Chapter 2, 002

　　[Yes, you can call me the System. Perhaps, in your mind, only a System can explain my existence scientifically.]
　　[I know what you’re thinking. You haven’t fallen ill. I am your Talent—or perhaps you would call it a supernatural ability?]
　　[After contact with a source of contamination, those who become contaminated are called Pollutants. Those who remain human and awaken a Talent are called Awakened. In a few months, people will probably come to accept all of this. You can’t keep a fire wrapped in paper forever… What kind of world do you think you live in? In fact, you’ve already met an Awakened. The clever one… Lin Sinan. Oh, right. You’re one too.]
　　[You’re a little weak, admittedly. But you have me. I’m an incredibly powerful Talent. You struck gold, seriously.]
　　[You don’t possess me. I chose you.]
　　…
　　…
　　Lu Yan opened his eyes. He turned on the television and switched to the news channel.
　　The reports still revolved around H City, which remained under lockdown.
　　“The mutated individual has already been dealt with. Members of the public may rest assured. This outbreak of pollution disease is not contagious.”
　　The reporter gave the camera a sweet smile.
　　The audience would never know that she was not in heavily contaminated H City at all, but inside a studio in her own city.
　　In the year 2121, the world remained peaceful and prosperous.
　　Lu Yan pulled open the curtains and looked coldly down at the street. Office workers crammed onto buses for their commute, university students cursed their eight-o’clock classes, and everything seemed unchanged.
　　If not for yesterday’s operation, Lu Yan would also have believed that nothing would change in the future.
　　He had buried the fish egg in a flowerpot.
　　While he buried it, the System’s unbearably chatty notifications had rattled on beside his ear.
　　[It may only be a low-level Pollutant, but as the egg of a King Fish among parasitic fish, it has a special function.]
　　[Maybe you’ve played one of those shark-evolution games? Once it hatches, the King Fish can devour the eggs of other parasitic fish~]
　　[No way, no way. Don’t tell me that in the year 2121 there are still doctors who think conventional medicine can cure pollution disease?]
　　The instant Lu Yan set down the small shovel, his phone rang with jarring suddenness.
　　Lu Yan paused, then answered.
　　“Dr. Lu, help me…” Dr. Li’s voice was hoarse on the other end.
　　Dr. Li’s full name was Li Rui. He was the doctor who had operated alongside Lu Yan yesterday.
　　“I don’t know who else to go to. I don’t dare go to the hospital.”
　　It was winter. K City lay on the coast at a relatively low latitude, so the weather was not particularly cold.
　　Under Li Rui’s thick padded coat, his arm had already been scratched bloody. Flesh and blood were packed beneath his fingernails, as though he had been violently self-harming. Yet he seemed completely unaware and continued digging into his skin with nails that had become unnaturally sharp.
　　One translucent fish egg after another was embedded beneath the skin of his arm like tiny blisters, stained an eerie red by the blood.
　　He sat on a park bench wearing a hat, a padded jacket, a down coat, and a shell jacket, yet the cold still pierced him like needles, spreading from his limbs into the depths of his soul. To survive, the parasitic eggs were frantically stealing heat from their host.
　　Perhaps because his expression looked too unstable, the elderly people doing their morning exercises kept well away from him.
　　Lu Yan asked, “What happened?”
　　Li Rui lowered his voice. “My arm has… has grown those things…”
　　Yesterday, they had performed that operation together.
　　Lu Yan immediately understood what Li Rui meant.
　　He frowned. “You should contact the Pollution Control Center.”
　　Six years ago, when contamination first broke out overseas, a brief wave of panic had swept the world. Experts later confirmed it to be a new infectious disease of the modern era and named it pollution disease.
　　Pollution Disease Prevention and Control Centers had consequently been established around the world.
　　Li Rui shook his head wildly. “When I was in university, I interned at the Pollution Control Center in A City. Those people get taken away for centralized disposal. They kill them with high temperatures… I don’t want to die! Save me, Dr. Lu! We operated together yesterday. You heard what that officer said. As long as those fish eggs are cut away, I’ll be fine.”
　　Saving lives and healing the injured was a doctor’s duty. Li Rui had never met anyone who lived by that responsibility and conviction more thoroughly than Lu Yan.
　　That was why he had come to him.
　　Before Lu Yan could respond, there was a knock on the door of the home that almost never received visitors.
　　“Lu Yan, I’m at Qu—”
　　“Wait a moment. I’ll call you back.”
　　Lu Yan hung up and activated the smart peephole. The faces of the visitors appeared on the screen beside the door.
