Chapter 42: Chapter 32: Miracle of the Past
Translator: 549690339
Soon, with a creak of brakes, they arrived at their destination. The steam car stopped by the side of a cobblestone-paved road.
Compared to the bustling Downing Street, Tailor Street, where ordinary people lived, better reflected the actual living standards of the residents of Sinless City.
The streets were very narrow, sewage flowed across the stone-paved roads, and you could see heaps of garbage everywhere in the alleyways. The air was often filled with the stench of faeces and urine.
This was one of the most densely populated and poorest districts in Sinless City.
Leonard Churchill and his team of five carried their boxes through an alleyway before they finally found the inconspicuous ”17 Tailor Street”.
By the time they arrived, there were already two stern-looking men waiting at the door to handle the situation.
High-end suits, shiny leather shoes, and top-notch equipment… these were field agents of the Golden Oak Security Company. They were responsible for managing sudden incidents such as supernatural accidents, catastrophe containment, etc., in the city.
Corpse collectors were only temporary workers of the company.
There was no security office in Sinless City, law and order were maintained mainly by the violent means of several major gangs, and the rest were outsourced to the Golden Oak Security Company.
Leonard had only been on the job for three days and had not yet figured out the complicated power structure of the city.
However, it was rumored that the owner of Golden Oak Security Company was very influential in Sinless City, not only did the major gangs give him face, various commerce guilds also paid him protection money, and he even had certain connections with the Governor’s Mansion.
Dexter seemed to know the two men in suits. As soon as he arrived, the man with a beard and mustache motioned towards the house and said, “Dexter, the corpse inside is for you guys to handle. Don’t miss any. There are two upstairs and sixteen in the basement. Be thorough.”
Dexter responded with a cheerful smile, “Alright.”
Without any further ado, he called to the four behind him to get to work.
Leonard and the others also put on their gas masks and gloves and rushed into the room.
What Leonard and the others didn’t know was that after they stepped into the house, the two field agents of the company at the door started chatting.
The man with a beard and mustache said, “Given those evil symbols… The basement probably houses a secret altar of the Silver Moon Sect. Only those remnants of the old days who can’t bear the light would do such disgusting things.”
“Yeah.”
The other fair-faced man also showed disgust, “Those corpses are just so disgusting, so polluted. Let the corpse collectors from our company handle it. And as usual, erase their memories when it’s over.”
The man with a beard and mustache didn’t say anything into it, and said again, “The dark power from the corpses is spreading quickly, there are clear signs of gnawing, the one who got rid of them is probably the ‘Lone Wolf’ Baron. I didn’t expect him to lose control and defect, he used to be part of group eight… But speaking of which, the disaster object he brought back from the Demon Cross is quite tricky, and it merged with that weird profession card, several of our field agents died trying to arrest him, the company’s higher-ups must be having a headache.”
The fair-faced man shrugged, “Who cares, it’s not our job to arrest him, we just need to send in the report.”
The man with a beard and mustache raised an eyebrow, “True.”
As soon as Leonard and the others entered the room, even through their gas masks, they could smell a faint stench of blood.
There were two corpses in the room, one of them appeared to have its entire left shoulder gnawed off by a beast, while the other had a huge hole punched through its chest.
It was quite a grisly murder scene.
But looking at the corpses, Leonard felt a strange sense of familiarity.
In the past few days, the regular containment of the corpses was nothing more than gunshot wounds, sword wounds, and magic injuries, seldom were there any that were beaten to death.
Especially ones that had their chest cavity obliterated by a punch.
Under normal circumstances, anyone would imagine that the perpetrator was an incredibly strong individual.
By a strange coincidence, Leonard had seen one before.
Previously on the train returning to Sinless City, there was a fugitive who had lost control of his curse power.
Without having to think much, team leader Dexter directed, “You… and you.
You two go handle the bodies in the basement.”
The ones singled out were naturally the two newcomers, Leonard and Gibb, the young fatty.
Without uttering a word, the other two senior team members just stood there smirking.
Everyone knew that handling corpses carried a risk of pollution, and with the same amount of pay, the less they touched a corpse, the better.
Dexter and the other two had already formed a small clique.
The exploitation of the new member seemed to be part of the corporate culture of the corpse collectors.
It had been like this for the past few days, but Leonard did not mind.
He wanted to interact more with the corpses.
If given the choice, he hoped that the clients in the basement were extraordinary men when they were alive. Better yet, formal curse card masters. The more residual extraordinary traits, the better.
Looking at the dense outflow of uncontrollable curse power from the corpse, it seemed likely.
Gibb, standing next to him, wasn’t too thrilled but dared not voice his complaints.
The two of them carried their toolboxes and silently descended into the basement.
However, as soon as the basement door opened, a nauseating, warm, and bloody smell hit their faces.
Even with Leonard’s mentality, his eyebrows knit together at the sight.
With just one look at the two corpses upstairs, he had felt that something was off. Now, looking at the state of the basement, it is clear that not only is something wrong, but that there was also a major problem!
In the pitch-black basement, there were corpses hanging in the air that could be vaguely seen.
Just looking at the shadows gave one a sense of eeriness and psychological revulsion.
