Chapter 536 - Infection

It took insurmountable willpower to stay with these corpses for the entire day.

Although at this point Sanjae had been well acquainted with corpses, he was still filled with an overwhelming sense of dread and disgust when surrounded by them.

Complete, unfiltered disgust.

It seemed like these corpses were still alive. Not only were the corpses twisted, but they also seemed to be constantly twisting and bending Sanjae’s mental state. Every second spent with these corpses was torture.

Still, Sanjae forced his trembling hands to move and lifted the cloth off of another stretcher.

Then the third, then the fourth…

Nearing the end, he felt like he was about to lose his mind. He wanted to shut his eyes but the moment he did so, the image of these corpses would arise in his mind. He wanted to forget but there was nothing he could do to achieve that.

It felt like the shape of these corpses were branded into his mind, like a sharp knife twisting and turning inside his mind, driving his psyche to a point of insanity.

At one point, Sanjae passed out…

“Fuse with us, fuse with us, for we’re all alone. It’s only by fusing into one, fusing into one…”

Inside his dream, he heard the repeated murmur. The nightmare seemed to corrode into his brain and caused him to knit his brows together like he was in inexplicable pain.

“Hey, wake up!”

After what seemed like forever, Sanjae felt the touch of someone shoving him and he slowly opened his eyes. He saw several people dressed in protective clothing and polyethylene helmet staring back at him.

Sanjae raised his hands to rub his eyes but remembered that he had a polythene helmet on as well. After he came to his senses, he pushed himself up along the wall and stared back at them, visibly confused.

There were five of them. All of them were forensic doctors who regularly came to the morgue to perform autopsies.

“Hi there, forensic doctors.”

Sanjae bowed courteously. He was slightly ashamed of having fainted and would not dare to look into their eyes.

“What is this, it’s working hours and you’re just sleeping here?”

The forensic doctors teased him, “How do you even manage to fall asleep in this place?”

“No, I didn’t, I wasn’t…”

Sanjae stammered, “I was just…”

One of the forensic doctors waved him away. They only meant to tease him and were not expecting an answer anyway. “We’ll take it from here, we’re going to dissect these bodies now. You can leave now unless you have something else to do.”

“Got it.”

Sanjae was grateful for not having to get in trouble and quickly left before they could change their minds. He passed through the previous passage and into the isolation zone again and saw the Android named Joey still standing faithfully at its post. It instructed him how to thoroughly disinfect himself and to take off the protective suit.

After he took off the protective suit, he was instructed to not leave from the route in which he came in, but to use another exit. “After disinfection, please head out this way.”

“Where does this lead to?”

Sanjae was puzzled by this and looked at Joey. The Android quickly explained, “Dear Mr. Sanjae, according to regulations, after touching the corpse, you’ll need to be isolated for a short time. Over the next month, you’ll be responsible for overseeing the morgue during the day. At night, you can follow down this exit to stay in the quarantine room the hospital has prepared for you.”

“Hold on, I didn’t touch the corpses…”

Sanjae quickly refuted, “I was wearing the protective suit the entire time. There’s no way I could be exposed!”

“Don’t worry, it’s just standard procedures.”

Joey said with a smile. Its smile seemed so manufactured and ingenuine, it seemed like nothing more than a practiced twitch of a facial muscle.

“But my family…”

Sanjae still tried to explain.

“We’ve informed your family members.”

The Android cut off his final route of escape. “The hospital has signed an agreement with them and received their permission, please don’t worry.”

Left without a choice, Sanjae reluctantly stepped into the exit.

At the other end of this new passage was a newly constructed quarantine zone. The walls of the quarantine zone were marbly white and had stamped labels on the doors numbering from one to ten.

Another Android appeared in the corridor and pointed at one of the rooms. “Dear Mr. Sanjae, please enter quarantine room five.”

Sanjae nodded in response and opened the door to quarantine room five and he was greeted by two familiar figures.

The moment he saw them, there was an indescribable dryness in his tongue and a strange throb in his heart. These sensations left as soon as they came. He paused briefly, unsure if what he just felt was all in his head.

