Chapter 43

Chapter 43

—Take her and hide her in the future.

Present-day humanity did not yet possess the ability to salvage this gift from the heavens.

Keep her for the day when hope still existed.

"Alright," Tang Xun'an said.

He had just been helped off the surgical table. The blood in his eyes hadn't fully clotted, blurring his vision with a faint, persistent red haze.

Despite the crowd of strangers, his gaze found Lu Yan instantly. The man stood apart from the others, his expression detached and calm, like an observer drifting outside the world's edges.

For a reason he couldn't name, Tang Xun'an felt a sudden, overwhelming urge to cry.

He didn't reach for the life-support pod first. Instead, he took a step forward and pulled Lu Yan into a fierce, desperate embrace.

"Lu Yan," Tang Xun'an mumbled into his shoulder, his nose reddening. "Was it… was it the future me who sent you to me?"

Lu Yan's expression shifted to one of confusion. He couldn't grasp the meaning behind the words.

Tang Xun'an's eyes brimmed, his voice thick with pleading. "Can you wait for me to come back? Please don't leave."

Lu Yan was unaccustomed to embraces, his body stiffening slightly. He gave Tang Xun'an's back a few awkward pats. "I'm not going anywhere."

This was still Tang Xun'an's dream. The dreamer hadn't awakened, so the dream intruder likely had no exit.

Their time for farewells was brutally short.

Tang Xun'an took the life-support pod. His final glance was for Lu Yan.

In the next instant, a circle of light ignited at his feet, reminiscent of a teleportation array from some fantasy game. As his ability activated, the physical markers of his aberration re-emerged across his body.

Then he was gone.

No one but Tang Xun'an would ever know in which future Zhi Zhi would appear.

But one thing crystallized in Lu Yan's mind with cold clarity: he had to survive this period without Tang Xun'an. Death in the dream was still death.

The enraged, mindless pollutants would not abandon their assault on the Research Institute just because Subject Zero had vanished.

The time was now 23:57.

A faint tremor ran through the floor. Most people, unaware of the cause, stumbled from their rooms in panic. "Is it an earthquake?"

While the phones still had signal, Qiao Yu sent a message to the work group. He didn't mention that Yu Zhi Zhi's awakening had drawn the pollutants, only that the Institute was surrounded.

"Wake all volunteers in Building 9," he ordered the staff over the phone.

…

…

Giant worms and beetles slammed their bodies against the walls in a relentless rhythm.

The entire Institute was forged from a single block of metal and buried deep underground, far sturdier than any ordinary structure.

Above ground, wolf packs howled at the moon. The largest among them stood ten meters tall, distant silhouettes resembling moving hills.

More pollutants arrived in a ceaseless stream. Humanoid and monstrous forms gathered together, a grotesque carnival.

Pollutants could evolve by devouring their own kind. Naturally, they could also evolve by consuming Awakened.

In essence, they were all just different flavors of "evolved species."

The Pollution Disease Prevention and Control Center had detected the anomaly via satellite surveillance, relaying the intelligence up the chain. Headquarters scrambled to dispatch reinforcements, but it looked like trying to stop a tidal wave with a teacup.

Currently, the world's most powerful Awakened were all concentrated inside the Institute. Their only hope was self-rescue.

A small mercy: the Pollution Disease had only erupted a few years ago. In Lu Yan's era, the Institute's current defensive capabilities would have meant certain death.

A staff announcement crackled over the broadcast system: "All personnel, please assemble on the first level. The Institute's power supply is unstable. Please evacuate via the emergency stairwells."

The first level was the shelter constructed during the Institute's founding—the most expansive floor. Designed for the possibility of total surface collapse, it resembled a miniature town more than a mere refuge, with capsule-style housing capable of sustaining tens of thousands.

Several officers hurried over. "Director, we must evacuate via the secure elevator. Your safety is paramount."

In their eyes, Qiao Yu's value outweighed that of the entire Institute combined.

Qiao Yu glanced at the others, gave a slight nod, and said, "Alright."

Then, naturally, he turned to Lu Yan. "Lu Yan, come with me."

An officer hesitated. "Director, the secure elevator is designed for single occupancy."

"It can hold two," Qiao Yu stated, his tone leaving no room for argument. "He is Tang Xun'an's psychological consultant. Tang Xun'an needs him to manage his contamination level."

Hearing this, the officers ceased their objections.

Sandworms had already chewed holes through the metal walls. Molten rock seeped in from outside. Distant screams and sobs echoed down the corridors.

Qiao Yu's steps faltered for a fraction of a second before he continued, urged on by the others.

Under the escort of the special forces soldiers, Qiao Yu and Lu Yan reached a concealed operating room, which revealed an elevator shaft behind a panel.

One look explained why the officer said it was for one person. It was less an elevator and more a narrow, cylindrical vertical passage. It didn't even run on electricity, but on magnetic force.

The car itself was like a tin can.

Qiao Yu stepped inside and motioned for Lu Yan to follow.

The space, less than two square meters, felt claustrophobic with two men over 180cm tall crammed inside.

Qiao Yu pressed the button for Level 1. The elevator engaged, giving Lu Yan a slight sense of weightlessness.

