Chapter 7: Punishment and the Sickness

Warning: contains bloody scenes

17 June, early morning

That very night, 23:45

Xue Li Hong woke up suddenly and sat upright on his bed. He was awoken by the soft groaning he heard from the room next to his.

Did the man also got the virus and is suffering from the sickness?

“Ding! The time is up, recycler Xiao Mo has failed to complete the first recycling mission. Mission progress: 0% completed. System’s verdict: Administer the level three punishment.”

“Wh-” Xiao Mo was about to ask, but all his attention got stolen by the intense pain wrecking across his whole body.

It was as something was gnawing deep down into his bones. At the same time, there was a high pressure within his bones that kept expanding outwards. Simultaneously, someone was using a file to grind the surface of his bones. The pain was beyond description, and everything was happening concurrently within his entire body.

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The man let out a sound akin to that of a trapped beast from his throat. Both of his hands were hugging his curled-up legs to his chest, and his whole body kept twitching sporadically.

The air condition was on full blast, but perspiration kept running down his body and onto the leather bed sheets, creating a puddle of water.

Xue Li Hong slowly walked towards the bed. He did not speak or touch the man, and merely observed him.

The man suddenly held onto his head, yelling in pain as his body suddenly bounced off the bed, the top half of his body flipping back into an impossible angle.

Xue Li Hong’s eyes widened.

Did this man practice yoga previously? Even athletes did not have such flexible bodies, right?

If we were to discuss on flexibility, it would be safer to say that only when one’s spine was broken at the waist, would one then be able to achieve such an angle of bending.

Xiao Mo felt like every single piece of his bone had been broken and crushed into fine powder.

The strong pressure then proceeded to move from his bone towards his flesh.

Crack!

Xue Li Hong saw the boxer-clad man’s body exploding with small patches of blood.

This was only the beginning.

Crack! Craack

The continuous sound of blood vessels and skin bursting did not cease.

The man’s whole body was covered in bloody patches, but very soon, his entire body was covered in red, and not a single stitch of skin was clean.

Xiao Mo released his head from his interlocked hands, and started using them to hammer his forehead.

Hurts! His head hurts so bad from the drilling migraine!

The pain was unlike a knife slicing into him, even unlike a drill boring a hole, but akin to someone aiming a sharp object to the middle of your forehead, and then stabbing right through, except that you were right in the middle of it.

Xiao Mo’s phone that had been placed by the bed stand suddenly rang, but no one could be bothered with the caller right now.

The phone continued to ring for a while before stopping. However, not even ten seconds have passed and the phone started to ring again.

“Ugh-! Ahh!”

 Xiao Mo suddenly straightened his body and used his head to bang onto the wall.

“Kong!”

Xue Li Hong was unable to stop the man in time. After hearing the loud banging, even his own head started to hurt.

Blood flowed out from the man’s forehead. Not long after, part of the man’s forehead started to swell into a big bun, proving how hard he had bashed his head onto the wall.

Xiao Mo wanted to bang again, but Xue Li Hong caught hold of him in time and held him tightly in his embrace.

The man was very strong, and he was about the bash the wall together with the child clinging onto him.

Xue Li Hong quickly whipped out something from his backpack and hastily stabbed it into Xiao Mo’s neck; it all happened in a second.

Chiii… The contents inside the tube were released into Xiao Mo’s neck.

“Ding! Discovered an unknown liquid intruding the recycler’s body. Analyzing contents…”

 Xue Li Hong removed the empty metallic syringe. Xiao Mo’s body was like a puppet cut off their strings – he relaxed and fell onto the floor, also squashing the kid beneath his body.

Xue Li Hong pouted, and used all of his strength to push the man’s body away from him. After much maneuvering, he finally managed to release himself from the entanglement with the man’s body.

He felt for the man’s pulse- good, still breathing, pulse is also stable. He then picked up the phone that was still vibrating on the bedside table, and saw the name An Jie on the screen.

On the other side of the phone, An Jie held her phone worriedly. She kept asking Xiao Mo’s older brother, “Why isn’t second brother answering the phone, is the television report really true?” She also kept requesting Xiao Wen to drive over the southern city to take a look.

