Chapter 22: Midnight Song

Chapter 22 Midnight Song

Li Zhiyan waited all morning but never received a reply from Shen Ji.

The other side seemed to have completely ignored the message, leaving the chatbox completely blank.

"Maybe he just doesn't know how to respond," Zhou Ye said, chowing down on compressed biscuits while trying to comfort him.

In truth, seeing Li Zhiyan so frustrated made Zhou Ye almost giddy with amusement—it made his meal taste better, truly!

Li Zhiyan gave him a look. "Didn’t you say yesterday that even dogs wouldn’t eat compressed biscuits?"

"Woof!" Zhou Ye obliged, with zero shame. "From now on, I’m a dog!"

Ignoring this drama queen, Li Zhiyan finally tapped open the chatbox and sent Shen Ji a message, bluntly asking why he hadn’t replied.

Li Zhiyan had no shame about it—he always did what he wanted and asked what he pleased. Nobody in this world would dare tell him to watch his wording.

But strangely, after the loading icon spun a couple of times, the message failed to send.

Zhou Ye, still chewing on a biscuit, gloated. "He blocked you!"

"Go chew on your catnip," Li Zhiyan said, waving him away with clear disdain. "There’s no block notification, and my communication ID has the highest clearance. Only a few at the Pollution Prevention Center have the authority to block me."

"Then why did it fail to send?"

Li Zhiyan directly called the head of the shelter.

"Hello, this is Li Zhiyan," he said, his tone relatively calm. "Yes, nothing urgent. I’d like to ask about Shen Ji’s current status at your facility."

"No, he just hasn’t replied to my inquiry, and I couldn’t reach him when I tried."

"So what’s the situation? Hey, Yu Xiaoyan?"

After listening for a while, Li Zhiyan hung up. Zhou Ye, eager for gossip, leaned in again.

"What’s going on?"

"It’s pollution," Li Zhiyan said thoughtfully. "One of the dormitory buildings in the shelter’s residential area detected an extremely high pollution level. The building vanished into thin air, and they can’t contact anyone stranded there. He happened to be in the dorm because of his day off, so he’s missing too."

Zhou Ye choked on his biscuit and coughed violently. "Shouldn’t they send a rescue team immediately?!"

"Boss, are you going? Should I call you a car?"

Without waiting for Li Zhiyan’s response, Zhou Ye pulled out his phone to arrange transportation.

Li Zhiyan watched him get to work for a few seconds before nodding. "He didn’t ignore me."

Zhou Ye turned to him, puzzled. "Huh?"

"He’s just missing, not deliberately not replying to me," Li Zhiyan repeated, then nodded with satisfaction.

Zhou Ye: …

"Let’s go." Li Zhiyan sauntered past Zhou Ye, leaving him utterly bewildered.

A few seconds later, Zhou Ye crouched down and viciously took another bite of his compressed biscuit.

"What a lunatic!"

Daily life within the Special Operations Team: Insulting the captain as a lunatic (1/1) √.

On the other side, the doctor with narrow eyes hung up the phone.

There were six people in the entire office—the five doctors who had initially made the judgment about Shen Ji’s identity, plus Cheng Gu, who found out later. The six of them were in a meeting about the loss of contact with personnel in the dormitory.

“It was Mr. Li,” the doctor with narrow eyes said, his tone serious. “He called to ask why Shen Ji hadn’t responded to his inquiry.”

At that one sentence, everyone in the room widened their eyes.

“Xiao Ji?! Mr. Li's inquiry was about him?!”

“But why would Mr. Li be in contact with Xiao Ji? Could it be… Mr. Li was aware of this special doctor’s visit?”

“Maybe more than just aware. Healing-type mutants are so rare—Mr. Li was likely also serving a protective role.”

“That’s why he called to ask us the moment the loss of contact was noticed.”

“Indeed, he must be the mysterious doctor hiding his identity. For Mr. Li to be this anxious, his rank might be quite high.”

The six exchanged glances, and a few seconds later, the doctor with narrow eyes opened his eyes fully.

“So, we must guarantee the safety of this special doctor! It would be our fault to hope for his help while ignoring the danger he’s in.”

“Even if it’s for our patients, for everyone in the shelter right now, we must rescue Xiao Ji as soon as possible.”

Cheng Gu also nodded. “Our shelter isn’t flimsy as paper. We were established at the same time as the Pollution Prevention Center, part of the same integrated system.”

“Let Mr. Li see our sincerity. We can protect him.”

