Cthulhu America, I can see the kill line.

The corridors of Hills University Hospital were filled with the strong smell of disinfectant.

Kong Jiu pushed eight properly prepared corpses, which could be used as teaching aids and experimental materials, and walked slowly through the courtyard.

Six of the bodies came from the Prophet's Church, and two more were sold to him by the gang.

He also dealt with gangs, collecting remains.

Often after a street brawl, both sides would call Kong Jiu.

In the eyes of many downtown gangs, Kong Jiu was a rather friendly "Eastern mortician".

They can help piece together the shattered remains of their brothers so they can be laid to rest; they can also dispose of the severed limbs of enemies after a firefight and sell them for money.

This kind of person has no ambition and doesn't form his own gang.

Even the things that most defy the gangs are nothing more than being too soft-hearted and fond of giving out handouts.

Through this back and forth, Kong Jiu established himself in the lower city and became a neutral figure of some renown.

However, Kong Jiu was not very willing to work for gangsters.

Not to mention that standing next to those burly, fanatical believers with eight-pointed stars on their heads, he felt a chill run down his spine.

More often than not, almost every gang is involved in the enhancer business to some extent.

Those people always seem to be floating on air after taking drugs; they don't look like they're mentally stable.

Moreover, the quality of the corpses they provided was extremely poor; they were basically only good for harvesting organs and sending them to medical laboratories.

Of course, there are even worse ones, such as floating corpses on the docks, degreased torsos in the sewers, and...meat paste in mass graves.

Fortunately, with sponsorship from numerous pharmaceutical companies and a great need for human trials, they accepted any remains that came their way.

Otherwise, Kong Jiu wouldn't have needed to collect the corpses so intensively, sending them over in batches.

The wreckage was pushed to the laboratory door. After Kong Jiu pressed the notification bell, a man wearing glasses came out.

"Six bodies died of hypothermia, two organ samples, the heart was shattered and missing. Please sign for them."

Kong Jiu handed over a list without expression.

The person in charge of receiving the patients was a tall, thin white doctor who wore glasses, and he was accompanied by a timid apprentice.

The white doctor lifted the sheet, glanced briefly at the six intact corpses without bullet holes, and a look of delight immediately appeared on his face.

Not a single bullet hole? Such good quality? Wow, this batch is really something!

This man is Professor Jack Livingston, the most authoritative professor of pharmacology at Hills University.

"The snow is too heavy, Professor. Many people in the lower city are freezing to death."

Kong Jiu answered truthfully with a blank expression, his voice devoid of any emotion.

"Another batch will be delivered tomorrow, about six to eight bodies, and... and if the weather doesn't show any signs of warming up, there will be just as many over the next three or four days."

Upon hearing this, Professor Jack's eyes narrowed into slits with delight.

"Such heavy snow, a good omen!"

He was as happy as a child who had received a new toy.

"Every frozen corpse is a piece of experimental material without bullet holes!"

Jack excitedly stroked the cold remains that had been defiled and preserved by Kong Jiu, his fingertips just touching the still elastic muscle fibers.

"Excellent, truly excellent... The muscles are elastic, with no obvious external injuries. According to the school's standard purchase price, it's $15,000 per set."

Professor Jack clapped his hands with delight, signed the papers, and had his apprentices push the corpses away.

"A single snowfall has brought in so many high-quality experimental materials! Jiu Jiu, you've done a great job. It's clear why Ofavi was willing to take on a student with mediocre grades like you. I'll apply to the academy to increase your funding for corpse retrieval! Keep up the good work!"

Kong Jiu watched the professor praise him expressionlessly, his heart unmoved.

Professor Jack did not have a good reputation among his students, having previously argued with them in public for making some outrageous remarks in class.

If I had to say something, this person wasn't a bad person, he was just a bit fanatical about pharmacology.

Their fanaticism crossed the boundaries of ordinary ethics.

But how much humanity can one have left when dealing with the dead all day long?

Kong Jiu could sense that he was losing some beautiful things: kindness, gentleness, and thoughtfulness.

These past two days, he's been calling out to his two young men early in the morning, shouting "Free mutton soup" at the Prophet's Church, without ever feeling like he's doing a good deed.

He felt as if he had traded these people's lives for a paltry amount of mutton soup.

Yet those people acted as if they were extremely grateful.

