Downstream of the Qujiang River.

Bubbles rose to the surface of the calm water. After ensuring there was no surveillance, Shen Qingyang’s dripping head emerged from the water, his tentacles clawing at the bank until he slowly dragged his massive body onto the shore. He still wasn’t quite used to staying underwater.

However, as soon as he reached the bank, Shen Qingyang sensed that someone was nearby. He scanned his surroundings with a vigilant gaze, but saw no trace of any living creature. This even gave him the urge to dive back into the depths.

Just as Shen Qingyang prepared to do so, a voice finally came from behind him.

“I’ve been waiting for you here for a long time.” The speaker had an elegant female voice, which quickly shifted into a deep, masculine tone. “You are my most outstanding work in K City.”

A man draped in black robes stepped out from the shadows. He had no mouth; there was only a single, giant eye on his face.

“Who are you?”

Behind Shen Qingyang, several tentacles slowly writhed, assuming an attacking stance.

“You may call me the Prophet,” he said. “The world of humans no longer welcomes you. In these past three hours, your relevant data has been transmitted to the headquarters of the Prevention and Control Center. Given that you haven’t started killing people yet, your priority is low. But I know that ‘that person’ is on his way. He has a bad temper, and right now, he is in a berserk state. He might just solve your existence while he’s at it. He is not in the same league as Bai Qiushi. Would you like to come with me?”

Shen Qingyang smiled: “I hate the smell on you.”

The Prophet lowered his head and sniffed. It was a thick stench of rotting corpses, but he had long since become accustomed to it.

“I know, your heart still tells you that you are a member of human society. But those inferior ‘sapiens’ are merely a species about to be eliminated. The future world will be ours,” the Prophet’s voice was filled with bewitchment. “We are the gods of the new world. I know many things; I can help you obtain even greater power…”

Shen Qingyang had no interest in listening to his long-winded lecture. He turned and began walking into the mountains.

“Wait,” the Prophet remained silent for a long time before calling out to Shen Qingyang once more. “I know what you want.”

The Prophet opened his eye, his pupil shrinking as it locked onto Shen Qingyang’s gaze.

[Talent – Bewitchment]

[Talent – Precognition]

Under the influence of his dual talents, Shen Qingyang suddenly felt a misplaced sense of trust toward the man in front of him.

“You have always been grateful to him; he saved you from the hands of death. You were an illegitimate child, abandoned by your biological parents and abused by your foster parents. After graduating middle school, you escaped from that mountain village… Yes, the very mountain village you are about to head toward. You want to make those people pay the price.”

“You are no good person, but he is. He was a complete stranger to you, yet he paid your medical bills and gave you a job. You only dared to watch him secretly when he commuted to work. You know you aren’t worthy of him—he seems to have a good background, high education, is handsome, and has many pursuers. He may not even like men. You don’t dare to think it, much less say it.”

The Prophet could not see much—he didn’t even know who that person was—but this was already enough. The calm on Shen Qingyang’s face was shattered, replaced by an expression of irritation. No one likes to be seen through at a glance.

The human face on the back of the Prophet’s robes curled into a grin: “Now, can we have a proper talk?”

“We can. But you need to understand one thing first: I haven’t retained many human emotions,” Shen Qingyang’s demeanor returned to a peaceful state as he stated calmly, “He was indeed very special to the ‘me’ who was human, but that is not necessarily the case now. I trust you are not foolish enough to use this as a bargaining chip.”

The Prophet nodded with a smile: “I understand. When I was human, I had a very obedient son, currently living in K City. I thought I would always maintain my fatherly love for him… Never mind, let’s not talk about that. Let me see what stage the King Fish inside you has reached.”

Upon hearing this, Shen Qingyang frowned in confusion: “What King Fish?”

The Prophet was uncharacteristically stunned: “It didn’t parasitize you?”

Because he was too exhausted, Lu Yan fell asleep almost as soon as his head hit the pillow. Because the environment was so unfamiliar, he woke up several times throughout the night, suspecting that he might be assassinated at any moment.

