Chapter 10

Chapter 010

Downstream of the Qu River.

A layer of bubbles broke the still surface of the water.

After confirming there were no surveillance devices, a dripping wet head emerged. A few tentacles slapped onto the riverbank, and a massive body slowly hauled itself onto land.

Shen Qingyang still wasn’t used to staying underwater.

But the moment he crawled from the river, he sensed it—someone was nearby.

His wary gaze swept the surroundings, yet he saw no trace of any living thing.

The impulse to slip back into the murky depths tugged at him.

Just as he prepared to do so, a voice finally came from behind.

“I’ve been waiting for you.” The voice was an elegant woman’s, then quickly shifted to a low, rumbling baritone. “You are my most outstanding creation in City K.”

A man in a black robe stepped from the shadows. He had no mouth, only a single enormous eye dominating his face.

“Who are you?”

Behind Shen Qingyang, several tentacles stirred slowly, coiling into a posture of attack.

“You may call me Prophet,” the man said. “The human world has no welcome left for you. In the last three hours, all relevant data on you has been transmitted back to the headquarters of the Prevention and Control Center. Given you haven’t started harming people yet, you’re a lower priority. But I know ‘that man’ is already on his way. He has a foul temper and is currently in a… volatile state. He might just decide to eliminate you as a side task. He and Bai Qiushi are not on the same level. Will you come with me?”

Shen Qingyang smiled. “I dislike your scent.”

The Prophet lowered his head and sniffed.

It was the pungent stench of decay, but he was long accustomed to it.

“I know. A part of you still insists you belong to human society. But those lower primates are merely a species on the brink of obsolescence. The future belongs to us,” the Prophet’s voice dripped with honeyed persuasion. “We will be the gods of the new world. I know many things. I can grant you greater power…”

Shen Qingyang had no interest in the monologue. He turned and began walking toward the mountains.

“Wait.” After a long silence, the Prophet called out again. “I know what you desire.”

The Prophet’s eye opened wide, its pupil contracting until it pinned Shen Qingyang’s own gaze.

[Talent - Persuasion].

[Talent - Foresight].

Under the influence of the dual talents, a fleeting, illusory sense of trust toward the figure before him bloomed in Shen Qingyang’s mind.

“You’ve always been grateful to him. He pulled you back from Death’s grasp. A bastard child, abandoned by your birth parents, abused by your foster family. You fled that mountain village after junior high… Yes, the very village you were heading to now. You want to make them pay.”

“You are not a good person, but he is. A stranger who paid your medical bills, gave you a job. You only dared to watch him from afar during his commute. You knew you weren’t worthy. He seemed to come from a good family, highly educated, handsome, with many admirers. He might not even like men. You didn’t dare to hope, let alone speak.”

The Prophet could see only fragments. He didn’t even know the man’s name, but it was enough.

The calm on Shen Qingyang’s face shattered, replaced by a flicker of anger.

No one enjoys being laid bare.

The human face etched into the Prophet’s back curled its lips into a deep smile. “Now, can we talk properly?”

“We can. But you must understand one thing first. I haven’t retained much human sentiment.” Shen Qingyang’s expression smoothed back into placidity, his words measured. “He was special to the human I was. That is not necessarily true now. I trust you are not foolish enough to try using him as leverage.”

The Prophet nodded, smiling. “I understand. When I was human, I had a very obedient son. He lives in City K now. I thought my paternal love for him would endure… Never mind. Let’s not dwell on that. Let me see what stage the Kingfish within you has reached.”

Shen Qingyang frowned, puzzled. “What Kingfish?”

The Prophet, for once, was caught off guard. “It didn’t parasitize you?”

*

Exhausted, Lu Yan fell asleep the moment his head touched the pillow.

And because the place was so unfamiliar, he woke several times throughout the night, each time gripped by the paranoid certainty that an assassin’s blade was inches from his throat.

The palm of his left hand burned with a low, persistent heat, throbbing with a dull pain. It twitched occasionally, beyond his control.

The system said it was because he’d absorbed too much from the pollution source.

[ Although it’s a bit earlier than I projected, its second-stage evolution has indeed begun. My knock-off version is probably seething right now. ]

Waking early, Lu Yan touched his forehead. The fever was back. His throat felt scorched, raw as if lined with embers.

He threw on his jacket and opened the door.

A staff member stationed outside fell into step beside him. “Doctor Lu, you’re up early… You don’t look well.”

“I don’t sleep well in unfamiliar beds,” Lu Yan replied evenly.

“What kind of bed do you usually use? We can procure one. Are you heading to the cafeteria? I can show you the way.” The staff member’s attitude was overly eager, obsequious.

“Rounds. Where is my patient?” Lu Yan asked.

His voice was hoarse. His mouth tasted of dry, metallic rust.

The staff member’s face instantly wore an awkward smile.

A pollutant had vanished right under their noses. Bai Qiushi had been furious. They’d spent three hours scouring every river and canal in City K, yet found no trace of Shen Qingyang.

Data on Shen Qingyang had been sent to headquarters overnight. Soon, his face might appear on the Prevention and Control Center’s bounty board.

“If you mean the patient transferred from the shelter, his condition deteriorated overnight, and he… absconded from the Center. Relevant personnel are already handling it.”

Lu Yan unscrewed a bottle of mineral water with studied calm, washing away the dryness in his mouth. “I see. When can I go home?”

In his previous state, staying at the Center wouldn’t have bothered him. The occasional sight of a few soldiers in uniform had even been reassuring.

But in his current condition, it was untenable.

When he’d first fused with the Kingfish, he’d briefly lost consciousness. He was deeply concerned about suddenly collapsing here.