/

Shen Ji had no idea that Li Zhiyan’s sudden inquiry had further solidified his mysterious identity in the eyes of the shelter’s doctors. At that moment, he was searching for the pollution source.

The hyphae had covered the entire building, but almost all areas with high pollution levels were either speakers emitting the song or contaminated colleagues.

The song echoed repeatedly throughout the dormitory building. In such a highly polluted environment, even mutants wouldn’t last long.

Zhang Qingli’s worsening physical reactions were proof of that.

His face was pale, and he walked unsteadily, barely able to move even while leaning against the wall. Though he wasn’t contaminated, he looked more haggard than those who were.

“Zhang Qingli’s Talent only serves as a warning; it can’t be used like a sensory-type mutant’s. If only he were a sensory-type,” the system said regretfully. “If we had a sensory-type mutant, we wouldn’t have to keep searching repeatedly for the pollution source.”

“Finding pollutants is the bread and butter of sensory-type mutants.”

‘He’s an early warning system, not a detection system.’

‘Speaking of which, he’s now a Class C Mutant. Has his Talent changed after the upgrade?’

“It seems so. D-level ‘Danger Sense’ can detect pollution within a certain range and cause intense emotional agitation; C-level ‘Danger Sense’ allows the user to enter a ‘state of pollution’ upon sensing pollution without being contaminated, providing rapid early warnings and information about the pollution state.”

‘That’s why he was the first to hear the song and search for its source.’

Shen Ji had a sudden realization, glancing at Zhang Qingli as his glasses reflected a glint of white light.

‘If he weren’t human, I’d consider trying to boost his Pollution Talent to see if he could evolve further. Who knows—maybe at the final stage of evolution, he’d gain pollution-sensing abilities.’

“…Don’t say such terrifying things so casually. Humans would only mutate rapidly from your pollution and become contaminated.”

‘That’s why I said if.’

While casually chatting with the system, Zhang Qingli suddenly braced himself against the wall with one hand and couldn't suppress a pained groan.

"I feel awful all of a sudden, my heart is hurting," Zhang Qingli said, clutching his chest as he crouched in the corner, forehead dotted with sweat.

"It hurts so much."

Shen Ji crouched down beside him. "Do you need an inhibitor?"

"No, it doesn't feel like pollution," Zhang Qingli replied, looking ahead. "...I feel like something is about to happen."

Is this danger sense...?

Shen Ji followed his gaze to a wall. With age, the wall was no longer pure white, and the steps had yellowed.

Half a minute later, the singing that had been rising and falling intermittently suddenly stopped.

Yes, it just stopped abruptly.

Shen Ji stood up. The sudden disappearance of the noise made the surroundings feel exceptionally quiet, dead silent.

"Did it stop?"

"No, it hasn’t stopped."

Zhang Qingli began coughing violently, struggling to breathe. A vein throbbed on his forehead from the intense discomfort.

"It’s just beginning."

Piercing screams came from all directions. With a loud bang, the sound of a door being smashed echoed not far away. Shen Ji watched as a disheveled colleague rushed out of a room, his arm splotched with decay. The colleague seemed oblivious to it, running madly.

He dashed past Shen Ji, still shouting.

"Where’s the singing? Why did the song stop?! Let me hear it, keep letting me hear it!"

"Why did it stop?! Mom, have you abandoned me?!"

He was sobbing. "Mom, don’t leave me!"

The mycelium projected scenes from various areas into Shen Ji’s mind. There were not only patients running madly searching for the song but also those huddled in corners, muttering to themselves or humming the tune. The moment the singing stopped, they instantly lost their minds, completely overtaken by the mental pollution.

"What happened before was just the warm-up. Now the pollution is breaking out in full force. This scene…"

This scene…

Shen Ji had once visited a psychiatric hospital. Actual psych wards aren't anything like the movies—there aren't hysterical people everywhere, nor is every patient constantly having outbursts. In reality, patients are generally stable inside the hospital.

They eat and take their medication on time, sleep regularly, and during the day, they follow nurses for activities and exercises. Those with severe conditions are placed in more restrictive units for specialized treatment.

If you didn’t know it was a psychiatric hospital, you might think it was just an ordinary medical facility.

But this scene right now was more like the stereotypical insane asylum than anything Shen Ji had ever seen.

"We can’t let the pollution continue. These people will self-destruct under the mental pollution, and none of them will survive."

*I think so too.*

*Well then, let’s try a drastic measure.*

"...Shen Ji? What are you about to do?"

