Chapter 56: Pollution Harmless Treatment Center

Chapter 56 Pollution Harmless Treatment Center

As soon as he stepped through the door, Qin Changye felt a wave of dread.

He couldn't help but shudder, goosebumps rising all over his body.

"Something's off, something's really off." Qin Changye was practically hopping on the spot, hugging himself. "Wait, let me do a reading right now!"

In the original story, Qin Changye had a habit of performing impromptu divinations wherever he went, suddenly squatting down to start calculating mid-walk.

This annoyed Li Zhiyan to no end, who would often leave him behind.

Thinking of this, Shen Ji began imitating Li Zhiyan by looking around for a place to sit.

Whenever this guy started his divinations, Li Zhiyan would always find a spot to sit and wait for him to finish while slacking off himself.

"Since when did you start learning how Li Zhiyan handles his team members?"

'There's always more to learn.' Shen Ji said righteously. 'What great material to learn from. Who knows how long he's going to take with his calculations.'

While Shen Ji and the system were gossiping behind his back, Qin Changye quickly finished his divination.

"Endless bloodshed... Why is this still here? Isn't entering a contaminated area enough bloodshed already? Do I have to get bitten by a pollutant for it to count? Looks like I need to avoid pollutants."

"Financial loss? Threefold financial loss? What?" Qin Changye looked strangely at the divination result. "Why would I suffer financial loss? Who's causing me to lose money?"

"...Oh, it's Li Zhiyan. Never mind then."

Shen Ji asked calmly, "You can still lose money when you're with Li Zhiyan?"

"Not exactly. He's quite caring toward his subordinates, but after saving someone he likes to symbolically deduct some wages as punishment."

Qin Changye looked up at Shen Ji, and the moment their eyes met, he frowned slightly with a subtle expression.

Shen Ji sat casually in his chair, still wearing a white mask. Qin Changye only now noticed he also wore a pair of white gloves. Despite being dressed entirely in white, he gave off an extremely sharp visual vibe.

The pupils behind those black-framed glasses were dark, but upon closer inspection, they revealed a slight amber-like transparency.

Most importantly: Qin Changye felt his gaze somewhat resembled Li Zhiyan's.

Both were equally unafraid to meet others' eyes—to put it bluntly, carrying a somewhat arrogant air... and damn it, sitting in chairs like lords while he was performing divinations.

But he was just an ordinary employee at the Pollution Harmless Treatment Center, right? Heard he was a Class D psychic mutant. Though quite brave, he shouldn't be compared to Li Zhiyan, should he?

But Qin Changye trusted his intuition.

If he didn't even believe his own intuition, what kind of master diviner would he be?

"Mr. Shen?" Qin Changye asked. "Do you have some side job?"

Shen Ji: ...

Never thought he'd hear this from someone other than the system one day.

"I knew it! Your villainous aura can't be hidden anymore!"

'Don't gloat. What if Qin Changye figures something out?'

"At most he can only glimpse the surface. He's an A-level Mutant, but you're an S-class pollutant. He can't bypass levels to divine your life, only make guesses from superficial clues."

Superficial clues were still truths. These fortune-telling mutants were really troublesome.

Shen Ji's eyes turned cold.

Maybe silence him permanently.

"..."

Qin Changye trembled inexplicably, looking around trying to find what caused his sudden shiver.

Watching him, Shen Ji averted his gaze and even pretentiously adjusted his clothes. "Has the climate control system broken? I feel a bit cold."

"Probably. I suddenly feel cold too." Qin Changye nodded.

"You only talk big. Occupying the position of Final Villain without killing anyone, all you do is save people."

'I'm not some bloodthirsty maniac. Why would I kill anyone?'

After dismissing the system, Shen Ji finally spoke. "Mr. Qin, what kind of side job do you think I might have? I'm just an ordinary Class D mutant."

"Sometimes Taoists just get these strange intuitions." Qin Changye smiled.

"Sorry, that was impolite of me. Let me continue calculating where our captain is."

Shen Ji nodded, and after watching Qin Changye start his divination, he leisurely spoke.

