Lu Yan could no longer remember the last time he had been chased like this.

It must have been during a sports meet back in his student days. He had been athletic and fast, with seven or eight schoolmates always trailing behind him. He hadn’t expected that after all these years, he would once again experience that same tense, exhilarating feeling.

Lu Yan swept a glance across his surroundings. Pollutants were rushing toward him from every direction; there was no “safe zone” in sight. He steeled his heart and decided to take the path closest to his destination.

[You are not a pollutant, but you are symbiotic with the King Fish. Consequently, your blood has an extreme attraction to things formed by these parasitic fish infections.]

I can see that.

Mutants in the vicinity were surging toward him together. Although the numbers weren’t massive yet, their bizarre and disgusting forms were enough to make one nauseous.

Lu Yan’s adrenaline spiked: “Shouldn’t you have told me something like this sooner?”

The System retorted in a firm, resonant voice: [How can you blame me? If your spiritual power threshold hadn’t been so low, I wouldn’t have been like a walking case of amnesia! There is an off-road vehicle with the keys inside around the left turn. By the way, I suggest you take off your clothes.]

Because of the mucus on the fish-man’s tentacles, Lu Yan’s arm was still bleeding profusely, the fresh, deep-red blood soaking a large portion of his sleeve. The heavy, metallic smell of blood could temporarily lure those mutants.

Around the left turn, there wasn’t just the off-road vehicle; there were also several abnormally berserk mutants. A frog-man leaped into the air, trying to pounce on Lu Yan, only to be kicked three meters away.

Lu Yan punched through the car window, flipped inside, started the engine, and stepped on the gas—all in one fluid motion. He asked: “Is this going to be a bit detrimental to the city’s image?”

[It won’t be, “Male Bodhisattva,” hurry up and undress.]

Lu Yan: “…”

For over twenty years, Lu Yan had been a law-abiding citizen. Afraid of ending up in a police station, he took them off—but didn’t really take them off. He tore off the blood-stained section of his sleeve and threw it out the car window. If the bleeding didn’t stop, he could just tear off more. It was more cost-effective than throwing away the whole garment.

Behind the car, a pile of pollutants with strange, monstrous appearances fought tooth and nail over his sleeve, even piling on top of one another. It looked just like a meet-and-greet between an idol and his fans. Finally, the three-meter-tall Fish-head Brother successfully defeated the other weaklings, swallowed the bloody fabric, and continued to chase after Lu Yan, tracking the scent.

The off-road vehicle drifted around a corner, narrowly dodging a frog-man that had lunged for the windshield. Lu Yan lived in the city center; traffic was usually a nightmare, so he preferred walking to work. He had barely touched a car since getting his license. He never imagined that the next time he drove, it would be in such a high-stakes scenario. He was thankful, at least, that the streets were empty.

Pollutants constantly rammed into the car frame, the iron roof producing teeth-gritting scraping noises as their claws threw sparks. After shaking off some of the lower-level pollutants, the forces following Lu Yan became clear: two Fish-men and three Frog-men, all much larger than the typical varieties.

[They have reached the E-class pollutant standard. They possess low-level intelligence.]

Lu Yan smelled the sickening fishy stench. The 7L displacement off-road vehicle was pushed to its speed limit, yet it was only just slightly faster than these pollutants. Mutants with low-level intelligence were different—they had even learned to spray sticky stomach acid onto the tires. The rubber tires eroded, letting out a “hissing” sound.

[Does it feel like each day is like a year? Who would have thought only six minutes have passed? The good news is that the people at the Pollution Disease Prevention and Control Center have noticed the anomaly; reinforcements will be here soon.]

Lu Yan could barely see the road anymore. The off-road vehicle crashed into one pollutant after another, and the endless stream of incoming mutants made his scalp tingle. His ears were filled with the roaring of the mutants.

Yet, Lu Yan knew that the more dire the situation, the more he needed to stay calm. Thus, he was cautious in every move he made.

Then, the sound of tides returned to Lu Yan’s ears, accompanied by the massive, thundering churn of a helicopter’s rotors. A row of piercing searchlights illuminated the ground, drawing away some of the hostile attention.

Lin Sinan narrowed his eyes and sniped the frog-man that had jumped onto Lu Yan’s car—the creature’s tongue had already snaked halfway inside; it was disgusting.

“Mission target located. Lin-1, Lin-2, jump down, provide cover, and bring him back. Medic, prepare.” Even though he had found the target, Lin Sinan didn’t dare to relax. He sniped two more mutants while speaking, “Priority is at the maximum level.”

Thanks to the suppressing fire from above, Lu Yan’s dire situation finally improved. He took the opportunity to open the door and jump out of the leaking off-road vehicle. He scrambled onto the roof, waiting for the helicopter rescue.

Watching the ladder get closer and closer, Lu Yan suddenly heard an excited shout in his ear.

—”I’m here, I’m here! Where’s the healer?”

Almost the moment the voice fell, a pair of arms scooped Lu Yan up by the waist. The speed was so fast it was like a gust of wind.

Inside the helicopter, Lin Sinan cursed loudly: “Bai Qiushi! You f*cking maniac!!”

In just a few breaths, before Lu Yan could even react, Bai Qiushi had landed on the rooftop of a shopping mall.

The pollutants at the foot of the building lost their target and roared in anger, swarming the area around the mall following the scent. The mall’s main doors were tightly shut; the Fish-men below bellowed in impotent rage, while the Frog-men began slowly crawling up the walls.

Bai Qiushi looked down at Lu Yan and smiled: “Oh my, you’re really good-looking.”

His appearance was quite peculiar. The most striking features were his silver eyes, with four pupils constantly rotating within their sockets—creepy yet exquisite.

Lu Yan: “Thank you. Could you put me down first?”

