GETOP CH5

“This type of frogman possesses corrosive saliva. Its stomach acid is as corrosive as aqua regia.”

“Shows an obvious reaction to human flesh and blood, conforming to the mutation patterns of pollution disease patients.”

“The epidermis is flexible and waterproof. The weak point is in the abdomen.”

“The body mostly consists of fast-twitch muscle fibers, preliminarily deduced to have strong explosive power but poor endurance.”

Lu Yan wrote down the relevant data, entry by entry, in his work logbook.

After two days of recovery, the injuries on his body no longer affected his movements.

A doctor’s home had a bit of everything. Therefore, having a set of scalpels for dissection didn’t seem too strange.

These low-level pollutants had basically lost their human characteristics and completely lost their reason, retaining only the primal desire to feed; they could no longer be considered human. Not to mention, the other party had wanted to kill him.

Therefore, even though he still retained his respect for “silent mentors” (medical cadavers), Lu Yan didn’t hold back when he struck.

When Lu Yan threw the frog meat into the meat grinder to mince it and washed it down the drain, the System’s voice was full of pity: [The meat of this kind of frog… is really quite delicious.]

Lu Yan: “I feel that, at the very least, a person cannot, and should not.”

[…Fine.]

A day had passed since he disposed of the corpse, and Lu Yan hadn’t closed his eyes for nearly thirty hours.

He fell asleep the moment his head hit the pillow but was still woken up by a knock on the door at 10 AM.

He had always been a light sleeper; it couldn’t be helped.

The property management guy shouted at the door: “Mr. Lu, are you awake?”

The property manager’s name was Shen Qingyang, and he had been working here for two years.

The door lock had been corroded away previously. In these special times, Lu Yan couldn’t find anyone to change the lock, so he had to replace it with a new one himself.

An electronic lock, fingerprint unlock, the kind without a keyhole.

He turned on the peephole monitor and asked through the speaker: “What’s wrong?”

“Do you know where the resident across from you went?” Shen Qingyang asked. His eyes looked slightly vacant, and he held a bottle of mineral water in his hand, taking a sip every half minute. “He hasn’t picked up his water for the past two days. We checked the surveillance cameras but couldn’t find him. I’m a bit curious.”

Lu Yan replied calmly, “I don’t know.”

“Okay. If you have any news, you can contact me in the property group. I’ll go deliver water to the next household first.”

It was unknown if Shen Qingyang noticed it himself, but when he left, he was hopping with small, bouncy steps.

If it were a child, walking like this would probably be quite cute.

Lu Yan remained silent for a moment, feeling that the number of infected people in this city might be more than he had imagined.

The System also sighed with emotion: [The speed of evolution has accelerated. Normally, it takes at least a month to go from the first stage to the third stage. City K will spiral out of control faster than expected.]

Lu Yan hesitated for a moment and asked, “Isn’t there the Pollution Disease Prevention and Control Center?”

[The number of Awakened couldn’t catch up to the Pollutants in the first place, and now even their upgrade speed can’t keep up. The whole world is on fire, and there’s only one bottle of water. How can it be saved?]

Lu Yan felt it made sense.

Lu Yan waited for a while, brought the water and vegetables from outside into the house, and turned on the TV as usual.

Although he had hoarded a lot of supplies, most of them were instant foods. Fresh ingredients still needed to be delivered by others.

The TV station was broadcasting the news at this moment; this was also the only program the residents of City K could receive now. The TV station was severely short-staffed, so now there was only a signal at 10 AM, 2 PM, and 8 PM every day. It lasted for one hour.

No longer whitewashing the peace, on the screen, the female anchor solemnly introduced the pollution disease.

The anchor was probably also seeing these materials for the first time, and her voice trembled slightly as she read the news.

“This is the most severe test humanity worldwide has faced since entering the new century.

“Today, City K has issued a yellow alert for pollution.

