Extreme germ phobia

Chapter 254: Anatomy
Ouyang put away the two high-powered pistols, but couldn't help grinning.

From this day forward, his personal weapon will be the M500!
To be honest, he still prefers the Glock. Not only is it lighter, but it also has a larger magazine capacity. In a critical moment, even an extra bullet in the gun can save a life.

However, even the M500 is not as deadly as imagined against this new type of infected person, so continuing to use Glock is simply asking for trouble.

At this point, whether you like it or not is no longer important; practicality is the most crucial factor.

Not just pistols, but rifles too!
Both the M27 and the Pineapple are 5.56 mm caliber, which is fine for shooting people and dealing with ordinary infected people, but it is really unsettling to deal with the new type of infected people!

Practice makes perfect, so Ouyang immediately returned to the car and took out his rifle, machine gun, and shotgun.

By this time, most of the old Mis had fled the manor, and those who hadn't run away kept their distance, none daring to approach.

Are you kidding me? Those are infected people who can still move even without a head. Who knows if they're really dead? What if they come back to life?
It's safer to stay far away!
Ouyang fired two shots with an M27, leaving two insignificant bullet holes on the corpse, a visual effect far inferior to that of a high-powered pistol!

It's the same if you switch to a large pineapple.

Despite his discomfort, Ouyang lifted the rag doll-like corpse to see the effect of a small-caliber rifle bullet penetrating it, only to find that he was overthinking it.

The small-caliber rifle bullets couldn't penetrate it at all!

This is so unexpected. Ouyang just can't understand how the body of an infected person can be so resilient.

He considered continuing to test the slug, but then gave up and handed the gun to his companions, saying, "Wait for me a bit!"

After saying that, he rushed into the building. As soon as he entered, he smelled a strong stench of blood and the distinctive stench of internal organs.

Peeking out, I saw several dismembered corpses scattered around, and blood splattered everywhere on the walls and the floor.

Ou Yang's eyes twitched. He stepped over the corpse and crawled into the kitchen, where he found two pairs of rubber gloves for cleaning and took a sharp boning knife from the knife rack.

Instead of using the door, he smashed the window open with the kitchen table and jumped out of the window together with the table.

Everyone looked at Ouyang with curiosity: What exactly is this guy trying to do?
Ouyang strode over to the infected person's body, set up a table, and then moved the body onto the table.

Then he turned to Jiang Yuwei: "Sister Wei, come help!"

Jiang Yuwei was a little confused: "Help with what?"

Upon hearing this, Zhu Yiming very proactively hid back in the car, holding the big pineapple and keeping watch over the surroundings.

Berry curiously peered in, wanting to get a closer look, but little Leilie was definitely not suited to look at this thing, so in the end he chose to look after little Leilie instead.

"Dissection!" Ouyang put on a pair of gloves. "Aren't you a medical student?"

Jiang Yuwei immediately put on another pair of gloves.

Yes, she was quite curious about this infected person and really wanted to know what had happened to him.

Jiang Yuwei wanted to perform the surgery herself, but before she could even reach out, Ou Yang beat her to it: "I'll do it, you can just guide me... and take notes!"

From the very beginning, Ou Yang never intended for Jiang Yuwei to make a move.

Jiang Yuwei paused for a moment, then nodded: "Okay!"

Ouyang weighed the boning knife in his hand: "Where do we begin?"

"Wait!" Jiang Yuwei's gaze fell on the remaining half of the head, and she poked it with a stick. "A large number of mycelia were found in the brain, and the brain's strength has been greatly increased!"

Ou Yang curiously poked it a couple of times with his finger, and found it to be surprisingly tough: "Wow, it's like a shoe sole!"

He seemed to have seen it somewhere before; a normal brain looks about the size of tofu.
Jiang Yuwei looked at it more closely: "I found a lot of hyphae around the brainstem... That's interesting!"

Ouyang also figured it out; the hyphae in the brain tissue grew in a somewhat messy way, intertwined with each other, like a tangled mess.

The hyphae near the brainstem are different; they grow vertically from top to bottom.

"Has this thing replaced nerves?" Ouyang asked in surprise.

"You think too highly of medical students!" Jiang Yuwei straightened up. "Alright, let's begin!"

"How do you cut it?" Ou Yang asked.

"Like this!" Jiang Yuwei made two cuts on the corpse with her hand, first from the shoulder to the chest, then from the collarbone all the way down. "Don't go too deep, just close enough!"

