Plague Doctor

“I’ve seen many illusions where the carcasses were empty. Their souls had already been drained even when they were still alive. Perhaps it is similar to the summoning ritual through sacrifices used by Lai Sheng Company. Some kind of abnormal existence was feasting on their souls, or perhaps the victims themselves were involuntarily summoning some kind of mythical creature… in this case, the zombies.” Gu Jun returned to the fifth floor of the Morgue Building. He entered the office where Prof Qin, Yao Sinian, and the rest were waiting and reported his findings. “I saw an unknown graveyard, and some kind of abnormal creature was breaking into the graves to feast on the dead bodies.”

“Hmm…” Yao Sinian’s face was drawn, and Prof Qin’s brows creased together. If that was the case, then this was far bigger than they thought.

Tang Zhifeng was befuddled. Zombies? It was not that he doubted their existence but that it was truly a discovery that came out of left field.

“I wish to know if Phecda has tracked down any zombies before,” Gu Jun said. “Now or in the past, is there any case of that? It doesn’t matter if they’re dead or alive.”

It was fake to say he did not have anticipation. After all, if there was a sample, he could start the autopsy immediately.

“There were cases of grave robbers and cannibals.” Yao Sinian knew about these things with his clearance. He shook his head and sighed. “But as for the zombies that you described, there might be some recorded rumors about them, but I’m sure there are no actual cases.”

Gu Jun’s heart sank. There had to be something dangerous about this kind of abnormal creature considering the system had classified them under the abyssal mission. Their appearance would bring devastating results. If Phecda had a handle over them, then at least it would prove indirectly that ‘zombies’ were not that unusual. But now…

“I need to relay this news as soon as possible,” Yao Sinian added, “so that the Investigation Department and Action Department can start investigating all the graveyards within the Eastern State immediately.”

“Commander Yao, remind them to be careful,” Gu Jun warned seriously. “I have reason to believe these zombies are highly dangerous, and firearms may not be a guarantee of one’s safety.”

“Of course, the mission will be of the highest security alert.” Yao Sinian walked out with his phone, his jaws locked in determination.

Gu Jun was suddenly reminded of something related to the abnormal creature. He turned to Prof Qin. “I know my clearance is not high enough, but I wish to know more about the condition of the abnormal creatures that we were asked to dissect during the medical skill competition. I know they came from the foreign world. That much is certain.”

He had been meaning to find out more about this, but he had not been given the chance before entering the banyan tree hole. Now he at least had some say within Phecda.

“Of course.” Prof Qin did not look like this request was any big deal. “Everything is green-lit for you now, and that was merely a file of F grade clearance.”

Gu Jun was stunned. ‘Only F grade?’

“Phecda dubbed those creatures ‘Necro-skin’,” Prof Qin said as he had the leader of the autopsy group, He Qin, go and switch on the computer so that Gu Jun could have a look at the file. The computer was connected to Phecda’s network. The database contained files with F and G grade access. With suitable clearance, the members could browse through them. Of course, the G Grade members from the Medical Department still could not view the files of the same grade from the Investigation Department, but Prof Qin’s account had high enough clearance to have cross-department access.

Actually, He Qin had been as confused as Tang Zhifeng was as he listened to Gu Jun’s revelation. In any case, he moved to oblige. After Prof Qin logged into his account and opened the files, Gu Jun sat down before the computer and started to read. So far, Necro-skins had only appeared in groups once. It was around a mountain village in the Southern Eastern State. In that incident, a total of 1,872 Necro-skins appeared to ambush the villagers. Due to timing intervention, the Action Department only paid the price of forty-one wounded and five deaths to vanquish the threat. Most of the deaths and injuries occurred during the scouting phase.

Due to their layer of dead epidermis, they were immune to anesthetic shots. Therefore, most Necro-skins died under heavy artillery. These abnormal creatures had extremely agile bodies and intelligence that was higher than animals. Knowing that they would not win, they started to run and escape. But in the end, they were cornered. Unable to be negotiated with and extremely hostile, all of them died from acute atrophy of the heart after being apprehended.

The ten chest pieces that they were given during the competition came from the corpses of the Necro-skins who were taken down by headshots during the operation. According to the files, the origin of the Necro-skins and the reason for their appearance in the Eastern State were still unknown. Initially, the Investigation Department believed it was an isolated case from the Malformed Banyan Disease, but with the testimony from Gu Jun, there was a suspicion that they were connected.

Then with the proof of the multiple banyan tree hole channels, after Gu Jun destroyed the banyan tree forest, the Investigation Department found a previously undiscovered big banyan tree in the mountain near that village where Necro-skins first appeared. This indirectly verified Gu Jun’s statement. The Necro-skins probably came to this world through that banyan tree channel. However…

“Intelligence higher than animals?” Gu Jun mumbled to himself in confusion. The actions of these Necro-skins recorded in the case and the choice of flight did not show that they had intelligence equal to or higher than human beings. Even though they knew how to move in groups, many animals had that instinct as well. The conclusion Phecda made was that the intelligence of Necro-skins was equal to Neanderthals.

This record did not match the kind of abnormal creature recorded by Raybundy and Landon that destroyed the foreign civilization with hemoptysis.

“Prof Qin.” Gu Jun voiced his suspicion honestly. “I had illusions of the foreign civilization before. From there, I managed to glean the fact that this should be a kind of organism whose intellect is no lower than us humans.”

“Oh? Their average brain volume is at one thousand milliliters.” Prof Qin provided the data. “Chimpanzees log in at 350 to 450 milliliters while us homo sapiens are around 1400 to 1600 milliliters. They have high brain volume and even current research does not understand why they did not react the way their high brain volume would suggest they should.”

Even though the connection between brain volume and intellect had never been confirmed, there had to be some correlation between them.

Gu Jun’s heart sank. An anomaly was never a good thing.

‘Why would this occur? Are they not the same species? Have they mutated or regressed? Or is it a matter of time?’ Gu Jun thought to himself. ‘Time is the hand that changes everything. The destruction of the foreign civilization might have been centuries ago. Necro-skins might have regressed way back then due to some unknown reason, or are the ones that have descended on this world just some lower quality counterfeits?’

Suddenly, this idea popped into his mind.

‘Would the Afterlife Cult know how to create counterfeits or copies of abnormal creatures? But why would they do that? Is it because they do not have enough sacrifices to summon the real deal or lack the power to control them? Could this be related to the zombies that have chosen to appear now?’

Right then, Yao Sinian rushed back into the room. His face was a mixture of heaviness and excitement as he told the room, “The Investigation Department just came upon this discovery. The police in the Eastern State have received reports of grave-robbing since yesterday.”