Chapter 3, 003

　　Lu Yan kept calling Li Rui.
　　There was no answer. Eventually, Li Rui’s phone ran out of power and shut itself off.
　　The messages Lu Yan sent over WeChat received no response either.
　　Although Lu Yan and Dr. Li worked at the same hospital, they were not close enough to have exchanged home addresses.
　　Not long after Lin Sinan left, the compensation for the previous operation arrived. It was transferred directly into Lu Yan’s bank account, and even after tax it came to just under six figures.
　　In all his years working at the hospital, Lu Yan had never received such a generous bonus.
　　Since he temporarily did not need to work, he did not go to the hospital.
　　Normally, when people suddenly came into a large sum of money, they rewarded themselves by shopping.
　　After thinking for a moment, Lu Yan went downstairs to the convenience store and cleared out its bottled water and instant noodles.
　　Inside the store, the elderly security guard at the entrance was swaying his head as he listened to the radio.
　　“At ten o’clock this morning, police in our city discovered a wanted fugitive in Winding River Park. The fugitive attempted to take a hostage and was shot dead at the scene.”
　　Lu Yan remembered the last thing Li Rui had said over the phone that morning.
　　At the time, Lu Yan had been in a hurry to answer the door and had hung up before hearing the rest.
　　Li Rui had said he was somewhere whose name began with the sound “Qu.”
　　Now it appeared that place had been Winding River Park.
　　Lu Yan lowered his head and searched for related news. Unfortunately, not a single media outlet provided any information about the suspect. The reports had probably all been based on an official press release; every article was more or less identical.
　　In the end, he found only a blurry aerial photograph. A person in a black shell jacket lay on the ground.
　　Lu Yan had seen Li Rui wear that jacket before. He had said it was a Canada Goose jacket his girlfriend had given him.
　　Dr. Li liked it very much and had shown it off around the department for several days.
　　Unease slowly expanded in Lu Yan’s chest.
　　He drove to a nearby shopping mall and began buying supplies with near-manic intensity.
　　The mall apparently had not expected to meet a customer who shopped in a supermarket as though purchasing wholesale from a warehouse. They simply arranged a truck to deliver everything Lu Yan bought to his home.
　　Food, medicine, bottled water, a portable gas stove…
　　The supplies completely filled two guest rooms.
　　Fortunately, Lu Yan lived alone. Otherwise, there truly would not have been enough space.
　　“Bro, why are you buying so much? This’ll last you for years.” The young delivery worker helping carry the goods was utterly baffled.
　　Lu Yan did not enjoy explaining himself. “I resell things on WeChat.”
　　Delivery worker: “…”
　　Impossible to understand.
　　*
　　That evening, Lu Yan turned on the television as usual and listened to the nightly news while preparing dinner.
　　“The contamination source in H City has been brought under control. The emergency status will soon be lifted and transportation restored…”
　　Midway through the report, the female anchor’s expression changed. “We now interrupt with an emergency announcement.”
　　“An unidentified outbreak of pollution disease has appeared in our city. All activities are suspended. Residents are requested to voluntarily isolate at home and refrain from going outside. K City is temporarily sealed off from external access!”
　　Like Lu Yan, the millions of people living in K City received the same message.
　　Panic swept the city, as though a dark cloud had descended over it.
　　Notification sounds rang one after another in the residential complex’s owners’ group chat.
　　“What’s going on? Pollution disease?”
　　“There wasn’t any warning at all. Isn’t this way too sudden?”
　　“I’m supposed to go on a business trip tomorrow!”
　　To most people, pollution disease was merely a plague that happened overseas.
　　At first, everyone had been somewhat frightened. After all, nobody wanted to turn into a monster. But over the past two or three years, pollution disease had appeared in the news every day, and people gradually realized that it was not necessarily incurable. Their fear had actually diminished.
　　They had simply never imagined that one day contamination would happen right beside them.
