Chapter 09 - Sample

Mark is a very kind person and always includes a touch of unique American humor in his speech. However, Lin Xiang always feels that there is something unknown hidden behind his slightly melancholic lake blue eyes.

The cold wind slowly strokes through the city from above, carrying a touch of swaying gray dust. The steel-reinforced concrete buildings hidden in the mist show a deathly chill. The various vehicles parked on the road are chaotic and messy, and their collisions completely block the entire road. Through the open car doors, one can see dried and hardened coagulated plasma everywhere on the soft seats.

The shops on the street are full of rotting food. On the tilted steaming shelf, there are a few moldy and hardened steamed buns hanging, on the broken glass bottle edge, there are dark-colored drink stains, and on the fruit stand separated by wooden boards, the piled fruits have rotted into a putrid pulp. The black liquid slowly flows out from under the fruit pile and coagulates into a nauseating pool in the depression of the road.

A faint smell of rot permeates the air. No one can say exactly where it comes from.

Aside from the occasional bugs and rats flashing in the corners, there is no more movement in the whole city.

No one.

To be exact, there is no trace of any large creatures.

Lin Xiang looked around in confusion and slowly walked towards the end of the street in front of him.

It was really too quiet. This was completely different from the Kunming city in his memory.

When the 75th division entered the city, Kunming had already been completely occupied by mutated beings. Everywhere, black mutated creatures brandished sharp bone blades and blood-red eyes gleamed. The fleshy, blurred corpses and viscous semi-fluids became the only decorations in the city.

Now, there was no evidence of a massive virus spread except for the dry bloodstains on the ground and walls, and the rotting limbs scattered around the streets. It seemed as if the millions of mutated beings had evaporated or become invisible, leaving no trace.

Maybe it's a side effect of the infection! Lin Xiang felt that his body had changed greatly compared to before. The strength generated by the swelling muscles was stronger, the body was more agile in movement, the brain responded faster, and even his subconscious perception of danger seemed to have become more acute.

His intuition told him that there was no creature in this empty city that could threaten his existence.

Where are they?

Thinking of this, he turned around unconsciously and looked at the three United Nations observers following him.

Mark's brow was also tightly furrowed, as if he was thinking about a problem with no answer. The other two members watched attentively, cautiously observing the surroundings. Only when the officer who served as a translator came forward did they occasionally briefly talk.

"Did we take the wrong way?"

"Is this really Kunming?"

"Why can't we see those terrifying mutated creatures?"

Questions like this came one after another from several observers, and the interpreter, First Lieutenant Yang Guang, could only shake his head with a wry smile.

In fact, he also wanted to know the answers to these questions.

While a few people were arguing, Lin Xiang noticed that Mark seemed to be deeply interested in a pool of hardening blood on the side of the road.

He crouched down and looked closely at the cracks on the surface of the blood for a long time, opened his backpack, and took out a silver suitcase. After unlocking the surface lock, he slowly opened it, revealing a set of precision instruments embedded in shock-proof foam.

He took tweezers from the tool bag, slowly pried open the already hardened surface of the blood clots, took some from the bottom, still moist and semi-solid, diluted with a certain amount of culture fluid, and finally carefully inserted the already bright red glass tube into the opening of the instrument.

"Why, why is this happening?"

Mark's face suddenly turned iron blue as he looked at the stream of data listed on the instrument screen. His lips, covered with thick beard, were open in shock and his head was swaying unconsciously.

"What happened?" Yang Guang, feeling abnormal, turned his head and asked.

"Nothing."

Mark quickly changed the expression on his face and tightened muscles soon turned into a faint smile: "Just an inactive sample, data errors are normal."

As he spoke, he quickly closed the box cover of the instrument and looked gravely at the quiet and deserted street in the distance, muttering: "It's better to catch a live mutant."

Lin Xiang noticed that when Mark said this, he always unconsciously rotated the ring on his left index finger.

Not only him, but the other two armed observers also wore similar things on their hands.

From the surface gloss, the texture seemed to be silver. As for the pattern, it was a black skull that was high and protruded from the ring surface...

Two hours later, the search area had entered the inner ring of the city.

The entrance to the highway was crowded with more than a dozen tightly packed cars. Their drivers all wanted to rush onto the road in the shortest time possible, but in a state of panic, collisions and friction were unavoidable. This ultimately led to the escape route being completely blocked, and the thousands of cars that followed it also became useless decorations in the middle of the road.

The smell in the air was getting stronger. At a deserted small square at the end of the road, the searchers found the source of the smell.

Hundreds of black bodies lay scattered on the ground. Their bodies were twisted, and their backs were bent into exaggerated angles. Their limbs were completely extended, and the muscles on the surface rose in hard veins. Their slender fingers were raised like needles or spikes, either stuck into the ground or clutching everything they could cling to. It looked like a pile of strange prawns thrown into a boiling pot and boiled to death.

Although it was already autumn, there was not a hint of coolness in the weather. It was close to noon, and the blazing sun was high overhead. The hot arrows shining directly from distant stars heated up the open square into a boiling place of distress. The flesh attached to the rotting bodies also emitted an incredibly nauseating stench.

"VERYGOOD----"

Upon seeing this, Mark excitedly snapped his fingers and ran quickly to the nearest body. He dropped his backpack, took out his instrument, and took a scalpel from his tool bag. He skillfully cut through the hardened surface of the body, cut a piece from the still un-decayed muscle, stuck it into a test tube with metal tweezers, added nutrient solution, and analyzed...

