Plague Doctor

Chapter 84: Instinct

Translator: Lonelytree Editor: Lonelytree

The clouds in the sky were already falling as heavy rain. The insistent pattering of raindrops shattered the silence of Gu Rong Village and cleansed the dust that had gathered there. The weak wireless signal came out from the inside of the collapsed Banyan Tree. The command center translated that into audio signal. The conservation that they heard shocked everything. Uncle Dan, Gu Jun, Zhang Huohuo, and Lin Mo were already out of the communication channel, but from the context of the other members’ words, especially those of Luo Xiaoning, they could imagine how the operation was going.

“Gu Jun has seriously finished a parasite cleaning surgery in there? And that was quickly followed by a thigh amputation surgery?”

Even though they were not present, Xue Ba continuously provided the updates inside the underground tunnel to the command center, and the command center had been trying to send back signal to attempt communication. Based on Xue Ba’s verbal description, the technical crew immediately used the computer to run a 3D simulation to reconstruct the scenario inside the tunnel. The simulation recreated the location of every team member and the field operation before projecting it on the big screen. Because of that, the people at the command center could place themselves in the situation easily. The people from the Medical Department were especially stumped. This was truly beyond their expectations.

“Elder Qin, you have truly found a diamond in the rough,” the main commander, Yao Sinian, commended with lamentation.

“Gu Jun is an especially fast learner.” Professor Qin was still quite thankful that he had decided to pull Gu Jun into Phecda. “The plan is to train him to join the Special Mobile Force.”

“You should.” Yao Sinian nodded, but there were complicated thoughts in his mind. If this kid did not come from such a complicated background... For now, it was hard to tell whether Gu Jun would be an asset to Phecda or not. Hopefully, he would be. There were not many talents in the world like Gu Jun; they were rare.

Vice Commander Yang also heaped on the praise. “I have heard about Gu Jun from Elder Qin and Leader Qiu from our clinical group before, but now I realize you might have undersold this young man’s talent.”

Leader Meng from Investigation Department, while being impressed by Gu Jun’s ability, could not help his occupational suspicion. He pointed out. “I still have my reservations. Could this be Gu Jun’s tactic all along? If they’d gone along with double amputation, the chances of Lin Mo surviving would have been much higher, but now, in a few days, Lin Mo might die from an implosion of parasites, and there is a chance of him infecting other people...”

“Leader Meng.” Hearing that Prof Qin frowned. It was not he trusted Gu Jun blindly, but to have a field doctor suspected after he had just saved someone’s life, that was rather uncouth. Prof Qin said virtuously, “I personally believe that we would not be able to understand the situation as holistically as Captain Xue just based on audio cues. Since Captain Xue has chosen to believe in Gu Jun, something must have compelled him to do so. Something must have convinced Captain Xue of Gu Jun’s trustworthiness.”

“Hmm...” Leader Meng was silenced. It was he who had trained Xue Ba, so he was familiar with Xue Ba’s eye and his inexplicable sharp instinct. However, Leader Meng had his own instincts to follow as well; he could not shake away the suspicion in his heart. He sighed. “Elder Qin, you must know how unconventional this Gu Jun is. The thing that I am most afraid of is that he is not doing all this on purpose. The scariest thing is he might not even realize what he is really doing. He could be doing this with the best intentions, but...”

Elder Qin, Yao Sinian, and everyone sank into silence. The implications were indeed very serious, but all they could do for now was wait—wait for the back up from headquarters, wait for the update from Abnormal Energy Investigation Group, and wait for the next move of the Demon Hunters...

The command center had already finished the simulation. Based on the Demon Hunters’ current supplies, if the tunnel did not recover in the next two day, the team would have to venture underground. The possibility of Xue Ba blowing up the walls with C4 was low. Other than risking the ambush of subterrain giant worm, the main reason was from the depth of the underground tunnel. From underground, they could tell how thick the wall was and it was quite clear that the thickness of the wall would render it impenetrable. Other than that, they could not even tell how far the underground tunnel led.

