“Ah Jun, it’s unfortunate, but we already have three internal cases within the Medical Department. There are also reports of similar cases in the Investigation Department and Scientific Research Department,” Prof Qin announced sadly.
“Ah.” Gu Jun was instantly reminded of his teachers and friends. The curse-like statement ’embrace death together’ from Raybundy’s diary flashed across his mind. He looked at Prof Qin’s face, which was tired from a lack of sleep, and his heart squeezed with sympathy. “Prof Qin, are you...?”
He let the question linger, but the implication was clear.
“No, all the victims have been quarantined already.” Prof Qin sighed. “Thankfully, it appears like the disease only affects the citizens of the Eastern State.”
Yao Sinian at the side provided some additional updates. He was one of the persons at the head of the emergency unit dealing with this illness temporarily dubbed ‘Nightmare Illness’. Even though Phecda had put out a tight net on the internet, there had been more than enough forum threads discussing the nightmare before Phecda could intervene. The original poster was an Eastern State native, and he had already died from suicide. The thread had been viewed by internet users all over the country, but currently, only the area around the Eastern State had reported any actual cases.
The first case was reported at a normal hospital one week ago, but it did not pass through any radar then. The attending doctor assumed this was just stress. It was not until the number of patients with the same symptoms and same dream started to skyrocket, and the illness even affected some of the doctors, that it caught the attention of Phecda.
Since yesterday, the Eastern State had been in a state of emergency. The state was put under lockdown. All communication going in and out was all monitored. They could not be sure for now, but it appeared like anyone who knew about the content of the nightmare—be it through reading about it or hearing about it—could be infected. Though, the infection rate was not one hundred percent, and the pathology of the illness was still unclear. There was not even sufficient data to support a correlation between high spirituality and a higher rate of infection.
When he heard all this, Gu Jun was reminded of the silence that pervaded his social media recently. Even Lee Yuerui had stopped sending him memes. He had failed to notice that earlier because he was too busy with training. He could not help but ask, “Then, is it not possible to get people to evacuate from the Eastern State since only people residing there will be affected?”
“The superiors decided not to go for such drastic measures yet.” When Yao Sinian said that, the pain was clear in his voice. “After all, no one knows if the people will carry the pathogen with them, mass evacuation might lead to an epidemic. We still have a chance to contain the illness. We have to believe so...”
“Okay...” The lines on Gu Jun’s face tightened. In other words, the whole Eastern State was now isolated from the rest of the world. The Eastern State had a population of around 10,000,000 people. More and more would die if they stayed in the Eastern State, but they risked the chance of making it a true epidemic ravaging the whole country if they allowed a mass evacuation. Either of the decisions would cause the loss of innocent lives...
The old man before him must have been a part of the committee that made this decision. This was not an easy solution to make. Gu Jun personally did not agree with it, but he could not say that the alternative would be much better.
“Regarding whether we can evacuate and how to evacuate, the country still needs more information.” The brows of Prof Qin were pleated with stress. “Based on our current knowledge, we have reached a hypothesis regarding the transmission of this Nightmare Illness. There is something that is spreading a kind of mental signal transmission around the area within the Eastern State.”
‘What kind of thing?’ Gu Jun wanted to ask. ‘An ESP transmitter? But one whose mind power is strong enough to cover several thousand kilometers?’
“Once you have knowledge of the dream, you have a chance of receiving the signal, and that will cause your nervous system to mutate. Therefore, currently, the cases are only reported within the Eastern State. We have tried to move one of the patients thirty kilometers out of the epidemic range, but his condition continued to worsen. This suggests that once you are infected, you will be able to receive the signal anywhere. Currently, all known cases of the disease were transmitted from another person. There is not yet any individual case that shows signs that they were not infected by another person.”
Once Prof Qin finished, Yao Sinian added, “The transmission range of Nightmare Illness is almost identical to the Malformed Banyan Disease, so we are still investigating the possible connection of this to Lai Sheng Company.”
Gu Jun felt the breath being knocked out from his lungs.
‘The first tragedy is over. The second tragedy will be arriving soon.
‘It is like what was prophesized... Could the second tragedy refer to this Nightmare Illness?’
He knew that there were at least two parties within the Afterlife Cult. His parents belonged to a side different from the sect that was vanquished at the shrine, but they appeared to be connected to another organization, one that was studying ‘the voice inside the dream’...
But the taunt was left behind by the people from Afterlife Cult, no? Or was there perhaps some cooperation between the two parties? What did ‘those documents’ refer to, and what was the meaning of those words on the paper left behind by his parents?
Gu Jun had a head full of questions, and he felt angry at not having any answers. He asked, “What kind of nightmare is it?”
