I Am Extraordinary Alone
Chapter 233 - 231 Lost Contact

Chapter 233: Chapter 231 Lost Contact

Wei Tianyang looked at the man, feeling a wave of inner conflict.

He glanced at his phone screen, where Zhao Ling had sent a new message: "Fogen might be using you. This man is right, the truth is important. Only by knowing the truth can you be sure about how to act."

Zhao Ling agreed with what that man had said?

Wei Tianyang turned around and said to his phone, "Do you think so too?"

All he saw was another message from Zhao Ling: "There’s no scientific basis for the spread of diseases through language. To find the Heart Whisperer, you must seek help from the local citizens. Moreover, you need to find him not for Fogen, but for yourself."

Wei Tianyang stared at this message, his gaze sweeping back and forth between his own shoes and the floor.

A few seconds later, Wei Tianyang took off his headset.

"Now, can you trust my promise?" Wei Tianyang said to the man.

The man extended his hand toward Wei Tianyang and said, "My name is Mondrian."

"Call me Ishmael," Wei Tianyang reached out his hand as well.

The two shook hands, and the people in the hospital also showed smiles to Wei Tianyang.

Wei Tianyang said, "You must know where she is, right?"

"There’s a road to the north of the city leading into the forest. Follow Highway 12. By car, you can get there in half an hour," Mondrian said.

"I’ve looked at the map. That area is huge. I need an exact location, not ’an area’," Wei Tianyang said.

"No one knows exactly where she is. You’ve been sent to find her; you should be very clear that she’s not the type to expose her own location with a sign," Mondrian said.

Wei Tianyang nodded, feeling Mondrian made sense, and so he prepared to head to the forest north of the city. But before that, his mind still lingered on what Spencer had said.

"Before I go to find her, I need to confirm something else about Hasegawa Pharmaceutical. Do you know where they’re conducting experiments in the city?" Wei Tianyang asked again.

"You don’t need to know where they’re performing experiments. I’ll take you to see the bodies of the victims; then you’ll understand," Mondrian said.

Saying this, he walked to the emergency hall window, looked down, and spoke a few words to the nurse behind the glass.

Wei Tianyang saw that the nurse glanced at him, then spoke to Mondrian.

In just a few words, Mondrian waved at him, signaling for him to follow.

Wei Tianyang jogged over and followed Mondrian down a corridor at the back.

"Remember what I mentioned before? The military being sent in to engage with the civilians," Mondrian said.

Wei Tianyang nodded and replied, "You said those infected could jump from the height of four or five floors. From my perspective, whatever has seeped into your water supply is likely some form of Black Medicine that enhances physical constitution and strength."

Perhaps similar to the immature batch of Black Medicine that Rada Gan had, that could make a person’s physique incredibly robust, surpassing normal humans.

The black man he had encountered previously in the hospital, when he died, bled from all orifices. The blood was also black.

Wei Tianyang had seen this type of blood on his own body. The first time he awoke in the morgue of Tiantai Pharmaceutical, his skeletal right hand and chest cavity were also covered with a large swath of black blood.

"I don’t understand that substance, but I’m certain that it’s inside every one of us, and just a little bit of violent means can activate it, then transform us into that thing," Mondrian said.

"What thing?" Wei Tianyang asked.

"You’ll understand once you see it," Mondrian replied.

They followed a ramp down to the hospital’s morgue.

There were lights, just no people. At the end of the ramp, there was a set of double wooden doors, much less impressive than the last hospital.

Mondrian pushed open the wooden doors, and a cold wind carrying the scent of disinfectant washed over them. In fact, Wei Tianyang had already smelled a variety of pungent medicinal odors outside the hospital.

This morgue was quite primitive, with no refrigeration units. The bodies were simply laid out on gurneys, covered with white cloths.

Mondrian stood at the doorway, gesturing into the room with a "please" motion.

Wei Tianyang walked in alone; the morgue probably spanned a little over a hundred square meters, and there weren’t many bodies - upon closer count, fewer than 20.

