The Apocalypse Solution Provider

Chapter 32: In-Depth Investigation of Zombies

An hour later, Sun Ya paused his experiments and came downstairs.

Su Jin stood by the dining table. The naked corpse lay spread-eagle, its limbs lashed tightly to the table legs and chairs.

An array of tools was lined up on the table edge.

The second corpse, bound tight like a mummy, had been unceremoniously dumped to the side.

Sun Ya swept his gaze over the setup and gave a satisfied nod. “Good work, Little Li. You’re cautious—a solid seedling for scientific research. If the world hadn’t ended, I’d gladly take you on as a student. I’ll dictate the procedure; you operate, and I’ll record the data.”

“Pass… I don’t ever want to experience a project like this again.” Su Jin panted heavily, swallowing hard against the bile rising in his throat. “By the way, Elder Sun, aren’t you a hardware engineer? Does that usually involve hacking up bodies?”

“Not entirely unrelated, and I’ve observed a few autopsies… Let’s begin.”

Su Jin took a deep breath, steeling his nerves. “Hit me.”

“Make the incision slowly. There might be high-pressure gas buildup inside the cadaver, so watch out for fluid splatter. The primary weak point is the heart, so we’re strictly examining the internal organs. Start half an inch below both collarbones and cut down to the sternum’s midline. From that intersection, slice straight down to the pubic bone…”

Su Jin held his breath, clenched his jaw, and pressed the blade into the flesh… The sickening squelch and resistance traveling up the handle scraped directly against his sanity.

Even insulated by layers of protective gear, the grotesque visual, the overwhelming stench of copper and decay, and the sheer terror of biological infection made his stomach churn violently.

The skin parted, and the blade ground harshly from the collarbone to the sternum. The blood drained from Su Jin’s face. “It’s tough as hell, way harder than I calculated… Did the Zombie’s dermal layer mutate?”

“Negative. Your knife is dull, the corpse is frozen, and your muscles are too tense,” Sun Ya stated calmly.

“Hoo… Elder Sun, give me some background noise, urgh… Right, Elder Sun, didn’t you say you were in the defense sector? How did you pivot to medical equipment?”

“Heh, you’ve seen my temper. I didn’t play nice with corporate politics. But I deliver results no matter the field. Do you know who spearheaded the R&D for the country’s first MRI machine?”

“Newton?”

“Who the hell is Newton?! Are you losing your mind? It was me! Me!”

The deeper he cut, the worse it got. Slick layers of skin and yellow fat peeled back under his hands. Su Jin kept hacking away, his voice trembling slightly. “Uh… Never thought I’d network with a high-level exec like you. Why are you holed up in a dump like this?”

“Dump? Twenty years ago, standard civilians couldn’t even buy into the Talent Residential Community. Sure, the neighborhood’s stock crashed later, but I got used to it and was too lazy to relocate,” Sun Ya said. “Do you know Old Wei’s operational background?”

“Elder Wei? Didn’t you say he was also defense sector?”

“He’s not just a standard contractor. Back in the day, he was a lead developer for the Cold Vault Missile System. He is a certified weapons expert. If we’re going to establish a secure base, we need heavy firepower. Operating heavy ordnance requires high-level technical skills, and he’s the only one who can properly instruct you.”

“Jesus, this slum is full of hidden boss characters…”

As they bantered, the Y-shaped incision was completed.

Sun Ya waved a hand, covering his nose and mouth. “Peel it open.”

Su Jin pressed his lips into a thin line and peeled back the thick chest flaps, exposing the ribcage and internal organs to the frigid air.

“Use the hatchet to split the sternum. We’ll check for skeletal degradation while we’re at it.”

Holding his breath, Su Jin grabbed the hatchet and waved his hand, signaling Sun Ya to back up.

“Fuck!”

Sun Ya took a few more steps back. Su Jin brought the hatchet down with a violent chop, sending bone splinters flying across the room.

“Mother, fuck!”

“Just chop the damn thing, why are you screaming obscenities?” Sun Ya frowned.

“This isn’t a job for a human being! Shooting people was less traumatizing than this… Fuck! Fuck!”

Amidst a barrage of vulgarity, the sternum and ribs finally cracked open. Beneath his motorcycle helmet, Su Jin was sweating profusely, his eyes completely bloodshot.

