Zhou Qiming felt that Lu Yan’s request was exceptionally bizarre.

However, simply because Lu Yan was far too good-looking, he complied anyway. After all, for a face-con and a simp, the line between them was incredibly thin.

The moment Zhou Qiming applied this setting to the four of them, the eerie, chilling atmosphere around them suddenly eased a great deal. Yet in stark contrast, another type of longing surged from deep within their hearts.

It felt exactly like a daughter catching sight of her long-lost mother, yearning to fling herself entirely into her embrace.

Sure enough, not a single pollutant with a high pollution value was easy to deal with.

[Congratulations, you don’t have to get pregnant anymore.]

Although speaking words of congratulation, for some unknown reason, the system’s voice sounded profoundly regretful, making one want to swing a fist and give it a couple of punches.

The sound of churning water rumbled by Lu Yan’s ears. It felt simultaneously like tinnitus and like a monster looming right beside him. The noise was unceasing, making his head throb with pain.

The relationship between humans and pollutants was much like the upper and lower tiers of a food chain—like mice and cats. Occasionally, a few mice might chase a cat down to beat it, but most of the time, a mouse’s very first reaction upon seeing a cat was still to run. This was a survival instinct carved into their genes, honed over thousands of years.

Without needing another word, the four of them split up and ran in different directions with absolute tacit understanding.

If even one could survive, that was enough; the survivor would be responsible for delivering the intelligence out of this place.

This was the very first line on the very first page of the Apocalypse Envoy Code compiled and issued by the Prevention and Control Center. Intelligence and wisdom were the true keys that allowed humanity to overcome strength with weakness.

Once they left Dragon Girl Lake, the surroundings were entirely filled with rolling mists.

Even though Lu Yan possessed a night vision capability that far exceeded ordinary humans, he still couldn’t see a single thing within this white fog. Meanwhile, sharp, piercing laughter echoed by his ears.

The pollutants stood high and above, watching the humans like trapped beasts putting up a desperate fight.

In less than three minutes from start to finish, they all returned to the original spot from different directions.

“We can’t get out.” The detective wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and said, “My talent isn’t ranked very high, but its practicality is very strong. We’ve encountered a ghost wall before, and we managed to get out using Lurking. This time, Lurking failed.”

[The Detective. Spiritual energy threshold: 2700. Auxiliary System.]

[Talent: Lurking, Tracking, Clue Perception.]

[Direction of Pathological Mutation: Amnesia, Hyperthymesia*, Mental Derangement.]

The Dragon Girl finally crawled onto the shore.

Under the moonlight, her hair was pitch-black and immensely long. Her upper body was covered in fine, dense fish scales, while her lower body lacked a human torso entirely, replaced by a long, winding snake tail.

Even though the exposed portion of her snake tail was already five or six meters long, the latter half of her tail remained submerged in the lake water, casting a massive shadow under the moonlight.

Dragon horns grew upon the Dragon Girl’s head, and four or five female infants sat perched upon her back. Compared to humans, they were already closer to monsters; their bodies were highly decayed, and their baby teeth had turned into long, terrifying shark teeth.

The pollution level on the detection watch finally halted at 7200.

“You guys go first!”

Zhou Qiming drew his weapon, shielding the three behind him as he shouted sternly.

He wasn’t a Combat System Apocalypse Envoy, but because his own spiritual energy threshold was high, he still possessed some degree of combat capability.

With that said, Zhou Qiming stacked a few buff settings onto himself: [Attack Power +150], [Defense Value +100], and [Automatically release toxins that disrupt the nervous system of aquatic organisms].

Once these buffs were stacked, the Dragon Girl in front of him remained completely unfazed, though the little dragon girls swam back into the water looking somewhat uncomfortable. Meanwhile, behind him, the completely serene Doctor Lu suddenly clutched his throat and began to dry-heave.

[My heart really aches for you. Zhou Qiming stacked an “automatically release toxins that disrupt the nervous system of aquatic organisms” buff on himself. Of course, I’m not saying you are an aquatic organism, but the fish inside your body is.]

[It’s already about to throw up and faint. Blegh, it sprayed out so many fish eggs. Blegh, blegh, blegh—]

Lu Yan: “…”

He felt that the system really didn’t need to describe it in such graphic detail.

Lu Yan silently moved further away from Zhou Qiming, only then feeling his body recover a little.

As the situation was critical, Zhou Qiming didn’t notice this detail at all, merely assuming that Lu Yan was experiencing an adverse reaction from facing such intense pollution for the first time. Little did he know that he was straying further and further away on his path of pursuing Doctor Lu, practically sprinting in the opposite direction.

