GETOP CH2

[Yes, you can call me System. Perhaps in your mind, only a ‘system’ can scientifically explain my existence.]

[I know what you are thinking; you haven’t gone crazy. I am your talent, or perhaps, your superpower?]

[After coming into contact with a pollution source, those who are polluted are called ‘Pollutants’; those who aren’t polluted and awaken a talent are called ‘Awakened’. This fact will be accepted by the public in a few months. Paper cannot wrap a fire… What kind of world do you think you live in? In fact, you’ve already met an Awakened. Smart… Lin Sinan. And by the way, so are you.]

[Although you’re a bit weak. But you have me. I am an incredibly awesome talent; you’ve struck gold, really.]

[It’s not that you possess me, but that I chose you.]

…

…

Lu Yan opened his eyes. He turned on the TV and switched to the news channel.

The reports still couldn’t avoid the locked-down City H.

“The mutants have been dealt with. The general public can rest assured. This instance of the pollution disease is not contagious,” the reporter flashed a sweet smile in front of the camera.

The audience wouldn’t know that she wasn’t in the heavily polluted City H, but in a studio in her own city.

The world still seemed to be dancing and singing in peace.

He pulled open the curtains and looked down coldly. Corporate slaves were squeezing into buses for work, college students were cursing their 8 AM classes; everything seemed to have remained unchanged.

If it weren’t for that surgery yesterday, Lu Yan would also believe that the future wouldn’t change.

That fish egg had been buried by him in a flowerpot.

While he was burying the fish egg, the System’s incredibly noisy notification sounds rang in his ears.

[Although it is only a low-level Pollutant, as the egg of the parasitic King Fish, it has a special use.]

[Perhaps you’ve played ‘Shark Evolution’? The hatched King Fish can devour the eggs of other parasitic fish.]

[Don’t tell me that even now, there are still doctors who think traditional medical methods are effective against the pollution disease?]

The moment Lu Yan put down the small shovel, his phone rang very abruptly.

Lu Yan paused for a moment and answered the call.

“Dr. Lu, help me…” On the other end of the phone, Dr. Li’s voice was hoarse.

Dr. Li’s name was Li Rui; he was the doctor who had performed the surgery with him yesterday.

“I don’t know who else to look for, I don’t dare go to the hospital.”

It was currently winter. City K was coastal and at a lower latitude, so it wasn’t cold here.

Under his thick padded jacket, Li Rui’s arms had already been scratched with bloody marks. His fingernails were full of blood and flesh, looking like a scene of self-mutilation. Yet he was completely unaware, still picking at his skin with excessively sharp nails.

On the skin of Li Rui’s arm, translucent fish eggs were embedded, like tiny blisters, turning bizarrely red soaked in blood.

He sat on a park bench. Wearing a hat, along with a padded jacket, a down jacket, and a windbreaker, the cold still felt like sharp needles, spreading from his limbs to the depths of his soul. This was the parasitic eggs frantically plundering the host’s body heat to survive.

Perhaps because his expression was too neurotic, the elderly people doing their morning exercises all stayed far away.

Lu Yan asked, “What happened?”

Li Rui lowered his voice: “My arm grew… grew those things…”

Yesterday, they had performed the surgery together.

Lu Yan quickly realized what exactly Li Rui was talking about.

Lu Yan frowned: “You should contact the Pollution Center.”

Six years ago, when the pollution first broke out abroad, the whole world experienced a small-scale panic. Later, it was confirmed by experts that this was a new infectious disease of the new century, named the pollution disease.

Pollution Disease Prevention and Control Centers were subsequently established all over the world.

Li Rui shook his head frantically: “During college, I interned at the Pollution Center in City A. Those people will be centrally disposed of. Killed by high temperatures… I don’t want to die! Help me, Dr. Lu! We did the surgery yesterday. You heard what that officer said, it’ll be fine as long as those fish eggs are cut off.”

Healing the wounded and rescuing the dying is a doctor’s bounden duty. Li Rui had never seen anyone who embodied this responsibility and belief more thoroughly than Lu Yan.

This was also the reason why he sought out Lu Yan.

Before Lu Yan had time to express his stance, his home, which was unvisited all year round, welcomed a knock on the door.

“Lu Yan, I’m at Qu…”

“Wait a moment, I’ll call you back.”

Lu Yan hung up the phone and turned on the smart peephole. The visitor’s face appeared on the display screen at the door.

