Plague Doctor
chapter-148

Translator: Lonelytree

A normal human’s facial skin was thin, soft, and supple due to its high collagen level. It also had a high number of sebaceous glands, sweat glands, and hair follicles. However, the facial skin of this zombie was completely different. Even though the face did not have that many death spots, the skin was wrinkly and blackened, and the facial muscles had severely shrunk like the rest of its muscles. The already thin facial muscles had basically atrophied, making the differentiation of the epidermal layer almost impossible. The people who watched the livestream were intensely worried, but it was deathly quiet inside the morgue.

Gu Jun’s actions might look quick and rash, but the man was as careful as he could be. He only used the tip of the scalpel to make the incision...

The incision on a normal human face would normally be two mm deep, and the area around the eyes would be one to two mm deep, but the incisions he made was less than one mm. It was only around 0.3 to 0.5 mm deep. He then used the toothed forceps to peel back the edge of the incisions. He pulled on the skin, and the layer started to peel back like some kind of horrible mask from the center of its face.

Listening to the barely audible tearing sound, the people around Gu Jun held their breath. Even Uncle Dan could feel his heart racing. This procedure was technically not that difficult, but Gu Jun did it in one fell swoop! It appeared like his mastery of the knife had improved again. Uncle Dan was reminded of the parasitic cleaning surgery they performed on Lin Mo. At the time, Gu Jun’s handiwork had not reached the current state of swiftness and ferocity.

‘This kid, no wonder he has the confidence to start with such a challenging autopsy procedure.’ Uncle Dan felt quite happy about this. The anxiety that he felt earlier soon washed away. If there was anyone at Eastern State who was most qualified to conduct this autopsy, the answer had to be Gu Jun.

“I knew Tycoon Jun had it in him,” Cai Zixuan praised. “Some talent just takes time to mature.”

Wang Ruoxiang focused on her work. She used the forceps to help fix the syndesm and helped move the skin that Gu Jun had peeled back onto the nearby tray. The technical difference between them was obvious, but there was always time to catch up. As the facial muscle of the head was removed part by part, the subcutaneous layer of the canine face was finally exposed. There was little to no face. Dark green veins and dark red nerves crawled around the face like winding roads. They did not crisscross even once, but they were suspiciously shrunken. They formed a stark contrast to enlarged mandibular bone and the swollen adenoceles.

The cameras above the surgical lights captured everything. This abnormal face was shown on all the monitors everywhere. Xiao Huiwen, He Tao, and the rest who were complaining about Gu Jun’s decision and handiwork earlier now showed different expressions. Actions spoke louder than words. Gu Jun’s light but effective incisions left zero injury on the dry and shriveled facial muscle. The subcutaneous tissues were perfectly preserved because of it. This whole procedure could only be described as masterful.

“Erm, Leader Xiao.” It was He Tao who broke the silence. “Looks like this Gu Jun was not a freshie as we thought.”

The rest nodded. They initially had trouble believing the praise in Gu Jun’s files. After all, his age and experience suggested otherwise. Regardless of his ESP, he had only performed an autopsy on one abnormal creature before, and it was only the chest part of the Necro-skin. But now they knew that they had greatly underestimated this young man.

For those incisions with such great speed on the zombie’s irregular face, it would prove difficult to maintain a steady hand on the scalpel.

“Freshie?” Xiao Huiwen chuckled self-deprecatingly. “Unless he is a murderer who likes to skin people, I don’t think you’ll be able to find someone who can do a better job. To think we were nervous about this. Now I see there was no reason for that. Come, might as well sit back and enjoy the show.”

Gu Jun had proven himself with his work. Even Gu Jun’s friends were valuable assets; no one brought up the previous suspicion again.

But the skinning was only just the beginning. Gu Jun continued to impress them with his layer dissection. It was like they were watching a performing art as he worked on the facial muscle, vena facialis, arteria facialis, parotids, supraorbital nerves, infraorbital nerves, nervus mentalis...

Gradually, they got used to Gu Jun’s extremely fast knife speed and high accuracy. They shifted their focus back to the zombie itself. As the autopsy of the face continued, more similarities to normal human beings could be found. The hypothesis that zombies were a mutation of a human being could basically be confirmed. This result garnered mixed emotions within the command central and conference room. This was a lucky breakthrough for the Scientific Research Department, but the discovery itself was quite discomforting.

The other lucky discovery that the condition that they worried about earlier did not happen—the zombie corpse had no negative impact on the human mind. That was Elder Tong and Prof Shen’s biggest concern about Gu Jun. After all, he had just cast multiple spells before the mission ended. For now, though it did not appear to hinder Gu Jun at all, if anything, Gu Jun appeared to get more and more into the status!

“Is the kid particularly gifted in this field?” Elder Tong asked Prof Shen, but the latter had no answer.

In the morgue, Gu Jun continued to work on the zombie’s lacrimal apparatus, which still contained the lacrimal gland and nasolacrimal gland. He felt sucked into his work as the background faded away. The heft of the Carlot Scalpel in his hands gave him a very special feeling. This was the first time he had utilized these two instruments in an actual autopsy since he obtained them. Dissecting scalpel and scissors, it was natural that they were meant for autopsies.

‘What is this feeling?’ Even Gu Jun himself could feel the sensation overwhelming him. The scalpel felt fluid and gentle as water in his grasp. He felt as if the instrument had ‘melted’ into his grasp. With his third level Hands of Dexterity, he did not even need to warm up anymore. There was a feeling of rejuvenation coursing through his veins; that was not how he should be feeling.

Conducting an autopsy was a very draining work. It was incredibly exhausting, especially since they were working on an abnormal creature. Yet, somehow, Gu Jun felt more spirited as he progressed. It was as if a power within him was awakening, washing away his fatigue from the past two days. Could it be the power of the Son of Steel?

A hypothesis that Gu Jun had not considered for quite some time appeared.

‘Could the scalpel and scissors really be a magical instrument from the foreign civilization?’

The foreign civilization worshiped the Goddess of Life and idolized Carlot Doctors. It was common sense for people with superpowers to be respected. Just look at how people on Earth worshipped the idol and superhero culture. If Carlot Doctors were citizens of the foreign civilization who could cast spells... then could their medical instrument be the tools to channel it?

To test that theory, Gu Jun stopped working, and the feeling of regeneration really did slowly fade away.

Gu Jun stared at the bloody scalpel, and his mind was bouncing with thoughts.

‘Is this their effect? Using them in an autopsy can help me recover exhausted mental power by adopting Landon’s ability? That would explain the refreshed state that I felt since I started this autopsy. Or could this be due to the abyssal mission?’

“Ah Jun, what’s wrong?” Uncle Dan asked, seeing that Gu Jun had stopped.