137 Epidemic

“Last night, many of our colleagues fell ill… including Elder Qin.” Tang Zhifeng sighed.

Gu Jun’s brows creased as his heart sank. Pain flickered across his face. ‘Even Prof Qin…’

“Elder Qin’s surgery is arranged to be held half an hour from now.” Tang Zhifeng’s eyes were slightly rimmed red. “The surgery for the others will be performed at the same time. Ah Jun, you will be required to conduct the severance procedure for all of them.”

“Oh.” Gu Jun opened his lips to say something, but in the end, all he could manage was a nod. The consensus at the Medical Department was, once a patient started to show symptoms, the surgery would be arranged as soon as possible to prevent irreparable damage to the necrosis of the nervous system. Since there was still no common doctor who could resist the mental disturbance during the severance, the responsibility fell squarely on Gu Jun’s shoulders.

The previous night, twenty-five colleagues had succumbed to Nightmare Illness. The cases were recorded not only among the researchers who studied the dream but also among the colleagues working in the autopsy building and surgical building. It appeared as if those who had come into contact with the victims of the Nightmare Illness, even the dead ones, had a chance of being infected. Phecda’s understanding of its pathology was thrown for a loop. Furthermore, Prof Qin’s situation seemed to suggest that Nightmare Illness might have a latent period. A lack of symptoms at first did not mean that one was absolutely safe.

A pall of depression hung over the research center. All the precaution that they had taken was in vain; no one could tell whether they would be the next victim or not. Soon, Gu Jun was given the list of the latest victims. As he read through it, his heart sank into the abyss.

Brother Qiang and Surgeon Zhu were both on the list. They were part of the group who had participated in the autopsy of the victims.

‘F*ck…’ Gu Jun cursed under his breath, trying to suppress the agitation and resentment in his heart. Brother Qiang and Surgeon Zhu had taken him under their wings when he first joined Phecda. They were kind and taught him everything they knew. Why did something like this happen to such wonderful people? And of course, he did not forget Prof Qin. They had fallen one after another.

“Commander Yao, we need to stay on top of this. We have to do something.” Gu Jun could not help but demand action. He was done being on the backline; he was done watching his friends and mentors walking the lonely road toward death.

Yao Sinian was silent. It was not that they had not been doing anything. They had simply failed to reach a new breakthrough. This new batch of patients had brought them a new problem, one that Yao Sinian was sharing now. “The Medical Department is seriously understaffed. We have to summon in the substitute medical members all over the city, and the number of arranged surgeries is so high that some of them will have to be done in the normal hospital and medical school.”

Gu Jun knew that the so-called substitute medical members referred to people like Prof Gu, Xu Hai, and Senior Zhang Lin. They had never encountered the abnormal before, so it meant that the mental pressure would damage them more… But he also knew that every medical member in the Eastern State had to contribute in this crisis. Though, in this case, the contribution might be their lives…

‘No!’ Gu Jun shook his head. ‘There has to be another way. I only need to search for the truth among the messy information…’

He was reminded of the zombies and the abyssal mission provided by the system. ‘What kind of reward will I get from completing it? Either way, I’m sure it’ll be of immense help in this situation. I cannot stand by and do nothing anymore. I have to complete this mission no matter what.’

Zombies, a graveyard, a bloated corpse… he was still missing something. He needed information. Surveying everything, Gu Jun realized that there was still a missing link that he knew nothing about, the case that Elder Tong was a part of back then. It might be the detail that tied everything together. Gu Jun had followed up on every possible lead except this one because over the past three days, whenever he brought it up, Elder Tong would say that he would tell Gu Jun when the latter was in a better mental state.

“Elder Tong.” Gu Jun now turned to the monitor. “Please tell me everything about the case back then. We cannot wait anymore.”

Elder Tong’s face in the conference room at the headquarters took on a pall of severity. His voice was hoarse. “I have been keeping you away from it because some information about this case is related to spells and some strange, inexplicable things… No one can tell what will happen if a person with high spirituality is exposed to them, especially someone like you. That is why I have been delaying telling you about it, but it appears like we have no other choice.”

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