12: Chapter 12 Improved Corpse Collection Plan

December 21st, morning.

The system repair progress jumped to 89%, and his physical state was near full health, but Yan Zheng did not go out. Instead, he locked himself in the Underground Room, with the power distribution map Old Jack had sent over yesterday afternoon and three old newspapers spread out before him.

What he looked at repeatedly was not the distribution map, but the report in the newspaper about the missing bodies at the pier.

Yan Zheng slapped the newspaper onto the ground and spoke to the two Skeleton Soldiers in the corner.

"We have a problem."

The phosphorus fire of Skeleton Soldier No. 1 flickered.

"Six bodies were collected that night at the pier; the clothes were left in place, the bloodstains were left in place, and the people vanished into thin air."

Yan Zheng raised a finger, his voice sounding like he was reviewing a surgical accident for an intern.

"The Irish Gang and the Russian Gang are both missing people and are accusing each other of stealing the bodies. Currently, they are still spinning within the framework of gang feuds and haven't made any connections to the supernatural."

He raised a second finger.

"But that is only because they are stupid."

Yan Zheng: (¬_¬)

"What if this reaches the ears of someone smarter? Like Kingpin? Like that arms dealer who camps out on rooftops every night? Or perhaps some inconspicuous field Agent of Director Fury?"

He walked to the system panel, used his finger to tap open the detailed description of the [Body Collection] function, and read it out word for word.

"After Body Collection is triggered, the target body will be completely decomposed into system material within three seconds. The decomposition process is irreversible and leaves no biological residue."

He paused after reading this.

"Leaves no biological residue."

He repeated this sentence and scrolled his finger to the next line of the description.

"Note: The scope of decomposition is limited to the target individual's biological tissue and does not include clothing, personal items, or external blood."

Yan Zheng: (눈_눈)

"So the problem is very clear."

He crouched down and spoke to the empty eye sockets of Skeleton Soldier No. 1, his tone like he was explaining company policy to a new employee who didn't quite understand human language.

"The system's Body Collection function itself is clean; after the body is decomposed, not even a hair is left. But the clothes will remain, the external blood will remain, and the shell casings and signs of fighting in the surrounding area will remain."

"In other words, as long as there is someone else at the scene, or if someone comes to investigate afterward, they will discover a bizarre fact: the person is gone, but the traces of the person remain."

"This is even more suspicious than simple body disposal, because normal methods of destroying a body cannot destroy only the flesh while leaving the clothing behind."

He stood up and paced back and forth twice in the cramped Underground Room.

"The pier incident was the first field test; lack of experience is understandable. But the same mistake cannot be made a second time."

Yan Zheng dragged a folding chair from the corner, sat down, and rested his crossed hands on his knees.

"So, the new plan."

He held up three fingers to the two Skeleton Soldiers, as if conducting an investment roadshow attended only by the dead.

"First point: scene selection."

"From now on, Body Collection will only be conducted in highly chaotic environments. Shootouts, explosions, large-scale brawls—these types of scenarios naturally involve a great deal of physical evidence contamination and personnel movement, making post-incident investigation extremely difficult. It is very hard to accurately account for one extra or one missing body in the chaos."

The phosphorus fire of Skeleton Soldier No. 2 brightened slightly.

Yan Zheng: (˘͈ ᵕ ˘͈)

"Second point: remote collection."

He reached out and pressed his hand onto the shoulder blade of Skeleton Soldier No. 1, closing his eyes.

"There is a line of fine print in the system description that I didn't look at carefully before: 'The host can use the Mental Link to designate a controlled Undead Creation to execute the Body Collection command on their behalf. The trigger condition is physical contact between the Undead Creation and the target body.'"

"Translating that into human language, it means you can also collect bodies for me."

He let go and patted the shoulder of Skeleton Soldier No. 1.

"This means I don't need to be present at the scene myself. You can wander the perimeter of the battlefield wearing hobo clothes, and whenever you encounter a body, you touch it to collect it. I can just issue the command via Mental Link from several blocks away."

"The risk regarding eyewitnesses drops directly to zero."

The skull of Skeleton Soldier No. 1 tilted, its empty eye sockets facing Yan Zheng, and its phosphorus fire burned a bit more steadily than usual.

"Third point: post-incident cleanup."

Yan Zheng bent down to pick up the newspaper from the floor, pointing to the report about the missing bodies.

"After Body Collection, the remaining clothing and external bloodstains must be cleaned up as well. The simplest method is to take the clothes and throw them into a trash can elsewhere, and wash away the bloodstains with bleach."

"But this is too time-consuming and simply won't be possible in a chaotic scene."

He thought for two seconds, and the corners of his mouth curved up.

"So, let's change the approach: don't clean it up, but create a logical explanation instead."

"A place like the pier is right next to the Hudson River. If the location where the body 'disappeared' happens to be by the river, then the fact that the clothes were left on the shore can be interpreted as 'the body was thrown into the river, and the clothes were taken off afterward'."

"Gang members dumping bodies in the East River is not news in New York; it's a tradition."