"Maybe we should go find the pollutant's main body instead."

Qin Changye looked up strangely. "Find the pollutant? Wouldn't that be walking right into the lion's den? Neither of us are combat-type mutants."

"But with space this distorted, instead of searching for missing people one by one, it's more efficient to find and eliminate the pollutant's main body. Once the pollutant is destroyed, the spatial distortion will disappear, making rescue much easier."

Qin Changye had a sudden realization. "You're right!"

"The security team will definitely prioritize finding this pollutant. If we stay near the pollutant, we're bound to encounter the security team when they arrive, then they can take us out!"

"I'll calculate it now!"

Qin Changye swept away his half-finished divination and started a new calculation.

Shen Ji sighed silently: 'In modern times, they say fortune-tellers defy heaven's will and shorten their lifespans.'

He lamented: 'Why doesn't this guy's lifespan shorten then?'

"..."

"You don't want to do it yourself, just want heaven to claim him huh."

"And: Are we really going to find the pollutant's main body? Aren't you afraid of directly encountering the protagonist?"

'Afraid of what.' Shen Ji completely didn't care. 'With his terrible luck, without guidance he wouldn't find the pollutant's main body in three days.'

'We'll quietly eliminate the pollutant before he finds it, then quickly escape and blend in with the rescued staff.'

'Once this contamination incident is over, Li Zhiyan will return to his security team.'

"Using an unorthodox strategy and going all-in, Xiao Ji."

On the other side, Qin Changye who was squatting on the ground doing his divination suddenly frowned and hissed through his teeth while calculating.

No? Why is the direction of the pollutant completely opposite to that of Li Zhiyan?

So Qin Changye took the opportunity to perform a divination for Li Zhiyan.

"Luck E encounters obstacles, this road stretches on endlessly."

Qin Changye: ...

What a Luck E indeed! It seems he's completely unreliable! Better just honestly go find the pollutant's main body instead.

The pollutant's main body isn't that easy to find, especially in a place with such spatial distortion. Qin Changye's divination calculates people's fates; the results he gets don't contain very precise details, only directional phrases. For example, when he tried to find the guard team to rescue them, he ended up running into the big bad, the Mushroom King.

After squatting in place and calculating for over ten minutes, Qin Changye finally let out a breath and tried to stand up.

But because his legs had gone numb from squatting, the moment he stood up, he landed flat on his backside.

Shen Ji: ...

Now he finally understood why Qin Changye's first reaction was to quickly find the guard team to get them out—this guy was completely useless in a fight.

Seemingly aware of Shen Ji's thoughts, Qin Changye supported himself against the wall to stand up.

He smiled somewhat helplessly, "Knowing the past and future is already going against heaven's will. If my physical condition were good too, that would be just too outrageous."

"Actually, before awakening this Talent, I had a chronic genetic illness. I only started fortune-telling to earn money because I couldn't even afford medical treatment. I never expected that after awakening my Talent, my physical condition actually improved quite a bit."

"So he's already been cursed by fate."

Shen Ji: ...

System! Stop saying such messed-up things!

Silently condemning himself for even considering silencing a patient, Shen Ji stood up from the chair and went to help him.

"I'm fine." Qin Changye stretched a bit, "I've got a location. Let's go find the pollutant's main body now."

He walked up to a door and placed his hand on the handle.

"It's this door."

Qin Changye stared at the door, Shen Ji standing beside him.

"In my divination, it represents extreme darkness, while the other door represents extreme light. I thought about it for a long time and felt that the extremely dark door fits the profile better, so I'm prepared to choose this one. Or, Mr. Shen, would you like to choose the other door? We can split up."

Shen Ji looked at him with some concern, "Maybe you should choose the other door."

"Huh? You're worried about me?"

Qin Changye laughed, "Don't worry, I am a guard team member after all. As a guard team member, I have a duty to rescue the staff of the Pollution Harmless Treatment Center. I came here to save you all in the first place, and I'm tougher than I look."

Shen Ji shook his head, "Then let's just open this door together."