Sanjae recognized the two people in the room.

“Varo?”

There was no mistaking it. It was his colleagues who had left earlier this morning.

As it turned out, the two of them could not leave and had to be quarantined just like himself.

“Sanjae, you’re here as well!”

Varo was a completely different person from this morning. He sat in his single bed and looked around the room with an agonizing look. “We’re stuck here, there’s no way out…”

“Not stuck, we’re just quarantined.”

Sanjae replied.

“What’s the difference?”

Varo was at a loss. He slammed his fist against the wall. “I should’ve figured, those corpses must contain some viral infectious disease! Chances are we’re already infected.”

“That won’t happen, we were wearing very expensive protective suits. All of this only implies that the hospital wouldn’t simply give up on us!”

Sanjae tried to cheer up his colleague.

“You think so? Why would the hospital care about people like us?”

Sanjae’s efforts proved fruitless as Varo was still sorrowful. “It won’t take long before we turn into those twisted, disgusting corpses. A bunch of corpses fused…”

Before Varo could finish his sentence, they heard another round of footsteps from outside the door. Sanjae stepped to the door and tried to open it to take a look outside. That was when he noticed that the door was locked…

“Looks like another group has entered.”

Varo remarked somberly when he saw what Sanjae tried to do, “All of the people who come into contact with the corpses, whether they’re the relatives, hospital staff, people like you and me, even the police… All of them have to be quarantined!”

“How could this be…”

Sanjae could not believe the extent to which Blackwatch could go to…

…

After an indiscernible amount of time had passed, Varo and the other colleague were slowly regaining their composure. After an entire night of working the night shift, they were exhausted by this point.

After finishing the food handed to them through the window, the two of them had fallen asleep in their beds. Their deafening snores resounded across the room.

Sanjae, on the other hand, sat idly in his bed and quietly ate the food provided.

It was curry rice, a delicacy that he rarely got to eat.

Each grain of rice shone like glittering gold underneath the sunlight. The curry was mouth-watering. He only ever got to afford a meal like this when he worked overtime.

This was because he was a non-official employee of the hospital and was not allowed access to the canteen. Only staff members with the official employee certificate were allowed to eat in the canteen.

Throughout the last three years, he had been using the temporary certificate issued.

For some reason he could not quite put a finger in, perhaps influenced by the horrible sights he saw this morning, he was unable to fully savor the delicious food. Although the meal was undoubtedly delicious, there was still a sinking feeling in his chest that he just could not wring himself free of…

“Clack…”

The lunch box in Sanjae’s hand clattered onto the ground, spilling golden curry onto the floor. He got up stiffly and turned to look at the two people sleeping in their beds behind him.

The two of them were sleeping soundly.

For some reason, while Sanjae stared at the two sleeping men, his expression was peculiar.

His expression seemed to spell an uncanny sense of longing, a tinge of pain, and of internal conflict.

“Fuse with use, fuse with us, for we’re all alone. It’s only by fusing as one, fusing as one…”

The same chanting in his head again. It started as a whisper but as he slowly approached the two of them, the voice started to grow louder in his head, to a point where it had drowned out everything in his mind!

“For we’re all alone. It’s only by fusing as one, fusing as one…”

The voice pulsed in Sanjae’s mind. It howled and raged like a thunderstorm, completely overwhelming the last of his thoughts. He came beside the nameless colleague and raised his hand and touched his face.

Something outlandish happened!

Sanjae saw his right hand touching the sleeping man’s face and he watched in awe as his hand started to alter its shape. His skin and bones seemed to transform into some other kind of substance. His hand slowly sunk into the man’s face that started to take on the same transformation and before long, his hand had sunk into the man’s head!

Face with such queer imagery, Sanjae smiled with great pleasure like a mad man…

“Bang!”

Just as he was about to pull himself closer to fuse further, the door was flung open. Several soldiers wearing black combat suits barged inside. One of the soldiers fired at Sanjae’s arm without so much as a warning or hesitation!

“Bang!”

The next second, Sanjae’s bones splintered and his arm was split. He cried out an inhuman roar and charged at the soldier in a state of craze!

