Plague Doctor

Chapter 416: 4th Explosion

At Mo Bei City, at 20: 25 of 16th March, the fourth explosion occurred 18 hours and 7 minutes after its preceding explosion. This explosion caused the mutated area to expand double its previous size. From the satellite picture, the area had expanded from 30 cubic km to 70 cubic km. In other words, it easily engulfed the quarantine circle. This proved the futility of the quarantine circle.

The gap between the 4th and 3rd explosion was 80 percent slower than its predecessor and the expansion rate lowered from 10 times to only twice as big. The rate of expansion had conspicuously slowed but it was still growing. This meant that Phecda still could not let their guard down. Even if the expansion proceeded at this slower speed, it would destroy the whole district within half a month. Considering the mutated area was only 300 cubic metres less than 24 hours ago, looking from the big picture, the expansion was not slow at all. It was rapidly growing.

The animals and citizens close to the expanded area had all been evacuated so there was no recorded death. Even though Mo Bei City had an overall low population, there were still 3,000,000 citizens who called this place their home. It had only been 2 days since the incident started but things had gotten so severe that a district-wide evacuation had to be considered. And that was going to be a large project. Phecda and various departments initiated the evacuation according to protocol. The news was not broadcasted and everything was done quietly to prevent the citizens from blocking the traffic in their hurry to escape. That would only make the situation worse. This was already hard enough but the situation at Mo Bei Gao Ji High School only made things worse.

Phecda’s search effort for Lee Yuhan, Captain Luo and the like had not stopped since that afternoon but so far, they had no breakthrough. This incident appeared to have calmed down after Headmaster Chui’s self-explosion but this calm felt more like one before the storm. Everything knew things were not going to be that simple. The problem was how far could this supernatural conspiracy have gone?

Reinforcement was sent into Mo Bei from across the nation. That afternoon, a large group of members came from Da Hwa City’s headquarters. Wu Siyu and Lucky were among them. Wu Siyu was pregnant but she was also a unique member. She would have to be present at Mo Bei to get a clearer sense of things. She at least had to interact with the poster in person, the one that she believed she made when she was still in high school. The world was ending, so even a pregnant woman had the responsibility to save their home.

Lucky hugged a bucket of KFC fried chicken and his tail wagged continuously. He finished a chicken thigh in a few seconds before he moved onto the next one, “If this world is going to end soon, I’d better eat as many buckets as I can.” He knew something big had happened so he did not want to stay here anymore. But he also was clever enough to reject Phecda’s request for him to enter the mutated area to sniff out a channel to Dreamlands. “The area is too big. You told me it is currently 70 cubic km. With just myself, it’ll take more than a month just to sweep the place...”

“Fine, even though you’re a Zoog and I’m a human, I understand your concern.” Wu Siyu really did. In fact, she wished that she was a Zoog at that moment. That way she could happily munch on KFC instead of being forced to spend her time at Mo Bei Division’s base to think about the poster that she randomly made in high school. It made no sense to her. ‘Saving the world, that shouldn’t be my responsibility and I would not do it for all the chicken thighs in the world! Hmm... what if I am a Zoog?’ The more she thought about it, the more she found it attractive.

Dirty-minded Jun was a kangaroo and she would be a Zoog. She could crawl into his pouch and save even the energy needed to walk. They were both mammals so it should be fine. Sometimes, Wu Siyu would get pulled into these daydreams and times always flew when she was in this state. She only came to when Lucky cleaned out the whole bucket of KFC. With regards to that poster, she already touched it that afternoon. She confirmed that it was her creation but it triggered nothing in her and she could not explain why it had appeared inside the mutated area.

But now, when she put Dirty-minded Jun into the equation, something appeared to line up. ‘Wait, the poster did taste somewhat like him... It was like he had personally touched the poster before. Could that really be the case?’ Wu Siyu pondered. Ximei saw Dirty-minded Jun in her illusion. Was that enough confirmation?

After giving it some thoughts, Wu Siyu decided to report this finding to Phecda. However, this finding only added to the overall mystery. How did Gu Jun come into contact with this poster? There were so many puzzle pieces. Perhaps it was clear from Gu Jun’s perspective but it could not have made less sense to them.

After the fourth explosion, the evacuation continued and so did the search for the patients of the illness temporarily named ‘Locust Sickness’.

Wang Ruoxiang’s group continued with their autopsy of Headmaster Chui while Deng Ximei, Lou Xiaoning and the rest of The One continued their investigation. Wu Siyu decided to contribute by returning to her original talent that got her recruited by Phecda, painting!

“This whole incident is related to my watercolors and poster so perhaps there is a problem with my paintings. I will try to draw some new paintings to see if anything happens.” Her suggestion was approved by the headquarters. The Mo Bei division cooperated immediately by clearing out a room to be turned into her studio. It was fitted with canvas, paints, brushes. Since Wu Siyu had no idea what to paint and the style that she’d use so they provided her every possible tool.

Cameras were also fitted inside the studio. It would record her whole painting process. Guards from the Action Department waited for orders outside the door. But inside the studio, Wu Siyu was left alone with Lucky.

“I feel like maybe I should start with watercolors.” Wu Siyu stood before an easel and placed a blank canvas on it. “What shall I paint?” She moved around, mixing the paints and preparing her brush. It brought back old memories. She had not been so focused to do a painting in such a long time already but still no inspiration struck her. In the end, she decided to just follow her heart. She would paint anything that came to her mind. She’d lose herself in the painting and her subconscious would guide her hands.

Wu Siyu stretched lazily and grabbed the tools like brushes, color palette before she started on the canvas. On the other hand, Lucky couldn’t care less about what was happening. He munched on his next bucket of KFC, occasionally glancing at the canvas which was taking on increasing explosions of color.