Plague Doctor

Translator: Lonelytree

With a thud, Chen Defa collapsed to the ground at the end of the cavern. Gu Jun could feel the dangerous presence leaving, like the body turned into an empty shell. It felt like death and non-death at the same time…

He had no idea what more he could have done; everything had been settled in mere seconds.

“He’s dead?”

Xue Ba wanted to move forward to check, but Uncle Dan held him back.

“Captain, I don’t think it’s wise to go near it, who knows who kind of fatal virus it might carry.”

Xue Ba heeded the advice and stayed back. He sighed. “Looks like he’s really dead, this is such a shame…”

“There is nothing we can do if it has a death wish.” Lou Xiaoning sighed. Even she could tell that the zombie did not die from their gunshots, but it had surrendered itself to some kind of mysterious force. In any case, after getting Gu Jun’s approval, Xue Ba and Lou Xiaoning headed out of the cavern. They activated the communication channel to ask for reinforcements from the headquarters. Their mission had been completed. Wu Siyu and Uncle Dan kept their guns aimed at the zombie just in case it was just playing dead. Even though Gu Jun thought that was unlikely, he still allowed them to do so because it was better to be safe than sorry. His mental power was at its end; he could not take another zombie threat. For now, it was most important to ensure their mission objective which was to secure a zombie.

Then, Gu Jun would need to try to complete his abyssal mission, which was to conduct an autopsy on a zombie. For that purpose, he sneaked up from the ground and walked over to a secluded corner of the cavern as if to check it out. Then using the same old trick, he pulled out the Carlot Dissecting Scissors from his medic bag and acted surprised as he held it out in his hands. “There is a pair of dissecting scissors here!”

1

“Wait, that looks like the Carlot brand.” Uncle Dan recognized the foreign language symbol and the design style immediately, gasping. “Looks like Lai Sheng Company is involved in this too.”

Gu Jun nodded. The earlier disruption had returned. “They are definitely related to this somehow.”

Wu Siyu was not part of the previous mission inside the banyan tree hole, so she did not say anything.

“The zombie cult, that strange order, Lai Sheng Company, they are all related.” Gu Jun stared at Chen Defa’s body and tightened his grip on the scissors. Chen Defa’s transmutation proved that human beings could be turned into zombies. Who knew how many more of such creatures still resided within the mountains and around Eastern State? Could some of them have evolved enough to mix into the crowd? Were some lying in wait inside the morgue?

“You look weird. What’s on your mind?” Wu Siyu looked at Gu Jun and asked that question because she was sensing a coconut…

“I want to saw its skull open,” Gu Jun mumbled. “Then peel the scalp back to see if it is filled with nightmares.”

“Okay, I get it now.” Wu Siyu turned her eyes up, and like in a comic, she could see the thought bubble forming. A vision of a champagne opener came.

It did not take long for this part of the forest to become rife with activity. The cavalcade and helicopters from Phecda arrived among the din. Large swathes of Phecda members had taken over the scene. They were overjoyed at this discovery. Yao Sinian could barely contain himself. Not even Eastern State, the news had shocked even the headquarters. Zombies! A legendary abnormal creature.

This zombie body was carefully moved into a frozen cabinet by members in hazmat suits. The cabinet would be sealed and transported back to the Medical Department. At the same time, the investigation into the cave, the cave drawings, and the surroundings had started too.

“Commander Yao, I need to head the autopsy of this creature myself,” Gu Jun told Yao Sinian directly. “I have a feeling it will trigger more illusions, and that might lead to more important clues. Let Cai Zixuan and Wang Ruoxiang join me. I will feel more grounded with them in the group.”

These were all truths.

“Okay, I’ll have that arranged,” Yao Sinian agreed easily. The most important thing now was to understand and resolve the Nightmare Illness. “Let the researchers take the necessary samples and scans, and then you can start with the autopsy.”

The Medical Department became busier due to the arrival of this zombie. After their return, the team of five respectively wrote off a quick mission report and headed for a physical check. They rested for a few hours, and it was already the afternoon of the second day. Gu Jun rushed toward the autopsy building. Tagging along were Uncle Dan and Wu Siyu. Even though Wu Siyu was not a medical student, she was still under the responsibility of watching over Gu Jun’s mental state.

Inside a morgue within the Autopsy Building, the lights were bright. A fresh zombie corpse lay on top of the stainless-steel table in the middle of the room. The little clothes that it had on had already been removed. The skin was showing, and it had pretty much necrosed. There was no muscle in sight, which contradicted the explosive power that it had demonstrated. On the surface, its skeletal structure had conspicuous differences to that of a normal human. There were many strange protrusions around its torso. There were multiple gun wounds on its chest and legs. Since they used high-caliber bullets, the wounds were messy and ghastly, greatly increasing the difficulty of the autopsy.

Many cameras were fixed on the zombie. Many people at many places were looking at it. Some were in the building itself, others from the headquarters. There were different expressions behind their eyes. Some burned with strange fire. If not for Gu Jun’s request for an immediate autopsy, the division would not have allowed it. They would have performed some experiments on it first.

A zombie cult? Regardless, Phecda knew too little about these abnormal creatures. Even Elder Tong knew that this was not Phecda’s fault. Even though Phecda was a government body, some secret cults had not only existed for a long time, their highly secretive activity meant that the government could barely get hold of them. It was only recently that Phecda had caught wind of them, and that was only because these cult activities had surfaced. The appearance of the zombies appeared to be an omen for more bad things to come. This placed Phecda under the biggest stress since its inception.

According to the rumors, this threat was not only occurring within China. Reports of supernatural cases were discovered all over the world. A worldwide change was to come.

At that moment, the medical members at the headquarters had their fingers twitching, they could not wait to have their hands on the zombie themselves. As dangerous as the situation at Eastern State was, the headquarters had received quite a large number of transference requests to Eastern State over the past two days. However, they were all denied by their superiors. Therefore, they had gathered around the screen and watched the live feed as they discussed the ongoing autopsy with their colleagues.

“They should start with the limbs and see what is going on under the epidermal layer.”

“What kind of bone structure are those things that protruded out of the wounds around the chest? What could they be?”

“No, they should start with the claws, those pose the least risk to the body should they get it wrong.”

Right then, the people saw a group of people walk into the morgue. Walking at the front was Gu Jun, whom they recognized, and behind him…

… were two people the same age as Gu Jun, one male and one female. The people had read through Cai Zixuan and Wang Ruoxiang’s files. They were Gu Jun’s friends. And this was where their complaint came in. They were picked because ‘they could help stabilize Gu Jun’s mental state’. It felt more like nepotism. It was not that they questioned the professionalism of the Eastern Division’s medical department, but they were jealous of these people. They wished to be inside the morgue themselves.

“I hope they don’t screw this up.”

And then, the strangest image appeared before their eyes. A young woman sitting on a small couch was carried into the room by two members of the Action Department. The couch was hauled into the morgue and placed at the side. The people recognized the girl immediately. She was none other than Wu Siyu, the one who was supposed to keep Gu Jun’s mental state under control…