Just a few steps down the stairs, the Enlightenment Tip also appeared: “You are exempt from the invasion of unknown mental pollution.”
Ordinary corpses wouldn’t cause mental pollution.
Leonard was exempt, but Gibb’s face had turned the color of a bitter gourd.
This level of pollution was far more severe than what they had seen with the previous corpses.
Leonard couldn’t help but wonder: what was happening?
This mission seemed to have led him to some of Sinless City’s secrets.
But this is the job of a Corpse Collector.
The two of them could only carry the lamp and continue on.
Leonard Churchill’s night vision abilities are very strong and even without a light, he can clearly see that this cellar seems to be an evil altar.
One, two, three… there are sixteen shadows hanging in total.
In other words, sixteen bodies.
The bodies are arranged in a special layout around the cellar and are hung in mid-air by iron hooks.
The skin of the bodies has been ripped off. The red muscle fibers, yellow fat layers, and blood vessels are all clearly visible… Judging from the details, the person who skinned these bodies is quite skilled, seeming to have a very proficient understanding of human anatomy.
Leonard Churchill does not think this is the work of a serial killer.
Upon another glance.
There are some special curse symbols painted with fresh blood on the wall. One of them is very conspicuous, it looks like this: C.
A moon?
This kind of symbol usually refers to some beings in occult studies.
Leonard Churchill took a closer look. The bodies are fresh, the time of death is less than an hour.
That is to say, not long before they arrived, these people were all still alive.
It seems like they were silenced at the last minute.
“What the heck…”
The more carefully he looked, the more worried Leonard Churchill became: mysterious symbols, rituals, sacrifices…
And it all happened in the unimpressive Commoner’s Quarter at Tailor Street.
He immediately realized that this mission was not simple.
This was some high-end event that ordinary people could not access.
These bodies are not only bloody, but more importantly, they are overflowing with dense curse pollution that resembles black flames.
However, considering that solving such a case is not something a low-level Corpse Collector like him should worry about, he quickly brushed off the thought.
While Leonard Churchill was observing, Gibb from his side, had already opened his toolbox, revealing various vials of test potions, he sighed and said, “Let’s get to work. Ah, there are so many victims, I don’t know how long this will take…”
Disgusting as it may be, they both still had to handle it.
The blue granules are [Rock Salt Crystal], the green potion is [Corrosive Royal Water], the brown one is [Exotic Lizard Acid], the red powder is called [Blood Bone Powder]…
These are Alchemy Potions, each designed to handle a different type of body.
The uses of these potions are listed in the Corpse Collector Training Manual provided by Golden Oak Security Company and it’s not difficult to understand.
On his first day on the job, Leonard Churchill skimmed the manual and quickly mastered the professional skills of a Corpse Collector.
Gibb had already opened the box and taken out a suspension reagent.
He started by using tweezers to take a small tissue sample from the corpse and put it in the test tube.
Once the flesh-blood came in contact with the reagent, it let out small bubbles, and then quickly turned dark red in color.
Observing the color of the reagent, Gibb figured it out and muttered, “The residue left in the body is fire-attribute curse power.”
Seeing this, he took out a can of water-attribute [Rock Salt Crystal], and sprinkled it on the body.
The sea salt in contact with the body made a sizzling noise.
This is a necessary pre-process before collecting bodies.
After death, the energy within the body of an Extraordinary Man loses conscious control. It needs to be neutralized and guided by the Alchemy Potion to dissipate the residual curse power from the body, otherwise, the out-of-control curse power will be the primary cause of mutations.
If not handled and directly cremated, it would be like burning plague-ridden clothes. Those mutated substances would permeate into the air and potentially harm everyone in the city.
This is the reason why the post of Corpse Collectors exists in the Sinless City.
Leonard Churchill, observing the serious Gibb, said, “You start with the two bodies at the entrance, while I will handle the ones on the other side.”
“Hmm.”
Gibb buried his head in his work, his dizziness caused by the mental pollution when entering the cellar made it impossible for him to talk much.
Without saying much, Leonard Churchill also went in. The pollution deeper in the cellar was indeed more severe.
He started to take down the bodies hanging and then put them in the Corpse-Wrapping Cloth.
The Corpse-Wrapping Bags are made of special materials that can to some extent isolate the pollution and ultimately, they would be placed in the lead iron box in the morgue.
But he didn’t handle it too carefully, as for Leonard Churchill, these bodies with high concentration of out-of-control Extraordinary Traits are rare customers.
After going back, clearing the Alchemy Potion on the bodies will make them usable again.
The [Demon’s Feast] absorbed the out-of-control energy around it, and he remained unscathed.
There were obvious signs of disturbance in the cellar, presumably, the Field Agents had inspected it once before. Anything worth taking has been taken away.
There was nothing worth observing further.
Everything should proceed according to the standard Corpse Collecting procedures.
Leonard originally thought that everything would be over once he collected these sixteen bodies, but unexpectedly, when he was about to collect the third body and was just walking deeper into the cellar, he suddenly received an Enlightenment.
‘You have heard the demonic whispers from the abyss, you are immune to mental chaos, and you have touched an ‘Old Days Relic’..’