After a quick pat-down to ensure no one was carrying any magnetic metal, they were ready to proceed.
Cheng Du headed into the ward, ran a final check over Wei De, and scooped him up, hauling him straight into the MRI suite.
Su Jin hovered by the computer console, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Sun Ya as they waited for the imaging software.
The moment Cheng Du slid Wei De into the massive tube, the monitors flared to life.
Sun Ya practically pressed his face against the screen, his eyes narrowing as he scrutinized the feed.
Su Jin crossed his arms, his jaw clenching tightly as the gravity of the situation sank in.
He might not have a medical degree, but it didn't take a genius to read this scan.
Even an absolute layman could see the horrific reality of Wei De's condition.
Just as they had hypothesized, the massive, fleshy parasite was anchored deep inside his abdominal cavity, utterly motionless.
It cast a grotesque, sprawling shadow across his internal organs.
"The beast's appendages are elongated... it's completely woven itself through Old Wei's viscera," Sun Ya muttered, his voice tight. "The fact that Old Wei is still breathing, let alone not screaming in agony, proves his biology has undergone a radical mutation."
"The question is how we proceed," Su Jin stated coldly. "How do we kill it? This isn't a textbook organism. Can you isolate a critical weak point?"
Sun Ya shook his head, the lines on his face deepening into heavy trenches.
They had made it this far on skill and preparation, but this final hurdle... this was a blind roll of the dice.
No one had ever dissected a creature like this. Trying to execute a flawless one-hit kill carried catastrophic risks.
"Logically, the head is the standard kill zone. But I'd bet my life this thing isn't that simple. Your best bet is to simultaneously drive three strikes along its torso, from head to tail. That maximizes our odds."
Sun Ya analyzed the screen, "If we fail, Old Wei will absolutely feel the blowback. We should have a brief window to run a second scan and adjust our strike zones before trying again."
"Yank me out and just do it. Stop worrying about killing me," Wei De's muffled voice echoed from inside the machine.
Sun Ya and Su Jin exchanged a heavy look. Su Jin nodded, "We roll the dice, then. Find me the tools and map out the strike zones."
Sun Ya gave a curt nod and turned toward Cheng Du, who was already pulling Wei De from the tube.
"Get him to the OR first."
...
The four of them relocated to the pristine operating theater, where Wei De was quickly stripped to the waist.
To prevent any involuntary spasms from ruining the procedure, they strapped him tight against the surgical table with heavy restraints.
Sun Ya stood over him, speaking with grim authority. "The parasite is anchored diagonally. Based on the imaging, its primary nerve cluster—the head—is lodged between your eighth and tenth ribs on the right side. That puts it dangerously close to your liver and adrenal glands. A strike there will likely trigger agonizing pain and massive nerve shock. You're going to have to bite down and take it, Old Wei."
"You don't have any anesthesia or painkillers lying around?" Wei De asked, his face a bloodless mask.
"Chemicals will dull your nervous system. We need you lucid right now. If something goes wrong, you need to tell us instantly so we can correct it. Suck it up."
With that, Sun Ya swapped his forceps for a sterile surgical marker, drawing three distinct target rings over Wei De's ribcage.
He slathered the area with iodine, then fixed his intense gaze on Su Jin. "You've got three surgical trocars on the tray beside you. They're marked with millimeter gradations. We have no idea how dense the parasite's carapace is, so you have to drive them in hard! Brutally fast! If you don't punch through on the first strike, Old Wei's mortality rate skyrockets."
"Listen to me: exactly 6.7 inches deep. Not a fraction more, not a fraction less. Do you want to run a dry trial in the air?"
Su Jin picked up one of the wicked, elongated needles from the tray. His jaw was rigid as he shadow-stabbed the empty air a few times, testing the weight.
He let out a long, slow exhale. "I've got the angle... Kill the lights. I'm infinitely more precise in pitch darkness."
"Are you sure you don't want to practice a little more?" Wei De stammered, panic bleeding into his voice.