“When she and I start fighting in a moment, you guys run. The further the better. If you still can’t get out, find a place to hide.” Zhou Qiming’s tone was incredibly tragic and very heroic.

He was, after all, an Apocalypse Envoy ranked in the top 100 on the forum, with a peak spiritual energy threshold as high as 7600. Facing the Dragon Girl, he still had a silver lining of survival; the other three combined wouldn’t even be enough to fill the gaps between this pollutant’s teeth.

The detective’s eyes welled with tears: “Boss! Nothing can happen to you! Next week, our microtransaction-heavy mobile game is officially launching on the major platforms!!”

Zhou Qiming snapped in a rage: “Enough, I already know you’re a traitor sent by the Special Operations Department! Stop using your pitch rhetoric to stall me. Damn it, making games is a dead end, I’ve wanted to quit for a long time anyway!”

[The Dragon Girl didn’t come for you guys. She came ashore actually looking for her ‘father’… Of course, if your hostility is far too explicit, she doesn’t mind taking care of you along the way.]

In an instant, Lu Yan recalled the background story the system had provided.

His heart even stirred with a touch of ill-timed pity. The higher the tier of a pollutant, the more complete the retained portion of their sanity.

The Dragon Girl had originally fused into one entity with those hundreds of little dragon girls, living every single day in absolute resentment. It was that setting added by Zhou Qiming that made her remember certain things.

She still had an old father at home who had been waiting all this time for her return. Her mother had passed away from cancer, and her father had resisted the pressure and refused to remarry, clumsily combing her hair, making her breakfast, and raising her into a young woman. Every time she spoke of her dad with others, she would always receive envious looks.

Their last meeting was already seventeen years ago. She had seen him through a tiny basement skylight; he was clearly only in his forties, yet his hair had gone completely white, his entire being utterly exhausted.

Lu Yan asked the system: “Can I communicate with her?”

The Dragon Girl looked as though she couldn’t speak, her eyes—leaving only the white sclera—looking somewhat terrifying.

[A Dragon Girl of Perfect Evolutionary Form. Pollution level 7200. She is already a part of Dragon Girl Lake.]

[Pathological Talents: Mirage, Maternal In-Vitro Proliferation.]

[Direction of Pathological Mutation: Sea-Serpentification.]

The Mirage was the ghost wall they had encountered, and the Maternal In-Vitro Proliferation referred to the few children Zhou Qiming had aborted.

[She hasn’t spoken for too long and has already forgotten how to. But she can still understand. You can give it a try.]

Thus, Lu Yan stepped forward and walked to the edge of the lake.

By this time, the atmosphere on the scene was already strained to the breaking point, a single spark ready to set it off. The Dragon Girl bared her teeth at Lu Yan, revealing fangs that were not a single bit inferior to those of the female infants.

Zhou Qiming grew anxious: “What are you doing coming over here?”

The moment he spoke, the indescribable scent on his body seemed to become even stronger.

Lu Yan forcefully suppressed the urge to dry-heave and said to the Dragon Girl, “You haven’t evolved the ability to mimic. In this form, it’s impossible for you to enter human settlements and find your father. Human society is protected by far more powerful Apocalypse Envoys.”

“I can help you bring your father here. I am also an employee of a state-owned enterprise; this is my work credential.” Lu Yan pulled out the ID card issued by the Special Operations Department. “Your father—”

[Zhao Cheng.]

“—Zhao Cheng, I’ve seen him. He has been looking for you all this time.”

At that instant, the Dragon Girl’s originally furious expression turned dazed.

“You should have heard the words I said to the Locking Dragon Well.” Lu Yan made his tone sound as sincere as possible. “You are a good person. This isn’t your fault.”

The Dragon Girl turned her head, her gaze locking dead onto Lu Yan. She didn’t speak, seemingly considering something.

The crushing sense of pressure from being stared at by such a pollutant was no less than waking up on the morning of the College Entrance Examination only to find that you had already missed the Language and Literature exam. Just thinking about it made Zhou Qiming’s scalp tingle. It was a wonder that Lu Yan actually remained completely unfazed.

The Dragon Girl opened her mouth and let out a roar.

The dense, heavy moisture around them slowly dissipated, revealing the path out.

However, not everyone could leave.

The Dragon Girl’s snake tail slapped the lake surface, releasing a high-pitched cry like a siren. It couldn’t be called unmelodious, but because it was far too piercing, everyone present couldn’t help but cover their ears.