...

There did not appear to be a day and night cycle inside the abnormal space. The sky always maintained that grayish brightness. This gave Gu Jun the hypothesis that should they were placed on another planet, then the planet’s rotation must have been fixed so that only one of its face would be facing the same celestial entity.

After the surgery, he went to rest and chat, joking with Uncle Dan so that he could keep his own spirits high. But when the meal of compressed biscuits came, he could not help being reminded of the canteen’s long menu at the Medical Department. A bowl of Cai Zixuan’s hot soup would be heaven sent then. Even though the meal left much to be desired, using a rotation shift, the team managed to have enough rest while keeping up constant surveillance. The second day passed in a blur. Lin Mo started to burn from a fever, and that caused the team to be worried. But after giving him a fever shot, Lin Mo returned to normal, so Gu Jun and Uncle Dan could both sigh a sigh of relief again. On the morning of the third day, the Demon Hunters still had not moved from their temporary base.

Xue Ba kept reporting back to the command center. He used the binoculars to observe the situation outside. There was still complete silence inside the abnormal space surrounded by walls. The tree in the middle was still as broken as it was, the glow in the passage did not reappear, and the subterrain giant worms were still moving underground. The supplies of the team were running low, especially water. The surgery had used two days’ worth of their water supply, so it meant that they could only hold on for another three days. Other than that, there was the medicine and blood packs. The black packs were of O-type blood that everyone could use, but the volume was not enough to support another heavily injury in the team. Xue Ba had a discussion with his three vice captains, Yang Henan, Lou Xiaoning and Uncle Dan. They all reached the consensus to explore deeper into the underground tunnel.

Xue Ba turned to the rest of the team and announced seriously, “If the stone slab earlier was some kind of mechanism, then there should be other mechanisms hidden here. We have no idea what might lie at the end of the tunnel, and we have no clue how much further we need to travel. It could be an hour; it could be a day; it could be a week. Even if we conserve our water usage, we can only last another week, so we need to move now.”

The decision was already made, so the question now was, should they split up? No matter what, the exploration team, should there be one, would have to take Gu Jun because only he could understand the foreign language, and it appeared like only he could trigger the mechanisms.

“Gu Jun, what do you think?” Xue Ba asked. Splitting up or moving together, either was a huge risk. Having investigated abnormal energy for so many years, Xue Ba understood that people sometimes had a kind of predictive inspiration, especially someone like Gu Jun who had high spirituality. Furthermore, the young man was the key character to this operation. His inspiration and instinct would be immensely important; it would decide which way the scales would lean.

Everyone’s gaze turned to him. Gu Jun looked like he was already ready. He said sincerely, “I think we should all move as a team. If we split up, assuming Team A reaches the end and it triggers a mechanism that causes the entrance here to collapse, what will happen? Since we cannot predict what will happen, the chances of survival will be higher if we stick together.”

Of course, he left out the part where he just thought splitting up was always a bad idea in horror movies.

“Hmm, you have a point.” Xue Ba nodded. Without asking for anyone else’s opinion, he clapped his hands and said, “Okay, we shall move together.”

Lou Xiaoning, Uncle Dan, and the rest had no comment because they too understood the importance of spirituality.

So, the Demon Hunters packed up their things and became their journey. In the past two days, due to convenience, the group had already removed their protective gear. Now, they did not put them back on but only carried them by their side. They merely put their helmets back on for the sake of communication. They were all lightly armored. If there was a battle, this would help with their agility. Xue Ba and Lou Xiaoning led the way forward. Gu Jun and Zhang Huohuo carried Lin Mo on a stretcher. Uncle Dan followed beside them, and the rear was brought up by Yang Henan, Zhou Yi, and the rest.

The Demon Hunters moved down step by step, descending into the darkness.

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