Source of infection

Everyone near the window turned to look at the man whose skin was entirely yellow.

His skin was not naturally yellow, but a sickly shade-the classic sign of jaundice.

From what Xia Shou remembered, certain liver diseases seemed to cause it.

"Is he an anomaly?" Xia Shou turned to look at the strange patient.

Xia Shou was not the only one who noticed him. The patients and their relatives near the windows had all immediately spotted the eerie, yellow-skinned patient.

The Yellow-Skinned Patient slowly reached out toward the burly man closest to him, his five yellow fingers clamping around the man's wrist.

In just a few seconds, the burly man's healthy, rosy complexion rapidly turned yellow, and an expression of nausea and discomfort appeared on his face.

"Motherfucker!" the burly man roared. He shook off the other's hand, then swung a fist and knocked the Yellow-Skinned Patient to the floor.

Shocked and furious, he lashed out with a powerful kick that struck the patient square in the face. A sharp crack of bone rang out as the Yellow-Skinned Patient's nose caved in and twisted sideways, blood gushing from his nostrils.

The sudden bloodshed sparked a chorus of screams in the corridor. The noisy crowd beside the reception desk stopped arguing and began heading toward the end of the corridor to see what was happening.

Xia Shou stood at the outer edge of the crowd, using Alice's Sight to peek through the eyes of the onlookers at the front. He watched the scene expressionlessly, making no move to intervene, merely analyzing this anomaly's characteristics in silence.

"So physical contact can transmit the same disease? But the Anomalous Entity itself doesn't seem particularly durable. Even an ordinary person's punches and kicks can knock him down," Xia Shou murmured to himself.

"I'll go kill him." Su Weiyu drew her blade and started forward.

Xia Shou caught her arm. "Wait. Something seems wrong with that man."

Su Weiyu frowned slightly and turned toward the burly man who had attacked the patient. His mouth gaped open as he clutched his stomach and collapsed in agony. Then his cheeks bulged, and he spewed a large mass of foul-smelling vomit.

"Get a doctor! Hurry, get a doctor!" The burly man raised his head in terror and shouted to the onlookers.

Yellow tears slowly streamed from his eyes. He looked in terror at the eerie patient slowly getting up beside him, all his earlier courage to resist gone. His features twisted with extreme fear as he scrambled toward the crowd, shrieking.

Everyone scattered away from him as though he carried the plague. As he ran, the burly man stumbled and fell in front of an elderly man in a wheelchair, his palm making contact with the old man's body.

The next second, the yellow began fading from the burly man's body, while the old man's skin rapidly turned yellow before their eyes.

"I... I'm okay now?" The burly man stared in astonishment at his complexion as it gradually returned to normal, a smile of relief spreading across his face.

But when he looked up and saw that the old man in front of him had turned yellow all over, he screamed in fright, threw himself backward, and fell some distance away.

"It's not my fault! You all saw it-it had nothing to do with me! I only turned like that because that guy touched me!" the burly man hastily protested, but everyone backed farther away from him in even greater fear.

"That man... that man's coming again!" A woman in the crowd pointed behind him.

At some point, the Yellow-Skinned Patient who had been knocked to the floor had stood up again. Now he was approaching with slow, steady steps.

Blood streamed from his nose, yet his vacant face showed no trace of pain.

Seeing this, Xia Shou leaped onto the reception desk and shouted to everyone, "Get back into the wards and lock the doors! That thing isn't human! If he touches you, you'll die!"

The corridor fell silent for an instant. The next second, screams erupted, and everyone scattered like startled sheep, scrambling away in panic.

They darted into the nearest wards like headless flies, locking the doors from the inside with a series of clicks.

In the blink of an eye, only Xia Shou and Su Weiyu remained in the corridor. Even the nurses at the reception desk had slipped into the wards.

The Yellow-Skinned Patient continued advancing one step at a time. He moved so slowly that even a child could easily run past him.

If this Anomalous Entity killed by transmitting a special disease through physical contact, then anyone who knew how he killed could avoid being killed by him.

Xia Shou tried using Alice's ability to rob the anomalous patient of his sight, but discovered that his ability had no effect on him.

Just then, a ward door opened behind Xia Shou, and Wang Long ran out of Liu Guangyao's room.

Wiping away his sweat, he came over to Xia Shou. "I just heard from the nurse. This is the Anomalous Entity, right?"

"Yes, but we're safe for the moment, as long as we don't let him touch us."

"Do you think killing him instantly would resolve this incident?"

Xia Shou thought for a moment, then shook his head. "That man ended up like that just from throwing a punch. Killing him might cause something even worse. The worst-case scenario would be becoming another source of infection just like him, except with normal intelligence."

Xia Shou paused for a few seconds, then continued his analysis. "He moves slowly and has practically no ability to fight hand to hand. If we have security bring restraint forks, they might be able to contain him without hurting him."

"Or could we lure him into a room and lock him inside?" Su Weiyu proposed another option.

Xia Shou neither agreed nor disagreed. Instead, he asked Wang Long, "Dr. Wang, have you contacted the other wardens?"

"I have. They're busy getting the ordinary people settled somewhere safe. Remember how our room went dark for a bit? The power went out outside then, too. There were accidents in quite a few operating rooms. A lot of people have already died."

"Doesn't the hospital have backup power?!" Xia Shou asked in shock.

"It does, but the domain may have delayed it from kicking in.

Anyway, the hospital's external power supply has been cut off. We're running on emergency backup power now, and it'll only last twenty-four hours. After that... most of the critically ill patients, and the ones in the ICU..."

At that, Wang Long sighed and shook his head, leaving the rest unsaid.

"Ring, ring, ring, ring! Ring, ring, ring, ring!"

The phone at the reception desk suddenly rang. Wang Long instinctively rushed over and picked it up. "Hello? How are things on your end?"

"What?! One's appeared over there too!"

"...Yes, we've got one here too! Whatever you do, don't attack that person,

or you'll get infected!"

"What?! You've already killed him? Fuck, they move so slowly! Why didn't you just lock him up?!"

"...What? How could that happen?... Damn it, I understand."

Wang Long hung up and turned toward Xia Shou, his face as white as a sheet.