Mondrian went to the wall and turned on the lights, and the room suddenly brightened.

Wei Tianyang held his breath as waves of memories flooded his mind. He recalled the first time he met Ruan Yu, the pain of the first injection of Black Medicine, the smiles of the over a thousand dead when he escaped from the detention center.

Behind him came the sobs of Mondrian; Wei turned around and saw him looking at him with tearful eyes.

"What’s wrong?" Wei Tianyang asked.

"It’s... it’s nothing... I just got emotional. They were once our kin, and now they’ve become like this," Mondrian shook his head and said.

"Is there a family member of yours here?" Wei Tianyang said.

As he spoke, he lifted the white cloth and couldn’t help but gasp at the sight of the body before him.

The civilian in front of him could only be identified as a humanoid creature; it completely lacked the appearance that a human should have.

It was impossible to tell its gender; the creature had no hair on its head. Its forehead protruded out like a fist; its chin was twice as long as a human’s. The face lacked a nose, leaving behind only two holes for breathing. Its eyes were like sloppy slits cut with a knife.

Aside from the bizarre face, its skin was pure black - it was unclear whether this was its original color or postmortem livor mortis. The body and limbs had become delicate, even thinner than Wei himself at the age of fifteen, but the limbs were much longer than an average person’s. When its arms hung down, the fingertips could touch the lower leg.

Speaking of which, although the "thing" wasn’t muscular, Wei Tianyang couldn’t associate it with being "weak."

It was likely over two meters tall: slender and deadly.

What would they have been like when they were alive, moving around?

Wei Tianyang turned back to Mondrian, who had composed himself, and asked, "Does a normal person mutate into this thing after being subjected to violent stimuli? The process must be horrifying, right?"

"I haven’t seen them change, but at least you should believe me now, right? I wasn’t lying to you, they really turn people into monsters," Mondrian said.

Wei Tianyang put the white cloth back, exhaling deeply.

"The woman you’re looking for saw this and then abandoned her country and her mission to seek out the truth. She’s in the northern forests; go find her, she can tell you more," Mondrian said.

The two left the hospital, and Mondrian lent his own car to Wei Tianyang. It was a four-door sedan that looked a bit old, light blue in color, which reminded him of Yaha’s small boat.

"Let’s go, I can give you directions. You’ll definitely drive more steadily with both hands than I can with one," Mondrian said as he sat in the passenger seat, smiling.

Wei Tianyang also smiled lightly, slowly drove the car out of the hospital parking lot, and took Route 12 towards the northern part of the city.

Two hours earlier.

Yin Country, Lingxiao Palace.

Zhao Ling, wearing a sporty tank top, answered a phone call from Fogen.

"You’ve interrupted my evening training, Fogen," Zhao Ling said.

"We’ve lost contact with Wei Tianyang," Fogen said.

"He always does this; you’ll get used to it," Zhao Ling said.

"No... it’s not like that. He just entered the quarantine zone and then lost contact with us. Our satellites can’t find him, nor can the drones," Fogen sounded anxious.

"Can you track his signal?" Zhao Ling frowned.

"No... the electronic interference in the quarantine zone has intensified. Conventional communication methods are useless now; it’s like there’s a network blackout in there," Fogen said.

Zhao Ling quickly exited the call interface, found Wei Tianyang’s number, and called it, only to receive a notice that it was out of service.

She switched to the messaging interface and sent a message to Wei Tianyang: "If you can see this, get out ASAP!"

However, this only message returned with a red exclamation mark indicating "Failed to send" after circling for a bit.

Zhao Ling tried to reassure herself that Wei Tianyang always operated alone, that he could effortlessly step in and out of objective reality, so losing contact was normal. Yet, after just two or three seconds, she became restless again.

"Zhao... are you there? I think... I need to think of something," Fogen was still waiting.

Zhao Ling spoke sharply: "If you’ve lost him! I swear I’ll fly over and kill you myself!"