Plague Doctor

Due to the ‘lack of time’, Yu Chi had another negotiation with Mysterium that very night. Gu Jun was not clued in to the process but it did prove that Yu Chi had a high standing in the organization. The two of them were allowed to depart that night. Their destination, Western Australia. They would be accompanied by Feng Peiqian’s unit. When they arrived, they would be joined by the local Australian Safety Bureau, this was after all, an international event. Be it Mysterium or the Australian Safety Bureau, they had no idea what the goal of this mission was, Yu Chi only told them he was going on an archaeological dig.

The travel time would take 10 hours so Gu Jun decided to rest on the plane. When they landed in Australia, it was already the next morning. It was 18th March at Mysterium World. Neither of them participated in the complicated international liaison. That was handled by Feng Peiqian. In the end, their group gained an additional six members from the Australian Safety Bureau. The first stop of their journey was the small town where Kathlyn grew up or at least the location it corresponded to at the Mysterium World. Since the Mysterium World’s Australian government had a different road planning, ‘Kathlyn’s hometown’ was not situated by the roadside and attracted no settlers. Thus the ‘town’ was more like a barren wasteland. It was adjacent to the desert. Other than some sparse tree and the occasional kangaroo, there was nothing.

“Captain Gu, is this really the place?” Yu Chu stood on the wasteland and looked around. Gu Jun stood beside him. The land’s travellers’ origin was still a mystery, perhaps it could be solved here. Feng Peiqian and the rest waited a distance away with the land rovers and a medic car.

It was now the start of fall in Australia. The weather was still quite warm. They were all in thin T-shirts and khaki shorts. They looked like visitors who got lost on their way to the beach. The wounds on Gu Jun’s stomach and shoulder no longer needed bandaging. The wounds had healed nicely. “Honestly, I don’t know.” Gu Jun admitted, “But I have a feeling the opaline will guide us.”

They were looking for something but the problem was they had no idea what that something was. Pnakotus sounded like a city, but where would it be located? An abnormal space? Underground? In the sky?

“Captain Gu, have you ever wondered why it is us who are chosen?” Yu Chi mumbled, “There are many different subworlds so why the two of us? You’re a doctor and I’m an archaeologist, there has to be a reason we’re pulled together. What use can I serve? My profession means that I am familiar with dig sites. Is it possible that this means the thing that we’re looking for is buried underground?”

“That’s possible.” Gu Jun studied the land around him. The sky and the horizon joined together. There was no building within his sight. Australia was large enough to have several stretches of uninhabited lands. The scenery around Gu Jun reminded him of the Wasteland World. If a city was buried here, it would be impossible to find without any clue. The whole morning, the two paced around the ‘small town’ but found nothing. They used their senses and devices like radar and archaeological detectors but none proved effective.

“It’s not working…” Yu Chi tossed the devices aside. He pulled on his hair and beard like he was trying to yank his face off. “The other party can make inter-dimension communication so we wouldn’t be able to detect their clues using our backwards scientific technology. They could have easily used some kind of tech to ward off our detection…” The more Yu Chi thought about it, the more pained he became, “What should we do, what should we do…” Gu Jun frowned. He had nothing to provide, archaeology was not his strong suit. Instead he thought back to the instruction they got yesterday night. He eventually said, “Captain Yu, the statement ended up another accept and something about our brain being bound. Does this mean we need something to unbind our brain? Only then we can accept and locate the place?”

“Yes, yes…” Yu Chi’s eyes widened. He looked around. “It’s still the same old problem. We’re still too normal, too normal…” Yu Chi suddenly roared, “Peiqian, Peiqian! Where’s my alcohol? I need alcohol!”

Peiqian’s group immediately rushed over. They were startled by Captain Yu’s behaviour but they still abided by his instructions. Yu Chi had considered this problem. He initially wanted to bring the zombies over but both Mysterium and Australian government said no. Gu Jun was against the consumption of hallucinogenic drugs like LSD on the basis of negative drug use. Therefore, Yu Chi compromised and opted for alcohol, strong alcohol to be precise!

Feng Peiqian rode over in a cross-country cart. The boot was filled with crates of alcohol. Yu Chi took out a small vial of vodka. He tipped off the cap and tossed half of it down his throat. Gu Jun was both impressed and shocked even though he knew what Yu Chi was going for.

“Hmm…” Yu Chi’s cheeks reddened immediately. Drops of vodka stuck to his face. He wiped them off and finished the rest of the bottle. Then, he suddenly pressed his head in pain and the vodka bottle dropped to the ground.