The hyphae sprouted everywhere, like clawing tendrils, silently emerging from the darkness—from the ceiling, under the floorboards, even from the cracks in the corners of the walls. They swarmed forward, binding everyone present.

Zhang Qingli’s vision swam from the intense pollution; his eyes were filled with dancing spots, and he could no longer see clearly.

In his blurred sight, he seemed to see endless flowing whiteness—a rippling white that gradually covered the walls and stair railings, swallowing his previously screaming colleagues into some unseen space.

Then, there was no more sound, and no trace of them remained.

Zhang Qingli instinctively reached out a hand, and just as he did, he saw Shen Ji.

Shen Ji stood untouched amidst that whiteness. The white could not cling to him, nor did he show any fear toward it. Zhang Qingli even thought he saw Shen Ji touching those little white things.

...What were they?

But... it was safe, right?

The overwhelming pollution levels caused Zhang Qingli to lose consciousness the moment he closed his eyes.

"Although this is a highly effective method—using hyphae to wrap all the polluted and forcibly cut off the pollution—such a massive amount of pollution might be too much for them to handle."

"If they can’t handle it, then they die." Shen Ji adjusted his glasses with one hand, a hint of coldness in his tone. "Anyway, if we don’t intervene, they would’ve died regardless. At least now there’s a slight chance of survival."

After speaking, Shen Ji turned and saw Zhang Qingli slumped unconscious against the wall.

"He passed out?"

"Of course he did. As a 'Danger-Sensing' Mutant, he’s more sensitive to the arrival of pollution than others. He probably succumbed instantly the moment you released the pollution."

Shen Ji hesitated for a moment, then pressed his palms together and said, "Sorry," to Zhang Qingli.

It must be said that Shen Ji had a remarkably pleasing appearance. When he closed his eyes, his docile air intensified, and coupled with his crisp attire and plain black-framed glasses, he appeared exceptionally sincere.

After apologizing, Shen Ji turned and headed downstairs, instantly his mask dropped.

"This is better anyway. Saves him from sabotaging my operation."

Just then, a pinkish small mushroom suddenly leaped from the ceiling onto Shen Ji’s shoulder.

Shen Ji picked it up from his shoulder. "Red?"

The small mushroom quickly transformed into hyphae, coiling around Shen Ji’s wrist like a pinkish little snake. They wound around his fingers again and again, seeming aggrieved.

Somehow, inexplicably, Shen Ji understood what they meant.

"Got bullied?" Shen Ji poked its mushroom cap with his other hand. "You followed the pollution, greedily ventured into another Mutant’s territory, and got chased back?"

"Wait... another Mutant’s territory?"

"Seems like these are your little mushrooms that ran off to scrounge for scraps."

The system, influenced by Shen Ji, also started calling them "the trash-scavenging small mushrooms."

Shen Ji: ...

He finally remembered the hyphae that had greedily slipped into the sewer at Song Yuanzhang’s restaurant and gone missing.

They came back now? And even chased their way into a Mutant’s territory?

/

Following the tattling hyphae downstairs, he eventually arrived at the sewer entrance on the first floor. Shen Ji stood dead silent as he stared at the sewer opening.

The pale red Small Mushroom hopped in, then poked its head out and swayed a few times, as if puzzled why its owner wasn’t following it in.

Shen Ji: ……

"Stop being picky. If you want to find the pollutant’s main body, you have to go into the sewer."

After hesitating in place for over ten seconds, Shen Ji suddenly raised his hand.

"Teacher, our Undertaker’s pollution talent…"

"No! That’s for your final escape mechanism! Not for dealing with fastidiousness about cleanliness right now!"

Shen Ji sighed regretfully, lifted the sewer cover, and finally accepted the fact that he had to crawl into the sewer.

Of course, Shen Ji didn’t actually have germophobia; he was just a bit more fond of cleanliness. This was also due to an occupational habit. As a journalist who frequently appeared on camera, he needed to maintain good hygiene habits at all times, always looking sharp and presentable, and also be empathetic, preferably with good people skills.

Being a journalist wasn’t easy, so it was just a matter of entering the sewer!

Climbing down the ladder, Shen Ji eventually stepped onto the bottom of the sewer. Although City Q had just undergone artificial rainfall, the rain hadn’t been heavy, and there wasn't much standing water in the sewer, which was good news.

Small Mushrooms extended along the edges of the sewer everywhere, with pale red Small Mushrooms all around, even giving off a faint glow, their light illuminating the dark sewer.

Shen Ji reached out and poked one of them.

