Fuling Province was adjacent to Lu Yan’s province. It was coastal and economically developed.

Therefore, as the RV twisted and turned its way up the mountain, Zhou Qiming dry-heaved into an empty plastic bag: “This is even more remote than the poverty-stricken villages back in our Bashu. Is this really a village in Fuling Province?”

He was about to vomit from all the bumping.

Fortunately, since he hadn’t eaten, nothing really came out anyway.

It had already been 7 hours since they started driving here from K City.

5 hours ago, the watch on his hand detected that he had left K City, so Su Fufeng specially sent a message asking what he was doing out of the province.

Lu Yan replied: Tourism.

He didn’t intend to turn off his GPS tracking. If something happened, Lu Yan was still counting on the Prevention and Control Center to come and rescue him, considering he belonged to the Healing System.

As the altitude rose, a layer of white mist visibly appeared to the naked eye, and the temperature dropped quite a bit. The route was lined with abandoned villages, where one could vaguely glimpse past prosperity.

The air humidity increased, making every breath feel damp.

Lu Yan actually quite liked this kind of feeling; returning here felt like coming home.

Ever since彼は symbolised with the King Fish, he had developed a particular fondness for rainy days.

Zhou Qiming suspected he had gotten pregnant because he drank the local water, so he specifically chose an RV for this trip. It was a two-story model where they could light a fire to cook inside, and it even had a sofa and a TV.

Fortunately, although the mountain path was somewhat rugged, it wasn’t narrow; otherwise, they really would have had to worry about rolling over.

Sitting in the front, Chen Shi’er suddenly slammed his phone in anger: “Damn it. There’s no signal, and I was in the middle of a ranked match!”

According to Zhou Qiming, because the detected pollution level wasn’t high, out of strong confidence in his own strength, he had come alone last time.

After searching for a long time, he couldn’t find the pollution source, but he ended up pregnant himself, which scared him into fleeing overnight.

As for why he took on this seemingly low-danger mission, Zhou Qiming hesitated for a long time before Chen Shi’er ruthlessly exposed him: “He got into an argument with someone on the forum. It was that hot post from before where an anonymous user posted that the current division of pollution zones isn’t rigorous. They said it’s inappropriate to classify them solely based on lethality, and that practically, some pollution zones don’t look like they have high pollution values, but even a B-tier Apocalypse Envoy can’t solve them.”

“Then the boss refused to believe it and sent a private message to battle him. In the end, the opponent threw out the address of Dragon Girl Lake,” the detective said.

The one responsible for driving was the detective, who was Zhou Qiming’s secretary. He was a very steady person, but he belonged entirely to the Auxiliary System; his talents were Lurking and Counter-Reconnaissance. Rumor had it that he used to be a commercial spy, and his combat power was only 0.5 Lu Yans.

Zhou Qiming had a heavy heart: “I think I must have been set up in a honey trap. I haven’t been on the forum for eight hundred years, and the moment I log on, I see such a brain-dead post. It just so happens that I’m B-tier, and it just so happens that I was that free.”

Because the driving time was too long, Lu Yan cooked a meal in the RV. Stewed mutton and scrambled eggs with sand leeks. The mutton was lamb air-shipped from the Pinghe Grassland, very fragrant. The people present ate like three little pigs.

Chen Shi’er’s eyes welled with tears: “This is too delicious. My sense of taste has degraded, and I haven’t known the taste of salt for seven or eight years. Eating this meal, I can really die with no regrets!”

The detective told him not to set up such a terrifying death flag.

At four in the afternoon, the RV finally arrived at the entrance of Dragon Girl Village.

The terrain here was very peculiar. Dragon Girl Village was located at the bottom of a valley, surrounded by mountains on all sides, utterly isolated. Right at the center was a pool of calm, clear lake water, shimmering and exquisitely beautiful under the sunlight.

The houses in the village were all two or three-story brick buildings. A few long-abandoned Mercedes-Benz cars were parked by the roadside; it seemed the villagers, at least, were not completely devoid of financial means.

There wasn’t a single person on the road. If not for the occasional two barks of a dog, it would look exactly like a deserted village. Lu Yan’s five senses were very sharp; through the windows, he could feel that someone was observing them. He looked up, and they were all strange men of various ages.

