An hour later, Sun Ya paused his experiment and came downstairs.
Su Jin stood beside the dining table, where a zombie lay spread-eagled, its limbs tied to the table corners and stools.
A number of tools lay beside the table.
The other zombie had been tightly bound and tossed aside.
After looking things over, Sun Ya nodded approvingly. "Very good, Little Li. You're cautious enough to have potential as a researcher. If none of this had happened, I'd have been willing to take you on as my student. I'll tell you what to do, and I'll take notes."
"No thanks... I never want to go through anything like this again." Su Jin panted, swallowing repeatedly. "By the way, Mr. Sun, don't you work on equipment? Do you normally do dissections too?"
"I wouldn't say I've had no involvement, but I've watched a few dissections... Let's begin."
Su Jin took a deep breath and steadied himself. "Let's do it."
"Cut slowly. There may be pressurized gas inside, so watch out for splashes. Since the heart is the weak point, we'll only examine the internal organs. Start one centimeter below each side of the collarbone and cut toward the midline of the breastbone. Then cut down from the junction to the pubic symphysis..."
Holding his breath and gritting his teeth, Su Jin began cutting... The sensation of flesh against the blade kept assaulting his nerves.
Despite all his layers of protection, the sight, the pungent smell, and the fear of infection still made him want to vomit.
As the skin parted, the color gradually drained from Su Jin's face. "It's so hard to cut. This isn't what I imagined... Has the zombie's skin changed?"
"No, your knife is too dull, the zombie is too cold, and you're too tense," Sun Ya said calmly.
"Phew... Mr. Sun, talk to me about something else. Urgh... Right, didn't you work in military technology? How did you end up making medical equipment?"
"Heh, you've seen what my temper is like. I didn't get along with the people in my department. But I'm good at other things too. Do you know who developed our country's first MRI machine?"
"Newton?"
"What do you mean, Newton! Have you been scared stupid? It was me! Me!"
His hands were a slimy blur, but Su Jin kept cutting, fighting his nausea. "Uh... I never thought I'd meet someone of your stature. Why do you live in this dump?"
"A dump? Twenty years ago, ordinary people couldn't even get into this housing complex for specialists. It went downhill later, but I'd gotten used to living here and couldn't be bothered to move," Sun Ya said. "Do you know what Old Wei does?"
"Mr. Wei? Didn't you say he worked in military technology too?"
"He's no ordinary military researcher. He was deeply involved in developing the Cold-Sky Missile System back in the day. You could call him a true weapons expert. We'll need heavy firepower if we want to establish ourselves in the future. Using weapons properly takes technical expertise, and he's the only one who can give you comprehensive guidance."
"My God, this dump really is full of hidden talent..."
As they talked, Su Jin finished the Y-shaped incision in the zombie.
Covering his nose and mouth, Sun Ya waved a hand. "Open it up."
Su Jin pressed his lips together and pulled back the two flaps, exposing the interior to both of them.
"Chop through the breastbone. We can check whether his bones have changed while we're at it."
Holding his breath, Su Jin picked up the axe and gestured for Sun Ya to step back.
"Hah!!"
Sun Ya retreated farther, and Su Jin swung down hard, sending bone fragments flying.
"Fuck, urgh!!"
"Why are you shouting so loudly?" Sun Ya frowned at the noise.
"This isn't work for a human being. Even killing people never made me feel this sick... Ugh!"
After a string of curses, the breastbone and ribs were split open. Beneath his helmet, Su Jin's eyes were bloodshot, and his head was drenched in sweat.
Sun Ya stepped forward, examined the broken ends of the bones, then looked at the organs.
"No abnormalities in the bones. Cut open the organs. It doesn't have to be precise, as long as we can see clearly."
"Which one?"
"We've already opened him up. Cut them all!"
"Hah, hah... Fine, fine!" Su Jin picked up the knife and hacked away. Halfway through, his expression froze. "Hey! A sea urchin?!"
"Has your sense of smell stopped working? How could that be a sea urchin! Stop stirring it around and move aside! I honestly can't tell whether you're scared or deranged. Are you mincing meat? Even a serial killer wouldn't cut like that."
Sun Ya stepped forward to examine it, picking up a spare fruit knife.
He began probing through the insides with the blade.
"The liver and lungs are normal, intestines normal, kidneys normal... The heart is normal too?"
Looking puzzled, Sun Ya continued probing deeper with the knife.
The heart had been shot and was already a mangled mess.
After searching carefully, Sun Ya frowned. "Come take a look. This black bit... Is it burned, or did it grow there? My eyes can't make it out."
Su Jin leaned over and squinted. A black spot half the size of a fingernail was embedded in the shattered heart.
"It grew there. It looks like connective tissue."
"Hmm... It's very hard, almost like bone. Even ordinary heart disease couldn't produce tissue like this. That gray substance you mentioned seems to affect the heart primarily."
At that, Sun Ya's expression changed. "Open up the other one too."
"Wait!" Su Jin's face instantly turned serious. No longer afraid of the cold, slimy organs, he reached straight into the abdominal cavity.
When he pulled his hand out, he held a stone as translucent as jade between two fingers!
"What's this..." Sun Ya was astonished.
Su Jin's breathing grew heavy, and excitement flashed in his eyes. "A zombie crystal?!"
"What do you mean, a zombie crystal?" Sun Ya hurriedly asked.
"It's p-produced by mutations inside a zombie. Eat it, and you gain magical powers."
"Where did you hear that?"
"That's how all the novels write it."
"Tsk, there really is something wrong with you. A zombie crystal, my ass." Sun Ya looked disgusted. "Isn't that just a fucking kidney stone?"
"No way. Can a kidney stone look like this?" Su Jin wiped the "jade" in his hand, treating it like a priceless treasure.
Sun Ya stepped forward and slapped it away. The stone fell to the floor and shattered, and Su Jin's heart shattered along with it.
"The stone they took out of me a couple of years ago was much prettier than that... Look, there's a whole pile of stones in here! Stop wasting time and dissect the other one!"
Suppressing his heartache, Su Jin picked up the other zombie and started another dissection.
With his previous experience, the process went much faster this time.
They went straight to their ultimate target and examined the heart.
After a few careful cuts, the same black connective tissue was exposed before them.
Only this time, its size had clearly changed. It was about the size of a thumb.
Sun Ya poked it with the knife, then shifted to another spot.
After stabbing several different areas, he finally sliced open the zombie's arm to inspect the muscles deep inside.
After working for a while, he crouched down to examine the first zombie, which had been tossed onto the floor.
By the time he stood up, a trace of horror had crept into his expression.
"What's wrong, Mr. Sun?" Su Jin grew nervous too.
After a moment of silence, Sun Ya pointed at the second zombie. "This zombie was a skinny man who clearly never exercised. The one on the floor was much heavier than him, so his muscles should have been stronger. But the results are exactly the opposite. Although our sample is very small, the only explanation is the size of the mutated area in the heart. Which means..."
"The zombies are evolving?" A chill ran through Su Jin's entire body.
Sun Ya exhaled a cold breath. "We should have anticipated this already... But the black tissue grew in different places on these two zombies' hearts. If it's meant to cover the entire heart, they may still be nowhere near their limit... Wait! What's this?"
Before you continue