The Gentleman at the End

Chapter 48: Chapter 47: The False Moon Incident and the Pathological Stage

When Captain Edmund confirmed their choice,

the supervisor sitting beside showed a relieved expression, seemingly guessing that they would make such a decision.

“The information regarding the ‘False Moon’ incident is classified and stored in the middle-level archives… What you can see is only the part related to the mission and has been processed and embellished.

Remember two things,

1. Once you have viewed the documents, you cannot abandon the mission. If you fail to complete the mission as scheduled, you will face severe reprimands and undergo memory erasure.

2. If you intentionally leak information about the False Moon incident and the situation is severe, you will be expelled from the organization and banished from Zion.

If there are no problems, then follow me.”

“Hmm.”

Since there was consensus within the team, there was nothing to hesitate about.

The supervisor led them behind the unoccupied counter,

and after a simple identity verification, they took the staff-exclusive elevator to the middle-level area of the Gentleman Hall, which is dedicated to high-rank gentlemen seeking to push their limits with related tasks,

unlike the open counter format on the lower level.

The middle-level area offers a high degree of privacy and is equipped with a large number of private rooms for task reception,

where every high-rank gentleman who comes here will receive a ‘one-on-one’ professional reception.

The four-person team was also led by the supervisor to one such private room,

and soon after,

a document bag sealed with a G&D wax seal was brought over by the supervisor, who personally broke the seal on its surface.

At the same time, he took out a delicate mini hourglass from his sleeve.

“You have ten minutes to read, make it quick.”

‘The False Moon Incident*’ @@novelbin@@

On ██/██/371, Viner City, an indirectly governed city by the organization, unexpectedly experienced the ‘False Moon’ incident at ██:██ that night, despite no anomalies being reported from local investigators or the Twilight Clinic beforehand.

The pitch-black night sky, supposed to be shrouded in fog, became unusually clear,

with two identical full moons hanging in the sky,

immediately drawing the city residents’ attention. Even though the gentlemen investigators sounded the citywide alarm immediately, they couldn’t prevent the incident from occurring.

According to simulations conducted afterward, in just the two minutes before and after the alarm sounded, over 60% of the residents had witnessed the ‘False Moon.’

Within the following hour,

residents in the city area that had looked directly at the False Moon developed ‘Moon Scars’ on their necks and began to exhibit initial symptoms of infection, indiscriminately attacking non-infected city dwellers.

It was at that critical time that Doctor Macaul, head of the Twilight Clinic, immediately took his clinic staff and joined forces with the local gentleman investigators to enforce suppression.

During the suppression,

thanks to secret measures planted by Doctor Macaul* (classified), they succeeded in finding the root of the problem that caused the ‘False Moon incident,’ a special patient with excellent disguise abilities who had blended in among the residents.

By then, he had reached the state of ‘Open Source,’ his disease known as Moonscar.

Although they successfully lured out the Open Source patient and finished him off,

our side paid a terrible price. Almost all local investigators perished, Doctor Macaul was left half-crippled and has been in a deep coma, still not out of danger.

The reinforcements that arrived later scoured every corner of Viner City, turning the entire city to ruins.

…

Upon finishing reading,

Edmund’s cheeks too began to drip with sweat,

“Open Source patient? Doctor Macaul seriously injured and in a coma, almost all local investigators wiped out, this…”

Yi Chen was also frowning, staring at the key term ‘Open Source’ in the document.

It reminded him of the pathology lesson from two months ago.

Teacher Zede had provided a very interesting lesson, ‘Stage Description of Physical Pathologized Beings,’ which outlined the stages of disease transformation that afflicted living beings undergo, as well as the dangerous forms they could assume as they matured.

≮Physical Pathology≯

Here we take [human beings] as an example; differences with other mammalian species are minor. The more different a species is from humans, the greater the variance in its pathological transformation.

[Pathological Stage]:

Also referred to as the initial stage of infection.

Pathogens can be categorized into two main classes depending on their characteristics and the way they infect humans:

1. “Physical Pathology”

2. “Psychological Pathology”

Individuals in the initial stage of infection do not possess, or have very few, pathological traits and generally have weak aggressiveness, making them easy to eliminate.

They typically opt to disguise themselves and hide away, spending this phase in the unknown corners and shadows,

until the pathogen has fully taken root in them, forming a ‘pathogen structure’ with distinct features, at which point individuals can be referred to as patients.

Patients,

retain full consciousness and see themselves as part of the ‘disease.’

They possess threatening pathological traits and will instinctively invade and infect the surrounding unpathologized normal life.

The innkeeper and his sister encountered in Green Lake town are such patients, only their self-control is exceedingly strong and close to that of ‘Patient Zero’.

[Pathological Stage]

Patients who achieve a certain condition or conditions, such as:

surviving for a sufficient length of time,

infecting a certain number of living beings,

absorbing the essence of other patients,

and so on,

will formally enter the pathological stage.

The ‘pathogen structure’ and the patient will undergo a deeper level of combination during this stage, becoming an integral part of the body’s structure, no longer as conspicuous as boils or rashes.

Instead, they will masquerade as an organ or merge within the flesh, making them difficult to detect (weakness hidden).

At the same time,

the individual’s pathological traits will significantly strengthen,

and their body’s structure might undergo fundamental changes, such as:

growing abnormally large arms,

developing wings capable of flight,

or sprouting an additional brain capable of storing mental energy and aiding in computations, and so on.

Those who perfectly pass through this stage are collectively referred to as severe patients.

Gentlemen of “Rank: Human” are almost impossible to kill severe patients on their own, and even if encountered by a team, there is still a significant risk.

[Open Source Stage*]

Teacher Zede originally didn’t intend to continue discussing this pathological stage, because the new gentlemen, guided by the organization, are given tasks of appropriate difficulty and generally will not encounter such beings.

If one does come into contact with them, there is only one outcome: death.

However,

owing to Yi Chen’s arrival and his exceptionally good mood that day, he satisfied everyone’s curiosity by briefly discussing some basic concepts.

A very few patients can achieve ‘perfect fusion’ with their own pathogen structure—a fusion that touches upon the soul’s depth.

Once reached,

the patient will touch upon the Origin Disease that stems from the ancient Old World, and the individual will undergo a ‘qualitative’ change,

their bodies will exhibit some ‘Old World characteristics’ that go far beyond reality,

their strength will vastly surpass that of patients,

no longer bound by the conventional weaknesses of pathogens,

instead, there will be a tube-like structure resembling a ‘health bar’ suspended above their heads, representing the ‘Origin Disease’ they carry, which is indicative of their total life force.

Such beings often hide this feature, which can only be glimpsed by those well-versed in Ancient Living Text.

They are collectively referred to as [Open Source].

One must resort to specific extermination methods to deplete their ‘health.’

Only when the fluid within the tube-like structure has been completely drained can one inflict genuine damage on these beings.