Chapter 75

Chapter 75

The "guardian system" was exactly what it sounded like.

They would live together. Eat together. Tang Xian'an would be Lu Yan's constant shadow.

To prevent the Holy One from attempting another suicidal attack, headquarters had chosen Tang Xian'an to be Lu Yan's guardian.

This aligned well enough with Lu Yan's own reasons for coming to City A. Ever since he'd last screwed over the Divine Kingdom and the Abattoir, the system had recommended he lay low here for a while.

He'd already encountered the Holy One. The female proprietor of the Abattoir, however, was still at large.

The higher-ups weren't opposed to relationships forming between operatives. They just wouldn't make any official statements on the matter, wanting to avoid the appearance of arranged partnerships.

If Lu Yan was unwilling, other guardian candidates were available.

While processing his discharge paperwork, the staff member admitted frankly, "Mr. Lu, we're actually very glad you accepted this arrangement."

In the past few decades, Tang Xian'an had never shown any particular personal attachments. He still completed every mission with meticulous dedication, yet seemed to hold the world itself at a distance.

Lu Yan's presence had somehow made him seem… warmer.

Like a child waiting for his mother after school, Lu Yan let Tang Xian'an lead him all the way home.

As Ji Wen had said, Tang Xian'an's home was located within the third ring road of City A's main district. Adjacent to a world-famous landmark, it was the kind of prime real estate money alone couldn't buy.

Not to mention the house itself was three stories with a basement, complete with a private parking area, a swimming pool, and a sprawling garden.

Looking out, you could barely even see what the neighbors' houses looked like.

System: [Of course. Eighty-plus years of back-breaking work to save up for this. Though a lot of it was just catching the right wave. Buy some stocks in 2021, hold until now, and your money multiplies several times over.]

Lu Yan made a soft sound. "You sound jealous, System."

The system's voice shot up an octave. [Jealous of what? That he's 102 with a 94% lesion rate? Or that he has wings and a tail?]

It adopted a painfully earnest tone. [My boy, you're only 26. How many men with tails have you even met? Don't rush into a lifelong commitment. Some men look fine on the outside, but they're all dried up inside. Three minutes in bed and they're done. Ask Zhou Qimeng—is that the kind of man you want?]

[Of course, if you're just after Tang Xian'an's inheritance, then forget I said anything.]

Lu Yan's gaze drifted to Tang Xian'an's waist.

Today, he wasn't in his uniform. He wore casual office attire—a white shirt and black tie. The fabric pulled taut, outlining a waist that was both narrow and powerfully built.

Lu Yan looked away. "...I doubt it's that bad."

[Doubt what's that bad?]

"The three minutes."

The system fell silent for a long moment. [...Fine. I won't stop you. Old men are good. Old men are simple and have a pension.]

This was rather unfair, as Tang Xian'an was merely long-lived, not aged in appearance.

Thankfully, Tang Xian'an couldn't hear it. Lu Yan really didn't know who he'd help if the two of them started fighting.

Tang Xian'an handed Lu Yan a key. "If you forget your key, Xiao Tian is usually home. You can ring the bell."

He didn't use keys himself. Having wings came with certain privileges—he just landed on the rooftop terrace and slipped in through the window straight into his bedroom. Very convenient.

Lu Yan took the key. "Okay."

Knowing Lu Yan was arriving today, Xiao Tian had forsaken his beloved streamer to diligently clean the entire house.

Especially the room Lu Yan would be using.

Knowing Lu Yan had a thing about cleanliness, it had disinfected the place for three days straight, ensuring not a single dog hair remained.

If Tang Xian'an hadn't forbidden it, Xiao Tian would have happily licked the floors clean itself.

A bowtie around its neck, it trotted over with a pink rose in its mouth. "We meet again! Did you know, back during the training at headquarters, Tang Xian'an would watch your training footage every day in the monitoring room…"

"Not just sneaking peeks at the monitors. He'd go up to the roof at night too, just staring in the direction of the dorms."

Lu Yan didn't take the flower. Having been bitten by a dog before, he hadn't quite gotten over that mental hurdle.

But what this dog was saying… he hadn't known any of it.

What surprised Lu Yan more was that all this seemed to have happened before their trip to the Luochuan Botanical Garden.

[Yes. He's been plotting to snag this prize cabbage for a long time. You can't trust these old men, their schemes run too deep!]

