Plague Doctor

Chapter 176: Shadow on the Second Floor

Chapter 176: Shadow on the Second Floor

The storm drenched the world around them. Gu Jun was about to step out from the front door when he saw the watcher pick up something that looked like a lance in a hurry. He did not recognize that thing, but he knew that with another step, he would come into much closer contact with it than he would have liked. In that moment, many considerations and thoughts crossed Gu Jun’s mind. In the end, he took the step back and shielded Wu Siyu behind him.

‘What if this conflict is the enemy’s intention all along?’

From the diary, the watcher eventually entered the dream world through his dream. By then, the watcher had already mutated into a zombie, so he should have joined Mr. Chandler and the other zombies when he arrived at this place and never left. If this was not an illusion, then could this be the zombie watcher? But how come he did not look like one? And why was he referring to Gu Jun as ‘Mr. Chandler’? Who was the one hallucinating? Was it Gu Jun or the watcher? Were they still inside a dream?

“Sir, my advice is for you to return to your home.” The young man pleaded with sincerity. “You’ll need as much rest as you can get.”

“I hope you know what you’re doing,” Gu Jun said before he turned back into the house. He then whispered to Wu Siyu, “We probably should check out the rest of the house before dealing with him.”

The rain drowned out the other noises. The two climbed up to the second floor again. This time, they went down the right corridor. There was another room at the end of the corridor. It appeared to be the study. Rows of bookshelves were filled with books and scrolls. Gu Jun picked a random one to read. It was empty; every single page was blank. Wu Siyu saw the same thing. Gu Jun reached for another, and it was equally blank. They rummaged through the works of literature, tossing them onto the ground as they went along, creating chaos as they went. They soon looked through all the books and scrolls. All of them were empty. Gu Jun then overturned the bookshelves and table. The project was loud and noisy, but it was to no avail.

‘Why?’ Gu Jun thought with a frown. ‘Is it because this is not that actual Warsong from the foreign world? This is just a projection? It is only a mirage?’

The pages might be filled in the real world, but in the dream world, they were empty tomes.

There were still two closed rooms on each side of the corridors. Gu Jun told his companion, “Siyu, I need you to stay guard in the foyer and pay attention to any changes outside the window, especially that young man while I go and open these other rooms.”

“Gotcha.” Wu Siyu headed away with the oil lamp. She stood at the foyer, and the light from the lamp was bright enough to light up most of the corridor.

From right to left, the four rooms were number one to four. Gu Jun gripped the grayish-brown doorknob of Room 1 and twisted. It was locked. ‘Is the key hidden somewhere around the house?’

In any case, Gu Jun was not going to waste time to go searching for it because he had something better.

“Ah!” Gu Jun raised the sword with both arms and put all of his weight as he hacked at the lock. The wooden door was not that thick. A hole was smashed through quite easily. Gu Jun hacked off the broken lock mechanism and then kicked the door down. The weak light filtered into the room, piercing through the heady darkness. The room was bare, but Gu Jun’s heart squeezed because he saw a humanoid shadow squatting at the corner. Before he could get a good look, the figure lunged at him, wailing something in throes of madness. The figure was close to his eyes in a matter of seconds. Gu Jun raised the sword in defense!

However, the sword connected with nothing. The figure appeared to slip through him and out of the room... But for some reason, Gu Jun felt a sense of familiarity with that figure. Was that an illusion?

“Siyu?” Gu Jun called, and Wu Siyu turned to look at him with a calm expression on her face. He asked, “Did you hear any screaming earlier?”

“What screaming? Yours?” she asked with a frown. “All I heard was your grunts as you hacked away at the door.”

“Then you didn’t hear it.” Gu Jun’s mind was set. ‘Only the door opener can see the shadow? But what exactly was that?’

“What didn’t I hear? But the young man appeared to hear something because he just turned this way with this anxious look on his face.

