Welcome to My Lab (2)

At first, I thought it was the lungs. I suppressed my urge to vomit, pulled them out, and shoved them toward the zombie, and sure enough, it didn't recognize me. My prediction was right, and I felt a secret thrill, already pondering how to apply this. I couldn't exactly carry them around like this—it was a bit of a bad look. I wondered if I could fold them, shrink their volume, and hang them somewhere. I persuaded myself that while it was disgusting, it was a necessary sacrifice for the sake of efficiency.

But after a while, the zombie started to recognize me again and react. It felt similar to the head. It hadn't recognized me at first, but after some time, it did. Was the effect really that limited? Was it not the lungs after all? I fell into a deep contemplation. Standing in front of a dismembered zombie corpse while pondering this wasn't exactly a pleasant way to spend one's time, but I couldn't just clean it up yet. I hadn't gained anything concrete.

So, I set the lungs aside and pulled out other organs to test them. Heart, liver, kidneys, stomach, small intestine, large intestine... none of the others elicited any reaction. In fact, to my eyes, they looked like they were drooling because they wanted to eat them. Come to think of it, that made sense. These things are cannibals. To them, it must have felt like I was holding out food for them to eat. But that, I suppose, is where I’m better than those zombies. At least I have no intention of engaging in cannibalism.

The funny thing is, when I hold the empty carcass after removing all the organs, the zombie doesn't perceive me. That means there is still something left in this body. So, I continued with the process of elimination. As someone not well-versed in medicine, this was the only basic method I could employ. Was it the bones? I sliced off the ribs, gathered them, and held them out. Unfortunately, no. I put the bones aside, too. Right, it couldn't be the bones. What else was there? I didn't really know what was what, so I just started hacking the remaining body into pieces. I made sure to clear away all the bones. This was grueling labor. The only silver lining was that the initial disgust had already been swallowed up by my stubbornness and curiosity. Right. Forensic pathologists do this all the time, don't they? They do this kind of anatomy when studying to be doctors. So, this is something I can get used to. I’m not the only one.

Then, I discovered a suspicious area. The neck and the armpits. When I held out the neck, the reaction was the same as when I held out the whole body. The armpits weren't quite as effective, but they still elicited no reaction. Hmm. What’s in the neck and armpits? I needed to verify this. I had to leave the lab for a moment to look up some data. The procedures, including disinfection, are a hassle every time I go in and out, so I had to figure it out all at once. I didn't want to make multiple trips.

After looking up the information, I had a rough idea of what it was. Lymph nodes. The places we call lymph glands. They contain lymphocytes and play a role in defending the body by removing foreign substances like bacteria that enter the body. I see. The spores were accumulating here. And zombies detect the spores accumulated here and don't attack each other. I don't know if this theory is correct. But I had already witnessed the phenomenon. The zombie recognized the neck and armpits where the lymph nodes are and ignored me. So, it didn't matter if the theory wasn't certain. I only needed to utilize the results.

Good. Lymph nodes, is it? That means I don't need to carry around the entire neck or armpits. I went back into the lab and dug into the neck and armpit areas. I was able to find the lymph nodes connected to the lymphatic vessels. Small, bean-shaped lymph nodes the size of a pinky fingernail. I held them and approached the zombie again. The zombie ignored me. As if I were invisible. And that meant the fruits of my research had finally ripened.

Keuk. So this is what it feels like. I feel proud. It was worth rummaging through zombie corpses. It wasn't a waste of effort.

'If you extract and carry a zombie's lymph node, the zombie perceives you as one of its own and does not attack.' This was proven by experiment. But it wasn't complete yet. I had only experimented on one specimen. I had to do more. Besides, there were many other questions. The biggest one was: what is the difference between the lymph nodes of someone who has turned into a zombie and human lymph nodes? But since there is a difference, that’s why zombies don't attack each other while they attack humans, right? There was no way for me to figure that out. I’m not a medical doctor or an authority in this field. And I didn't want to share this with P. I’ve received things from them, but there’s no need to share such a honey pot with others. I’m selfish, after all.

Anyway, I moved on to the next experiment. Would other zombies react to these lymph nodes as well? I approached the remaining police officer. He had been awake for a while. He had just squeezed his eyes shut while watching me mutilate the zombie corpse. When I approached, he looked at me with pathetic eyes. Since his mouth was gagged, he couldn't speak, but he was begging me with his innocent-looking eyes. To let him live. To please not kill him. It seemed he had thrown away all his pride in the face of death. Well, that was to be expected. It wasn't just dying; it was going to be a gruesome death. Besides, he seemed to know why I had approached him. That must be why he was begging like this. He didn't want to become a zombie. But that was impossible. I had gone through all that trouble to catch him; why would I let him live?

