Chapter 7, 007

　　Because of the fusion with the juvenile King Fish egg, Lu Yan had been cut off from outside information for some time.
　　The moment he stepped outside, he sensed that something was wrong.
　　Several deep handprints had actually been smashed into the metal security door, as though someone had pounded on it with tremendous force.
　　Lu Yan glanced at them. They did not look like human hands. They looked like the hand of an enormous frog.
　　A dense smell of blood lingered stubbornly at the tip of his nose.
　　Because of the power outage, the corridor was pitch-black.
　　Lu Yan’s fingers reached for his phone screen.
　　[There’s something I should remind you about,] the System suddenly said. [There are no Pollutants within your current line of sight, but these mutated people are phototactic. If you don’t want to be surrounded, I don’t recommend using any light source. You can already see in the dark. Learn to accept the ways in which you’re different from ordinary humans.]
　　Visible light was extremely limited at night. Night vision worked by shifting reflected infrared radiation into the visible spectrum so that the world could be seen.
　　Lu Yan’s eyes now reflected a faint red glow, like those of a feline.
　　But in his own field of vision, everything around him had turned green.
　　The neighbor’s door stood wide open. The inside of the metal door was covered in horrific scratch marks, proof that someone had struggled desperately before dying.
　　There was sticky liquid on the corridor floor. Lu Yan lightly scraped it with the tip of his shoe. Dried blood. It felt like syrup beneath his sole.
　　The bloodstains had clearly been dragged along the floor. They paused briefly outside Lu Yan’s door, then, after whoever made them discovered it could not be opened, continued toward the stairwell. The trail disappeared around the corner.
　　Because of his profession, Lu Yan’s schedule had rarely matched his neighbors’, but he remembered that a family of four lived next door: a married couple, a child, and an elderly relative.
　　He stared at the pool of blood in silence for a moment, tightened his grip on his knife, and stepped inside.
　　Excuse the intrusion.
　　The smell of blood inside was much stronger than outside. Judging by the amount spilled, there had certainly been more than one victim.
　　Lu Yan followed the trail two steps into the living room and accidentally stepped on half of a severed hand.
　　He lowered his head and examined it briefly. The hand probably belonged to an adult woman. There were clear bite marks around the wound.
　　Apart from that, he saw no obvious human remains. Apparently, when Pollutants ate people, they did not even spit out the bones.
　　The living room was the crime scene, but the blood trail actually began in the child’s bedroom at the end of the hallway.
　　The room had been arranged warmly. Lego toys were piled in one corner. It was obvious the child had been deeply cherished at home.
　　Although the Pollutant seemed to have left, the room still reeked of damp fish. A chair lay overturned, and several snapped lengths of rope were scattered across the floor.
　　[Obviously, the child in this household was the one who mutated. The parents didn’t want to send him to a shelter, so they tied him up in his room and kept him there while waiting for a vaccine. At first, the mutated child could still obey his parents. Later, he became nothing more than a monster that wanted to eat people. Eventually, one day, the monster broke free of the ropes.]
　　There was no limit to the lengths parents would go for their children.
　　[Also… why don’t you look above your head? He seems to have crawled back along the corridor.]
　　A drop of reeking saliva landed beside Lu Yan’s foot.
　　So the strong fishy smell inside the room was not left behind by a mutated person who had been confined there for too long. The Pollutant was still right beside him.
　　Lu Yan looked up. A little boy clung to the ceiling like a gecko. Its hands were almost as large as its head, and sticky webbing held firmly to the ceiling. Perhaps because it had eaten too much, its stomach bulged outward like that of a woman ten months pregnant.
　　An eerie smile appeared on the Pollutant’s face. It opened its mouth to reveal two rows of sharp teeth. Its long tongue snapped outward like a hunting weapon, and the fleshy nodules covering its surface stood erect like rows of vicious barbs.
　　Having dissected a frog-man once gave Lu Yan confidence and a certain understanding of this category of Pollutant.
　　Frog-men were fast and extremely strong, but their attacks were simple: they either pounced or lashed with their tongues. They could spray corrosive stomach acid, but did not have much of it.
　　Once he suppressed the nausea, dealing with this creature was not particularly difficult given his current physical condition.
　　Lu Yan thought for only a moment. Instead of dodging, he reached out and seized the tongue.
　　Ignoring the barbs covering it, the tongue felt slick and greasy, like a plump piece of pig liver.
　　A look of obvious surprise appeared on the Pollutant’s face. Its eyes were already bulging as far as they could, however, so visually there was no difference at all.
　　Lu Yan tightened his grip and yanked it from the ceiling to the floor.
　　The Pollutant hit the ground with a tremendous crash. Very inconsiderate to the neighbors.
　　Avoiding danger and seeking advantage was an animal instinct.
　　It tried to flee, but Lu Yan’s strength was astonishing, leaving it unable to move.
　　The Pollutant shrank into the corner, making a struggling hiss. In terror, it watched Lu Yan approach with one hand gripping its tongue and the other holding a scalpel, a smile on his face.
