Chapter 6

006

The apartment was already spotless, the frog-man’s bones sealed away in a pickling jar, but with nothing else to occupy him, Lu Yan began cleaning again.

The system sighed dramatically in his ear. [For fuck’s sake. Why? Why did you have to grind up perfectly good frog meat and flush it down the drain? Do you have any idea how hard it is to find fresh protein these days? What a waste.]

Clearly, the frog meat had been genuinely delicious, or the system was desperate for him to eat it. It wouldn’t have complained so many times otherwise.

Lu Yan snorted. “Hah.”

While dusting the TV stand, his elbow nudged the potted plant sitting on top.

After the city-wide lockdown began, he’d yanked out the delicate flowers and planted cheap, edible chives instead.

Nearly a month later, a fresh batch had just sprouted. He’d planned to harvest them for lunch, maybe stir-fry them with eggs. He hadn’t expected the pot to take matters into its own hands first.

The terracotta pot shattered on the floor.

The fish egg buried in the soil rolled out, coming to a stop by his foot.

It gleamed gold. Inside, the faint outline of a pale larval fish was visible.

The King Fish egg had been buried for over ten days. Deprived of water, it had shriveled slightly.

Its exceptional quality was the only reason it had survived. Any ordinary egg would have died the second day.

Carefully, Lu Yan used tweezers to lift the egg and place it in an empty glass.

A dazed expression crossed his face.

“System. You told me a hatched King Fish can consume the eggs of other parasitic fish.”

[Using poison to fight poison. It is indeed one method of treatment.]

“How?”

[Pollution is a form of evolution. One path to advancement for the Awakened is the continuous fusion with pollutants.]

[However, the fusion process inevitably raises one’s own Lesion Rate. And not all pollutants are compatible with the human body.]

[Hah. Speaking of which, humanity’s current strongest combatant is the result of technology and the Pollution Disease working in tandem. That man’s Lesion Rate is already ninety-five, yet he runs around putting out fires like a tireless mule. Tsk. He knows he’s a danger. The authorities know he’s a danger. But what choice do they have? Sometimes you need danger to fight danger.] The system’s tone dripped with sarcasm.

[I can teach you how to fuse with the King Fish egg. As your innate talent, what possible ulterior motive could your little system have?]

[But I must inform you of the risks. Can’t have complaints about misleading the user. The fusion process is irreversible. Even if you regret it midway, you cannot stop. And success is not guaranteed. In short, as long as you don’t die, it counts as success.]

Lu Yan spoke quietly. “You’ve told me many times. This disease… or rather, this method of biological evolution, will erupt worldwide. City K is just the beginning, not the end.”

“If most of the world becomes polluted, I can’t remain untouched. A pollutant’s physical parameters far exceed those of a normal human. Ordinary people stand no chance.”

He needed power. Otherwise, he was just waiting to die.

Moreover, if they called this the Pollution Disease an ‘evolution,’ then the species left behind would eventually vanish into history, becoming nothing but archaeological relics.

“Besides… I am a doctor. Saving lives is my duty.”

Lu Yan hadn’t spoken this many words in one go since he was in the womb.

It felt less like analysis and more like convincing himself.

“Tell me. What do I need to do?”

*

Lu Yan had held a scalpel many times. But since he lacked any self-harm tendencies, using a blade on himself was a first.

He vaguely remembered, back when he pretended to sleep at the psychiatric hospital, overhearing the head doctor and a nurse chatting. They’d said he was one of the rare patients in the intensive care ward who didn’t hurt himself.

According to the system, he needed to cut open a blood vessel and insert the egg for incubation. Results would be apparent in one to three days.

As for why not just swallow it… he’d already dissected someone who tried that.

Prioritizing convenience, observability, and ease of treatment, Lu Yan chose his forearm as the incubation site.

Disinfect. Local anesthetic. Grip the blade. Begin.

He avoided the artery, so the blood welled up slowly instead of spraying to the ceiling. The depth was just right.

A foreign object entering a blood vessel could cause an embolism, potentially leading to paralysis. Given this egg’s diameter, it could easily block a major artery.

Lu Yan inserted the pale golden egg and began suturing.