　　In the residential group chat, property management quickly issued a statement: “Residents, please don’t worry. We’ve received the relevant notice. Although no one may go outside, property management will continue serving everyone. If you need daily necessities purchased, you can also make a list and send it to me. We will definitely get through this together!”
　　In Lu Yan’s work group, the doctors were also discussing the outbreak endlessly.
　　“Pollution disease isn’t part of the conventional medical system. Are doctors going to be requisitioned?”
　　“Damn it, I have a patient scheduled for tumor-removal surgery soon. Now nobody can go out, and we can’t get to the hospital. What are we supposed to do?”
　　“Why do doctors have to quarantine at home too?!”
　　Pollution disease appeared frequently in the news, and some doctors were curious about it.
　　But… because of their profession, they merely knew a little more than ordinary people.
　　At the very least, controlling pollution disease no longer fell within the realm of conventional medicine.
　　This pollution disease, capable of overturning the entire world, was still regarded by most people as nothing more than a troublesome infectious disease, like influenza or AIDS. The research institutes had once thought the same.
　　Everyone optimistically believed humanity would conquer pollution disease just as it had conquered smallpox.
　　Only Lu Yan stared at the messages on the screen with a grave expression. He remembered the fish eggs he had seen during yesterday’s operation.
　　Lin Sinan had said they could not cause secondary contamination, yet Li Rui had begun to mutate.
　　That morning, Lu Yan had called Director Hu. The director told him he was already on a plane back to his hometown.
　　The director had shown no symptoms of contamination.
　　During the operation, only Li Rui had come into contact with fluid from a ruptured fish egg.
　　Could it be transmitted… through bodily fluids?
　　*
　　This lockdown was exceptionally strict.
　　The next morning, Lu Yan stood by the window and looked outside as usual. His bedroom window faced the main gate of the residential complex, giving him an excellent view.
　　An armed military vehicle stopped at the entrance, and several officers carrying guns stepped out.
　　No one knew how many personnel had been transferred from different garrisons into K City to deal with this sudden incident.
　　Not only was the complex’s main gate sealed, even the entrance doors to each building had been locked. They opened only briefly each day when food was delivered.
　　Many residents were terrified, but there was nothing they could do.
　　On the second night of the lockdown, Lu Yan was asleep when a gunshot suddenly rang out in the distance.
　　Electric scooters parked around the complex began wailing with their alarms.
　　Lu Yan got out of bed, cautiously pulled the curtain open a crack, and looked outside.
　　A short while later, he saw a familiar square metal object being carried out of the complex.
　　The patient brought to the hospital before had been transported in the same kind of metal containment pod.
　　By morning, the residents’ group chat was inevitably discussing what had happened.
　　Property management immediately offered an explanation. “I asked about it. Last night, a thief tried to break into someone’s home. The soldiers guarding the gate fired a warning shot because the situation was urgent. Everything’s fine. The thief has already been taken to the police station.”
　　Lu Yan glanced at the message, then put down his phone.
　　He decided to wash an apple for breakfast and calm his nerves.
　　The moment Lu Yan’s hand touched the faucet, the System finally made a sound.
　　[If I were you, I wouldn’t use tap water today.]
　　[Did you know? When these disgusting parasitic fish eggs aren’t inside a host, they’re transparent.]
　　Lu Yan withdrew his hand. Eating an apple without washing it did not suddenly seem so unacceptable.
　　He watched the news and ate the apple while the System gave him a detailed explanation.
　　[During the first stage of mutation, the fish eggs burrow into your stomach, hatch, and then reproduce asexually in large numbers. This stage can last two weeks.]
　　[During the second stage, the eggs travel through the bloodstream and settle in areas with more body fat, where they absorb nutrients and gradually rise to the surface of the skin.]
　　[During the third stage, fish eggs grow throughout every part of your body. At that point, you become the lowest rank of Pollutant! Usually, you end up hatching into a fish-person.] The System sounded inexplicably cheerful.
