Plague Doctor

“It’s me! But I am this theatre itself, I’ve used a sweet dream to pull you in here.” Gu Jun looked at Wu Siyu who was looking around with open curiosity and he was excited, he had found the true purpose of the sweet dream bubble. He could feel the previously ownerless sweet dream start to slowly shape itself into Dirty-minded Yu’s desire, her mind was taking gradual control of this place. He gave her a simple explanation of the situation but the most important point was that they could directly communicate with each other here and it would definitely not be monitored.

“So… you are really now a kangaroo?” Wu Siyu gasped. “This is your marsupial pouch? I’m inside your pouch? Eww, gross!”

“How did you even come to that conclusion!” Gu Jun was baffled, he really could not fathom how the girl’s mind worked. “I am still a human being!”

“Phew.” Wu Siyu instantly sighed in relief. “Good, good… I don’t think I want to have such close contact with a kangaroo.”

Gu Jun couldn’t help but chuckle. He could not read her mind but he could sense her joy. However, how many percent of that was due to her discovery of him still being a human was unknown. He said, “I was rescued by a creature called the Zoogs and had been on a long journey. Long story short, I just returned from the dream world yesterday to the real world and I landed in Australia. For now I have only contacted you. Only you know that I am still alive, so what do you mean by the things that you said earlier?”

“You have only contacted me? That’s strange…” Wu Siyu frowned and sat back down. “About an hour ago, I received a call from Elder Tong, he said you have visited many people in their dreams. Technically you did not appear to any of them but there was a voice that informed them that you are still alive and you are currently trapped on the island of the old manor in the dream world. Prof Jiang believed that it was possible the signal was transmitted by you. Maybe you have used the power of dream to broadcast that message. So combined with your previous contact with me, I was brought to believe that was the truth.”

Gu Jun’s mind was boiling from the information. ‘She was informed by Elder Tong?’ But more importantly, “Who is Professor Jiang?”

“Jiang Mingchang, he is the representative from Angell’s Order.” Wu Siyu then gave him a brief history of Angell’s Order and their role in Phecda’s dream world exploration. Turns out in the past half a year, even though Angell’s Order still had not revealed themselves to the public, they had been cooperating with Phecda to conduct many joint researches into the dream world.

The Spell Department had officially been established. His friends like Wang Ruoxiang, Cai Zixuan, Xue Ba and Lou Xiaoning had all been recruited. Combined with the talent search all over the country, there were currently 530 members who had access to the Seven Cryptical Books of Hsan.

Bureaucratically speaking, the Spell Department was directly under the headquarters. Temporarily it was more like a special Special Mobile Force because the members still had to report to their original postage while clearing up time to train their mental power and learn spells. In other words, during missions, Wang Ruoxiang was still primarily a doctor, Xue Ba an investigator and Lou Xiaoning a marksman. With regards to Wu Siyu, she was currently a member from the Recreational Department affiliated to the Spell Department and also the only one who had access to the tome who was not from the Spell Department itself.

Since the team leader Gu Jun was declared dead, the Problematic Team had been officially suspended.

“You are now the face of the organization.” Wu Siyu told him, “Themed activities like ‘learning to follow Gu Jun’s example’ have been organized many times. A statue of your image has been built at Eastern State’s Medical Department as well, but personally I don’t think it bears any close resemblance to you. The hands are too big.”

Gu Jun thought to himself, ‘that was probably how the legend of the Phecda Hero came to be’. According to Siyu, the 530 members were selected from different departments across the country, some came from Angell’s Orders while others were new recruits. Gu Jun could not determine without investigation that the traitor would be among the members of Angell’s Order or the new recruits. After all, Phecda would have done a heavy background check on them before accepting them. Furthermore, the order had indeed been a great help during their last mission. The most likely situation was both Prof Jiang and Elder Tong were being led by their noses and slowly corralled into the mastermind’s evil plan.

“Did Elder Tong mention how many people got the dream yesterday night? And are there any names?”

“I did not ask for details but Elder Tong said both Ruoxiang and Zixuan got it. I’m supposed to be on holiday leave because of this, I was summoned back to the headquarters. I’ll be taking a plane this afternoon.”

“Hmm…” A chill gripped Gu Jun. These people who received the dream were either targeted individuals or accomplices to the traitors. He was thinking, could this be a trap? Using his rescue mission as a goal to lure these people into the dream world to kill them?

Gu Jun thought back to the legend he heard from the land’s travelers. According to them, only the Phecda Hero and Goddess of Hope died during the golden era but he also knew that legend was often embellished and exaggerated. Furthermore, one had to consider the impact the alternative truth would have on the tribe’s morale. What if Dirty-minded Yu was not the only one who succumbed to permanent slumber? The revelation of a mass massacre would greatly lower the tribe’s morale…

“By the way, why do we need to keep this a secret?” Wu Siyu asked.

“Something happened to me in the dream world.” Gu Jun gave a deep sigh. “I got from a reliable source that there is currently a group of traitors residing inside Phecda.”

“Ah?” Wu Siyu’s brows creased deeply. “So you’re trying to smoke them out… Then it’s possible the rescue signal is a trap, no wonder Elder Tong was curious why I have not received the signal. Actually I have not fallen asleep yesterday night, I wonder if I would have received the signal if I did.”

‘She did not sleep?’ Gu Jun asked. Wu Siyu explained that since he told her not to sleep, she did not. If he did not reach out to her yesterday night… and she had fallen asleep like normal, would she have heard the signal too? This could be a breach in the enemy’s plan… Or Gu Jun had fallen into his own hypnotic trick without even realizing it. When hope aligned with a supposition, one was more willing to buy into it.

“Then what should we do now?” Wu Siyu asked, “Should we inform Elder Tong?”

“Dirty-minded Yu, the situation now is very precarious…” Gu Jun said darkly. According to her, Elder Tong had also been studying the tome. To be honest Gu Jun had expected nothing less. After all, Elder Tong was the leader of the Spell Department, naturally he would come into contact with it. “Spells can change people’s mental power and unfortunately, even their mind. Until we can be sure, we mustn’t make too close of a contact with any of these 530 people.” It felt quite uncomfortable because he would need to build this wall between his mentors and friends. Now Gu Jun understood why this statement was written at the first page of Carlot Academy’s spell book, ‘Humanity is built on the foundation of common power, so when a common individual obtains uncommon powers, they will become something else, moving further and further from the beauty and ugliness that comprise humanity. Anyone who comes into contact with spells will be forever changed by it.’

The acquiring of super power was in itself a sacrifice.

530 members, there was no telling where their loyalty lay. Any one of the members could have started with pure intention but things could change over time…

Could some start to feel an essential difference between themselves and the common people? Would they start to believe in elitism? If they had superior power, why shouldn’t they govern over the commoners?

Furthermore, there were dark forces who were already ready to feed into such thoughts…

“Changes?” Wu Siyu was reminded of something and she said, “Do you still remember what that grey-bearded old man said about ‘the real choice coming after the 3rd chapter’? The department has done some research on this. While there are no physical changes to those who have finished studying the third chapter, there are notable changes in their way of thinking.”

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