Krafft's Anomaly Notes

Chapter 154 Mycelium
"What?" Martin heard Kraft's exclamation, saying a word he had never heard before, but he was not surprised. It is normal for a professor of medical school to say something unknown to others But that's all.

He cared more about what discovery it meant than about a word he didn't know the meaning of, explaining the odd situation.

"I mean, an uncommon infection." Kraft looked around, but couldn't find a yellow trash can, so he had to dispose of the tongue depressor in the coffin.

Literally yes, fungal infections are indeed uncommon, even though many people have the habit of taking off the sleeve-like flexible protective fabric between the feet and shoes and smelling it, but it is also possible to contract fungal pneumonia. It can be considered extremely rare news, isn't it?As a creature that has nothing to do with people most of the time, fungal infections are not as common as other pathogens.

Most of the time they are mentioned, they are followed by other underlying diseases, suggesting impaired immunity.For example, Candida albicans in the mouth of AIDS patients, and Aspergillus as a complication of tuberculosis, sneak in when the situation is not good.

This made him feel the unreasonableness of the matter even more. It would be understandable if the Duke suffered from Aspergillus infection, but could all the pagans here be HIV-infected?
[not necessarily, hard to say]

Kraft quickly pulled back his train of thought, there really could be such an outrageous thing.But Candida infection should not grow like this. Compared with normal conditions, it is simply the difference between virgin forest and artificial turf.

And even if this inexplicable inspiration is correct, fungi are also a large category. The difference between fungi that infect the human body and mushrooms may be greater than that of humans and pigs. Why are they juxtaposed?
Just because they're all so... "luxuriant"?
Yes, Kraft felt that he had grasped a certain key. The problem was not the fungus, or not just the frequent appearance of the fungus in recent experience, but the unusually vigorous life of the fungus, which grew in an unstoppable manner.

"Close the lids and lift them in. Let's start with the one in the robe."

Despite their reluctance, the soldiers moved under orders, replaced the cover, carried it into the room, and left the place as quickly as if a ghost was blowing on the back of their necks.

Martin handed over the brought tools to Kraft and closed the gate.The two of them worked together to lift the corpse of the leader of the heretics together with the coffin onto the low table, and lit a circle of candlesticks around them. These light sources illuminated the temporary dissection table and made the scene even more indescribable.

Perhaps they are now more vicious pagans than the one lying here, and will perform bloody and dark rituals.

Kraft took out the instruments and neatly stacked them aside, put on a special burqa, and checked the integrity of the gloves for the last time, "I need to confirm that this behavior is considered a private favor, or is it not limited to our wishes?"

"Our investigation is permitted. Even if anyone has an opinion, he must make concessions before the incident that threatens the stability of the entire Westminster." Martin didn't want to leave. He stood by the coffin and looked at the corpse, his facial muscles tensed. , In order to desensitize, I am forcing myself to face the source of fear.

Kraft noticed this, but couldn't quite relate to it.In his opinion, Martin is not a person who has not had blood on his hands, so he should not be so sensitive to death, and when he is numb to life and death, there is nothing too terrible.

"The next job only needs one person. If you find it boring, you can go to other things first." Given a little habitual care, Kraft can still give him a tactful suggestion not to torture himself, "To be honest, To the layman it's just a boring mess that needs to be paraphrased even if you read it."

"If it doesn't get in the way, please let me watch. I can help a little in case of need." A refusal against his heart, Martin insisted on staying.

"Then I'll start." Kraft picked up the knife and lowered it from the neckline, ready to cut the tangled clothes directly.Anyway, he didn't want to do a comprehensive dissection, but just a simple investigation, which didn't need to be very standard.

Use tweezers to lift the fabric, and the sharp blade is drawn across the chest, cutting the ring pattern in half, and the robe slides to the sides, revealing the rough chest, dense undulations like miliary grains are scattered under the skin, as if something is about to separate and loosen His skin and subcutaneous tissue folded into strange skin patterns during the handling, so that the circular tattoo in the middle of his chest became a twisted and irregular figure.

The finger protected by the glove pressed against a piece of skin, and tried to move it left and right, with a great range of motion, and could feel the feeling similar to the friction between two layers of rubber.This reminded Kraft of touching the skin of a patient with subcutaneous emphysema for the first time, and it presented a "twisting sensation", but it was more sluggish.

Unlike the texture of skin and flesh itself, it is a thin fiber mesh interlayer that sticks them together, and the texture is loose and even fluffy.

"It seems to be fluffy down there, but it's not empty. I'm not sure." Kraft raised his finger and pressed again, this time he confirmed that the change was widespread throughout the torso.

He swept away the clothes that had been cut in half, and the hem of the clothes on both sides slid down the loose body of the deceased to the bottom of the coffin, making the sound of some small hard objects colliding, "Wait, you didn't search?"

"No..." Martin shook his head, "At that time, I thought about bringing it back and talking about it, so I didn't rush to move."

I'm afraid no one wants to search for such a weird guy, right?It sounded like something was caught in the robe. Kraft followed the sound and found two hidden pockets that he didn't know how to open.

He didn't want to be distracted at this time, so he simply cut open the bag, took out a metal vial that can be seen everywhere and a string inlaid ornament of unknown use, and put them on the side table, and studied them after the dissection was completed.

Martin walked around the coffin curiously, examining the two pagan belongings.He thought it would be a symbol of fanatics, but the ornament that should be the logo did not find any design elements related to the ring, only a piece of translucent gem-like mineral was fixed in the metal frame, without even polishing , directly strung together to make a pendant.

As for the pagan leader, his life is simple enough, and he can't find money all over his body. It doesn't fit the image that he was trying to collect money when he first discovered this pagan religion.

On the other side, Kraft has carefully cut a small shallow triangular opening, and slowly opened it by pinching the edge with tweezers.It was unexpectedly easy, and he didn't need to carefully control the depth and carefully separate the tough epidermis and subcutaneous soft tissue with a blade like in anatomy class. He just lifted the fluffy wrinkled skin with a little force on his wrist.

To use an inappropriate analogy, he felt that he was tearing off a piece of orange peel. With a slight hiss of separation, the skin was lifted at a uniform speed, and the white three-dimensional silk screen was broken at the bottom. This is the looseness he felt just now. Tissues, fine dots can also be seen between the grids on the suspected tissue remnants that have not been completely decomposed.

An astonishingly exuberant and frightening vitality lurks under the dead skin. It is a lush mycelium that no one has ever seen and dare not imagine. It is like a miniature scavenging city built by hollowing out the mountain.

Before Kraft could recover from the shock in this corner, there was the sound of objects being flipped by the storage table.

"Professor Kraft, look at this, it seems to be glowing inside?"

(End of this chapter)