Chapter 93: Prophecy Book Event

Chapter 93: Prophecy Book Event

Wu Chi's ability level remained unstable, occasionally dropping back to A-class, which was part of the adaptation period after his recent upgrade.

His headaches had completely disappeared, and he even felt remarkably comfortable, with his mind feeling light and airy.

Shen Ji believed he no longer needed further treatment, but the X City Shelter hoped he would stay for two more days for observation. On one hand, this was to prevent any new issues from arising, and on the other, they wanted to understand why Wu Chi had become the only mutant to advance from A-class to S-class.

Was Wu Chi inherently special? Or did Doctor Shen truly possess some kind of magic? Transforming S-class pollution into nourishment for mutants.

After dutifully making his rounds checking on the contaminated patients in the Shelter and confirming that everything was fine, Shen Ji turned to leave. Just as he stepped out of the Shelter, he ran into Li Qing'an, who had rushed over.

"Doctor Shen!" Li Qing'an exclaimed with delight. "You're here too!"

"I heard you treated an A-class mutant and elevated him to S-class?"

"That's incredible!"

Shen Ji quickly clarified, "It wasn’t me who elevated him to S-class. Captain Wu already had the potential to become S-class. After this incident, his mindset opened up, and he broke through."

Li Qing'an laughed joyfully.

"With one more S-class, I won’t have to work overtime!"

"Doctor Shen, how about I find a few more A-class mutants for you to treat? You can turn them all into S-class!"

Shen Ji:...

Did you not hear what I just said?

"S-class mutants are extremely scarce, but unfortunately, only S-class mutants can handle pollutants above A-class. Gao Yuan is in an uncontrollable state, so Li Zhiyan and Li Qing'an have always been overwhelmed with work. Of course, Li Zhiyan is better off—he knows how to take breaks."

"He disappears whenever he doesn’t feel like working."

After chatting with Li Qing'an for a bit, she eagerly went off to meet her new colleague.

She wondered if she could pass the hot potato of finding the main body of the Dead Silence Frost Rift to her new colleague. She was truly tired of flying around every day searching for rifts—her wings were sore from all the flying.

"With this, humanity isn’t facing many major threats anymore."

Shen Ji said, "The Gardener and the Diary have been eliminated. Wrath has no interest in humans, the pollutants in Moth Valley are Li Zhiyan, and the Time Forest hasn’t even left a trace."

"The pollutants causing harm to humans are only below A-class."

"Even if they exist, it’s still the low-level pollutants that cause large-scale casualties among humans."

The system replied, "High-level pollutants prefer to stay in their own territories. Even pollutants like Wrath, who have little attachment to territory, never leave the Zero Abyss."

"Only low-level pollutants, driven by instinct and without territory, relentlessly infest humans."

Shen Ji thought for a moment. "But I’m different. I don’t have a territory."

"Maybe you do? It’s just not mentioned in the original work."

Shen Ji shrugged slightly and prepared to return to the dorm to accompany Li Zhiyan.

Meanwhile, news of Wu Chi’s upgrade to S-class after being treated by Shen Ji had spread throughout the entire Pollution Prevention Center.

In everyone’s eyes, this was an incredibly uplifting event. They had welcomed a new S-class mutant, and one who was formerly the captain of the security team at that.

Someone familiar, with a good personality—nothing like the hard-to-manage Li Zhiyan!

But along with this came another elevation in the assessment of Shen Ji himself.

S-class mutants are hard to find, but A-class mutants can still be found by the dozen. In the past thirty years, why had no A-class mutant ever upgraded to S-class? Why did only those treated by Shen Ji succeed? It was impossible to believe this had nothing to do with Shen Ji.

Healing-type mutants were already rare treasures—even a D-class healing-type mutant was considered precious. No one knew what an S-class healing-type mutant was capable of.

Perhaps he could indeed assist A-class mutants in successfully upgrading?!

Thus, the competition for Shen Ji became even more intense than before.

In the notification group for the higher-ups of the Pollution Prevention Center, the atmosphere was thick with tension.

"Huang Jining: How many times do I have to say it? Healing-type mutants should come to the Shelter. Our Shelter exists precisely for treatment! Placing them in other departments is a complete waste!"

"Cheng Feng: Old man, don’t think you can claim him like this. Before being a healing-type mutant, his identity is that of an S-class mutant. Once at S-class, it no longer matters what type of mutant he is. Our Pollution Harmless Treatment Center is severely short-staffed. Such high-risk work must be assigned an S-class!"

"Yang Xu: Old Cheng is right. We urgently need someone capable here."

