Chapter 191: Chapter 189: Celestial Divine Being Medical Corporation
(Sorry for the wait. The second update is being written.)
~
The Ota Elderly Care Home was eerily silent. There were no roars or commotion—so quiet you could hear a pin drop.
The very epicenter of the plague was now far quieter than the world outside.
It was also completely deserted, without a soul in sight.
Shen Feng didn’t let his guard down. Standing at the entrance, he unleashed swarms from the Nanomechanical Cluster out of the large gourd on his back. They began to rapidly devour various pieces of furniture and equipment within the elderly care home, using the materials to enhance themselves.
A dozen or so Nanomechanical Robots then split off, squirming and shifting until they took the form of a bald Mike before heading off to the various rooms of the care home.
The Gray Tide was actually much more convenient to use indoors.
As for the choice of appearance, that was purely a product of Shen Feng’s twisted sense of humor.
Shen Feng’s Consciousness Antennae split, allowing him to control the Nanomechanical Robots as they sprinted off. He, in the meantime, strolled forward at a leisurely pace.
The air was filled with the smell of stewed meat.
Shen Feng followed the aroma to the kitchen. There, he found a large pot of bones that had been stewed until they were falling apart, simmering in a rich broth.
He closed the kitchen door, his face expressionless, and continued deeper into the Ota Elderly Care Home.
The walls were still adorned with cheerful photos of staff and residents celebrating birthdays together, their faces beaming with happiness.
Clearly, scenes like this would never happen again.
He had only seen this place through surveillance footage before. Being here in person was a completely different experience.
Soon, he arrived at the care home’s staff break room.
The last caregiver on duty had been Sato Ken. He was also the first person to be eaten.
Shen Feng entered the break room and searched it, but found no trace of syringes or vials of medicine.
Suddenly, a rustling sound came from a corner. Shen Feng whipped around, the Nanomechanical Cluster on his hand instantly forming a sharp Long Saber and lunging toward the source of the sound.
A furry head poked out from the corner, and the metal blade stopped dead in its tracks.
It was a chubby tabby cat.
"Meeeow..." Seeing Shen Feng, the tabby cat emerged from a cabinet, circled his feet a few times, and rubbed against his leg before flopping onto the floor and rolling over to expose its belly.
It was clearly a cat kept by the residents, fed to the point of being a little portly, and completely unafraid of people.
Shen Feng chuckled, bending down to scoop up the tabby. He scratched its round head and sighed.
’This little guy’s got the life...’
’It must have been sleeping this whole time, only to wake up and find the place completely deserted.’
Just then, footsteps sounded, and two Nanomechanical Robots appeared before Shen Feng. The one on the left held a handful of vials and a box it had just retrieved from a trash bag. The one on the right held a large bag of cat food.
Shen Feng put the cat down, took the bag of cat food, tore it open, and poured some out on the floor. Only then did he take the vials and the box.
There were twenty ordinary, clear glass vials. Two were broken, and the rest had smooth surfaces with no markings, revealing nothing.
They were indistinguishable from common hospital vials.
The box was made of plain plastic, equally unremarkable. It had no markings, though the back showed signs of abrasion, as if something had been intentionally scrubbed away.
But no matter how he looked at it, it was just an ordinary medical box for vials.
Shen Feng frowned, looked at the box in his hand, and said:
"Jingwei, find out where this type of box is manufactured and who uses them."
A few seconds later, Jingwei’s voice emanated from a nearby Nanomechanical Robot:
"Can’t you look it up yourself? Trying to work me to death? This box is manufactured by a medical equipment factory in Hokkaido and is supplied to over three hundred hospitals across Japan. However, the model you’re holding has a minor design flaw in its clasp. It belongs to a line produced three years ago. Only three batches were made, which were supplied to twenty-seven hospitals and medical institutions. Among them, only two hospitals and one medical institution are in Tokyo."
Despite her complaining, Jingwei had still allocated the processing power to find the answer at top speed.
Shen Feng was already used to the AI’s hyper-realistic personality. "Send me the data," he said.
An instant later, information on the two hospitals and the one medical institution appeared in his mind’s eye.
Both were small, private hospitals that had been established for over thirty years.
One was a dental hospital, which Shen Feng immediately ruled out. The other was a general hospital that was filing for bankruptcy due to mismanagement. Shen Feng recalled passing it on his way over—it had been filled with zombies, so that one was out too.
That left only the medical institution.
Celestial Divine Biomedical Corporation.
To be precise, it was a biomedical company.
It was founded five years ago by the biomedical expert Maruyama Mori, who advocated for something called "spiritual bio-therapy."
Maruyama Mori had studied in Germany, and upon his return, was rumored to have intricate ties to a violent organization known as the Celestial Divine Association.
As for his so-called spiritual bio-therapy, it was said to have genuinely cured some people, but it was also plagued by sexual assault scandals.