“The transmission method of this pollution disease is fish egg parasitism, and some of the parasitized hosts are contagious. The parasitic fish eggs mostly survive in tap water. Citizens are requested to pay attention to drinking water safety.

“According to intelligence, the mutation of the parasitized is divided into three stages. The characteristics of the first stage are… The mutation cycle is between 7 and 50 days. The final formed pollutants are divided into three categories: frogmen, murlocs, and algae-men, with their danger levels increasing in that order. Mutants possess strong aggressiveness and are no longer human. If you encounter a mutant, please find cover to hide immediately. If you find someone in your home starting to mutate, please call the police immediately.

“Although the enemy is exceptionally powerful, we still cannot give up hope. The relevant departments of City K have never abandoned their rescue efforts for ordinary residents.

“In addition, if there are citizens who have been polluted but show no symptoms of mutation, you may call the Prevention and Control Center. In this critical moment of life and death, we need everyone’s strength!”

…

…

As pixelated photos were shown in rotation on the TV, the last fig leaf of the pollution disease was torn away, and panic and unease shrouded everyone’s hearts.

Many people, realizing the severity of the problem through the TV, actively or passively went to the shelters.

Because of this, there were also citizens who chose to flee overnight; gunshots rang out continuously until dawn. While social order hadn’t collapsed yet, armed forces were still very effective.

On the fifteenth day of the lockdown, someone reached the edge of the city for the first time.

This was a taxi driver who, relying on his familiarity with the city, had shaken off his pursuers. He drove on the highway leading out of the city, his face full of the relief of having survived a disaster.

The main streets were completely empty, more desolate than ever. The driver drove towards a small road. The road conditions were a bit worse, but he could get on the highway without passing through a toll booth, and then go to other cities…

Passing through the Ancient Tea Horse Road, it would be the neighboring City M.

Seeing victory right ahead, the smile on the driver’s lips froze on his face.

At the edge of City K, an enclosing wall several meters high had been built at some unknown time.

This wall stretched as far as the eye could see, extraordinarily smooth, like a massive cage.

Headquarters had indeed sent an Awakened as a reinforcement.

Bai Qiushi, leader of the Special Operations Department’s Second Group and captain of the First Team, [Talent – Rampart], Spiritual Power Threshold 8700.

He sat high on the city wall, listening to Lin Sinan’s report, his brows full of impatience.

“Fighting is impossible for me in this lifetime. If it weren’t for my fear of death, I wouldn’t have awakened this kind of talent. Not to mention my poor physical fitness, I’m not one of those combat-type mad dogs… What? I didn’t curse anyone in particular. I can hold this dirt wall for you for a week at most. One week, get all the pollution in the city under control. Otherwise, headquarters will consider using thermal weapons to deal with it. You know, the kind that goes ‘pew’ and explodes into a mushroom cloud. Got it?”

Day 16 of the lockdown.

Shen Qingyang’s face had already shown obvious mutation characteristics. His eyeballs protruded.

Lu Yan had dissected Zhou Kaiwen; the other party’s brain had shrunk severely, only about the size of a walnut, with the sulci and gyri on the surface completely gone, looking like a smooth piece of foie gras overall. This kind of brain mutation obviously made the pollutant lose its human rationality.

Of course, this was also the reason why some pollutants were still moving after their brains were blown out. Hilarious, they didn’t need a brain at all.

Shen Qingyang stopped at Lu Yan’s door.

He pressed the doorbell and asked, “Mr. Lu, are you there?”

A moment later, Lu Yan’s somewhat distorted voice came through the door speaker: “I’m here.”

“It’s good that you’re here. This is the last time I’m delivering water. The inspector from the pollution center said I will soon enter the second stage of mutation. Although I don’t know exactly where I’ve mutated, I can tell. Everyone has become very afraid of me.” Shen Qingyang’s voice was very sluggish. “There’s a shortage of manpower right now. If it wasn’t for the delay in finding someone to replace me, I would have gone to the shelter a long time ago… Do you know about the shelters? It’s a place where mutants are centrally treated.”

