Wasteland Border Inspector

Chapter 205 Quadruple Infection, The Mad Golden Legend!

What do you mean by "extra people"?
Could there have been other humans hiding in Dabo Town before the two groups arrived?

Cheng Ye paused for a moment, then glanced at the government building not far away, where he could vaguely see several figures on the third floor.

Upon noticing him looking over, the captain quickly waved his hand, indicating that the two corpses had nothing to do with them.

Although the undercover agents are responsible for supervising the assessment process, they will not rashly wander around the town and cause trouble. After all, in the wild, survival is much more important than rigidly adhering to the rules.

Even if the inspectors on both sides do engage in some irregularities during the assessment process, as long as no one raises any objections, they will usually turn a blind eye and pretend they don't see it.

Not a hidden plot?

Cheng Ye gestured to Rokuk to come aside and talk privately, but Rokuk shook his head, indicating that they should talk here.

Well.

This reaction.

Cheng Ye instantly realized why Rokuk had placed the three corpses at the border.

It wasn't about "reconciling accounts" with him about the extra people; it was about relieving emotional pressure.

Three people have died, two have gone missing, and now two more unidentified infected individuals have appeared.

All the casualties are out in the open. If we don't find a way to relieve the pressure, the red zone might explode tonight!
After all, the refugees who come to participate in infrastructure construction are not the army; it's unlikely that a few dozen out of five hundred would die before problems arise.

Under high pressure, if three or five people die in a head-on fight with the infected, everyone can still grit their teeth and endure it.

But now they are being attacked and parasitized by unseen sources of infection. Strangers are appearing, and some people have disappeared without a trace. This has exceeded the psychological limits of ordinary people.

According to the "ancestral precepts" passed down from the Great Development Era, the checkpoints...

In such situations, prosecutors must come up with feasible solutions immediately and must not cover things up or allow panic to spread.

If mistakes are made during the problem-solving process, it's at most considered a lack of ability, and the only punishment will be the obvious one.

For example, deductions from salary, fixed periods, or the requirement to perform a certain number of field tasks without contributing any value.

But if we cover it up and a big problem arises, or if we never find out how the source of infection spread and caused an outbreak.

That would be a serious dereliction of duty, subject to the checkpoint's internal regulations. The penalty would be the confiscation of all assets, or even being sent back to the probationary period to start over.

This punishment is unacceptable to both Garcia, who climbed the ranks by siding with others, and Rocco, who worked hard to accumulate merits and schemed his way to the top.

"Alright, how did these two find out?"

"No rush, first check what the source of infection is." Rokuk patted the Fire Pipe at his waist.

Ok?
Cheng Ye narrowed his eyes slightly, and instead of immediately taking out his phone as he was told, he squatted down and approached the two corpses.

Logically, the most prominent feature of an infected person should be the pattern on their body. However, there are too many infected people with patterns. For example, the patterns on these two people are somewhat similar to the vortex pattern of a vortex turtle, and they can be easily confused without close inspection.

Observe carefully.

The main body of the patterns on the two people's bodies is dark purple, like congealed blood stasis, or like tattoos spreading out in circles on the skin. The pattern is very regular, an oval shape that rotates outward from the center.

Cheng Ye walked around the corpse twice and quickly located the starting point of the markings.

Behind the earlobe, the color is much darker than other areas, and there is a striking "origin" like the first stroke of a brush on paper.

Looking at the gunshot wound, the tissue inside had completely turned black, appearing as a burnt brown.

The brain matter seeping out from the side was even more frightening, like burnt white sugar, black and purple, with an eerie sticky texture.

With these details memorized, Cheng Ye took out his Xin Huo Tong (a type of electronic device) and photographed each of the key features.

The starting point of the lines behind the earlobe, close-up details of the patterns, the overall shape of the lines on the whole body, and the lines that spread to the soles of the feet.

Inputting four accurate images at once is much more reliable than taking a blurry photo from afar.

After the screen flickered for a few seconds, it only showed a blank screen.

No matches found?

Cheng Ye's heart sank. Was the search too precise, or...?
Undeterred, he tried deleting several detailed images and leaving only one "rough pattern" image to search again.

This time, seven entries finally appeared, but upon comparison, none of them matched. At most, they were only three-tenths similar. The direction of the texture rotation, the depth of the color, and even the position of the "starting point" were completely inconsistent with the source of infection in the entries.