The company hadn’t been around for long and wasn’t well-known, but it was extremely wealthy. Its headquarters was located near Shiba Park in Minato-ku, Tokyo—practically right next to the Tokyo Tower.
Shen Feng couldn’t help but raise his eyebrows.
This Celestial Divine Biomedical Corporation was highly suspicious.
In fact, he was about eighty percent sure that they were the ones who had delivered these vials, had Sato Ken inject the elderly, and opened this Pandora’s box.
He just didn’t know if, besides the Ota Elderly Care Home, these vials had been sent to—and used in—other places throughout Japan.
It seemed there might be other infection sources in the Tokyo and Kanagawa regions, but they were likely similar to this one. There was no need to check every single one.
The priority was to head to Celestial Divine Biomedical and see what was going on.
’Besides, there’s still some residual agent in the vials. I can send them back for Jingwei to study and see if she can find anything...’
Having made up his mind, Shen Feng had a Nanomechanical Robot take the vials, then crouched down to pat the fat cat’s head before turning and walking out toward the street.
As soon as he stepped out of the Ota Elderly Care Home, he felt the sky darken considerably.
The sky was already thick with dark clouds. The first signs of the typhoon had arrived.
Then came the sound of PATTER, PATTER. It had started to rain.
Gale-force winds and torrential rain swirled together. In the blink of an eye, it became a downpour, blurring his vision.
From a solar-powered shop nearby, the sound of a news broadcast could still be heard:
"...A powerful tornado has been spotted in the Chiba Prefecture region... The Sakura Island volcano on Kyushu Island is showing signs of eruption... This super typhoon is a once-in-60-year event. The Tokyo Region is expected to receive 80 centimeters of rainfall in 24 hours, with some areas potentially seeing over 100 centimeters of ultra-high-intensity precipitation. The Kanagawa Region may experience flash floods..."
Just as the broadcast spoke, Shen Feng felt a tremor under his feet. The ground began to shake violently, a long moment passing before it stopped.
An earthquake.
Shen Feng couldn’t help but be amused.
’Volcanoes, earthquakes, tornadoes, plus a super typhoon and massive floods. What a fucking great place this is...’
The arrival of a typhoon is often accompanied by heavy rain. It started as light rain, but quickly turned into a downpour.
Looking up at the gloomy sky, Shen Feng couldn’t help but reveal a slight smile.
’For me, this is actually much more convenient.’
The eight zombies were still firmly chained to the ground. Seeing Shen Feng appear, they all started to roar:
"...Meat... hungry... eat meat..."
"...Rain... raining... want to eat meat..."
"...SLURP... so hungry... rain... cold..."
Though most of their logic was gone, the zombies still had many instinctive reactions, particularly verbal ones. They could even manage simple communication.
’He just wondered what their brains had mutated into.’
Shen Feng went to pick up his bicycle, ready to re-enact his "eight-horse-drawn carriage" scene and take the vial samples back to Jingwei.
Suddenly, the sound of rapid footsteps echoed through the downpour. Shen Feng frowned, and several Nanomechanical Robots immediately formed a human wall in front of him.
The next instant, a violent electromagnetic pulse erupted, accompanied by a frenzied roar. Inside the still-operational solar-powered shop, several arcs of electricity flashed, and the television and lights went out in an instant.
The Nanomechanical Robots forming the wall in front of Shen Feng turned a dead black under the force of the violent electromagnetic pulse. Then, battered by the rain, they disintegrated as vast quantities of the Nanomechanical Cluster short-circuited and died!
The footsteps sounded again, but this time they were unnervingly light, like a few beasts stalking prey in the downpour.
Then, two pitch-black figures emerged from the rain and stood before Shen Feng.
Judging by their faces alone, they were two kind-looking elderly people.
But their muscles were grotesquely swollen from a rapid mutation, their hands had transformed into sharp bone claws, and their mouths were filled with sharp fangs.
Their eyes had completely turned blood-red, lifeless, and bloodthirsty.
Contrasting with their powerfully built bodies were not only their gentle faces but also their round, bulging stomachs.
Shen Feng recognized them instantly.
They were Mikiko and Tokugawa from the Ota Elderly Care Home. Shen Feng had just seen their pictures on the home’s photo wall.
’He just didn’t know how they had transformed into... this.’
’They were like two ghouls wearing the faces of the elderly.’
’Did they eat everyone on the whole street?’
Moreover, that electromagnetic pulse had been incredibly powerful and highly targeted, even causing a momentary resonance within the Nanomechanical Cluster.
These two highly mutated zombies could clearly see through his disguise.
’This is getting more and more interesting...’
Shen Feng chuckled, raising his hand.
As the rain poured down, Nanomechanical Robots that had been lying dormant in the pools of water all around the street slowly began to squirm and rise, surrounding the two deeply mutated zombies.