This was a work ID.
'Qi City Epidemic Prevention Center?'
'And what kind of job is a Level 1 Incinerator Technician?'
He flipped the work ID over, and two crooked, scrawled words were revealed.
Kill me
The two words were written in blood, now dried to a dark brown. The twisted script revealed a desperate, agonizing struggle.
'These Skinners... they were once human!'
Shen Feng suddenly noticed that the work ID was shaking violently.
He froze for a moment, then raised his left hand and gripped his right wrist.
It was his own hand that was shaking.
Now that he had confirmed he was safe, the fear in his heart began to seep out.
For someone who had been living in an era of peace just yesterday, the shock of it all was simply too much.
After all, he was just an ordinary high school student.
Exhaustion gradually washed over him. Clutching the tattered work ID and cradling the heavy Shotgun, Shen Feng sank into a deep sleep.
Only the smell of gunpowder smoke could bring him a sense of peace...
Early the next morning, Shen Feng startled awake from his deep sleep, aimed the Shotgun forward, and was about to pull the trigger.
He only relaxed after seeing the securely barricaded door in front of him.
A faint light now filtered into the armory, enough to make out his surroundings.
It was daytime.
He pulled out his phone and checked the time. 8:17 a.m.
He didn't know if it was because the game software had modified it, but the phone's battery life was astonishing. It was still at ninety-nine percent, having barely lost any charge.
Shen Feng had been worried that his phone would die in a couple of days, leaving him unable to open the True Apocalypse Game app. If that happened, how would he ever get back?
It seemed he no longer had to worry about that.
After eating some jerky and drinking some water from his backpack, Shen Feng packed up his things and cleared the barricade from the doorway.
He pressed his ear to the door and listened for a few minutes. After confirming there were no sounds outside, he opened the door and stepped out.
The building was silent. Everything that had happened yesterday felt like a dream.
When he reached the second-floor hall, the cloying, sweet smell of blood hit him, revealing a Chaotic Scene.
Last night, after the fire had died down, he could only make things out by the faint starlight, so Shen Feng hadn't been able to grasp the full situation.
Only now could he finally see the gruesome scene in the hall.
A dozen or so Skinners lay on the ground. Their blood had dried into a thin film coating the floor.
But on all of their faces was a look of relief...
Examining the Skinners up close, he found them even more horrifying than he had imagined.
They had no external sexual characteristics, making it impossible to tell male from female. Most of the Skinners were naked; only two or three still wore tattered clothes, some of which had been ripped to shreds.
However, one particularly tall Skinner stood out. It was still wearing a worn-out leather jacket on its upper body.
Though worn through in several places, the jacket was of excellent quality and still largely intact.
Shen Feng approached, gun raised, and saw some faded words on the jacket's chest:
Qi City Epidemic Prevention Center Incineration Department
'It's a uniform.'
The tall Skinner's face seemed to hold a faint smile. Despite being skinless, with its eyeballs protruding, it looked remarkably peaceful.
A palm-sized rectangular object made a bulge in the jacket's pocket.
The pocket was zipped tight. Shen Feng took out his dagger, slit open the jacket, and pulled out the object inside.
It was a small, black, buckled notebook. The cover was stamped with the words "Work Notes."
Shen Feng's eyes lit up. 'If this person was an employee of the Qi City Epidemic Prevention Center Incineration Department, his work notes must have recorded the reason for the Skinners' mutation!'
Placing the notebook aside, Shen Feng didn't have time to read through its contents just yet.
He had accepted the game's task yesterday to "collect ten samples of Skinner brain tissue," and he needed to complete it as soon as possible.
He was also extremely curious about what kind of reward he would receive.
"How do I preserve the Skinner brain tissue? Can I start extracting the samples now?"
Shen Feng opened the True Apocalypse Game app and asked aloud.
'It should be able to respond to voice commands,' he figured.
