Chapter 4: Transmigration Begins

Chapter 4: Dropped Into the Story

Zhou Ye went downstairs where Li Zhiyan was waiting for him.

That was just like their captain—he never interfered with tasks his team members could handle, especially when it was just an ordinary Class D pollutant.

"It's the same kind of rat," Zhou Ye said, dragging the rat corpse that had fallen out of the residential building, "but surprisingly, this rat wasn't the person who was reported—it was the complainant's landlord."

Li Zhiyan nodded and crossed "Shen Ji" off the list.

"What about the specifics?"

"No pollution level detected on the person. The room's pollution level was a bit high, probably due to being attacked by this thing. The environmental pollution level hit 57%."

As he spoke, Zhou Ye pulled the evidence bag from his pocket, and his work ID fell to the ground with it.

Li Zhiyan looked at the fallen ID and remarked drily, "If you lose your work ID again, I won't approve a replacement. Go find Jiang Ying for approval yourself."

"Please no!" Zhou Ye quickly picked up the work ID from the ground, seizing the chance to wail, "Deputy Captain Jiang will definitely kill me."

"So what's this?" Li Zhiyan pointed to the evidence bag in his hand.

Zhou Ye hurriedly held up the evidence bag. "It's a mushroom. I got it from the complainant's room. It's weirdly fresh, which is a bit strange."

"Bring it back to the Academy of Sciences for testing."

Pollution doesn't just affect people. For example, that earlier rat carried a large amount of toxins. These toxins can not only corrode surrounding objects but also become airborne. As pollution spreads through air currents, so do the toxins. The first things affected are fresh produce.

In the victim's home in the neighboring community, even the milk in the fridge had gone bad and emitted a foul odor. Yet here, there were such fresh mushrooms.

Li Zhiyan looked thoughtfully at the mushroom, then turned to glance at the rat corpse on the ground. After a few seconds, he walked out of the residential building.

"Captain?"

"I'm a bit hungry. Let's play hooky and go have some mushroom soup."

"...Boss, you and your random ideas."

The two placed the corpse in an air-tight device to await specialized retrieval, then continued inspecting the reported individuals. The rain grew heavier again, droplets pattering loudly against the transparent panels of the special equipment.

In an unnoticed corner, white, hair-thin hyphae slowly crept out from the gaps in the device. They stretched into the air, sprouting transparent caps.

Rainwater mixed with pollution fell on the caps, causing them to sway eagerly.

Meanwhile, upstairs.

Shen Ji locked the door from the inside again.

"The timing of our crossing into this world isn't great. The shelter pollution leak has already happened. Soon the protagonist will discover your traces, and then we won't have anywhere to run."

"Before we're completely discovered by the protagonist, we need to come up with a plan."

"Oh." Shen Ji gathered the mushrooms on the table and stuffed them into the fridge before responding dismissively, "Do you have any ideas?"

In truth, there were none. If there had been, Shen Ji wouldn't have been wasting time here all this time.

When he first woke in this world, the system had explained its purpose: it brought Shen Ji here to ensure this novel progresses as it should and reached its true ending.

According to the system, every world has its own rules. Even worlds derived from novels automatically fill in logic, patch plot holes, and continue to develop. In other words: this is a real world.

And now, the author's rushed ending has affected the development of this world, so it needs to be set straight.

In short, we absolutely cannot let the villain die so casually at the point of the rushed ending.

However, the Pollutant's personality is extremely radical and extreme; binding with Pollutant would only make things worse. That's why the system chose Shen Ji, whose life ended just as abruptly as the rushed ending, to help.

Shen Ji said speechlessly, "Sorry that my life ended like a rushed ending."

"Now I think choosing you was a very correct decision. As long as we survive this part of the plot, we'll be free."

"Sounds simple. Pollutant has already triggered the last major event of the entire story, and the protagonist will also discover Pollutant from this disaster. This is all set in stone per the plot." Shen Ji closed the refrigerator door and walked to the mirror to check if mushrooms were still growing on his forehead, acting completely unbothered.

"Otherwise, we could become enemies with the protagonist and take him out to avoid exposing ourselves."

"..."

"Truly a villain, jumping straight to the conclusion of killing the protagonist. I have high hopes for you."

"Is that flashy guy really that strong?" Shen Ji asked curiously.

Although he finished reading this novel, he was busy with work and read it intermittently, so by the end he didn't remember much of the plot. He only remembered that the rushed ending left him feeling mentally and physically violated, so he couldn't forget it—no, rather, he nursed a grudge.

"Li Zhiyan is not a traditional protagonist from web novels. His personality is very distinct, and he lacks the self-sacrificial mindset of a typical protagonist. His powerful abilities and extremely self-centered nature have earned him mixed reviews. Some readers feel he shows almost no growth, and all his actions seem like he's just messing around. There's even a part in the story where he lets a high-level Pollutant go."

"But his strength is undeniably formidable. His Talent, 'Mimic Butterfly,' possesses a contamination effect even stronger than that of Pollutants, capable of directly interfering with the minds of both humans and Pollutants. The effect is extremely overpowered."

"Even if this novel hadn't ended abruptly, your one-on-one odds against him would only be 50%."

"Then there's no other way," Shen Ji lay back on the bed. "Let's just wait for death."

"Don't just die!"

"Let's just fake my death. As long as the culprit is dead, humans—including the protagonist—won't continue investigating, right?"

"You think this is a novel?"

"Isn't it a novel?"

Well, it really is a novel.

So the system began considering the feasibility of this proposal and quietly exited the conversation.

Seeing that it had stopped talking, Shen Ji lay on the bed, opened his phone, and continued browsing the forum from earlier. It seemed the night was far from peaceful; most people didn't dare to sleep, and the forum posts were refreshing at an extremely fast rate. Many were reporting the situations around them right on time.

