For a doctor, pulling back-to-back shifts and performing consecutive surgeries was a regular occurrence.

Therefore, when the department director called him in the middle of the night to work overtime, Lu Yan didn’t mind.

After all, his surgical skills were universally acknowledged as the best in the hospital. Because he was young, he was proficient in many new surgical techniques; whenever there was a complicated or rare case, the director always liked to have him lend a helping hand.

But tonight’s surgery seemed uniquely different.

Even after entering the surgical preparation room, Lu Yan still had no idea what kind of operation he was about to perform.

This was clearly contrary to common sense.

In the preparation room, Lu Yan calmly changed into his surgical scrubs while listening to the others whispering.

“I heard the pollution disease has broken out again in the coastal areas…” The head nurse looked deeply worried. “The internet says the pollution disease is a genetic illness caused by human exposure to nuclear pollution, stemming from back when people in other regions dumped nuclear waste into the ocean. H City has already been locked down. Luckily, this disease only appears along the coast.”

Lu Yan looked up at that moment. “It’s not just the coast; it’s inland too. The cause is definitely more than just nuclear pollution.”

“Ah, how do you know that, Dr. Lu?”

Lu Yan replied, “My father also contracted the pollution disease. He was always in K City. The day after his deformity symptoms appeared, he was taken away by the relevant department.”

Lu Yan still remembered that winter many years ago. His father’s head had swollen abnormally, looking like a soccer ball filled with water. A tumor had grown on the back of his head, upon which a second face was faintly visible.

That had been the happiest day of his life.

“…I’m sorry,” the young nurse said, lowering her head.

Lu Yan replied calmly, “It’s fine. I don’t care.”

Dr. Li, who was in the same operating room, glanced around nervously and pulled out his phone.

“My friend is a reporter who happened to be dispatched to H City. He sent this to me in the middle of the night.”

Lu Yan couldn’t help but lean closer to watch.

The footage in the video was very shaky; from the angle, it looked like it was filmed covertly.

The camera was pointed at the ground. It was nighttime, the streetlights were on, and military riot shields cast a cold gleam. Cries and gunshots could be heard faintly in the background.

The camera slowly panned upward.

When they clearly saw what the guns were pointed at, everyone present gasped in unison.

“What… what is that thing?”

In Lu Yan’s understanding, deformities caused by the pollution disease usually manifested as physical abnormalities—such as tumors, curved bones, or abnormal brain development. But at the very least, they retained a human shape.

However, it was difficult to tell if the entity in the video was even human anymore.

Under the dim light, a shadow stood at the entrance of an office building. It had no head; instead, thick tentacles erupted from its neck, making the entire entity look like a bizarrely growing tree.

These tentacles spread out in all directions, and at the end of each tentacle hung a human torso. Blood dropped onto the marble floor, making a terrifying sizzling sound.

“——Ready! Fire!”

someone roared, his voice laced with unmaskable fear of the unknown.

Intense gunfire erupted, the bullets falling as thick as rain.

The ammunition pierced through the monster’s body, and bursts of blood exploded outward. Its torso was practically blasted into mush.

The monster collapsed to the ground, remaining motionless for a long time.

“Is it over…?”

In the next second, that mass of tentacles broke free from the mush and slowly dragged itself forward by a step.

The video cut off there, plunging into pitch blackness.

A prolonged silence fell over everyone in the room.

“This must be from a movie set, right? How could such a thing exist?” As if trying to embolden himself, a resident doctor spoke with a look of disdain. “This naked-eye 3D effect is pretty well done.”

“But what if it’s real? Deformed humans have been appearing for several years now… Although the impact has been minor every time, still…”

A nurse sneered, “Don’t you know how those clickbait marketing accounts on the internet operate?”

Dr. Li’s face was pale. He just hugged his own arms, shaking his head repeatedly.

…

Lu Yan did not speak. Though the character for “speech” (Yan) was in his name, he was unexpectedly taciturn.

As he was putting on his latex gloves, the door to the preparation room was pushed open once again.

The director walked in, accompanied by three strangers.

With just a single glance, Lu Yan realized one thing: these people had definitely served in the military.

They carried a heavy aura of hostility, stood perfectly straight, and every move they made seemed cut from the same mold.

The director, whose face was usually cheerful like a laughing Maitreya Buddha, now wore an exceptionally grave expression.