Back on this side, Xue Li Hong did not know what was happening to Xiao Mo’s body. Xiao Mo was also unsure of what Xue Li Hong did to his body too. Suddenly, he could not talk or move, and could only control his eyeballs.

Now, the sharp pain was gone from his forehead, but instead, there was a weird feeling coming from there. The weird feeling was even getting stronger and more distinct.

This feeling was very different from the pain previously, but it felt worse than the pain; it was akin to a thousand ants crawling all over him.

If he were able to shout, he would have done it so loudly that the whole block would have heard it.

If he were able to move, he would have wanted to pull his head out and even chop it into two.

It was as if there was a force concentrating on his forehead. Xiao Mo could not tolerate anymore, yet his consciousness was very clear, with no feeling of faintness. Hence, he could only think about everything under the sun in order to divert his attention on the sensation on his forehead.

After thinking in circles, he started thinking of the topic he was most familiar with- recycling.

Hence, he started revising the processes of different types of recycling.

Once the television is brought back, open it and remove the cathode ray tube. Then check the input electrical wires, to see if they are of working condition. If not, remove the faulty parts and replace with a new one, then proceed to tighten the screws it they are loosened.

All televisions done, then next shall be the washing machines, then the refrigerators, stoves, microwave ovens, …

Once the domestic appliances were all completed, next came the computers.

And farming tools, toys, exercise machines. Even redundant scrap vehicles, Xiao Mo revised through them all.

Not to mention, such a way of distracting himself was very useful. At least, his forehead did not feel as awful as before.

Something unusual happened inside his head; the recycling processes he was going through suddenly became crystal clear. It was as if he was watching a video that precisely taught the steps to how to recycle properly, with all the steps well-explained and demonstrated. Even the finest details were not missed; from the very first step to the very last, all of them were captured in high definition. Even the steps that he was unsure of and had a hard time understanding were all crystal clear now.

The most heartening part was that the complex books that were hard to comprehend and understand and recall, they were all displayed in video format clearly in his mind.

Oh, am I daydreaming? He actually saw the all the books that he had ever read before appear in his mind. Mechanics, Basic Machinery, even Chemistry, Physics, and Electrical, etc., all the knowledge that he had been exposed to previously, all of them appeared distinctly in his mind. Even the latest Basic Automation book he had recently read appeared.

Actually, it was not viewing the knowledge that surprised Xiao Mo; what truly stunned Xiao Mo was that he had actually understood all of the knowledge and concepts that appeared within his mind.

“Ding! System analysis complete. Unknown liquid containing huge amounts of essential nutrition for the human body and mental upgrading ingredient, has been fused together with the virus in the recycler’s body. Recycler Xiao Mo’s mental and physical abilities are starting to evolve.”

Xiao Mo managed to listen to the voice clearly this time, but he lose consciousness right after hearing the statement.

Xue Li Hong tilted his head and scrutinized the man who had a twisted expression, his thoughts full of conjectures.

At the same time when Xiao Mo was suffering from the illness, people at the very center of the epidemic, at Xin Xin Jia Wan, near Shan Nan Jia Wan, Old Town and Zhou Gan Village, started to collapse.

They were previously either watching the television, surfing the internet, or sleeping.

The man staying below Xiao Mo’s house had been playing a game on the internet when he suddenly started feeling itchy all over his whole body. He started to violently scratch his skin, but the more he scratched, the worse the itch became. Even when he scratched till the surface of his skin was broken and his flesh became mashed and squishy, he did not stop. His wife also started screaming from her bedroom. As for her daughter, seeing her mum rolling uncontrollably around the bed, she quickly ran to his father for help, only to see that her father was already covered in blood and flesh.

The girl was terrified, she shivered as tears flowed down her cheek. She whimpered, “Daddy.”

The old man who was staying at unit 301 was awaken by a sharp pain in his bones. Thinking that it was his old ailment, he got up to retrieve some painkillers, only to hear a sharp scream from his son’s room.