The entire procedure took less than three minutes.

He finished around 11 AM.

Lunchtime approached. Lu Yan steamed rice, stir-fried the chives with eggs, and reheated yesterday’s leftover corn and pork ribs stew.

His cooking had always been decent.

Today, however, he gagged on the first bite and vomited.

“Post-op, 35 minutes. Significant rise in body temperature. Accompanied by dizziness, heart palpitations, severe nausea.”

Excessive vomiting would bring stomach acid up, causing potentially irreversible damage to the esophagus. Yet, an indescribable hunger gnawed at him.

He opted for an IV glucose drip.

The sound of waves continued to whisper intermittently in his ears.

City K was near the sea. During hospital team-building events, Lu Yan had visited the shore several times.

Differences in latitude caused variations in tidal forces, making the tides distinct in every region.

He recognized this. It was the sound of the Qu Sea’s tide.

Lu Yan wrote a line in his notebook. Post-op, 55 minutes. Tinnitus developed.

Post-op, 6 hours. Extreme fever, 42°C. Considering potential cellular dysfunction or necrosis.

Haven’t lost consciousness yet, though. Probably an effect of the evolution.

The system’s tone was strange. [Honestly, I think a normal person would choose to sleep through this.]

Lu Yan was forcing himself to stay awake. Every time darkness threatened to pull him under, he pinched the philtrum above his lip until the pain shocked him back.

Unconsciousness was the body’s protective mechanism, a barrier against overwhelming agony.

A clammy sweat coated his skin. He shook his head. “If I know I might die, I at least want to die conscious.”

A conscious death. Or perhaps, a conscious rebirth.

…

…

Twenty-four hours post-op, fish scales erupted along Lu Yan’s arm.

Thirty hours in, the scales vanished.

The third day, the fever broke. The physical discomfort subsided.

“Body temperature… stable, but abnormally low. Twenty-seven degrees Celsius.”

Modern thermometers were digital. The margin for error was slim.

Lu Yan opened his eyes and looked down at his hand. The wound had disappeared without a trace, leaving only a neat row of suture marks.

He could feel it. Something swimming in his bloodstream. Sometimes fast, sometimes slow. Vibrantly alive.

[It’s the King Fish larva. Symbiotic state established. Congratulations. You’ve been enhanced.]

[Right now, you could tear apart three Zhou Kaiwens with one hand.]

So it wasn’t an illusion.

Symbiosis and parasitism were entirely different states.

Perhaps because Lu Yan had remained conscious throughout the fusion, resisting the entire time, the results exceeded the system’s expectations. Excruciating pain—enough to make most people black out repeatedly—only made him sweat profusely.

Lu Yan wanted a shower, but it hadn’t rained lately. The water in the rain filter was running low. He settled for a quick wash.

Afterwards, he conducted a simple experiment in the kitchen.

He took a kitchen cleaver and, without changing expression, brought it down on his own arm.

A loud CLANG echoed, like hacking through pork ribs.

The blade chipped and curled against his skin.

Lu Yan pondered. “No pain.”

His actions seemed to startle the larva inside him. A small bulge swelled under the skin of his forearm, a silent protest.

This level of toughness was limited to the arm that had grown scales. The rest of his body showed enhancement, but nothing this extreme.

Next, Lu Yan filled a basin with water and submerged his face.

An hour later, aside from mild discomfort from the low oxygen, he experienced no drowning or asphyxiation.

Other potential changes remained untested, limited by the confines of his apartment.

Finally, he asked the question that mattered most. “The King Fish has hatched. How do I treat the Pollution Disease in others?”

[I told you on the very first day.]

The system sounded exasperated.

Lu Yan thought back. Four words came to him. “Shark evolution…?”

He frowned. “But the King Fish is inside me. Would I have to extract it every time?”

The system replied, [Hmm. Why don’t you go outside and find an aberration to test it on?]

Lu Yan turned his head, looking out the window at the gloomy twilight.

7 PM. The sky was already pitch black.

Due to severe power shortages, City K had begun nightly blackouts three days ago. The lights went out at 8 PM and didn’t return until 8 AM.