Two people, one of whom was Lin Sinan from yesterday.

Today he was wearing casual clothes. Sneakers, jeans, a light white T-shirt paired with a dark cargo jacket. He was dressed like the most handsome boy from a county high school coming to a first-tier city for college for the first time.

Lin Sinan spoke to the peephole: “Hello, Dr. Lu. I am Lin Sinan. We’ve met before. Because yesterday’s surgery carried a certain degree of infection risk, I brought a colleague to help examine you. Rest assured, we are legitimate staff members.”

Lin Sinan patted his body for a long time before finally finding his ID badge in his colleague’s pocket.

“City K Pollution Disease Prevention and Control Center,” with a photo on top and an official seal at the bottom. The title was “Inspector”.

Lu Yan opened the door and took out shoe covers.

Lin Sinan walked into the house and quietly looked around.

The place looked like a model home. There was almost no breath of life to be seen. In the semi-open kitchen, even the cutting board was completely clean, without a single trace of being lived in.

Besides this, Lin Sinan also noticed something interesting.

Lu Yan probably knew how to use a bow. An archery target was hanging on the living room wall, with many holes on it.

The inspector opened his suitcase, sat at the dining table, and said softly, “The examination requires drawing a little blood. Dr. Lu, is this convenient for you?”

His square suitcase was placed a little crookedly.

Lu Yan controlled all his strength so as not to straighten it, instead silently extending his arm.

The blood collection was quickly completed, and this drop of blood was placed on the spot into an unfamiliar square device.

A few minutes later, the inspector said: “You have not contracted the pollution disease. If you experience fever, physical discomfort, or other reactions during this period, you can contact our center at any time. We will provide appropriate assistance.”

Lu Yan stared into his eyes and asked, “Is the pollution disease really just an infectious disease?”

“The pollution disease is of course an infectious disease. It’s just a new type of genetic mutation. It’s highly contagious; a few years ago, it caused tens of thousands of deaths abroad. But under the unremitting efforts of scientists from all over the world, this disease has been brought under control. Patients only appear in small areas, so there is no need to be overly nervous.”

In Lu Yan’s mind, the System’s disdainful sneer came through: [That’s only because they were all low-level Pollutants in the beginning. A Class C Pollutant can destroy a city; the lives of countless people halted that disaster back then. But weakness has always been humanity’s original sin.]

[By the way, a word of advice, it’s best you hurry up and send them away. That is, if you don’t want to be thrown into a research institute.]

Seeing the atmosphere turn somewhat cold, Lu Yan asked: “Thank you for answering my questions. Is there anything else?”

“…No. Have a pleasant day.”

“Thank you.”

A moment later, the two staff members from the Prevention and Control Center left Lu Yan’s home.

Lin Sinan spoke first: “Mysophobia is one of the most common clinical manifestations of obsessive-compulsive disorder. The living environment is normal, no source of pollution.”

Inspector: “Lu Yan. His father was a pollution disease patient with a history of multiple domestic violence incidents. His mother committed suicide by jumping off a building when he was six.”

“Lu Yan suffered from long-term imprisonment and abuse by his father, and was rescued at the age of 12. He was diagnosed with photophobia, claustrophobia, and dissociative identity disorder. The split personality is antisocial and highly aggressive.”

“At 16, Lu Yan recovered and was discharged from the hospital. In the same year, his father became a Pollutant and was locked up in the research institute under the designation Number 18.”

“In 2117, Pollutant 18 escaped from the research institute. This is the only instance of a Class A Pollutant escaping. Although Number 18’s mutated part was its brain, it led researchers to conclude that as Pollutants grow into later stages, they possess intelligence no less than that of humans.”

Lin Sinan: “Yes, that’s why the institute surveilled Lu Yan for a long time, to see if Number 18 would make any contact with him.”

“Captain Lin, you know what my talent is. I felt a dangerous aura coming from him,” the inspector said solemnly.

He was an auxiliary-type Awakened, [Talent – Early Warning], capable of detecting danger to a certain extent.

“The test results are out. Spiritual Power Threshold: 0, Degree of Mutation: 0. An ordinary person. And here I thought he could become an Awakened.” Lin Sinan pulled out a military sedative from his pocket and lit one for himself. “Let’s go. It’s time to head to the other side.”

