Chapter 13: East City of Q City

Chapter 13 East City, Q City

Since Liu Chuanyang had collapsed right beside Shen Ji, everyone naturally handed the pollution inhibitor to Shen Ji to administer the injection.

Shen Ji didn’t refuse. He lifted Liu Chuanyang’s arm and rolled up the sleeve, only to feel a chilling cold. Liu Chuanyang was emitting cold air like a refrigerator, his arm hard and icy. Looking around, everyone was starting to feel the cold, instinctively putting on jackets and searching for blankets.

"Classic signs of pollution. This must be at least Stage II," remarked the elderly doctor Cheng Gu, wrapping himself in a coat as he sighed. "To progress to Stage II so quickly after being polluted—it’s alarmingly quick."

"Can the needle even penetrate?"

Shen Ji attempted to insert the needle, but it snapped with a sharp crack without even piercing Liu Chuanyang’s skin.

Shen Ji: …

"Bring our custom needles," Cheng Gu called out to the doctor behind him, likely a student he had brought along. She wore practical, mobile attire, her hair tied in a ponytail, and like Shen Ji, she wore glasses. However, unlike Shen Ji, her lenses were noticeably thick, indicating high myopia.

"We came well-prepared this time, with all sorts of needles on hand."

The student handed the custom needle to Shen Ji, who replaced the broken one without needing to re-sterilize it—mere bacteria were trivial in the face of pollution.

The needle successfully penetrated Liu Chuanyang’s arm, and Shen Ji began the injection.

"Release some of your hyphae. We need to familiarize ourselves with the Undertaker’s pollution as quickly as possible. Only after becoming familiar can the hyphae track it by scent."

*Sounds like a dog.*

"Call it a dog mushroom, totally fine. I support you giving it dog traits."

This system must be malfunctioning.

Shen Ji mentally complained about the system quite rudely while mixing the hyphae from his finger into the pollution inhibitor. However, he encountered another difficulty during the injection.

The hyphae refused to enter.

As pollution from the Filth, they weren’t independent entities, but since the Filth’s pollution had manifested as mushrooms outside the body, they had a faint awareness of their own, including a strong desire to devour, a love for food, sunlight, and moisture. Thus, they hated the cold intensely.

This might be the Filth’s only minor weakness.

After much coaxing and persuading the hyphae to move inward, the pollution inhibitor injection got stuck halfway. Those around noticed immediately.

"Is there difficulty with the injection?" Doctor Cheng Gu asked Shen Ji in a gentle tone. "It’s alright, we have more custom needles here. If this one breaks, we can use a new one."

"It’s fine, just a minor obstruction," Shen Ji replied in a reassuring tone. He feigned adjusting the needle’s position while actually urging the hyphae to hurry inside—at this point, the low temperature couldn’t harm a single strand of the mushroom.

Finally, the hyphae reluctantly entered the Siberian-level cold storage, and Shen Ji injected the remaining pollution inhibitor in one go.

Everyone present let out a sigh of relief.

Seeing the inhibitor successfully administered, Cheng Gu waved to the student behind him.

"Shouzhen, now check Liu Chuanyang’s pollution level."

The student immediately used a pollution monitor to check Liu Chuanyang’s pollution. She pricked his finger for a blood sample to test the pollution level, and Shen Ji remembered her name.

Cheng Shouzhen, Doctor Cheng’s daughter.

The pollution level displayed instantly.

"The pollution level is 52?!" Cheng Shouzhen looked at the number in surprise. "This is already at the verge of Stage II, nearly at Stage III!"

"The rate of deterioration is so rapid. It's only been seven or eight hours since we were trapped, and he's a mutant. Why is there such a swift pollution reaction?"

"Mutants aren't absolutely safe; they're just less easily polluted. But if they encounter high-level pollutants, they can still get polluted. Liu Chuanyang is an ordinary E-class mutant, only slightly better than a regular person, and he has a very bad point."

'What point?'

"He's deeply emotional and highly empathetic."

"The Pollution Prevention Center discovered that after losing the Raven, the Undertaker's pollution mutates. This mutation shifts from pure fear to the fear of 'losing a loved one.' The more empathetic a person is, the more easily they get polluted. In earlier Undertaker pollution incidents, the first to be polluted were a group of writers."

Liu Chuanyang, who had deep feelings for his mother and was extremely prone to empathy, was thus the first to be polluted.

Shen Ji raised an eyebrow slightly and, after a few seconds, asked a question, 'Why did the Undertaker target us?'

"It didn't target all of you—it targeted you."

"You absorbed the Raven's pollution. The Raven and the Undertaker are two halves of the same pollution. It followed the trail of its other half's pollution but couldn't find its counterpart, so it locked down the area centered around you to search. In other words, it's going mad because it lost its other half, and the scent you're giving off feels familiar to it."

'So, its true form is nearby, then?'

"Exactly. That's why I urged you to familiarize yourself with the Undertaker's pollution as quickly as possible."

Shen Ji crouched down and looked at the still-unconscious Liu Chuanyang. He pressed his finger against Liu Chuanyang's forehead, sensing the hyphae inside him.

Sure enough, the lazy hyphae, having been banished to the Siberian icebox, didn't want to work. They were slacking off inside, not even feeling hungry. It wasn't until Shen Ji threatened them—'If you don’t work, you’re fired!'—that they panicked and started voraciously devouring the pollution inside Liu Chuanyang.