Sure enough, a line of text appeared on his phone screen:
The brain tissue samples are about to lose all viability. Please extract the samples immediately. Each sample must be one hundred grams or more, placed in a glass, and upon completion of collection, placed in the safe in the chief's office on the second floor.
'What the hell kind of requirement is this?'
Shen Feng paused, then continued to ask:
"Will a regular glass do? Won't the brain tissue samples get contaminated?"
Even as a high school student, he knew about bacterial contamination.
'And what's this about putting them in the chief's office safe? Is someone going to come pick them up or something?'
Another line of text appeared on the screen: Follow the task instructions precisely.
'Fine, you're the boss. I'll do it your way.'
Shen Feng found a few glasses in a nearby office and set them aside. He grabbed his dagger and axe, then crouched before the crimson head of a Skinner. Taking a deep breath, he muttered to himself:
"I'm a doctor... I am a doctor... I am a fearless medical examiner... I have to find the truth behind the case..."
The blade fell.
About an hour later, Shen Feng walked into the chief's office, carrying ten glasses on a dusty tray. He found a large, rusty safe.
Each glass contained a small, freshly extracted sample of brain tissue.
Shen Feng placed the ten samples into the safe one by one, then closed the door.
After staring at the safe door for about ten seconds, Shen Feng took a deep breath and opened it again. The inside of the safe was now completely empty!
The ten brain tissue samples had all vanished!
'Just as I guessed,' he thought. 'The mysterious power behind the True Apocalypse Game can take things directly!'
'I thought I might be able to meet the mastermind behind all this in this world, but it looks like that's not going to happen.'
He returned to the armory, stripped off his blood-soaked clothes, and changed into a clean set. Only then did he let out a long sigh of relief.
He had lost count of how many times he'd thrown up during the dissection process. Thankfully, he had gradually gotten used to it, and his technique had become less crude.
'I shouldn't have eaten breakfast.'
Placing the Shotgun within reach, Shen Feng took the small black notebook he'd gotten from the Skinner out of his pocket and began to read carefully:
Work Notes
Zhang Hui
Petrification Disease Prevention Log
"Today is the first day the Epidemic Prevention Center Incineration Department was established. It's also my first day as an Incinerator Technician, transferred over from the Disease Control Section...
Researchers from the National Academy of Sciences came to give us special training...
The latest variant of the Petrification Disease virus is airborne. Every patient with a severe case becomes a massive source of infection after they are completely petrified.
Burial only contaminates the soil and groundwater. To cut off the source of transmission, the statues must be completely destroyed. Right now, the most economical and efficient method is incineration...
The city's crematoriums have been completely requisitioned, and many of their staff have been temporarily reassigned as Incinerator Technicians.
What kind of disease is this? It's even more terrifying than Ebola!"
...
"The special incineration suit is all black. The filter on the custom gas mask looks like a bird's beak. I hear people are calling us 'Crows' now—bad luck to anyone who crosses our path.
Haha, I never thought that I, a former medical professional, would one day become a superstitious bad omen...
It's only been a week, and they're already starting to issue us guns...
Incinerator Technicians are getting infected every day. But according to news from HQ, the first batch of vaccines from the National Academy of Sciences is close to being successfully developed. The Incinerator Technicians from all the nation's incineration departments will be the first to receive it.
That's the only good news there is. I hope that when this is all over, we'll be remembered as heroes, not forgotten like the heroes of Chernobyl..."
...
"I've been with the Incineration Department for over two months now. I've lost count of how many statues I've burned, driving around the city every day searching for them.
The guy I ran into today hiding a statue must have had a death wish. He kept insisting his wife was still alive, just in the form of a statue... The poor fool. Doesn't he know you can be shot on sight for hiding a statue?
He was infected himself; his skin was already hardening. What a pity..."
...
"Something strange happened today! A statue! The one I personally pushed into the incinerator—the statue of the little girl—I think... I think I heard it scream in the fire!"