Plague Doctor

“It’s nothing. An idea just struck me. That’s all,” Gu Jun answered vaguely. He thought about it and decided to find out more while he still had the special access granted to him. He turned to ask the command center to send over the carcass of a normal human being and a necro-skin. He just wanted the heads. Everyone was confused, but the command center still moved to oblige while Gu Jun’s group continued with their autopsy. Soon, members from the Action Department came in with two mobile autopsy tables, each carried a head sample.

Gu Jun’s dissection of the zombie stopped. He moved toward the sink in the morgue to clean the scalpel before turning to the head of the normal human.

“What is he up to now?” In the headquarters’ conference room, even the experts like Xiao Huiwen had no idea what was happening. Was Gu Jun going to do a live comparison?

Wang Ruoxiang and the rest did not interrupt Gu Jun with questions but moved to help him. Gu Jun used the same seriousness to mark the incisions and peel back the skin…

It did not take long for the feeling of rejuvenation to leave him and for fatigue to replace it. Gu Jun could feel his eyelids sinking. Then, Gu Jun moved to dissect the head of the Necro-skin. This was the first time he had seen a Necro-skin at such a close distance. This was a highly preserved sample; it was unharmed and untouched. The face still remained roughly human, but the cuticle layer had necrosed, preventing any kind of identification. The lack of facial muscles meant that it was devoid of any human expression as well. Gu Jun sliced off a thin layer of the cuticle, and the rejuvenation sprang forth, warming his heart. Though, the effect was not as strong as when he was dissecting the zombie. This proved that the rejuvenation had more to do with the autopsy of an abnormal creature than the system’s abyssal mission.

‘It only works with abnormal creatures? Why?’ Gu Jun studied the face of the Necro-skin and then turned to observe the canine-face of the zombie. Enlightenment slowly dawned on him. ‘The Necro-skin and zombies are an abnormality in the eyes of human beings, but the inverse is also true. It is the dichotomy between familiarity and unknown, normal and anomaly. Abnormality meant a difference in parts like organs, structure, form, layer… a different life form. But it was all a matter of perspective, and the foreign civilization might not have the same perspective as a human civilization. For example, from the perspective of a mouse, cats might be the cruelest abnormal creature in the world, but isn’t it at the same time a cute house pet for many cat lovers?

‘Human beings referred to these abnormal creatures as monsters, marking them with cruelty, but in the eyes of the foreign civilization, perhaps they were not. Human beings and these abnormal creatures, they are all creations of the Goddess of Life, right? And the Goddess of Life has imparted to them the responsibility to master the truth of life through the autopsy and observation of different life forms…

‘The Carlot Doctors, acting as the emissaries of the Goddess of Life, can thus gain superhuman mental power this way… It could be their reward for lending their services to the Goddess of Life. The increase in mental power can help them approach the understanding and utilization of spells, and that naturally gives them a better affinity with spells compared to normal citizens… Then it would have explained the great respect accorded to the doctors at the foreign civilization and their goal of pursuing the study of medicine to its very end.’

The study of medicine was a method for the doctors to gain and transmute power. Gu Jun looked at the abnormal creatures. By abandoning a fixed perspective, one could always find some new understandings.

The zombie’s horrid face, its collapsed torso, the limbs that had bent due to mutation… had a unique touch of evolution to them. Gu Jun yearned to understand it. The more he learned from them, the stronger the sense of rejuvenation. In other words, the fresher the autopsy, the more he would gain.

But that was not the end of the questions Gu Jun had.

‘What is the theory behind this? Does one need to master some magical technique taught at Carlot Academy, or is it sufficient with just the Carlot instruments?’

When Gu Jun first dissected the chest of the Necro-skin, he did not feel this sense of rejuvenation. The difference between then and now was the instrument used. Immediately, Gu Jun moved to test out the theory. He swapped out the Carlot Scalpel for a normal one. He performed some dissections on the three cadavers, and as he expected, there was no response within him. The Carlot medical instruments were absolutely necessary for this transmutation of energy. They were a kind of magical instrument.

“Zixuan, why don’t you try and use this scalpel?” Gu Jun continued with his experiment. ‘Did it only work with him, or can the experience be replicated on everyone else?’

The group looked at him with confusion as Cai Zixuan accepted the strangely designed scalpel. He had no idea where it came from. “I don’t think I can get used to this. It is too light.”

“Just give it a try.” Gu Jun had him dissect the two samples and then asked, “Do you feel anything special?”

Cai Zixuan shook his head. “Not really, other than the surprising lightness of the scalpel.”

Gu Jun then ushered Wang Ruoxiang over. He knew she had high spirituality too. She had just missed the chance to encounter the anomalies, or else she would be in the same boat as him.

After some procedures, Wang Ruoxiang also shook her head. “There’s nothing special that I feel, but I can see myself getting used to utilizing a scalpel like this.”

Gu Jun could see that for himself. Wang Ruoxiang started carefully, afraid that she might not be able to control the amount of force used, but it did not take long for her incisions to be smooth and masterful again. This proved indirectly that she had the talent to become a Carlot Doctor, but how come she did not feel the sense of rejuvenation?

Perhaps some kind of Carlot technique was needed and he was a special case. Since he had the power of Landon within him, he had technically mastered those Carlot techniques already.

Regardless, Gu Jun had reached a useful conclusion. He could now increase and improve his maximum mental power by performing autopsies on these abnormal creatures using the Carlot Instruments. The result of his last mental power assessment was 75. He believed it might have dropped down to below seventy now due to his exhaustion from evoking the statements summoning the master of R’yleh. However, in the morgue, Gu Jun could feel his mental power recovering. He felt like a new person. This was a welcome discovery! Gu Jun turned to the zombie corpse and a new passion burned in his eyes.

Ganzfeld training could improve one’s mental power, but it was too slow, and the progress would only decrease over time as the subject became more familiar with the experiment. However, Gu Jun now desperately needed stabler mental power, or else a trigger of heavy illusion or casting of a spell might send his heart into shut down again. He needed more mental power!

So, the discovery of a new training method, one that supplemented his own responsibility and the system mission, was a surprising and joyful reward. Behind the mask, Gu Jun’s lips broke into a big grin. No one noticed this, but Wu Siyu on the couch stared straight at him. “Captain, is there anything wrong?”

‘How come it feels like that Dirty-minded Jun is being aroused? Really, here?’

“Ah Jun, do you need to take a rest?” Hearing that, Uncle Dan also noticed something was different. In the past, Ah Jun would be so focused when he was in the middle of an operation, it was like the world around him would fade away. Today, however, he had been bustling about like a busy homemaker, asking people to do things that had seemingly nothing to do with the actual zombie autopsy.

“Why would I need a rest? I am not a certain someone who needs a fluffy couch,” Gu Jun said loud enough for the intended ears. Wu Siyu pouted and glared at him. Gu Jun ignored her and had the Action Department members move the other two autopsy tables out of the room so that they could focus on the autopsy of the zombie.

Currently, the dissection of its face was almost complete, but the mission progress was only one percent. If this was the yardstick, then the time limit of one week was not that long. Only by continuous working could the abyssal mission be completed. A detailed autopsy was a long and arduous process. Other than the interested parties, individuals like Yao Sinian left the monitors to busy themselves with other things. Prof Shen and Elder Tong, however, stayed behind to discuss the latest development of the case while studying the autopsy.