"I heard it."

Qiao Yu spoke abruptly.

He turned to face Lu Yan.

Unlike the somewhat aged visage from the textbooks, the forty-something Qiao Yu looked remarkably young. Even the streaks of grey in his hair did nothing to diminish his sharp, handsome features.

"Are you from the future?" Qiao Yu asked.

Lu Yan considered it. "In a way, yes. And no."

Everything here felt devastatingly real. Though it was Tang Xun'an's dream, it mirrored a true world with terrifying fidelity.

Qiao Yu didn't press the point. Instead, he asked, "Does the future get better?"

Lu Yan replied, "A hundred years from now, society still has order and civilization. The Pollution Disease is severe, but… no one has given up."

A genuine smile touched Qiao Yu's lips. "That's wonderful. Better than I imagined."

Then, abruptly, he slammed his hand on the elevator's emergency stop button.

"I've performed countless fusion transplant surgeries. I've only failed once in my life. I lost… my partner."

Lu Yan sensed that Director Qiao and his lover must have been deeply devoted. Qiao Yu's smile remained as he spoke of it.

"He was contaminated. An aberration began. To save him, I performed the fusion surgery. But he didn't awaken as an Awakened… According to protocol, I should have administered euthanasia. I couldn't do it."

"I lied. I said his contamination level was just too high, that he'd lost his mind. Then I sealed him away on the ninth level."

Qiao Yu stepped out of the elevator. "The volunteers on the ninth level have high spiritual power thresholds, but their fusion states are mostly unstable. I can't leave. Besides, it's time I ended that lie myself."

Lu Yan grabbed his wrist. "Professor Qiao, I'll go with you."

Qiao Yu's current spiritual power threshold was 6000. Though not a combat-type Awakened, he wasn't physically weak.

He pried Lu Yan's fingers loose. "Don't follow me. Go to the first level. Stay alive. Wait for him to return."

With that, Qiao Yu used his fingerprint to activate the elevator's emergency protocol—a privilege only he possessed. Once activated, the elevator would descend to the first level at maximum speed.

A sharp pain lanced through Lu Yan's head, accompanied by a nameless dread. One small comfort: according to the textbooks, Qiao Yu's death was around 2070. It offered a sliver of relief.

Several minutes later, the elevator doors opened on the first level.

The staff member stationed outside stared in shock. "Where's Director Qiao?!"

Lu Yan took a deep breath. "He went to the ninth level. I tried to stop him. He wouldn't listen. I don't have elevator authority."

The two staff members exchanged a look. One rushed to report to headquarters. The other led Lu Yan to the shelter area.

Those remaining in the Institute now were partly researchers, but mostly administrative staff, nurses, cleaners, cafeteria workers—ordinary people.

Evacuation had just begun, so the two groups gathered together numbered only around a hundred.

On the outermost perimeter stood soldiers and Awakened from the Special Operations Department. If the situation deteriorated further, those being protected would retreat into the secure pods.

Lu Yan saw some people still playing cards on the floor, acting relaxed, even leisurely. They probably thought the situation was manageable.

They didn't even know pollutants had come, thinking it was just a routine earthquake.

Half a day later, Professor Wu and other researchers were escorted up from the lower laboratories.

Many wore expressions of sheer terror, their appearances bedraggled. Soldiers among them were missing limbs.

And they were still arguing.

One group wept and shouted, "The data! The data hasn't been retrieved! That computer motherboard is more important than my life! Why won't you let me go get it?!"

The other group yelled back, "Get it, my ass! Even if you got it, you couldn't move it! If you were combat-type, fine, but you're willing to trample over other people's lives for it?! People have to survive to have hope! We remember the data in our heads! Give me five more years—no, two years—"

Professor Wu spotted Lu Yan and let out a long, shaky breath. "Fuck, the lower levels were a nightmare. Almost didn't make it back. You know, those sandworms got in. Packed the corridors solid… like maggots, but a few hundred times bigger."

"Then there were those beetles. Looked like flying scythes with legs. And they fucking spit lava. One spray and the wall just melts. My labs… billions to build… all gone."

Lu Yan listened, then set down his half-eaten meal box, his appetite vanishing.

"Lucky you, getting to evacuate with Director Qiao," Professor Wu said, his eyeless gaze sweeping the room. "Where is he?"

Lu Yan repeated what he'd told the staff.

Professor Wu went very still. After a long moment, he began to cry. "He went back for him. For Song Jingchen. The surgery… it failed. Song Jingchen was gone before he even arrived. We kept falsifying the aberration reports… told Qiao Yu he wasn't a pollutant yet, just contained on the ninth level, that he couldn't see him… Director Qiao… he always wanted to see him."

His featureless face remained a blank canvas, yet fat tears welled and rolled down the smooth, empty plane.

Qiao Yu said he had lied to the researchers.

Professor Wu said they had lied to Qiao Yu.

Both sides knew the truth, and each believed the other did not.

Lu Yan rarely felt the tug of emotion, but in that moment, he couldn't suppress a heavy, weary sigh.

The dust of history settles on everyone, and on each head, it weighs like a mountain.