Chapter 39

40/Seven

Dawn broke, a pale light seeping into the sky.

Lu Yan hadn't slept all night, but he still felt alert. After all, he was an evolved human now; four hours of sleep was enough to fuel him for an entire day. It was almost a shame. If he'd awakened back in high school, he might have scored higher than 727 on the college entrance exam.

[Ah, the two A-Class pollutants in the botanical garden are awake. So noisy.]

The white poisonous mushrooms on the ground began to blush red, releasing puffs of spores. Fine powder exploded in the air, completing a cycle of propagation.

The wind would carry the pollution source far. These spores had a very low contamination value, practically useless to Awakened, but still lethal to ordinary people.

Lu Yan took out the portable pesticide sprayer he carried and gave the area a thorough dousing.

A large patch of nearby mushrooms instantly withered, revealing half-buried skeletal remains in the soil. This land would remain barren for a long time to come, but there was no other choice.

Humanity feared the Pollution Disease, dreaded becoming aberrations, and so, in combating the pollution, they sacrificed the natural environment. Yet to the pollutants, humans were the invaders, encroaching on their habitats. It was an irreconcilable conflict.

But as he killed these mushrooms, Lu Yan felt little guilt.

Because he was still human, still benefiting from the sacrifices of others. He wasn't the type to bite the hand that fed him.

The system praised him. [The host truly remembers his original intent and thus achieves his final goal.]

Even while rounding up cultists, he hadn't forgotten his day job, diligently serving as a pesticide-spraying gardener.

Among this batch of trainees was a support-type with a talent called "Ultrasound," functionally similar to a broadcast, able to transmit inaudible frequencies over long distances to be received by other Awakened.

This trainee had also tried calling for help from the edge of the contaminated zone but had received no response yet.

Who knew what was happening outside?

In any case, once the message spread, eight dots on the map winked out one after another without Lu Yan needing to lift a finger.

By the time he shot the last believer, the sedatives in his pocket were nearly gone. He felt like if he burped now, it would taste of mint.

The class Tang Xian'an was leading was probably about to go from having the lowest casualty rate to the highest mortality rate in record time.

He checked his watch. 9:30 AM.

[Excellent. Once that entity wakes up, it will soon discover it overslept and missed its final chance for the Descent.]

[Even an S-Class pollutant can't be infallible forever, so sure of victory. I love watching these things crash and burn, then rage impotently. Hilarious. Really think they're gods? If they'd just eaten one more cephalosporin pill while drinking, they wouldn't be this deluded.]

"I thought you wanted humanity extinct sooner rather than later."

[Our personalities are complementary, Host.]

Lu Yan waited for the last trace of sweetness to fade from his mouth. "What now?"

[To the botanical garden. To rescue someone. Your head instructor is having a rough time, caught between enemies.] The system's tone was like an old man out for a stroll. [Don't panic. If he could get out of the Divine Kingdom on his own, he would have. At most, your lesion percentage will rise a bit. No big deal otherwise.]

"Rescue...? How?" Lu Yan was genuinely shocked. "There are pollutants in there with lesion percentages in the several thousands. Even an S-Class Awakened is helpless. How am I supposed to save anyone?"

[Two of them went in together. The plan was for Tang Xian'an to clear the path. Upon reaching the central area of the garden, Subject 07 would release Karmic Fire to destroy the hallucinogenic mushrooms on the ground and damage the banyan tree's roots. Then Tang Xian'an would finish off the tree...]

[But before 07 was sent here, his researcher had already stripped the Karmic Fire talent from him. Part of his brain was removed in the process. 07 doesn't remember. He thinks he still has it.]

[So, 07 is now just a waste of space with a magnetic field interference aura... not even a pretty one.]

[Barring accidents, your head instructor is still trapped in an illusion, fighting an invisible pollutant. So, you just need to wake him up.]

"You make it sound simple, but I have a feeling it won't be."

Lu Yan was used to his reverse-luck buff.

In one sense, he was lucky—every time he stepped out, something happened.

In another, he was unlucky—anyone else encountering these things would have died long ago, yet here he was, alive and kicking, with his spiritual power threshold nearing 2000.

[Just stick that human-skin parchment from the pocket watch onto your body, and the pollutants in the garden won't attack you. They'll think you're reinforcements from the Divine Kingdom... Don't worry. As long as you don't believe in their faith, the parchment won't affect you. You'll just be visible to the Holy One.]

Lu Yan took the piece of skin from the watch. It was only two inches wide. The black tattoo on it seemed to have shifted slightly, unnervingly.

He hesitated.

The system asked, [Do you doubt me? Skepticism is good, Host, but you can always trust me. Eyes can deceive you. Memory can deceive you. I cannot.]