Is it really an unknown source of infection?

Cheng Ye's heart skipped a beat. He looked up again and met Roku's gaze, also noticing Garcia's pale face and slightly trembling shoulders beside him.

He calmly put his phone away, but a chill ran through his body.

Goodness, they've all come at once, haven't they?

Although the known water cave crab has a bizarre parasitic method, it is at least possible to trace the source of infection.

The infected patrol members most likely came into contact with the water while fetching, carrying, or otherwise handling it, and became contaminated with the toxic water crystals, thus becoming infected by the source of infection.

Moreover, the detection and removal methods for the water burrowing crab are clear and straightforward. As long as it can be detected in time as it is now and before the parasitic period is over, its threat is not as great as that of the green treasure worm.

But now an unknown source of infection has suddenly appeared, and it's even mixed up with the Water Cave Crab.
Cheng Ye dared not think too deeply about it. If this unknown source of infection was a chain mechanism such as "outbreak when encountering water shortage" or "activation when encountering high temperature", it would be a devastating blow to the current situation. It was possible that more than half of the people present would perish in Dabo Town.

"How did you find out?" He suppressed his distracting thoughts and asked again, his tone still calm and composed.

In times like these, it's crucial not to panic.

Once the surrounding thousand pairs of eyes notice something amiss, there's no need for an inspection; the refugees will all scatter and flee tonight, and there's no way to stop them.

Seeing that he remained so calm, Rococo felt a little relieved, but at the same time couldn't help but feel a sense of admiration.

People are more mad than people.

Garcia, the second-phase inspector, was somewhat terrified and at a loss after learning that the source of the infection was unknown.

With this kind of performance, he'll never be promoted to the third phase in his entire life; he's not even as good as a trainee prosecutor.

"Chang Kai, tell Prosecutor Cheng what happened," Rocook called out.

Unexpectedly, the patrol captain, whom they had met before, came out again from the crowd. His face was ashen and bloodless, and his lips were trembling. He was clearly terrified.

"Prosecutor Cheng, my name is Chang Kai, and it's like this..."

His voice trembled slightly, but Cheng Ye didn't rush him. He just nodded gently and gestured with his eyes for him to take his time.

He then casually picked up the conversation, asking a couple of simple questions like "How many shifts were there for the patrol team today?" and "Were the routes adjusted?" to ease the tension.

Once his breathing had calmed down a bit, he changed the subject and steered the conversation back to the two infected individuals.

“We just went along the patrol route we used during the day again, but we still couldn’t find the two missing people.” Chang Kai swallowed hard, forcing himself to calm down. “We only found some traces at the drain at the dock, but we’re not sure if they were left by them. But when we came back and counted the people, there were two more people in the team, just like before!”

Grass!
Cheng Ye suddenly felt like his scalp was about to explode.

What kind of ghost story is this?

Two members of our team just went missing. One of them was infected, but we can attribute it to the parasite that infected them, so we can just assume he died mysteriously.

But two more people suddenly appeared out of nowhere and even came back to the camp with us. What's going on here?
Cheng Ye suddenly realized that Chang Kai was indeed a brave man, as he could still speak.

If it were him, no one in Dabo Town would be able to sleep tonight. He would turn the place upside down and find all these ghostly things.

"Aren't these the two team members who went missing this afternoon?"

As he spoke, his eyes unconsciously glanced at the two people on the ground. Both of them had very ordinary Eastern appearances and nothing special about them. However, he had never seen the missing team members before and could not identify them directly.

“Absolutely not!” Chang Kai shook his head hastily, seemingly influenced by Cheng Ye’s composure, his tone becoming smoother than before. “How could we possibly confuse the faces of the people in our team? We’ve never seen these two before! But what’s strange is that their tone of voice, their memory of the patrol routes, and even the pistols and bullets they’re carrying are all ones that Prosecutor Luo just issued today!”

"The appearance is different, but everything else matches?" Cheng Ye frowned even more.

"What did they say after they were discovered?"

"After they were discovered, they said they had amnesia and had forgotten what they did in the afternoon, only saying that they found a place to be lazy and take a nap."

Chang Kai swallowed hard, his voice trembling again, "These patterns only appeared on the corpses after Prosecutor Luo came and shot them dead."

Where should we sleep?

