was, he sort of understood why these people were so busy.
He ruled over a city of hundreds of thousands, and had the help of thousands of people.. While these people ruled over a planet of trillions, and each major sector ultimately fell in the hands of a single person.
Daniel could hear the sound of chatter coming from the other side of the door for a few minutes, then, steps approaching the entrance of the room. Finally, the door opened revealing a well dressed woman, which politely said to him "Please, come inside."
Once inside, Daniel found himself in a large, and well decorated office. At the other end, was a large wooden desk, and sitting behind it, was an old man. Sitting in front of this desk, was the middle aged woman that had brought Daniel here.
The well dressed woman accompanied Daniel to his seat, and after pointing at the chair next to the middle aged woman, she said "Please."
Daniel sat in the chair, and after making himself comfortable, he heard the croaky voice of the old man coming from the other side of the desk.
"You must be the president of the Golden Karma company, Daniel." Said the old man with an amiable tone.
"I am."
"Good, I am the appointed Governor of this planet. You can call me Governor Lien, or Mr. Lien if you prefer." The old man didn't seem to be a fighter, instead, his behaviour seemed to be closer to that of a merchant.
This wasn't the first government that Daniel had seen, but it was the first time that he had seen one where its head was not actually a powerful warrior, but something he had never seen before instead.. A politician.
"A pleasure to meet you, Governor Lien." Responded Daniel while nodding slightly.
"Good, now that the presentations have been taken care of, why don't you tell me what happened earlier.."
Once again, Daniel recounted the entire story, including the reasons for his actions. When he was done, the old man looked at him with surprise.
He had never met such a resolute, fearless and resourceful young man, and that had boosted his opinion of Daniel.
"You've said that you can find a cure for this.. How you called it.. Virus.. The Poisonous Rose is an infamous sect, and providing an antidote for one of their new poisons.. Erm.. virus, would prove a great feat for our planet.. I assume you have some sort of compensation in mind to ask for." Said the old man while looking intently at Daniel.
Daniel looked back at the old man just as intently, and responded "I have a bone to pick with them.. You can keep your compensation, just give us a fair amount of contribution points which we can use to expand as a company."
A curious expression appeared on Mr. Lien's face, as he said "A bone to pick with them?.."
Daniel smiled faintly, and said in response "They tested a deadly weapon on me, brought me to the point of death in order to find a cure, killed a very high amount of innocents, and if that wasn't enough.. They forced me to let those very people die to prevent their virus from spreading.. 'A bone to pick with' is already an understatement."