Plague Doctor

Under the night sky, the Eastern City was still as busy as ever as a bustling metropolis should be. The commerce pavilion was filled with citizens out for a good time, couples who came out for a date, families strolling the streets sharing their time together, customers belching with satisfaction as they walked out from the different shops and restaurants… The crowd slowly dwindled after midnight, and peace descended on the city.

This was the life for the everyday city. Even though there had been some unusual news popping up on the internet recently, it was just another conversation topic.

However, behind the scenes, there were people working hard to maintain this peace. At Gu Rong Village, situated in the countryside north of Eastern State, in the command center of the emergency unit, the workers still had not left their posts, and the machines were still running. The main commander, Yao Sinian, had just finished a meeting with the headquarters. He leaned against the chair to take a quick break and drifted somewhat into a fitful sleep…

The people around him piped down lest they disturbed the commander’s rest. It had been five days since the Demon Hunters entered through the banyan tree hole. Commander Yao had rested less than ten hours in total over the past few days. This man in his sixties looked like a dead man walking. This was a much-needed rest.

Earlier, the groundwave signal that temporarily became clear started to get distorted again after Xue Ba reported that the team had reached the hundredth step of the underground tunnel. And then it sounded like they were assaulted by a sharp gale. It was then that the signal snapped. The connection had failed to resume since then. Over the past few days, the emergency unit had tried many different methods to regain contact, but there was no breakthrough. The Abnormal Energy Investigation Group lacked any progress as well. Actually, by now, the silent consensus was that the Demon Hunters and Gu Jun had all perished inside the abnormal space.

“We should let Commander Yao rest.” Prof Qin let out a long sigh. The man shouldn’t work so hard at his age.

“Elder Qin, you should go and rest as well.” One of the vice commanders, Leader Meng of the Eastern State Investigation Department, also shook his head with a sigh. “Phecda cannot afford to lose you guys.”

Lose? When he said that word, Leader Meng’s middle-aged face shadowed over. How was he supposed to answer to the families and friends of the Demon Hunters? Back when Xue Ba married his wife from the Scientific Research Department, Meng He was their witness. Not to mention Yang Henan’s wedding as well as…

“Sigh, don’t worry, this old bag of bones can still carry on.” Even though that was what Prof Qin said, he had aged quite a bit over the past few days. He was personally responsible for Uncle Dan’s training, Zhang Huohuo came up in the ranks under his guidance, and he was the one who recommended the youngest Gu Jun. With this kind of result, Prof Qin suffered no less than anybody else. The atmosphere in the room was low. The disappointment stuck at the heart of everyone there like actual knives, and some of the members even had tears in their eyes. They had failed, another unmitigated disaster. After the sacrifice of 444 members of the Action Department, they had the death of a Special Mobile Force on their hands.

Prof Qin walked silently to the door. Could the starlight in the sky provided some guidance for them?

Right at that moment, the signal interceptor inside the barracks received some new information. All the banyan trees that carried the Malformed Banyan Disease all over the country had collapsed one after another!

First came the news from Sui Tian Village, then Gao Gang Village, then San Tang Village… The big monitor in the barrack immediately connected to the live feed of the various locations. The infected banyan trees in these villages that had been vacated due to the epidemic started to shrivel and lose their lives just like the one at Gu Rong Village. What was going on? They stared at the image on the screen and could not believe their eyes. Yao Sinian was woken up, and his face darkened even further. He was currently 65. He had been with Phecda for forty years, but he was still chilled by the things that he was seeing. Was the situation finally going out of control?

The whole command center was tossed into nervousness due to this sudden change, but before anyone could come up with the draft to send teams out to investigate, another call came in. It was the Eastern State Medical Department. There had been changes to the humanoid banyan tree. The big monitor immediately gained contact with the Medical Department. Yao Sinian frowned deeply. Prof Qin and the rest stood watching behind him. A living humanoid banyan tree was shown deposited silently inside the prison cell. The strange creature appeared to have stopped functioning like the light had been taken out of it.

Initially, all the skulls on its body would keep wailing, but this humanoid banyan tree had lost that reflex. Even if a living person got close to it now, the skulls would not come alive and do anything. The whole phenomenon with the humanoid banyan tree was weird, but it had gotten weirder.

“Elder Qin, what do you think?” Yao Sinian asked. When it came to medical knowledge, he still referred to Prof Qin.

“It feels like it has perished from cerebral death.” Prof Qin made an educated guess. “But we’ll need to investigate further to know for sure.”

Both changes to the infected trees and the humanoid banyan tree occurred at the same thing. This was too much of a coincidence not to have been triggered by something. But how come it felt like… the epidemic was taking a turn for the better? It was as if the central transmission central of the Malformed Banyan Disease had suffered a great blow.

The people could not wrap their heads around it. The recent loss made them turn their thoughts to the worst-case scenario. Could this be a new trap set by the enemy?

But right then, another call came in. Once the member answered, and his face was flushed with both shock and joy. He gasped aloud. “What? Really‽ No way!”

He looked at the people around him. He was so excited he had difficulty catching his breath. He immediately connected the call to the barrack’s broadcast system.

“It’s for real!” A delighted male voice echoed through the command center. It was filled with disbelief. “Just like that, they came out from the banyan tree. Everyone is still alive! Lin Mo lost a leg, and Lou Xiaoning lost an eye, but they are all still alive! Captain Xue said they have destroyed the leaders of Lai Sheng Company, and Gu Jun said the source of the Malformed Banyan Disease has been cleansed.”

Just like that Yao Sinian’s expression changed drastically. “What‽”

Prof Qin was stunned. Leader Meng practically jumped out of his chair. The other vice commanders were shaking.

The younger among them couldn’t help but scream in joy. All the Demon Hunters had returned alive!

“They are currently staying where they are, waiting for the organization to send people over to help them with decontamination.” The voice on the other end had settled down, even though the cheer was still there. “We have not approached them or done anything. They look perfectly fine, albeit a bit dehydrated.”

Soon, the command center connected to a camera on the scene. The dark night was chased away by the spotlights. At the lair of Lai Sheng Company, which had been taken over by Phecda, the location where 444 sacrifice of the Action Department employees was made, the whole group of Demon Hunters was waiting. They looked worse for wear, but it was clear that they were still alive. Xue Ba, Uncle Dan, Gu Jun, Lou Xiaoning… all sixteen of them were there.

Seeing this, the people in the command center erupted in celebration. The dark clouds that had hung over this place for days finally dissipated. The Demon Hunters had returned with all their members intact!

Even Lin Mo, whom everyone thought had died, had survived the attack of the Subterrain Giant Worm. He had only lost a leg and looked as healthy as the rest.

“Hahaha!” Even though he knew it was too early to be so optimistic, Yao Sinian could not help the laughter coming out of his mouth. “Great, this is great news!’

“Yes.” Prof Qin also sighed in great relief. He turned to look at Meng He. “Leader Meng, I know what you’re thinking, but let the people celebrate for now.”

“Ha ha.” Leader Meng nodded with a laugh. His eyes filled with tears moved away from the Demon Hunters shown on screen, and he said chokingly, “Yes, of course you’re right.”

For now, everyone was in good cheer, so why sully the mood? After all, who knew when a celebration like this would happen again?

Tomorrow was destined to be a busy day. They had to isolate the demon hunters, help with the disinfection, and conduct physical and mental assessments to check whether they were the same people who had entered the banyan tree at Gu Rong Village. Then they had to be separated and questioned one by one to fully reconstruct the events that had transpired inside the abnormal space.

There were so many things waiting to be done, and some would definitely rain on this parade.

So, for now, celebrate.