Plague Doctor
chapter-274

The first person who stabilized into existence was Wang Ruoxiang. “Gu Jun?” The girl looked at him and then around them. When she saw the wounded, she frowned immediately. “What happened?” The other figures slowly coagulated. This time 30 members were sent into Dreamlands through dream, they were all members of the Spell Department, this mission was conducted at the Dreaming Building. Of the 30 people, most of them were from the Action Department. Including Wang Ruoxiang, there were only 5 who came from the Medical Department.

“We’ve completed our mission, the power source of the new strain of pneumophilia has been destroyed.” Gu Jun said hurriedly, “But we’ve been exposed to a large number of parasites and we can’t tell whether they’re infectious or not so we cannot return for now. If any of you can return now, please inform the command central to stop sending in new fighters and instead we need greater medical assistance!” Immediately three members volunteered to be the messengers. The method used to wake up the dreamers was quite simple, one only needed to prick them on their finger and the pain would do the rest. Gu Jun’s Carlot Scalpel was used for this purpose because he believed it would deliver the least mental damage.

Wang Ruoxiang also snapped back to the waking world because she was the bridge. Dreaming a way into Dreamlands was not an easy feat, after all, the Angell’s Order had failed to do so consistently even after decades of research. It was due to Wang Ruoxiang and Gu Jun’s mental connection that the bridge could be formed. The dreamers naturally could not bring anything with them. Another noteworthy detail was that they had to dream while being fully-dressed, the apparel appeared to be some kind of shell that would anchor them in the Dreamlands.

However, when they were in the Dreamlands, they could interact with other physical objects with the price of sacrificing their mental energy. The longer one spent in the Dreamlands, the heavier the exhaustion on the dreamer. Once they crossed a certain threshold, they would be forced awake. The four doctors who remained immediately jumped into action. They helped Gu Jun to address the injured while Lou Xiaoning and the rest helped with the heavy lifting.

At the same time, a dreamer who was affiliated with the Investigation Department brought Gu Jun’s team updates from the waking world. “Elder Tong wanted me to tell you that the Seagull has reappeared in the real world...”

Lou Xiaoning and the rest had no idea what The Seagull was, they only knew it had to do with Lai Sheng Company. However, Gu Jun’s face shifted once he heard that name. His heart squeezed and his hands that were cleaning Uncle Dan’s wounds halted...

‘The Seagull?’ He tried to focus and chased away the messy thoughts in his mind. He resumed his work while he listened attentively to the rest of the update. The Seagull had appeared alongside other sunken ships. They were accompanied by the appearance of some fish-human monsters. The ghost fleet and the sea monsters had surrounded the armada of research ships. They were immune to cannon fire and their presence brought in a thicker fog on the sea.

The channel at Jiang Xin Municipal was kept under control but at a heavy price. Over the past 3 hours, the fatality number from the disease kept climbing and the research into Drug No. 1 had reached a dead end. It contained some material that human beings could not identify at the moment. The Lai Hwa Tree seedling had been planted but it showed no growth. Whether the success of Gu Jun’s team over here had any impact over in the real world, the dreaming team could not tell yet.

‘The Seagull, the Seagull...” Try as he might, Gu Jun could not stop the memory from returning, his childhood memories of playing on the ship’s deck and his parent’s blurred-out faces... His right hand that held the knife was shaking. This was the first time something like this had happened since he acquired Hands of Dexterity. Thankfully, it did not cause any mistake during his technical work.

“Hmm?” Gu Jun’s team members shared a look with each other, they could sense the fraying of Gu Jun’s emotions...

At that moment, Gu Jun appeared to hear Wang Ruoxiang calling him again. Therefore, he responded in kind, ‘Monitor, here, here!’ Soon another group of dreamers appeared. This time they were all doctors and nurses from the Spell Department. Once they arrived, they launched into action. They took necessary tools from the medkit and got into their respective roles, delivering injections, cleaning wounds and making bandages. Seeing them arrive, part of the fighting dreamers returned as they were no longer needed there.

The team now had enough medical workers and sufficient devices but there was a glaring problem. The blood bags inside the medkit had disintegrated. Me Feng, who was the most heavily injured, was at the edge of his life, he needed blood transfusion immediately. Based on the situation, the only possibility was a blood transplant. Even if both subjects shared the same blood type, this method was going to be extremely dangerous but they had no other choice. The doctors knew this operation could not wait. Gu Jun was familiar with the blood type of his every member and the medkit had this information should he need to confirm. Ma Feng had Type B blood and so did Malachite. He was a muscular man and was not injured in the mission. Therefore, he volunteered to be the blood donor. Since there were no empty blood bags, the nurse sucked out the blood from Malachite through a large syringe and then carefully injected it back into Ma Feng’s bloodstream.

“He needs an immediate operation.” Wang Ruoxiang told Gu Jun. Uncle Dan and the rest suffered from surface wounds, some only needed bandages while the more serious ones might need sutures or even amputation but Ma Feng needed a reconstruction of his exposed intestines. He had a fighting chance if he underwent surgery, if not, he’d be waiting for death.

“I agree.” Gu Jun nodded. There were many surgical doctors which joined the second batch of dreamers. With Gu Jun’s permission, they immediately undid Ma Feng’s bandage around his stomach to inspect his abdominal cavity. They discussed how to conduct the operation while Wang Ruoxiang offered to help as a surgical assistant. Gu Jun did not participate, he even handed the bandaging and suturing jobs for Uncle Dan over to someone else. He was pulled by a desire to return to Jiang Xin Municipal to join the battlefield on the sea...

“Is there a way for me to dream my way back to my waking world? An inversion dreaming so to speak...” Gu Jun asked the Elder Zoog who had been studying them. The last time when he was trapped on Dreamlands, he attempted this before but it was to no avail.

“I’ve not even heard of something like that.” The Elder Zoog patted himself with difficulty. “Dreamlands is the anchor of all dreams, where is one going to dream if not here?”

Knowing how difficult it was, Gu Jun did not pressure the Zoog. He looked around to see if he could find any breakthrough. As a last resort, he checked his sea of consciousness: the system? Not of help; The one empty sweet dream bubble, no use; Dirty-minded Yu? Doesn’t think so.

Suddenly he caught something from the corner of his eyes. The place where the Lai Hwa Tree seedling was situated had grown into a shiny silhouette of a large tree. The spot should have been empty after he had manifested the reward in real life so what was this?

‘The seedling has been planted, could this be...’ An idea struck Gu Jun. ‘Is there a special connection between myself and this Lai Hwa Tree? Can this serve some unique purpose? There’s no harm in trying, I suppose...’ After vacating his sea of consciousness, he walked to a nearby tree and sat down. He closed his eyes and focused his mental energy on the tree silhouette. He felt a strange energy coursing through him, it felt like leaves and branches were growing out of him.