Yan Zheng: (ꉺᗜꉺ)

"A perfect scapegoating logic; even the Police will automatically help me fill in the blanks."

He folded up the newspaper and stuffed it back into the corner, dusting the dirt off his hands.

"Alright, the plan is finished. Next, I need to verify something."

He reopened the system panel, flipped through several pages in the function list, and his gaze suddenly stopped.

At the very bottom of the panel, a small gray-blue icon had appeared, its border pulsing with a faint light, as if it were a newly activated function.

Yan Zheng: (ꐦ°꒳°)

He clicked on the icon, and a line of cold text popped up.

[New Function Unlocked: Material Analysis]

[Description: Can perform a deep scan at the genetic level on biological material already collected in the system warehouse, analyzing its genetic characteristics, mutation markers, and potential value.]

[Unlock Condition: Accumulated collection of biological material reaches 7 units (Condition Met).]

"Material Analysis?"

When Yan Zheng read those four words, his tone was like someone reading an unexpected delivery receipt.

"It must have automatically unlocked when I collected seven units of material, and I actually didn't notice until now."

He did not hesitate, immediately pulling up the warehouse list and tossing those seven units of material one by one into the analysis interface.

The first unit, the Irish Gang member collected at the pier.

[Analysis Result: Normal human, no mutation markers, bone density below average, material rating E.]

The second unit, same as above.

[Analysis Result: Normal human, no mutation markers, bone density average, material rating E.]

The third, fourth, and fifth units were all gang members collected at the pier.

All of them were "Normal human," all of them had an E rating, and even the bone density values were much the same.

Yan Zheng: (ˊ_ˋ)

"Assembly-line products, no surprises at all."

The sixth unit.

This one was the body of the Mexican man collected earliest.

Yan Zheng clicked Analyze and waited for two seconds.

The text on the panel popped up. He glanced at it, and his finger stopped in mid-air without coming down.

[Analysis Result: Normal human (carries recessive X-Gene, activation probability: Cannot be activated).]

[Note: This individual carries a silent segment of the X-Gene, but due to the absence of key regulatory sequences, they will never express mutation characteristics in their lifetime. This genetic segment cannot be used as Mutant material, but can serve as a reference sample for X-Gene research.]

Yan Zheng stared at that line of text for a full five seconds.

"Recessive X-Gene."

His voice was half a tone lower than usual.

"A seemingly completely normal person, carrying a Mutant genetic segment within their body."

He raised his hand to push up glasses that didn't exist on the bridge of his nose, his finger pausing in the air.

"Cannot be activated, will never show any abnormalities in their lifetime. If it weren't for the system scan, no one would ever know he had any connection to a Mutant."

Yan Zheng: (⊙ᗜ⊙)

He stood up from the folding chair and paced back and forth three times in the Underground Room, his steps getting faster and faster.

"What does this mean?"

He turned to face the two Skeleton Soldiers, his speaking speed twenty percent faster than usual, but every word was enunciated extremely clearly.

"This means the X-Gene is not the patent of Mutants. It could be hidden in the DNA of any normal person in a recessive, silent, and undetectable way."

"New York has a population of eight million. According to general estimates in Mutant research, the proportion of normal people carrying the recessive X-Gene is between 0.5% and 1%."

"In other words, there could be forty thousand to eighty thousand people in this city who are seemingly normal on the surface, but have the seeds of a Mutant buried in their genes."

He walked back to the panel and read the analysis report of the sixth unit three times.

"Although this individual's X-Gene cannot be activated and cannot be used directly as Mutant material, it proves one thing."

Yan Zheng's gaze moved away from the panel and landed on the red brick wall in the Underground Room that had been marked white by the Skeleton Soldier, his voice slowing down.

"The distribution range of Mutant genes is far wider than I thought."

"I don't need to look for a needle in a haystack to find living Mutants, nor do I need to fight various factions for the corpses of Mutants whose identities have already been exposed."

"I just need a large enough sample size, and then use the Material Analysis function to screen them."

"Collect in large quantities, scan one by one, and eventually, higher-quality X-Gene segments will appear."

He slowly sat back down on the folding chair, crossed his legs, and tapped his fingers rhythmically on his knees.

Yan Zheng: (˵ᵕ˗ᵕ˵)

"Of course, this is a clumsy method; it's inefficient and time-consuming."

"If there is a more direct source of Mutant material, that would naturally be best."

His gaze swept over the power distribution map in the corner drawn by Old Jack, and his finger tapped twice on the location of the "East District."

"Tomorrow, I'll go chat with Uncle Jack. Hells Kitchen is so big; there must be someone doing business in Mutants."

"After all, in this World, as long as something is scarce enough, someone will inevitably turn it into a commodity."

He stood up and walked up the steps. Before leaving, he looked back at the glowing text on the panel.

[Carries recessive X-Gene, activation probability: Cannot be activated.]

"Cannot be activated."

The corners of Yan Zheng's mouth curved into an ambiguous arc.

"But what if it's on my laboratory table, sir?"