Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Gao Peng had a hard time believing that this decrepit old man before him was only 32 years old. He looked as if a breeze could easily knock him down.
There was a picture of him before his illness in his medical records that showed the face of a gentle-looking bespectacled man. Judging by his happy face, Gao Peng figured that he must have come from a happy family.
He turned to the last patient’s file. He let his hand hang in mid-air when his eyes fell on the patient’s profile picture. “Is this… supposed to be the patient?”
Gao Peng couldn’t believe that the thing in the picture was even human.
The man’s body was hunched over, with his spine jutting out of his back. His sunken eyes had transformed into a pair of dark, empty pits. His toothless mouth was wide open. Gao Peng could almost hear the inhuman screams coming from the man’s mouth.
He looked more like a deformed insect than an actual human being.
[Patient Name]: Jin Shengming
[Age]: 18
[Time since infection]: 726 hours
[Symptoms]: All of his hair has fallen out. He has also lost all function of his eyes, but seems to have developed some other form of sensory function. Sluggish movements, increased physical strength, and increased bone density. Is easily excited by the sight of blood. Seems to have been completely infected. Incapable of infecting others.
Gao Peng frowned. “Incapable of infecting others?” There must be some kind of mistake here, he thought.
“Yes, we’ve determined that this patient no longer poses any risk of infection to other healthy individuals,” said one of the doctors.
Gao Peng nodded. “Let me take a look at him.”
As if knowing that he might make such a request, the doctor sharply turned around and led him to the patient’s ward. After passing through a corridor, Gao Peng finally saw Jin Shengming, whose ward had apparently gone through extensive remodeling. The windows seemed to be made of bulletproof fiberglass.
Just as he was close enough, there was a loud bang from the window. A face was pressed against the glass, leaving a sick yellow trail of mucus on it.
Bang, bang, bang! Ji Shengming was madly pounding his fists against the glass, unintelligibly roaring at his visitors.
“He’s… no longer human,” said Gao Peng, as rows of data appeared before him.
[Monster Name]: Green Plague Bug Infectee
[Monster Level]: Level 3
[Monster Grade]: Normal
[Monster Attribute]: Poison
[Monster Weakness]: Fire
Description: A Green Plague Bug releases fragments of itself into its surroundings as its main method of reproduction. Those infected by its fragments automatically become host bodies for the Green Plague Bug’s larvae. A Green Plague Bug’s larva is capable of surviving extreme conditions. Its small size also allows it to elude detection. However, it is averse to high temperatures.
Gao Peng widened his eyes. Larvae?! So it’s not a plague. Which means…
Gao Peng looked down at his pristine white hospital robe.
“Baldie, scan the hospital for me, will you?” Gao Peng ordered the Growing Brain. Baldie was the name that Goldie had come up with during their journey. Everyone eventually accepted it as the Growing Brain’s official name.
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When Gao Peng asked why it had chosen to call the brain Baldie, Goldie had simply said, “I may not have any feathers on me, but at least I’m not a skinless freak like it. If that’s not bald, I don’t know what is.”
Baldie’s psychic energy swept through every floor of the hospital like a ray of invisible light. It transmitted the results of its psychic scan to Gao Peng. What he saw sent a chill down his spine.
Baldie’s psychic scan revealed tiny points of white light squirming in every corner of the hospital.
All signs of life within the brain’s range were automatically picked up by its psychic scan, be they human or monster. Unless its target was proficient in masking its own aura, nothing could completely hide from Baldie’s psychic probe.
The brightness of these points of white light was also a rough indicator of one’s power level. These squirming white spots had settled on every person in the hospital. Such a sight would make anyone with trypophobia dizzy.
“Should we take them all down?” asked Baldie.
These creature’s aurae seemed weaker than the average firefly. Baldie could have easily snuffed out every last one of them with just a thought.
Gao Peng was about to give it his permission when he suddenly thought of something. “Wait, try scanning the streets outside, then the whole city.”
When Baldie sent the results of its psychic scan back to him, Gao Peng shivered, even though he had mentally braced himself for what he was about to see.
Even though the Green Plague Bug’s larvae hadn’t spread across the entire city, the sight of them clinging to the buildings and shirt of every pedestrian on this side of the city still made his blood freeze. Gao Peng simply stood there, unsure of what he should do.
In theory, he could have these things destroyed in the blink of an eye. However… destroying these things would only be a temporary solution to an even bigger problem.
He could provoke the real mastermind behind this plague into setting off a bigger pandemic. “What a pain in the *ss.”
“Is something wrong, Mr. Gao?” asked the doctor beside him.
Gao Peng turned to him and smiled. “Apologies. That patient looks really terrifying up close.”
“Don’t worry. He won’t be able to break through those windows. Have you found something that might bring us a step closer to finding a cure?” asked the doctor, looking straight into Gao Peng’s eyes.
“I’m just wondering why the plague seems so weak.”
“Weak?” asked the doctor, as if he couldn’t believe what Gao Peng had just said.
“Yeah, those who were infected so far were ordinary people. The fact that there haven’t been any cases of familiars infected by this disease indicates that its effects are quite limited,” explained Gao Peng casually, before turning around and walking back down the corridor.
After watching Gao Peng disappear around a corner, the doctor inclined his head with a strangely serene expression behind his glasses.
…
“Any ideas on how we should deal with this?” Gao Peng asked the Desolate Frost Lion.
“Well, when dealing with Parasite-type insects like this one, all we have to do is seek out and destroy the parent insect, and the little ones will die along with it,” replied the Desolate Frost Lion.
“My thoughts exactly. Only problem is, how are we supposed to smoke this parent insect out of hiding?” muttered Gao Peng.
He wasn’t afraid of confronting it head-on. This was not the Black Fog World. This was Earth, and he wasn’t afraid of some two-bit punk on his home turf.
He doubted anyone or anything could survive being ganged up on by his King-tier familiars.
“Mr. Gao,” said Liu Xiaolu, who was now wearing a pair of leather boots. Back then, she hadn’t immediately recognized Gao Peng or his grandfather. It was only recently that she found out through certain channels who these two men were.
As soon as she realized who they were, her jaw dropped. She thought that they were only bringing Lu Wang into this matter. Who would have thought that they were bringing two dragons into the mix?
“Oh, before I forget, could you please find out for me where the first case of the plague happened? Let me know as soon as you find out,” said Gao Peng. He refused to believe that an organization as resourceful as Hanzhong’s government couldn’t find a single lead on this case.