Chapter 30: A Sudden Turn of Events

"What did they say on that side?"

Xia Shou's inquiry pulled Wang Long, who had been lost in thought, back to reality. Adjusting his glasses, Wang Long looked with terror at the anomalous patient still slowly shuffling forward and said, "The guard in the other inpatient building encountered an anomalous patient similar to ours—it appeared to have tuberculosis and also crawled in from the outside of the window. Some of them were touched by this patient and contracted the same symptoms. Because the situation was chaotic, a manic patient, agitated by the scene, used a fire axe to kill the strange patient."

Xia Shou’s expression shifted slightly. "Killed it? And then?"

"That man also developed tuberculosis symptoms. Later, he had physical contact with several others, causing the disease to spread. But the lung disease in his body seemed to be distributed among them; the coughing frequency of all those infected was significantly reduced, and all symptoms were alleviated."

Xia Shou’s eyes lit up, and he let out a long sigh of relief. "That sounds like a good thing. In other words, as long as we kill the source of the infection, the damage can be kept within a controllable range."

Wang Long’s eyes were cold as ice. "I haven't finished yet. That manic patient was subdued, but the situation there spiraled completely out of control. A violent physical conflict broke out between the patients' families and the hospital security, causing the symptoms to spread once again. Now, everyone—security, doctors, patients, and families—has been infected. And ten minutes after that, their initially mild coughing symptoms began to intensify; some even started coughing up blood and suffocating. In the end, after a group discussion, they reached a unanimous decision to transfer all the lung disease symptoms back to that manic patient. A few minutes ago, that patient died of respiratory failure. Before he died, his lungs were coughed out of his body in their entirety... Mind you, I’m not using hyperbole; I am stating a fact."

"Damn it!" Xia Shou cursed under his breath.

Coughing one's lungs out of the body entirely clearly defied common sense. It seemed the abilities of these anomalous patients were not limited to spreading disease but could also manifest people's fearful imagination of illness into reality.

Xia Shou looked at the old man in the wheelchair. Earlier, this old man had been touched by the burly man and had fully received the man's illness. The old man sat quietly in his wheelchair, yellow tears still staining his face, his skin a sallow yellow, his abdomen slightly distended as if filled with fluid; he no longer appeared to be breathing.

Seeing this, Xia Shou’s brow furrowed even tighter. He wasn't feeling sorrow for this tragedy; if all the negative effects could be concentrated on one person and eliminated, it would actually be a good thing. In an anomalous event like this, that would definitely be the best-case scenario. But clearly, this incident wasn't that simple. Xia Shou could tell Wang Long hadn't finished, and he suspected the truly terrible news was yet to come.

"And then?" Xia Shou asked.

"Then, after that manic patient died, someone who had completely recovered suddenly started coughing again, and one of the guards who had brief contact with him also began to cough."

"In other words, even if the strange patient acting as the source is killed, there will still be someone who becomes a carrier of the disease. And even if this person dies naturally without being attacked by anyone, the same symptoms will still randomly appear among normal people."

After Xia Shou finished his analysis, his mind felt like a complete mess. The situation was even worse than he had imagined. How could this be solved? This anomaly was simply unsolvable!

"Xia Shou." Su Weiyu tugged on his sleeve.

"Hmm? Wait, let me think."

"No! Look quickly, don't you think this guy is walking a little faster than before?" Su Weiyu urged.

Xia Shou felt a buzzing in his head as he turned to look at the yellow-skinned patient, who had been moving like a snail. The creature was now walking toward a ward, stopped in front of the door, reached out, grabbed the doorknob, and tried to turn it. Finding it locked, it turned around woodenly and headed toward the next room.

Xia Shou gasped. The movement speed of this thing had indeed increased! And it seemed to have gained a little bit of intelligence! A moment ago, it could only move in a straight line like a puppet, but now it was actually trying to open doors!

"Cough! Cough!"

The yellow-skinned patient suddenly let out two coughs. Upon hearing them, both Xia Shou and Wang Long felt a chill run down their spines. Was it a coincidence?

Wang Long lowered his voice and said gravely in Xia Shou’s ear, "That wasn't a normal cough. It sounded like the cough of someone suffering from a severe lung disease."

"Doctor Wang, go contact the other colleagues. Tell them not to kill these anomalous patients under any circumstances. It is very likely that after one anomalous patient dies, its symptoms will transfer to other anomalous patients."

Wang Long nodded and dashed toward the service desk, grabbed the phone, and started dialing.

On the other side, the anomalous patient who had just acquired the lung disease, having failed repeatedly to open doors, turned around, locked eyes with Xia Shou in the middle of the corridor, and began walking straight toward him at a normal pace!

"Cough... cough, cough..."

The coughing was continuous, like a premonition of death. The creature's walking speed was now no different from an ordinary person's. Xia Shou suspected that if another anomalous patient elsewhere died, this one might start jogging, and an anomalous patient that could jog was a walking killing machine! Anyone touched by it would be as good as sentenced to death.

Unless it could be sealed in a room, the only option—since one could not touch it and could not injure it—was to kill it. But once it was killed, the anomalous patients elsewhere would be further empowered, and the variety of diseases they carried would increase. The threat posed by these patients would grow in tandem with their mobility and the variety of diseases, and by then, there would be few choices left for them.

At this moment, Xia Shou only prayed that Wang Long would be fast enough on the phone to pass this intelligence to the other guards.

"Is it connected yet!" Xia Shou shouted.

"This is Wang Long. Have you also encountered abnormal patients on your side? ...If you encounter an anomalous entity, whatever you do, don't—"

"Hello? This is Wang Long! You..."

Wang Long made one call after another. Just as the third call connected, before he could speak, his colleague on the other end spoke first:

"Is that Wang Long? Be careful of the patients coming from the other space! They might be anomalous entities! Don't let them touch you; you'll be infected! Kill them immediately!"

Wang Long’s heart sank. Rapid footsteps suddenly rang out behind him. He spun around, and the patient that had been walking normally was now running! In the blink of an eye, it was right in front of Xia Shou!

Su Weiyu’s pupils constricted, and she instinctively raised her blade. At this instant, time in Xia Shou’s eyes seemed to slow down a thousand times, and thoughts flashed through his mind like lightning.

0.5 seconds...

Between two terrible choices, he made his decision. Xia Shou pushed Su Weiyu aside and raised his own hand.