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're not having a psychotic break. I am your talent. Or perhaps… your ability?]

[Those exposed to a pollution source who are corrupted are called pollutants. Those who are exposed but not corrupted, who awaken a talent… are called Revelators. This truth will be accepted by the masses in a few months. You can't hide a fire with paper… What kind of world did you think you lived in? In fact, you've already met a Revelator. The clever one… Lin Sinan. Oh, and you are one too.]

[A bit weak, though. But you have me. And I'm a damn impressive talent. You hit the jackpot, really.]

[It's not that you possess me. I chose you.]

……

……

Lu Yan opened his eyes. He turned on the television, switching to the news channel.

The reports still couldn't avoid the locked-down City H.

"The aberrants have been dealt with. Please rest assured, citizens. This outbreak of Pollution Disease is not contagious," the reporter said with a sweet smile for the camera.

The viewers wouldn't know she wasn't in the heavily polluted City H, but safe in a studio in her own city.

The world carried on, dancing and singing.

He pulled back the curtain, gazing coldly at the street below. Office drones packed onto buses, university students cursed their 8 a.m. classes. Everything seemed unchanged.

If not for yesterday's surgery, Lu Yan would have believed the future held no change either.

That fish egg was buried in his flowerpot now.

As he'd covered it with soil, the System's grating notifications had buzzed in his ear.

[Though only a low-level pollutant, as the egg of the parasitic King Fish, it has a special function.]

[Perhaps you've played that shark evolution game? The hatched King Fish can devour the eggs of other parasitic fish.]

[Don't tell me there are still doctors who think traditional medical methods work on Pollution Disease?]

The moment Lu Yan set down the small shovel, his phone rang, startlingly abrupt.

Lu Yan paused, then answered.

"Doctor Lu… help me…" The voice on the other end was Doctor Li's, hoarse and ragged.

Doctor Li—Li Rui—was the physician who had assisted him in the surgery yesterday.

"I don't know who else to turn to… I can't go to the hospital."

It was winter. Coastal City K sat at a low latitude; the cold here was never biting.

Beneath his thick padded jacket, Li Rui's arm was already crisscrossed with bloody scratches. His fingernails were packed with flesh and blood, as if he'd been self-harming. He seemed utterly unaware, still digging his unnaturally sharp nails into his skin.

Embedded in the skin of Li Rui's arm were clusters of semi-transparent fish eggs, like tiny blisters, stained a sinister red by the blood.

He sat on a park bench. Despite the hat, the padded jacket, the down coat, the windbreaker, a cold sharper than needles seeped from his limbs into the depths of his soul. It was the parasitic eggs, desperately plundering their host's warmth to survive.

His expression was probably too unhinged. The elderly morning exercisers gave him a wide berth.

"What happened?" Lu Yan asked.

Li Rui lowered his voice to a whisper. "My arm… it's growing… growing those things…"

Yesterday, they had performed the surgery together.

Lu Yan quickly realized what Li Rui meant.

Lu Yan frowned. "You should contact the Pollution Control Center."

Six years ago, when pollution first erupted abroad, the world had experienced a brief, localized panic. Experts later confirmed it was a new-century infectious disease, dubbed Pollution Disease.

Pollution Disease Prevention and Control Centers had been established worldwide because of it.

Li Rui shook his head frantically. "During university, I interned at the City A Pollution Control Center. Those people… they get processed. High-temperature elimination… I don't want to die! Save me, Doctor Lu! We operated yesterday. You heard what that officer said. Just cut out the eggs and it's fine."

Saving lives and healing the wounded was a doctor's duty. Li Rui had never met anyone who embodied that responsibility and conviction more than Lu Yan.

That was why he had come to him.

Before Lu Yan could respond, a knock sounded at his door—a rare occurrence.

"Lu Yan, I'm at Qu…"

"Wait. I'll call you back."

Lu Yan hung up and activated the smart peephole. The visitor's face appeared on the door screen.

Two people. One of them was Lin Sinan from yesterday.