Chen Shi’er took out his instrument and began testing.

Pollution level: 30.

Even a normal frogman who had just mutated had a pollution level of 100; this value was indeed low enough to prevent anyone from raising their guard.

“It was the same when I came last time.” Zhou Qiming got out of the car, breathing in the fresh air. “Because of the pregnancies, the people here don’t seem to like going out to see people. Also, paper currency doesn’t circulate, and they are extremely xenophobic. I could only modify the memories of a few villagers using my talent just to have a place to stay.”

Zhou Qiming was a Special System Apocalypse Envoy.

His talent was called “Virtual World,” ranked 39th.

In Zhou Qiming’s mind, the real world was a large-scale RPG game. Everyone around him was a game character, including himself.

Zhou Qiming’s talent allowed him to add settings to these game characters within his range of ability.

Whether it succeeded or not depended entirely on how difficult the task was.

For example, adding the setting “Zhou Qiming is a person from the village” into the minds of all the villagers was very easy.

But if he wanted to add the setting “Zhou Qiming cannot die” to himself, he wouldn’t be able to do it even if his mutation level maxed out and turned him into a pollutant.

In Zhou Qiming’s world, Lu Yan was actually a bit strange.

Take Chen Shi’er, for instance—the name floating above his head was “Monk – Chen Shi’er,” and above the name was the title “Descendant of Shaolin Temple.” This way, even with a stranger he met for the first time, Zhou Qiming could understand some basic information.

Meanwhile, Lu Yan’s title was “Piranha Doctor,” which left him somewhat perplexed.

Zhou Qiming could be considered someone who could endure hardships, but the accommodation environment in Dragon Girl Village was truly too terrible. Because of the heavy moisture and low latitude, the area beneath the mats was full of crawling insects, both shelled and unshelled. This was also the reason why he firmly insisted on driving an RV.

Lu Yan asked straightforwardly: “Where is the pollution source?”

The system chuckled: [The bottom of the lake. But I don’t suggest you go straight down there to deliver yourself on a silver platter. Stroll around the village first. I’ll give you some hints.]

This was exactly where Lu Yan felt the system was unreliable; it spoke like a riddler.

Undoubtedly, it had no intention of harming Lu Yan and could even provide a lot of necessary help.

But Lu Yan had a vague feeling that even if he died, the system would just find the next host.

It might be a bit troublesome, but he wasn’t the only choice.

Just like how Lu Jiahe was chosen by “something” through the Wall of Resentment.

When Lu Yan proposed wanting to look around, Zhou Qiming chose to accompany him without any hesitation.

The village wasn’t large; walking from beginning to end wouldn’t take twenty minutes. Further ahead was Dragon Girl Lake.

Lu Yan discovered one thing: in the courtyard of every single household, there was a well. These were no ordinary wells; many rusted chains hung from the well mouths, dropping straight down into the depths.

This kind of well was called a “King Yu Locking Dragon Well.”

He walked into a semi-open courtyard overgrown with wild weeds and observed carefully for a moment.

In front of the well, the construction time was carved: September 1, 2101.

“In legends, this kind of well was built to suppress flooding flood-dragons,” Lu Yan said. “Nowadays, with water and electricity being so convenient, very few people build wells anymore, let alone a Locking Dragon Well. If it’s not for drinking water, then it must be suppressing something.”

“The talk of ghosts and gods is pure absurdity. I think this indicates that starting from twenty years ago, this place became polluted and some mutation occurred.”

Zhou Qiming nodded: “What you say makes sense.”

The tightly shut house door opened a crack at this moment. A dark-faced middle-aged man looked at them through the crack and asked coldly: “Who are you? What are you doing?!”

Lu Yan pulled out the credentials issued by the Pollution Disease Prevention and Control Center: “I am a staff member from the Pollution Disease Prevention and Control Center. We received a report from the public saying that an infectious pollution disease has occurred here. So we came to investigate the situation.”

His tone was calm and certain, which inexplicably made people believe him.

The middle-aged man’s expression remained full of vigilance: “No need! You guys leave quickly! This is for your own good.”