　　[And that is the life story of the poor, universally despised parasitic fish egg.]
　　Lu Yan opened his phone and posted the same message in every group chat and forum he belonged to, urging people to stock up on bottled water.
　　Then, while he was at it, he searched for the phone number of K City’s Pollution Disease Prevention and Control Center.
　　He felt that, at the very least, he had a duty to warn them.
　　[If I were you, I wouldn’t make that call,] the System suddenly said.
　　[Host, an ordinary Awakened may not necessarily be sent to a research institute, but you definitely would. You are Lu Cheng’s son, and you possess me as your Talent. Missing their chance with Lu Cheng back then has haunted the institute ever since. Besides, their research into contamination goes far deeper than you imagine. I advise you to stop worrying about things that don’t concern you.]
　　[Of course, you don’t have to believe me. After all, I’m only a System. But compared with… I would rather stay by your side. You’re quite good-looking, after all.] The System stopped itself midway through the thought.
　　In the past, no matter how much the System talked to itself, Lu Yan had never replied.
　　This time, however, he unexpectedly asked, “What happens if I’m sent to a research institute?”
　　The System gave two strange chuckles. [Death might be the best possible outcome. But as a valuable experimental specimen, they would never let you die easily.]
　　Lu Yan did not particularly want to die, and he wanted even less to be dissected alive. So for the time being, he abandoned the idea of calling the Pollution Disease Prevention and Control Center.
　　Anxiety drove him to wipe the floor over and over with a cloth.
　　Even though his home had already been spotless, without so much as dust beneath the bed.
　　As it turned out, the authorities reacted quite quickly.
　　That afternoon, Lu Yan saw the rich young man next door open his window and curse furiously from the balcony. “Fuck! Why did they cut the water?!”
　　The property-management group chat exploded.
　　The water shutoff had come without warning. No one had received any notice. More importantly, the tap water had been cut off not only throughout K City, but in several neighboring cities as well.
　　Water was cheap, and when it was always available, nobody thought much of it. But once it disappeared, it could truly become a matter of life and death.
　　Property management probably had not expected the water supply to be cut either and kept trying to reassure the residents in the group.
　　Since the lockdown began, the television in Lu Yan’s home had remained on continuously.
　　On the local news channel, an anchor announced, “This afternoon, due to improper handling by workers at the municipal water plant, a large quantity of cyanide was added to the clean-water reservoir. Cyanide is a highly toxic chemical substance. To ensure the safety of residents’ water supply, our city has implemented an emergency water shutoff. The municipal government will arrange for the military to distribute purified water at regular intervals. Residents are asked to remain calm.”
　　In accordance with the municipal lockdown policy, the news anchors were all broadcasting live from their homes.
　　Ordinary people were still being kept in the dark.
　　Lu Yan thought about it. The logic was actually very simple. Everyone knew there was an outbreak of pollution disease, but no one understood just how terrifying the disease could be.
　　And fear of death was human nature.
　　If the truth became public, the superficial peace would shatter instantly. Many people would use every method imaginable to escape K City. As long as even one of them carried parasitic fish eggs, the disaster would spread across the entire world.
　　A runaway train approaches. One person stands on one track, a group of people on the other. Which side do you choose?
　　The System laughed softly.
　　[Your reasoning is correct, but not entirely. Perhaps you should understand a concept called contamination value… or SAN value?]
　　[The more afraid you are, the more easily you become contaminated. If the media began publicizing the true nature of the world, believe me, the entire planet would fall within a month.]
　　[Of course, that day isn’t far away anyway.]
　　“You sound as though you’re looking forward to the end of the world.”
　　Like some kind of evil villain.
　　[Evidence suggests that evolution often occurs through sudden leaps. New species may form rapidly within a short period, then remain relatively stable for a very long time afterward.]*
　　I simply can’t wait… to see you become a god.