Sun Ya stepped forward, inspecting the jagged bone fractures before peering into the chest cavity.

“Skeletal structure is nominal. Slice open the organs. Just rough cuts, as long as I can see the cross-sections.”

“Which one?”

“You already opened him up, chop all of them!”

“Hoo, hoo… Fine, fine!” Su Jin picked up the blade and started frantically hacking around. Halfway through, his expression froze. “Hey! Is that a sea urchin?!”

“That’s fucking shit, stop stirring it! Move aside! I can’t tell if you’re terrified or just a psychopath. Are you mincing meat? Even serial killers don’t butcher things like this.”

Sun Ya stepped in to inspect the mess, casually picking up a spare paring knife.

He began probing the organs, analyzing the tissue.

“Liver and lungs nominal, intestines nominal, kidneys nominal… Heart is nominal too?”

Sun Ya frowned in confusion, digging deeper with the blade.

The heart was already a mutilated mess from the shotgun blast.

After sifting carefully through the gore, Sun Ya scowled. “Get over here and look at this black patch… Is it gunpowder burn, or did it grow on the tissue? My eyes aren’t good enough.”

Su Jin leaned in, squinting. Embedded within the shredded heart muscle was a black node about the size of half a fingernail.

“It grew on it. Looks like connective tissue.”

“Hmm… The density is incredibly high, almost like bone. Even a severely diseased heart wouldn’t organically develop this kind of anomaly. It seems the gray pathogen you observed primarily targets the cardiovascular core.”

At this realization, Sun Ya’s expression shifted. “Open the other one.”

“Hold on!” Su Jin’s face instantly turned dead serious. Losing his disgust for the cold, sticky gore, he plunged his gloved hand directly into the abdominal cavity.

When he pulled his hand out, a crystalline, jade-like stone was pinched between his fingers!

“What the hell is…” Sun Ya was visibly startled.

Su Jin breathed heavily, a maniacal excitement flaring in his eyes. “A Zombie Crystal?!”

“What the hell is a Zombie crystal?” Sun Ya asked quickly.

“A crystallized mutation core inside a Zombie. If you eat it, you gain supernatural abilities.”

“Where did you get that intel?”

“That’s how it works in all the webnovels.”

“Tsk, you really are mentally defective. Zombie crystal my ass.” Sun Ya looked at him with utter disgust. “That’s a fucking gallstone, you idiot.”

“Impossible. Can a gallstone look this cool?” Su Jin wiped the ‘jade’ clean, treating it like a legendary loot drop.

Sun Ya stepped forward and slapped it right out of his hand. The stone hit the floor and shattered into fragments. Su Jin’s heart broke right along with it.

“The gallstone they surgically removed from me two years ago looked way prettier than that… Look, there’s a whole cluster of stones in here! Cut the bullshit and dissect the next one!”

Swallowing his disappointment, Su Jin dragged the second corpse onto the table and reset the surgical field.

With the first run acting as a tutorial, this dissection was noticeably faster.

The two skipped the side quests and headed straight for the primary objective, cutting directly to the heart.

After a few careful slices, an identical black connective tissue was exposed.

However, the mass of this node was drastically different—it was the size of a human thumb.

Sun Ya prodded it with the blade, then shifted his focus.

He stabbed into various major organs before slicing open the Zombie’s forearm to inspect the deep muscle fibers.

After running those diagnostics, he crouched down to re-examine the first corpse discarded on the floor.

When he finally stood up, a genuine streak of horror had bled into his stoic expression.

“What’s the verdict, Elder Sun?” Su Jin tensed up.

After a grim silence, Sun Ya pointed at the second corpse. “This subject was severely underweight, clearly lacking physical conditioning. The first one on the floor had far more body mass and should logically possess higher muscle density. But the lab results show the exact opposite. The sample size is microscopic, but the only variable that correlates is the size of the mutated node in their hearts. Which means…”

“The Zombies are evolving?” A bone-deep chill washed over Su Jin.

Sun Ya exhaled a frosty breath. “We should have accounted for this in our threat models… But the black tissue nodes are growing at different rates across both corpses. If the end goal of the pathogen is to fully encapsulate the heart, they aren’t even close to their maximum level cap… Wait! What the hell is this thing?”