Plague Doctor

Translator: Lonelytree

Gu Jun listened to the dial tone from the phone and sighed helplessly. ‘So it failed after all…’ He turned to look at the other customers, took in Malachite and the rest who were still pointing at the television, as well as Kathlyn who was on her phone in the corner. She and Tom had been missing for more than 10 days already, she was calling home to assure their families that they were fine, to call off the police search.

‘What to do?’ Gu Jun was about to put the phone down when he realized that Dirty-minded Yu must have had her reason to bring up something like a horror movie cliché apropos to nothing. There were two possibilities to this, onem it just came to her for no reason, which was unlikely considering the team training was so long ago and horror movies was just one of their many topics, this seemed much too coincidental to be true, so it had to be the other possibility which was the ESP connection!

‘Is it because of me calling her name internally that it reminded her of that conversation we had?’ Gu Jun’s heart trembled, indeed that was a possibility. He glanced around. The place was noisy and crowded, it might hinder his ESP connection, dampening its effect.

“Kathlyn,” Gu Jun called. When she was done with her own call, he said, “Bring us to the closest motel, somewhere quiet.” Other than to contact Wu Siyu, Gu Jun still needed to deal with Malachite and the rest. The plan was to hypnotize them to lure out their original personalities.

“Okay.” Kathlyn nodded. She was in need of a rest herself after such a long trek through the desert. Before they left, she went to grab some food from the diner counter. She ordered 5 large coke, one for each of them. She exclaimed happily, “Drink up, my friends, I am sure you’ll like this.” She bit on the straw and took a large sip. Instantly Peacock gasped, “Ah, this is…” Malachite, Gold, Amberlite and Aquamarine took a more careful sip from their own cups. Gold almost spat it out, Aquamarine’s face scrunched up and Amberlite could not stop coughing. This ‘thing’ had a texture even stranger than the rye wine at Dylath-Leen, it was not spicy but it sure came with a unique experience…

“This is what we call the happiness juice, welcome to the golden era.” Gu Jun took a large gulp of his own. He used to have a whole bottle after every surgery. With the sugary taste on his tongue again, that memory felt like a lifetime ago. They left the convenience store and walked towards the nearest motel since the Ford was too small to fit 6 people and a rock. This was a normal township but since it was the pitstop between the inland and the shoreline, there were some shops and hotels for tourists. When they passed a boutique, Kathlyn went in for a quick shop. She used her credit card to buy everyone a set of comfortable casual outfits. When they arrived at the 2 story tall hotel, it was also Kathlyn who handled everything. As per the Nightmare Man’s request, she asked for 2 rooms, 1 small and 1 big. She registered for both with her ID.

Thankfully it was not the tourist season so the elderly woman at the reception did not ask for more identification and documents, she only demanded that they keep the noise to a bare minimum. The sound of water came from the bathroom as warm, clean water gushed out from the shower, washing away the grime. Gu Jun rewarded himself with a good bath. His mental corruption rate was still as high as 24.68 percent, the missions that he had been secretly doing in the past few days only managed to lower it by 0.1 percent. Regardless, he felt more refreshed after the bath. The vines around his legs had all wilted away, leaving behind some surface scars. However, his whole body and face were covered in purplish-red scars…

When he saw his own reflection in the mirror, he was startled because it was not the familiar Gu Jun who looked back at him…’Will I stay this way forever? Is there a chance for me to recover?’ As anxious as Gu Jun was, this was not the most imminent problem.

He put on the new set of clothes, a long-sleeved t-shirt and khakis. He used a rubber band to tie his grown hair into a ponytail and walked out of the bathroom. Kathlyn and the rest were in the bedroom. The land’s travelers had seen the nightmare man in person before but this was the first time Kathlyn had seen it and it obviously had quite an effect on her.

“I’m sorry…” She quickly shook her head realizing how rude it was to stare. “It’s just… rather unexpected.”

“It’s okay.” Gu Jun smiled at her. “I used to be quite handsome so I’m used to people staring but I guess now it’ll be for a different reason.” He had Kathlyn take care of the others while he retreated to the smaller room that did not have an attached bathroom. After he entered the simple wooden-floored bedroom, Gu Jun sat down on the chair near the bed. There was an old black landline sitting on the dresser. He tried to remember their moment of telepathy in Dreamlands and Wu Siyu’s voice when he was semi-conscious until a ripple surged through his heart.

“Dirty-minded Yu, I hope you’re more receptive this time.” He said to himself as he picked up the phone. He made the same call again…

With a click, the call was connected. “Hello?” The lazy voice said, the tone was unchanged from before.

“…” Gu Jun remained silent but this time he closed his eyes and tried to form a connection in his mind. Internally he shouted, ‘Wu Siyu, Dirty-minded Yu, Tamarine! I, Gu Jun, am not dead, I am back!’ This continued for about 10 seconds until her yawn came through the line. “Who is it, is anyone there?”

Gu Jun made his breathing more conspicuous to signify that someone was indeed there. He mumbled silently, ‘Gu Jun, Gu Jun, Gu Jun…’

“Pervert much?” Wu Siyu said with another yawn. “O well, be my guest. You’re the one calling me so the bill’s on you.”

Gu Jun was getting desperate, he could hear the television volume being picked up in the background and then came the sound of someone munching on chips. This young woman had clearly put down the phone, as she returned to her drama-chasing… According to legend, she would have died in her sleep, is it because she had entered the Dreamlands as they thought or could it be something as mundane as high cholesterol level due to obesity?

‘How could she be so free?’ This thought crossed Gu Jun’s mind. ‘Wait, she has transferred to the Recreational Department, hasn’t she?’ At that moment, a satisfied burp came from the line. Gu Jun was still trying to summon her but it was to no avail. But something suddenly caught his eye, the television. Perhaps the key was not for her to hear it, but to see it. After all, they had managed 100 percent accuracy rate in their Ganzfeld Experiment. ‘I should try vision telepathy, that might be more effective.’

Gu Jun kept the phone connected while he picked up Tom’s phone to find a picture of salt on the internet. ‘My mental connection with Dirty-minded Yu should be strong, our telepathy would have left some traces between us, this distance is nothing!’ He focused on the picture on the phone and like how he did it so many times in their Ganzfeld training, he transferred the image to her. After about 10 seconds, suddenly, Gu Jun could hear Wu Siyu’s curious voice saying, “Hmm… what is this taste… Salt?”

‘It’s working!’ He exclaimed internally but quickly tampered himself. He could not allow any distraction. He searched for another picture and sent it again, this time it was the picture of a surgical knife. The volume of the television was lowered, Wu Siyu appeared to have picked up the phone again. Her voice that came next sounded so close. “Dirty-minded Jun?”