"Huang Jining: Don’t think having two people makes you right. I can take on both of you!"

"Certain higher-up: Don’t argue, don’t argue. Everyone calm down, take it slow..."

"Li Zhiyan: What are you all arguing about?"

"Li Zhiyan: By the way, did you know? Shen Ji confessed to me. We might get married soon. I’ll send you invitations when the time comes. What kind of wedding candy do you like?"

"Li Zhiyan: Will a bunch of old men lose their teeth eating candy? Should I custom-order rice cakes for you?"

"Everyone:..."

"Yang Xu: It seems we need to deal with one person first."

Li Zhiyan, feeling pleased, wanted to continue showing off, but as soon as he finished typing, a line of text popped up on his phone screen.

"You are no longer in the group chat. You cannot send messages in a group you have not joined."

Li Zhiyan:...

"How petty." Li Zhiyan fumed. "I was just showing off a little. Why did they kick me out?"

As he grumbled, the door clicked open, and Shen Ji walked in.

Li Zhiyan immediately threw his phone onto the sofa. "Shen Ji!"

Shen Ji glanced at him. "Yeah, I’m back."

Li Zhiyan on the sofa and the small mushrooms under the sofa rushed to greet him. Li Zhiyan grabbed Shen Ji’s hand, while the small mushrooms dangled from the ceiling, swaying gently.

Master, master!

Welcome home!

Shen Ji patted the small mushrooms greeting him before turning to Li Zhiyan. "Don’t act spoiled."

"I’m not."

Li Zhiyan denied it and started complaining. "You know what? Those guys from the Pollution Prevention Center higher-ups kicked me out of the group chat today!"

Shen Ji was a bit surprised, "They removed you?"

"Yeah! How unreasonable is that!"

Shen Ji laughed, "Weren't you the one who blocked them first?"

His smile was cunning, and his dark eyes seemed to hold a glimmer of light. Li Zhiyan's heart pounded suddenly.

Shen Ji was very careful about managing his outward image. He didn't smile often, appearing serious and silent overall. These occasional smiles were like spring blossoms, instantly melting the ice around him. If you asked Li Zhiyan, Shen Ji didn't need any appearance modifications to change his image.

He just needed to smile, and everyone would fall in love with him.

"I was clearly just concerned about them, but they treated me like this."

Li Zhiyan clung to Shen Ji, refusing to let go. He loved Shen Ji's scent, yearning to lose himself in it right then and there.

"I'm definitely quitting! From now on, I'm cutting all ties with them!"

"Can't blame them for blocking you."

The system suddenly spoke up.

"In the group chat, everyone was fighting over your employment, and then Li Zhiyan suddenly announced that you'd confessed to him, that he'd be sending them wedding sweets, and even said that all these old-timers would lose their teeth eating sugar."

"Getting kicked out was completely justified!"

Shen Ji: ...

Typical Li Zhiyan, always able to make a case even when he's in the wrong.

Shen Ji gently patted the back of his head, "Alright, let me go."

Li Zhiyan reluctantly released him. He really wanted to use his "boyfriend" status to make some small demands, but he was also worried that if he went too far, Shen Ji might take back the "boyfriend" title.

Ugh, this is what happens when you fall for a heartless scumbag!

Shen Ji sat on the sofa and opened his phone. As soon as he did, he saw several messages in his chat.

A few people he knew were asking if he wanted to join their organizations and enthusiastically promoting themselves.

But in truth, Shen Ji had never considered joining any organization from the start. If he really wanted to, he would have joined Li Zhiyan's team long ago.

Li Zhiyan would help cover his identity, find him a way out—no matter what, that was the best route. But Shen Ji had never agreed because, in his view, a pollutant joining human upper echelons would be front-page news worth writing volumes about.

And he didn't want to be that headline.

Well, actually, it was because he really, really didn't want to deal with the fallout if his cover was blown.

"What? You've already thought about your cover being blown?"

'You can't keep paper wrapped around fire. I've been considering what to do if I'm discovered from the very beginning. I'm a reporter, after all; I have to think things through thoroughly.'

"So, the compromise you made to avoid this is: not becoming a high-ranking official in the Pollution Prevention Center?"

'As a low-level employee, I can come and go as I please. Becoming a high-ranking official would turn into a major event.' Shen Ji said with conviction, 'That's the bottom line!'

"..."

Alright, it was a system, not human, and simply couldn't understand Shen Ji's bottom line.

Just then, Li Zhiyan, who was sitting next to Shen Ji, suddenly spoke.

"I actually haven't prepared anything at all."

Shen Ji turned to look at Li Zhiyan.

