Chapter 4

004

A weekday, and the streets of K City were deserted.

Except for the area around the Pollution Disease Prevention and Control Center, which swarmed with people.

It was the third day of the lockdown.

Many of K City's powerful and wealthy families had already begun their quiet exodus.

They wouldn't make a spectacle, of course. Under military escort, they were brought to the Center in orderly groups. After undergoing near-draconian screening, they would board planes to leave this teetering city.

For safety, they'd land first on a deserted island. Only after the danger period passed would they return to the mainland.

At the same time, the city's vital scientific researchers were on the 'white list,' along with the children of fallen heroes.

From a metropolis of millions, fewer than five hundred people had made it to the Center to be tested for the privilege of early departure.

Lin Sinan leaned against his jeep, smoking a cigarette and keeping a vague eye on the order of things.

Many staff members were swaddled head-to-toe in protective suits, but he looked no different than on any other day.

Lin Sinan didn't fear pollution. He was, after all, a walking pollution source himself.

His brow was furrowed. At his feet, a small graveyard of cigarette butts had accumulated.

The cigarette in his hand wasn't just tobacco; it was a tobacco-flavored sedative.

A screening officer from the Center approached. "Lin Sinan. You should smoke less."

The sedatives had side effects.

"Can't stop." Lin Sinan clutched his head, squatting down right there on the pavement. His eyes were hollow as he muttered, "I knew the parasitic eggs attaching to a human host wouldn't cause secondary pollution. I didn't expect them to evolve in just a few days. I shouldn't have sent Ah Bai straight to the hospital. Or I should have kept Doctor Li under observation longer before letting him go."

"And we failed to recover the pollution source. My arrogance caused this. I should have listened to that kid Ah Bai—shouldn't have saved him. But his parents are gone. He's their only son left. How could I not?"

"If the parasite becomes uncontrollable in K City…"

Lin Sinan covered his face with a hand, his voice dropping low. "I'll be the one who killed these millions."

They had tried so hard.

To combat the pollution, Enlightened ones died every day, all over the world. Swallowed whole until nothing remained, or taking their own lives to avoid becoming pollutants.

The more they fought the pollutants, the more powerless they felt.

The speed at which Enlightened ones grew could never match the terrifying rate at which pollution sources evolved and spread.

No one knew when this precarious balance would shatter.

Humanity had never gained the upper hand in its struggle against the pollutants.

*

Since the water shutoff, the gunfire in the night had noticeably increased.

Maybe it was his imagination, but Lu Yan felt his hearing had grown sharper.

So sharp that without earplugs, sleep was nearly impossible.

City Hall had dispatched workers to conduct pollution screenings door-to-door. Contaminated patients were taken away in groups.

For treatment, they said. Or possibly for cremation.

On the fourth day of lockdown, Lu Yan found he could no longer send messages outside the city. The signal seemed confined within K City's limits.

He could still call his colleagues. But dialing his director's number only ever got him a "please call again later" tone.

He checked the work WeChat groups. Not much discussion about it. Maybe it was being suppressed. Or maybe people just hadn't noticed.

Compared to unanswered calls, another piece of news circulating in K City's major WeChat groups was far more attention-grabbing.

It was a screenshot of a Moments post.

"HELP! My boyfriend's behavior and looks are getting more and more frog-like! What's happening?! I'm freaking out, he's right outside the door right now! Someone save me!"

A hastily taken, blurry photo was attached.

In it, a man crouched in a frog-like posture. His eyeballs bulged grotesquely, as if forced from their sockets, held in place only by a few bloody vessels at the back. A strange, watery film covered his skin.

A bizarre smile stretched his face. His mouth was split open, as if about to flick out a tongue.

It made many viewers' scalps crawl.

Reportedly, the girl could no longer be reached.

Even through the screen, Lu Yan felt goosebumps rise on his skin.

Unlike those treating it as a creepy story, Lu Yan was eighty, ninety percent sure it was real.

[Just an F-Class pollutant at the bottom of the food chain. Not human anymore. Nothing special.]

[You could dissect one if you get the chance. Ugly as sin, but… the meat's pretty tasty.]

[Oh, and these ugly toads have another trait. They like to feast on swan meat.]

Lu Yan listened, only half-understanding.

He boiled some bottled water to make instant noodles, to settle his nerves. Tossed in an egg for good measure.

Eggs could stay in the fridge, but not forever. Best to eat them sooner.