Today, he was in civilian clothes. Sneakers, jeans, a light white T-shirt under a dark utility jacket. Dressed like a small-town high-school heartthrob on his first day at a metropolitan university.

Lin Sinan looked directly at the peephole. "Hello, Doctor Lu. Lin Sinan. We met previously. Due to the potential infectious nature of yesterday's procedure, I've brought a colleague to conduct a check-up. Rest assured, we are legitimate personnel."

Lin Sinan patted his pockets for a moment before finally retrieving an ID badge from his colleague's jacket.

"City K Pollution Disease Prevention and Control Center." A photo, an official seal. His title read "Inspector."

Lu Yan opened the door and offered shoe covers.

Lin Sinan stepped inside, his eyes making a discreet sweep of the room.

The place looked like a showroom unit. Almost no trace of lived-in warmth. In the semi-open kitchen, the cutting board was spotless, devoid of any sign of use.

Lin Sinan also noted something interesting.

Lu Yan likely practiced archery. An archery target hung on the living room wall, pockmarked with holes.

The inspector opened a square case and sat at the dining table, speaking softly. "The check requires a small blood sample. Is that alright, Doctor Lu?"

His case was placed slightly askew on the table.

Lu Yan controlled the urge to straighten it, silently extending his arm instead.

The blood draw was quick. The droplet was immediately placed into an unfamiliar square device.

A few minutes later, the inspector announced, "You show no signs of Pollution Disease. If you experience fever or any physical discomfort during this period, you may contact our Pollution Control Center at any time. We will provide appropriate assistance."

Lu Yan met his eyes. "Is Pollution Disease really just an infectious disease?"

"Pollution Disease is, of course, an infectious disease. Merely a new form of genetic aberration. It is highly contagious. Several years ago, it caused tens of thousands of deaths abroad. However, thanks to the relentless efforts of scientists worldwide, the disease is now under control. Cases appear only in small, localized clusters. There's no need for excessive concern."

In Lu Yan's mind, the System scoffed with disdain. [That's only because the early stages involved low-level pollutants. A single C-Class pollutant can destroy a city. Countless lives were sacrificed to halt that initial disaster. But weakness is humanity's original sin.]

[By the way, a word of advice. Get these people out of here. Unless you want to be hauled off to a Research Institute.]

Seeing the conversation stall, Lu Yan asked, "Thank you for the explanation. Is there anything else?"

"...No. Have a pleasant day."

"Thank you."

Moments later, the two staff from the Pollution Control Center left Lu Yan's apartment.

Lin Sinan spoke first. "Obsessive cleanliness is one of the most common clinical manifestations of OCD. Living environment normal. No pollution source detected."

The inspector added, "Lu Yan. Father was a Pollution Disease patient with multiple prior domestic violence charges. Mother committed suicide by jumping from a building when he was six."

"Lu Yan suffered long-term imprisonment and abuse by his father. Rescued at age twelve. Diagnosed with photophobia, claustrophobia, dissociative identity disorder. The alternate personality is antisocial, highly aggressive."

"Discharged as 'cured' at age sixteen. That same year, his father became a pollutant and was detained at a Research Institute. Designation: Subject 18."

"In 2117, Subject 18 escaped from the Institute. The only recorded escape of an A-Class pollutant. Although Subject 18's aberration was cerebral, it led researchers to conclude that pollutants can develop intelligence rivaling humans in later stages."

Lin Sinan nodded. "Right. So the Institute monitored Lu Yan for a long time, watching to see if Subject 18 would make contact."

"Team Leader Lin, you know what my talent is. I sensed a dangerous aura around him," the inspector said gravely.

He was a support-type Revelator. [Talent - Premonition]. He could detect danger to a certain degree.

"Test results are in. Spiritual power threshold: zero. Aberration progression: zero. An ordinary person. I thought he might have been a Revelator." Lin Sinan pulled a military-grade tranquilizer cigarette from his pocket and lit it. "Let's go. We have another stop."