"Water, in the water!" Chang Kai clenched his fists tightly, his eyes filled with fear. "They kept saying how warm and comfortable it was underwater, and they even wanted us to go down and try it too."

"okay!"

Cheng Ye waved his hand, indicating that there was no need to continue.

With so many bizarre symptoms combined, even without patterns, it's clear that the person is infected.

The most crucial thing now is to confirm two things:
First, what is the connection between these two people and the missing team members?
Second, if there is no contact, confirm their identity as soon as possible!

Are they missing patrol members, or have "water ghosts" taken their place on the shore, or are there also missing people in the blue zone?

"Huang Liang!" Cheng Ye called out as he turned around.

"Here!" Huang Liang immediately ran over.

"Have everyone step aside, count the number of people according to the groups formed during the day, families stick together, couples gather together, and young adults return to their groups."

Cheng Ye spoke very quickly, “Tell the group leaders that they must identify each other and make sure everyone knows the people around them. No unfamiliar faces can be allowed to sneak in!”

"Understood!" Huang Liang shouted as he turned around, his voice carrying through the crowd.

When the source of infection was mentioned, everyone's cooperation was surprisingly high. Moreover, when the groups were divided during the day, Cheng Ye asked each group to recognize each other's faces and give their names, which came in handy at this moment.

The 75 households in the family group were quickly checked, and each household could identify the others without any abnormalities.

A few couples were missing, and when asked, it turned out they were hiding behind the supermarket out of fear of danger. They quickly ran over.

The able-bodied group had no problem either. They had been patrolling together for half a day and were already familiar with each other. After the headcount, not a single person was missing.

The speed was so fast that Garcia forgot to tremble, his face filled with astonishment and disbelief.

Glancing again at Wang Kang, who was still somewhat pale, she belatedly realized that it wasn't that the probationary prosecutor in front of her had surpassed her own second term, but rather that this "probationary" status couldn't be understood in the conventional sense.

Is going against him really the right choice in order to keep climbing the ladder?
For a moment, Garcia stood there stunned, unable to recover for a long time.

At this point, no one was paying attention to his performance anymore. After receiving the complete count, Cheng Ye breathed a slight sigh of relief.

"We have 500 people, and we don't need a single one of them. Don't panic."

Cheng Ye raised his hand, and waited until all eyes were on him before continuing his instructions: "Families, please return to your residential units in an orderly manner to rest. Lin Xiaoshan will be in charge of distributing the nutrient solution, two bags per person. Ma Mingyuan will distribute drinking water, so please take what you need. After a busy day, your task tonight is to rest well, conserve your energy, and prepare for tomorrow's construction. That is your task."

He paused, then raised his voice slightly, his tone carrying an undeniable certainty: "As for the dangers outside, whether it's the source of infection or the infected individuals, whatever happens, Inspector Wang, the patrol team, and I will be there to protect you! Understand?"

"understand!"

The unanimous answer resounded through the night sky.

Unlike the anxiety in the red zone, the morale in the blue zone soared instantly after it was confirmed that no one was missing.

With fortifications already in place, lodgings available for the night, and assurances from the inspectors, the crowd dispersed with a roar, leaving only able-bodied men and patrol members behind.

Immediately afterward, Cheng Ye took a step forward, his gaze sweeping over the restless residents in the red zone. Under Rokuk's utterly astonished and surprised gaze, he continued loudly, "Everyone, don't panic. I believe some of you know that my grandfather, Cheng Wu, was the first station chief of the Happiness City checkpoint. He was the one who created all the checkpoint procedures for the sheltered cities. And the checkpoint already has a complete contingency plan to deal with the situation we're currently facing."

"Everyone just needs to do one thing: go back to sleep. No matter what battles happen tonight, don't come out to join the fun. Tonight, I'll be leading the Blue Zone patrol, along with Inspector Luo, Inspector Wang, and Inspector Garcia, on night watch. I assure you, there are no cowards among the inspectors of Happiness City; the four of us will definitely stand in front of everyone!"

Chaos in the red zone may be beneficial to competition, but performance evaluation is never as simple as "determining winners and losers".

To put it simply, this is a stage to showcase one's abilities.

The quiet crowd suddenly erupted in commotion. Seeing that many people's eyes held hesitation rather than doubt, Cheng Ye remained calm and simply took off his helmet.

Cheng Long's influence at the checkpoints has not yet dissipated.