Lu Yan’s left palm felt hot and slightly painful, twitching uncontrollably from time to time. The System said this was because he had absorbed an excessive amount of the pollution source.

[Although it’s a bit earlier than I expected, it has indeed begun its second stage of evolution. My ‘bootleg’ copy is probably furious to death right now.]

Waking up early, Lu Yan touched his forehead, confirming that he had started running a fever again. His throat burned, feeling as though it were being scorched. He put on his coat and pushed open the door.

The staff member guarding outside stepped forward and asked: “Dr. Lu, you’re up so early… You don’t look well.”

Lu Yan replied calmly: “I’m not used to the bed here; I didn’t sleep well.”

“What kind of bed do you usually sleep on? We’ll go buy one. Are you going to the cafeteria now? I’ll lead the way.” The staff member’s attitude was extremely enthusiastic and attentive.

“Rounds. Where is my patient?” Lu Yan asked. His voice was hoarse, and his mouth tasted entirely of dry rust.

The staff member couldn’t help but reveal an embarrassed smile. A pollutant had escaped right under their noses, and Bai Qiushi was furious about it. They had spent three hours scouring every river and stream in K City, yet failed to find where Shen Qingyang was. The data on Shen Qingyang had been transmitted to headquarters overnight; it might soon appear on the Prevention and Control Center’s bounty board.

“If you are referring to the patient sent from the detention center, his condition deteriorated in the middle of the night, and he escaped from the Prevention Center. Relevant personnel have already gone to handle it.”

Lu Yan unscrewed a bottle of mineral water without changing expression, soothing the dryness in his mouth: “I see. When can I go home?”

If he were in his previous state, Lu Yan felt it wouldn’t matter if he stayed at the Prevention Center—especially since seeing the guys in military uniforms occasionally gave him a sense of security. But in his current state, that was not an option.

When he fused with the King Fish, Lu Yan had briefly lost consciousness; he was very worried that he might suddenly collapse here.

The staff member looked troubled: “I’ll go ask Captain Lin for instructions.”

Lin Sinan wasn’t the highest-ranking official at the Prevention Center, but he was an acquaintance since they had met before, and headquarters feared that changing his handler would make Lu Yan feel uneasy.

The two sat down in a semi-open tea restaurant. The food at the Prevention Center was excellent, but Lin Sinan ate without appetite. His spiritual threshold was only 1600, but because he frequently engaged in combat, his actual mutation level was not low; he no longer had the worldly desire for ordinary food.

Lu Yan asked the System: “I can’t see where he has mutated.”

Lin Sinan’s eyes were clear and determined, clearly carrying the temperament of a soldier; he sat with his back perfectly straight.

[Lin Sinan, Captain of the Third Detachment, Sixth Group, Special Action Department. Spiritual threshold: 1600.]

[Enlisted at 22, assisted in handling pollution events at 23, and in the same year, volunteered to contact pollution sources, awakening as an Awakened.]

[Talents: Tracking Shot, Firepower Suppression.]

[He looks fine on the outside, but his body is heavily eroded internally. Ugh, I actually don’t want to look; it’s a bit disgusting. Parasitic fish eggs are much cuter than parasitic worm eggs…]

[Secretly telling you: if he becomes a pollutant, he’ll likely turn into a pile of worm-like amalgamations. All white, like grains of rice.]

Lu Yan: “…”

Thank you, I can no longer eat.

[I should have told you that to become an Awakened, one must first come into contact with a pollution source. But coming into contact with a pollution source carries a high probability of death or immediate mutation. Only a very small portion of people successfully become Awakened.]

[After years of research, the Research Institute did develop special medicine, which has a certain probability of returning a newly polluted mutant to normal.]

[But most of the people who sign up are prepared to die. If they don’t awaken, and the special medicine doesn’t work, there is only one road left to take.]

