Plague Doctor

It had been half a year since the battle at Mo Bei. It was the official opening day for the MP Agency, which was responsible to handle the issues related to supernatural energy in both worlds. The Agency had 2 leaders, one from each world and they shared the power equally. However, the MP Agency did not hold much clout when it came to big decisions. Instead, the many responsibilities of the two leaders were to negotiate the conflicts and communications between both worlds. On Phecda’s side it was Elder Tong who was the leader; on Mysterium’s side, it was Zeng Chanjun.

Phecda, GOA and MP Agency were 3 different organizations with different constitutions but there were many areas where they would have to work together. Intre and intra-world cooperation needed to be improved, it was a goal for the future. MP Team, the first Special Mobile Unit between both worlds would remain as a resident unit. In the future, Special Mobile Forces with members from both worlds would be more common. With the birth of a new organization came new hope.

At the beginning of October, Gu Jun finally had a chance to go on a small break like a normal person. On one hand, there were no more abnormal creatures for Gu Jun to dissect. He couldn’t hurry his EXP even if he wanted to. On the other hand, Wu Siyu had been meaning to go on a break. Honestly, Gu Jun himself had not had a serious holiday in a long time already.

This holiday had a special meaning for Wu Siyu, then again every holiday would be special for her. She had 10000 reasons to give to Phecda on why she needed a holiday but before she said anything, the organization already approved her request. Phecda really knew her well, the personality tests that she did in the past were useful after all. If she really needed to list out 10000 reasons, she’d rather give up on the holiday.

With the permission from Phecda, Gu Jun and Wu Siyu went on a holiday to Saipan. The sea, sun and beach, they had a good time. Gu Jun had always felt a kinship with the sea, even before the incident at Long Kan sea belt. The sea was beautiful yet it could hide the most dangerous thing under its surface. But during this holiday, nothing happened and they were not summoned.

On the later half of the holiday, Phecda even approved for Cai Zixuan, Jiang Banxia, Peacock, Malachite and the others to join them. Even Lucky was there. He was there with good news. He said that the Zoogs from all over the worlds were coming back with endless discoveries, it was only a matter of time until they found an abnormal creature.

After the holiday, Gu Jun and Wu Siyu returned to Da Hwa City where Phecda’s headquarters was and returned to their posts. Not a few days passed, on 15th October, something happened. And this something caused everyone’s hearts to grip with worry.

…

At Da Hwa City’s First People Hospital, the obstetrician Doctor Chen Miaojuan could not stop thinking about the event that happened less than 2 hours ago. Until now she could not find a valid explanation. The more she thought about it, the more unsettled she felt. Chen Miaojuan was now in her 40s, she held her post for decades already. She was the expert in her fields and she had welcomed more than thousands of newborns into this world. She had faced many different trials and difficulties in her lifetime but she had never encountered the thing that happened to her today with Xu Jianxun and Wei Ru’s baby.

Someone knocked on her door. Then three members in Phecda logo walked into the room. After the birth, Xu Qiuyue did not show any other strange behavior. She was 2800 gram heavy, her breathing and vitals were all normal. She was a healthy baby. But Chen Miaojuan could not silence the anxiety in her heart. So she reported this to her superior and they must have reported it to Phecda. However, this did not appear to be contagious. From midnight until 4 pm, the hospital had welcomed 23 new babies, and that strange event only happened with that baby girl.

“Doctor Chen, do you mind telling us again what happened?”

The three members were stationed at Da Hwa City. They were Liu Ze and Jiang Yuwei from the Investigation Department and Zhang Haolin from the Medical Department. Ever since the Phecda hotline was introduced, the workload at all Phecda Divisions doubled. False alarms were common and not every report was treated seriously. An example was this event, it could be just a misunderstanding or an isolated incident. In any case, they hoped that they could resolve this problem before it had to be passed up the chain of command.

Chen Miaojuan did what she was told and repeated everything that she said on the phone.

“Does the voice sound like a baby or some kind of demon?” Liu Ze asked.

“It does sound like…” Chen Miaojuan frowned as a chill ran down her spine. “a human, a baby’s voice to be exact. The voice itself is not strange, the strange part is why would a newborn say something like that…”

Liu Ze, Zhang Haolin and Jiang Yuwei looked at each other. Normally this was improbable. Once they arrived at the hospital, they visited the baby who was quarantined. She was soundly asleep. They did the Ancient Seal check and found nothing unusual. The baby’s father, Xu Jianxun was also in the labor room. When he was interviewed, he insisted that his baby was fine. “At the time, something was probably stuck in my baby’s throat. She was trying to cry through it and thus made a sound that mimicked talking. But it was just that, it just sounded like she said a word…”

The child’s mother, Wei Ru was confused, “I wasn’t really there as you can understand, but it sounded like she was just grumbling.”

However, the other nurses present all verified that the baby stated very clearly, “Negative selection.”

Negative selection, what did that mean? Was that part of a phrase? Or was that the whole statement?

Zhang Haolin was a doctor. The first thing that came into his mind when he heard negative selection was natural science, the theory of molecular evolution.

“Negative selection, positive selection, stabilizing selection.” Based on this theory, every newborn could be categorized into one of these three types. It was an extension of Darwinian theory. But just like what Doctor Chen claimed, why would a newborn say something like that…

At that moment, hurried footsteps came from outside the office. Then came a middle-aged doctor. He was also a doctor at the same department as Doctor Chen. When he found out that people from Phecda were here, Doctor Liang rushed over. He just came out from the labor room. With a wrinkled face, he said, “I just finished with the labor of a baby boy. Just like what Director Chen said, the boy did not cry at first. But after I patted his butt, before he cried, he said ‘Positive Selection’, everyone in the labor room heard it clearly…”

Zhang Haolin, Liu Ze and Jiang Yuwei’s expressions dropped. Chen Miaojuan was stunned.

“We need to update our superiors.” Zhang Haolin said numbly. This was not a false alarm. They needed the Spell Department.