Plague Doctor

Chapter 389: Different Worlds

At the base of the Spell Department, inside a private room at the restaurant, the delicious smell of chicken permeated the air. The carved wooden table was filled with chicken legs cooked in different methods. There were chicken legs sourced from different fowls, like hens, black-bone chickens, bramble finches and so on...

“Yummy, yummy.” Lucky plopped himself on the table like a lazy cat. His oily paw grabbed at the chicken thighs and savored the different kinds of offering. He occasionally patted the table to say, “So this is fried chicken, it’s so crispy! And this is stewed chicken, the flesh is so tender...”

Peacock and Wu Siyu were both seated at the table but only the latter could understand Lucky somewhat through her synaesthesia. Even though the Scientific Research team had done everything they could, the analysis of the Zoog language was going glacially. This was because their language did not operate on the basis of voice but through gestures and tapping tempo as well as an ’emotion’ that the Zoog themselves could not explain.

“Lucky, is there any news about Mr. Gu from Dreamlands?” Peacock asked. That was the goal of this feast.

“Nope...” Lucky munched on the chicken thigh. “Why are you guys so worried, that is the nightmare man, he’ll be fine...” Gu Jun had been missing for a month already and there was no news about him. Phecda was prepared for the worst. They might lose him forever. Lucky glanced from the corner of his eyes that Wu Siyu had taken out her phone. She pulled out a few pictures of a large tabby cat and showed them to Lucky. Lucky’s paws shuddered until the food dropped to the table. Lucky had been here for months already, he was given the best treatment. He was now as round as a ball but compared to the tabby cat, he was still miniscule. This was because the Zoogs feed on chicken, while the cats feed on...

“My friend told me this a few days ago, that is the truth!” Lucky said in a hurry as he pushed another bite of chicken into his mouth to calm his emotion. Another Zoog arrived on Earth about 3 days ago. But he only communicated with Lucky. After attending a feast, the Zoog soon disappeared. Before the alliance was officially formed, the Zoogs would not reveal the actual location of the various channels. The excuse given was to preserve their safety.

“Oh, right.” Wu Siyu opened the Talking Tom Cat app on her phone. After her research, she realized this app had a devastating effect on the Zoog. Whenever the Zoog tapped out their words, the virtual cat would repeat it and the Zoog would cower like they were being tortured. This method worked every time, and it required no more effort than a click on her phone. It was both effective and efficient. She retorted to this method now to dig for more information. She had to consider both Dirty-minded Jun and the life within her. Wu Siyu did not tell anyone about her pregnancy. She was scheduled for an ultrasound inspection in a few days, then she’d decide what to do.

“God almighty...” Lucky patted his head in terror. The virtual cat mimicked it perfectly but with a conscious lack of soul. For the Zoog, the experience was equivalent to human beings being exposed to the sound of hell. Lucky pressed on his ears in pain. “Please stop it...”

Wu Siyu shrugged and closed the app with disappointment. They were playing the role of good cop and bad cop. Now that the bad cop had done her job, it was time for the god cop. Kathlyn massaged Lucky’s head, like cats, the Zoog like these affectionate scratches. Peacock asked, “The Dreamlands can pass to other worlds and you Zoogs often travel to different worlds. Could Mr. Gu have landed on those worlds?”

“Haven’t heard about that either.” Lucky sucked in the chicken like a tornado. He was ready to make his escape soon. “This place is different from other worlds. Some worlds are like a single fowl but this place is like a tableful of wonderful chicken feast.”

Wu Siyu translated as best as she could. Neither Kathlyn nor Peacock got it. They asked, “What did he mean by that?”

“Same world but different tastes?” Wu Siyu guessed. “There could be many earths?” She had thought about the possibilities of parallel universes before. Could Dirty-minded Jun have travelled to a parallel universe? Could he have met a different yet similar Wu Siyu there? But her name might be Wu Yueyu or Wu Yusi...

“Parallel universe? Never heard of it.” Lucky swallowed a mouthful of chicken. “We have not discovered anything like that. Whenever we come to this planet, this place is where we arrive at. But your place is very complicated. It can present itself in varied forms of chicken thigh, we Zoogs do not quite get it either...”

Well, he had successfully confused all of them.

...

The metropolis was called Le Ning City, it was the nation’s biggest economic hub. However, you wouldn’t know that from the dirty streets, and the neighbourhood of low-income houses where Captain Yu stayed. The paint on the brick wall peeled and trash littered every corner of the road.

“Captain Yu, why do you stay here? Is there anything special about this place?”

“Not really, I just like it here. I like this kind of old places, the dirtier they are, the safer I feel...”

“And Mysterium lets you be? They didn’t send people to come protect you?”

“They used to but I chased them all away. This place is clean, it is clean.” Gu Jun followed Yu Chi silently. What Captain Yu portrayed was a classic evasion symptom due to PTSD. Along the way, Gu Jun observed that even though Captain Yu was not crazy, he did appear to suffer from PTSD. Not the kind similar to Gu Jun but actual PTSD.

Yu Chi’s abode was a dilapidated red-brick rental. There was only one floor. It had a living-cum-bedroom and a toilet. It was probably a warehouse in the past. The walls were mouldy and were painted with many symbols. Gu Jun saw symbols of stars, feathers, snakes and crosses. They were most likely Captain Yu’s handiwork. The rental was about 80 cubic metres but it was crowded with the collection of various accoutrements. However, Gu Jun did not notice necessary amenities like beds and tables.

“Captain Gu, just find a random place to sit.” Once Yu Chi entered the room, he went rummaging through his stacks of books and documents. “I know no idea where the difference between our two worlds lie, perhaps the difference started back in the prehistoric era. Our team found the earliest depiction of the split cross on the cave painting at Blombos Cave as well as little rocks along Nambia’s Swakop River valley...”

Along the way, they did not exchange any information for fear of being overheard and thus weaken the mysterious signal.

“Blombos Cave and Swakop River...” A detail popped out at him. When he asked Phecda to research the split cross, they expanded the research to include all sorts of ancient symbols, especially those related to split crosses. One of them was the intersecting parallel crosses. This symbol looked like the Chinese character 井. So when Captain Yu mentioned those two locations, the research result immediately came to Gu Jun. “Yes, we found symbols at those places too but they’re of the intersecting parallel crosses.”

“Ha ha...” Yu Chi laughed with excitement. “I was right. Our history is practically the same but with minor yet important differences...”

“Captain Yu, what do you think is happening?” Gu Jun asked, “Do our worlds exist in parallel to each other?”

“I don’t know, maybe, maybe not. The key will be that signal.”

Yu Chi finally found the document he was looking for. He handed it to Gu Jun. “I feel like someone is summoning us! A presence on a higher plan, they are broadcasting signals to contact people from different worlds. Only we who are specially gifted can hear them. Captain Gu... your presence here has verified another one of my hypotheses! We can cross the barrier between different worlds!”