The three of them had been chatting for a while already. Elder Tong and the Overseers were already waiting for them. Noticing this, Prof Qin said, “Ah Jun, you’d better focus on your exam for now. It is not advisable for you to get yourself too involved in this at the moment. Just show them what you can do. That might lead to the breakthrough we need.”
“Understood.” Gu Jun nodded heavily. This sudden incident had shattered the peace that had lasted for a month. His peace was over. The Medical Department must be seriously understaffed. Had the Abnormal Energy Investigation Group been assigned to different places to collect information, and had the Demon Hunter been sent out on another mission? He wished to return to the Eastern State immediately and offer his service. But at the same time, he was afraid of finding that any of his friends had fallen to this illness. Even though he still did not quite get the pathology of this Nightmare Illness, he knew that it was a spiral that would only lead toward death.
“I will,” Gu Jun promised. When he walked over from small get-together, Elder Tong made some quick introductions. The leader of the review group was called Xiao Sihui. He looked about the same age as Elder Tong. He came from the headquarters and had a few members with him. The captain of the Overseers was Zhang Danjie. The vice captains were Xu Da and Lu Wanhwa. Gu Jun recognized them from before. It was clear from the unfriendly gazes they directed at both Gu Jun and Elder Tong that their stance was biased.
In any case, they had brought Prof Shen, Wu Siyu, and the rest about the latest situation in the Eastern State, and they were told to give everything they had in the exam. A blanket of heaviness descended on the crew due to the news, but to Gu Jun’s surprise, the heaviness impacted Elder Tong as well. His eagerness to fight had slipped away, and in its place was some kind of stifled anger and... regret. As they moved toward the medical building, Elder Tong whispered to him in a surprisingly hoarse voice, “Ah Jun, give it your best shot. We might not have much time left...”
In that moment, Gu Jun felt a hollowness in Elder Tong’s eyes that were sucking him in. It chilled him to the core.
The examination this time was mainly on the existence of ESP. They already knew about Xiao Xu’s super intelligence. It was why he had been recruited into Phecda at his young age. There were many weakened versions of Xiao Xu’s talent among the public. They were Guinness World Record holders and so on, but the same could not be said for people with ESP.
When they reached the large ESP lab, the review group took over the control. Elder Tong, Prof Shen, and his crew were relegated to the sideline. Soon, Gu Jun, Wu Siyu, and four pairs from the Overseers were sent into five different rooms to conduct the Ganzfeld Experiment. The pictures used in the test were all prepared by the review group. Each set had a random selection of ten pictures. The choice of pictures for each set was randomly picked by the computer to lower the possibility of human influence between the two test subjects. All the sets were extremely unfamiliar and complicated, but now, Gu Jun only had his mind set on winning. His mental state was like that mother who managed to lift up the small car to save her child.
After ten rotations, the competition was over. When the results appeared on the big screen, a small gasp came from the review group members who were watching. Even for the Overseers like Zhang Danjie and Xu Da, who had seen many things in their lives, their expressions shifted.
Gu Jun and Wu Siyu had scored an impressive one hundred percent accuracy rate with Gu Jun as the transmitter and eighty percent accuracy rate with Wu Siyu as the transmitter. The four pairs of Overseers scored an average of sixteen percent. Prof Shen knew that sixteen percent should be considered high already. According to the difficulty of the set of pictures they used, the average should only be around ten. Furthermore, the Overseers had not undergone special ESP training before. This sixteen percent result showcased their natural talent, but their talent was still no match for Gu Jun and Wu Siyu.
“We’ll try something harder.” Without discussing it with anyone else, Xiao Sihui started yet another test. It was another ten sets of pictures, but the pictures that showed up this time not only included complicated shapes and lines but also ten random number combinations. This made it even more difficult because the receiver might get confused with the order during transmission. For example, the transmitter might see ’30, 1, 66′, but the receiver might rearrange it to ’66, 30, 1′. The hike in difficulty worried even Prof Shen. After all, Gu Jun and Wu Siyu had not received this kind of training before. This test required them to transmit the information of the picture and the number separately, and numbers were a completely different concept from images.
But soon, a bigger gasp echoed in the lab. They conducted five tests, and Gu Jun and Wu Siyu maintained an accuracy above forty percent. But for the four pairs of Overseers, no matter how they arranged the position of receiver and transmitter, they all scored zero. This comparison was a bit too drastic.
The Overseers, who had looked so formidable when they arrived, now looked at each other in shock. Even Captain Zhang had unbridled awe and confusion on his face. Forty percent was not a coincidence. This meant that ESP was real. This confirmation would bring new changes to Phecda.
Elder Tong turned to Xiao Sihui, who was silent. “So, Ol’ Xiao, how would you explain this?”
Prof Qin shared a look with Yao Sinian. Regardless of Ol’ Xiao’s opinion, the two of them had come to a new conclusion. If ESP was real, then the pathology of the Nightmare Illness was likely linked to it somehow.
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