Aileen nodded slightly and then turned her head towards Stanley.
Stanley paused and said, "Naturally, I am extremely angry. This apocalypse has disrupted national peace and brought untold suffering to the people..." He launched into a long-winded speech, full of official rhetoric.
Edwin, fed up, slammed the table to stop Stanley.
"And what about you?" Edwin asked, turning the attention of everyone at the table towards Born, who was focused on his meal.
Born looked up, wiped the grease from his mouth, and smiled, "I must say, the food is really delicious."
"As for my perspective, I can only see with my eyes. Your perspectives are too high for me; I'm just an ordinary person."
Using his eyes to see?
That made sense.
Born's words disrupted the table's rhythm.
The group resumed eating in silence.
After a while, they had their fill.
Aileen, not intending to beat around the bush, took out a tablet and placed it in front of everyone.
The content displayed was a series of isolated zombies, with people in white lab coats recording data.
Most importantly, the date displayed was from last year.
To be precise, just after the turn of the year, so the date should have been from the year before last.
The apocalypse broke out in October of last year.
Yet the appearance of zombies was over a year earlier?
"As you can see, zombies appeared long before the outbreak. Back then, their lifespan was short, and their functions were not as developed as they are now."
"We at Star Labs discovered zombies and were dedicated to uncovering the secrets of their appearance. Unfortunately, our experiment videos were leaked and were misrepresented by malicious parties."
"No matter if you believe it or not, our Star Labs has never harbored any ill intentions towards humanity. All the videos you have seen were deliberately fabricated by malicious parties and have nothing to do with Star Labs," Aileen said with a sincere expression. She put away the tablet and couldn't help but sigh.
Born's face turned grim. Were they trying to handle a PR crisis? One moment the virus was spread by Star Labs, the next they were the saviors. These high society people sure knew how to play their games.
Stanley still wore a smile, but Edwin had already slammed the table, pointing at Aileen.
"Star Labs is a load of crap. My Edwin Group invested half of its assets into your lab, and what profits have you ever brought us?"
"Talking all high and mighty, you're researching the virus. Your scientific research is worth nothing."
"In the year I've taken over Edwin Group, I discovered that the former chairman invested billions into your lab. I can't understand this behavior."
It was clear that Edwin was still furious. The apocalypse hadn't been going on long, and their inherent values hadn't changed. Losing billions was incomprehensible and infuriating to Edwin.
Stanley stood up to smooth things over, smiling, "It's okay. With the apocalypse upon us, money is just a worldly possession. Billions are just numbers."
Born nodded thoughtfully. Hmm, he'd sure like to have a string of such numbers.
"I know, if it weren't for this damn apocalypse, I'd have flipped the table by now."
"Aileen, enough! Just tell us why you invited us here!"
Edwin sat back down, but his eyes were still filled with anger.
Aileen's face remained expressionless. "I'm telling you all this to make it clear that Star Labs never expected your understanding. You don't need to know the significance of everything we're doing."
"After all, we see the world from different perspectives," Aileen said.
"As the chief of the Red Sea branch of Star Labs, I am about to launch a massive purge and reconstruction operation in Red Sea. The reason I invited you all here is solely for this operation."
Edwin narrowed his eyes and asked, "So you're saying that our presence is hindering your purge operation?"
Aileen nodded without any hesitation.
She then turned her gaze to Born.
"Due to certain actions, the purge operation prepared by Star Labs has been delayed. To restart and achieve the desired effect would take at least another six months."
"Six months is a delay we cannot afford. So, I hope that Dover City will have only one voice."
Born's mouth twitched.
Well, she might as well have directly named him.
A purge operation? Were those Type B and Type C zombies products of this purge?
Only magic can defeat magic, so use zombies to defeat zombies?
Indeed, those zombies were formidable in combat. Under controlled conditions, they could effectively clear out other zombies.
Since they were also zombies, they could infiltrate zombie hordes without being attacked.
Born couldn't help but give a thumbs-up.
Brilliant, truly brilliant.
But just then, Edwin stood up.
"Hmph, so all this talk was just to get us to invest in Star Labs. Sorry, I refuse."
"I'm not the former chairman of Edwin Group, easily manipulated into sinking billions. My decisions now affect the lives of thousands under my command. It's impossible!"
With that, Edwin waved his hand and called for his men to leave.
Stanley, though he didn't express his stance, still stood up with a smile, bowed, and then followed Edwin out.
The banquet hall suddenly became much quieter.
At that moment, the banquet hall doors closed.
Two people from Star Labs stood beside each member of the maid squad, and the atmosphere became tense.
Born continued to eat heartily, seemingly oblivious to the change in the room.
Fern approached and stood behind Aileen, narrowing his eyes as he studied Born.
Born wiped his mouth and looked at Aileen.
"I have a question I want you to answer."
Aileen smiled slightly, "I've already told you. What I am doing is to purge the zombies, which is why there are those artificially modified zombies."
"As for what I said earlier, you understand, it's because you killed those zombies, disrupting my plan."
Born quickly waved his hand.
So now they were skipping the subtleties and directly criticizing him?
"I know, so I have only one question: what does 'God' mean?"
At these words, Aileen's expression turned cold, and a glint of cold light flashed in Fern's eyes as he placed his hand on the dagger at his waist.
Born, however, leaned back with his hands behind his head, casually putting his feet on the table, looking completely unfazed.
After a long silence, Aileen finally spoke slowly, "It seems Ling couldn't outplay you. From the first moment I saw you, I had a feeling you and we are the same type of people."
Born replied helplessly, "I don't play as well as you do. Don't say that."
Aileen didn't argue, took a deep breath, and said slowly, "The so-called 'God' refers to the 'God Virus'."