Plague Doctor

'What or who is this negative selection?' Gu Jun was sure that it was the voice of a young male. After that, he witnessed the birth of 3 more abnormal babies, they were 2 stabilizing selections and 1 negative selection. However, he could not feel that presence again. There were no voices, no nothing. The number of abnormal babies globally increased, the traceable statistics put it over 30000 already. That was one-tenth of all newborns. There were the most stabilizing selections, over 20000 of them; followed by negative selection at 6000 plus and finally positive selections at 3000. The only similarity between all the babies was that their prenatal period was within 24 weeks after the war at Mo Bei. No one knew if the number was going to continue to rise or not. But if this speed was maintained, every single day, the world would have 3 to 40000 abnormal babies and thus over 1,000,000 of them in a month.

So far, there was no telling what was different about these babies compared to normal ones. The female baby called Xu Qiuyue, her eyes… were they just normal ocular birth defects?

The next morning, after returning to the Spell Department base, Gu Jun reported everything he saw and heard in detail to his superior. He did bring up the existence of the voices and wrote down everything he could remember for the Investigation Department to research. If there was really a person behind that voice, that person was a negative choice and was born with some kind natural defect. Those claims sounded like they came from someone who was hostile against the 'non-negative' homo sapiens…

A twisted mind? An act of vengeance? It felt more than that. Gu Jun could feel that this was a perfectly sound man, he had a perfect and unique perspective and understanding of humanity and human civilization. That same morning, Wu Siyu came back with new updates. Yesterday, she did not go to the hospital because Phecda feared that it might trigger her trauma but now she had no choice.

"I believe I heard a voice." Inside an interview room, Wu Siyu told Gu Jun, Prof Jiang and the camera. She did not hear it clearly, it was like someone speaking to her through dreams even though she was not sleeping. It did not sound like a summon from R'yleh either. "They were not actual words." Wu Siyu pinched her lips. "It was like a lullaby that made me sleepy. It evoked some of my childhood memories, sad memories because I suffer from synaesthesia. It reminded me that I was not normal, I was different from others." She said and tapped her head. "I'm a negative selection."

Gu Jun's eyes narrowed. Dirty-minded Yu, negative selection? She was born with synaesthesia, the trigger mechanism for this rare sickness was still unknown but it was probably hereditary since it was often inherited. If this was ancient times, synaesthesia was not a good thing. Unable to tell the difference between foods would easily cause food poisoning. A beast's growl could be mistaken for singing… Low chance of survival, negative selection. In the modern world, she could not be considered normal either. Dirty-minded Yu rarely drove because she might mistake green light for red light. The negative selection might point to her laziness too, that was not good for survival either…

"Many memories that I thought I have forgotten surfaced." Wu Siyu sighed as she gave an example. She was called a big liar in kindergarten and primary school. She got into many fights because of it. Actually she was not lying, she really did see many delicious foods, elves, Santa Claus and so on. "Everyone said I'm a liar, they branded me a basket case, no one wished to play with me." Wu Siyu thought she had already gotten over these childhood traumas but now bringing it all back up, her expression was still pressed. "And then… I thought, o well."

She experienced school bullying, Gu Jun heard her talk about it at broad. He understood how sad she was. But these experiences built up Wu Siyu's character, it made her into who she was today.

"The voice triggered these memories in me." She continued, "And then reinforcing this idea that I am a negative choice, I am a different species from the positive and stabilizing choices…" Wu Siyu shrugged. "Then I got really sleepy. I decided to ignore the voices and went to sleep. Everyone is born different, so what if I'm a negative selection. Yes, I've encountered many malicious people but I've met many kind people as well."

Then the voice faded away.

After hearing what Dirty-minded Yu had to say, Gu Jun felt nervous and angered on her behalf. But it confused him as well. Was it the same voice or it was meant only for Dirty-minded Yu's ears?

However, another discovery showed that this was more of a broadcast. The other member of Problematic Team, Xiao Xu who suffered from Aspergers, was a negative selection. Xiao Xu was not at Da Hwa City but at Mo Bei City but he too heard that voice in the morning. His situation was similar to Wu Siyu, the voice depressed and tried to instigate him.

Then more members in Phecda who were born with defects reported that they heard the voices too. It was a broadcast.

But they were still unsure if the voice only could be heard by the negative selections in Phecda or the negative selection in the public heard it as well. Be it Wu Siyu or Xiao Xu, they both had high spirituality but they could not block out the voice. This proved that the power behind the voice was strong. Gu Jun tried to arrange his thoughts. Was it Shub-Niggurath? It did not sound like it. Be it positive or negative selections, they were both growths. Before the Black Goat, they would be a unified part of the flesh forest, and not distinct from each other…

But the voices were more powerful than humanly possible. Think about Nightmare Illness, the R'yleh Cult went through so much before they could use voices to influence people's minds.

To broadcast to all negative selections? Was it a demon like the witch and Son of Misfortune? Or was it a normal human like Rudolph Carter? The Foundation was capable of something like this too.

Was this 'negative selection' a single person or an organization?