"What type of Pollutant is it this time?"

OP: I heard gunshots outside. Through the peephole, I could see people in security detail uniforms knocking on doors for inspections. This definitely means there's a Pollutant, right?

1F: Half an hour ago, the Q City Pollution Prevention Center branch issued an announcement. Although this is a large-scale contamination event, most of the Pollutants are Class D.

2F: That's a relief. Class D isn't too bad—not that dangerous.

3F: I saw a huge rat, really big, about as tall as a person. It dashed past my door, and guards were chasing it. Freaked me out.

4F: This is another Pollutant type that was just announced. Class D Pollutant "black rat." It carries toxins, its blood is corrosive, and it's omnivorous. It will first attack people it has beef with. Don't engage in close combat because its fur is very coarse, and getting pricked by it will poison you.

5F: ...Besides that, there seem to be other Pollutants. I saw my neighbor going out late at night. I wanted to warn him not to go out, but then I noticed his face had a bluish tint, and his skin was all wrinkled, like... like tree bark.

6F: Tree bark?

7th floor: He kept saying things I couldn't understand, that he was so thirsty and wanted water, he was extremely, extremely thirsty. Then he ran out of the hallway. I looked out the window and saw him tilting his head back to let the rain pour over him, laughing while getting drenched. I immediately called the Pollution Prevention Center's report line.

"This floor even included a photo. The picture was almost completely dark, but you could vaguely make out a person standing under a dim yellow light. The person was facing away from the camera with their hands raised overhead. On their arms, you could faintly see branches—branches that were ignoring the autumn season, sprouting tender green shoots.

The plants were ecstatically absorbing the moisture falling from the sky."

8th floor: Are you okay, upstairs? You were in such close contact with a pollutant.

9th floor: I don't know, I just suddenly feel... a bit thirsty, kind of want some water. Can I go downstairs to get a drink? I promise I’ll come right back.

10th floor: ...

"What a horror story."

Professional habit made Shen Ji instinctively press and hold to save the photo.

It wasn’t until the save completed notification appeared that Shen Ji remembered he wasn’t a journalist anymore—he didn’t need to maintain such high sensitivity to news.

Shen Ji sighed helplessly, tossed his phone onto the bedside table, and burrowed into the bed. The movement left his hair slightly disheveled, adding a tempting allure to his naturally cool appearance—an allure that made people want to mess him up even more.

"Need to get used to this, need to get used to this," Shen Ji muttered to himself with his eyes closed.

In the end, he decided to sleep to clear his mind. So he turned off the light and, on a night when who knows how many people were lying awake until dawn, fell asleep easily.

/

"Hey, wake up."

"Wait, how can a pollutant sleep so soundly? Pollutants don’t need sleep, right?"

"Shen Ji, Shen Ji, wake up now!"

Shen Ji groggily reached out a hand, forcing his eyes open. The first thing he saw was that full-length mirror. The mirror seemed covered in a haze, hazy, making it impossible to see his own sleepy reflection clearly. What? Humid weather?

But this is the north, right? Why would there be humid weather?

Suddenly, Shen Ji’s eyes snapped open. He bolted upright in bed.

His room was densely packed with white mushrooms—big and small, crowding every corner. Even the full-length mirror was covered in fungal growth. White, fuzzy fungal growth hung down from the ceiling, almost as if gently brushing against his face.

"What’s going on?" Shen Ji got out of bed and immediately stepped on a mushroom, nearly tripping from the strange feeling underfoot.

Even the refrigerator had been forced open, the gap filled with plump white mushrooms, their caps trembling slightly.

This was like a mushroom paradise!

"It’s the corpse the security team moved out—that giant rat!"

"You withdrew too suddenly back then, and some fungal growth was left inside the body. They followed the corpse downstairs. The Pollution Prevention Center was conducting artificial rainfall to wash away the pollution, and they secretly fed on it during the rain. Now that the artificial rain has stopped and there’s nothing left to eat, they’ve come back to find you."

"Don’t worry, they haven’t been discovered."

Shen Ji searched through a pile of mushrooms to find his shoes. "Didn’t you say that once it left my body, it would just be ordinary mushrooms?"

"That was the Filth’s contamination. This is your pollution now—it’s normal for it to mutate."

"By the way, your phone rang three times. Want to call back?"

After putting on his shoes, Shen Ji found his phone in the bedside table drawer and sure enough, saw three missed calls. The caller ID displayed "Unknown."

Unknown number? A stranger? Or maybe a number from a special department?

Shen Ji pondered.

Before he could figure it out, the "Unknown" number called again.

"Hello?" Shen Ji answered.

"You finally answered," the other side sounded relieved. "I’m not sure if you remember me? I was the staff member who helped you at the shelter. You volunteered at the shelter five days ago, which coincided with the shelter’s pollution leak incident. For your safety and others’, please come to the Pollution Prevention Center for a comprehensive contamination screening."

"But don’t worry—if there really were a problem, you would have mutated last night."

Shen Ji: ...This person really knows how to say the wrong thing.

As a journalist, Shen Ji always remembered his duty to appear earnest and approachable, never making interviewees uncomfortable during conversations. If he was undercover, he’d try to guide the subject into revealing hidden information.

Wait—did this person just say something terrifying?

"What did you say?" Shen Ji asked. "I volunteered at a shelter five days ago?"

"Yeah," the other side sounded even more surprised than Shen Ji. "And you’re still alive after something like that? You should go buy a lottery ticket."

Shen Ji was speechless, while the system voiced the complaint he didn't say aloud.

"Working at a shelter—Filth is really bold, huh."