“Li Li, what happened?!”

Li Li was his daughter-in-law’s name. The old man endured his pain and walked towards the room, wanting to check on his daughter-in-law.

“Dad! I’m bringing Li Li to the hospital; she’s vomiting a lot of blood!”

The old man only managed to lean against the wall before he heard his son shouting outside.

The old man wanted to reply, but as soon as he opened his mouth, blood started oozing out of his mouth.

He tried to open up his room’s door, but he did not reach the door before he collapsed onto the floor in a heap.

The night shift security guard was alerted by the shouting and yelling. He thought there was a murder case and was about the call the police. But as the yelling and screaming started to come from all areas, the two security guards on night shift were in shock.

“Call the police! Report to the police, quick!” the security guard who had a good relationship with Xiao Mo shouted.

“Engaged! The nearest police line is currently engaged!” the guard calling the police panicked.

The other guard was caught off guard by the residents pulling and asking for his help. Hearing his colleague shout, he became angry and aggressive. He turned his head back and scolded him, “Then can’t you just call the emergency department numbers? Any one of them!”

“Oh, oh!” the other security guard felt enlightened as he fumbled with the phone, pressing the buttons wrongly before finally managing to get through the emergency number.

At Nan Shang Jia Wan, almost every household had their lights turned on. Even those without any outbreak in their houses were awaken by the commotion in their neighbour’s houses.

Soon, the whole place became brighter than during daylight, with all the residents panicking or curiously wondering what was going on.

At this time, the third son of the Xiao Family was still engrossed in his computer game. He had intended to play overnight, thinking that since the next day was Saturday, he could sleep for the next two days after tonight.

At the city’s first hospital intensive care unit, five patients arrived in the special ambulance.

These five patients were the Interpol officers including Wang Chen.

All five of them had collapsed onto the ground at the same time, rolling and yelling in pain. Especially Wang Cheng, he had held his head and started banging onto the wall. When the night shift doctors finally realised something was wrong, Wang Cheng had already broken his head.

Forensic Doctor Qian Yun Kai was originally in a vegetative state, motionlessly laying in a bed in the Intensive Care Unit. However, his body started to lightly twitch before midnight. Once the clock struck twelve, his body movement became more violent and erratic.

The devices that were connected to him started to sound noisily.

Di di di di…

Due to the pressure from the Institute of Infectious Diseases, the busy doctors who were on night shift quickly ran towards Qian Yun Kai’s room the moment they heard the nurses’ distressed call. Qian Yun Kai’s father Leader Qian was also part of the hoard of doctors that rushed there.

On one side, they had not figured out what exactly what virus did Qian Yun Kai contract with, and on the other side, they were informed that all the Interpol officers in the observation room had all simultaneously collapsed!

All the doctors were shocked into cold sweat as they hurriedly asked the nurses and the social workers to carry the people here to save them.

Bang!

The door of the ward was violently opened as one of the nurses rushed towards them and shouted, “The ICU patient in bed two has stopped breathing!”

Leader Qian’s face turned pale. Bed Two of the Intensive Care Unit ward was occupied by one of the six Interpol officers who was attacked first. He was a middle-aged man and they were sent in to the hospital together with his son, Forensic Doctor Qian.

Outside of the quarantine entrance point, it was jam packed with a lot of vehicles.

All of the drivers were either consistently honking or were outside of their car shouting, “We want to go to the hospital; let us go to the hospital!”

“My daughter is dying! If you don’t let me through, I will force my way there!” A man wearing his pajamas bawled. He started waving around his chopping knife in one hand while holding his motorbike’s handle. On his back was his only daughter. Her whole body was twitching and blood was flowing from her mouth. The man feared that she might slip down from his back, and had used a leather belt to secure her onto his back.

“Let me through! Please, save my husband! I’m begging you, please let me through!” a woman screeched. She had disheveled hair, and was violently shaking on the traffic police officer’s arm.

The police wanted to remove her hand from his arm, but due to his soft heart, he resisted.

