Chapter 6: Pollution Containment Shelter

Chapter 6 Pollution Containment Shelter

"What should I do?"

"Mix in your mycelium—whether through medication or food, mix your mycelium into it."

Shen Ji glanced around, then looked toward Zhang Qingli, who was distributing meal trays not far away. Shen Ji immediately walked over, picked up a stack of meal trays from the meal cart, and under Zhang Qingli’s curious stare, nodded at him before copying his way of delivering meal trays to designated areas for each patient.

Zhang Qingli remained silent, simply watching. It wasn’t until Shen Ji reached Lin Yujuan and Chen Guo, the mother-daughter pair, that he finally spoke.

"Hold off on their meals for now."

Shen Ji paused and turned to look at Zhang Qingli. "Why?"

"Generally, the shelter doesn’t place multiple patients in the same isolation room unless separating them would cause severe issues."

"Lin Yujuan’s protective instinct toward Chen Guo is so intense that separation triggers a severe stress response. Such stress accelerates the spread of their contamination, which is why the shelter placed them together."

Zhang Qingli said, sounding annoyed as he observed the two in the isolation room. "Her condition is poor. She should’ve been moved to Zone II, but because of this issue, she’s remained in Zone I. Now, even delivering a meal makes her suspect someone is trying to harm her daughter."

"She’ll make a scene for a long time, refuse all food, and if provoked, she’ll reject all treatment. That’s why I always deliver their meals last."

After listening to Zhang Qingli, Shen Ji fell silent for a few seconds. Just as Zhang Qingli thought he would give up, Shen Ji went ahead and opened the meal delivery window.

Lin Yujuan in the isolation room heard the noise and snapped her eyes open, her dull pupils filled with vigilance.

"Hey," Zhang Qingli frowned. "Didn’t you hear me? She’ll cause a scene. Deliver their meals last."

"I don’t see a problem."

Without even turning his head, Shen Ji swiftly placed the meal tray inside.

He wore the shelter’s uniform—a bulky isolation suit that somehow looked impeccably clean and tidy on him. Standing tall with an upright posture and an aura of unwavering certainty, he carried an air of conviction even while doing something another person disapproved of.

Most people entering the shelter displayed fear, resistance, or unease. A few with unique personalities might show excitement, but Zhang Qingli couldn’t detect any unusual expression on Shen Ji. He stood there observing the contaminated patients as if he were looking at ordinary patients in a hospital from a bygone era.

As if it were nothing out of the ordinary, nothing worth paying special attention to.

Shen Ji finally turned his head, meeting Zhang Qingli’s gaze with calm, dark eyes.

He said, "Trust me, they’ll quietly eat this lunch."

Zhang Qingli wanted to ask, "Why should I trust you? You’re just a temporary helper. How could you understand the shelter’s operations? How could you know how difficult these two patients are to handle?"

But the next moment, Zhang Qingli was astonished to find that the mother and daughter, who should have been making a scene, were instead using their arms, which had stretched to two meters long, to grab the meal trays.

They pulled the boxes toward themselves and began devouring the specially prepared food inside.

Zhang Qingli stared in disbelief. "How is this possible? They’re eating?!"

"Of course," the system chimed in with an explanation. "The diet of the contaminated differs vastly from that of normal people. The shelter has researched this to treat contaminated patients, but humans can never truly understand the tastes of the contaminated—just like how they can’t comprehend why some contaminated individuals prefer slimy, preferably rotten, substances."

"And contamination just happens to make normal food rot."

Naturally, Zhang Qingli couldn’t hear the system’s explanation.

He pressed against the isolation glass, watching as the mother and daughter finished every last bit of their food. In amazement, he turned to Shen Ji. "What did you do?"

"I didn’t do anything," Shen Ji replied innocently, spreading his hands. "Maybe I just have a reassuring presence."

Zhang Qingli looked at Shen Ji's handsome face, deep in thought. Silently, he delivered the rest of the meals and turned to leave the ward without answering Shen Ji.

"I've searched the entire text more than ten times and confirmed that there is no character named Zhang Qingli in the book."

