Chapter 96: 94. Going to the Island (Make-up Chapter)

94. Going to the Island (Make-up Chapter)

In order to clarify the truth of the matter, Yu Lianyun went on to visit two more survivors and reviewed the reports of those who had unfortunately died. In the end, Yu Lianyun discovered that all these individuals exhibited symptoms of Jiaoren Disease, though the severity varied.

"With this, the commonality among the victims of the disappearance cases can basically be confirmed: they have all contracted Jiaoren Disease," Yu Lianyun said while sitting in the car after leaving a hospital's inpatient department, watching the coastline outside the window.

Shang Wei, who was accompanying her, nodded with some emotion: "In this way, the progress of the mission has leaped forward significantly. As expected of Captain Yu."

Yu Lianyun shook her head with a smile, a bitterness that was hard to detect hidden within it: "The top priority is still to figure out the cause of these people's illness. Since it is called an epidemic, there must be a source."

Shang Wei pondered for a moment: "Then should we go to the island recorded in the archives now?"

"Perhaps only after going to the island can we find more clues, but searching through the victims' relationship networks and personal trajectories might also lead to other discoveries," Yu Lianyun replied after a moment of contemplation.

She then glanced at the rearview mirror inside the car. One of the two humanoid evil ghosts in the mirror was clawing at her seat, while the other was reaching its hand toward Shang Wei's neck with malicious intent. Shang Wei was completely unaware of this, only feeling a chill behind his back; thinking the car's air conditioning was set too low, he turned the temperature up a bit.

"Cough." Yu Lianyun suddenly coughed heavily. Yao Zhenzhen, the Blessing Avatar, immediately retracted her mischievous hands, then stiffly turned her eyeballs, staring fixedly at her with eyes devoid of any expression.

Shang Wei thought he had set the car's air conditioning too low, causing this big shot from headquarters to show signs of a cold, and hurriedly expressed concern and apologized: "Ah, Captain Yu, is your throat uncomfortable? Sorry, it was me who set the air conditioning temperature too low, making you uncomfortable."

"Uh, it's fine, it's fine. It's just chronic pharyngitis, an old ailment, yeah." Yu Lianyun waved her hand with a dry laugh and then hurriedly changed the subject: "By the way, the personnel sent to us by the World Public Opinion Bureau are also investigating this case now, right?"

"Yes, an F-rank Occult Investigator who used to be a private detective," Shang Wei replied immediately.

"F-rank?" Yu Lianyun was slightly stunned. "Have they not been in the industry long?"

"I heard that when the World Public Opinion Bureau was first established a year ago, he became one of the first batch of civilian members to be selected. Oh right, his name is Drake Wu, and he is of mixed heritage from the New York region and the Shenzhou Region."

"A year ago?" Yu Lianyun fell silent. She suddenly questioned the ability of this dispatched personnel: "I remember that it shouldn't be difficult to promote from F-rank to E-rank, right? He hasn't been promoted in a year; is there any reason for that?"

Shang Wei pondered slightly for a moment and said: "I have also been puzzled by this, but judging from the resume provided by the World Public Opinion Bureau, this Drake seems to have been dormant for more than a year after becoming an Occult Investigator, and he hasn't taken on any missions during that time."

"He hasn't taken on any missions? Then regardless, let's just treat him as an outsider for now. Don't let him come to the island with us. Share a copy of the collected clues with him and let him stay on the mainland to be responsible for investigating the commonalities among the victims," Yu Lianyun made a decision after a little thought.

"Understood." Shang Wei was somewhat surprised by Yu Lianyun's decision, because if it were him, other team captains of the Twelve Zodiacs would never so easily share the results they had just obtained with a strange dispatched person, especially without having met the other party in person and without being certain of the other party's character.

That afternoon, Drake received an email from the Xuanmi Group. The content of the attachment in the email made him feel a sense of suffocation.

"Jiaoren Disease?" Drake's throat felt dry; he swallowed a mouthful of air, his brow twitching. "All those who were induced by the mysterious sound to go into the sea exhibited symptoms of Jiaoren Disease..."

Drake immediately ran into the bathroom, opened his mouth in front of the mirror, and tried his best to open his mouth as wide as possible, wishing he could bite onto the mirror so he could see the situation inside his mouth clearly.

The initial symptoms of Jiaoren Disease are changes in the mouth and vocal cords. He carefully checked his teeth and throat, then retreated from the mirror in confusion, rubbing his sore cheeks, and muttered to himself: "Strange, there are no changes. Could it be that my mutation hasn't started yet, or is it that I didn't contract Jiaoren Disease at all?"

Drake hoped he was the latter, but if he hadn't contracted the disease, then how could his behavior of "sleepwalking into the sea" be explained? Could the nightmare he had last night, which was as real as life, be an illusion?

The dream was by no means false, and even if it were an illusion, it was by no means normal. The few Scales he had extracted from the wound on his wrist after waking from the dream could not be fake; he must be trapped in an unknown, Abnormal, and dangerous situation.

"Perhaps I should find that mysterious young man who saved my life." Drake remembered that when he first sleepwalked, he was able to wake up from the beach immediately because of the mysterious young man's verbal reminder.

Regarding that mysterious young man, Drake had not yet found his whereabouts, but it could be roughly inferred that the other party should live near Tianya Haijiao Beach, because the other party's attire at the time was quite light, he was wearing flip-flops, and his clothes showed no signs of sweat from a long journey; he looked very refreshed.

"That young man seems to know me," Drake thought, recalling a sentence the young man said at the time that he found quite concerning.

My past is your future.

"What does this mean?" Drake thought it was a code, but he had no clue. The other party's words and the person himself were both unknown and confusing to him; there was no figure related to that young man in his memory.

Drake looked at the wound on his wrist, pondered for a long time, and thought: "Perhaps, I can take a gamble, gamble that he will come to save me again." He silently clenched his fists.

That night, as expected, Drake dreamed of that scene that felt like the end of the world again. The appearance of the giant beast on the sea became increasingly clear, yet he was less and less able to see the full picture of the harmful beast. The only thing he could confirm was the appearance of those swarms of fish-men; they were ugly and ferocious, dull and lifeless, even more dead and silent than dead, rotting fish.

With the experience from the last dream, Drake turned and ran without any hesitation. This time, he was not caught by any fish-man. He passed through the encirclement of these crazy fish-men without any danger, ran out of the beach, and rushed into the endless darkness.

He ran, and without knowing it, the environment of the dream changed. He only felt a dampness under his feet. Looking down, the black, rippling seawater was constantly washing over his feet.

But he was clearly running in the direction away from the beach, so how could he have stepped into the seawater again?

Before he could think, the tsunami had already crashed down...