199: 5.9 King Of Parasites

5.9 King Of Parasites

"Doctor Wyatt!"2

As soon as Doctor Wyatt returned from visiting emergency patients, the other doctors, nurses and residents crowded around him. "How is the General?"

"Is it true that he tries to bite you?"

"Wait, I heard someone say that he's enraged because he lost one eye."

"Wait— what? I heard the President wants to suspend him and that's why he's going crazy!"

"Where did you guys hear all of that nonsense?" Doctor Wyatt scowled heavily. "It's not like that at all. General Kai is a very normal patient, just a bit stubborn and cautious. The President told us to monitor him first and so far, his condition has been improving rapidly. He shows no signs of developing his fourth sense so I don't want to go around hearing this kind of thing again, okay?"

They looked at each other and a particularly brave nurse stepped forward to point at the screen that was connected to the CCTV in General Kai's room. "A bit cautious?" She repeated incredulously. "Are you sure he's not hyper paranoid?" 

The camera used in the hospital was equipped with spiritual element detectors. The power that could only be sensed and invisible to people was shown through the screen. In it, the room was surrounded — almost flooded — in a deep blue impenetrable fortress. Yes, that was the only term suitable to describe General Kai's spiritual power. He had been building his barrier so thick and high that even the overhead camera could no longer capture his figure. Everyone almost felt like they were looking at a blue screen.

Doctor Wyatt pinched his brows and sighed. "Let him be. It's no wonder he is cautious. He's a dark sentinel after all, it's in his nature to do so." As soon as his words fell, Doctor Wyatt instantly knew that they wanted to protest that other dark sentinels didn't even react as excessively as General Kai thus he hastily changed the topic. "How is 000?"

000. It's a code given to the guide that was brought back by Doctor Wyatt in the middle of the night. A wild and unruly young man. A very dangerous guide who could kill without lifting a finger. Fortunately so far there hadn't been a victim among them.

The doctor had been unwilling to divulge where he had picked up such an… unusual guide and he insisted on hiding his existence too. Nobody could really protest because the hospital had been Doctor Wyatt's territory. What they had seen or heard in the hospital stayed in the hospital. Moreover, the law stating that emotionally unstable guides had to be executed immediately didn't conform with their code of ethics. They wanted to save as many people as possible, moreover this guide who clearly looked like he had gone through so much. 

It had been a year but they weren't even close in making the guide open up to them. He only allowed Doctor Wyatt to approach him (not too close, had to maintain at least ten meters of distance from each other) and he never spoke either — everyone assumed he was mute, or he had been through a traumatic event, robbing him of the ability to talk. Thus no one knew what his name was and they finally decided to call him by a code. This way, no information could leak out either. So far, they had been trying to make 000's life as comfortable as possible despite his peculiar behavior.

"Stable, Doc." Someone pulled up another surveillance record, showing a thin slender man curling as small as possible to the corner of the wall, knees drawn to his chest as a makeshift table as his hand moved on the drawing book. They had been trying to talk him out of it, that no danger would befall him in this place. However, every single time they would always catch him going back to the corner as if his brain had asserted that it was the safest area. "He's drawing again, as usual."

Doctor Wyatt hummed. "Samples?"

Someone handed him a few pages of papers torn from the drawing book and they huddled together to inspect it. "This…" Confused, they inspected the picture closely. "...is fashion? Does he like this kind of fashion? Should we put on a few historical dramas to lift his mood?" 

000's drawings would revolve around the same thing again and again. A tall figure — man, they surmised — wearing a flowy, layered robe that could only be found in historical dramas, his face carefully obscured by a curtain of long hair. 000 took his sweet time drawing immaculate snowflakes around him using blue crayon. The man would either be standing still, or sitting atop of a chair sipping tea, his movement graceful and elegant. Sometimes, he would be holding an ivory sword, and the line of his body was so refined that they found themselves in awe every time they saw it. 000 seemed to calm down a lot every time he drew thus they let him be and secretly indulged in buying him more sketch books.

In a way, the guide's drawing skill was very exceptional. They could vividly feel the melancholy and longing that was dripping from the paper, almost as if they could touch it themselves. It would be such a pity for the government to get rid of such a talented person. After all, he was a human first before he was a guide. It was plain despicable to bestow punishment for his failure as a guide.

