Lu Yan dialed Li Rui’s number.
He didn’t answer. Later, the other party’s mobile phone was out of power and automatically turned off.
On WeChat,1[Mobile text and voice messaging service] no one responded to his message.
Although Lu Yan and Doctor Li both work in the hospital, their relationship was not close enough to exchange home addresses.
Shortly after Lin Sinan left, the compensation for the last operation came and directly went to his account. After deducting the tax, there was a small six-figure sum.
It was the first time that Lu Yan had received such a generous bonus after working in the hospital for so many years.
Because he didn’t need to go to work for the time being, he didn’t go to the hospital.
Generally speaking, after earning a huge sum of money, people usually reward themselves by shopping.
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In the end, he only found a vague aerial photograph. A man in a black jacket was sprawled on the ground.
Lu Yan saw Li Rui wore it, saying that it was a Canadian Goose jacket sent by his girlfriend.
Doctor Li liked it very much and showed it off in the department for several days.
A little uneasiness grew in Lu Yan’s heart.
He drove to the nearby shopping mall and made frantic purchases.
The shopping mall didn’t seem to expect such a visit to the supermarket. It was like a customer who went to the warehouse for wholesale, and they directly arranged a truck to send back the things Lu Yan bought.
Food, medicine, mineral water, portable gas stove…
The things he bought filled his two guest rooms.
Thanks to Lu Yan living alone, otherwise he really couldn’t fit them all.
“Brother,2[Xiongdi (兄弟) translates to ‘brother’ in general. It is typically used as an intimate address between guys.] why are you buying so much? This would be enough for a few years.” The delivery boy who helped with the transportation was very puzzled.
Lu Yan was not a person who liked to explain, thus, he only replied, “I’m doing business on WeChat.”3[Kris Xian: Yup, it also has the shopping feature, too.]
Delivery boy, “…”
It was difficult to understand.
In the evening, Lu Yan turned on the TV as usual, listening to the evening news while preparing a meal.
“The source of pollution in H City has been brought under control. The state of emergency will be lifted and traffic will soon resume…”
While speaking, the female anchor’s expression abruptly changed, “Now we will broadcast an emergency news.”
“There was an unknown pollution disease in our city, and all activities are suspended. Please take the initiative to quarantine yourself at home and do not go out. K City is temporarily in lockdown!”
Like Lu Yan, millions of people living in K City have received the same news.
A gloomy dark atmosphere shrouded the whole K City as it fell into panic.
In the home owners group chat, the message tone sounded one after another.
“What happened? Pollution disease?”
“How come there’s no warning at all? It’s too sudden.”
“I have to go on a business trip tomorrow!”
For most people, pollution disease was just a plague that occurred abroad.
At the beginning, everyone was still a little terrified. After all, no one wanted to become a monster. However, in the past two or three years, there had been reports of pollution disease cases every day, and people had gradually realized that this disease was not without cure. On the contrary, this realization reduced their fear.
It’s just that they never thought that pollution would happen to them one day.
Within the community neighborhood, the property manger appeared and said, “Home owners, please rest assured. We have been notified. Although you can’t go out, the property management will provided services to the home owners. If you have necessities that you need to purchase, you can also make a list and give it to me. We can definitely overcome the difficulties together!”
Among Lu Yan’s colleagues, the group of doctors were also talking about this pollution disease.
“Pollution disease is not included in the traditional medical treatment system. Will our doctors be requisitioned?”
“Hey, I have a patient who has a tumor removal operation soon. I can’t go out or go to the hospital now. What can I do?”
“Why should even doctors be isolated at home?!”
Although pollution disease cases were often reported, some doctors were also curious about it.
Still… what they knew was only a little more compared to ordinary citizens due to professional reasons, nothing much.
At least, the treatment of pollution disease no longer belonged to the field of medicine.
In most people’s perception, this kind of pollution disease that had overturned the world was merely a troublesome infectious disease similar to influenza and AIDS. In the beginning, the Research Institute also thought so.
Everyone was optimistic and believed that mankind would overcome this pollution disease like smallpox.
Only Lu Yan, who was watching the news on the screen, appeared to have a heavy expression. He remembered the fish eggs he saw during the operation yesterday.
Lin Sinan said there would be no secondary pollution, but Li Rui began to distort.
In the morning, he called Director Hu. The director told him that he was already on the plane back to his hometown.
The director showed no symptoms of contamination.
During the operation, only Li Rui came into contact with the punctured fish eggs.
The lockdown this time was particularly strict.
The next morning, Lu Yan stood by the window and looked outside as usual. His bedroom window was facing the community gate, with a good view.
An armed military vehicle stopped at the gate and several officers armed with guns came down.
He didn’t know how many people were transferred from various stations to K City to deal with this emergency.
Not only the gates of the community were closed, but the doors of the units were also locked. Every day, only when the food was being delivered would the gate and doors be opened for a while.
Many residents were in panic, but there was nothing they can do.
On the night after the city was lockdowned, Lu Yan was sleeping when he suddenly heard a gunshot in the distance.
The battery-powered car parked in the community neighborhood alarmed— “wuwuwu.”
Lu Yan got up, carefully opened the curtain, and looked out the window.
After a while, he saw a familiar square metal block being carried out from the community.
The patient who was sent to the hospital also used the same metal cabin.
In the morning, the home owners inevitably brought up this matter in their group.
The property manager immediately came out to explain, “I asked. A thief wanted to break into a house last night. Then the soldiers guarding the door opened fire as a warning. It’s nothing important. The thief has been taken to the police station.”
Lu Yan read it and put down his cell phone.
He pressed down his alarm and prepared to wash an apple for breakfast.
Just when Lu Yan’s hand touched the faucet, the System finally made a sound.
[I advise you not to use tap water today.]