[I am not a living being, nor a deity. I am your talent. You can use me like a tool manual, like an encyclopedia, without even worrying about errors. Because I am the omniscient truth itself.]

"Alright." Lu Yan pressed the skin onto the back of his left hand.

Wang Yu, parasitizing within him, reacted as if scalded, angrily punching and kicking. Bumps of varying sizes swelled on the back of Lu Yan's hand.

The skin parchment seemed to come alive. Clearly more intelligent than the irritable Wang Yu, it didn't confront directly but quietly spread over the surface of Lu Yan's palm.

It even tried to cover the mouth in Lu Yan's palm with the human skin, but a section was quickly torn apart.

Soon, the fusion was complete.

Lu Yan instinctively looked up at the sky, half-obscured by the tree canopy.

In the void, it was as if a deity had opened its eyes and glanced at him.

In that instant, Lu Yan's entire body entered a state of high alert beyond his control, fish scales emerging across his skin.

Fortunately, the sensation of being watched didn't last long.

Lu Yan looked at the back of his hand. The parchment had fused seamlessly with his skin, indistinguishable from it. The tattoo looked as if it had grown from his flesh, vividly alive.

[Congratulations, Host. Acquired special spiritual artifact: Bliss Cult Guide.]

[This is a pass to the Blissful World. Not, of course, referring to the 'Pure Land' in the spiritual realm.]

[During the original 'Divine Kingdom Operation,' two A-Class Awakeners from the Eastern Island, following orders from the First Research Institute, committed suicide there. After death, they became special, mindless pollutants—Sea Fog. This fog trapped the Divine Kingdom, halting its expansion. It also meant completely abandoning the millions still left on the island.]

[Sacrificing the few to save the many. That has always been the First Research Institute's creed.]

[Possessing the Bliss Cult Guide grants use of talent 99: Dreamwalk. Success rate decreases with each use, however, as you do not truly possess this talent.]

Lu Yan stared at the tattoo for a long time. "...Looks like I'll have to buy a pair of gloves."

Wang Yu had occasionally been disobedient before, pushing out from his palm to split open a mouth. He'd considered buying gloves then. After Wang Yu admitted its mistake and promised to behave, Lu Yan had dropped the idea.

But this tattoo on his hand clearly wouldn't fade. He didn't want to be mistaken for a cultist this early.

[No big deal. If you really don't want it, just cut it off afterward. You could even perform the skin excision surgery on your own left hand with your right. I believe in your skills, Doctor Lu!] The system's tone was suddenly full of encouragement.

Lu Yan: "..."

He felt he was sacrificing far too much to save the world.

*

The system claimed that with this skin attached, the pollutants in the botanical garden wouldn't attack him.

But he only had one life. Before entering the notorious high-risk contaminated zone, Lu Yan decided to test it first.

He found a plant-human rooting by the roadside. With a knife, he made a shallow cut on his hand. A single drop of blood welled up, round and glossy.

A human face appeared on the tree trunk. The plant-human drooled tree sap, yet its branches stubbornly refused to advance even a meter.

Good. The mark was effective.

Lu Yan casually smeared the blood drop on the trunk. The pollutant froze, entering a rigid state for about a minute.

According to the system, the higher a pollutant's contamination value, the less effect his blood would have.

For ease of movement, Lu Yan shed the dozens of pounds of protective suit and the pesticide tank on his back.

Ahead lay the danger zone boundary, marked with orange paint by the cleanup crews.

The gates of Luochuan Botanical Garden had collapsed. Withered vines twisted around the iron bars, crushing them out of shape.

Lu Yan looked. These plants seemed to have died very recently.

Lu Yan stepped inside, feeling as if he had entered a land of giants. Here, even the weeds by the path stood taller than a man. The mushrooms were truly large enough to shelter you from rain. Above, winged insects darted through the air, their mutated faces grotesque and terrifying.

His detector gave the pollution reading here: 3,900.

This was just the outskirts of the botanical garden, still miles from that massive banyan tree, yet the pollution level was already terrifying.

If an ordinary person wandered in by mistake, even without encountering a single pollutant, they’d likely undergo aberration within three hours.

Lu Yan didn’t find it a major issue, but the air still carried a scent that made him deeply uneasy.

In the darkness, pairs of watching eyes fixed on him, sniffed, then lost interest upon seeing the tattoo on his hand and drifted away.

Without that mark from the Holy One, he’d have been torn apart by the frenzied animals and plants the moment he arrived.

Tang Xian’an and Subject 07 must have come through here; traces of battle littered the ground.

Lu Yan followed these signs forward. On his detector, the pollution value had climbed so high it triggered the automatic alarm.

