Plague Doctor

A flea was a species of ectoparasite, of which there were 2500 plus known species in the world. An adult flea was generally 3 mm in size and they fed on blood. With a slap, the Zoog clapped heavily on his stomach, he swatted a flea, which attempted to pierce its sharp mouth under his skin, to death. But soon another took the dead flea’s place. The Zoog’s paws kept swatting at them. At the same time, he screamed, “Help! Help! Have mercy, I am just passing!”

The walls and ceiling were closing in. They were now less than 1 metre away, squeezing the team in the middle. Endless worms and parasites swallowed them up like a swamp of disgusting and sticky waters.

“Ah…” Lou Xiaoning howled deeply. Flies and other worms flitted about her face. They were too small to be shot down by firearms and spells did not appear to work on them either. The others felt itchiness all over their bodies like every inch of their skin was occupied by these worms. Ma Feng, who was being carried by Gold, had fresh blood leak out from his layers of bandage. The blood attracted the worms. No matter how hard Gold tried to chase them away, the flies settled on the bandage and refused to budge. The bandage soon turned black. A thick layer of worms stuck stubbornly to it. Ma Feng moaned in pain. The worms tried to drill through the gauze to bite at his intestines…

“Ready to cast the Ancient Seal!” Gu Jun ordered in anger. He did not want to use any spell or the Ancient Seal earlier because he did not want to act too rashly inside the House of Worm but now his hands were forced. “Try using the Ancient Seal!” His right hand swiftly drew out a mental imprint and shot it at the wall on his right. Instantly, there was a harrowing wail. It came from an indeterminate source, it appeared to come from the wall but also echoed throughout the whole manor at the same time. Layers of worms shrivelled and dried up, flaking off the wall. The Ancient Seal was effective!

Lou Xiaoning and the rest followed suit. Other than Gold who had his hands occupied, the team split into groups of three. Each was responsible for 2 sides of walls and the ceiling. They casted the Ancient Seal as they pushed their way forward down the darkened corridor. Even though they managed to force the walls from closing in further, the continuous usage of the Ancient Seal drained their mental power quickly. Gu Jun knew this was only a temporary solution. Thankfully, the House did not counter by summoning more worms.

Wait… Was that a light he saw in front?

“Hold on, the exit is just ahead!” Gu Jun yelled. The Zoog jumped down from his shoulder and slithered forward. In less than 10 seconds, the Zoog’s shrill voice could be heard, “There’s a lobby here. Quickly, there are no worms here!” That news rejuvenated them. They casted a few more Ancient Seals. Right before they were about to collapse, they plunged into the pool of weak light. The group crumbled to the ground and their heavy breathing echoed around the room…

Behind them, the corridor of worms closed unceremoniously with a groan. The trace of a pathway had completely disappeared. The worms and flies, which stuck to them so stubbornly earlier, suddenly shrivelled up and died like their souls had been sucked out.

“That was so close…” The Zoog collapsed on the purple carpet. ‘What is this place?’ Gu Jun stood up slowly as he looked around. His guard was still up…

This was a pentagonal lobby. There was a large fireplace at each corner, currently, they were empty and unlit. There was a large pentagonal wooden table placed in the middle of the room. On the table were plates of food, there were fresh fruits, roasted meats, wines and juices…

Purple dining cloth draped over the table. Purple carpet covered the purple. Purple tapestries hung down the walls. Their meaning was unknown. Other than that, this was a completely enclosed room. There was no exit but based on what happened earlier, the exit could probably materialize any time it wanted. ‘Is the House of Worm sentient? Or that was just a trap? Is it a calculated prediction that we would reach this room or were we supposed to die in the corridor earlier?’ Before these questions were answered, Gu Jun would not touch anything in the room so carelessly.

After a quick sweep of their surroundings, Gu Jun returned to check on Ma Feng. After the series of hurried activities, Ma Feng’s internal organs were injured. That was observable from the blood pooling on the bandage. Gu Jun was overwhelmed by a sense of helplessness. He wanted to save Ma Feng but his experience as a doctor knew this was an impossible case. With the amount of blood loss and a lack of blood bags, Ma Feng would not survive for long…

Furthermore, no one could tell what kind of parasite and virus they had just been exposed to. He did not dare to return to earth without taking further precaution lest he brought back something far more dangerous than the new strain of legionella pneumophilia. Therefore, rationality told him that even if they did achieve success, they had to make sure they got disinfected at Dreamlands before finding their way back to Earth.

“Ah Jun…” Lou Xiaoning was an astute person. She stared at the dying Ma Feng, and said, “Do you need me to save him from his misery?” Special Mobile Forces faced this kind of situation quite often. Every one of them understood it was better to perish than to end up as the team’s burden.

“No, there’s still hope.” Gu Jun croaked, “He’s still alive. Let him rest. We’ll take a look around first.” Thus the group investigated the lobby carefully. They poked into the fireplaces and found nothing. They flipped over the tapestries and carpet and found nothing either. In the end, they gathered around the big table in the middle and their eyes landed on the delicious food. The food was definitely the most conspicuous feature of the room. It was inviting them to feast.

“I for one am not going to touch them.” The Zoog said, “The food might smell or even taste delicious but they could be made of something totally different.” Gu Jun missed Wu Siyu. If she was there, she could tell the taste of the food by just looking at them…

“Hey, isn’t that a chicken thigh?” He turned to the Zoog and was suddenly reminded of the lab rats he had experimented on.

“Mr. Nightmare Man… I, I…” The Zoog panicked. “I refuse. Please don’t be mad but I am really not hungry.”

“Never mind then.” Gu Jun sighed. He could not bring himself to do it. Once the lab rat started to speak, it was hard to make an experiment out of them.

“Leader…” Peacock had her face drawn and then she made a decision. “I’ll do it.” Malachite and Lou Xiaoning also volunteered.

Ignoring them, Gu Jun darted forward, grabbed the edge of the table and flipped it over, “We choose not to eat!”

After weighing the option, Gu Jun felt there was much greater risk in consuming the food than otherwise. All the food and the plates that they were served in clattered noisily to the ground. The Zoog and the rest of his team stared on dumbfounded.

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