Ou Yang nodded to indicate that he understood, and made a cut to the left and a cut to the right, with the last cut going straight down to his abdomen.

The boning knife was very sharp, but when Ouyang made the cut, he felt significant resistance.

This is nothing special!

Under Jiang Yuwei's guidance, Ou Yang peeled off the outer skin with several cuts and then cut the ribs, exposing the infected person's abdominal and thoracic cavities to the two of them.

Not at all surprising, the infected person's internal organs were also covered with mycelium.

Ouyang wasn't interested in human internal organs. He found the hole made by the small-caliber rifle, dug inside, and discovered that the bullet had only penetrated two-thirds of the body, creating a very small cavity.

In comparison, while the Desert Eagle isn't as good as the M500, at least it managed to penetrate the M500's barrel.

Moreover, the wounds caused by high-powered pistols have much larger cavities than those caused by rifles.

Now Ouyang had a plan. If he encountered a similar situation again, he would prioritize shooting the limbs with a pistol, and as for rifles... well, forget about rifles.

If there's really no time to change it, then just keep hitting it on the head.

Ouyang has found the answer he's looking for and wants to reassemble the body to continue experimenting with the shotgun.

Jiang Yuwei, however, thought differently and continued to study the hyphae in the infected individuals.

Fungal hyphae can be found in all body tissues, including internal organs, muscles, and bones; the only difference is the amount.

Jiang Yuwei believes that the ratio of hyphae in the body of infected individuals is just right; any less and it will not strengthen the body, and any more and it will affect athletic ability.

In addition, she believed that the mycelium from different parts of the fungus had different functions, so she specifically found several small bottles. After sterilization, she took mycelium from different parts and put it into the bottles for preservation.

Hopefully, in the near future, we can find a place with the necessary facilities to conduct experiments and verify the effects of these mycelia!

Only when Jiang Yuwei was satisfied did Ou Yang move the body back to the ground and bombard it fiercely with a slug. With just one shot, a hole the size of a soup bowl was blown open in the pieced-together chest.

Ouyang was extremely satisfied with the result. No doubt about it, the shotgun would be the main secondary weapon from now on, the kind that can be loaded with slugs at any time!
At this point, all experiments have concluded.

Ou Yang believed he had firsthand information on the new type of zombie and even gave this thing he had never encountered before a very fitting name: Force Zombie!
Great strength is the primary characteristic; agility is merely a byproduct of strength.

Jiang Yuwei wanted to know even more how this thing was formed, but her knowledge was limited and she had very little information to rely on, which left her feeling somewhat disappointed.

She suddenly had an idea: "Ouyang, why don't we find a few more infected people to do autopsies?"

Ou Yang was stunned: "We've been here for half a year and we've only encountered one such powerful corpse. Where are we going to find another one?"

If there are many people infected at this level, wouldn't humanity be in danger?

“I’m talking about ordinary infected people!” Jiang Yuwei said. “I want to see what the difference is between the two types of infected people.”

Ouyang thought for a moment and said, "Maybe when there's a chance!" He had already begun to imagine what the inside of an ordinary severely infected person would look like.

Then he thought about his own situation. Could it be that his body was covered with mycelium, which was why he had such great strength?

He suddenly felt an urgency to leave this place immediately and head south as fast as possible.

We must find a reliable place as soon as possible to conduct a detailed examination, fully understand our own situation, and see if he will one day develop to a similar state.

Zhu Yiming, unaware of Ou Yang's thoughts, asked expectantly, "Are we still moving the supplies?"

Ou Yang nodded without hesitation: "Move it!"

There wasn't much to move. The armored vehicle didn't have much space to begin with, and after stuffing in a few cases of mineral water and various canned goods, the remaining space was extremely limited.

Even so, Ouyang still went to the basement several times and brought back all the large-caliber bullets he could find to the car.

Unfortunately, the quantity was not very large; the two types of bullets combined barely exceeded one hundred.

Seeing that Ouyang still seemed unsatisfied, Berry suggested, "Let's go to the airport!"

Ou Yang asked in surprise, "Where are you going?"

Berry kept everyone in suspense: "You'll find out when we get there!"

The armored vehicle roared out of the manor and sped back to the airport.

After driving into the hangar, Berry took out welding equipment and some steel pipes and bars: "The truck is full, how about I weld a fence on the roof?"

“A fence?” Ouyang finally understood Berry’s idea. “It’s good, but what’s on the roof? Wouldn’t it be obvious at a glance? I think it would be better to weld a metal box or something, or even better, a tin hut!”