Qin Changye, sure that he couldn't change Shen Ji's mind, simply stopped trying to persuade him.

So he began to push the door open.

And at that very moment, Qin Changye suddenly saw the door representing extreme darkness change. A white light dispelled all the darkness, making it even more full of hope than the white door beside it.

Qin Changye's eyes widened sharply; he tried to turn and look at Shen Ji.

Did this door change because Shen Ji chose it? Does that mean Shen Ji is the one who changed fate?!

Unfortunately, Qin Changye didn't get to see Shen Ji. The moment the door opened, space had already warped, and they stepped into different spaces.

After regaining his footing, Qin Changye found that he had left the polluted area. This was indeed extreme hope.

But what about Shen Ji?

After hesitating for a moment, Qin Changye sat down and started working the numbers.

"The extremely dark door is enveloped in light, turning into a door of hope. I left through the door, but what about my companion?"

"...Convergence, fusion, devouring?"

As he read, Qin Changye paused, "...Unfathomable?"

"Eh? Qin Changye?" A familiar voice sounded beside him.

Qin Changye turned to look. Jiang Ying, wearing a guard team uniform, stood opposite him at the doorway holding a computer. "You made it out?"

"Jiang." Qin Changye got up from the ground. "Let me ask you a question—do you know who Shen Ji is?"

"Shen..." Jiang Ying blinked. "You mean Doctor Shen?"

At the mention of Doctor Shen, Qin Changye finally remembered where he had heard that name before.

Shen Ji, Doctor Shen, suspected S-class Healing-type mutant, went missing along with Li Zhiyan during the campaign against the S-class Pollutant Gardener. Of course, most people believed he had died, only Li Zhiyan persistently insisted that he had left voluntarily and wasn't dead.

That was the first time Li Zhiyan had invested so much emotion; he even went so far as to portray himself as the "widow" to achieve his goals.

Qin Changye scowled, looking troubled.

Could these two "Shen Ji"s actually be connected?

/

At the same time, the moment Shen Ji stepped through the door, he found himself in a strange place.

He looked around and realized the place he was in wasn't the Pollution Harmless Treatment Center.

It looked like a classroom. The classroom had huge windows and a whole wall of mirrors. Opposite the mirrors were facilities for foot pressing. Outside the window were full of green leaves, and sunlight spilled recklessly over them, carrying a hazy summer heat.

Dance classroom, summer vacation.

Shen Ji raised his hand to look at himself. This didn't seem to be his own body or appearance.

Slender wrists and layers of athletic tape on the arms, the height was also shorter than his original. It should be a female. Shen Ji walked to the mirror but couldn't clearly see the reflection.

He could only see a pair of feet wearing dance shoes.

...Never worn dance shoes in this lifetime; they're not really his style.

"...That's what you're bothered by?"

"Otherwise?" Shen Ji opened his mouth to speak, only to find that the voice coming out was also female.

Shen Ji: ...

"Pfft." The system mocked him.

"Ahem, anyway, we've now entered an illusion space. The good news is we're separated from Qin Changye. The bad news is this isn't entirely the pollutant's main body; there's an additional pollutant here too. Huh? Is this actually good news? There are two pollutants, so little mushroom gets two meals!"

"Byproduct pollutant?"

"Some pollutants, when born, can spawn new pollutants due to obsessions. For example, a student whose parents committed suicide by jumping off a building might manifest 'parents,' or a mother polluted by the death of her child might manifest 'child.'"

"So..." Shen Ji recalled the initial setting about the dancer.

"The attached pollutant is the teacher?"

As soon as the words were spoken, the door of the dance classroom started rattling violently. It was only then that Shen Ji realized the door was locked from the inside.

The person outside made no sound, only continuously jiggling the locked doorknob.

After about a minute of twisting, the rattling stopped, and soon footsteps could be heard fading away outside the door.

Shen Ji walked to the classroom door and peered through the peephole, catching only a glimpse of the disheveled teacher's back as she walked away.

"They just left?"

"Of course not."

With a bang, Shen Ji turned to look at the large window.