“Hmm, the room is empty, but there was a ghostly shadow in here earlier...” Gu Jun explained as he moved to Room 2. He raised the sword and slammed it down at the wooden door again. It did not take long for his arms to dull with pain. Even though this was the dream world, they entered it with their physical body, so their body worked the same away as it would as if they were awake. Gu Jun had already worked up a sweat. He ruined the lock and kicked the door down. Looking in via the weak light, he saw another empty room, but in the corner, there was yet another blurry human shadow.

The moment the light shone into the room. The shadow lunged at him with a ghastly wail. The shriek was filled with madness but no trace of tears. It was as if the shadow had been trapped in the darkness for so long that it had forgotten the sensation of fear, and only madness was left in it. Gu Jun’s heart shivered because he managed to chance a quick look at the shadow’s face this time.

It was Yang Jianming... the patient at the latter stage of the Nightmare Illness. When he just returned to Eastern State, Prof Qin had explained the pathology of Nightmare Illness to him, and he had been introduced to patients at three stages of the illness. Yang Jianming was the one who was at the latest stage. His mind was already gone by then. He was scheduled for the experimental lobotomy, but the man still perished from multiple organ failure eighteen hours after the surgery.

‘Why is Yang Jianming here? Is that even the real Yang Jianming?’

Once this thought crossed his mind, the shriek took on a meaning that pierced his heart deeper than any weapon could. “Doctor Gu! It was you. You killed me! Did you really think drilling holes in my drain would cure me? What kind of doctor are you? You’re a killer!”

Before the accusation sank in, the figure disappeared as it leaped through Gu Jun and out of the room.

“Siyu?” Gu Jun turned around. “Did you hear that?”

“No, I didn’t hear anything.” Wu Siyu shook her head, but her face took on traces of concern. “Was there another ghostly shadow?”

“Yes...” Gu Jun studied the empty room. ‘Was that an illusion? No, I don’t think so. That should be the real Yang Jianming, so his mind was sucked into the dream world and trapped here? Is it the same with the other victims?’

The coldness crept around his heart and muddled his mind.

‘Then that familiar shadow from Room 1... No, it couldn’t be... could it? The blurry face, the familiar countenance... Was it really Prof Qin? The part of his mind that was sucked away? But there are only four rooms here. Even if there are another four rooms above, it wouldn’t be able to house so many patients... No wait, this manor was reconstructed after I burned it down earlier. Does that mean it has endless versions of itself? This is a prison, a place used to trap the spirit and soul of the Nightmare Illness’ victims? And all those souls have provided sustenance to this old manor, giving it life...’

“Dirty-minded Su, your face is horrifyingly pale,” Wu Siyu said urgently. “Now you should stop. Stop using your ESP connection!”

Gu Jun turned to look at her, and the oil lamp cast her shadowy figure on the window. Another chill crawled over him. If he walked down now, it would explain how the watcher could have seen both Mr. Chandler and the black shadow on the second floor simultaneously.

Chaos and madness rocked in his mind.

‘That diary, those entries, I need to be sure...’

Inspiration struck him then. He opened the watcher’s diary in his mind and was surprised to find there was a new entry that had not been there earlier.

“A storm came out of nowhere that night. Like the tradition says, nothing good ever happens during this kind of weather. Mr. Chandler was suddenly struck with a mood to venture out of the house. He held a long sword in his arm and was mumbling incoherently. He looked like he was losing his mind. The symptoms must be sinking in. Poor Mr. Chandler. He is always so collected and gentlemanly. I have never seen him act untowardly in any kind of situation. This is one sin that he should have been spared from.

“Not long after he was persuaded back into the house, I heard some heavy knocking coming from the second floor. It was so loud that even the rain could not drown it out. But the strange thing was, Mr. Chandler should be in the house alone. He could not have been responsible for those booming sounds because I kept my eyes on the second-floor window, and his shadow has not moved from behind the window.”