Doctor Wyatt's face turned contemplative.

"What's wrong, Doc?"

"Hmm…" He stared at the small figure of 000 through the screen. Even after a year, he was still so thin, much thinner than a man his age was supposed to weigh. Doctor Wyatt knew that he couldn't keep on like this. The guide needed someone who would accept him for who he was, take care of him and protect him from harm. His mind instantly floated to a certain General.

If it was him…

Doctor Wyatt shook his head and shooed the crowd away. "Nothing, go back to your station. Don't crowd and slack off here." 

After he was left alone, he once again pulled up the surveillance record for General Kai and 000, lining them up side by side. They were both cautious in nature; General Kai would be able to hold himself against 000 and the guide would be able to get the protection he needed too. 000 would be able to become his true self without worrying that he would lose control and kill anyone. If it was General Kai, maybe… maybe Doctor Wyatt would be able to trust him.

Then came the most important question. How high was the compatibility between the two?

***

Unbeknownst to Lu Yizhou that someone was trying to matchmake him with his lover, he was still engrossed in reading the plot. He checked the world's difficulty and didn't feel surprised anymore when he found 'SSS level' written in bold and italic font.

He let out a sigh, relieved that he didn't put his trust in Doctor Wyatt for nothing. It turned out he was the one who had saved his lover from further tragedy. Lu Yizhou restrained his impatience and continued digesting the plot.

After being taken in by Doctor Wyatt, Terra's tumultuous destiny hadn't ended there.

His hard earned peace was shattered when two people were registered into the same hospital, General Kai and Lieutenant Yves, who had been heavily injured from a bombing incident. 

Hidden from the public's eye, the world had actually been fighting against a vicious parasite. To avoid causing full scale panic and major uproar, the government had been trying to suppress the news for years. 

It had started as a mere case of a strange illness, but then more and more people with similar symptoms showed up. At first, they would complain of a strong headache, light fever and blurry vision that no normal medicine could cure. What was more bizarre was the illness would only affect rank D or E sentinels. The longer the illness brewed, the more data the doctors obtained, enough to conclude a semblance of pattern between the patients. The illness would usually last for ten days at most before the patient's pupils started dilating, and their skin started to gain a slimy layer to it. After that, they would start to act like a totally different person.

It took two years for scientists to zoom in on the cause of the illness; a small, caterpillar-like microorganism that fed on sentinel's brain nerves. When they finally took a patient's skull apart, what they found was a green nest of silk gossamer in the place where their brain should have been.

The scientist finally realized that it was no ordinary illness. It was a parasite, planting roots in the sentinel's brain and taking over their consciousness. Worse, it could even evolve! Slowly, the parasites grew stronger and they not only preyed on rank D or E sentinel, but also rank C and in a few rare cases, even rank B!

The analysis of the parasite's behavior reported three stages of adaptability:

1. Rooting. In this stage, parasites will start to enter a sentinel's body, usually through their ears, and worm their way to their brain. This stage usually lasts around ten days. Symptoms: light fever, headache, and blurry vision.

2. Absorbing. In this stage, the parasite starts to absorb the brain nutrient and blood and uses it to multiply themselves. Symptoms: dilated pupils and slimy skin. This was also the state where it was the most vulnerable and will stay for mostly 18 hours. The infected should be eliminated as soon as possible when they are still in this stage.

3. Assimilating. Last and most dangerous stage. Here, the parasite has adjusted fully to the sentinel's body and taken over their consciousness. The symptoms in stage 2 are no longer visible and the sentinel would look and act like normal. Nobody would be able to differentiate them from others any longer. Not enough data had been gathered to conclude what kind of ability the parasite gained in this stage.

The higher ups were aghast when they finally digested the report. Exactly how far and wide had the parasite spread their influence? What if the person close to them, their coworkers, their fellow ministers and scientists, had been infected by the parasite for a long time and nobody noticed a thing?! Would their world be overruled by parasites one day in the future?!

Well in this case, everyone's fear wasn't unfounded.

It was because the king of parasites, the most powerful of them all, was currently residing in the President's body. 

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