A woman was pressed against the windowpane, grinning unnaturally wide as she began frantically smashing the glass.

Again and again, until cracks began spreading across the window.

Shen Ji remembered: this was exactly how the glass at the Pollution Harmless Treatment Center had cracked when the pollution first began to spread.

Finally, the window shattered, and the woman outside climbed in. Shen Ji turned to look at the locked door, but unexpectedly, it began to rattle again, as if another 'teacher' had appeared outside.

"'The Dancer' is a primary psychic pollutant. Her obsession is only with dancing and wouldn’t cause such widespread spatial disruptions."

"But its attached pollutant, 'The Jealous Teacher,' is different. It was born from the Dancer’s fear of being unable to escape her teacher’s control. The distorted space is like a maze she can’t escape; no matter where she flees, 'the teacher' will always follow, as if 'the teacher' has countless copies."

"Only together do 'The Dancer' and 'The Jealous Teacher' form a complete pollutant."

"But in other words: as long as 'The Dancer' is no longer afraid, this attached pollutant will also vanish in reverse."

Obsession and a rotten life fuse into a new monster.

This is a pollutant.

The door lock was finally smashed, and an identical teacher walked in, clutching a massive pair of iron shears.

"Why did you lock me out?" the teacher finally spoke. "Why didn’t you open the door for me?"

"You are a bad child."

"I will punish all bad children!"

"You can’t dance! You’ll never dance again!"

The teacher raised the iron shears high and swung them forcefully toward Shen Ji.

Shen Ji stood expressionless in place, not dodging, but the shears didn’t hit him. The teacher’s swinging arm abruptly froze in mid-air.

Hyphae emerged from the air, countless strands wrapping around the pollutant’s arms and body. They had already permeated the entire space the moment Shen Ji entered, waiting for the pollutant to arrive.

"Ah!!" the pollutant screamed. "You bad child, you bad child!!"

Shen Ji faintly heard the sound of crying.

He turned to look at the corner.

A girl in dance shoes sat in the corner, weeping softly. Large tears fell onto the floor, her feet twisted into a bloody mess. Blood seeped through the cracks in the floorboards, and the discarded dance shoes were stained blotchy red.

This was a past she couldn’t escape, even as a pollutant.

"...Guh." The teacher twisted her head, trying to curse, but Hyphae pierced through her throat, leaving her unable to make any sound except gurgling sounds.

Shen Ji turned and walked toward the corner. The Hyphae firmly restrained the pollutant, starving but holding back.

Because their master hadn’t allowed them to eat.

Was the master planning to eat it alone?

Yay! For the master!

Master likes it! Master eats!

Shen Ji didn’t thank the Hyphae for their dedication. He simply walked to the girl in the corner.

He crouched down to meet her at eye level. The girl was still crying, whether from the pain of her shattered feet or the future where she could never stand again.

"Aren’t you a pollutant?" Shen Ji said.

The girl looked up tearfully, her blurred eyes meeting Shen Ji’s gaze.

"As a human, you couldn’t stand. But as a pollutant, you can stand again." Shen Ji said, "Try feeling it now. Does it still hurt?"

The girl seemed not to understand what Shen Ji was saying, continuing to cry incessantly.

So Shen Ji reached out his hand to her. "Come, I’ll help you up."

The girl stared blankly at the offered hand. After a long while, she timidly asked, "I... I can really stand again?"

"I told you, you’re a pollutant now." Shen Ji said to her, "You can do whatever you want. Whether it’s your feet, or anything else."

The girl seemed drawn in by Shen Ji’s words. She obediently let him pull her up from the ground. Once standing, her shattered feet reverted to normal. The pain vanished, and her steps became light and agile.

Shen Ji led her to the teacher she feared.

"Look, she can’t do anything now." Shen Ji pointed at the teacher and said to her, "You’re stronger than her now. You can easily get your revenge."

The girl looked fearfully at the teacher, wanting to hide behind Shen Ji, but he pushed her toward the teacher.

The massive iron shears lay before her. She shook with both fear and rage.

She's the one who ruined my life.

The girl thought: She destroyed everything!