“No can do, I’m here to protect you,” Bai Qiushi replied. “It’s not safe yet.”

After saying this, he stretched out one hand, looked coldly toward the foot of the building, and spat out four words: “Immovable as a Mountain.”

[Talent – Heavy Pressure]

This talent wasn’t ranked high in the sequence list, but paired with Bai Qiushi’s near-9000 spiritual threshold, it was a terrifying presence—like a reaper’s scythe—against these low-level pollutants.

Below, the dense swarm of pollutants seemed to be struck by an invisible, massive object. Regardless of size or species, every single one of them was crushed into pulp, blood splashing everywhere; none were spared.

Bai Qiushi put Lu Yan down and asked: “Do you think I’m handsome? Oh, by the way, let me introduce myself: my name is Bai Qiushi.”

He flashed a smile that was absolutely, genuinely harmless. It was just that his exposed fangs were too sharp; he looked no less dangerous than the pollutants.

But in Lu Yan’s mind, the System provided more detailed information.

[Bai Qiushi, height 172cm, so he’s wearing 6cm elevator shoes… oh, that’s not important.]

[Spiritual Threshold: 8700. Mutation Level: 42.]

[Talents: Barrier, Teleportation, Heavy Pressure.]

Lu Yan shook his hand briefly: “Lu Yan.”

K City, Pollution Disease Prevention and Control Center.

On the second day of the outbreak, Lu Yan had thought about calling them, only to be stopped by the System. He never expected that after 20 days of struggling, he would end up coming here on his own initiative. The Center had arranged a small room for him to rest.

[Well, the good news is, although you haven’t awakened a second talent yet, they have mistaken you for a Healing-type Awakened. Regarding information on the Healing-type, because cases are so rare, these people don’t know much either.]

Lu Yan was taking a shower. Because of the water shortage, his shower water was filtered rainwater that he had boiled. It had been a long time since he’d had such a luxury.

He asked: “You’ve always kept me from contacting the Center and seemed very wary of the Research Institute. Is there a reason?”

He wasn’t worried about being monitored; his dialogue with the System took place entirely within his mind.

The System was silent for a moment before replying: [An Awakened is not limited to possessing only one talent. Aside from those one awakens personally, they can also be obtained from outside sources.]

[For the future of humanity, they conduct complex surgeries to strip me away and give me to someone more “suitable.”]

[But such a stripping causes irreversible damage to your brain—mental retardation, brain atrophy, brain death. Moreover, the host needs to be fully conscious during the entire extraction process.]

[The Research Institute is not a monolith. Some are there for noble ideals; others just use the pollution disease as a stepping stone. There is plenty of filth inside.]

[You think the pollution disease has only existed for the last decade or so? Actually, there were precedents at the start of the last century. Later, people awakened one after another. There are always stupid ordinary people who think they can control an Awakened…]

[Additionally, as I’ve said, the evolution of pollutants is much faster than that of Awakened. There are already many existences that approach “God,” although in the Institute’s files, they are collectively called “S-class pollutants.”]

…

…

Lu Yan’s wounds had been simply cleaned. After showering and drying his hair, staff guided him to an office.

Lin Sinan stood up to welcome him, pulling out a chair with a cordial smile: “Dr. Lu, I didn’t expect us to meet again.”

At the head of the conference table, Bai Qiushi had his feet propped up on the wooden surface, lazily saying: “Don’t try to cozy up to him. I’m the one who saved him.”

“Your emotional state is unstable; get out first,” Lin Sinan pointed toward the door.

“The person standing before you is the Deputy Minister of the Special Action Department and the lead for the Second Team. Is that the tone you use to speak to your superior?” Bai Qiushi was furious.

Lin Sinan didn’t really want to engage with him.

Lu Yan cautiously sized up his surroundings. There were no windows; the only entrance and exit was the door.

Lin Sinan tried to appear affable: “Don’t be too nervous. Let’s start with a simple test.”

He held up a device that looked like an electronic thermometer and scanned Lu Yan. Two lines of numbers appeared on the screen: “Spiritual Threshold: 174. Mutation Level: 1.”

Bai Qiushi’s eyebrows arched high: “Only 1?”

It was unbelievably low. It was hard to imagine that the calm young man before them had been struggling for his life in a pile of pollutants just an hour ago.

Lu Yan pulled his hand back and asked calmly: “Does that have any special meaning?”

“No, the index is quite good. A threshold of 174 is pretty decent for someone who just awakened. Usually, it’s only around 150.”

Lu Yan felt embarrassed to say that his threshold was actually 0 when he first awakened.

Lin Sinan’s eyes burned: “Dr. Lu, after you awakened, did you faintly sense your ability?”

[At the end of the last century, the head of the Research Institute, Qiao Yu, sorted out a periodic table of talent sequences before his death, ranking all talents by power. I, “Omniscience,” am ranked 6th… I don’t really understand this ranking; I think I should at least be in the top three. After all, “Apocalypse,” a pure healing ability, is ranked first. Humans and pollutants share the same talent sequence.]

Lu Yan didn’t understand it either. This just went to show that information was important everywhere—otherwise, a system that talked this much wouldn’t be ranked sixth.

[Currently, there are only three healing-type ability users left in the world. Their talents are “Apocalypse,” “Resuscitation,” and “Fusion.” Now, the only unknown healing-type talent remaining is “Devour.”]

[This is what you need to pretend to have.]

“Won’t a Healing-type talent be at risk of being stripped?” Lu Yan asked.

[Stripping isn’t successful every time. Besides, the Institute isn’t entirely filled with scum. Explaining that would waste space, so I won’t go into it.]

After a brief internal exchange, Lu Yan looked up at the people across from him. He pondered for a long time before replying:

“I think… I’m a little hungry.”