"A tin shack?" Berry was completely taken aback. "Should I weld an attic for you?"

“Yes!” Ouyang said, “It would be best to enclose the firing positions!”

“Sorry, I can’t do it!” Berry shook his head. “Armored vehicles are heavy to begin with. Welding a fence on them can carry some cargo, but if we add too much, the weight alone will increase fuel consumption significantly. Do you think it’s worth it?”

"I see!" Ouyang smacked his lips. "Then let's use the railing!"

Berry agreed and immediately got to work, quickly welding a sturdy fence onto the vehicle and securing two additional metal boxes.

Ouyang put some spare ammunition, as well as a small amount of food and drinking water in the box, making it an emergency supply box.

The renovation is now complete.

Ouyang was very disappointed. He really wanted to modify the armored vehicle properly, such as adding a steel plate to the front, back, left, and right sides.

Unfortunately, the conditions simply didn't allow it.

As their parting was imminent, Ouyang once again invited Berry to travel with him.

Berry, holding little Leili, smiled and shook his head: "Never mind, I'll stay." His gaze drifted to a corner of the airport. "I plan to repair those planes and see if I can put together one that can fly. That way, I can just fly away. It's much faster than an armored vehicle."

Ouyang smiled and extended his right hand: "That day won't be too far away!"

"Thank you!"

The two large hands clasped together again, then separated after a moment.

Ouyang turned around and returned to the armored vehicle.

Berry, still holding little Leilie, waved to the armored vehicle as it drove away.

"Where are we going?" Zhu Yiming, who was driving, asked.

"Where else can we go? Let's just keep driving south!" Ou Yang let out a long sigh.

"What's wrong, feeling pressured?" Jiang Yuwei asked with a smile.

Ouyang nodded: "Actually, I've always known that this strength is related to the phantom lung bacteria, but I've never really thought about what caused it."

As he said this, he touched his arm, which looked as if it was covered with mycelium under his skin.

"Hey, if you ask me, you're just worrying unnecessarily," Zhu Yiming optimistically reassured him. "Tell me, how long has it been since you left the airport? If it really had mycelium, wouldn't it have grown into a giant mushroom by now? Why would you be still alive and kicking like this?"

Ou Yang thought about it and realized it made sense, so he covered it up by saying, "Hey, I was just thinking about it casually."

Zhu Yiming didn't say anything more, but Jiang Yuwei looked Ou Yang up and down with a scrutinizing gaze, feeling that something was off about him.

Then, silence fell over the vehicle. The armored vehicle drove straight into the city, then emerged from the other side of the city and continued south along the highway.

Ou Yang quickly composed himself, replaced Zhu Yiming, and looked no different from usual.

But only he knows what he's really thinking.

As they continued south, Ouyang would take out his phone to check it every so often.

In the afternoon, the armored vehicles had penetrated deep into the southern part of Mule State. In every city and town they passed through, there was not a single normal person in sight, only groups of infected people wandering around.

The armored vehicles didn't stop for a moment and all rushed forward in one go.

At this moment, the three people in the car would involuntarily tense up, worried that another zombie would appear.

Fortunately, physical corpses are not as common as one might imagine.

Roads in many places were blocked, forcing people to break through the obstacles.

During this time, they encountered Old Mi trying to rob them more than once.

The three men had no interest in ridding the people of evil; they just rushed over and left.

But Old Mi wasn't without a plan. At first, he only did small-scale things, but later he not only dug up the road, but also used tire spikes!

This isn't an ordinary nail; it's a three-edged steel nail, about the length of a palm, with hollowed-out air holes drilled into it before being attached to a retractable metal strip.

Once it's laid out on the road, even armored vehicles won't dare to charge forward.

Ou Yang slammed on the brakes and stopped in front of the curb, just a hair's breadth away from running over it.

The three men immediately prepared to engage the enemy, ready to fire their machine guns at any enemy that dared to show itself.

However, the old man who set up the tire spikes probably didn't expect it to stop an armored vehicle, and he didn't dare to show his face.

And so, with their constant stops and starts, by evening the group had covered more than 200 kilometers and left the territory of Luozhou!
However, Ou Yang and his team encountered another tight blockade by the US military here.

The blockade here is much stricter than in Kamed; no one is allowed to get close, and there are no loopholes to exploit.

Ouyang even saw a group of US troops building a barrier wall several meters high behind the blockade line!

He suddenly felt a bit of a headache: Was this going to mean sealing off the entire epidemic area?

(End of this chapter)