Plague Doctor - Chapter 92

Chapter 92: Carlot Scalpel

The earlier stone wall and red door were ruined. One kilo of C4 exploding was not strong enough to blind nor to cause any fire. The assault team led by Xue Ba stormed into the room in a standard formation. They did not see the white light that Lou Xiaoning mentioned. The abnormal energy from the sickened eyeball that would disturb one’s mind did not appear, but among the rubble… the dark red patterns on the rocks flowed like dripping blood. However, once they trained their focus and took a second look, they confirmed that was a kind of illusion.

After stepping through the shattered threshold, they arrived at the space that was originally behind the red door. This appeared to be a stone room, about three hundred cubic meters. There was a stone ladder that spiraled upward in the middle of the room. Each step was around twenty centimeters tall and was much narrower than the stone steps outside. The whole contraption appeared like it was carved out of the stone naturally as well. Even the curving points appeared startlingly smooth.

Some of the team members aimed their powerful flashlights upward. There was no ceiling, and the spiral staircase appeared to lead into darkness. Xue Ba used the binoculars to take a look. Even with seven times magnification, he could not see the end. The stairs appeared to have been sucked into the darkness. They were currently five thousand meters underground, so if the spiral staircase led all the way up to the surface, it would be five thousand meters tall.

After that, the assault team searched through the room, they did not find anything valuable. The space was empty; there was not even a speck of dust. Disappointment overwhelmed the Demon Hunters. Neither the enemy nor the exit that they anticipated were there. Instead, that was yet another path that seemed to lead to who knew where.

“All clear. Ah Jun, I need you to come over and take a look,” Xue Ba shouted back. His voice was carried through the communicator to every member. In other words, the waiting members were given permission to move ahead. Ah Jun bounced down the steps. Once he saw the stone room, he let go of the breath he was holding. There was no ceiling, no miscellaneous items, and no long wooden table. This was not the basement where the Son of Steel, Landon, conducted autopsy on those abnormal creatures to draft blueprints out of them. But this space that they were in… could still be a part of Rikers. Gu Jun glanced at the broken rocks around the gaping hole where the door once was. A thought that he had been harboring surfaced once more.

‘I need that quest reward…’ he thought to himself. ‘The scalpel might provide some kind of clue in the illusion.’

In this kind of situation where every movement of theirs had been calculated by the enemy, an object that he had suddenly acquired might be the key to solving the problem, especially considering the enemy thought they had already determined the itinerary of items the team had carried with them.

Therefore, Gu Jun wandered to a corner of the room while pretending to observe the surroundings. His right hand reached into a gap in the stone wall, and he chose to ‘accept reward’ in his mind. The mysterious and powerful energy descended. It appeared to twist space and time. The ‘space capacity’ of the location they were in was powerless to stop it.

At the same time, Gu Jun was hit by a very strange realization. ‘Yes… the quest rewards are sourced from this place. They come from this world.’

His fingers tightened, and they closed around a scalpel. Based on the width, length, and size of the hilt, he could tell this was the most common scalpel no. 23. He pulled his hand out, and his hypothesis was confirmed. The shape and size of this scalpel were practically identical to scalpel no. 23. This once again confirmed the similarity between the denizens of the foreign civilization and earthlings. Because they had the same hand construction and operating needs, the similarity of the scalpel could be explained.

The one difference was the scalpels on Earth normally were made from stainless steel to prevent corrosion and rust, and to have high tensile strength so that they could do heavy work while maintaining a low overall weight. However, the Carlot scalpel was made from a totally different material. Although Raybundy’s diary did mention that their scalpels were made from steel, Gu Jun hesitated to agree with him because the steel that was forged into this scalpel was clearly different from the common steel that could be found on Earth. The steel that made the Carlot Scalpel feel like it had been tempered somehow. It was incredibly light, and it felt strange in Gu Jun’s grasp because his muscles had not gotten used to handling it. However, curiously enough, the scalpel slipped easily between his fingers like it belonged there.

