Chapter 7: Picking Up What Others Missed!_1

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The existence of Soul Stripping hung over Xu Changsheng like a sword suspended above his head.

It seemed it could fall at any moment!

The subway arrived quickly.

At this time, the character of E District also became evident.

The crowd was dense and chaotic, with some trying to push and fire their way through, and not a few jumping the queue.

A man cut directly in front of Xu Changsheng, his face full of indifference, chewing gum in his mouth.

Xu Changsheng looked at him expressionlessly for a moment.

"What are you looking at?"

The man, seeing Xu Changsheng staring at him, sized him up and realizing that Xu Changsheng was dressed exactly as a corporate slave should be, suddenly felt a surge of confidence.

Xu Changsheng remained silent.

The subway doors opened soon after.

Everyone began to push their way inside.

Xu Changsheng managed to get in just right, the man at his side.

In the instant the doors were closing, Xu Changsheng lifted his foot and kicked the man out.

The influence of the additional Physical Strength was significant.

With that kick, the man was instantly bewildered.

As he got up from the ground, fingers curled like claws, he pointed at Xu Changsheng.

But the train had already departed; Xu Changsheng, with his head down, acted as if nothing had happened.

You don't need to buy a ticket for the subway.

The biggest benefit of this world lies in the perfection of its infrastructure.

What seems to be a minor detail spared Xu Changsheng a hefty expense, ensuring his tight-budgeted household wouldn't starve to death.

It takes an hour and a half to get from E13 District to A8 District by subway.

It was already past 8 AM when he arrived at the company.

Standing at the entrance of the company, looking at the colossal entity that was the August Research Institute, Xu Changsheng suddenly felt overwhelmingly insignificant.

The August Company is huge, with many branches across the Federation.

However, the biological research institute located in Bei City's A8 District is a direct subordinate.

It undertakes some relatively important research projects.

Including "Grade G Bizarre" dissection work.

The August Research Institute in Bei City has three zones.

A District is the Testing District.

B District is the R&D area.

C District is the clinical area.

Xu Changsheng walked to the entrance of the clinical area, expertly inserted his ID card into the slot, then faced the machine to go through four or five security checks, followed by a chime of "clearance."

Only then did Xu Changsheng smoothly enter.

This nearly stringent automated security checkpoint is said to use strict military-grade security equipment.

Moreover, every city branch of the August Company is constructed like a wartime fortress.

After entering, just as Xu Changsheng was about to proceed, he suddenly heard a voice.

"Stop right there!"

Xu Changsheng was startled.

He turned around and saw a man, armed and fully equipped, walking towards him, eyes equipped with an automatic scanner, watchfully staring at him as he entered.

Xu Changsheng couldn't help but become curious—yesterday it was Elder Zhao, how had it suddenly changed today?

And to such a fully armed person!

"Hello," Xu Changsheng greeted proactively.

The man was cold and unresponsive, didn't reply to Xu Changsheng, but came straight over and emotionlessly said, "Show your travel records."

Taken aback, Xu Changsheng unlocked his phone, and a clear travel log immediately appeared on the screen.

Upon seeing that all the records were within Bei City, without any record of leaving the city, the man finally allowed him to pass.

As he walked away, Xu Changsheng couldn't help but frown. Leave the city?

He didn't even dare to think about it!

You have to know that the Bizarre invasions affected not only humans but other life forms as well.

Wouldn't leaving be seeking death?!

No, where had the gatekeeper Elder Zhao gone?

Changsheng had been at the August Research Institute for three whole months now!

It had always been Elder Zhao.

Furthermore, Elder Zhao had been there since the very formation of the August Research Institute in A8 District.

Today… a change of personnel?

Could something have happened? The thought involuntarily crossed Xu Changsheng's mind.

However, Xu Changsheng only pondered it for a moment.

After all, why should he, Xu Changsheng, care about whatever happened in August?

He's just an insignificant little man in the research institute, merely an intern in C District.

To put it bluntly, his status was even lower than that of the gatekeeper Lao Zhao.

You see, the hierarchy within the August Research Institute is nearly draconian!

Here, rank determines authorization, and authorization determines everything!

Xu Changsheng, as an intern, only has temporary rights, restricted to entering and leaving certain public areas.

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After all, his daily work now consisted of following senior doctors, acting as an assistant, lending a hand, running errands, and such.

If it weren't for Yang Huancheng favoring him and wanting to show him the ropes, how would he have had the chance to participate in yesterday's surgery!