"There are plenty of people who don't exist. Because of the rushed ending, the author wrote the final major event very briefly, casually arranging for a disposable character to provide clues to the protagonist and haphazardly revealing the ultimate antagonist, even though this ultimate antagonist wasn’t mentioned much in the earlier parts."

Shen Ji pointed at himself and then tapped the isolation room’s glass with his knuckle.

He said with self-deprecation, "Both she and I are just tools."

"But, are they okay?"

"They’re fine. You didn’t put too many fungal threads, which is good. Only a small strand is needed. They will gradually feed on the pollution inside the patients. This process isn’t too long or too short, giving the patients time to adapt. Once the pollution is fully consumed, the fungal threads will spontaneously leave and return to you."

After listening to the system, Shen Ji didn’t leave immediately. He stayed put, monitoring the two’s contamination readings.

Lin Yujuan’s contamination reading had already exceeded 30, entering the second stage. Chen Guo’s contamination reading was still around 20, but according to the original setting, Chen Guo stayed in Zone I for about a week, during which her contamination reading never broke 30. Then, one night, her contamination reading skyrocketed, directly reaching Stage IV and transforming her into a pollutant.

This kind of rapid mutation and the setting of becoming an extremely powerful pollutant after transformation was referred to in the original work as: the Perfect Contamination Evolver.

After finishing the food, Lin Yujuan and Chen Guo curled up in the corner to sleep again. Like trees that only grow and rest, they remained largely stationary, just staying quietly in one place, continuously spreading their root systems and diligently expanding their root territory.

Beep—

The pollution monitor installed in the isolation room triggered a contamination alert.

"Alert: Pollution level decreased by 5."

"Repeat alert: Pollution level in this isolation room decreased by 5."

Confirming the drop in values, Shen Ji finally let out a sigh of relief and turned to leave Zone I.

At this time, Shen Ji didn’t know—the isolation room was equipped with the most professional system. Whether the pollution level rose or fell to a certain degree, it would trigger an alarm. The alarm was connected to every contamination specialist's comm in the shelter. As a temporary worker, Shen Ji didn’t have a communicator and certainly wasn’t linked to this alarm system.

The doctors were accustomed to hearing alerts about rising pollution levels, which prompted them to consider how to transfer patients from Zone I to Zone II.

But this was the first time they had heard an alarm for a decrease in pollution.

Within half an hour, five nearby contamination specialists who received the message hurried over.

They circled the narrow containment room over and over, trying to find the reason for the patient’s decreased pollution level.

"What exactly happened?" a middle-aged man with patchy baldness, wearing a bulky protective suit, was pacing anxiously. "She was only admitted to the shelter a few days ago, with a pollution level reaching Phase II. Based on our assessment, her pollution level should have risen quickly. How could it suddenly drop to Phase I standards?"

"This is almost impossible!"

Another person in a protective suit produced the complete treatment logs. "These treatment methods are also very basic and couldn’t possibly reduce a patient’s pollution level so dramatically in just a few days."

"But their pollution level did drop by 5, and only theirs decreased."

Everyone exchanged bewildered glances.

Finally, a narrow-eyed physician sighed and spoke, "Then we have no choice but to look for reasons outside the shelter’s standard parameters."

"For example, could it be something particular to their condition? Could the pollution have some unique properties?"

Another person shook his head. "The shelter conducted detailed examinations before admitting them. They are victims of the Class-D contaminant 'Araki.' Their bodies and minds gradually turn into a large tree, with roots penetrating the ground and affecting the soil and water sources. They also exhibit these contamination markers."

"Then that leaves the remaining variable." The narrow-eyed physician slowly opened his eyes. "Do you know about the 'Contamination Medical Specialist Program'?"

"What is that?"

"A new plan from the Contamination Prevention Center?"

The doctor with narrowed eyes stared at the dropping contamination readings, and it took him a few seconds to explain.

"The 'Contamination Sickness Doctor Training Program' is a covert program. The Contamination Prevention Center has established a special department dedicated to training Healing-Type Mutants, hoping to find a cure for contamination sickness. For this program, these special doctors are sent to certain areas for clandestine practice."