“True. I’ve been locked up here long enough. It’s time for a trip outside.” Lu Yan murmured to himself.

*

The blackouts in City K weren’t solely due to power issues.

Recent discoveries indicated that in the darkness, the city’s aberrant pollutants were phototactic—drawn to light.

It was the same reason night fishermen always carried powerful flashlights.

For the past few days, the central square of City K had been ablaze with light.

The area was piled high with the corpses of pollutants.

With no time for proper disposal, some had already begun to rot, emitting a sharp, fishy stench. Mixed together, the smell was like a fifty-year-old can of fermented herring.

Lin Sinan emptied another magazine. The distant monster collapsed to the ground before it could even get close.

His feet were littered with cigarette butts—or rather, military-grade sedative sticks.

He hadn’t slept in five days. For an Awakened, it wasn’t enough to kill him, but it left his mind frayed at the edges.

There were just too many.

City K had always been a densely populated metropolis, and the spread of the pollution was faster than anyone had imagined. The variety of evolved creatures was staggering.

There were the less aggressive fish-men, who sprayed eggs at the sight of a human. They were responsible for infecting at least two-thirds of the city's pollutants.

Then there were the more aggressive frog-men, hypersensitive to the living. These pollutants possessed rudimentary intelligence, luring fish-men with noise to spread the contamination. When pollutant density in an area grew too high, these frog-men simply chose to feed.

And the least numerous, but most insidious: the algae-men. They didn’t move from their spots, but grew and spread their pollution ceaselessly.

The algae-man that gave the Pollution Control Center the biggest headache was a former 007 workaholic.

This one had been in the internet industry, voluntarily sneaking into the office to work overtime during the lockdown. Even after becoming an algae-man, he refused to fall behind. Now, the lush green seaweed sprouting from his body had shattered the office windows, spilling out and draping dozens of meters down the glass façade of the tech tower.

The seaweed grew from the algae-man’s gut. Though green, it looked like segmented intestines. Thick, fleshy fronds were studded with eyeballs used for observation and contamination.

In short, it was a sanity-blasting sight. Maintenance workers dared not look up when repairing the circuits.

The most terrifying part? According to drone footage, this pollutant showed no awareness of its own condition. It was still repeating the last line of code it had been writing before it died…

Because of it, headquarters hadn’t dared cut power to the tech park. They even performed periodic network maintenance, lest this "colleague" discover the internet was down and decide to take his mass of seaweed for a stroll across the city.

Its pollution value had reached a staggering 1200.

Headquarters decided to wait until the city's pollutants were under control before having Bai Qiushih handle its removal.

The Pollution Disease generally followed evolutionary principles, but often defied normal scientific explanation.

A voice crackled in his earpiece. "Lin Sinan. Instruments show your Aberration Value has reached 52. We strongly recommend you return to the Prevention and Treatment Center immediately for rest and treatment."

"Not necessary," Lin Sinan replied, deftly swapping magazines. "We're about to clear the last zone. Let's finish this."

Currently, sixty-two Awakened were stationed in City K. Twelve of them were newly awakened combat types, fresh out of the gate.

In normal times, these rookies would undergo at least three years of training at headquarters before deployment. But these were not normal times. With a severe shortage of Awakened, they’d adopted a mentor-apprentice system.

Bai Qiushih was stationed at the city's edge, using his innate talent to create a barrier against the pollution. Lin Sinan and three others held the central square, responsible for eliminating the bulk of the pollutants. Seven Awakened guarded the shelters.

The remaining fifty were split into twenty-five squads, clearing out pollutants hiding in the shadows.

With the detectors provided by the Research Institute, and given that the pollutants' infection time was still short—their pollution values topping out around 200—the work was mostly physical labor, with little real danger.

Now, the entire city of K had been swept. All except the Qu River District. The birthplace of this outbreak.

…

…

Qu River District, Milky Way Residential Complex.

Dressed in black, a bow on his back and a knife at his side, Lu Yan stealthily opened his door.

"My night vision seems enhanced too," he murmured to himself, gently closing the door behind him. "Tonight, I'm going to cure… no, treat ten of them."