That's right, everything here is assigned based on authorization and rank, especially surgeries!

Typically, new employees have sixth rank authorization.

Yang Huancheng is an old employee here with fifth rank authorization.

And Zeng Qiang, as the director of the C6 Department, has fourth rank authorization, which allows him to independently handle major surgeries. He basically has access to most areas of the entire institute, and most importantly, he gets priority access to the products of the August Research Institute.

This authorization is mainly earned through Contribution Value.

The entire August Company has a systematic and scientific mechanism for assessing contribution.

The person in charge of Bei City's branch, it is said, resides in the Bei City Special District - Sky City, with second-tier authorization at the August Research Institute and high-level authorization within Bei City.

These were all big shots beyond his reach.

...

Every department in C District has a standard four floors.

One floor is the office area, one floor is the ward, and one floor is the surgery area.

The remaining floor is the storeroom.

However, this storeroom doesn't contain medicine, but bodies.

Because the affiliated hospital area of the August Research Institute itself is a "Strange treatment center."

Many patients who have been invaded by the strange have no family to claim them, so they can only be temporarily stored and then turned into cadavers for young doctors to practice on or simply discarded.

Xu Changsheng's work is simple and monotonous.

In the morning, he records yesterday's surgery process in the office, then follows senior physicians for ward rounds, and finally delivers bodies to the storeroom and tallies them up.

But today, the office was unusually quiet.

All the senior doctors were absent from the office.

Zeng Qiang wasn't there, and neither was Yang Huancheng.

Inside the office were just some young doctors who, upon closer inspection, were all sixth rank authorization holders.

Xu Changsheng didn't mind and, as usual, finished recording the process of yesterday's heart removal surgery.

Standing up, he prepared the files of the four patients from yesterday's surgery and headed to the storeroom, where he needed to place the relevant patient information in the corresponding locations.

Xu Changsheng originally didn't have too many feelings about the morgue.

After all, he had been a surgeon in both lives, having handled many deceased, so what was there to fear?

But then...

As soon as he entered, Xu Changsheng was stunned.

The room was filled with large, specimen-like glass jars.

Inside the transparent glass jars, bodies were soaked and stood erect on both sides, giving off a chilling sensation Xu Changsheng had never experienced before!

But that wasn't the key issue!

The key issue was... these people looked very different from ordinary humans.

Xu Changsheng stood by, looking at the information attached to the glass wall.

"Grade G Bizarre has caused skeletal mutations in both hands..."

He looked up and saw that the person's bones in both hands had actually formed into a curved blade.

All the specimens around him were like this, each person undergoing various changes.

When Xu Changsheng saw a man with wings growing out of his back, he couldn't help but think of the man from the video he had seen at the subway station, seemingly named Luo Xia.

Xu Changsheng shook his head and walked towards the body cabinets in the back. He planned to put away the files and leave.

Although he was not afraid, nobody wanted to stay in the morgue for too long.

He looked at the information sheet and pulled open the cabinet according to the code.

After matching the surgery information with facial entry and surgical site, he placed the file in a small box outside the cabinet, attached a graphic code, signaling: Ready for pickup!

Because these bodies could not stay here for long, they had to be quickly claimed by relatives or sent away en masse.

No matter the era, hospitals were not charity organizations.

Xu Changsheng had been doing this job for three months now, quite proficiently.

Looking at the bodies, he compared the photos one by one and placed the files in the box outside the cabinet.

However, some patients had their faces cut off, making facial recognition impossible, so surgery characteristics had to be matched instead.

Like this body in front of him now!

His entire face had been completely excised.

The sight was indeed somewhat frightening.

But just as Xu Changsheng confirmed this body's details, suddenly a prompt appeared before his eyes:

[Grade G Strange Facial Adhesion Remnant: Grade G Bizarre invasion causes a decrease in facial recognition and the ability to arbitrarily change facial structure, causing interference with surveillance.]

[Task Requirement: Extract sample!]

[Task Reward: Grade G Strange Facial Adhesion Extract, capable of slightly altering facial tissue structure, producing certain interference when facing surveillance.]

Remnants!

Xu Changsheng immediately shivered.

What was this?

Had he stumbled upon a treasure?!

Xu Changshsheng felt a surge of excitement.

After a moment of hesitation, Xu Changsheng carefully pressed his hand against the other party's face, which had almost been entirely cut away.

The system prompt slowly sounded.

[Extracting…]