Holding the assault rifle in his hand, Lin Xiang patrolled the square back and forth, carefully observing each body. The more he looked, the more puzzled and surprised he became.

There was no doubt that these victims were mutated humans infected with the virus. The blackened skin and sharp bone blades that had formed on their wrist confirmed this.

Their bodies showed no signs of injury, such as bullet holes, blunt force, or lacerations. It felt like they died suddenly from an internal cause due to some kind of illness.

What surprised Lin Xiang the most was another notable and unexpected change in the bodies - aging.

Their skin was brittle, and the dry, cracked surface was covered with fine wrinkles. Especially those black faces, sunken cheeks, prominent foreheads, shriveled lips, were simply elderly humans with abnormal skin color.

Could it be that they died of old age?

Shaking his head, Lin Xiang picked up a leaning street bench and sat down with his assault rifle. His eyes coldly watched the busy Americans in the distance and he never spoke a word.

Under the night in Kunming, the bustling prosperity of the past can no longer be found. The towering concrete buildings still have beautiful neon lights, and the giant electronic screens on the streets are also intact, but they will no longer emit dazzling lights and images. Only rows of empty, deserted buildings stand silently in the dark sky, as if they are fierce beasts with their mouths open, waiting patiently for their prey.

A small building with the sign "China Industrial and Commercial Bank" on the street has become the camping ground for a small squad.

Perhaps it's because the money came too easily! The interiors of such buildings are often built exceptionally strong, and through the thick bulletproof glass on the trading counter, you can clearly see all the movements outside. Three thick steel bolts across the door lock, which is more than two inches thick, can block all foreign objects from entering. Only the two cold stone lions carved from stone at the entrance, which are meant to intimidate civilian depositors, still maintain their false majesty with their fangs bared.

A marching stove was lit, boiling canned tomatoes and beef. Dipped in rich and warm broth, the dry and rough compressed rations became smoother to eat. With boiling water, a cup of strong tea with a light aroma was added, and the fatigue and exhaustion brought by long-term activities would slowly be removed.

"These Americans' actions are very strange, they have problems."

With a ceramic military teapot in hand, Yang Guang walked leisurely towards Captain Lin Xiang who was standing at the door sentry position. He whispered, "I've been paying attention to the analysis data on Mark's instrument. It seems he is comparing samples and stored data. It looks like they know something."

Lin Xiang nodded imperceptibly and said in a low voice, "Keep a close eye on them."

According to Americans, they found the anomalies in Kunming city from the ground photos taken by the "Big Bird 5" satellite. They claim that according to remote sensing data, the number of mutated creatures within the city has greatly reduced and a small, elite team can easily enter and obtain the samples needed to analyze the virus. On the basis of the other party's promise to share resources and information and jointly develop agreement projects such as immune drugs, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs finally agreed to this small-scale search operation.

However, Lin Xiang did not think so.

The observers' interest in collecting samples was clearly not as intense as their analysis of the data. Although they always claimed to need live samples, they never let go of any mutated human remains that could be used for testing.

Perhaps they have already obtained relevant data from the pathogenic agents that erupted in America, and now they are just comparing the differences. The problem is, they don't seem to think this trip is dangerous. Even their surprise at not finding any traces of mutated humans when they just entered the city was deliberate.

Lin Xiang cannot see through people's hearts with his naked eyes, but he can detect abnormalities in the opponent's psychology and brain through the movement of muscles, skin contraction, and subtle changes in body temperature and mouth, eyes and other parts.

Lying, the body will also have an unconscious reaction.

He didn't even know why this was happening. Since his body was cut by the mutated bones, his physical reaction speed far exceeded that of ordinary people. Although he didn't know the specific reason, Lin Xiang was sure that he had been infected.

Level of strange life form: parasite

Baseline: one star

Is this my current state?

No one can tell him the answer.

A mosquito flying in the night sky slowly drifted down. It extended its hard, sharp needle-like proboscis, wanting to fiercely stab into Lin Xiang's bare flesh, recklessly sucking up sweet and delicious blood. However, to his surprise, he found that no matter what he did, he could not land on the other person's skin. It was as if a strange mucus always followed him as he expanded and attached himself to the height of his landing. The tiny, essential distance in the middle could never be broken.

This is a small game that Lin Xiang just recently discovered. He can easily adjust the strength of a muscle, so that it can change at will according to the requirements. It's just a pity for that poor mosquito. How could this humble creature understand that the prey in front of him could never be eaten?

"Pay attention to their every move. Follow them to acquire the necessary samples and figure out their true intentions. Perhaps, what they know is much more than we can imagine."

...

From a human physiological perspective, although nighttime is the best time for physical relaxation and rest, it is far from being as safe as a sunny day in terms of sensory experience.

At ten o'clock in the morning, the small team had already crossed the city's central axis. Standing in the bustling market of yesteryear, the searchers saw nothing but a desolate stillness all around.

The number of mutated corpses lying on the side of the road is increasing. As before, no wounds could be found on their bodies, and the aging of their skin and faces seemed to be the only cause of death.

Mark was busy among the bodies. Sample collection and comparison became a monotonous and boring task. With one test tube after another being loaded into the instrument, new data appeared on the screen one after another. With sweat filling his nostrils, his eyes radiated a desperate and crazy glare.