Plague Doctor

Chapter 73: Picture with the Foreign Characters

When Gu Jun woke up from his illusions, he realized that the patients in the other room had already been cleared away, but Captain Wang Ke and the rest were standing next to him, studying him.

“Captain Wang, everyone, I have just remembered some of the memory from my childhood…”

“I need you to come look at the recording with us first,” Wang Ke ordered. So, Gu Jun followed them back to the earlier barracks. His heart was still processing the meaning of the memory from the illusion earlier. Of course, there had to be abnormal energy in this.

The people from the Afterlife Cult were connected to the foreign civilization. Perhaps on the night before that world was destroyed by the strange disease and monsters, some of the people there believed that they had been abandoned by the Goddess of Life and resorted instead to serve a ‘real god’ of darkness, and their lingering consciousness had awakened in this world. Then, they captured him and other children as experiments, doing sacrifices and rituals of summoning and seance. However, he had no idea how he managed to reach into the past through the illusion to speak and had no idea how he could manage to receive the energy that belonged to another world through the system. Was he different from a normal person? After all, he had almost died from a simple flu when he was fifteen, and that was way before the threat of the brain tumor.

However, Gu Jun was certain that he was a mere mortal. After all, that was what the system categorized him as, ‘homo sapien’.

‘That has to be the case…’ he told himself.

The computer monitor in the barrack soon played the recording from the room earlier. Gu Jun saw himself seated in the chair, the expression on his face getting more and more pained. His hands gripped his heads as he was suddenly pulled into the illusion. First, there was a death-like silence. Then, his lips uttered intermittent incoherent words, and that lasted for about ten seconds…

Gu Jun sighed silently. It was then that he realized that perhaps the travel into the illusion and influencing the past affected him as well.

“Doctor Gu, let’s talk.” Wang Ke pulled over a chair for Gu Jun to sit. There was a camera installed inside the barrack. Sincerity was painted all over Wang Ka’s face; it was like he was chatting with an old friend. “I will tell you some things, and I hope that you will tell us some things in return. No matter how preposterous they sound, we will have full honesty with each other. I will first tell you the other reason why we have brought you here. The language-like things that you wrote down during your personality test with the Review Department have come back with new results.”

“Oh?” Gu Jun was intrigued. He had to admit that was information that he wished to know.

“This was related to the latest operation of the Action Department.” Wang Ke’s expression turned heavy, as did the faces of Tang Yichong, Tang Ziyin, and the rest. “During this operation, five hundred colleagues were assigned to the operation. The fifty-six people sent to the Medical Department were the only ones that survived; the other 444 members died on the spot.”

When Wang Ke said ‘444’, his breath caught because this was truly a huge loss. And due to the specificity of that number, this appeared to be some kind of message. After all, these investigators did not believe in coincidences.

“They were supposed to infiltrate a base of the secret organization suspected to be related to the Malformed Banyan Disease, but they were ambushed by a cluster of subterrain giant worms there. Doctor Gu, you have to understand this,” Wang Ke said seriously. “Our enemy is in no way harmless; they might not possess heavy artillery, but they have other methods to harm us.”

Gu Jun could not help but let out a soft sigh. He did consider this possibility before, that the bunch of people in black and red were just a bunch of harmless fanatic.

He was never clear about the damage that they could have done. But now 444 human lives were lost just like that.

“What kind of method?” he asked with a frown. “Do these people know how to yield abnormal energy?”

“Doctor Gu, it is time to you to share.” Wang Ke cut him off sharply. “Being honest is a chance for everyone. The incident with Malformed Banyan Disease involves too many people. Phecda will not let go of even the smallest possible clue. I really do not hope that you will one day find yourself end up in a compromising position.”

Gu Jun chuckled self-deprecatingly. He thought that he had been careful enough, but at the end of the day, he still had to face this situation.

“I will be honest.” He looked at the group and started explaining. “I just remembered some of the memory from my childhood. Lai Sheng Company—the organization my parents were a part of—used me as an experiment, me and other children… Later, they had me label some pictures. I remembered writing down some words, and there was this one time where they placed me inside the tree hole of a banyan tree, and then they prayed before me. I have no idea what they were doing. Something probably happened later that caused me to be abandoned. The next thing I know, my parents died at sea, and I was orphaned. But for so many years, I believe these people have been watching me from the dark.”

He was telling the truth, albeit with some slight omission. After all, Gu Jun had to put his own safety into consideration. The investigators stared closely at Gu Jun, not letting any of his micro-expressions go unnoticed.

“Doctor Gu, whether you have told us the full story aside.” Wang Ke did not press him for more details. “Your memory matches with the information that we have gathered so far. Lai Sheng Company has already been listed as an evil organization by the Investigation Department. The organization can be traced back to colonial times. They have always kept a low profile, not expanding their membership to the public. In fact, we do not even know how they enlist their members, but one thing is certain—they often recruit the next generation of their existing members. Since the start of this country until these few recent months, this organization has not done anything harmful to the public. In fact, all the official activities registered under the company name have been completely open and legal. Therefore, it has not entered the radar of the government until now.”

Wang Ka handed a stack of photo over to Gu Ju and continued. “But based on our recent investigation, Lai Sheng Company has been behind a lot of illegal activities, and your parents were suspected to be core members… With regards to how they got transferred to oceanic studies and what happened at Longkan, we are still investigating.”

Gu Jun took the photos and sifted through them. They were pictures of his parents and the Seagull… He had never seen many of the photos, but the two faces were still as familiar as before.

“Doctor Gu, you are not the only Spirit Child that Lai Sheng Company has cultivated whom we have communicated with.” When Captain Wang said that, Gu Jun’s heart jumped, and his eyes almost fell out of his head. This was a real surprise. The investigation team had found other children that were in the experiment with him?

“It’s because of the cooperation from another Spirit Child that we have made progress in our attempt to unearth memories and, from there, located the base. Indeed, the organization that the Action Department was going for is Lai Sheng Company. There, the Action Department found some writing similar to what you wrote, but this other Spirit Child could not understand it at all. They were not a part of this labelling exercise that you mentioned, nor did they bring up the incident with any tree hole inside a banyan tree. Doctor Gu, we have reason to believe you are the most promising of that batch of Spirit Children.”

Wang Ke took another few pictures from the nearby table. Before handing them to Gu Jun, he added, “Doctor Gu, we believe that the current Lai Sheng Company is already much different from the one in your memory. They must have acquired some kind of breakthrough power to be able to manufacture the Malformed Banyan Disease. So, if you can understand the words in these three pictures, please tell us honestly.”

Wang Ke handed the three photos to Gu Jun seriously. Tang Ziyin and the rest looked at him quietly.

“Hmm…” Gu Jun was both confused and curious. In the earlier illusion, the person in red said that they could no longer understand the language from the old world… but that was decades ago.

So, where did these photos of foreign words come from? Did they write them down?

He accepted the picture and glanced to the one on top. There was a row of bloody foreign letters written on a large banyan tree.

“We have already misplaced our faith in one god; we will no longer believe in any divinity, be it real or fake, and that includes you, Son of Misfortune.”