Plague Doctor-Chapter 502 - Dark Undercurrent
From dissecting the flying polypus hydroids, Gu Jun's Autopsy experience rose to 2500/5000 (level 1/9). From the Byakees, the experience went up to 4000/5000, from the Zoogs, 4500/5000. During this period, Gu Jun spent less time in admin but more time in the morgue. The broken pieces of the hydroids were unable to provide him with more experience and he was unable to dissect living Byakees and Zoogs, so his study of them was limited to observation and records. If he could open up one of the Zoogs, the experience would skyrocket but so far he was not given that chance.
Gu Jun revisited his old friends, the zombies, Deep Ones and Necroskins and he barely managed to edge his experience to 4600. He already knew them too well, and thus could not draw any more knowledge from them. Experience, experience, Gu Jun tried his best to increase his Autopsy Science experience so that he could digest that power of dusk as soon as possible. For both worlds, this was the most important thing so Mysterium had been cooperating by sending over their mutated creatures. Unfortunately, how one differentiated between abnormal and mutated creatures was out of human control. Many strange creatures were just mutated species and not abnormal creatures. The perfect example was the Jinmenken, it would not influence the human mind.
The warehouse of both worlds contained mostly mutated creatures, therefore while Gu Jun could increase his skill dissecting them, it did not help with his new system.. Gu Jun's only hope was that the fat Zoogs could sniff out more abnormal creatures. By the end of September, the Zoogs had been working for a month already. They had not encountered any abnormal creatures and that burnt a fire under their asses. However, the Phecda divisions and Special Mobile Forces improved greatly in efficiency with the Zoogs' help. Even though they found zero abnormal creatures, the fat Zoogs had been accomplishing many great deeds.
Phecda's enemy was not limited to existence like the Lai Sheng Company, they also needed to deal with smaller fries. Normally these people were corrupted after they got too exposed to dark energy. These kinds of people mushroomed everywhere especially within these 2 years. It was an effect from the multiple tragedies as well as the appearance of units like Phecda and FBM. Supernatural energy was a hot topic. No matter how hard the PR Department tried to warn people of its danger, the public had their own minds.
Some of the normal citizens got interested in occultism. Using the US as an example, according to statistics, the amount of atheists which had been rising for the past decades suddenly plummeted. Some turned back to God while others to Satan. Such changes were observable all over the world. Thus, many small fries emerged silently into this world. Of course, some of them were juvenile dark practitioners. They communicated through social media as they spread their twisted gospel. Even without the fat Zoogs' help, these people were quickly marked out by the system and apprehended by the related departments instantly.
However, there were some who treated this seriously. They would become an actual threat if given the time to grow. They were far more cautious and had indeed reached out to supernatural forces. Phecda had to demolish them while they were still in their cradle. And this was how the Zoogs managed to contribute.
These novice cultists assumed they would not be discovered once they hid inside the jungle with no modern equipment. Indeed, they were not discovered by other humans but they were followed by the silent Zoogs. After their membership and base locations were confirmed, the net was closed. Over the past month, with the Zoogs' help, various Phecda divisions had improved their performance greatly. They demolished many such burgeoning cults and captured more than thousands of people. There were the homeless as well as the world's brilliant minds among them.
Some of them were even related to Phecda's prominent enemies. The suspects from port cities mentioned that they heard the call of the sea, this had to be related to Dagon and Lord of R'yleh. There was another group of five scriptwriters who claimed they heard whispers from one Mr. Wang Erde. This was a direct influence of the Yellow Brotherhood. Basically Phecda could confirm that Wang Erde was still alive. This demon was still living on. This positive result was worth celebrating but it also signified that the undercurrent of darkness was roaring. This caused higher ups like Elder Tong, Han Mingwei and Yao Sinian to frown deeply.
When Phecda captured so many cultists, they could not help but wonder if there were other cultists out there that had not been captured? Cultists who were more evil, more professional and more in touch with the power of darkness?
There was also another problem, the 50000 people selected by the Yith. Even though there was a temporary bond built between them, there was no organization who had the full list of the 50000 people. With the cooperation of all nations, they could only confirm 35213 people, among them 17261 chose to depart for the future with the Yith. The Yith who were swapped into their original bodies only stayed for a while before disappearing. These 17261 people became comatose and most died on the spot. The others managed to be rescued via immediate medical attention but they had been dying off through organ failures.
Of the 17952 people that remained, most were already in secret organizations and some were taken in by the government. However, there were still 14787 individuals who were unaccounted for. It was anyone's guess whether they departed for the future or stayed but chose to let themselves remain unknown.
The Yith had a different moral compass than humanity. They did not mention whether there were cultists among the 50000 people or not. However, based on the Yith's desire for knowledge, it wouldn't be surprising if the 50000 included these professors of occultism and mysticism.
So among the 14787 people, some might be Phecda's enemies or could grow to become Phecda's enemies. These people were handpicked by the Yith so they were naturally going to be a threat. Among the people captured within the past month, there was no telling if any of them was part of the Yith's list or not.
The world appeared peaceful on the surface but the foundation for that peace was rocky. Because of that, Gu Jun found himself unable to take the foundation's advice of taking it slow. He wanted to improve himself as fast as possible.
At the same time, collaboration between the global countries and the two worlds continued to improve. There were more joint projects. In early October, finally the new Department which had been in discussion by both parties was finally officialised.