The system's current attitude perfectly mirrored that of a vicious supporting character begging to be slapped.

Lu Yan looked at Tang Xian'an, his expression carrying a hint of inquiry.

Tang Xian'an explained, "Don't listen to his nonsense. It was just part of my normal duties."

As the head instructor, it was all within his responsibilities.

But Tang Xian'an was thin-skinned. A faint, barely-there flush crept up to the tips of his ears.

"Don't listen to him, he…"

Soon, Xiao Tian was forcibly fitted with a muzzle for excessive chatter.

"Mmph! Arf! Arf!"

Xiao Tian was deeply melancholic. At least the beautiful streamers online could soothe its wounded heart.

Lu Yan's room was on the second floor.

His sense of smell was keen. The moment he pushed the bedroom door open, he caught the faint scent of disinfectant.

It was familiar, like returning to work at the hospital. Lu Yan liked it.

His bedroom had two doors. The one on the other side led directly to the outdoor swimming pool.

The water looked freshly changed.

Lu Yan had held back long enough. He couldn't resist. Changing into swimwear, he dove straight into the pool.

It was September, the air already carrying a chill. But he never liked hot weather anyway. This temperature was just right.

Water flowed in through the gill slits by his ears. It felt amazing.

"When I get back to City K, I'm definitely buying a big villa with a pool."

The school district apartment he'd bought in City S three months ago had already increased in price by several hundred per square meter.

Selling it to buy a large villa would work out perfectly.

Judging by the still-rising property prices, despite the Pollution Disease spreading more severely, society was maintaining a semblance of order.

The chaotic, lawless society the system had described hadn't arrived.

[Haven't you noticed? There are clearly more people from the outer zones in the First District now. Abroad, they already have Disaster Hunter guilds. A lot of wealthy people are choosing to emigrate. Oh, sorry, forgot you're a shut-in who never goes out.]

[Hm. If not for you coming to City A, Tang Xian'an would have been sent on another mission. A forest python with a pollution value of 8000 appeared on the border of Dianshan Province…]

Lu Yan pondered this. "Is 8000 considered high? Why send Tang Xian'an?"

Back when he first awakened, he was already calling pollutants with values over ten thousand 'brother' and 'sister'. Later, almost every notable pollutant he encountered—except for the mermen at the club—had a value no lower than 6000.

Recently, he'd even single-handedly nearly turned the S-Class pollution case, the "Holy One", into a plate of grilled brain matter.

It had given Lu Yan a bit of an illusion—that high-level pollutants weren't all that.

Of course, if he actually ran into one, he'd still have to flee.

[A pollutant with the same numerical value is far stronger than a Celestial Awakener with that value. You're a special case. The current chief in charge of Dianshan Province only has a spiritual power threshold of 8600. If that's not convincing, just look at Zhou Qimeng. He's ranked in the top hundred humans. The Pig-Head Butcher worked hard for decades and still can't crack the world's top five hundred pollutants.]

[Anyway, I'm not optimistic about humanity's chances.]

Lu Yan soaked in the water for hours. The sky was almost dark, and Tang Xian'an still hadn't come over.

He surfaced, fishing out his phone. He opened and closed the WeChat chat window, ultimately sending nothing.

"I feel like… I know him, but I also don't," Lu Yan said.

He'd spent three months with Tang Xian'an day and night in the dream. Claiming he felt nothing at all was impossible.

Who could refuse a dragon-puppy that knew how to act cute?

But the thing was, Lu Yan truly wasn't familiar with the current Tang Xian'an.

He didn't know what had happened in the long stretch from age 19 to 102 to shape the silent, reserved man before him.

If they were just developing a normal friendship, Lu Yan wouldn't have to think this much.

System: [Maybe this is just post-online-meeting-up syndrome.]

Lu Yan held his phone, unsure what to do, and opened the Celestial Awakener forum. It showed over a hundred new case reports.

Forum membership had also grown to eighty thousand.

[In the past year, the numbers of both pollutants and Celestial Awakeners have been exploding.]

On the forum's bounty board, unresolved pollution incidents numbered in the thousands.

Lu Yan skimmed the list. At least seventy percent of the pending cases were overseas. The phrase "the situation abroad is dire" wasn't a joke.

No wonder property prices nationwide kept climbing.