‘Is this what a postmortem knife supposed to be, or is it because of me?’ Gu Jun was confused. The overall design of the scalpel reminded Gu Jun of a pure flow of water. If not for the glint of sharpness of the blade, he would describe the scalpel as being ‘gentle’. There was an arrestingly beautiful carving on the hilt. There was also a foreign term. Gu Jun recognized it to carry the meaning of the term Carlot. The font of the foreign term curved elegantly like a dancing ballerina—the Goddess of Life worshipped by the foreign civilization.

Gu Jun held the scalpel silently and focused his attention, to attempt to trigger the illusion. His brain shut down with enormous pain instantly. No, he had exhausted too much mental energy earlier…

“What’s wrong?” By then, Xue Ba had noticed what was going on with Gu Jun. His brows creased as he asked, “What is that?”

“There was a scalpel here, hidden behind the stone gap.” Gu Jun resisted the headache and pretended to be surprised as he extended his palm to show the other Demon Hunters the scalpel. “The word Carlot is carved on the hilt. I believe that might be the name of the brand or possibly the owner.”

Instantly, the group carefully gathered around Gu Jun. None of them reacted strangely to this discovery. The only different response came from Zhou Yi, who scratched his head. Earlier, it was Zhou Yi who had searched this corner. He could have sworn that there was nothing there, but Zhou Yi could not be so sure anymore. “Sorry, I must have missed it…”

“Ah Jun.” Xue Ba had another question in mind. “How can you be sure that this is a postmortem scalpel and not a surgical scalpel?”

They were technically the same; the difference was in their usage. Gu Jun was stunned. This was a blind spot that he had not considered. He shook his head slowly. “I have no idea. My instinct told me it was a postmortem scalpel. That’s all…”

But Xue Ba’s question had thrown doubt into his conviction.

‘The system technically did not label this as any kind of specific scalpel… I thought it was a postmortem scalpel because I believe it might be related to the Son of Steel, Landon, but could I have come to a hasty conclusion?’ Gu Jun started to question himself. ‘But the way it fits into my hands, no, it has to be a postmortem scalpel.’

“Oh.” Xue Ba did not press further. He turned within himself to contemplate what Gu Jun meant by his instinct. Then he told Zhou Yi and the rest, “We should move these shattered stones aside to see if there’s anything else behind them.”

The men quickly moved to oblige, and as expected, they did not discover anything else. Gu Jun stood to the side and observed quietly. Uncle Dan took the scalpel from him and studied it for a while. Then he whined with disappointment, “What is this? It’s too light. If you apply too much pressure, it’ll easily cut too deep.”

Uncle Dan was apprehensive of the connection between this scalpel and Lai Sheng Company, and at the same time, he really thought it was not a qualified blade.

Then Zhang Huohuo came to give it a go as well. Even though he was a nurse, he had tons of experience dealing with knives. After all, he was sometimes required to cut away the epidermis.

“It’s too light.” Zhang Huohuo shook his head after giving it a try. “And the shape is too strange to be held comfortably.”

‘Huh? But how come I didn’t have that problem earlier? There was no trace of discomfort when I was holding it. Why?’ Gu Jun’s confusion deepened. ‘Is it due to Hands of Dexterity or my familiarity with the foreign civilization?’

Regardless, there had to be a reason for them to find the scalpel. Xue Ba and the rest believed that it had something to do with the enemy’s trick and thus carried potential danger. However, they all decided to carry it with them for now because it might turn out useful in the end. The scalpel was temporarily kept by the medics. Xue Ba reminded them to be careful not to be influenced by its mysterious power; they were to report should they feel any discomfort. Uncle Dan and Zhang Huohuo showed no interest in it, so Gu Jun used the reason of the possibility of it triggering his inspiration to reclaim it back into his possession. With regard to that, Xue Ba took careful note of it.

The team rested for half a day inside the stone room. They abandoned some stuff and only brought along the necessary weapons and supplies as well as the two oil lamps. They headed up the spiral staircase, the only way forward from the stone room.