　　There were two people. One of them was Lin Sinan from yesterday.
　　Today he was dressed casually: sneakers, jeans, a pale T-shirt, and a dark workwear jacket. He looked like the handsome star student from a small-town high school arriving in a major metropolis for university for the first time.
　　Lin Sinan spoke toward the peephole. “Hello, Dr. Lu. I’m Lin Sinan. We met before. Because yesterday’s operation carried a certain risk of infection, I brought a colleague to conduct a checkup for you. Please don’t worry. We’re legitimate government personnel.”
　　Lin Sinan patted down his clothes for a long while before finally retrieving his identification from his colleague’s pocket.
　　It read “K City Pollution Disease Prevention and Control Center.” His photograph was above, an official seal below. His listed position was “Inspector.”
　　Lu Yan opened the door and brought out shoe covers.
　　Lin Sinan entered and quietly surveyed the room.
　　It looked like a showroom apartment. There was almost no sign that anyone actually lived there. Even the cutting boards in the semi-open kitchen were spotless, without the slightest trace of daily use.
　　Besides that, Lin Sinan noticed something interesting.
　　Lu Yan probably knew archery. A target hung on the living-room wall, its surface riddled with holes.
　　The inspector opened his carrying case and sat at the dining table. In a gentle voice, he said, “The examination requires a small blood sample. Dr. Lu, would that be all right?”
　　His square carrying case sat slightly crooked.
　　Lu Yan had to exert remarkable self-control not to straighten it. Instead, he silently extended his arm.
　　The blood draw was completed quickly, and the drop of blood was immediately placed into an unfamiliar square device.
　　A few minutes later, the inspector said, “You have not contracted pollution disease. If you develop a fever, physical discomfort, or any other symptoms during this period, you can contact our Pollution Disease Prevention and Control Center at any time. We will provide appropriate assistance.”
　　Lu Yan stared into his eyes. “Is pollution disease really nothing more than an infectious disease?”
　　“Of course pollution disease is an infectious disease. It’s simply a new form of genetic mutation. Pollution disease is highly contagious and caused tens of thousands of deaths overseas several years ago. But thanks to the tireless efforts of scientists around the world, the disease has already been brought under control. Patients now only appear in small, localized areas. There’s no need to be overly nervous.”
　　Inside Lu Yan’s mind, the System gave a contemptuous scoff. [That was only because the Pollutants at the beginning were all low-level. A single C-rank Pollutant can destroy an entire city. Countless lives were sacrificed to stop the disaster back then. But weakness has always been humanity’s original sin.]
　　[Oh, right. A reminder: you’d better get these people out of here quickly, unless you want to be dragged into a research institute.]
　　Seeing the conversation begin to stall, Lu Yan asked, “Thank you for explaining. Is there anything else?”
　　“…No. Have a pleasant day.”
　　“Thank you.”
　　A short while later, the two workers from the Pollution Disease Prevention and Control Center left Lu Yan’s home.
　　Lin Sinan spoke first. “Cleanliness obsession is one of the most common clinical manifestations of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Living environment is normal. No contamination source detected.”
　　The inspector continued, “Lu Yan. His father was among the first group of pollution-disease patients ten years ago. He previously served prison time for fraud and has multiple recorded incidents of domestic violence. His mother committed suicide by jumping from a building when Lu Yan was six.”
　　“Lu Yan was imprisoned and abused by his father for years before being rescued at age twelve. He was diagnosed with photophobia, claustrophobia, and dissociative identity disorder. His alternate personality displayed antisocial traits and a high degree of aggression.”
　　“At sixteen, Lu Yan recovered and was discharged. That same year, his father became a Pollutant and was detained at the research institute under designation Number 18.”
　　“In 2117, Pollutant 18 escaped from the research institute. It remains the only recorded escape of an A-rank Pollutant. Because Number 18’s mutation occurred in the brain, the incident also led researchers to conclude that Pollutants in the later stages of development can possess intelligence no weaker than that of humans.”
　　Lin Sinan said, “Yes. That’s why the research institute monitored Lu Yan for a long time, to see whether Number 18 would make contact with him.”
　　“Captain Lin, you know what my Talent is. I sensed danger from him,” the inspector said solemnly.
　　He was a support-type Awakened with [Talent—Early Warning], which allowed him to detect danger to a certain degree.
　　“The test results are out. Spiritual Power Threshold: 0. Mutation Index: 0. An ordinary person. I thought he might become an Awakened.” Lin Sinan took a military-issue sedative cigarette from his pocket and lit it. “Let’s go. Time to check the other side.”