“Captain!” Feng Peiqian gasped.

“Don’t touch him!” Gu Jun screamed. His own heart was racing. “Captain Yu probably saw something…” Gu Jun was usually the one who triggered illusion, this was the rare few times he witnessed another person being taken by illusory sight.

“You!” As nervous as Feng Peiqian was, she understood the reasoning behind Gu Jun’s warning. Her team stopped moving and watched nervously as Yu Chi teetered around before he collapsed to the ground. In less than a minute, Yu Chi suddenly sighed and spirit returned to his eyes. “Ah…” The group immediately surrounded him but Yu Chi pushed them away. The half-inebriated man pulled Gu Jun to the side. He turned them away from the rest so they could not read his lips.

“I saw it, I saw the Phecda World…” Yu Chi’s voice was hoarse and his mouth stunk of vodka. “I saw that friend of yours, Cai Zixuan…” Gu Jun’s heart squeezed. Looks like Captain Yu’s ability was to glance into the Phecda World and not specifically to him. Captain Yu saw him because he used to be there but now that he was here, Captain Yu saw other people from Phecda World in his vision.

“He was inside a surgical room, participating in an operation.” Yu Chi thought back to his vision. “There were many people around him. They were all dressed in heavy protective gear and they were performing amputation on a middle-aged man. They were cutting off his right arm. The surgeon saw the arm off and the nurse immediately placed it inside a bin. The bin was stainless steel and it had a symbol on it…” Gu Jun frowned. Amputation? Middle-aged man? Since the arm was immediately placed inside a bin after amputation, it meant that the arm needed to be isolated? But why? What kind of sickness could it transmit?

“Let me draw out the symbol for you…” Yu Chi squatted down and used his finger to draw out the symbol on the dirt. “It’s yellow here and black here.”

Naturally Gu Jun recognized it immediately. He said darkly, “That’s the symbol for radiation warning.”

He understood then that the bin was a lead bin and Zixuan was wearing an anti-radiation suit. The patient on the surgical table probably suffered from acute radiation sickness. As the conclusion dawned on him, Gu Jun felt chilled. Nuclear explosion, that just happened at the Wasteland World and instantly there were patients with acute radiation sickness at the Phecda World… This could not be a coincidence. If this was just a normal radiation injury at a factory, it wouldn’t have involved Phecda. The involvement of both Phecda and the Spell Department spelt big trouble. And this trouble was related to radiation.

Gu Jun’s heart chilled but his body was sweaty. The scene from the Wasteland World flashed before his eyes. The City of Angels and its vicinity were instantly vaporized by the atomic bomb. Based on the size of the bomb, how much radiation would it emit?

“Captain Yu… I fear the Phecda World and the Wasteland World are already overlapping.” When Yu Chi heard radiation, the severity of the situation snapped him out of his inebriation.

‘There’s not much time’ was not an empty warning. A huge tragedy was imminent. The door to Pnakotus was still unknown but the door of the abyss appeared to have been opened.

“Where’s the alcohol?” Gu Jun stood up and used his feet to wipe the radiation symbol off the sand. He strode towards the cart. With everyone looking on in shock, he picked up another bottle of vodka and glugged it down. He had not tasted alcohol in a long time. Since he bade farewell to Tycoon Jun, he had not touched alcohol. Furthermore, he just recovered from a brain surgery, so technically he should abstain from alcohol. But like Captain Yu said, he was too normal, it wouldn’t work.

Glug, glug, glug. Gu Jun finished the bottle in one gulp. His oesophagus burnt. The alcohol hit his system and his knees wobbled. His vision blurred and his brain pounded but soon that turned into a sense of chaos. A leap and the world turned upside down, things looked so different…

He could even hear a voice talking to him. ‘Come, quick, this way.’

“Captain Gu? Captain Gu?” Yu Chi enquired. He saw Gu Jun holding the bottle and staggered forward towards the blazing sun. Yu Chi shook his head and made to follow, “See, I told you. We need alcohol… more of them…”

Feng Peiqian, Chen Ziyuan and the rest looked on with mixed emotions. But at least they got new information from Captain Yu in his state of inebriation… Captain Gu? This Gu Jun was also a Captain? What kind of Captain? There was such a hierarchy among the cultists too?

The group watched the two drunkards sway their way forward. For now, they could only hop on the cross-country carts and followed with these questions crowding their minds.