Chapter 247: Chapter 247 Alex

Protest marches erupted across the United States.

Major city thoroughfares and city halls became the venting grounds for the American public’s anger.

Police, fully armed and on high alert, strictly maintained order and security, but even so, small-scale clashes and bloodshed continued to play out.

State governors and city mayors took turns speaking from government podiums and on television media, affirming their determination to combat the Joker Organization while hoping the public would calm down and view the issues rationally.

As the protests unfolded like a raging fire, Jason’s reputation soared along with them, easily breaking the ten million mark.

Inside the biological laboratory, Jason was in the conference room listening to Dr. Sterns report on the progress of the serum development.

The second-generation Arc Reactor and Gamma technology were the Joker Organization’s most critical current tasks.

To keep a handle on things, Jason shuttled back and forth between the two laboratories every day.

[Ding! Reputation points have reached 10,000,000. Congratulations, host, you have obtained a chance to recruit an ally. Would you like to use it immediately?]

After nearly half a year, it was finally time to recruit another one.

Jason’s expression remained unchanged, but he couldn’t help feeling a surge of excitement.

[Ding! Villain ally ’Alex Mercer’ activated. Character source: Prototype!]

[Friendly reminder: The ally has lost all memories. Please use force or intellect to persuade and recruit.]

“Alex Mercer?”

Jason frowned slightly, searching his mind for the name.

Alright, no memory of him at all.

*

A hospital in Manhattan.

The energy sphere Jason dropped before leaving killed and injured over twenty thousand people, causing the admission pressure on New York hospitals to multiply instantly.

Because there were simply too many people, hospital beds and equipment were insufficient, forcing a large number of patients with light to moderate injuries to lie in the hospital corridors.

At a glance, the long hallways were filled with groaning patients, leaving doctors and nurses with barely any room to step.

Beds, equipment, doctors, and nurses were all under immense strain, inevitably leading to a plummet in the quality of care. Many injured people who still had a slim chance of survival died simply due to delays.

Once a patient died, the hospital immediately moved them to the morgue. If family members could be contacted, the body was handed over to them for handling.

If there was no identification and no family could be reached, the only option was for a hearse to haul them straight to the crematorium.

It was cruel, but currently, it was the best solution available.

The morgue is a gloomy and terrifying place; this is a consensus in any country.

However, compared to the exhausting work upstairs, enduring the insults and complaints of patients, sitting down here in the air conditioning wasn’t a bad choice.

The three doctors on rotation today held this very thought.

They had just handed over a patient’s body to family members and were chatting while patrolling the morgue.

Because there were too many bodies and not enough freezer units, a large number of corpses were placed directly on gurneys. The entire morgue was filled with over a hundred of them.

Although the temperature here wasn’t as low as inside the freezers, it was still sub-zero Celsius. The three doctors wore coats and still had to rub their hands and breathe on them for warmth.

“God, when will this bad luck end? I’m only getting three hours of sleep a day right now.”

“The corridors are full of patients, everyone is working overtime. To return to normal operations, it’ll take at least half a month.”

“Luckily, hospitals in surrounding cities helped take some of the load, or else you wouldn’t even get three hours.”

“When gods fight, mortals suffer. New York is the Joker Organization’s headquarters; staying here isn’t a long-term plan. I’m thinking of quitting and moving to another city.”

“Sigh! It’s the same everywhere. Never mind domestically, the Joker Organization’s influence is starting to expand abroad. Look at Paris.”

“Still better than New York. I’m planning to go to a small city to live. Low population, little influence, the Joker Organization probably won’t care about it.”

“The government can’t be counted on. The only hope is superhero like Iron Man”

“Yeah, if even those superheroes can’t do anything, Earth will fall into the Joker Organization’s hands sooner or later. Just thinking about that future wakes me up at night.”

“I agree with you. And there isn’t much time left for the superheroes.”

The three chatted casually, but their attitudes toward the future were all pessimistic.

“Huh!”

“What’s wrong?”

“Look, there’s something wrong with this guy.”

Passing by a gurney, a meticulous doctor noticed a problem.

It was a young man wearing a black and red hooded sweatshirt and jeans.

The three gathered around the bed to observe, their expressions growing increasingly grave.

The hearse came twice a day, which meant the time of death for all corpses here did not exceed 12 hours.

It is common knowledge that at this stage, the body’s blood coagulates, the skin turns dark, rigor mortis begins to spread, and a man experiences the last and most powerful erection of his life.

But the corpse before them had a relaxed expression, soft hair, pale skin, neat clothes, and no external injuries. If he weren’t in a morgue, everyone would assume he was asleep.

The three doctors looked at each other, their eyes full of confusion and doubt.

One bold doctor reached out, touching the corpse’s skin through his glove.

Cold! Soft!

According to post-mortem calculations, a body at this time should be in the stage of rigor mortis, stiff all over. Rigor mortis fading and the body becoming soft happens after 36 hours.

Doubts multiplied in their eyes. One doctor guessed, “Could it be a state of suspended animation?”

“Impossible. Feel his body temperature; I estimate it’s only about ten degrees celsius.”

No matter who it was, as long as they fell within the category of human, survival at this body temperature was absolutely impossible.

Another doctor added, “Wearing so little clothes and staying in sub-zero temperatures for ten hours, even suspended animation would turn into real death.”

The bold doctor opened the corpse’s eyelids.

The pupils were not dilated and lacked luster, but the eyeballs hadn’t flattened. He lifted an arm; there was not a trace of rigor mortis.

“There’s no rigor mortis because his muscles haven’t depleted their ATP—but that’s impossible if his heart isn’t pumping oxygen. He’s a walking violation of the Second Law of Thermodynamics.”

“Strange, too strange.”

The three doctors discussed it for a long time but remained baffled, so they had to call their hospital superiors for instructions.

“The corpse is very strange… it has signs of both life and death simultaneously… yes… no drinking or smoking weed… I swear, I’m very sober… Check, what’s his name?”

One doctor crouched down to check the tag: “Alex Mercer.”

“Anything else?”

“No, just a name.”

The moment the name was read aloud, the corpse’s brow furrowed, and he bolted upright as if startled awake from a nightmare.

“Ah!”

“Oh my God!”

“He’s not dead, he’s not dead!”

Seeing the corpse suddenly wake up, the three were thoroughly terrified, screaming and wailing as they ran out of the morgue.

“Ah… ah… ah…”

Alex clutched his head, panting heavily.

He looked up at his surroundings, but everything felt incredibly unfamiliar.

His mind was a blank slate. Aside from common knowledge, he had not a single shred of memory.

“Where is this?”

“Who am I?”

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