Zhou Qiming had no choice but to add a setting to his mind: “Zhou Qiming is my son, bringing classmates back for the holidays to hang out.”

The middle-aged man’s eyes grew dazed for an instant. The next moment, he threw the door open in a rage and backhanded Zhou Qiming with a slap: “Didn’t I tell you not to come back! Why did you come back! You unfilial son, are you trying to anger me to death!”

Zhou Qiming: “…”

He felt a bit like slapping him back, but doing so might “break character,” and then he would have to use his ability all over again, which was very troublesome.

So he could only endure it.

The middle-aged man was named Wang Jianjun. His stomach was abnormally distended, like a leather ball that could burst at any moment.

Deep purple veins ran across his dark-green belly. Inside the translucent stomach, no organs or bones could be seen; it was filled entirely with amniotic fluid, and the thing inside was no longer a fetus, but a three or four-year-old child.

This child’s human body looked very uncoordinated; rather than a human, it resembled a water monkey.

“Dad,” Zhou Qiming asked gloomily, “what’s with this stomach of yours? It’s getting bigger and bigger.”

Wang Jianjun glanced at the Locking Dragon Well: “Don’t mention it, come in first.”

The son he hadn’t seen in years had finally returned; although he had disobeyed his words, Wang Jianjun was ultimately happy.

He brought out a bottle of ’82 Flying Fairy Maotai, shelled two plates of peanuts as a side dish to go with the alcohol, and turned on the dim yellow light.

“The village chief said it’s all retribution…” After downing a few cups of alcohol, an abnormal flush appeared on Wang Jianjun’s face, and old tears streamed down, “Back then, to make money we sacrificed to the Dragon Girl. Once we made money, we didn’t stay dedicated and forgot about the Dragon Girl. This is all retribution. The people who left the village before, who made money and didn’t come back, they all died. The whole family died. Dad let you study outside, and my own return was a helpless move, so why did you still have to come over!”

“Uncle, what is the sacrifice to the Dragon Girl?” Lu Yan keenly caught the key phrase.

Wang Jianjun wiped the tears from his face: “Dragon Girl Village was too isolated, it had always been poor. Twenty years ago, a feng shui master passed by and said he saw this was a prosperous land, and that we had always been poor because back then, when Emperor Yu tamed the waters, he locked the Dragon Girl to the bottom of the lake, so the Dragon Girl held resentment. As long as we sacrificed livestock every year, we could achieve great wealth.”

“Later, everyone sacrificed to the Dragon Girl and left the mountains. Within a few months, they became exceedingly wealthy. Your mother and I moved out too, and gave birth to you outside. In a span of five years, the people in the village left completely, and no one came back after making money. As a result, starting from ten years ago, people in the village began dying every year, all by drowning… Only then did people feel something was wrong. The village chief said the Dragon Girl sent a dream, saying we didn’t keep our word. The remaining people then returned to Dragon Girl Village.”

“At first, everyone was still laughing and talking. In the end, within less than two years, all the people who returned became pregnant. Don’t you think this matter is strange? Some people wanted to go out to see a doctor, but they encountered a ghost wall; they drove the car for three days and couldn’t get out at all!”

“Later, that person said every time they wanted to leave the mountains, for some reason they would always return to Dragon Girl Lake, and there was a bunch of women laughing in the lake water.”

When speaking of this matter, his face was ash-gray and distorted, as if he had seen an immense horror.

Zhou Qiming’s brows furrowed.

As an Apocalypse Envoy, he completely disbelieved in talks of ghosts and gods. Even if there was something unscientific, it was mostly just the pollution source playing tricks.

But ordinary people obviously didn’t know that. There was no signal here either, and under long-term high-pressure conditions, it was considered good enough that they hadn’t gone mad.

Zhou Qiming whispered to Lu Yan: “I think that so-called Dragon Girl is mostly the pollution source.”

Lu Yan was obviously clear on this too, but he was currently more curious about one thing.

“Are only males pregnant?” Lu Yan scanned the surroundings; he didn’t see any female products in this room, and even the shoes placed at the doorway were all men’s styles. “Where is Auntie?”

Since entering this village, Lu Yan hadn’t seen a single female. Even the dogs barking wildly by the roadside were all male.

*Modified real-world place names.