[Yes, you can call me System. Perhaps in your mind, only I, System, can rationally explain myself.]
[I know what you are thinking. You are not sick. Am I a gift or an ability?]
[After coming into contact with the pollution source, those contaminated by it are known as the Pollutants; those that are untouched by the pollution, and successfully awaken their innate abilities, they are known as the Enlighteneds. This matter will be accepted by people in about a few months. Paper can’t contain fire… What kind of world do you think you live in? In fact, you have already met an Enlightened. You’re smart… It’s Lin Sinan. That’s right, so are you.]
[Although your ability is a little weak, you still have me. I am a great talent that you have, really.]
[You didn’t obtain me, I chose you.]
Lu Yan opened his eyes. He turned on the TV and switched to the news channel.
The real situation remained a secret and was not disclosed in the lockdowned H City.
“The distorted person has been dealt with. Please rest assured. The pollution disease is not contagious.” The reporter smiled sweetly in front of the camera.
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[Gzvbswtb kv kp sdzu y zso-zlhlz rszzwvydv, kv byp y prlnkyz aszl yp y ryaypkvkn Ikdtqkpb ltt.]
[Tyhl usw vakle rzyukdt Twdtau Fbyaj Ohszwvksd?2[Rv’p y tyxl.] Mbl byvnble Ikdtqkpb nyd elhswa vbl lttp sq svbla ryaypkvkn qkpb.]
[Don’t mention until now, some doctors still think that traditional medical methods are useful for pollution disease?]
The moment Lu Yan put down his garden trowel, his phone’s ringtone rang abruptly and loudly.
Lu Yan was taken aback and answered the phone.
“Dr. Lu, help me…” Doctor Li’s voice was hoarse on the other end of the phone.
Doctor Li’s name was Li Rui, the doctor who performed the operation with him yesterday.
“I don’t know who to look for, I dare not go to the hospital.”
It was currently winter. Along the coast of K City, the latitude was low, and it was not cold here.
Under his thick jacket, Li Rui’s arm had been scratched with bloodstains, and his nails were full of flesh and blood like a scene of self-mutilation. He didn’t realize it as he still scratched his skin with his sharp nails.
On the skin of Li Rui’s arm, translucent fish eggs were embedded in them, like small blisters, which were strangely red under the influence of blood.
He was sitting on a bench in the park. Wearing a hat, a cotton-padded jacket, and a down jacket, the coldness was still like a sharp needle, spreading from the limbs to the depths of his soul. This was a parasitic egg plundering its host’s heat crazily in order to survive.
Probably because his expression was too neurotic, the old people who were doing morning exercises were staying far away.
Lu Yan asked, “What’s the matter?”
Li Rui lowered his voice, “Those things are growing on my arm…”
Yesterday, they performed the operation together.
Lu Yan quickly realized what Li Rui was talking about.
Lu Yan frowned, “You should contact the pollution center.”
Six years ago, when pollution first broke out abroad, many small outbreaks of mass hysteria occurred all around the world. It was later confirmed by experts that this was an infectious disease in the new century, which was called a pollution disease.
Therefore, Pollution Disease Prevention and Control Centers had been established all over the world.
Li Rui madly shook his head frantically, “When I was in college, I did an internship at the pollution center of A City. Those people will be centralized. High temperature kills… I don’t want to die! Help me, Dr. Lu! We did surgery yesterday. You heard what the officer said, as long as you cut off the eggs, it’s okay.”
It was the pledged duty of a doctor to save the dying and heal the wounded. Li Rui had never met anyone who carried out this responsibility and belief more than Lu Yan.
This was also the reason why he contacted Lu Yan.
Before Lu Yan had time to respond, there was a knock on the door of his house that had not been visited for many years.
“Lu Yan, I’m going to suffer…”
“Wait, I’ll call you later.”
Lu Yan hung up the phone and turned on the smart peephole. The visitor’s face appeared on the display screen at the door.
There were two people, one of whom was Lin Sinan from yesterday.
Today, he was wearing regular clothes: sneakers, jeans, and a white T-shirt under a dark working jacket. 3The dark working jacket may look like this:
Lin Sinan said into the door’s peephole, “Hello, Dr. Lu. I’m Lin Sinan. We’ve met before. Because the operation yesterday was infectious to a certain extent, I brought a colleague to help you check it. You can rest assured that we are proper personnel.”
Lin Sinan fumbled for a long time and finally found the ID from his colleague’s pocket.