Cheng Wu's reputation for pioneering the checkpoint model is known throughout the wasteland.

Although he is still an unknown figure, he is a powerful weapon when he is in the right place at the right time, as he is under the banner of the Cheng family!
"Chang Kai, tell everyone how this infected was discovered?" Cheng Ye pointed to the crab-man on the ground.

Chang Kai was stunned for a moment, then immediately realized what was happening and raised his voice: "It was Prosecutor Cheng who discovered it first!"

"Tell me what happened."

"Yes!" Chang Kai nodded hurriedly and recounted the patrol encounter, Cheng Ye's subsequent arrival to remind him, and the battle where the infected were discovered in one breath.

In the red-blue competition, the residents of the red zone did not question his ability, but rather did not believe that he would put aside the competition and treat everyone equally.

This is the fault of the checkpoint's propaganda, which failed to clearly explain the resettlement work after the contract period ended.

The intense competition during the recruitment process subconsciously created a sense of antagonism between the opposing groups, a need to determine a winner and a loser.

To Cheng Ye's surprise, the crowd remained relatively calm after he heard that there were fewer people ahead and that there had been an outbreak of infected individuals.

But when they heard that he had kicked the infected person's head off, everyone's expression changed instantly.

Judging from their astonished yet somewhat delighted expressions, one might mistake them for having some kind of peculiar reverence for violence.

"Safety first, competition second. Prosecutor Luo, shall we arrange for everyone to go back?" Cheng Ye turned to look at Luo Kuke.

"Yes! No matter who wins in the end, you will all be residents of Dabo Town from now on. For me and Prosecutor Cheng, protecting your safety is our most important task!"

Rocco immediately chimed in, adding a reassurance, "Everyone can rest assured, all four of us prosecutors will be on duty tonight to ensure everyone's safety!"

With the two people's double assurance, the crowd finally stopped hesitating.

Garcia also recovered from his panic and finally fulfilled his role as a second-phase inspector, helping to guide the residents of the red zone back home.

In just over ten minutes, the people who had gathered at the border had mostly dispersed, leaving only a few dozen able-bodied men from both the red and blue zones to wait for their assigned night watch duties.

Cheng Ye put his helmet back on, took two steps forward, and lowered his voice, "Prosecutor Luo, I don't want this to happen again. Let me help you relieve the pressure."

“Understood.” Rococo’s expression was solemn. “I owe you two favors.”

When wise people offer advice, they stop when they've made their point.

As soon as the words were spoken, they both seemed to have lost their memories and replied in unison:

"I suspect these two are the two missing team members, and not anyone else."

"I think so too."

"Have you been tested?"

"No, residents had already gathered around when the shooting started, so there wasn't enough time."

"Alright, one for each of you, let's begin."

Cheng Ye nodded, signaling Huang Liang to fetch the backpack and containment equipment.

He first put on three layers of protective rubber gloves, then asked Wang Kang to help cover the helmet with an isolation bag, and turned to give instructions:

"Xiao Kang, lead everyone back. I haven't said it's over, so don't come any closer."

"Understood." Wang Kang waved his hand, and the young men immediately dispersed.

"Chang Kai, take your men and retreat," Rokuk said, leaving a safe distance of twenty meters on each side.

There are many ways to study the source of infection, but the most intuitive way is to dissect and find the core of the source of infection.

This was Cheng Ye's first time doing this kind of work.

More than ten seconds later, while he was still observing where to start, Rococo had already used a knife to cut off a piece of flesh with the mark and began to examine it.

In comparison, he was noticeably inexperienced in the professional aspects of a prosecutor.

However, as inexperienced as he was, the panel automatically moved away as soon as Cheng Ye placed the knife on the mark behind his earlobe.

The collector has detected escaping biological information and is automatically absorbing it.

"Huh, this works?"

Cheng Ye raised an eyebrow. With the collector assisting in detection, it couldn't be simpler.

He quickly embedded the knife into the flesh, watching the progress bar on the panel jump rapidly upwards.

When the progress reaches 60%, a prompt will immediately pop up on the panel.

[Absorption complete. New creature added to the encyclopedia: Soul-Snatching Catfish]

"As expected, it's a multiple fusion infection source."

Cheng Ye let out a slight sigh of relief, feeling a little more at ease.

He was no stranger to the Soul-Snatching Catfish. Detailed information about it could be found in the Prosecutor's Handbook of Happiness City and in the memories of his recent trainee assessment.