“They call it the concentration camp of the 22nd century. Not a single mutant sent there has ever come out alive. But there’s no helping it. I watched the news, those mutants who lost their minds only have the instinct to eat. They say a person is made up of their memories; at that time, ‘I’ will no longer be ‘me’. So I feel that it doesn’t really matter if my body dies in the shelter.”

“Although I can’t see my own mutations, it’s not like there are no changes. Dr. Lu, I want to warn you… you smell different from normal people; you smell very fragrant. You must pay attention to your safety. Although they have started district-by-district testing, it’s very chaotic outside. It’s best if you don’t go out. I’ve already deleted the surveillance footage from that night for you; as long as you’re okay, it’s fine.”

Like he was giving his final words, Shen Qingyang rambled on a lot.

“Also, thank you. Dr. Lu.”

Shen Qingyang came from a rural village and dropped out of middle school. Later, he moved bricks at a construction site and broke a leg, and Lu Yan was the one in charge of his surgery.

The person was saved, but he was left with a limp and couldn’t go back to construction work. Lu Yan happened to see the recruitment info downstairs and introduced him to it.

Shen Qingyang’s stomach let out a few untimely growls; he was hungry.

He was still eating normally, but food could no longer give him a feeling of fullness.

After waking up this morning, driven by hunger, he even secretly cut off a piece of his own flesh. Surprisingly, it didn’t hurt much.

Shen Qingyang took one last look at Lu Yan’s front door. He turned and left.

Afterward, under the watch of the staff from the Pollution Disease Prevention and Control Center, he would head to the shelter.

In this community, a total of 7 people were going to the shelter.

The number of people polluted in City K was more than imagined, so the beds here were exceptionally tight.

The accommodation provided by the shelter consisted of single rooms. The rooms were probably temporarily modified, exceptionally cramped, and separated by a layer of iron sheeting in the middle, much like a train sleeper carriage.

In this kind of place, naturally, there was no such thing as soundproofing. Even the sound of an apple being chewed next door could be heard clearly.

Fortunately, Shen Qingyang was used to hardship and didn’t feel it was unbearable; he was just a bit worried about Dr. Lu still back in the community. As a result, he suffered from insomnia on his first night there.

City W, adjacent to City K.

A person wearing a black robe stood in the suburbs, gazing at the dirt wall outside City K from afar.

That high wall not only blocked off the land upwards but also extended downwards, cutting off the river.

A special chemical agent used to kill fish eggs had already been discharged into the water. In about 2 days, it could poison and completely clean out the pollutants in the river.

The figure in the black robe couldn’t be distinguished as male or female; the whole person was covered up tightly.

“The shelter is the best incubator. Only through devouring can one achieve better evolution. Sometimes, I am truly grateful for those bright parts in human nature. At least they built a shelter, didn’t they?”

The black-robed person stood motionless on the spot, with no one else around.

What was astonishing was that this speaking voice actually came from the back of his head.

“I wonder which lucky person that King Fish egg will fall into the hands of… For this incubation, I even deliberately caused chaos elsewhere first. Headquarters is overwhelmed and naturally has no spare energy to manage this place.”

“Yes, I know, your son is still in City K. But that’s not important, is it? Furthermore, don’t tell me you still have an emotion like fatherly love.”

“This process will naturally involve many sacrifices. But all sacrifices are for the descent of the great God.”

A gust of wind blew past, coincidentally lifting the hood of the black robe.

Its front face had only one vertical eye and no mouth, with the whites of the eye completely covered in blood vessels. On the back of the head was an ever-changing human face, sometimes male, sometimes female.

“City K is merely a beginning. Sooner or later, this world will be covered with the ruins of God!” The expression on that human face was full of fanaticism, which then calmed down. “And we are the Creators who will create God.”