According to research by the Academy of Sciences, organisms with a mutation degree between 0 and 100 still fall under the category of humans. Awakened are humans who have been polluted and possess a talent, but whose mutation degree remains within 100. The strength of an Awakened is determined by their Spiritual Power Threshold.

When the mutation degree exceeds 100, they are no longer human, and like those animals, plants, and even inorganic matter, they are known as Pollutants.

And Lu Yan was at 0.

Li Rui had been waiting for Lu Yan’s call.

Sitting on the park bench, he felt colder and colder. The world before his eyes was gradually fading, turning into a hazy gray.

The weather became increasingly humid, and a mist began to spread all around.

A high fever blurred Li Rui’s consciousness.

It wasn’t until he inexplicably felt someone approaching that he shuddered and raised his head.

Two people nearby, strangers.

His intuition told him that these people were coming for him.

He would be taken to the Prevention and Control Center, and just like those grotesquely shaped patients he had seen back then, he would disappear into a high-temperature incinerator of several thousand degrees!

Without any hesitation, Li Rui took off running.

The two people who were pulling out their work IDs paused for a moment, then chased after him without stopping.

Li Rui’s physical stamina wasn’t considered good; normally, performing surgery for a few hours would leave him exhausted and slumped over, not to mention he was currently dressed like a penguin. However, his speed got faster and faster, like a gust of wind.

As he ran, his hearing became exceptionally sharp, to the point he could even hear these people cursing softly from afar—

“Isn’t this parasitic pollution? Why has the host mutated?”

Mutated…?

Right, when an ordinary person contracted the pollution disease, the abnormal physical conditions their body presented were called mutation.

Li Rui hadn’t run for long when the sound of a helicopter came from the sky.

He looked up and saw the helicopter’s cabin door open. At the doorway, strapped into a safety harness and fully armed, Lin Sinan raised a sniper rifle.

Through a megaphone, his voice broadcasted far and wide: “Person in front, please cease movement immediately, crouch down on the spot, and put your hands on your head. We are staff from the Pollution Disease Prevention and Control Center. Based on preliminary analysis, you have been infected by a parasite. Please stop moving immediately! We will send you for specialized treatment!”

“If you refuse to accept investigation and treatment, we will take special emergency handling measures.”

However, Li Rui turned a deaf ear and continued running frantically.

A drop of sweat dripped from Lin Sinan’s temple. Through his earpiece, the command from headquarters came through: “The patient is suffering from parasitic pollution. He has already mutated and will become a source of infection himself. Recommend termination.”

And so, Lin Sinan pulled the trigger.

[Talent – Tracking Shot]: Within range, it can automatically hit the target.

This was hundreds of meters above the ground, Li Rui was running, and the aircraft was swaying. It was hard to imagine that anyone could hit a target in this kind of environment.

But the instant the gunshot rang out, a bloom of blood exploded on Li Rui’s body.

However, he did not fall down as imagined.

A very horrifying scene: his head was gone, but this body was still charging forward.

Lin Sinan frowned and very quickly fired two more shots. No more than ten seconds had elapsed since the first shot.

The sniper rifle he used was loaded with heavy ammunition; as long as it hit a person, it was absolutely fatal.

Li Rui naturally couldn’t possibly be alive.

But just like the hairworms parasitic in praying mantises that can control the mantis to jump into water and commit suicide, the thing parasitic on him was the same.

The previously overcast sky suddenly started raining.

In the torrential rain, this body finally found its destination.

City K’s city moat, the Qu River.

It threw itself into the river waters with wild joy.

…

…

The corpse was quickly salvaged.

Disregarding the pollution, Lin Sinan stripped off the clothes on Li Rui’s body and inspected him carefully.

There were no traces of fish eggs on his body.

But no one was happy about this. Beside them, the surging river waters flowed endlessly.

Two soldiers lowered their heads in shame: “Sorry, we couldn’t catch up to him.”

Generally speaking, mutation has three stages, with at least a two-week buffer period. Yet from being polluted to starting his mutation, Li Rui only took a few short hours.

This was unreasonable, so much so that even Lin Sinan hadn’t reacted in time.

Humans are evolving, and Pollutants can naturally evolve too.

Lin Sinan’s expression became incredibly grim: “Sudden pollution incident, provisionally classified as Level B. The Class C Pollutant ‘Parasitic Fish’ has mutated, recovery failed, and the extent of pollution spread is temporarily unknown. Requesting backup from headquarters.”