132: Mental Erosion
It was originally a sterile surgical room, but now it was more like a scene from inside a sanatorium. The medical crew gripped their heads and wailed in pain. Veins popped on their blanched faces, but the spirit was rapidly receding from their eyes. Places like the headquarters and psychology department were all shocked by this development!
The screams from the surgical room lassoed around every researcher's heart. What was happening? Chen Wenwei's EEG showed a chaotic range of waves, forming an incoherent chart on the monitor.
"Drag them out of there now!" Prof Qin shouted through the microphone. There was a group of Action Department members in sterile uniforms waiting outside the room, ready to tackle any emergency, but at this moment, they were doubled-over with grimaces of pain on their faces. At the same time, the people behind the camera saw Gu Jun, who was the only one standing, rush toward the surgical table. He grabbed a clean cotton ball from the nearby tray and shoved it into Chen Wenwei's mouth. He pushed and pushed until the strange mumbling could not be heard anymore. The people everywhere were shocked. Gu Jun... could still move?
Not only that, Gu Jun seemed to still have control of his own body and possessed enough self-consciousness to shout, "Turn your heads away from him. Do not listen to him! Think about something else!"
As he yelled, he mixed a shot of drug with dolicaine and tetracaine at the anesthetist's table. He aimed it at the lower part of Chen Wenwei's ear, right above the mastoid. The sharp needle glinted as it plunged right through the man's skin, reaching the foramen jugular. The drug was pumped into the patient's body. Since the anesthetic that was supposed to dull the nervous system had lost its effect, Gu Jun attempted a sectional blockage to the nervous system. If he could numb the glossopharyngeal nerve, then Chen Wenwei's tongue would flop into activity. The sentence was a spell, and that would lessen its effect.
"It's a mental attack!" Gu Jun shouted. "Command, do not let anyone in here!"
Inside the conference room above them, Prof Qin immediately stopped the Action Department team that had just arrived from barging into the room. He shouted, "Halt, listen to Ah Jun!"
Prof Qin understood some of it. The patient was releasing an abnormal and strong brain signal, causing disturbances to everyone inside the surgical room. Gu Jun had managed to survive due to his strenuous mental power training or perhaps some other reason. But the people from the Action Department only had normal training. Yes, their mental power was better than average, but it was still not enough to face this challenge. If they barged into the surgical room, it was more likely that they would end up being a hindrance before they could get anyone out.
However, inside the surgical room, several nurses had already collapsed to the ground. The others were barely holding on as they supported themselves on the nearby devices and stools.
"Ah Jun, when can the people go in? Tell me!" Prof Qin's voice rang out in the surgical room.
"I..." Gu Jun was barely hanging in there. His brain was slammed around by the mental attack, and the pain was intensifying. He trained his focus to one specific point. He reached for the leucotome and took a deep breath. An unfamiliar feeling came from his grasp, but he had studied the surgery before, and he had seen Surgeon Si use it earlier. He retracted the metal ring and reached the leucotome deeper into the patient's brain. Now was not the time to be concerned about accuracy anymore. No matter how precarious it was, the only solution was to complete the operation.
Gu Jun's mind focused and clicked to accept the mission.
"Difficult Mission: Accumulate personal contribution value of one hundred percent by performing two-star surgeries (success) within a day. Reward: one pair of Carlot Dissecting Scissors."
"Mission accepted!"
He yanked at the leucotome's brace. He could feel a force travelling up his arm like he could feel the metallic ring spinning, turning, and scrambling with surprisingly even energy.
Snip!
More soft tissue in Chen Wenwei's prefrontal lobe was destroyed. The chaotic gaze became more lifeless, and no more voices came out. But in that fleeting moment, Gu Jun seemed to hear a pleading voice from Chen Wenwei. "Doctor Gu, save me..."
'Is it ESP?' He could feel the young man's emotions—fear, horror, loss, and pain. His fear of having to fight for his own survival in an unfeeling city, his anxiety about his future, his memory of his family, and his desire to return. For some reason, a small balcony appeared before Gu Jun like a mirage.
"Brother, hang in there!" He gritted his teeth, and the pain sharpened his focus. He pushed the device deeper and pulled on the brace again. With another crack, another nervous fiber was ruined. Then, Gu Jun slowly removed the leucotome from the patient's cranium. He could feel the mental pressure slipping away, so he shouted, "Come in now. Save them!"
"Get in there!" Prof Qin ordered. The team outside the room immediately burst in. They were all hit by a sudden bout of light-headedness, but none of them were overwhelmed by it. Disregarding standard procedure, they placed the medical crew onto stretchers and rushed them out. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂
"I'm fine... Go save the others first..." Si Kouxian said slowly as he lay on the stretcher. He was still conscious enough to speak. However, the first assistant, Song Yilong; second assistant, Chen Xinfei; the anesthetist, Guo Jun; and the mechanical nurse, Huang Yanyu—these four crew members who were closest to the patient had no color on their faces. Saliva trickled out their open mouths, and their facial muscles were convulsing.
The other neurologists outside the corridor knew the severity of the situation when they saw this. Their symptoms suggested acute brain hemorrhage. The medical crew who were just performing an operation minutes ago now had to be rushed to the adjacent room to be operated on.