So, I shoved the zombie's mucus into the man's nose. He struggled with all his might, blowing through his nose to try and expel it. It was pathetic. Truly. I poured more mucus in and then pinched his nose shut. He shook his head and tried to struggle, but that was never going to work. He was helpless. After a moment, I let go, and he tried to blow his nose. But it was meaningless. Since enough zombie mucus had already entered his system, his body jerked, and he began to turn into a zombie. Right. This process. Something must change in the lymph nodes during this time, right? I couldn't feel any external changes. Just the tendons in his neck bulging out. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Since there was nothing more to find out, I just waited for a while. And a little later, he had completely turned into a zombie. He had become Zombie 3.

I put Zombie 2 and Zombie 3 together. As expected, the two zombies didn't show any particular reaction to each other. It felt like they were ignoring each other. A sense of indifference. But if you looked closely, it wasn't exactly ignoring. They seemed to acknowledge each other's existence but just didn't care. Well, animals and other zombies were like that, too. They did act like they were moving in a pack, after all. Anyway, I approached those two zombies. They both rolled their eyes and looked at me at the same time. Good. Then what if I held the lymph node this time? When I approached them holding the lymph node, there was no reaction. I could be certain now. Since I got the same reaction from multiple zombies, I could generalize this. Probably?

Now, what I needed ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to check was... hmm. How long does the effect of this lymph node last? To do that, I would need several lymph nodes. I needed to run multiple experiments to get an average value. I extracted the body fluids from Zombie 2 and Zombie 3. Then, I picked up an axe and struck Zombie 2's neck. Should I practice chopping wood? This is incredibly tiring. And so, Zombie 2 died as well. Leaving me with a lymph node. I left Zombie 3 for a moment. Then I went to the next room. The two women had also woken up in the meantime, and since their mouths were gagged, they looked at me and made muffled sounds, saying something or other. But how was I supposed to understand that? Ugh. I took one woman and brought her to the next room. It was a good thing I built several rooms in the lab. To think I could use them so effectively. I left Zombie 3 and the woman in the room. Then, I attached the lymph node I had torn from Zombie 2 to the woman's neck using white medical tape.

"You'd better be careful not to let it fall off."

I said that and ripped the tape off the zombie's mouth. Then I closed the door, came out, checked the situation inside through the window on the door, and started a stopwatch. Checking once every five minutes should be enough, right? The zombie is quiet for now. Since the woman has the lymph node attached, it knows she is one of its own. That's why it's quiet. But when the effect of that lymph node ends, or if it stops working, it will start causing trouble again. I just need to verify that. Then I can determine the safe duration of the lymph node's effect. While measuring the time, I cleaned up the lab. Two zombie corpses. Their heads and necks were severed, and one was hacked into pieces and scattered everywhere. Ugh. It would have been nice if I could have built an incinerator. But that was difficult. An incinerator isn't something you can just build because you want to. Besides, if I built something like that, the scope would immediately zoom in on me, suspecting something was wrong. I could never do that. So, I thought of a kiln. A kiln for firing pottery. Something like that. But that was surprisingly ineffective, too. I tried burning animal corpses, but they didn't burn as cleanly as I wanted. The ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠smell and smoke were terrible. So, in the end, burying these zombie corpses in the ground was the only way. There’s plenty of land anyway. So the earth will swallow these corpses and let them rot quietly. I gathered the zombie corpses together, loaded them onto a cart, and took them outside. Actually, it wouldn't matter if I just left them outside. There's no one around to see them anyway.

I came back in and checked the room where Zombie 3 and the woman were locked up. It had only been 10 minutes. The woman was pale and on the verge of fainting, and the zombie was still ignoring her. I turned around and cleaned the lab again. I don't like keeping the lab dirty with zombie corpses. I cleaned the lab while disinfecting it, keeping an eye on the room in between. Even after 40 minutes, the zombie still didn't pay any attention to the woman. This is good. Even just this much makes it useful in many ways.

In the end, the lymph node I extracted from the zombie made the woman invisible to the zombie for about 6 hours. 6 hours. That's an incredible amount of time. So, if you extract a zombie's lymph node, you can become an invisible person among zombies for 6 hours. An excellent achievement. I'm quite pleased. I wonder if anyone else has figured this out? Is there someone like me somewhere in the world? There must be. There will be. But it won't be common. Anyway, I was able to smile brightly thanks to the harvest I had gained. The only problem is that I have to clean up the urine that woman spilled. Damn it.