"Let’s go."

The Small Mushrooms swayed excitedly, charging forward with great momentum, as if thinking, "The owner is going to stand up for us!"

Soon, the entire pipe was filled with spreading mycelium, wrapping the whole pipe in a fuzzy coating. If not for the context, one might mistake it for some kind of decoration.

"Like little kids looking for adults to help them."

"Like a puppy that got beaten in a fight, running to its owner for backup before charging back into the fight…"

The sewer was far more complex than the surface roads. City Q was a place that rarely experienced flooding, but its pipeline engineering was quite well done, with twists and turns more complicated than a spider’s web, and even separate storm and sanitary sewers. If not for following the Mushrooms, Shen Ji would definitely have gotten lost.

As he moved forward, Shen Ji memorized the route while walking. He was very good at remembering paths and could usually recall the route after one pass under normal circumstances.

But these pipelines… with no reference points, it was a bit difficult to memorize.

Walking and memorizing, until Shen Ji stepped on a pale white leg bone, mixed in with the white mycelium and hard to make out.

After starting work at the shelter, Shen Ji had seen many human corpses, something he had never been exposed to as a journalist. Stage IV pollution patients underwent harmless disposal, and back then, Shen Ji had been taken by Zhang Qingli to observe.

Those patients, mutated to the point of completely losing consciousness, were locked into capsule-shaped containers and loaded into a fully enclosed vehicle.

Zhang Qingli told him that these patients would be sent to the "Pollution Harmless Treatment Center," which, unlike the shelter, was a place for disposing of pollutant corpses.

Yes, Stage IV pollution patients were already declared "corpses."

Shen Ji lifted his foot, stared at the white bone for a moment, then stepped over it and continued forward. The further he went, the more bones he encountered.

Gradually, Shen Ji saw complete skeletons, and further ahead, corpses that hadn’t fully decomposed yet.

Given the rate of decay caused by this pollutant, the skeletons outside might have died less than ten days ago.

Soon, rotting bodies that were still moving appeared ahead. Most of them were still wearing doctors’ white coats, crawling slowly inward.

Above the countless decaying bodies, a small humanoid figure sat on a pile of bones, holding a tattered doll, its golden eyes fixed on Shen Ji.

She wore a little dress with red leather shoes on her feet, swinging her legs like a child on a swing.

"Not Daddy," she murmured to herself.

"Not Mommy either." A skull rolled to Shen Ji's feet.

The little girl paused, looking up at Shen Ji in confusion.

"Who are you?" she asked. "Are you here to play with me, big brother?"

She appeared utterly innocent, her delicate features and soft, sweet voice making her seem harmless—completely unlike the culprit responsible for exposing hundreds in the containment facility to occupational exposure.

"Don’t sympathize with her. Think of Chen Guo. In the original story, after turning into a Class A Pollutant, Chen Guo tore apart the entire containment site and killed thousands upon thousands of people."

"Once they mutate into pollutants, they lose basic human morality, becoming nothing but monsters consumed by fixation."

The little girl reached out to Shen Ji. "Big brother, can you take me to find Mommy and Daddy? I can’t find them."

"I miss them so much. I’m so lonely. I really want someone to play with me."

Shen Ji glanced at the numerous doctors’ bodies beneath her feet. "Aren’t they enough?"

"No, no!" The little girl stood up, hugging her doll. "They’re not Mommy and Daddy. They lied, saying they could replace them and keep me company! Impossible!"

"They’re bad people. Bad people deserve to die!"

"Stoke her rage, make her lose control emotionally."

Shen Ji’s tone was subtle. "Why?"

"The more extreme the mental state, the stronger the pollution. This principle applies not only to humans but also to pollutants. Since we have to deal with her anyway, this way our little mushrooms can get an extra meal."

Shen Ji: …

It felt like the system had been contaminated by the small mushrooms, turning into their number one fan.

But Shen Ji shook his head regretfully. "As a journalist, I can’t curse. But from the small mushroom’s perspective…"

"You’re not a journalist now. You’re the Final Villain pollutant. Insult her!"

"Your parents are dead."

Shen Ji suddenly spoke to the little girl, a faint, sinister smirk curling at the corners of his mouth, like a villain reveling in his revealed nature. In the gloomy sewer, the only light came from the faint reddish glow of the small red mushrooms, casting eerie reflections on his clear lenses.

"They tasted pretty good," Shen Ji said. "Want to join them?"

"…"

Hold up, aren’t you a journalist? Why are you so skilled at acting like a psycho?!