According to Academy research, beings with an aberration progression between 0 and 100 were still considered human. Revelators were humans exposed to pollution who possessed a talent but maintained an aberration level under 100. Their strength was determined by their spiritual power threshold.

Exceed 100, and you were no longer human. You joined the ranks of animals, plants, even inorganic matter—all classified as pollutants.

And Lu Yan was a zero.

*

Li Rui waited for Lu Yan's call.

He sat on the park bench, growing colder. The world before him gradually lost its color, fading into a monochrome gray.

The air grew damper. A mist began to creep through the surroundings.

A high fever blurred Li Rui's consciousness.

A sudden, inexplicable sense of someone approaching jolted him. His head snapped up.

Two people nearby. Strangers.

Instinct screamed they were here for him.

They would take him to the Control Center. He'd end up like those grotesque patients he'd seen years ago, vanishing into a several-thousand-degree incinerator!

Without a moment's hesitation, Li Rui turned and ran.

The two men, who had just begun pulling out their IDs, stared in surprise, then immediately gave chase.

Li Rui wasn't in great shape. A few hours in the operating room usually left him drained. Now, bundled up like a penguin, he shouldn't have been able to move fast. Yet his speed kept increasing, a blur against the pavement.

As he ran, his hearing sharpened to an impossible degree. He could make out the distant, frustrated curses of his pursuers.

"Isn't this a parasitic infection? Why is the host aberrating already?"

Aberration.

Right. That's what they called it when an ordinary person with Pollution Disease started to physically change.

He didn't run for long. The thrum of helicopter rotors beat down from above.

He looked up. The side door was open. Strapped in with a safety line, clad in full tactical gear, Lin Sinan raised a sniper rifle.

A voice boomed from a loudspeaker, carrying across the distance. "You in front! Stop running immediately! Get down on the ground with your hands on your head! We are personnel from the Pollution Disease Prevention and Control Center. Preliminary analysis confirms parasitic infection. Cease all movement! You will be taken for specialized treatment!"

"Refusal to comply with investigation and treatment will result in the enactment of special emergency measures."

Li Rui didn't even hear it. He just kept running, a mindless, frantic animal.

A bead of sweat traced a path down Lin Sinan's temple. The command crackled in his earpiece, direct from headquarters. "Patient is suffering parasitic pollution. Aberration confirmed. Host body now a contagion vector. Recommendation: terminate."

Lin Sinan squeezed the trigger.

[Talent - Tracking Shot]. Within effective range, the projectile finds its mark.

Hundreds of meters up, with the helicopter swaying and the target sprinting erratically below, a hit was nearly unthinkable.

The gunshot cracked. A blossom of crimson erupted from Li Rui's body.

But he didn't fall.

It was a horrifying sight. The head was gone. The headless body kept charging forward.

Lin Sinan's brow furrowed. He fired twice more in rapid succession, the shots following the first within ten seconds.

He was using heavy rounds. A direct hit meant certain death.

Li Rui, of course, was not alive.

But just like the hairworm that drives its mantis host to drown itself, the thing parasitizing him still had control.

The oppressive sky finally broke open. Rain fell in sheets.

In the downpour, the headless corpse finally found its destination.

The moat of City K—the Qu River.

It threw itself into the dark water with a kind of frantic, twitching joy.

……

……

The body was fished out quickly.

Ignoring the contamination risk, Lin Sinan stripped off Li Rui's sodden clothes, examining every inch.

No trace of fish eggs.

No one felt relieved. Beside them, the river churned, an endless, indifferent flow.

Two soldiers hung their heads in shame. "We're sorry, sir. We couldn't keep up."

Typically, aberration had three stages, with at least a two-week buffer period. For Li Rui, from infection to full aberration had taken mere hours.

It defied all precedent. Lin Sinan hadn't been prepared.

If humanity could evolve, so could the pollutants.

Lin Sinan's expression turned grim. "Declaring an emergent pollution event, provisional B-Class. Confirmed mutation of C-Class pollutant 'Parasitic Fish'. Recovery failed. Extent of pollution diffusion unknown. Requesting immediate support from headquarters."