　　“I’m not a pediatrician,” Lu Yan said, “but this is an emergency, so forgive me. At least I passed a legitimate physician-qualification examination.”
　　The blade opened the frog-man’s abdomen. It struggled weakly for a while, then finally collapsed and stopped moving.
　　From its belly, Lu Yan cut out several partially digested human body parts and a head.
　　[Once a Pollutant has completed mutation like this, there is no possibility of reversing its development and turning it back into a human. As for how to remove contamination, I probably don’t need to explain much. You’ll see soon enough…]
　　A bump rose along a blood vessel in Lu Yan’s arm. The juvenile King Fish had awakened.
　　Fish scales appeared across the arm that had previously looked perfectly smooth, covering the skin like armor.
　　Then the scales lifted. Thin white filaments emerged from the gaps between them, connected themselves to the frog-man on the floor, and began to feed.
　　Like blood being drawn through tubing, the white tendrils slowly turned red. Lu Yan reached out and touched one, then shuddered violently from pain.
　　It was not his hand that hurt. The filaments themselves hurt, as though someone had directly touched an exposed cranial nerve.
　　No wonder the King Fish had refused to emerge earlier. If the frog-man had not been fully dead, even the slightest struggle would have left Lu Yan in unbearable agony.
　　Perhaps because of their symbiotic relationship, when the King Fish fed, Lu Yan experienced the sensation of eating as well. Warmth spread through his stomach, extremely comfortable. He narrowed his eyes, and an abnormal flush appeared on his pale face, like the aftermath of heavy drinking.
　　The System fell into a strange silence. [I thought a normal person seeing this would at least suffer a little psychological collapse.]
　　It had already prepared itself to act as his mental-health counselor, only for Lu Yan to refuse to cooperate in an unexpected way.
　　Lu Yan answered without expression, “Do you think humans are too fragile? According to your theory, we may be low-level life-forms that haven’t completed our evolution, but throughout the millions of years it took us to evolve from apes into humans, humanity never stopped trying to save itself.”
　　The feeding lasted half a minute.
　　[Spiritual Power Threshold +10. Congratulations, you’ve been strengthened.]
　　The System gave a cold laugh and muttered in a low voice, [That traitor’s prediction wasn’t wrong. If the King Fish’s host were a Pollutant and devoured every Pollutant in K City, it really could cross that threshold… Pity it ran into me.]
　　Its voice was too quiet, and the sound of tidal waves still washed through Lu Yan’s ears from time to time, so he did not hear everything clearly.
　　The luminous white tendrils withdrew back into Lu Yan’s body as though they had never appeared.
　　*
　　Perhaps because the residential complex had already been swept once before, Lu Yan encountered no second Pollutant before leaving.
　　The cordon at the entrance remained in place, but the guards were gone. Only the bloodstained security booth hinted at what had happened there.
　　The entire city was supposed to be without electricity, yet the direction of Winding River Park blazed with light bright enough to make his eyes ache.
　　[The Pollution Disease Prevention and Control Center is recovering Pollutants there. If you’re interested, you could go take a look.]
　　Lu Yan looked away, uninterested.
　　K City was unnaturally quiet at night.
　　Only when he passed certain narrow streets did he hear heavy breathing mixed with chewing.
　　Whenever that happened, Lu Yan followed the sound into the alley.
　　He was not there to separate them. He was there to join them.
　　…
　　…
　　Lu Yan touched his stomach. He had always faithfully followed the rule of eating only until eighty percent full. It had been a long time since he felt so stuffed that he wanted to vomit.
　　Over the course of the night, his Spiritual Power Threshold had risen by a total of seventy. Added to the one-time increase of one hundred from fusing with the King Fish, he was now an Awakened with a Spiritual Power Threshold of 170.
　　That number was not high. At least according to the research institute’s classification standards, he was only a bottom-tier Level One Awakened.
　　But K City was entirely Lu Yan’s home field. Bloodline suppression made him nearly invincible here. Besides, the strength of an Awakened was not determined solely by Spiritual Power Threshold.
　　“I’m full. Time to go home. I’ll come out again tomorrow.”
　　He rather wanted to encounter a pollution-disease patient who had not completely mutated. According to the System’s theory, he should be able to treat one. But something like that could not be forced. He could hardly carry a loudspeaker from door to door asking.
　　Lu Yan walked along the street. A bleak eastern wind blew past, and the phone in his pocket vibrated faintly.
　　Someone had actually sent him a message through the iPhone’s nearby AirDrop function.
　　A message from a stranger popped up: [Bro, why the hell are you outside? Several security guards in our complex got infected and nobody’s come to collect them yet. Are you trying to get yourself killed?]
　　A surprisingly kind stranger.
　　The phone vibrated again. [Cover up the light! Those Pollutants are extremely sensitive to it! Do you not watch the news!!! How the hell did you even make it onto the street?]
　　[Fuck!!! They’re coming!!! Run!!!]
　　The moment the message appeared, a patch of light flared from the thirteenth floor of the building behind Lu Yan. A petite girl stood beside the window, nervously slapped the glass to make noise, then vanished from sight like a puff of smoke.
