Todd was startled: "So low?"

Wayne looked somewhat embarrassed: "Your Majesty, I didn't expect it to be this low. Marcus's antibodies can only provide immunity against 53% of the virus samples at most. In other words, nearly half of the necromancy virus can still harm Marcus."

Todd was incredulous: "If half of the necromantic virus could kill Marcus, how has he survived until now?!"

Wayne: "Environment, ethnicity, and a little bit of luck... I would explain it this way: the vast majority of the necromantic viruses that Marcus's antibody was able to immunize against came from specimens collected on land."

Todd: "Gathered on land?"

Wayne nodded and said, "Among them are virus samples from the undead of Tero City, as well as those from Holy Guard City, Silver Ring City, and some from the Southern Empire..."

Wayne: "However, most of the virus samples from which Marcus's antibodies failed to produce immunity came from the ocean, such as undead samples provided by the Merfolk, undead samples provided by the Knights of the North Island, samples provided by Valkyries on patrol at sea, and undead samples caught by ocean-going caravans..."

Todd: "You mean Marcus is immune to the necromantic virus from land, but not from the necromantic virus from the sea? How is that possible?"

Wayne: "That's right... Your Majesty, I have a theoretical hypothesis... It's possible, I mean possible, that the undead on land and the undead in the sea do not share the same viral lineage."

Todd asked, puzzled, "Not the same one? What do you mean?"

Wayne thought for a moment and decided to explain it this way: "Suppose the undead on land are infected with a virus from Marcus, so Marcus is able to develop immunity to the vast majority of the strains they carry; however, the undead in the ocean are infected with a virus that may have come from another patient zero, so the antibodies in Marcus's body are ineffective against the undead in the ocean."

Todd was getting more and more confused: "Another Patient Zero?"

Wayne tilted his head, thinking as he spoke, "Perhaps the necromantic virus mutated during its creation, splitting into two different genetic lineages, resulting in two Patient Zeros; or perhaps the marine necromantic virus existed before the terrestrial necromantic virus, and the terrestrial necromantic virus is actually a sub-branch, or even a grand-branch, of the marine necromantic virus..."

Todd suddenly stood up from his chair and said, "Wait!"

Wayne looked at Todd, completely bewildered: "Your Majesty, what's wrong?"

Todd reached out to stop Wayne, indicating that he needed to think.

After circling the conference room twice, Todd turned his gaze to Wayne: "You just said that the reason why the necromancer's nerve center can resist the soul erosion of the necromancer parasite is because it is a common host for something?"

Wayne scratched his head: "The common host of Sutherland archaea, Tyrant Virus, and Resurrection Worms?"

A flash of light suddenly streaked through Todd's mind.

Todd was shocked and couldn't believe his guess.

After a long while, Todd let out a long sigh of relief: "I think I understand what's going on."