He looked around and said sharply, “Surgical gowns aren’t enough. Put on the Level 3 protective suits as well!”

The young resident doctor was stunned. “Is it that serious? Could it be Ebola?”

Beside the director, a tall man stepped forward. “Excuse me. I am Lin Sinan. The patient tonight is my teammate. He was unfortunately infected with the pollution disease while handling contaminants along the coast, and is currently in a state of mutation. We hope to surgically excise his diseased parts. Before we begin, everyone needs to sign a non-disclosure agreement.”

“Reviewing the conditions, although deformed individuals do not cause secondary infection, the surgery involves direct contact with the source of pollution, which carries certain risks. Therefore, this surgery is entirely on a voluntary basis; no one is forced to participate.”

Many people in the room began to hesitate.

Saving patients was a doctor’s sacred duty, but if it meant dragging oneself down as well, they had to weigh the consequences.

Lu Yan was the first to break the silence. “Where do I sign?”

Wiping the sweat from his forehead, the director brought out the non-disclosure documents he had prepared in advance.

Lu Yan glanced through it quickly; it merely required the doctors not to disclose the details of the surgery to others, not to take photos or recordings, and not to publicize it.

He signed his name very decisively.

In the end, a total of three doctors remained for the operation: the director, Lu Yan, and Dr. Li.

Aside from them, there was a special assistant—Lin Sinan.

Normally, outsiders were not allowed into the operating room. However, given the special circumstances today, no one questioned it.

The young nurse cracked a joke to break the tension: “If the patient doesn’t make it, is this guy going to pull out his gun and blow our brains out…?”

Lin Sinan was not wearing a military uniform, but his pocket bulged noticeably, clearly showing the outline of a gun.

The lights in the operating room were bright, but the operating table was empty.

A minute later, two military officers wheeled in a circular metal capsule on a gurney.

Lu Yan couldn’t help but look at the director.

The director had saved countless lives in his lifetime, and his name had long been written into medical textbooks; yet at this moment, his hands were trembling slightly.

The capsule door opened, and a blast of cold air rushed out.

The patient was lifted onto the operating table.

The moment he saw the patient, Dr. Li couldn’t hold it in; he turned his head and vomited.

The young nurse’s expression changed drastically, her voice trembling, “What… what is that?”

The patient’s abdomen was covered with translucent eggs. Under the illumination of the surgical lamps, the pulsating creatures inside were revealed—they looked like fish.

The black fry swam joyfully inside the egg sacs, bursting with a vibrant, disturbing vitality.

These egg sacs seemed to have grown directly out of the patient’s body. On the surface of the eggs, one could even see the stretched skin tissue and the withered fat underneath, tightly packed together.

Like a spoonful of caviar.

Lu Yan thought to himself.

The officers swiftly and skillfully strapped the patient tightly to the bed.

Lin Sinan stood at a distance. “He has been parasitized by a C-grade contaminant and has reached the second stage of mutation. The doctor said that perhaps by excising the lesion and supplementing it with auxiliary treatment, there might still be hope for recovery. The situation is urgent, and there was no time to rush back to the central laboratory, so we can only rely on you. Please rest assured, these fish eggs are just ordinary parasites and will not cause secondary pollution to normal humans.”

Lu Yan possessed an excellent trait: calmness. This composure had allowed him to brilliantly complete his first mission the very first time he held a scalpel.

It was no different now; after a brief moment of shock, Lu Yan was actually the first doctor to immerse himself into the surgery.

This made Lin Sinan unable to resist looking at him a few more times.

The patient’s breathing was very weak. Clearly, he could still feel pain.

Every time an egg sac was excised, the patient would convulse and struggle violently, his face turning bright red, the capillaries on the egg sacs vividly visible.

The removed eggs withered rapidly, like sea cucumbers dried of moisture, shrinking into small lumps.

These eggs were uniformly tossed into a specialized disposal box filled with boiling water. High temperatures couldn’t kill the eggs, but it could effectively suppress their activity.

“Why isn’t he anesthetized?” Lu Yan couldn’t help but look up to ask. “Although he is restrained, muscle tremors will obstruct the surgical field.”

Lin Sinan fell silent for a moment before replying, “Our situation is unique. We cannot use anesthesia.”

The First People’s Hospital was the best hospital in K City, naturally boasting the finest doctors.

Having overcome the initial panic, the surgery clearly became orderly.

The patient’s blood loss was controlled within an optimistic range.

