Ke-style law enforcement officers

Chapter 106 Infection
A profound sense of dread was slowly enveloping Milo, as if he were in an ice cave.

Milo never imagined that he would end up like this because of a moment of carelessness.

The man who called himself "Raven" continued his explanation:

"Even at this point, you still refuse to put down your gun? Fine, no problem. When I pull you back from the abyss, you'll naturally be captivated by the charm of the Monsis School. Haven't you always wanted to find out what we discovered in Ikm? I can tell you, we found the divine body."

"It is not the omniscient and omnipotent false god described by heretics, nor the ancient people mythologized in history books, but a real, physical embodiment of the Old God. It truly descended upon this land in the deep south, leaving behind a shell and a glimmer of hope, a glimmer of hope that could enable ignorant humanity to evolve."

"But when I tried to awaken her, I found that she had lost her vitality. Those damned believers of the past had abandoned her, leaving her to eke out a living in the cold rock. They stopped providing for her, ruthlessly buried her, and turned the most sacred and precious thing into a pile of mud!"

"Those damned believers! They inherited her bloodline, yet willingly reverted to being ignorant and foolish mortals!! They deserve to die!!!"

The raven became unusually agitated.

His limbs trembled violently, as if he had endless rage with nowhere to vent it.

But after a few moments of respite, he gradually returned to normal, or rather, his anger turned into sadness, because Milo saw tears welling up in Raven's eyes.

"I tried countless methods, but I couldn't save her life. She was already decaying, her divine body gone, leaving only a trace of instinctive survival instinct. I came too late..."

"This should have been a major breakthrough for the Monsieur school, but I have failed my teacher's expectations."

……

Milo never put down his gun.

He didn't hear a word the raven said.

All he knew was that he might soon become another corpse on the table, another cradle for the growth of the crystal orchid.

Milo began to suspect that perhaps the girl's disappearance was a trap set by Solomon's men to lure him to this place.

But then the raven came out of the room and ordered the people downstairs to bring up a little girl.

After a few minutes.

A burly man with a braid entered the room carrying an iron cage.

A thin girl was locked in a cage.

She had short black hair and was wearing a dirty beige top.

The girl was curled up in the corner of the cage, seemingly unconscious.

……

“This is the bloodline successor of the Iqum natives that I have found. She may be our last chance to save God’s life. If you want to live, put down your gun.”

Raven glanced at his watch, then looked up at the back of Milo's neck behind his collar:
“The mycelium is highly adaptable to your body. If you can hold out until night, I have a way to keep you alive.”

"..."

Milo's gun was still pointed at Raven's head.

He glanced coldly at the burly man beside him, who was also staring at Milo with hostile eyes, a pistol in his other hand, ready to attack Milo at any moment.

Just as Milo hesitated, he was horrified to realize that something seemed to be trying to emerge from the skin of the back of his right hand, where he was holding the gun...

"Damn it!"

His expression changed drastically in an instant.

He saw a tiny white fungal stalk piercing through the pores of the skin on the back of his hand, spreading at a visible speed.

Immediately afterwards, an intense, tingling itch began to spread throughout my body.

Milo swallowed hard, his breathing becoming increasingly rapid.

……

"You have now become the nourishment chosen by the divine body's derivative. The only way to survive is to embrace this god and offer this beautiful goddess what she most desperately needs."

The raven had now abandoned his pitying expression and calmly said to Milo:
“She yearns for a new life. You need to show her your worth and offer her a new life. Only with that slightest chance, when her consciousness is awakened, can you possibly escape your current status as nourishment. I don’t care if you understand or not, this is your only chance. If you survive, I hope you can wear the robes of the church and become a follower of the Monsis school.”

Milo finally lowered his hand that was holding the gun.

He stared blankly at the tiny fungus sprouting on the back of his hand, a sense of powerlessness he had never felt before washing over him.

After he lowered his gun, Raven gave an order to the burly man beside him:
"Marshall, find a few more young miners and have them touch the corpse on the table. I can't guarantee he'll last until nightfall. Also, bring some extra supplies, just in case."