The staff member looked uncomfortable. “I’ll need to consult Captain Lin.”

Lin Sinan wasn’t the highest-ranking official at the Center, but he’d met Lu Yan before. A familiar face, however slight. Headquarters worried swapping to a stranger might unsettle him.

The two men sat down in a relatively open tea restaurant within the complex.

The Center’s food was excellent. Lin Sinan picked at his meal without appetite. His spiritual power threshold was only 1,600, but frequent field operations had driven his aberration level quite high. Ordinary food held little appeal anymore.

Lu Yan asked the system, “I can’t see where he’s aberrant.”

Lin Sinan’s eyes were clear and resolute, carrying a distinct military bearing. He sat ramrod straight.

[ Lin Sinan. Captain, Third Squad, Sixth Team, Special Operations Department. Spiritual Power Threshold: 1,600. ]

[ Enlisted at 22. Assisted in handling Pollution Disease incidents at 23. That same year, volunteered for exposure to a pollution source, awakened as an Evocator. ]

[ Talents: Tracking Shot, Suppressive Fire. ]

[ His exterior appears fine, but his insides are heavily corroded. Ugh, I’d rather not look. It’s somewhat nauseating. Parasitic fish eggs are far cuter than parasitic worms… ]

[ Between us, if he becomes a pollutant, he’ll likely turn into a writhing mass of worm conglomerate. White, like rice. ]

Lu Yan: “…”

Thanks. I’ve lost my appetite.

[ I’ve mentioned before that to become an Evocator, one must first contact a pollution source. But contact carries a high probability of immediate death or aberration. Only a tiny fraction become Evocators. ]

[ After years of research, the Institute developed a special serum. It has a chance of restoring a recently contaminated aberrant to normal. ]

[ But most volunteers are prepared to die. If they don’t awaken, and the serum fails, only one path remains. ]

[ Logically, such a high-mortality endeavor shouldn’t attract many. Yet soldiers from the First District rarely hesitate… This is also why the First District controls Pollution Disease far better than other regions. It possesses the world’s strongest Evocator, and the largest number of organized Evocator units. ]

Lu Yan had remained silent for a long while. Lin Sinan cleared his throat. “Doctor Lu, have you seen the news reports they aired? Do you know what an Evocator is?”

Lu Yan nodded. “I do.”

“That simplifies things,” Lin Sinan said. “Evocators are broadly classified into three types: Combat, Support, and Special. Our preliminary assessment is that your talent, ‘Devour,’ falls under the Healing subtype within Special. Healing talents are exceedingly rare. Headquarters is sending a researcher to observe and document, with your prior consent, of course.”

“You’ve witnessed the Pollution Disease here in City K. The truth is, similar cases exist worldwide, each different…” As he spoke, Lin Sinan pulled out a tablet and logged into his internal account. “I wonder if you’d be interested in seeing.”

Lu Yan took the tablet. It displayed a forum, the largest section titled "Pollution Disease Case Studies."

Cases were categorized from S-Class down to F, based on the strength of their pollution source.

The Pollution Disease in City K, which had seemed severe to Lu Yan, was rated only "C-Class."

"That's because, while highly contagious, its fatality rate is low. And the mutants it produces are of a low grade," Lin Sinan explained.

Each case file was marked with its classification. Lu Yan skimmed through. So far, there were only two S-Class cases, codenamed "Calamity" and "Divine Kingdom."

A note read: Preliminary containment achieved. Surrounding human population evacuated. A-Class Evocators 'Masamune' and 'Hokuto Ittō' fell during evacuation assistance.

The number of A-Class cases grew: "Slaughterhouse," "Nightmare City," "Wall of Resentment," "Luochuan Botanical Garden"... Dozens of them, scattered across the country and abroad.

Lu Yan tapped one at random: "Wall of Resentment."

[Wall of Resentment]

Description: An impossibly narrow alley that appears randomly in the downtown area of a certain region. Countless skeletal remains of the dead are embedded within its walls. When a living creature passes through, the lingering resentment in the wall drags it into a cycle of obsessive memories, forcing it to relive them repeatedly. Success means walking free. Failure means becoming part of the wall. No successful cases have been discovered to date. Seven Evocators have been assigned to this task. Mortality rate: 100%.

[The following is publicly available mission data.]

[Appendix: (Audio recording) "Calling headquarters, this is 'Grizzly.' This will be my final mission report. My aberration level has reached 97. I have undergone six cycles within the Wall of Resentment. The gathered intel and precautions are as follows... It is a regret that I will not live to see this world return to normal. Do not send a rescue team. Please tell my wife I love her."]

Note: Observations indicate the Wall of Resentment is continuously lengthening. The number of victims has exceeded ten thousand. Researchers from Country X state that if left to grow, its final length may surpass that of the Qinming Great Wall.

This was another side of the world Lu Yan had never known.

He thought he was prepared. But facing these brutal, bloody, even tragic records, he couldn't suppress the tremor in his soul.

A tremor born of his own weakness, and of reverence for those unyielding spirits.

"The world is already on the brink," Lin Sinan said, striving to keep his tone and expression earnest. "We need every capable hand. You're a Healing type. You won't be on the front lines often. We will do everything in our power to ensure your safety."

He produced a document and placed it before Lu Yan. "I hope you will consider joining the Special Operations Department."

Lu Yan didn't speak immediately, his face settling into thoughtful silence. The pause made Lin Sinan tense.

After a long moment, Lu Yan looked up. "Does it come with a formal position and the five social insurances plus housing fund?" he asked. "And if it's a 996 schedule, do you pay overtime?"

A worker's priorities were always so… practical.