Perhaps because his concentration had been strained for too long, leading to a momentary lapse, during the third hour of the surgery, Dr. Li accidentally cut his own glove. The foul fluid from an egg sac drenched his hand.

“Help—help me!” Dr. Li’s mental state collapsed instantly. “I’m not doing this surgery anymore! I resign! Let me leave!”

He threw down his scalpel and bolted out the door.

Lin Sinan frowned but did not stop him.

There were people guarding the outside; Dr. Li wouldn’t be able to leave the hospital. He would be taken for psychological counseling and a pollution disease screening, and would only be released once everything was confirmed clear.

The surgery lasted for a total of four and a half hours. The final egg, located near the chest cavity, was finally successfully excised.

The director was up there in years; cold sweat poured down his face, and the moment he put down his scalpel, he couldn’t help but feel a wave of dizziness.

“The surgery was very successful…”

The director looked toward the patient’s sole “family member.”

Lin Sinan’s muscles, which had been tense for hours, finally relaxed, and a faint smile appeared on his face.

Lu Yan blinked his eyelashes and looked down at the back of the patient’s hand.

Beneath the skin, something seemed to be flowing through the blood vessels.

The patient must have been a soldier of extraordinary willpower; even during a surgery without anesthesia, he had only let out a few muffled groans, and toward the end, he didn’t even make a sound. Perhaps he had grown numb to the pain.

Now, his fingers twitched slightly, as if trying to draw the doctor’s attention. Unfortunately, he was bound too tightly, so the movement was extremely faint.

Lu Yan looked into his eyes. They were a pair of tearful eyes, filled with reluctance and absolute resolution.

He was… asking for help?

Almost instinctively, Lu Yan’s scalpel sliced open the skin tissue on the back of the patient’s hand.

Instantly, countless tiny, golden fish eggs erupted outward.

Lin Sinan’s face changed drastically in a split second.

BANG—

An unexpected gunshot rang out, deafeningly loud.

The nurses screamed and huddled together.

Lu Yan had performed many surgeries, especially emergency resuscitations for critically ill patients; he obviously couldn’t guarantee that everyone would walk off the operating table alive.

But he had never imagined that a patient would die this way on the operating table.

Blood splattered onto his protective suit. Not just blood, but also bits of internal organ tissue. Being too close, he couldn’t dodge it.

The director’s legs gave out, and he sat heavily on the floor.

Lin Sinan lowered his gun, his tone full of apology. “I’m sorry. My judgment was flawed; he had already entered the third stage. Pollution was inevitable. We could only eliminate the contaminated subject prematurely. Someone will contact you tomorrow to provide compensation.”

Lu Yan still stared blankly at the corpse on the operating table, seemingly failing to react.

Meanwhile, Lin Sinan’s teammates silently stepped forward and began to move the patient’s body. It wouldn’t be sent to the morgue; it had to be loaded into a containment capsule and cremated at high temperatures.

“I am very sorry for forcing everyone to witness such a scene.”

Lin Sinan looked at the severed remains on the floor, bowed, and exited the operating room.

The remaining people looked at each other in shock.

The director didn’t dare to take off his protective suit, even though he was drenched in sweat.

With bitterness in his voice, he said, “I’m giving everyone a three-day break. Go home… and get some good rest.”

The young nurse’s hands were still trembling uncontrollably. She wiped the condensation off her goggles. “Director, is the pollution disease really a disease?”

The director smiled bitterly. “I don’t know. But I heard a theory that the people at the research institute call this… evolution. And evolution always goes hand-in-hand with extinction. Without extinction, new species won’t get a vacant ecological niche.”

“Prepare yourselves,” he said, unwilling to say more.

…

Lu Yan walked into the locker room and turned on the faucet in front of the mirror.

He was supposed to wash his hands after surgery, but as the water rushed over them, his hand remained tightly clenched into a fist.

Lu Yan looked at himself in the mirror.

It was a calm, plain face—showing no joy, and naturally, no panic or fear.

No one knew what he was thinking, and naturally, no one noticed what he had done at the very last moment of the surgery.

Lu Yan turned off the faucet, shoved his hand into his pocket, and let go.

In that exact instant, a mechanical voice rang out clearly in Lu Yan’s mind:

[Congratulations Host, you have awakened the Talent: Omniscience.]

[Congratulations Host, you have obtained the item: King Fish Larval Egg (Unhatched)]