The deeper he went into the garden, the more the plant variety dwindled, until only one type of tree remained: the Bengal banyan.

Originally planted for shade, this species had become the nightmare of everyone in P-City when the Pollution Disease broke out.

Its aerial roots were everywhere underfoot, like nutrient-carrying blood vessels.

Wind gusted in from outside, sounding like the heavy breathing of the tree itself.

The banyan’s roots wove a net across the earth. Despite moving with extreme caution, Lu Yan still disturbed its slumber.

The ground trembled. These smaller trees seemed to come alive, writhing, parting to clear a path for him.

Light the candle you took from Chen Anzhi earlier. Don’t be afraid. Walk forward. Stay calm. Act exactly like someone under hypnosis. Understand?

Lu Yan forced his eyes to go vacant and walked on.

The soil beneath his feet grew damper, its color darkening to black, carrying an indescribable stench of decay.

In his surgeries, patients arrived bloody, but at least they were alive.

The smell of the dead wasn’t one he knew well.

Passing through a forest so thick it stole his breath, Lu Yan saw a pool of clear water.

By the lake, the banyan had driven its thick roots deep into the lakebed. Around it grew a cluster of plump, cute white mushrooms.

A-Class pollutant: Banyan Tree. Pollution Value: 9,400. Due to relatively recent emergence, currently possesses intelligence roughly equivalent to a human sixteen-year-old.

Talents: Life Extraction, Longevity

Aberration Direction: Gigantification, Tentacular Transformation

A-Class pollutant: White Mushroom. Pollution Value: 8,200. Non-sapient. Symbiotic pollutant.

Talents: Spore Burst, Fungal Infection, Hallucinogenic

Aberration Direction: Extreme Toxicity, Proliferation

Their shared weakness is fire.

The banyan’s aberration direction was similar to Shen Qingyang’s, whom Lu Yan had encountered before.

Both gigantification and tentacular transformation. Though Shen Qingyang’s talents were “Life Drain” and “Mimicry.”

A difference of one word. Over a hundred sequence numbers apart.

Extraction required processing; draining did not. If processing Tang Xian’an hadn’t been so troublesome, the banyan might not have needed the Holy One’s help.

Dragon scales were too hard. Simply couldn’t be chewed through.

Actually, the talent sequences of pollutants and humans aren’t identical, but they generally follow similar evolutionary paths, the system added.

Lu Yan held the burning candle, repeating mechanically, “Praise the Holy One. Bliss and eternal life.”

The banyan’s branches parted, revealing a gigantic human face hidden deep within. “Why are you only coming now?”

Lu Yan: “Was sleeping. Tired.”

The banyan was speechless. But out of respect for a Senior, it could only pretend nothing was amiss.

Its enormous trunk writhed. The human figures covering its surface seemed to come alive, slowly parting to either side, revealing what was contained within.

“Although the mushrooms did trap him in an illusion, the process wasn’t smooth. The mushrooms were badly injured. They’ve reverted to white.”

“His lesion percentage is already very high, but he hasn’t broken through that threshold yet… I sense a disquieting aura. You take him. Remember our deal.”

“Oh, wait. Why haven’t you descended into this vessel yet?” the banyan asked.

Lu Yan lifted his gaze to the figure ahead.

The usually stern Head Instructor’s brow was tightly furrowed, his head bowed. The muzzle was still on his face. Occasional, heavy rasps of breath escaped him, as if trapped in some nightmare.

Tang Xian’an’s limbs were bound by the banyan’s deep brown vines, like a suffering Jesus.

Lu Yan had once heard that crucifixion nails were driven through the wrists.

Now, two vines had also pierced through Tang Xian’an’s wrists, leaving two gruesome, bloody holes.

Black dragon scales had emerged across his body, covering him up to the sides of his face.

The dragon wings on his back seemed broken, hanging limp and powerless.

The banyan had retrieved Tang Xian’an from its own stomach, so he was coated in its gastric fluid, sticky and foul.

The fluid was probably corrosive too. His normally neat uniform was tattered and eaten through by the acid.

Lu Yan asked the system, “How do I wake him?”

Enter the dream.

“Something’s off,” Lu Yan said. “I feel like everything is too coincidental. You could explain it as me being lucky. But I feel like someone is pulling strings behind the scenes.”

Paranoia is another side effect of overusing your talent, Host.

“I still think it’s off.” Lu Yan stated.

The system: ?

Lu Yan lowered his voice, stating a fact with a deadpan expression. “I’m turned on.”

Seeing the Head Instructor beaten this badly actually made his heart race.

That wasn’t right.

The system: …Yeah. That is, indeed, not right.