Because of the water cutoff, every morning at nine, the property manager started his water deliveries.

One small case per household, twelve bottles. City Hall provided it, free of charge. The manager left it at the door for residents to retrieve.

Enough for washing rice and flushing toilets for a family. But if you wanted a shower, you had to tough it out.

A few times, Lu Yan was slow to collect his water. Opening the door, he'd find half his bottles gone.

But whoever took them always left a neat stack of cash—a thousand yuan. At two yuan a bottle, technically, Lu Yan came out ahead.

Though in times like these, water was worth far more than money.

Lu Yan thought it over, then pocketed the cash. If someone was buying water at a premium, they were probably desperate.

He lived alone, used little water. Plus, he'd stocked up heavily at the supermarket before this. He wasn't short.

Still… his relationship with the neighbors was decent enough. Why the sneakiness? It wasn't like they couldn't have talked.

The next day, Lu Yan deliberately pulled a chair to his door, sat down, and activated the smart peephole screen.

He held a copy of After Humanity: An Illustrated Bestiary, glancing up every so often to check the monitor.

At 9:30 AM, the property manager left the water by his door.

Ten minutes later, the door diagonally across from his inched open. A figure peered out, furtive.

It was the young rich kid who lived opposite Lu Yan.

Lu Yan vaguely remembered him. The kid was a junior at his university, different major but also studying chemistry and biology. Not a great student. Around finals, he'd often show up with a pile of inane questions.

The apartment heating was on, yet the kid wore a thick beanie.

An oddly large beanie, almost covering his nose.

Lu Yan rested his chin on his hand, watching through the screen as the kid scurried to his door, snatched half the water bottles with frantic haste, and left a thousand yuan.

The kid lived alone too. He shouldn't be that short on drinking water.

Lu Yan paused the feed, zoomed in, took a screenshot.

Maybe it was his imagination, but the kid's fingers looked unnaturally long and slender. Lu Yan held up his own hand for comparison. The kid's webbing was noticeably larger than normal… and nearly translucent, veins visible beneath.

Looked like people parasitized by the fish eggs still got thirsty.

By the book, Lu Yan should call it in.

But the kid's current appearance was a far cry from the photo.

And Lu Yan was… curious about the aberration process.

He asked the system, "Under normal circumstances, could I handle an F-Class pollutant?"

[Fifty-fifty. You're an Enlightened one at the bottom of the food chain, after all. This kind of pollutant can still be killed with ordinary physical attacks.]

So Lu Yan didn't make the call. Instead, he pulled his compound bow from under the bed and spent the afternoon practicing.

***

The seventh day of the citywide quarantine.

Nightfall.

Lu Yan didn't have many hobbies. Usually, he swam, practiced archery, and read. No swimming now. Archery at home was getting old. That left reading. Fortunately, he'd lined all four walls of his bedroom with bookshelves, meticulously organized. At least two thousand books. Enough to last an eternity.

Lu Yan closed his book, rubbed his tired eyes, and went to sleep.

This time, sleep didn't come easy.

Because at his door came a faint, very distinct sound… of a lock being picked.

Lu Yan's gaze shifted to the alarm clock on his bedside table.

3:00 AM.

……

……

The deep night over K City was utterly silent. Since the lockdown order, everyone's nighttime activity had shrunk to their phone screens.

That made the relentless, insistent doorbell chime especially jarring.

He picked up his compound bow, then tucked the military-grade dagger he'd bought online into his waistband. Only then did he feel a sliver of confidence.

The hallway light was dim, flickering erratically like a bad connection.

Lu Yan moved silently to the door and looked through the peephole monitor.

The screen showed the visitor.

From his clothes, it was the rich kid from diagonally across the hall. Lu Yan vaguely recalled his name was Zhou Kaiwen.

Zhou Kaiwen's entire skin looked waterlogged and wrinkled, a mossy green hue spreading across it.

His eyes were vacant, eyeballs bulging so far out they seemed on the verge of tumbling from their sockets.

Zhou Kaiwen's long, slender fingers stabbed anxiously at the doorbell. Translucent mucus dripped from the webbing between them.

[Well, well. The toad's come for the swan meat,] the system quipped, tone mocking.

Lu Yan abandoned any thought of opening the door. This human-shaped frog was too ugly. It turned his stomach.

But the giant frog clearly had other plans.

Zhou Kaiwen's nostrils flared. His vacant pupils instantly narrowed into vertical slits.