“Do you have a mother? My mum is in so much pain, she is about to die, M***erF**kers, if you still don’t let me through, I will just force my way out!”

Finally, someone shouted out, “Let’s force our way out of this hell! Let’s see if they dare to stop us all!”

The police at the quarantine point held onto his gun with one hand and his cell phone on the other. He screamed into his phone, “Now what? You have to tell me what to do!!”

“Wait? How are we going to wait? The situation is too chaotic! Either you send the ambulance here or we have to let them go! F**k! They are about to force their way through!”

“Team Leader, how? Do we let them go or not?”

The Team Leader’s uniform was totally drenched. He bit his lips in frustration.

“Team Leader!” All of the members looked at him, waiting for an answer.

“No! We cannot let them go through!” He knew that letting them go through will only result in an uncontrollable and irreversible situation. At that time, he started carrying the mindset of having to sacrifice himself.

The group heard the instruction and started to pull out the bulk wires and road blocks that they had prepared earlier.

When the crowd saw the polices’ actions, they panicked and became even rowdier.

“F**k! If they’re not letting us live, then let’s all go die together! Let’s go everyone!”

The situation was akin to entering a riot.

From afar, there came sounds of a helicopter.

Once the helicopter was directly above the crowd, there was a long stretch of lights shining onto the crowd, coming from the vehicles that had just arrived.

The helicopter then lowered two ladders and around ten people were lowered onto the surface from it. It then turned and left.

After the helicopter left, another one appeared and took its previous spot.

The crowd was shocked, by now they had realized, they were completely surrounded by several helicopters, and more were coming over. The agitated crowd were then surrounded by the Special Forces, who were donned in protective gear and held heavy shields.

Without waiting for the crowd to restart their havoc, the person on the helicopter held a loud speaker shouted: “Please do not panic! There is an antidote to this virus. The government has already gotten hold of a cure for it. Immediately, there will be medical supplies and medical facilities arriving to your zone, so please stay calm!”

The man repeated his speech a few times.

Nevertheless, the crowd remained worried and upset.

The man with the loudspeaker had no choice but to yell at the top of his voice, “The government will not leave you alone. They will never let go of a single citizen! The government will bare the cost of the cure for this virus at the beginning stages! All of you will get the best cure!

Everyone, please remain clam. Getting angry and aggressive will not solve the problem! The doctors will be arriving soon. Even if you rush to the city hospital, it will not be as fast as them! We have gathered all of the specialists this time, so, even if you go to the hospital now, it will not be as efficient and as good as them!”

After a few repetitions, the crowd finally settled down and became calm.

The team leader who had originally prepared to sacrificed himself wiped away his perspiration. His hand that was resting on the gun holster finally loosened a little. Luckily, the negotiator understood the people and did not use a threatening tone. Instead, he directly informed everyone the issues that concerned the crowd the most, such as fully subsidized medical fee. This was a formidable weapon that people will consider when giving in.

This was reality; no emergency can fight with the fact that medical cost was everyone’s first concern.

“Are you sure the doctors are coming soon?” a suspicious man asked.

The negotiator held firmly replied, “Yes, the doctors are on their way. Look at the row of car lights, the doctors are in it!”

“Then save my daughter first, I came first!”

“No! Save my son first, he is about to collapse!”

“Save my mum!”

“Save my husband!”

The police witnessed the situation and swiftly started to do crowd control.

All the patients were split into three rows according to the urgency of their illness.

Those in front of the queue were waiting anxiously for the doctor to arrive. Those at the back of the queue knew that if they rushed to the city hospital, they will have to face a long queue. Compared to going to the hospital, waiting in the common line and not knowing which specialist to see, they might as well wait here for the specialist to come and receive the treatment free of charge.

Besides the quarantine point, at Gu Ning avenue, in one of the community hospitals, it was congregated with patients.

As the community hospital was trying to cope with the crowd and tried to call the Institute of Infectious Diseases, a group of medical personnel approached the community hospital with the guard of the Special Police Forces.

Including the bigger zones, there were also many temporary Medical Relief Centres set up in the City Square.