[Did you know that these disgusting parasitic fish eggs are transparent when they are not parasitizing on another organism?]
Lu Yan withdrew his hand and thought it was not impossible to eat the apple without washing it.
He watched the news and ate apple as he listened to the detailed introduction of the System.
[In the first stage of distortion, fish eggs will penetrate into your stomach, hatch, and then reproduce in large numbers asexually in your stomach. This stage can last for 2 weeks.]
[In the second stage, the fish eggs will follow the blood, stay in the fatty part to absorb nutrients, and gradually surface on the skin.]
[In the third stage, the fish eggs will cover every part of your body. At this time you will become the lowest level Pollutant! In most cases, an individual will transform into a murloc.4Murloc (from World of Warcraft):
[This is the life of the disdained parasitic fish eggs.]
Lu Yan turned on his phone and posted a message in all group chats and forums, urging everyone to store more mineral water.
He then searched the mobile number of the Pollution Prevention and Control Center in K City.
He felt that he should at least do his duty of reminding the people.
[If I were you, I wouldn’t make this call.] The System suddenly spoke.
[Host, the Enlightened will not necessarily be sent to the Research Institute, but you’ll definitely be, because you are the son of Lu Cheng and have me as an innate skill. Missing Lu Cheng back then made the Institute regret it until now. Moreover, the Research Institute’s study on pollution is deeper than you think. I advise you not to worry about it.]
[Of course, you can choose not to believe me. After all, I am just a System. Nonetheless, compared with… I would rather stay by your side. After all, you are very good-looking.]5[Kris Xian: I’m lovin’ this face-con, arrogant System!] The System wanted to say something but then hesitated.
In the past, Lu Yan would not respond no matter how the System talked to him.
But this time, for the first time, he asked, “What will happen if I was sent to the Research Institute?”
The System laughed twice in a strange tone, [Possibly, death is the best result. However, as a precious experimental sample, you cannot easily die.]
Lu Yan didn’t really want to die, let alone be dissected alive, so he temporarily gave up the idea of calling the Pollution Prevention and Control Center.
Anxiety made him wipe the floor with a handkerchief over and over again even though his home was spotless and there was not even a speck of dust under his bed.
Facts had proved that the response of the relevant departments was considerably fast.
In the afternoon, Lu Yan saw the rich second-generation brother next door open the window and yelled from the balcony, “F*ck! Why did the water stop?!”
The home owners group chat exploded.
The water cut off caught them all by surprise, and they didn’t even receive any notice at all. More importantly, the entire K City, and even several neighboring cities around it, had stopped tap water.
Water was cheap. Sometimes, they unconsciously thought that it didn’t even worth anything. But when it was gone, it could really cost people’s lives.
The property manager also did not expect that there would be no water supply and kept comforting the home owners in the group chat.
Since the beginning of the city lockdown, the TV at Lu Yan’s house had not been turned off.
The reporter of local news anchor said, “This afternoon, due to improper operation by the water plant workers, a large amount of cyanide chemical was added to the clean water tank. Cyanide chemical is a highly toxic chemical substance. In order to ensure the residents’ safety, our city has cut off the water supply urgently. The Municipal Hall will arrange for the military to send purified water regularly. Citizens, please stay calm.”
In response to the municipality’s blockade policy, the reporters of the news station were all doing live broadcasts at home.
Ordinary people were still kept in the dark.
Lu Yan thought for a while. In fact, this was a very simple truth. Everyone knew that this was a pollution disease, but it was never clear how dreadful it could be.
Fear of death was also human nature.
If the truth was revealed, the superficial peace would immediately be broken. There would be many people leaving K City by all means. As long as one of them was carrying a parasitic fish egg, the catastrophe would spread to the entire world.
An out-of-control train approached, with a person on one side of the track and a group of people on the other. Which would you choose?
The System uttered in a low voice with a laugh.
[Your thoughts are not entirely correct. Perhaps it’s time you should understand the concept of one’s pollution index, or on the flip side, one’s san index6[Literally translates to ‘sanity.’ Based on a novel world’s Myth of Cthulhu written by HP Lovecraft, when an individual is mentally shocked, such as witnessing the death of someone close, seeing terrible and curious scenes, or directly witnessing those little-known and inexplicable horror existences, the san index will sharply drop, resulting to insanity.]?]
[The more fearful you are, the easier it is to be contaminated. If the media started to publicize the world’s real situation, believe me, it wouldn’t take more than a month for the whole world to collapse.]
[Of course, it’s not far from happening now.]
“You seem to look forward to the destruction of the world.”
Similar to an evil villain.
[There is evidence that evolution often occurs suddenly and by leaps and bounds. New species will form rapidly in a short time and remain relatively stable for a long time in the future.]*
I just can’t wait… to see you become a god.
The author has something to say:
*Quoted from “After the Extinction of Mankind: An Illustrated Book of Animals in the Future World”
Translator’s Note
I read as I translate, so I don’t know what’s gonna happen here. But I read on NU that it’s not as light-hearted or healing-focused as the summary suggests, therefore, let us all be warned. Also, I didn’t expect that this novel often has references to games which is almost destroying my sanity. Wish me luck! UwU
Considering the tone of the first couple chapters, it would have surprised me if it was as light hearted as the summary made it seem! (Not going to lie, I double checked the summary again after last chapter due to how different the tone was!) I’m still here for it! This is going to be a bloody ride! Thanks for your hard work translating!
This novel’s gore is really exciting.😍 ⚠ Also— lemme just rant a bit— the raws have this weird spacing that I don’t know if I should follow or not. Based on the previous chapters, do you think my spacing is fine or is there something off? I just followed what I usually do. Let the author’s format be dmned.
Your spacing is 100% fine with me! It’s easy to read like this.