The whole building mobilized. The people from other departments were sent over to help.
Right then, the stand-in surgical team walked into the room. With heavy expressions, they walked unhesitatingly toward the surgical table. The main surgeon was Gao Guohong, the first assistant was Ding Ming, and Gu Jun took over the role of second assistant. He was helping the crew fill up the skull and with the sutures.
The people behind the camera could see how steady Gu Jun's work was. He was practically the most reliable at the operation table. The others were influenced by an invisible mental disturbance in some way, and that was evidenced by their shaking hands. Most of the more delicate procedures were directed by Gao Guohong but performed by Gu Jun. The youngest person in the room had become the steadiest presence there, inspiring the rest.
After closing up the side cranium, Prof Qin asked Gu Jun for his opinion. "Ah Jun, do you think we need to continue this surgery?"
"Of course, we need to finish it," Gu Jun answered seriously. "Only then we will know the result."
Therefore, a severe silence landed in the surgical room. The nurse helped turn and fix the patient's head to the other side, and the crew got back to work. Surgical knife, saw, and drill... the devices did their job. The skull was revealed again, and another hole was drilled.
The medical crew kept their heads blank except for one goal, which was to finish the operation! Just as Gu Jun said, they had to finish it.
They owed it to Surgeon Si and his crew. Even if they fell, a third batch would be ushered in to complete the surgery. This was because they needed to complete this lobotomy to know its effectiveness in curing Nightmare Illness.
In human medical history, this was how treatments and cures were found. It was not through some blessing from God, nor was it through bargaining with the devil. It was through clinical trials like this. The road to convalesce was paved with the blood, sweat, tears, and flesh of both the patients and medical practitioners.133: Four Operations
Translator: Lonelytree
When Chen Wenwei's surgery reached its most crucial step, Gao Guohong and the rest evacuated the surgical room, leaving Gu Jun alone to deal with the operation. Under the nervous scrutiny of many people around the nation, Gu Jun used the leucotome to reach into the holes drilled in the skull and completed the severance of nervous fibers on the three designated spots. And this time, nothing happened. Chen Wenwei's EEG had started to stabilize when the second team took over. With more cuts being made, the EEG graph showed the brain activity slowing down, and the patient returning to a deep sleep state. After that, Gao Guohong's crew returned to their posts to help Gu Jun finish the suturing and cleaning up. The harsh and primitive surgery was finally completed.
In Gu Jun's mind, multiple notifications pinged.
"You have participated in a successful two-star surgery, a lobotomy. Personal contribution forty-five percent, rank 1."
"The mastery of your Hands of Dexterity has increased by three hundred points, level two (29,700/30,000 mastery)"
The term 'success' did not bring Gu Jun as much relief as it usually did because in this case, it only meant that the patient's prefrontal lobe had been destroyed. Whether or not it had any beneficial effect was still unknown. Neurological surgeries were not as clear cut as cleaning out parasites, especially an ectomy like this.
He turned to look at the notification about the Hands of Dexterity. After his endless training, he was finally close to breaking through to the third level. Chen Wenwei's vitals were stabilizing, so the crew could exit the surgical room in relief. Only then was Gu Jun briefed on the state of Surgeon Si and his crew. Song Yilong and the other three who had fainted at the time were all suffering from cerebral hemorrhage with varying severity. They were all in emergency surgery. Gu Jun's heart tightened at the news. He had renewed respect for those in the medical career. They were both doctors and fighters.
That inspired him to focus on his job. He needed to snap himself together to conduct the next lobotomy. He was asked to participate in the surgery for Mai Lei, who suffered from middle stage Nightmare Illness, and Yang Jianming, who was in later stage Nightmare Illness. After all, he appeared to be the only one capable of pulling through the whole procedure. During his brief rest, Prof Qin approached him and asked, "Ah Jun, what is your opinion of the statement that Chen Wenwei recited in the middle of the operation?"
"I have no clue..." Gu Jun could only shake his head. He was honestly quite clueless about that. "We'll see what Elder Tong has to say about that."
After a brief chat with Prof Qin, he moved to the decontamination room to cleanse himself before moving to another super-sterile surgical room. In the next few hours, the command center and the many research centers continued their hive of activity. Prof Qin and Yao Sinian gained contact with Elder Tong. From the revelation that Gu Jun made about the sentence he found among his parent's possession and what happened with Chen Wenwei, there was enough evidence to prove that Nightmare Illness was related to Elder Tong's case and that mysterious cult.
At the same time, Gu Jun was continuing his fight in the surgical room. Surgeon Gao and the rest helped him with the incision and drilling, but Gu Jun single-handedly dealt with each severance.
"You have participated in a successful two-star surgery, a lobotomy. Personal contribution forty percent, rank 1."
"You have participated in a successful two-star surgery, a lobotomy. Personal contribution thirty-eight percent, rank 1."
