In this world, there exists a secret organization that chooses to "excise" the evils of this world that the law cannot punish like malignant tumors, and bury them in the darkness. The organization is called Black Label.
Regarding the apocalypse now unfolding and the truth behind the living dead, this organization also knows most of what is going on.
It can be said that, in this current apocalypse, the founder of Black Label—who, on the surface, is the chairman of Mochizuki General Hospital, Masamune Mochizuki—is also one of the culprits.
He must bear the sin of having brought about this end of the world.
In the past, he traveled across various battlefields as a mercenary military doctor.
In a certain village, he accidentally discovered something unbelievable.
In that village, people who had lost limbs could directly take the limbs of other dead people and transplant them onto themselves for use, with no problems at all—there was no rejection reaction.
And it should be known that this was a backward place with extremely poor medical standards. Yet they could achieve something like this. It was utterly absurd.
After investigating, he learned that those who were about to receive a transplant would drink an unknown black liquid beforehand. After the transplant was completed, they would drink an unknown red liquid, and the treatment would be considered finished.
So he dug deeper to find out what these two liquids really were.
The black liquid was, in fact, cerebrospinal fluid squeezed from the brains of corpses that had died from some kind of toxin.
The red liquid was the blood of those whose treatment had succeeded.
So, put simply, the conclusion was that the black liquid was a virus, and the red liquid was a vaccine.
Through this uncanny method of use, the human immune system could accept limb transplants without rejection.
In the end, he named the virus D99.
This virus had the following trait: after infection, the immune system would become abnormal, but the corresponding compatible cells would be activated.
As a result, for a long time the cells would not undergo necrosis, and would continue to proliferate rapidly—allowing the body to endure all kinds of transplant surgeries.
In other words, if used properly, then to a surgeon, this was practically the power of a god.
However, this thing was also dangerous. It could easily affect the nervous system and then the brain, causing brain death, and triggering a state where the person behaved as if they had rabies—extremely infectious.
Fortunately, a vaccine existed: the blood of living people.
But that vaccine was far too scarce. More research was needed, and it would be best if mass production could be achieved.
When he returned to that village, unfortunately, the war had already destroyed the place—meaning the vaccine source was gone, leaving only the small residue he had on hand.
And researching the D99 virus on his own made it difficult to develop a vaccine. It would require a huge number of experiments.
The cost of such experiments might be uncontrollable. If he caused an outbreak by accident, it could lead to humanity's extinction.
Therefore, he destroyed all data related to D99, and destroyed almost all samples as well.
Unfortunately, he was not the only person who knew about D99.
For the sake of research, he had assembled a medical team, so information about D99 still leaked.
In the end, samples of D99 also flowed out into the world, and an organization called Syringe continued the research.
To obtain more vaccine, they conducted many experiments. For example, the development of new narcotics was also tied to D99.
Those drugs were then sold across the world, becoming a massive source of funds for the organization.
As for realizing that those drugs were connected to D99—he only discovered that a little over a month ago. People who had used too much of the drug developed abnormalities, were sent to his hospital, and were found to be connected to D99.
With deeper research, Masamune Mochizuki discovered, in horror, that the situation was completely out of control.
This new drug developed on the basis of D99 was like a chronic virus. In the end, it would cause patients to become manic, bloodthirsty, and attack indiscriminately—like a rabies outbreak.
And those who were attacked, once scratched and the like, would become infected, and would quickly suffer the same onset.
According to investigation and inference, from the spread of this drug, about one year later, the world would be filled with rioters everywhere—and at a terrifying rate, they would infect others and increase their "companions."
At that point, the world would be in total chaos.
But what was fortunate was that they discovered this sign early. What was unfortunate was that the apocalypse would arrive early.
The reason it would come early was the solar storm.
This year's solar storm would be unusually severe, meaning more particles would be irradiated onto Earth. This caused those who had taken the new viral drug—no, perhaps not just that new virus; Syringe likely also developed and released other related substances into the market—to undergo changes.
In any case, as long as someone had consumed D99-related substances and carried the virus in their body, the solar storm's influence would cause changes.
Once a critical threshold was reached, the body would mutate violently, the brain would die, and the person would turn into what people called the living dead.
Yes—the living dead, not rioters.
Rioters are berserk, but their brains are not dead—they still have some awareness. So they can still use any weapons available to attack. In other words, almost any weapon humans can use, rioters can also use.
Just imagine it: if those who control state weaponry—especially the most dangerous weapons—turned into rioters, what kind of situation would that be?
It would absolutely be even more terrifying than the living dead.
However, the living dead are stronger than rioters in terms of bodily toughness. They possess terrifying strength—though they move more slowly. As long as you run, you can normally shake them off.
And then, this morning, the largest solar storm struck, and D99 was officially activated.
The collapse of the world began from that moment.
Masamune Mochizuki also suspected that the Syringe organization could not have failed to anticipate this, with no warning signs at all.
On the contrary, what he discovered suggested that they accelerated the spread of the drug.
Thus he obtained some intelligence: Syringe was not merely pursuing godlike surgical power. If that were their only goal, then what meaning would there be in destroying the world?
Their goal was the power of agelessness and immortality.
Yes—back when D99 was being researched, it was discovered that it might contain such power as well.
In fact, before Masamune Mochizuki completely sealed off D99 and destroyed all information, he had already achieved this miracle—but there was only one successful case. He could not be sure it could be replicated, and he did not dare risk the world's destruction.
And that one ageless, immortal individual was not him, and she absolutely could not be allowed to be discovered.
Now, within the Black Label organization he created, two members are operating in Tokonosu City, because they found members of Syringe.
But before they could capture them, D99 was finally activated by this wave of solar storm.
The two members, Mikoto Kiba and Yuuko Sagiri, also reported in. Through a drone's accidental observation, they discovered a mysterious man who was absurdly powerful.
It looked extremely likely that he too was someone strengthened through D99—otherwise it would be impossible for him to possess such power beyond human limits.
Yes. Strengthening through D99—Black Label members, especially combat members, due to certain accidents, also used D99 to revive themselves, and their bodies became enhanced.
As for that man, he did not look like he was with Syringe, and Masamune Mochizuki further confirmed this.
If he was not, then contact would be made.
PS: Triage X and Highschool of the Dead are related—the artist is the same person, and the art style is identical, but the story does not explicitly state that the two worlds share a single unified setting. It is just that certain plot elements feel somewhat connected.
So these two should be considered works that are like parallel worlds.
Here, I have integrated them into a single shared world. So if you have read Triage X, you may find the plot different—because here, the timeline has been merged in one year earlier than the start of Highschool of the Dead.
(End of Chapter)
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