The Gentleman at the End

Chapter 51: Chapter 50 District

Hearing the description of the secret medicine, Yi Chen once again fell into deep thought,

However,

he wasn’t pondering the concept of the secret medicine or matters related to the Doctor or Clinic,

but rather, he was combining some descriptions and details of the secret medicine with this mission and found a rather strange point.

“Edmund, you said the raw materials for the secret medicine come from the ‘Patient’.

Is it possible that the False Moon incident that erupted in Viner City is related to the development of the secret medicine?”

Upon hearing this,

Edmund suddenly froze, with his index finger poised at the center of his lips.

“William~ these kinds of remarks shouldn’t be made lightly.

Moreover, the event information presented to us by the Organization already made it clear that the patient named ‘Moon Scar’ possesses a concealment ability that transcends those of a similar rank.

The ‘False Moon incident’ erupted suddenly without the Gentlemen of the locality or the Clinics being aware.”

Edmund, born into a great family, had been instilled with the ideals of a gentleman since childhood and had previously seen Doctors who visited his family.

In his heart, he firmly believed that those Doctors who had qualified to open a Clinic were unquestionably noble in character and would not be directly or indirectly involved in such a nefarious event.

“I’m just speculating,

after all, you just mentioned that the production of secret medicine requires the use of ‘Patients’.”

Edmund also realized his reaction might have been a bit too intense and adjusted his posture to explain some matters about the Clinic.

“Correct, the core component of secret medicine indeed comes from patients.

However, the Organization has clear rules that these patients must come from ‘hunts’.

The Clinic after all is established by powerful Doctors,

and some gentlemen, who have graduated from the academy and are stuck before the Limit Barrier, choose to be employed as apprentices at the Clinic to gain relevant experience. Generally, a Clinic will have more than ten Gentleman’s Studies apprentices.”

“The way these apprentices ‘pay tuition’ is by hunting in the vicinity, bringing back valuable patients to the Clinic.

These hunted patients not only provide raw materials for the secret medicine but also have research value in and of themselves, which is very significant for humanity’s understanding of ‘Pathological’.”

“I see.” Yi Chen continued to ask, “Then why must the ‘Clinic’ be built close to the city?”

“Two reasons,

1. As a special armed department, the Clinic works in tandem with the local gentry to ensure city safety and provides medical services to passing gentlemen.

Additionally, the Organization also requires the Clinics to conduct random screenings at regular intervals for city residents, to provide free health exams and more thoroughly eliminate latent pathological transformations,

2. Based on many years of combating ‘Pathological’ diseases, humans are found to be most susceptible to pathological influences and have the fastest growth and mutation rates.

This is possibly directly associated with our self-awareness as humans and our desire to explore the unknown.

Therefore, most Clinics are established on the outskirts of cities, ensuring city safety while also being able to acquire raw materials with the greatest expedition.”

“Understood.”

After this exchange, Yi Chen’s gains were quite substantial.

The half-year’s special training had left him with no time to read books.

He had made up his mind that, once the event concluded, he planned to visit the Great Book Library between the academies to gather more knowledge of the world.

At this moment,

a slight disturbance came from his shoulder, reminding him of a ‘friend’ who hadn’t shown up for a long time.

“Little Grape, you seem quite excited.”

“How could I not be excited?

We were stuck in that damn lecture hall for an entire half-year, and even though your physical changes were somewhat interesting, this grape still prefers to come outside and see the world.

My heart yearns for the outside world, for all those novel, differently colored, uniquely flavored ‘grapes.’

Fortunately, the mission you guys chose this time is quite interesting, actually involving ‘Open Source.’

In my shattered memories, there exist traces of ancient records, and if I could taste the grapes from an Open Source patient that contain ancient auras, I wonder how thrilling that would be.”

“The incident report from Zion should be reliable, the real culprit behind the ‘False Moon Incident’ is already dead. We won’t encounter them… Besides, even if we did, could we survive?”

“Given our current state, we would inevitably die, and it would be a terrible death.

Ah~ You really are no fun, I was just fantasizing a bit. As long as we can get our hands on some mutated grapes related to Open Source patients on this mission, I’ll be satisfied.”

“Hmm,

All the grapes from the patients we kill during this mission will be yours.

Since the mission is focused on searching, your Visual assistance is quite important, Little Grape. Don’t get lazy when the time comes.”

…

A three-hour carriage ride.

The coach is about to reach the site of the False Moon Incident – Viner City.

The front window of the carriage opens,

and the coachman wearing a metal mask speaks for the first time:

“As a protective measure for the new Gentleman, I’ll cut through Viner City and drop you directly at the Twilight Clinic. Of course, you can also choose to detour through the relatively safe suburbs.”

“Let’s just go straight through the city.”

Edmund made that decision for a simple reason: the carriage could isolate Pathological elements, and even if they encountered Patients lurking in the city, they would definitely not be able to catch up.

Crossing the city would allow a rough assessment of the danger level of the mission.

“Then pay attention. If we’re attacked by Patients, the carriage will double its speed… Don’t get thrown off. I won’t stop and wait for any of you,” the coachman said.

In the midst of conversation, the carriage officially entered Viner City,

this pitiable city that had experienced the False Moon Incident, now a ruin.

Almost every building had signs of damage, large or small, and some structures were completely collapsed, severing the city streets.

Even though two months had passed since the incident,

one could still smell the rotten and fishy odors in the air… paired with traces of blood on the ground, light poles, or buildings, it was as if one could still hear the screams echoing through the streets and alleys.

It was hard to imagine that a normal city, with a population of over ten thousand, inhabited by Gentlemen and monitored by clinics, turned into a living hell overnight.

At that moment,

Yi Chen deeply tasted the bitterness of a certain “disease,” the flavor of Despair.

As he was staring at the moving streetscape and zoning out,

Little Grape provided a window of Vision with a burst of ‘Peeping Sense.’

“Oh, something’s watching us from the shadows. Looks like we’ll get our grapes soon… But they’re not coming after us, just watching from the darkness. It’s a bit disappointing.”

Little Grape’s words dragged Yi Chen’s thoughts back.

“Perhaps it’s because these creatures born of the moon need to wait till nightfall to become active?”

“That’s very possible. I’m looking forward to these guys undergoing some changes at night to add flavor to the grapes.”

While conversing with Little Grape, Yi Chen also relayed the situation to his team.

Edmund asked, “Can you determine their numbers?” @@novelbin@@

“I can clearly sense no more than three sources of Peeping, but I don’t rule out others I haven’t detected, as well as Patients still sleeping deep within the ruins.”

“Hmm.

Our main activity area will be the Clinic, let’s try to avoid contact with the city as much as possible afterward.”

After half an hour of rapid driving,

the carriage smoothly exited the city area, following a winding road into the countryside.

A small hospital-like building with a similar architectural style to Zion was being built on a small hill here, snugly close to Viner City.

From this height, the doctors and apprentices of the clinic could get a good overview of the general situation in the city.