[When the dragon-puppy was younger, he'd often browse the forum until he couldn't sleep. He took the world's weight on his shoulders. At first, he ran all over the globe. Later, he narrowed his focus to the First District, but there were still too many problems he couldn't solve. Back then, he'd often get so frustrated he'd cry.]

[Regarding the First Laboratory's "Deification Project," headquarters actually turned a blind eye. Because, on many missions, Tang Xian'an was practically completing them through suicidal means… And headquarters had to consider: if Tang Xian'an died, how would they fight high-level pollutants? At the very least, they needed some bargaining chips. A weak nation has no diplomacy. That principle always applies.]

[It's just that the project ultimately veered off course. Their original idea was to combine many useful talents into one individual, creating the perfect experimental subject. Subject 01 was a good candidate. Subject 07 was viable too. Unfortunately, due to the researchers' personal ambitions, the one who gathered firewood for the multitude ultimately froze to death in the blizzard.]

Lu Yan quite liked listening to the system tell stories.

He remembered the burning pollutant he'd seen in the consciousness space and couldn't help feeling a pang of sorrow.

"Subject 07 became a pollutant. Where is it now?"

Subject 07 was also in City A.

As the heart of the First District, City A had always maintained strict monitoring of pollution values.

And according to the information the system had provided earlier, Lu Cheng was also in City A.

Lu Yan was taken aback. "So many pollutants are in City A? And the Prevention and Control Center isn't reacting?"

[Among the group that came this time, there's a pollutant with a talent called 'World.' It can construct an independent spatial zone. The previous Mermaid Island was his handiwork.]

Judging by the system's tone, quite a few pollutants had arrived.

Lu Yan's expression immediately turned serious. "What are these pollutants doing in City A?"

The system replied: [They're here to blow up the First Research Institute.]

Lu Yan lay back down in the water and started thinking about what to eat tomorrow.

The system chuckled. [Seems you hate the First Research Institute even more than I thought.]

"I understand some of their thinking," Lu Yan said. "But as a Celestial Awakener, as someone who would be on the receiving end of that research… I really can't sympathize with their situation."

He looked up at the moon overhead. "If Professor Qiao were still alive, seeing what the First Institute has become… she'd probably be disappointed too."

*

Lu Yan soaked in the pool all night.

His constitution was good, so he didn't catch a cold. He woke up refreshed and clear-headed.

He didn't have many hobbies and rarely went out. At home, he spent most of his time cleaning and cooking.

He took the elevator down to the first-floor kitchen.

He'd expected to find an empty fridge, but it was surprisingly well-stocked.

It was just that the ingredients looked… strange. Not the kind of thing normal people would eat.

Lu Yan pulled out a bunch of vegetables that looked like grapes, bearing white fruits resembling quail eggs.

"What is this?"

[Agricultural byproducts from the Seventh Research Institute. Headquarters has always had a 'Human Base' project, planning for a future where the world is overrun by pollutants and the human population plummets. How to maintain crop yields.]

[The researchers at the Seventh Institute injected the genes of a pollutant queen ant into ordinary grapes. These white fruits are actually ant eggs. Sampling shows they're rich in protein, taste like beef, and are classified as plants. They haven't been widely cultivated yet—yield is low. The Institute sent some to the dragon-puppy.]

Special Operations Celestial Awakeners occasionally received care packages from headquarters.

Mostly trial agricultural products from the Seventh and Eighth Institutes.

[Outside, this stuff sells for a fortune. That bunch in your hand costs more per gram than gold. A lot of auction houses advertise it with 'eating this gives you a chance to awaken.']

Contact with a pollution source does offer a chance to awaken, so the auction houses' predatory marketing isn't technically false advertising.

Lu Yan thought for a moment. "Is it good?"

[Some of it is alright.]

It seemed the research institutes weren't entirely dragging humanity down.

Lu Yan started cooking.

Though the ingredients were odd—mostly genetically modified, and modified quite heavily—cooking them with familiar techniques yielded surprisingly decent results.

He spent an hour preparing three dishes and a soup.

Since he was a guest, eating alone felt impolite.

So, Lu Yan opened his chat window with Tang Xian'an.

Lu Yan: Eating?

The reply came quickly. "Yes."

After his parents and family passed away one by one, Tang Xian'an's concept of "home" had grown faint.

He had lived too long, met too many people.

Only Lu Yan.

Even if he did nothing, just by being in the house.

Tang Xian'an felt… this was what home looked like.