Not far away, Doctor Cheng quietly observed Shen Ji's every move, not missing a single action.

When he heard from those old guys that their shelter had produced a Healingtype mutant, he was pretty shocked. While cursing those old guys for keeping it from him, he kept taking deep breaths and suppressing the urge to smile.

A Healingtype mutant!

The shelter had cured one polluted patient, and another was nearly cured. Not to mention, the cured one had even awakened as a psychic mutant. It wasn’t just him—any doctor in the shelter with a bit of sensitivity could tell something was off. But only he was sharp enough to detect that those old guys were hiding something and caught them red-handed.

He never expected to receive such amazing news.

This Healingtype mutant was hiding his identity for some reason. He couldn’t mess it up for everyone and expose him, so he pretended to know nothing, not even telling his own daughter.

But he was still curious—curious about this mutant's methods, his Talent, and the patients' reactions.

Was he treating Liu Chuanyang now? Using his Talent? Would the patient's pollution level drop after using his Talent?

Lost in his wild thoughts, Shen Ji withdrew his hand and returned to his spot. Doctor Cheng had no choice but to suppress his curiosity.

"It's so cold."

Just then, someone spoke up. Wrapped in a small blanket and sitting very close to Liu Chuanyang, he shivered and asked, "Don’t you all feel cold?"

"Liu Chuanyang's pollution characteristic is ice... *achoo*... cold." Zhang Qingli covered his nose as he spoke. "It's normal for polluted patients to cause changes in the surrounding environment due to their pollution characteristics... *achoo*."

"Zhang Qingli always overreacts." The man looked at Zhang Qingli helplessly. "It’s probably because the environmental pollution level is too high now. Why don’t we temporarily isolate Liu Chuanyang outside the vehicle?"

"It’s so cold; none of us can stand it."

Everyone present agreed with the suggestion. After all, keeping Liu Chuanyang in the vehicle was inappropriate—either he stayed alone in the vehicle, or he was placed outside by himself.

Zhang Qingli raised his hand. "I’ll move him out."

He slipped his hands under Liu Chuanyang's armpits and tried to drag him out. Just then, Zhang Qingli suddenly froze.

"Wait a minute?" Zhang Qingli shook Liu Chuanyang's body, "Why's he gone all limp?"

"Dead?"

"Are you stupid? Stiff is for dead people."

"So being soft means he's alive?"

The moment those words left his mouth, the car fell into dead silence for a few seconds. It was then that they suddenly remembered that when Liu Chuanyang was knocked unconscious, he had shown an extremely intense pollution reaction—his entire body had become as hard as ancient black ice.

He had gone stiff, and now he was soft again?

Holy shit!

The person closest to him was the first to dart forward. He quickly pulled out a pollution detector from his pocket and immediately jammed it into Liu Chuanyang's arm. Blood instantly flowed out—red. The red blood smeared on the detector, and the device beeped out his current pollution level.

"His pollution level is 34?!"

Doctor Cheng glanced at Shen Ji, who was sitting steadily in his seat without a hint of surprise, cool as a cucumber. Shen Ji was leaning back in his seat, slightly bowing his head as he played on his phone. The light from the phone reflected off his glasses, giving him an air of mysterious boss vibe. No matter how you looked at it, he exuded a sense of reassurance.

He then looked at the group of young people who were freaking out.

Doctor Cheng thought silently: Yeah, be shocked! I was just as shocked back then.

/

"Message from the shelter."

Zhou Ye, while listening to the communication, looked over at Li Zhiyan beside him. "They're urging us to find the missing medical staff as soon as possible."

"'Yeah.'" Li Zhiyan replied without much emotion. "Is the psychic mutant almost here?"

"I've contacted them. They said they'll be in East City soon."

Three minutes after the medical staff went dark, the security team immediately knew something was up. They reported it to the Pollution Prevention Center, which quickly called Li Zhiyan. Right after hanging up with the Pollution Prevention Center, the shelter called.

Clearly, they had also noticed the medical staff's disappearance.

The security team reacted quickly. As soon as the loss of contact was discovered, they arranged for people to swiftly search along the vehicle's planned route and the location where contact was lost, dead set on finding some trace of them.

However, things looked bad. They found no clues and ultimately had to bring in a psychic mutant.

Zhou Ye crouched on the ground, his uniform already dirty, looking a total mess as if he had rolled around in a pile of dirt.

"The shelter seems to be really protective of their staff. The deputy team leader told me it's because the shelter has lost too many people in this incident and is now about to fall apart. If they lose any more people this time, the shelter will truly be finished."

"The Pollution Prevention Center is scrambling to send doctors, but the shelter still wants to keep this group intact."

Li Zhiyan looked up at the sky, his pale blue eyes almost glowing in the night. "Under these circumstances, it's simply impossible to bring every single one of them back without losing anyone."

"Unless..."

Zhou Ye was puzzled. "Unless what?"

Li Zhiyan seemed thoughtful. "Unless there's a Healingtype mutant among this group of doctors—one who can save all the polluted doctors."

"Hm." Li Zhiyan went quiet again.

Zhou Ye gulped. "Could it be... there really is a Healingtype mutant? Has such a unicorn actually appeared?"

Li Zhiyan didn't answer him, lost in thought.

A few seconds later, Li Zhiyan slowly nodded.

"Exactly, our team is missing a Healingtype mutant. He'd better be very serious and very reassuring, so our team looks solid and trustworthy at a glance."

Zhou Ye: ...

So you're planning to headhunt!