　　A moment later, Lu Yan received another message: [My family owns this whole building. I’m going to hide in another apartment. That’s all I can do for you.]
　　The System said, [Although I don’t have much affection for humans as a species. Weak, selfish, pitiful. I still have to admit that humans occasionally do things I find incomprehensible. In moments like this, I almost think you’re rather adorable.]
　　The far end of the street began to tremble.
　　A fish-headed humanoid nearly three meters tall came hopping toward them. Its body still retained a roughly human shape and was hunched over, but its head was enormous. Judging by the species, it resembled a catfish. Its thick fish lips opened and closed, while four whiskers moved even without wind.
　　[Wow. Congratulations. You’ve encountered the first miniboss of this experience dungeon. A fish-man with a contamination value of 400. Before mutation, this fish-man was a champion eater. After mutation, it became even more gluttonous. It ate sixty people in three days and grew this fat. It eats humans and its own kind. Much more aggressive than an ordinary fish-man.]
　　[The good news is that although the fish eggs it sprays are disgusting, they can’t contaminate you. Also, there’s a reason its head grew that huge. Humans have a saying: “If the bond is deep, down it in one gulp; if the bond is shallow, give it a lick.” This fish-man clearly feels very deeply about you… Its weak point is the gills. Anyway, be careful.]
　　The fish-man was not particularly intelligent. It had originally been walking toward Lu Yan. After seeing the light from the upper floor, it was immediately attracted and lumbered toward the apartment building instead.
　　All Lu Yan had encountered that night were frogs. He had never dissected a fish-man this large.
　　Besides, when facing Pollutants, he believed his own chances of survival were at least somewhat higher than an ordinary person’s.
　　So he switched on the front flashlight of his phone.
　　The fish-man abruptly turned its head. Apparently interpreting the gesture as a provocation, it charged at Lu Yan with unbelievable speed.
　　A night of feeding had significantly improved Lu Yan’s physical condition. He reacted almost instantly, retreating quickly and avoiding the fish-man’s attack.
　　But the fish-man was simply too large.
　　One of its whiskers grazed Lu Yan’s arm. Despite looking soft and boneless, the whisker was sharper than any blade.
　　His clothes tore, and blood seeped out.
　　The fish-man suddenly froze.
　　The System shrieked, [Oh, shit. Your blood—your blood! I should’ve thought of this! Fuck!!]
　　The System was usually sarcastic and mocking. This was the first time Lu Yan had heard genuine panic in its voice.
　　[Stop fighting. Now. Hurry. Immediately. Run toward the Pollution Disease Prevention and Control Center. If you don’t want to get surrounded, RUN!!!]
　　…
　　…
　　Winding River Park.
　　Winding River District truly deserved its status as the source of K City’s pollution-disease outbreak. There were not especially many Pollutants here, but their danger levels and contamination values were much higher than in other districts.
　　One grotesque Pollutant after another rushed toward the park like moths to a flame.
　　The Winding River was almost dyed red with blood.
　　Fine sweat appeared across Lin Sinan’s forehead. Sixteen Awakened had remained inside the park for this operation, considerably more than usual.
　　Yet he still felt stretched beyond his limits. Some of the Pollutants here had even evolved a degree of intelligence.
　　Then, at two in the morning, the Pollutants abruptly stopped where they stood as though someone had pressed a pause button.
　　Lin Sinan had no idea why, but he certainly would not waste such an opportunity.
　　They had only been clearing them for two minutes when the Pollutants suddenly seemed to wake from a dream and turned their heads in the same direction.
　　Their faces actually displayed… varying degrees of fanaticism.
　　Like hyenas that had gone hungry for days and suddenly smelled carrion.
　　No one knew which creature let out the first frog croak.
　　In the next instant, not a single Pollutant looked again toward brightly lit Winding River Park. Like a tide, they surged in one direction!
　　“What’s happening?” The inspector beside him looked shocked.
　　Lin Sinan froze for a moment. A possibility occurred to him, and his expression changed drastically.
　　“I’ve only heard of this happening once…”
　　“Research Institute One. Experimental Subject Number Zero awakened. A rare healing-type Talent—supposedly ‘Revelation,’ ranked first on the Talent Sequence. That day, the research institute was surrounded by Pollutants too.”
　　“To protect Number Zero, the institute had no choice but to seal them inside a life-support pod.”
　　The inspector was an Awakened, but as a support type his Spiritual Power Threshold was low, and he had always remained stationed in K City. This was the first time he had heard of such a thing. His expression was blank. “Healing-type Talents exist? Why have I never heard of them?”
　　What a pointless question. There were only three in the entire world.
　　One was sealed inside a life-support pod and could not be released. One was being pampered like an ancestor at Headquarters. The last was overseas.
　　Lin Sinan put away his gun and opened his earpiece. His eyes were bloodshot as he roared, “Bai Qiushi, stop sitting on the wall watching the show! Someone in K City may have awakened a healing-type Talent. If you fucking get here late, you can come collect the corpse!”