Marcie’s Crisis

Thirty minutes before, when Lin Sanjiu was trying to carve out a bloody path through the sea of duoluozhongs and when Septimus was still running for his life with the others, Marcie sat in the infirmary. She packed up the first aid equipment and placed them back into the refrigerator.

[This infirmary is most likely the last place in Oasis—perhaps even in the entire Shenghai Municipal— with a working refrigerator,] Marcie thought to herself feeling somewhat impressed. Under such high temperatures, syringes would melt, drugs would lose their potency and stability, and rubbing alcohol may even explode. The only way to properly store these medical supplies now was to keep them in a refrigerator. She recalled the first-aid box she had found in a small pharmacy. To think that she had nearly tried to use those moldy bandages in the first-aid box on Luther’s open wounds previously! She was really too anxious at that time, thankfully Hei Zeji gave them his medicine.

“Hey, you’re still here?”

While she was engrossed in her thoughts, the infirmary door opened without warning, and someone popped his head in.

“Oh, Executive Chen. I am just about to leave.” Marcie smiled and closed the refrigerator door.

Chen Jinfeng walked in, sat down in a chair by the examination table and remarked, “I met Tie Dao in the corridor just now. What you did with the bandaging looked professional! What was your job before?”

“I worked in a laboratory,” she replied briefly not expecting that it would pique Chen Jinfeng’s interest even more.

“Oh? What’s your research field?”

“Life Sciences,“ Marcie said curtly, “Executive Chen, you can continue sitting here, I am leaving first—“

Before she could finish her sentence, Chen Jinfeng suddenly grabbed her wrist when she walked past him. He smiled at her, “You don’t have to leave in a hurry… I still have something to say to you.”

Marcie pulled back her hand quickly and looked at him. After he had paused for a moment, Chen Jinfeng acted indifferently to her reaction and continued, “Come, sit down… sigh. Let me tell you something. In Oasis, we don’t have a lack of talented people in different fields. The only thing is that we don’t have a doctor. We have a nurse who works in the infirmary. She can tend to superficial injuries and common illnesses, but she is unable to handle anything more. Since you were a life sciences researcher, I presume you are also knowledgeable in medical science?”

“Do you mean that you want me to work as a physician here?” Marcie asked, feeling a bit awkward as she sat down opposite from him.

Chen Jinfeng clapped his hands together and smiled, “That’s right! Are you willing to do that? It is a meaningful job to help and save people!”

“It’s possible… When there are no missions, I am sure I can come over here to help,” Marcie said as she considered his proposition, she wanted to continue, but she suddenly felt something on her hand—she looked down and realized that Chen Jinfeng was stroking the back of her hand with his short stubby fingers. Marcie stood up immediately and glared at him in shock and anger. She was rendered speechless momentarily.

Chen Jinfeng was not one bit surprised by her reaction, he also stood up from his seat. Even though he was burly, he was shorter than Marcie by a head. He ogled at Marcie’s figure without any restraint, then he laughed, “I spent all my efforts on managing Oasis, helping so many people. But I feel very lonely… When I first saw you, I felt that you were different from everyone,” as he said this, he walked over to the door.

“Click.” The door was locked.

“What the hell are you doing!” Marcie panicked a little and quickly scanned her surroundings for something she could use to defend herself.

“Don’t be scared. I just want to talk to you,” as he said this, he walked over and sat on a small bed in the infirmary. He looked at Marcie and gave her an unsavory smile, “There are not many humans left in Oasis or rather the entire world. For human civilization to recover, it is not enough to rely on just the survivors. We must think about the next generation. So, the next step in my plan is to appeal to everyone to liberate themselves from the conventional taboos between men and women...” He patted the bed, signaling for Marcie to sit down beside him.

Without giving him a single glance, Marcie raced to the door like the wind. She reached for the lock and twisted it open easily. However, when she tried to open the door, it didn’t budge no matter how hard she pushed.

[Could this be his ability?]

Just as Marcie alternated between fear and anger, she heard Chen Jinfeng’s wet, obnoxious voice behind her: “Don’t you want to play your part in reviving human civilization? I heard that the more diverse parental genes are, the more intelligent their offspring will be…”

“Get away from me!” Marcie could not stand it any longer. She delivered a kick in Chen Jinfeng’s direction. Despite his short and bulky stature, Chen Jinfeng was surprisingly agile, so he dodged the attack easily.

“Don’t waste your energy. Once I activate my ability, this infirmary is my territory. There is no way you can leave without my permission, and no way anyone can come in…” He laughed as he threw his weight onto Marcie. Marcie buckled under the force and fell backward. Following which, Chen Jinfeng pushed her down and pressed his body against hers. He seemed to fully enjoy the woman’s resistance and the feeling of her struggling beneath him, he grasped both of Marcie’s arm with his hands. Without taking any other action, he sat on her and watched with narrowed eyes. “Wow, Caucasian women are really different… look at that buxom body…” He chuckled before violently thrusting his fist into Marcie’s stomach. Her body instantly curled like a shrimp. She was in so much pain that she could not even utter a word. Logically speaking, they both had enhanced bodies, so Marcie should be able to put up some resistance. However, she was now in Chen Jinfeng’s lair.

Chen Jinfeng grabbed her roughly, without any hesitation, groping her incessantly, “Oh, it’s so soft… Huh?” The firm roundness in his hands suddenly felt very strange—his hands were full one instance and empty the next. It was as if the woman’s body could evade him! Perplexed, he opened his eyes wide and stared. Under him, Marcie’s body flickered like a poor television image caused by bad reception. She disappeared for a second then appeared again with a sound of a snap the very next second. When she disappeared, Chen Jinfeng’s hands immediately hit the ground.

At some point, she stopped struggling and confronted him with her blurry, pixelated face like that of a digital image. She asked him accusingly, “Didn’t you say that Long Hua Road was just 20 minutes away?”

Chen Jinfeng leaped up in shock, still staring at Marcie’s flickering body as he muttered, “What… what’s wrong with you…”

The person in front of him, whom now had almost an illusory quality and whose colors were fast fading, stood up and yelled, “Answer me!”

The circumstances changed, and Chen Jinfeng was now trying to get away from Marcie. “Who knows what they’re up to!” he retorted, a little anxiously. Feeling a sudden itch at the back of his neck, he touched the spot and realized that he had somehow received a small scratch wound. In an inexplicable manner, that small wound spurred him to reveal his hostility openly: “Consider yourself lucky today! Let me tell you the truth, those two friends of yours will never come back! If I want to get you, I still have plenty of chances in the future!” he warned menacingly.

Once he ended his sentence, there was a “snap” sound. This time, Marcie disappeared without a trace completely. Chen Jinfeng waited for a few seconds, but there was still nobody else in the room besides himself. Since he could not make sense of the situation, he quickly deactivated his ability and left the room hurriedly. Eight minutes after that occurred, Gao Fei carried Septimus on his back as the group of people started heading back to Oasis.