After finishing making soup in the morning and handing the stall over to his assistant, he would return to the clinic at noon to drive the hearse over.

When he moved so many corpses of refugees from the Prophet's Church, his heart did not even tremble.

In the past two days, three more bodies have been found frozen to death.

Faced with faces that might have just drunk his mutton soup in the morning but were lying in the snow in the church's backyard in the afternoon, Kong Jiu felt his heart gradually becoming numb and his empathy being lost.

And she had no way to struggle or confide in anyone.

Nobody wants to hear: "Did you know that maggots can't hatch on a frozen corpse? They just clump together and freeze into clumps of white, rice-grain-like flowers."

Even her classmate and roommate, Impa, never dared to ask, "Hey, Jiu Jiu, what happened to you today?"

Perhaps... perhaps I have already lost my humanity, just like Professor Jack, and am left only with a fanaticism for medicine.

Wait, fanaticism?

A thought suddenly flashed through Kong Jiu's mind.

"Professor Jack, are you interested in... a fresher corpse?"

He suddenly spoke, calling out to Jack, who was about to return to the lab, his tone slightly probing.

Sure enough, the latter's eyes were immediately piqued by these words.

"Yes, of course! If it weren't illegal, I'd even like to handle live animals!"

Jack spoke frankly, completely disregarding ethics and morality, his face brimming with a thirst for research.

"Great! This has potential!"

Kong Jiu secretly rejoiced and quickly replied.

"If I could send you a very fresh body, deceased within the last twelve hours, how much more would you be willing to allocate to my school's procurement budget?"

Jack's eyebrows shot up as he listened, his expression a mixture of doubt and anticipation.

"Twelve hours? Doggy, can you get your hands on such fresh 'goods'? Are you going to kill them on the spot?"

Jack held up three fingers.

"Thirty thousand,"

His tone was resolute: "Thirty thousand US dollars per unit. I personally wrote the application for procurement funds. I'll take as many units as there are."

Thirty thousand!

That's double the number of previously "well-preserved" corpses!

Kong Jiu's heart skipped a beat.

He paid his informants in the lower city area a uniform price of eight thousand dollars per corpse, regardless of whether they were gang leaders, vagrants, or Prophet Sousa.

On a normal month, they collect about twelve or thirteen corpses, most of which are unnatural deaths. Reporting them to the school only earns them a little over ten thousand yuan.

After deducting fuel costs for transporting the body, kickbacks to informants, and various other miscellaneous expenses, an average of two to three hundred yuan can be extracted from each corpse.

In addition to the base salary for this position, Kong Jiu earns a little over five or six thousand US dollars a month.

After all, dealing with corpses all day long, being introduced by a professor, and occasionally working part-time as a forensic doctor, who could keep doing this without some extra income?

It was precisely because of this that he had the financial resources to help the displaced people.

After winter set in in November, the number of people freezing to death increased, and Kong Jiu clearly felt a surge in workload, which led to a significant increase in income.

But faced with the hungry, naked, and emaciated refugees in the snowstorm, their heads flushed red with blood, Kong Jiu still felt powerless and lacking in resources.

However, a fresh corpse costing 30,000 is a completely different matter.

This means that he gained at least 15,000 more from each corpse, or even more!

If he handles it promptly, the first ten fresh corpses will be delivered to Jack. The $150,000 in funding should be enough to keep nearly a hundred people in the church through the winter!

The sacrifice of ten people gave nearly a hundred people the hope of surviving the harsh winter!

Even if it means bearing the stigma, Kong Jiu was determined to do it!

"Professor Jack, I can bring it to you!"

Kong Jiu immediately offered to provide a fresher corpse.

"I'll go back and fill out the procurement budget application right now. Just wait for good news!"

He said this and turned to leave.

"Wait!"

Suddenly, Jack called out to Kong Jiu, who was about to leave, his brows furrowing slightly.

"Jiujiu, it's not that I don't trust your goods,"

Jack said with some doubt.

"I was just wondering, since you don't have a formal medical background, are you really that confident in judging the freshness of remains?"

Kong Jiu smiled.

This was the first time he had smiled in days, and his smile carried an almost cold confidence.

"100%".

He stared at the health bar above Jack's head, his gaze calm and resolute.

"I'm absolutely certain I know who's about to die, and I guarantee I'll send you the freshest ones!"