The two surgeries gave all the researchers a mixture of feelings. They were at the same time relieved, disappointed, and confused because the situation with Chen Wenwei did not repeat itself. They were relieved because the surgeries were successful. According to Gu Jun and the team, they did not feel even a smidge of mental pressure during the two operations. They were disappointed because the patients did not showcase similar clinical responses, and this failed to support a hypothesis that they had earlier—damage to the patient's prefrontal lobe would threaten to interrupt the patient's mental connection with a mysterious force on the other end.
The confusion was because either the response to the threat only occurred to patients in early stages, or there was something unique about Chen Wenwei himself. Chen Wenwei had the surname Chen, so could he be related to the Chen clan of Nan Tang Village? However, his records showed that he was not an Eastern State local. To get to the bottom of the mystery, the Medical Department immediately arranged for another patient in the early stage of the Nightmare Illness to go under the knife. This time, it was a young female patient named Zou Xinyue.
That meant that four lobotomies were arranged that day, and Gu Jun was requested to be a part of the fourth one as well. When the operation reached the severance stage, he was the only medical unit left inside the spacious room again. The light from the surgical lights was blinding, and the cameras were capturing everything. Gu Jun felt an agitation in his heart until his hands that held the leucotome tightened.
"I am experiencing some strange feeling. The patient might react unkindly to this," he said darkly. "I believe this is because the mental state of the initial stage patients is still strong enough to release that kind of mental attack as a kind of resistance..."
Gu Jun took a deep breath. After so many consecutive surgeries, his already lacking mental power was almost at rock bottom. But now was not the time to rest! With a focus of his determination, he pulled on the brace. Suddenly, the female patient who was supposed to be fully sedated opened her eyes. The gaze spoke of chaos, and the lifeless facial muscles twitched slightly. The EEG started to dance all over the place again. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚
To help this experiment, gauze was not taped around her mouth and sectional anesthetic was skipped.
"Ph'nglui..." The demonic whisper appeared again. Her tone was surprisingly identical to Chen Wenwei. It carried an indescribable buzz, like it came out from a broken recorder. She appeared to be chanting the same sentence too. "mglw'nafh..."
Once Gu Jun heard that, he felt attacked by a strong mental wave. Gritting his teeth, Gu Jun clogged up the patient's mouth, injected the anesthetic, and then quickly resumed with the severance!
A burst of anger and indignation rose in his heart, propelling him forward, helping him resist those mental attacks. From the Malformed Banyan Disease to Nightmare Illness, his mother had left her trace everywhere... He needed an explanation!
In any case, the researchers finally got the answer they needed. The cause was not on Chen Wenwei; it was something about patients in the early stages of nightmare Illness. But this led to more questions. Would this appear whenever there was a threat to the patient's cerebral tissue, or would it only occur when the threat was focused on the prefrontal cortex? Only practical surgeries could provide answers to these questions.
Therefore, while Gu Jun and the rest were finishing the surgery, another surgery was being pushed into place. This time, it was going to be a bilateral cingulotomy. The patient was yet another victim of the Nightmare Illness at the early stage. Bilateral cingulotomy was normally used in the treatment of depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder. It was a safe and verified modern surgery. Therefore, it would not be too difficult and did not put too much mental pressure on the existing medical members.
"You have participated in a successful two-star surgery, a lobotomy. Personal contribution forty-one percent, rank 1."
Gu Jun was both mentally and physically drained when he exited the surgical room, but he needed to rush to another surgical room. This time, however, he was only standing by to watch. From the start of the operation to its completion, there was no complication with the patient.
The researchers started their discussion again. It looked like not all damage to any random cerebral organ would trigger a response, or at least removal of the cingulate gyrus would not. But whether only a lobotomy would trigger a response remained to be seen. They needed to perform more brain surgeries to confirm this. Furthermore, they needed time to tell whether the lobotomy had a healing effect or not.
When everything was over, it was already night. Song Yilong and the others' surgeries were completed in the afternoon, but they were still unconscious. They had been transferred to the ICU.
"Ah Jun, you'd better go back to your dormitory to rest," Prof Qin told Gu Jun. "Guo Tong wants you to get a good night's sleep to recover your mental power before they decide on what to do next."
Prof Qin left after that because he still had many things to worry about. Gu Jun slumped on the couch in the resting area. He closed his heavy eyelids, and his limbs felt like lead. No one came to disturb him. In fact, when they passed him, they kept their movement as soft as possible.
As Gu Jun closed his eyes, skulls appeared before Gu Jun's eyes. There were holes drilled through them, and they appeared to be sucking Gu Jun into them. Deep inside a skull, Gu Jun could see the pink brain matter wiggling...
He was the one who had crushed this brain matter into mush... He pressed against his pounding head. So, this was clinical research. It sure took a toll on the medical practitioner. After a quick rest, and an adjustment of his mood, Gu Jun could finally face the notification from the system. He had contributed nothing to the last surgery, but he had accumulated 164 percent personal contribution over the four lobotomies. This meant that he had completed the difficult mission.
"Mission reward to be claimed: one pair of Carlot Dissecting Scissors. Click to accept your reward."
"The mastery of your Hands of Dexterity has increased by one hundred points, level two (30000/30000 mastery)"
"The level of your Hands of Dexterity has increased to level 3!"