"Overthinking it will ruin my muscle memory," Su Jin replied, his eyes locked onto the needle. "Relax. I've got extensive anatomical disassembly experience. A med student couldn't peel a body apart cleaner than I can."
"And once the lights are out, my kinetic control is flawless."
"Don't try to bullshit me, Little Li... what you do isn't dissection, it's glorified corpse mutilation..." Wei De squeezed his eyes shut, bracing for the end.
Sun Ya shot the old man a withering glare and roared, "Shut your mouth! The second you feel anything, you spit it out loud and clear! Going dark!"
With a heavy clack, the massive shadowless surgical overheads snapped off.
The entire room was instantly swallowed by an oppressive, pitch-black void. The ragged breathing of the four men echoed loudly in the silence.
Su Jin clamped the three needles between his fingers, locked onto the strike zones, and slammed his hands downward with terrifying force!
In the absolute darkness, the millimeter gradations on the steel needles glowed with razor-sharp clarity in Su Jin's mutated vision.
He drove them down exactly 6.7 inches. Not a millimeter more, not a millimeter less.
"AGHHH!!!"
The exact second the steel pierced his internal organs, Wei De unleashed a guttural, tearing shriek, his entire body violently convulsing against the restraints.
Sun Ya slammed the lights back on, his eyes locking onto the table as a surge of wild joy flooded his face.
"Old Wei! What's your status! Talk to me!"
Wei De couldn't form words, thrashing and howling in sheer agony, but the dense, sickly web of corrupted veins across his chest was visibly receding.
The next second.
The three steel needles buried in his chest shot upward like cannon fire, followed by three high-pressure geysers of boiling, orange-red gore erupting straight toward the ceiling.
The foul, unknown fluid instantly splattered across the overhead tiles in a sizzling mess.
Operating on pure feral instinct, Su Jin snatched a stainless-steel surgical tray from the cart and slammed it over Wei De's wounds like a riot shield.
The geyser hammered relentlessly against the steel, keeping the three of them from being drenched in the horrific spray.
Several agonizing seconds passed before Wei De let out one final, rattling groan and went completely limp. Su Jin immediately tossed the sludge-covered tray aside.
The three of them peered over the table, finding Wei De completely unconscious.
"Move! Get him back in the scanner, right now!" Sun Ya ordered decisively.
Cheng Du, already closest to the door, grabbed the rails of the bed and sprinted down the hall, shoving the old man back into the MRI tube with brutal efficiency.
Sun Ya's fingers flew across the console as he waited for the computer to render the new images.
The moment the scans populated, absolute euphoria washed over both his and Su Jin's faces.
"The worm is gone!"
"It's really gone... Was that orange sludge the parasite?" Sun Ya muttered to himself, baffled. "That doesn't make physiological sense. How did it completely liquefy? Unless Old Wei developed some sort of mutant rejection ability that melted the foreign body..."
"Enough theorizing. Pull him out so I can check his vitals," Sun Ya ordered, and the crew wheeled the bed back into an adjoining examination room.
Wei De was still dead to the world. Sun Ya leaned in close to inspect the massive puncture wounds, only to freeze in absolute disbelief.
"Look at this. Are my cataracts acting up, or am I losing my mind? Where the hell are the puncture wounds?"
"Your eyes are fine. There isn't a scratch on him," Su Jin said, his Adam's apple bobbing as he swallowed hard. "Don't tell me Elder Wei's new ability is hyper-regeneration?"
"Well, that's easy to figure out. Just stab him and see what happens."
The moment the words left Cheng Du's mouth, Su Jin and Sun Ya shot him twin glares of absolute disgust.
Then, without skipping a beat, Sun Ya turned around, jogged back to the OR, grabbed a scalpel, and handed it directly to Su Jin.
Without a single word, Su Jin took the blade and casually sliced a fingernail-sized gash into Wei De's ribs.
"Tch! Hypocrites," Cheng Du scoffed, rolling his eyes dramatically before leaning in to watch.
Before their very eyes, the shallow incision Su Jin had just carved into Wei De's flank completely stitched itself together and vanished!