Blood seeped out from between the detective’s fingers. The others fared slightly better, merely feeling a bit of vertigo.

Hundreds of little dragon girls crawled out from the lake onto the shore, surging frantically toward the remaining three. They lacked legs, so after coming ashore, they resembled long worms, twisting unceasingly. Though their postures were distorted, their speed was terrifyingly fast.

Chen Shi’er was so startled that he immediately prepared to use his Iron Sand Palm; he could take out these low-pollution mini-pollutants with one punch each.

But his actions were barked to a halt by Lu Yan: “Don’t fight back! Trust me.”

Chen Shi’er had no choice but to suppress his combat instincts, watching as these little dragon girls sat in a neat row, forming a circle around him. Fortunately, these terrifying, hideous pollutants didn’t launch an attack against them either.

The Dragon Girl opened her mouth, flicking her long snake tongue, letting out a hiss-hiss-hiss sound.

[The Dragon Girl says she’s giving you three days. Three days. If you haven’t brought her dad here by then, she will kill the hostages.]

Lu Yan repeated the system’s words to the others and comforted them, saying, “Rest assured, I will definitely return within three days.”

This was a matter of absolute necessity; Zhou Qiming’s spiritual energy threshold had only just returned to the level of 6000-plus. He clearly couldn’t defeat the Dragon Girl. Furthermore, given that the Dragon Girl had previously been able to cause him to be parasitized by a phantom fetus completely unawares, the two were obviously not on the same tier.

Chen Shi’er wept a alpha-male tear: “Doctor, you must come back!”

Zhou Qiming was utterly shocked: “Doctor Lu, how do you know what she’s saying?”

Lu Yan replied without a second thought: “Talent 914: Cross-Species Communication.”

After receiving the reward of 6200 contribution points from Zhou Qiming, he had purchased a copy of the Talent Sequence Periodic Table. Dr. Qiao, who compiled this sequence table, stated that this ranking was the result of a comprehensive ordering based on factors such as the strength of the capability and its degree of helpfulness to humanity.

The talent under sequence number 914 had a very singular use: it could only be used to converse with intelligent creatures. Many Apocalypse Envoys who awakened this talent ended up becoming excellent veterinarians in the industry.

Qiao Yu had also stated that every seemingly garbage talent was merely a treasure placed in the wrong position. At the very least, using it right now to bluff people was highly effective for Lu Yan.

City A. Special Operations Department Headquarters.

Inside the office, the Director tugged somewhat unnaturally at his necktie. He had always been called the “Iron-Blooded King of Hell” at the headquarters, yet at this moment, he was actually practicing a smile against thin air. It was very kind, resembling Old Man Wang from next door who went out for a stroll every evening.

Tang Xun’an didn’t particularly like interacting with strangers, so he was the only one inside the office.

A few minutes later, the voice of the liaison came through the earpiece: “Tang Xun’an has arrived.”

The office doors were pushed open, and a blast of piercing, cold air rushed in.

Tang Xun’an pulled back a chair and sat down opposite the Director.

“Where to this time?” He placed Huang Chen onto the desk with casual ease.

Director Wang laughed heartily: “You’ve only been back from abroad for a few days, why are you already thinking about going out again? Don’t overwork yourself.”

Tang Xun’an didn’t pick up the conversational thread, merely staring at him with those calm, beautiful golden eyes that resembled those of a mannequin.

Director Wang could only steel himself and say: “Actually, it’s like this. We want to arrange a new teammate for you. He is a Healing System Apocalypse Envoy. He might be of some help to you.”

Tang Xun’an inquired very seriously: “Is he being sent here to die?”

“You don’t need to blame yourself excessively over what happened back then. We are unanimously of the opinion that it wasn’t your fault.” The Director hesitated to speak further. “If you don’t agree, then let’s forget it. Actually, it’s because the news of him being a Healing System Apocalypse Envoy leaked out, but he himself doesn’t want to come to headquarters. Out of consideration for protecting his safety, we hoped to have him stay by your side…”

Tang Xun’an felt a bit like smoking, and also wanted to pet the dog he kept at home.

“Give me the file,” he said.

The Director handed over the document. Tang Xun’an gazed intently at the item handed over by the other party, his countenance silent.

The Director’s heart became tortured and anxious in the midst of the waiting.

Until, he finally heard Tang Xun’an’s ambiguous reply.

“Lu Yan, is it. I see.”

*Hyperthymesia is an extremely rare medical anomaly belonging to a branch of highly selective memory, clinically manifesting as the brain possessing an automatic memory system.