Gu Ji's pupils narrowed slightly.

Coughing, red spots on the skin, most likely due to a viral infection or an allergy, such as eczema, measles, hemorrhagic fever, smallpox, etc.

One spot, two spots, four spots...

On the exposed skin of the arms and calves alone, he noticed at least four rash-like red spots. The spot on the calf was already the size of a child's palm!

Large areas of red spots on the limbs, with acute symptoms emerging, indicated that the virus incubation period was over and the onset phase had begun.

Although he couldn't ascertain the exact type of virus set to erupt on the cruise ship yet.

Based on the mission's "three-day" time limit, the virus's incubation period must be very short, with extremely high infectivity.

"Slurp~ Hmm, the pasta at this buffet restaurant is really nice..."

"Doko e iku no ka (Where are you going)?"

"Achoo..."

...

Around the table with the man in the brown hat, a European and American person was eating pasta voraciously, a Japanese person stood up to get food, brushing past him, and someone sneezed, spraying droplets into the air.

Gu Ji's expression shifted, immediately discarding the pizza in his hand, and putting his mask back on.

The brown-haired man drained his beer and got up, swaying as he prepared to leave, but bumped right into a Middle Eastern man wearing a headscarf.

"Hey! Watch where you're going, drunkard!"

The Middle Eastern man pushed him away with a look of displeasure, brushing his clothes as if in disgust.

A cleaner quickly wheeled a food waste cart over, picked up the beer bottle the brown-hatted man had drunk from, and threw it into the trash can. The residual liquid splattered onto the floor and the leg of a nearby table.

"I have some business to attend to, so I'm leaving first."

Gu Ji swiftly took out his phone, snapped photos of the close contacts, said this, and got up to leave, leaving Ito Meiyu behind, who hadn't yet reacted.

Weaving through the crowd, he watched as the brown-hatted man's hand touched the table corner, the door handle, and then approached the sightseeing elevator entrance, squeezing inside with a few passersby.

Click, click, click, Gu Ji repeatedly pressed the phone's shutter, capturing all the people inside the elevator, opting not to follow them up.

Even though sticking close would make it easiest to determine the brown-hatted man's location and information, elevators are extremely cramped, enclosed spaces where air circulation is poor. Even with an N95 mask, he didn't dare take the risk.

If he were to get infected, the mission would fail, and the system would impose a random penalty, affecting his subsequent intelligence gathering — not worth the risk.

Moreover, even without entering the elevator, Gu Ji had ways to estimate the location.

He stood in front of the elevator, staring at the display screen showing the changing floor numbers — the entire cruise ship had 18 decks. He merely needed to note the floors where the elevator stopped and then search each floor one by one.

"9, 12, 15..."

It stopped at three floors in total.

Gu Ji switched to another elevator, starting his search from the ninth floor. Fortunately, the target was wearing a hat with a floral shirt, making him relatively easy to identify, and he finally encountered the target at a casino on the 12th floor.

What he hadn't expected was that the brown-hatted man now had a female companion, very young, with a great figure, wearing a pink form-fitting dress, with golden wavy hair and bronzed skin — a typical Shibuya girl.

He silently followed the two, moving through several locations, carefully recording every close contact and the places they lingered.

The three elements of infectious disease: source of infection, mode of transmission, and susceptible population.

What Gu Ji was doing now was pinpointing the source of infection and recording contacts. Once these individuals exhibited symptoms similar to those of the brown-hatted man, it could basically be confirmed as an infectious disease event.

Then, based on these infected individuals and the contact locations, he could deduce the transmission routes, test the virus type, and then implement effective control measures to prevent the virus from further erupting within the cruise ship.

The brown-hatted man and his female companion played for less than forty minutes before turning and returning to a room on the same floor.

Gu Ji followed them all the way, and as he walked, he inexplicably felt his legs grow sluggish, his head heavy and dizzy. At that moment, a silhouette suddenly rushed in front of him and grabbed him.

He instinctively sidestepped to evade but, feeling dizzy, moved a beat too slow and was still caught by the collar.

"Hey! Hey! Anata wa doko de su ka (Who the hell are you)?"

The silhouette shouted angrily, reaching to pull off his mask.

Taking a closer look, Gu Ji realized it was the brown-hatted man. Hurriedly, he kneed the man's groin hard, his left hand propelled like the wind, decisively striking toward the throat.

Bam! Poof!

"Ah!"

The brown-hatted man retracted backward, yelping in pain while coughing and clutching his throat. His female companion hurried to help him.

Gu Ji, though weakened physically, retained his reflexes and combat experience, easily handling an ordinary person.

"Hey!"

In the corridor, a burly security guard in a black uniform noticed the scuffle and rushed over to inquire.

Gu Ji immediately took a step back, distancing himself from the brown-hatted man, indicating that he didn't speak Japanese well.

"What happened? Why did you start fighting?"

The security guard switched to English to ask again.

Gu Ji pretended to be a vulnerable woman, shaking his head frantically, "I don't know, he was the one who attacked first!"

Hearing this, the brown-haired man panicked and yelled out, "You were tailing me first! The buffet, the casino, now following me to my room, what are you up to? Were you hired by that damned woman?!"

Though Gu Ji was being cautious, the white mask and the white coat remained too conspicuous.

His mind racing, he simply pointed at the red spots on the man's arm, "I just saw his red spots and got scared, wanted to confirm if he was deliberately spreading an infectious disease."

The security guard, seeing the red spots, was momentarily taken aback.

"Sir, what's that on your arm..."

"It's just eczema," the brown-haired man's voice lowered, seemingly guilty.

"Do you have any proof?"

Gu Ji pressed on.

"What proof? Who are you to meddle in my business?"

"Alright, let's both take a step back and end this here."

The security guard mediated between them. After the brown-hatted man left, he turned to Gu Ji, offering a confident smile, "Don't be afraid, miss. If he bothers you again, feel free to come to me!"

"Thank you."

Gu Ji nodded, discreetly noting the brown-hatted man's room number. Just as he was about to leave, the dizziness intensified, and a vibration came from his wrist.

He raised his wrist to see, and the smart bracelet displayed a string of red text: Blood sugar level 10.9!

"Is my blood sugar that high?"

No wonder his cardiovascular circulation and digestive system were so severely impaired; it turns out it was Jian Na's issue with sugar regulation and metabolism.

He needed to be more careful next time, can't eat so much pizza again.

After resting for a while and waiting for the blood sugar level on the bracelet to drop, he began observing the close contacts he had photographed. After all, the "source" was already identified, and the data collected was abundant enough. Now, it was a matter of seeing if these people would develop symptoms.

"Cough, cough..."

Suddenly, he noticed an elderly Japanese man coughing twice.

Hastily flipping through his phone, Gu Ji found a photo of the white-haired man sharing the same gaming table with the brown-haired man, even though there was no direct physical contact, the distance was quite close.

"Cough, cough... cough..."

Unexpectedly, as he was about to get closer for further observation, someone behind him also coughed twice!!

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