However, his physique was no match for the heavily-built soldier. The soldier easily shoved him out of the wave and threw him on the ground!

After that, a swarm of soldiers leaped at Sanjae to hold him in place and carried him out of the room.

The remaining soldiers stepped into the room and inspected the man on the bed. They saw that Sanjae’s severed hand had completely fused into his head and through the brain. There was no saving this man now.

Meanwhile, on the other bed, the man named Varo climbed up and slowly opened his eyes.

“What, what’s going on?”

Varo was woken up by the commotion. He saw Sanjae who was getting dragged out and another soldier in a black combat suit standing at the foot of his bed.

The soldier did not say anything. He only glanced at Varo before exiting the room, leaving behind the confused Varo.

…

“The fusing process has been interrupted.”

Meanwhile, in an underground hall located in another corner of the earth, in Namibia. Chen Chen looked at the virtual display hovering in the air that displayed footage of Sanjae’s fusing.

“We now have confirmation that the protective suits are unable to prevent the infection.”

Little X noted. “On the contrary, the good news is that the Black Knights are unaffected by this peculiar fusing phenomenon. Regardless of how many times they come in and out of these quarantine zones, none of them have exhibited these symptoms.”

Chen Chen did not speak. He watched silently as the Punjani man named Sanjae was taken to a secret laboratory to have a full-body inspection conducted on him. A thorough inspection of his brain, organs, blood, and even the previously severed limb was to be conducted.

“It’s just like the research report in the Spire Experimental Base…”

Half an hour later, Little X brought news. “No genetic changes are detected nor are there any microorganism infections. Based on our observation, the fused corpses don’t exhibit any peculiar abnormalities save for the bizarre method of death.”

“Are you certain that memetic elements aren’t at play here?”

Chen Chen was still suspicious of the likelihood of memetic effects.

“Absolutely certain.”

Little X was certain of this. “Although memetic weapons can achieve these effects, I would’ve detected it at first notice.”

With that, Chen Chen got up and started pacing around.

In this period, he had conducted dozens of experiments. He had tried recording the process of the fusion, he had dissected and studied the fused corpse, and tried to interrupt the fusion process, which was what happened to Sanjae. Till now, all of his efforts were to no avail.

The protoplasmic fluid in the meteorite was undoubtedly an alien organism, but it was not infectious. In other words, on a biological level, it did not impose its effects on human cells or by extension, the human DNA. It was a completely harmful substance, even rich in protein, and could be directly consumed by animals.

To further research this aspect, the Spire Experimental Base had conducted experiments and fed the protoplasmic fluid to animals and Delta-level subjects. The observation was that neither the animals nor the humans seemed to exhibit any symptoms of having become infected…

However, the Delta-level subjects who drank the protoplasmic fluid began having strange dreams…

By this point, the Spire had figured out a certain pattern, which was that the protoplasmic fluid did not have any effects on animals, plants, and to a certain extent, humans as well.

The strange thing was that despite not imposing any effect on the human body directly, they soon started having strange dreams. Furthermore, when two people had both come into contact with the protoplasmic fluid, they tended to fuse under certain conditions.

This phenomenon of fusing was beyond comprehension. Human bodies were not liquid. How was it possible for this fusion process to occur?

The nature of this mystery was nothing short of terrifying.

It was observed that it was possible to interrupt this fusion process, just like what happened just now when Sanjae’s fusion was interrupted. Upon being interrupted, the fusion process was halted temporarily, but the participants of the fusion would lose control of themselves and become extremely aggressive. After that, their brain would begin to rapidly deteriorate and they would die of brain death within ten hours.

“It doesn’t affect animals, but affects humans.”

Chen Chen frowned and stared at the display. “At the same time, it doesn’t affect the Black Knights… Would it be right to assume that this alien substance only imposes its effects on life forms with self-conscience?”

“In that case, how does it infect humans with protective clothing?

“Could it be…”

It seemed an idea suddenly came to Chen Chen. He squinted, a faint glow slowly emerged from underneath the pitch-black pupils.