Plague Doctor

Translator: Lonelytree

The scorching sun toasted the desert. Gu Jun led the group several times around the transmission tower, they found in total 57 headless bodies and they were arranged in the spiral triangle pattern. For now, he told everyone to refrain from touching any of the corpses, they might be contagious. Then he ordered Malachite to pluck a few branches from the nearby trees. Malachite used the branch to poke at the shoulder of one of the male adults. He said instantly, “It feels like I’m touching a rock.”

Gu Jun tried the same with another branch, he instantly understood what Malachite meant. The body appeared to be a mummified corpse but he was unable to move it an inch no matter how hard he pushed. It was the same when others tried it. The action was repeated with the other corpses. Even with the corpse of children, all of them failed to move it even if they combined their strength together. These headless corpses seemed to have melded into the ground.

“These people have turned into stone?” Kathlyn gasped.

“Impossible.” Cers Wang surprised them by explaining, “The main components of stone are silicate and silicon, those elements cannot be derived from the human body.” The land’s travellers shivered because they were all reminded of the same thing, ‘The Petrification Illness, the legendary sickness that could turn human beings into stone…’

“That might be true on Earth.” Gu Jun looked around, “But we’re in an abnormal space, we still have no idea how anything works in here.” The group was silent. Suddenly, they saw a dark blue car driving past the highway.

“What is that?”

“Another group?”

“We should go check it out but be careful.” Gu Jun said as he raced back to the street. After his mental corruption lowered, his body became more agile. The most imminent question on his mind was, ‘the fact that they are in this abnormal space now was due to a careless mistake or a purposeful trap?’ This new arrival might give him the answer. When they reached the street, they waited for a while and saw the same blue car return from the other end.

“Hey!” Kathlyn waved to stop them. It was a Caucasian family inside the car, they were the Jacksons and their 7 years old daughter, Holly. They were just passing by, they were not even heading towards Warburton, but they seemed to be trapped in the same ordeal as Gu Jun’s group was. Kathlyn explained to them the situation.

“You have to be kidding me…” Naturally Mr. Jackson refused to believe her. Combined with his caution of the man in the mask, he rolled up the window and stepped on the gas. But not long after that, the family returned to the same spot, once, twice, thrice… Mr. Jackson tried to drive backwards but eventually they ended up where they started… with Gu Jun’s group.

After the Jacksons, more vehicles entered this space. There were 5 cars and 1 large truck. 3 nervous families and 2 couples who found this to be quite exciting. The trucker could not stop cursing. Now 18 more people were trapped here. A strange wind flew from the direction of Warburton, carrying with it 18 yellow papers, one for each new arrival. Taking in all these, Gu Jun could basically confirm that the endless loop setup took in all the innocent passer-by…

The people panicked and complained, those who refused to stay got back into their vehicles and continued to drive but as expected, it was to no avail. When they discovered the corpses, some screamed. The couple with tattoos instantly took out their phones to share this on the internet. Kathlyn and Annie tried their best to persuade these people to stay back from the corpses on the account that they might be contagious. The families with the children nodded nervously and stayed back but the trucker and 2 couples refused to listen. The couple with the tattoos was particularly uncooperative.

“Who gave you people the right to command us around?” The bald, tattooed man purposely used his feet to kick at the corpse, “You’re just trapped here earlier than we did!”

“Just ignore him and stay away.” Gu Jun persuaded Kathlyn and the rest from having conflict with the man, then he turned to the families, “If you treasure your lives, stay away from those corpses.” Naturally Gu Jun hoped that the innocents would be spared but he had no time to babysit people. Having conflict would only worsen the situation. ‘What is happening here? What is going on back at the headquarters? Are these two things connected?’ Without a phone signal, he could not contact Wu Siyu or anyone else. Gu Jun walked to the side to try to click open the cotton candy dream in his mind. He opened the door to allow the audience to walk in. He summoned again and again, “Wu Siyu, Dirty-minded Yu!” But there was no answer, the audience member did not take on her appearance.

‘Dirty-minded Yu, what is going on with you…’ The anxiety in Gu Jun’s heart grew as the faces of his friends and mentors flashed before him.

…

The voice did not taste salty, she did not feel the connection… Wu Siyu realized the more she tried to argue, the deeper the wariness in the way others looked at her. Xue Ba said, “We were not afraid before, why should we be afraid now? The risk is worth taking.” Lou Xiaoning had confidence in the deployment of firepower. “We have snipers, drones and missiles in case of contingency.” Cai Zixuan even had the time to go to the canteen to prepare ingredients for his soup. “So that Tycoon Jun can taste them right away when he returns tonight.”

“But what if it really is him?” Wang Ruoxiang argued, “Gu Jun has saved me in the nightmare world, I owe him this.”

Siyu failed to persuade anyone, if anything, she was being persuaded by them to join the mission. As the voice said, they needed as many people as they could gather and Siyu might be the key. The kangaroo warned her from trusting anyone… but Siyu was cornered and the emergency number could not be reached….

In the end, Wu Siyu decided to take the risk and confide in Elder Tong, “Actually I have already gained contact with Gu Jun yesterday night… Yes, I know how coincidental that sounds, but it is true! What I’m telling you is true! He has his own mission and he doesn’t need us to open this portal for him.”

“Siyu, I understand your feelings.” Elder Tong sighed, “There are suspicions about this whole thing, like why didn’t he message me? But do you think I can stop them from doing this? That is Ah Jun we’re talking about! The Spell Department is always tasked to be at the frontline when it comes to missions like this and they’re all ready to make the necessary sacrifice.”

“But I have really made contact with him, I even talked to him on the phone, well, he did not really speak… but he had his reasons not to…” She explained further to Elder Tong, revealing everything, including the existence of a traitor and Gu Jun’s message for her to keep it a secret. But after Elder Tong’s investigation and consideration, he still could not bring him to trust Siyu fully, “What you’re saying is a possibility but so is the situation described by that voice. Unless you can channel a direct conversation between me and Ah Jun, I cannot halt this mission. However I will take necessary precautions based on what you said. Zheng Jialiang will not be given a weapon during the mission and I will mobilize more people from the Action Department to tighten up security.”

Wu Siyu felt helpless. She understood that with the little information that she had given, it was understandable that Elder Tong adopted this attitude. Curse the phone for not working at this crucial moment. She wanted to lie down on the ground. ‘Dirty-minded Jun, I’m sorry, I’m too stupid and lazy to stop them from wanting to save you… To stop them and save you, one only has one chance… Wait a minute…’ Suddenly, Siyu realized there was one thing that she could still do.

Night was coming, the number was still out of service, the team was about to depart.

“I’ve decided, I might be the key.” Wu Siyu told Wang Ruoxiang and the rest, “I will join the team.”

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