This is a common source of infection active near water, characterized by psychological pollution.

Of course, this kind of mental pollution cannot be compared with that of a traveler; it is a kind of illusion.

It's like making humans think that taking another step forward is still a step, but in reality, they're already on the water.

Or perhaps something you've always dreamed of appears on the water's surface, and you impulsively jump in, quickly worsening the pollution and becoming unable to leave the water, eventually turning into a water ghost.

This type of mental pollution is generally not something that can be absorbed by those with a strong will or who are vigilant.

Strangely, water ghosts can only move underwater or on the shore, with abilities similar to those of the catfish that steal souls, and even weaker in creating illusions. They can only move around barely at night.

Otherwise, why call it a water ghost? Wouldn't it be more appropriate to call it a shore ghost?

To come ashore now and openly pollute other humans is simply unheard of.

Just as I was pondering this, the progress bar reached 75%, and a new notification popped up again:

[Absorption complete. New creature added to the encyclopedia: Face-Swapping Fish]

"Triple fusion?"

Cheng Ye was stunned as he stared at the progress bar on the panel, which was still rising.

Compared to the catfish that seduce souls, the face-changing fish is actually more common and is considered a relatively benign source of infection.

After a person is infected, their appearance will change randomly, but only if they do not get wet.

Once it gets wet, the changes will disappear immediately, and the face will gradually ulcerate.

You must avoid getting the face wet for seven consecutive days for the effects of the face transplant to completely fade.

Generally speaking, this kind of infection source is most favored by assassins like Master Tian, ​​as it is the best way to escape after completing a mission.

How many sources of infection are hidden beneath the Baishui River?

Cheng Ye felt a chill run down his spine.

Being possessed and having their faces swapped is far from over; the final source of infection is probably the main reason why the two water ghosts came ashore.

However, the progress bar increased more and more slowly, and when it reached 90%, it simply stopped moving completely.

Cheng Ye hesitated for a moment, then turned to Rokuk and said, "Should we find someone else? Let me see what's going on here!"

"Hmm?" Rokuk paused for a moment, then nodded, indicating that he could look around at will.

At this moment, he had already cut six pieces of flesh from the first infected person and was taking out bottles and jars filled with powder, pouring it onto the flesh and carefully observing the changes.

It seems like the kind of research methods that only a researcher like Qin Feng would use.

Cheng Ye picked up the knife, pressed it against the starting point of the second person's tattoo, and gently made a cut.

The progress bar on the panel started rising again, but not long after, a new message suddenly popped up:
[Absorption complete; the characteristics of the Darkwater Cave Crab have increased.]

Okay.

It's a quadruple fusion!
Cheng Ye was secretly astonished; it was truly unimaginable that a single person could harbor so many sources of infection.

The dangers beneath the Baishui River are probably far greater than expected; thankfully, Jiang Chuan wasn't allowed to go into the water that day.

Brother B was right. When facing an unfamiliar wilderness, one must maintain absolute awe, after all, even superhumans are not invincible.

Although his life level has risen, there are still many situations where the probability of parasitism is 100%.

Perhaps only by continuing to elevate the level of life can we further enhance our immunity to these parasites.

at last.

The progress bar slowly but steadily climbed to 100%.

The panel flickered a few times, and then, as expected, a notification popped up:

[Absorption complete. New creature added to the encyclopedia: ???]

As expected, it was a completely unknown source of infection. Since even Xinhuotong couldn't find it, it was impossible to analyze it based on the information he had previously collected.

After all, in such a vast wasteland, only one or two out of ten sources of infection have been discovered and analyzed so far.

More often than not, mutations continue to occur in places untouched by humans, or they have already been lurking in the old era.

Unless you go to these specific places to trigger it, no one will ever discover that this thing exists.

Cheng Ye pondered for a moment and then opened the encyclopedia function.

But the next second, he was completely stunned.

White, blue, purple, red
The encyclopedia already includes four colors, with white and blue being the most common sources of infection.

The purple entry only contains the Darkwater Cave Crab.

The red entries represent extraordinary items, and only the Whirlpool Turtle is in this category.

However, there is no new content under the four categories of white, blue, purple, and red. Instead, a brand new color has appeared at the bottom of the list.

The color was intense and vibrant, like the midday sun; it was pure gold!

(End of this chapter)