The girl picked up a shard of glass from the floor, gripping it tightly as she stabbed it toward 'the teacher.' As she struck, she closed her eyes and let out a piercing scream.

The shard cut through the air, as if finally shattering her fear.

When she opened her eyes again, the girl watched the grotesque 'teacher' figure gradually fade into nothingness.

She released her grip, and the shard fell to the ground. Then she collapsed to her knees, weeping. In that moment, she seemed to suddenly realize: the teacher wasn’t actually so terrifying after all.

There was nothing she couldn’t do now.

Whether it was dancing or moving on.

Pollution seeped into the air, and the hyphae eagerly spread out to devour the contamination.

They always knew their host was incredible!

The girl finally looked at Shen Ji and smiled, "Thank you. I'm not afraid anymore."

The spatial disturbance ended, and the dance studio before them dissolved, reverting to the "Contaminated Patients Transfer Room." Shen Ji watched as the young girl transformed into an elderly woman with white hair, seated in a wheelchair inside an isolation capsule, her lower legs completely missing.

She had no pulse but retained her human appearance.

"Spatial disturbance confirmed over," the system announced. "We should leave. The guard team is heading this way."

"Goodbye."

Shen Ji said, "If we were in the real world, I would write an article about you."

He turned and walked out of the transfer room, adjusting his mask and straightening his white gloves as he went, ensuring he was perfectly clean and orderly.

"Up ahead is Li Zhiyan."

Shen Ji calmly rounded a corner and pressed the elevator button. Three seconds after the doors closed, Li Zhiyan arrived.

He saw the elevator going down.

"Who would be using the elevator at a time like this?"

He muttered, puzzled, before heading straight into the transfer room.

The transfer room was empty. The white-haired woman was gone, and the pollution level in the entire room was extremely low, as if something had completely cleaned out.

Completely cleaned out?

Li Zhiyan suddenly had a thought.

Why was the elevator running?

Those who would come here first were all guard squad members. If they were security, why take the elevator instead of entering the transfer room where trouble was most likely?

Li Zhiyan turned and bolted out of the transfer room, dashing to the elevators. The elevator was still descending—waiting would be useless.

He quickly dashed toward the stairs, while the little butterflies Li Zhiyan used as markers swarmed out of their hiding spots, beginning their search for the person he was looking for.

Meanwhile, Shen Ji stepped out of the elevator.

He slipped past all the security personnel heading inward, hands in his pockets as he walked toward the exit.

Outside, the wind was biting, but the sunlight was bright. He even spotted Cheng Feng, who was discussing something with a woman.

Just as Shen Ji prepared to mingle with a group of staff members, countless blue butterflies suddenly swarmed out.

Shen Ji halted.

The butterflies blocked his path, forming a solid wall. Shen Ji tried to change direction, but the butterflies flew over to block him again, not letting him through.

Shen Ji: ...

Tch.

He was about to push through the little butterfly barrier when someone grabbed his wrist from behind.

Shen Ji turned to look. Having rushed over in a hurry, Li Zhiyan's coat was messy, and even his white hair looked mussed up, like ruffled cat fur, making you want to pat it.

Of course, Shen Ji restrained himself and refrained from stroking the stray.

But Li Zhiyan was not pleased. His ice-blue eyes were full of accusation.

"I should have realized it sooner."

Li Zhiyan said, "Growing mushrooms requires a high pollution level area. Aside from the containment ward, you wouldn’t choose the guard team, so the only option left is the Pollution Harmless Treatment Center."

People outside finally noticed the commotion. They all turned to look, their eyes filled with confusion and a thirst for gossip.

What? Is that Li Zhiyan?

Who is that person he’s holding onto?

Shen Ji tried to pull his hand back. "Sir, you’ve mistaken me for someone else."

"No mistake."

Li Zhiyan raised his voice. "You’re the heartless scoundrel who abandoned me and ran off alone!"

Shen Ji: ...???

Crowd: ...?!!

"...WOW, dramatic!"

"Shen Ji, now it’s confirmed—the male lead is gay!"