“K City’s Pollution Disease Control and Prevention Center.” Above was the photo, below was the official seal. The indicated job title was “Examiner.”
Lu Yan opened the door and took out the shoe covers.
Lin Sinan walked into the house and looked around quietly.
It looked like a model house.4[A model house or a “display” house is a new house or apartment that has been decorated and filled with furniture to show buyers what similar homes might be like when people are living in them (Cambridge Dictionary, n. d.)] Almost no breath of life could be seen. In the semi-open kitchen, the cutting boards were extremely clean and there was no trace of being used.
In addition to these, Lin Sinan also noticed an interesting thing.
Lu Yan should know how to use a bow. An archery target hung on the wall of the living room with many holes on it.
The examiner opened his briefcase, sat on the dining table, and softly said, “The examination requires a little blood. Is that fine with you, Dr. Lu?”
His suitcase’ side was a little crooked.
Lu Yan controlled his impulse and didn’t correct it, but just silently stretched out his arm.
The blood collection was quickly completed, and the drop of blood was put into an unfamiliar square instrument on the spot.
A few minutes later, the examiner said, “You are not suffering from pollution disease. If you have fever or physical discomfort during this period of time, you can contact our Pollution Disease Prevention and Control Center at any time. We will provide corresponding assistance.
Lu Yan stared into his eyes and asked, “Is the pollution disease really just an infectious disease?”
“Pollution disease is certainly an infectious disease. It’s just a new type of genetic distortion. Pollution disease is extremely contagious. A few years ago, it caused tens of thousands of deaths abroad. However, thanks to the unremitting efforts of scientists from all over the world, the disease has been brought under control. Pollution disease patients only appear in small areas. You don’t need to be nervous.”
In Lu Yan’s mind, there was a disdainful laugh from the System, [That’s just because it was all low-level Pollutants in the beginning. Class C Pollutants can destroy a city, and countless lives were taken during the disaster in those years. But being weak is the original sin of mankind.]
[By the way, to remind you, it’s better to send these people away quickly if you don’t want to be taken to the Research Institute.]
Seeing the somewhat awkward silence, Lu Yan asked, “Thank you for clarifying. Is there anything else?”
“…No, that’s all. We wish you all the best.”
“Thank you.”
After a while, two employees from the Pollution Disease Prevention and Control Center left Lu Yan’s home.
Lin Sinan took the lead in saying, “Mysophobia5[It pertains to obsession with cleanliness.] is one of the most common clinical manifestations of obsessive-compulsive disorder. The living environment is typical and there is no pollution source.”
The examiner said, “Lu Yan— his father is a pollution disease patient and has many previous records of domestic violence. His mother committed suicide by jumping off a building when he was six years old.”
“Lu Yan was imprisoned and abused by his father for a long time and was only rescued at the age of 12. He was diagnosed with photophobia,6[Light sensitivity or intolerance of light] claustrophobia,7[Irrational fear of confined spaces] and schizophrenia.8[Its symptoms and signs include a combination of hallucinations, delusions, and extremely disordered thinking and behavior that impairs daily functioning (Mayo Clinic, 2020).] He also had a split personality— an anti-social personality and highly aggressive.”
“At the age of 16, Lu Yan recovered and was discharged from the hospital. In the same year, his father became a Pollutant and was detained in the Research Institute as No. 18.”
“In 2117, Pollutant 18 fled from the institute. This is the only incident of Class A Pollutants escaping. Although No. 18’s distortion is in the brain, it led researchers to conclude that Pollutants will have wisdom that is not inferior to humans in the later stage of infection growth.”
Lin Sinan responded, “Yes, so the Research Institute has been monitoring Lu Yan for a long time to see if No. 18 will contact him.”
“Squadron Leader Lin, you know what my talent is. I felt a breath of danger in him.” The examiner said solemnly.
He’s a support class Enlightened that awakened the [Ability: Early Warning]. It allowed him to predict danger to a certain extent.
“The result of the examination came out. The spiritual power threshold is 0 and mutation degree is 0. An ordinary person. I thought he could become an Enlightened.” Lin Sinan took out a military tranquillizer from his pocket and poured one for himself, “Let’s go. Time to go to the other side.”
According to the research of the Academy of Sciences, organisms with a mutation degree of 0 to 100 still belong to the category of human beings. An Enlightened was a human who was polluted and possessed talent, but only had a mutation degree of less than 100. The strength of an Enlightened was determined through the spiritual power threshold.