"These special doctors were created to treat contamination sickness, so each of them has methods to reduce patients' contamination levels."

"From what I've heard, considering the sudden contamination incident in Q City, there was a proposal to assign a doctor to come here secretly."

Everyone present sucked in a breath, shifting looks between them.

"Does that mean the proposal was approved?!"

"There's a special doctor here with a hidden identity..."

"Keep it quiet," the doctor with narrowed eyes stopped the discussion. "As long as the situation doesn't worsen, let's pretend we don't know and observe quietly. We all know how important a doctor who can reduce contamination levels is. The longer he stays here, the more lives we can save for our patients!"

Everyone quickly nodded. After confirming their story with each other, they left the quarantine area.

Of course, all five of them secretly tried to find out who was handling these two patients, but that's another story.

Meanwhile, Shen Ji, who had left the containment center after his shift, had already returned to the vicinity of his run-down apartment complex.

The streets were still empty. The rain from yesterday hadn't dried yet, leaving puddles all over the road. Shen Ji had to carefully avoid them as he walked.

Security patrols were still on duty, with members stationed on every street. They eyed Shen Ji the whole way as he passed, wary that he might be a high-level contaminated wandering the streets.

Unfortunately, Shen Ji indeed was.

"If they knew I really am contaminated, they'd probably jump out of their skins."

"That's when you get chased by the Protagonist."

"Q City is so big, what are the chances of running into him..."

Shen Ji stopped short because, as he turned the corner, he saw that white-haired, delinquent-looking guy.

The delinquent was wearing a security patrol uniform, squatting on the ground and observing something. A few small blue wildflowers were blooming there, and he was idly poking at their pistils with his finger.

What a creep! How could he poke the flower's reproductive organs!

Shen Ji immediately turned to leave but was called to a halt.

"Stop." Li Zhiyan looked up, his ice-blue eyes reflecting Shen Ji's figure. "Are you an ordinary person? Why are you on the street?"

Shen Ji closed his eyes.

'Does this guy have eyes on the back of his head? I wasn't even within three meters of him!'

"Well, he is the Protagonist, so it's normal for him to be sensitive..."

Shen Ji turned back to face him, his posture relaxed, showing no signs of nervousness—only the fatigue of a long day's work.

"Containment center staff. I'm off duty now."

"Oh, the containment center." Li Zhiyan nodded. A few seconds later, as if lagging in response, he said, "Don't containment center staff need to stay at the center? I thought you had dormitories there."

Shen Ji: "..."

How would he know? He'd only been pressed into service that afternoon.

"I just started. I haven't been assigned a dorm yet."

"Oh." Li Zhiyan nodded again.

Seeing no further questions, Shen Ji immediately prepared to leave. But just as he was about to take a step, Li Zhiyan spoke up again, perfectly timed.

"You know if there's anywhere selling mushrooms around here?"

Shen Ji: "..."

'System, is he hinting at something?'

"I have no idea! Why is the Protagonist suddenly looking for mushrooms?!"

"Mushrooms?" Shen Ji thought for a moment. "There used to be a mushroom stall here, but no one's set up since Q City was locked down."

"I see." Li Zhiyan nodded for the third time, as if suddenly understanding. "So that means my mushroom soup isn't happening?"

Certain that the guy had nothing else to say, and remembering that three's the limit, Shen Ji decided: even if called again, he would absolutely not turn back!

He turned and walked away.

Fortunately, Li Zhiyan seemed to understand the "three strikes" rule too and didn't call out again.

Only after Shen Ji had completely left did a flicker of suspicion flash in Li Zhiyan's eyes.

"He dislikes me?" Li Zhiyan mused aloud. "No, it doesn't seem like dislike. More like he's trying to avoid me—doesn't want to meet me, doesn't want to talk to me, doesn't want to make eye contact."

"...Emotional baggage? No, I've never been in a relationship. A fan? That doesn't track either—he didn't look excited at all."

"Whatever, that's got nothing on mushrooms. Where can I actually buy mushrooms?"