　　According to research by the Academy of Sciences, organisms with a Mutation Index between 0 and 100 still fell within the category of human. Awakened were humans who had been exposed to contamination and gained a Talent while keeping their Mutation Index below 100. Their relative strength was determined by their Spiritual Power Threshold.
　　Once the Mutation Index exceeded 100, the subject was no longer human. Like contaminated animals, plants, and even inorganic objects, they were classified as Pollutants.
　　Lu Yan’s index, however, was 0.
　　*
　　Li Rui kept waiting for Lu Yan to call. Sitting on the park bench, he grew colder and colder. The world before his eyes gradually lost its color, fading into gray.
　　The air grew increasingly damp, and mist began spreading through the surroundings.
　　A high fever clouded Li Rui’s consciousness.
　　Only when he inexplicably sensed someone approaching did he jerk awake and look up.
　　Two people were nearby. He did not recognize either of them.
　　His instincts told him they were coming for him.
　　They would seize him and take him to the Prevention and Control Center, where he would vanish into an incinerator heated to thousands of degrees, just like those grotesquely deformed patients he had seen years ago!
　　Without the slightest hesitation, Li Rui turned and ran.
　　The two people who had been reaching for their identification froze, then immediately gave chase.
　　Li Rui was not physically fit. Normally, a few hours of surgery could leave him so exhausted he wanted to collapse, and now he was dressed like a penguin. Yet he ran faster and faster, like a gust of wind.
　　As he ran, his hearing became extraordinarily sharp. He could even hear the two people cursing in the distance—
　　“Isn’t this parasitic contamination? Why has the host mutated?”
　　Mutation…?
　　Right. The abnormal physical changes displayed by ordinary people after contracting pollution disease were called mutations.
　　Li Rui had not been running long before he heard a helicopter overhead.
　　He looked up. The helicopter’s cabin door had opened, and Lin Sinan stood there in full combat gear, secured by a safety line and raising a sniper rifle.
　　His voice carried far through the loudspeaker. “Person ahead, stop immediately! Crouch down where you are with your hands over your head. We are staff from the Pollution Disease Prevention and Control Center. According to our preliminary assessment, you have been infected by a parasite. Stop moving immediately! We will take you for specialized treatment!”
　　“If you refuse investigation and treatment, we will enact emergency special-handling measures.”
　　Li Rui acted as though he had heard nothing and continued running frantically.
　　A bead of sweat slid from Lin Sinan’s temple. Headquarters issued an order through his earpiece. “The patient is suffering from parasitic contamination. Mutation has already begun, and he himself will become a source of infection. Elimination is recommended.”
　　Lin Sinan pulled the trigger.
　　[Talent—Tracking Shot]: within effective range, the shot would automatically strike its target.
　　They were hundreds of meters above the ground. Li Rui was running, and the helicopter was shaking. It was hard to imagine anyone landing a hit under such conditions.
　　Yet the instant the gun fired, a blossom of blood burst from Li Rui’s body.
　　He did not collapse as expected.
　　The scene was horrifying: his head was gone, yet the body continued charging forward.
　　Lin Sinan frowned and rapidly fired twice more, less than ten seconds after the first shot.
　　His sniper rifle was loaded with heavy rounds. A human hit by one of them was certain to die.
　　Li Rui, of course, could not possibly still be alive.
　　But just as horsehair worms parasitizing praying mantises could drive their hosts into water to die, the thing inside Li Rui could also control its host.
　　The overcast sky suddenly broke into rain.
　　In the downpour, the body finally reached its destination.
　　Winding River, the river encircling K City.
　　It leapt into the water in wild delight.
　　…
　　…
　　The corpse was recovered quickly.
　　Disregarding the risk of contamination, Lin Sinan stripped off Li Rui’s clothes and examined the body carefully.
　　There was no trace of the fish eggs on him.
　　No one was relieved. Beside them, the surging river continued rushing endlessly downstream.
　　The two soldiers lowered their heads in shame. “We’re sorry. We couldn’t catch him.”
　　Generally speaking, mutation progressed through three stages, with a buffer period of at least two weeks. Yet only a few hours had passed between Li Rui’s contamination and the onset of mutation.
　　It was so abnormal that even Lin Sinan had failed to react in time.
　　Humans were evolving. Naturally, Pollutants could evolve too.
　　Lin Sinan’s expression turned exceedingly grim. “Sudden contamination incident, provisionally classified as B-rank. C-rank Pollutant ‘Parasitic Fish’ has mutated. Recovery failed. Extent of contamination spread currently unknown. Requesting support from Headquarters.”