If the mutation degree exceeded 100, it was no longer a human being. Like those animals, plants, and even inorganic substances, they were called Pollutants.
Yet Lu Yan was 0.
Li Rui had been waiting for Lu Yan’s call.
He was sitting on a park bench, getting colder and colder. The world in front of him was gradually fading and becoming gray.
The weather became increasingly humid, and fog spread around.
The high fever made Li Rui’s consciousness blur.
It wasn’t until he inexplicably felt that someone was approaching that he raised his head.
He didn’t know the two people nearby.
Intuition told him that these people came for him.
He would be detained at the Prevention and Treatment Center and disappear into a thousand-degree high-temperature incinerator like those strange patients he had seen back then!
Without any hesitation, Li Rui ran away.
The two people who were taking out their work permits were taken aback for a moment, and then they started to chase.
Li Rui’s physical strength was not good. He would usually lie down tired after a few hours of surgery, let alone that he was currently clothed like a penguin. However, his speed was getting faster and faster just like a gust of wind.
During the run, his hearing became extremely keen, and he could even hear these people cursing from a distance——
“Isn’t this parasitic pollution? Why does its host already undergo distortion?”
Distortion…?
Right, when ordinary people were suffering from pollution disease, the abnormal condition of the body was called distortion.
Li Rui didn’t run for long when the sound of a helicopter came from the sky.
He looked up and saw the helicopter open its door. At the door, Lin Sinan, who was heavily armed with a safety rope, raised his sniper gun.
In the loudspeaker, his voice spread far, “That person ahead, please stop immediately and squat down with your hands behind your head. We are personnel from the Pollution Disease Prevention and Control Center. After preliminary analysis, you have been infected by a parasite. Please stop moving immediately! We will send you for specialized treatment!”
“If you refuse to accept investigation and treatment, we will take special emergency measures.”
However, Li Rui turned a deaf ear, still running frantically.
A drop of sweat dripped from Lin Sinan’s temples and from the earphones, a command from the Headquarters came, “The patient is suffering from parasitic pollution. It has been distorted and will become a source of infection. It is recommended to kill.”
Therefore, Lin Sinan pulled the trigger.
Using the [Ability: Homing Shot], within the range of shooting, he could automatically hit the target.
He was hundreds of meters above the ground, Li Rui was running, and the plane was tremulous. It was hard to imagine that someone could shoot accurately in this situation.
But the moment the gunshot sounded, a flower of blood exploded on Li Rui’s body.
However, he did not fall as expected.
It was a very horrible scene. The head was gone but its body was still rushing forward.
Lin Sinan frowned and very quickly shot twice— no more than ten seconds before and after the first shot.
The sniper gun he used was loaded with heavy bullets. As long as he shot a target, it would definitely die.
Li Rui was certainly impossible to be alive.
Nonetheless, like a worm parasite on a mantis, it could control the mantis to commit suicide by jumping into the water. The same was true for the parasitic things on him.
It suddenly rained on a gloomy day.
In the heavy rain, the body finally found its destination.
The moat of K City, Qu River.
It jumped into the river with ecstasy.
The body was soon salvaged.
Lin Sinan couldn’t care about the pollution, took off Li Rui’s clothes, and checked carefully.
There were no traces of fish eggs on his body.
Nevertheless, no one was happy about it. Beside the corpse, the surging river flowed continuously.
The two soldiers lowered their heads in shame, “I’m sorry, we can’t catch up with him.”
In general, there were three stages of distortion, with a buffer period of at least two weeks. However, Li Rui only took a few hours from being contaminated to distorting.
This was so unreasonable that Lin Sinan didn’t react.
People were evolving, and Pollutants could also naturally evolve.
Lin Sinan’s expression became extremely ugly, “The sudden pollution incident is tentatively classified as Class B. The Class C Pollutant, ‘Parasitic Fish,’ has mutated, the recovery has failed, and the extent of the pollution spread is not clear at the time being. Request support from Headquarters.”
The author has something to say:
*Some plot contents have been modified.
*The time point has been modified.
Translator’s Note
You can see how terrible the situation is when Li Rui’s pronouns changed from ‘he’ to ‘it.’
You can’t have a story with an apocalyptic theme to it without some casualties! What a way to go. Reminds me of Guinea worms… thanks for your hard work translating!
This is kinda different from the apocalypse novels I’ve read before since it always has rebirth attached to it and bla bla bla …. Anyway I’ll start camping here uwu
thank you for the chapter!absolute chilling on how you knew sht hit the fan when it jumped to the river :p