"Yes." The man nodded.

……

The raven kept its promise.

He did not disarm Milo, nor did he have him restrained; he even provided him with a lavish meal.

Perhaps to him, Milo was already a dead man.

Or perhaps, in the Raven's eyes, if Milo were a smart man, he would certainly not make any more futile struggles and resistance.

……

Milo sat there blankly in the mining company building, watching as creepy buds sprouted from his body.

Several young miners arrived at the building. Led by Marshall, they went upstairs and were then placed in the next room. As time passed, terrified screams began to come from the next room.

"What is this?! On my body!..."

"Ah!!! Why! What happened..."

……

Milo didn't need to go over to check to guess what they were going through.

But no matter how much the people screamed for help, the locked door remained closed.

Milo could hear the sound of the door being banged on next door, but the sounds quickly faded away.

...

As night fell, Raven arrived at Milo's door with a large group of fully armed servants:
“It’s almost time, Officer.”

At this moment, Milo's skin had turned an eerie pale white, half of his face was covered with hideous mycelium, and even the pupil of his left eye had turned grayish-white.

On the floor in front of the bench where he had sat, there lay countless buds of varying lengths, all of which Milo had cut off from his own skin with a knife.

With each mushroom bud he cut off, Milo endured pain akin to losing a finger.

The mycelium not only infected his flesh and blood, but also seemed to have connected to his nerves, but Milo's blade never stopped moving, from the initial unbearable pain to the later complete numbness.

He only remembered one thing: cutting off those things that were growing on his body and tearing all those disgusting things off.

So much so that his entire body is now covered in a layer of blood...

……

"Your rate of corruption is slow, but this behavior will only hasten your death."

Raven raised his hand and knocked on the open door, saying to Milo:
"Keep up, if you're still conscious."

Milo stood up without a word and shoved the blade back into its sheath at his waist.

The raven nodded in satisfaction and led its large retinue forward.

As Milo stepped out of the room, he saw several dazed, pale figures following him out from next door.

Their condition is many times worse than Milo's.

Some people's buds have grown into fully formed mushrooms, with dense clusters of stalks pressing against each other on their joints.

The skin of these people had become swollen, wrinkled, and completely bloodless.

His body was also much more emaciated than when Milo saw them that morning.

Some of them had large patches of skin peeled off, revealing muscle tissue pierced and infected by dense fungal hyphae, creating a gruesome and terrifying scene.

In a deep corner of the room, there are a few people who will never be able to stand up again.

Their bodies were completely covered by fungi; large patches of fungi spread from their eye sockets, mouths, and nasal cavities, and the mycelium had even spread to the walls and floors...

Milo merely glanced coldly at the gruesome remains before turning and catching up with the group.

Their eyes were fixed on the raven at the front of the group.

As if sensing something, the raven turned its head and glanced at Milo without making a sound.

……

The team assembled at the mine.

There are over a hundred people in total.

Everyone carried both cold and hot weapons, with Milo and his "nourishment" infected by the mycelium at the very back of the line.

As the leader of the Ravens, the burly man with long braided hair, Marshall, pulled the girl out of the iron cage, threw the unconscious girl on the ground, and fastened a buckle with a metal chain around her neck.

Marshall, holding the other end of the chain, slowly took a few steps back and glanced at the dial of his wristwatch.

Everyone stood there silently, no one daring to make a sound, not even daring to breathe loudly.

Suddenly, the quiet ground was filled with the clanging sound of chains being dragged...

ding ding...

As the hands on Marshall's wristwatch pointed to the ten o'clock mark at night, the girl's body began to convulse violently.

She rolled over in a bizarre, twisted position, her body bulging with grotesque, writhing veins. Her eyes rolled back, and she began to charge forward madly on all fours, instantly taut out the chains!

Marshall, dragging the chain with one hand, turned to give the raven an inquiring look.

Raven adjusted his mask and nodded to Marshall.

After that, the entire team began to head towards the barren mountains.

The girl ran at the very front of the group, constantly letting out eerie screams and throwing pebbles at the ground with her limbs.

……

(End of this chapter)