"Senior, I like you. You know that, right?" Zhou Kaiwen's voice held a hint of barely-contained excitement. "I know you like me too, you're just being shy. It's only natural to have designs on someone like me, with my money. It must be something my father said to you that made you keep your distance. But now, I've thought of a way for us to be together forever."

The next second, his tongue shot out with startling agility.

Frogs hunt with that tongue—long, flexible, the tip forked.

Now, that same tongue twisted into an unnatural arc in the air and slid into the lock's keyhole.

For a moment, Lu Yan regretted not installing an electrode tube inside the lock. Not that he could blame himself; experience had simply limited his imagination.

If someone had told him, before all this, that a person could pick a lock with their tongue, he'd have told them the psychiatric department was down the hall to the right.

Lu Yan silently raised his bow.

Minutes later, a soft click echoed in the quiet apartment. The door cracked open a sliver.

Light from the hallway seeped in. Lu Yan listened to his own heartbeat, steady, not frantic.

Zhou Kaiwen's mutated, webbed hand pressed against the door. His voice was a grotesque parody of gentleness. "Senior, you're clearly home… why won't you open the door?"

Every nerve in Lu Yan's body was screaming.

He stood behind a cabinet, positioned so he could shoot and immediately dive for cover.

Lu Yan didn't answer. His fingers released the string.

The arrow flew with unerring precision, aimed straight for the visitor's neck.

Against a normal human, that broadhead would have punched clean through. When it struck Zhou Kaiwen's throat, only the tip buried itself in the flesh.

Foul-smelling blood sprayed out. The frog-man shuddered in pain, its bulging eyes secreting streams of yellowish fluid.

The arrow wound wasn't fatal, but it clearly enraged the creature.

It leaped, its head nearly scraping the ceiling. The distance, the speed—both far beyond human limits.

Too fast.

So fast that when the system's voice rang out, Lu Yan obeyed on instinct.

[Roll.]

Lu Yan tumbled across the floor, his hand closing around the military dagger in his pocket, then releasing it just as quickly.

Not yet. The compound bow had proven that ordinary bladed weapons would struggle to incapacitate Zhou Kaiwen. He could try for the eyes, but with the massive disparity in strength, he'd likely get only one chance.

Zhou Kaiwen landed heavily on all fours. Drool dripped from its maw, sizzling as it ate into the floorboards, raising a foam of corrosion.

[You should be glad it doesn't have much of that stomach acid. It's practically sulfuric.]

[Its weakness is the belly. You dissected plenty of frogs in med school. You know what to do.]

Lu Yan's gaze sharpened.

He wasn't a fighter. But faced with mortal danger, the will to survive honed his mind to a razor's edge.

[Back up.]

[Left. Reverse thrust. Run.]

Lu Yan's stamina was decent. When nurses were swamped, he'd often help carry patient stretchers. But against Zhou Kaiwen, now fully devolved into a pollutant, it wasn't nearly enough.

He was slammed to the ground.

Zhou Kaiwen pinned his throat, its expression one of confusion. "Why aren't you afraid?"

Humans who died in terror were the most delectable food for pollutants.

But Lu Yan's face was preternaturally calm.

Not that it mattered.

Zhou Kaiwen's hand moved up. Those long, slender fingers pried open Lu Yan's eyelid. Its smile stretched almost to its ears. "We'll start with the eyes. Senior, you have no idea how beautiful they are."

It opened its maw, unfurling that long, revolting tongue.

Now.

Beneath the calm mask, a twisted ferocity surged. But his hand remained steady.

The first time Lu Yan had held a scalpel, his instructor had praised him, saying he was born for this work.

But it wasn't just doctors who had steady hands with a blade.

Butchers did, too.

The stinking tip of Zhou Kaiwen's tongue hovered an inch from Lu Yan's eye.

The moment of truth.

The dagger plunged deep into the creature's abdomen.

A torrent of red blood erupted, drenching Lu Yan from head to toe.

……

……

The fight was over. The gutted frog-creature had lost most of its mobility. Lu Yan, fearing it wasn't dead enough, stepped forward and delivered several more decisive thrusts.

By the time he emerged from washing off in the bathroom, the pollutant on his floor was already cold.

Lu Yan picked up the mop and began cleaning. The blood was stubborn, but he'd come prepared. A mix of saline and a 10% potassium iodide solution soon had the floorboards gleaming like new.