[Logically, with such a high mortality rate, not many people would be willing to do it. But the soldiers of the First District rarely shrink back… This is why the First District controls pollution disease so much better than other areas. The First District possesses the world’s strongest Awakened and the largest number of Awakened squadrons.]

Lu Yan was silent for a long time before Lin Sinan coughed: “Dr. Lu, have you seen the news broadcast earlier? Do you know what an Awakened is?”

Lu Yan nodded: “I know.”

Lin Sinan: “That makes things easier to explain. In fact, Awakened are divided into three types: Combat, Auxiliary, and Special. We have preliminarily determined that your talent is ‘Devour,’ which belongs to the Healing-type within the Special category. Healing-type talents are extremely rare. Headquarters has sent a researcher over, hoping to conduct observations and records. Of course, we will seek your consent beforehand.”

“You saw the pollution disease in K City this time. In fact, there are many such cases worldwide, and they are all different…” As he spoke, Lin Sinan pulled out a tablet and logged into his internal account, “I don’t know if you’re interested in taking a look.”

Lu Yan took the tablet. It was a forum, and its largest section was “Pollution Disease Case Study.” According to the strength level of the pollution source, these cases were categorized from S down to F. In Lu Yan’s eyes, the K City outbreak had been extremely severe, yet it was only a “C” grade.

“This is because although the infection rate was high, the mortality rate was low, and the mutated pollutants were of a very low level,” Lin Sinan explained.

Every medical record was graded. Lu Yan glanced at them; there were currently two S-grade cases, codenamed “Catastrophe” and “Kingdom of God.”

Note: Preliminarily controlled. Surrounding humans have been evacuated. A-grade Awakened ‘Muramasa’ and ‘Hokushin Itto’ were killed in action during the evacuation.

As for A-grade cases, there were many more: “Slaughterhouse,” “Nightmare City,” “Wall of Resentment,” “Luochuan Botanical Garden”… scattered domestically and abroad, totaling dozens of cases.

Lu Yan casually clicked on the “Wall of Resentment” case.

[Wall of Resentment]

Introduction: This is an incredibly narrow alleyway that appears randomly in city centers. Countless undead bones are embedded in its walls. When a living being passes by, the resentment on the walls drags them into an obsession, beginning a cycle of reincarnation over and over. Success means walking out of the wall; failure means becoming a part of the wall. Currently, no successful cases have been discovered. A total of seven Awakened have executed this mission; the mortality rate is 100%.

[The following is public mission data.]

[Appendix: (Audio file) “Calling Headquarters, this is ‘Giant Bear.’ This will be my final mission report. My mutation level has reached 97. I have reincarnated six times within the Wall of Resentment. The data and precautions obtained are as follows… It is a pity I cannot see the world return to normal with my own eyes. No need to send anyone to save me. Please tell my wife that I love her.”]

Note: Observations indicate that the length of the Wall of Resentment is constantly expanding, and the number of people swallowed has already exceeded five figures. Researchers in X Country indicate that if left to grow unchecked, its eventual length could exceed the Great Wall of Qin.

This was the other side of the world that Lu Yan had been completely unaware of. He thought he was prepared, but when faced with these cruel, bloody, and even tragic records, he could not help but feel his soul tremble. It was a tremor of weakness in the face of such things, and a gesture of respect toward those unyielding spirits.

“This world is hanging by a thread,” Lin Sinan tried to keep his tone and expression sincere. “We need every ounce of strength. You are a Healer; you don’t need to go to the front lines frequently. We will do everything in our power to protect your safety.”

He produced a document and placed it in front of Lu Yan: “I hope you will join the Special Action Department.”

Lu Yan didn’t speak; he appeared to be lost in thought, which made Lin Sinan feel somewhat nervous.

After a long time, Lu Yan looked up and asked: “Does it come with benefits, insurance, and retirement funds? If it’s a 9-9-6 schedule, do I get overtime pay?”

The concerns of a working-class soul are always so practical and simple.