Li Zhiyan hadn't taken off his hair tie after getting up, his long ponytail resting on his shoulder. Since he didn't need to go to work, or maybe he had played hooky, he wasn't wearing his security team uniform but instead casual home wear—an off-white inner shirt and black pants that made him look even more tall and upright.

A blue butterfly perched on his fingertip, and like a mischievous child, he used it to tease the small mushrooms around him.

"In my imagination, I should have prepared so many things, a grand and romantic proposal ceremony."

"But now, it happened so suddenly, I have nothing to offer."

Li Zhiyan was romantic at heart, though his idea of romance might be different from normal people's, and the things he liked were unorthodox.

Although he was thrilled to have the title and to be properly with Shen Ji, the lack of ceremony was truly a regret for Li Zhiyan.

Missing a chance to flaunt a ceremony—what a pity.

Shen Ji leaned against him, "What kind of ceremony do you like?"

"I don't know either." Li Zhiyan moved closer to Shen Ji, gazing at the ceiling, his sky-blue eyes shimmering. "It's precisely because I haven't figured it out, because I don't know how to do it, that I've never been ready."

"I want everyone to know that you belong to me, and I want the whole world to understand that I belong to you."

"I need something from you, and I need you to carry something of mine, to announce to everyone that we two are intertwined."

Shen Ji laughed, "That sounds so corny and distorted."

"Isn't that just like pollutants?" Li Zhiyan also laughed. "You said this morning that neither of us is human."

"Then why don't you prepare again? I'll pretend I know nothing and agree to you all over again?"

"Self-deception is so embarrassing!"

Shen Ji sighed helplessly, leaning on Li Zhiyan's shoulder in silence for a few seconds.

Then he stood up.

Li Zhiyan watched him walk to the bedside. Shen Ji opened the bedside drawer and found a marker—one he'd brought back from the shelter for occasional note-taking.

Anyway, he'd ended up bringing this pen back for some reason.

He carried the marker over to Li Zhiyan.

"Give me your hand."

Li Zhiyan was puzzled but still extended his hand.

Shen Ji removed the cap and began writing on the side of Li Zhiyan's ring finger. Li Zhiyan held his breath until Shen Ji finished before exhaling again.

Li Zhiyan withdrew his hand, holding it up under the light to look at the space between his fingers. There, on his ring finger, written in black marker, were two words:

"Shen Ji".

"No memento, no ring, no ceremony, but it's fine." Shen Ji handed the marker to Li Zhiyan. "I've written my name on your finger, and you'll write yours on mine. We'll use our names in place of rings, to compensate for it."

"Are you willing?"

Why would Li Zhiyan be unwilling?

From the very beginning, he knew that as long as Shen Ji was willing, he could win over anyone. No matter how difficult a person was to get along with, he would grasp that little sliver of hope in their heart and keep stirring it up, making them fall for him more and more.

Taking the marker from Shen Ji, he seriously wrote his own name on Shen Ji's ring finger.

Shen Ji didn’t look at the writing but instead kept his eyes fixed on Li Zhiyan’s serious expression.

There was no full-length mirror in this dorm—the only mirror was in the bathroom—so Shen Ji was unaware of the expression in his own eyes.

It was a gaze filled with affection and heartfelt tenderness. No matter how many years he had spent pretending to be a proper, serious person, none of it could earn as much trust as this look did.

After finishing writing the name, Li Zhiyan put down the marker. Unable to control himself, he embraced Shen Ji and eagerly kissed him.

On their intertwined hands, the black writing could faintly be seen.

“Shen Ji,” “Li Wuyan.”

/

After coaxing Li Zhiyan to go to work, Shen Ji finally found a moment to reply to messages.

He replied: Sorry, but I might prioritize Li Zhiyan’s opinion.

After typing and sending it, he copied and pasted the same message, sending it to everyone who had messaged him.

The system was shocked: “Weren’t you not planning to join any organization?”

“Yeah, so Li Zhiyan is a very useful shield,” Shen Ji said. “Besides, I never said I was going to join the Guard Team. I’ll just drag it out for now.”

“But won’t they target Li Zhiyan?”

“It’s fine if the protagonist gets targeted a bit. At most, these people will just talk behind his back.”

“I only say this because I trust him.”

“…”

Doctor Xiao Ji, you’re such a jerk.

“Can the Time Forest really traverse time?” Shen Ji changed the subject, asking the system curiously.

“The Time Forest is a legendary place. Since the Red Mist Incident, there have been rumors of a place called the Time Forest, but no observers have ever been found, and it’s impossible to determine where these rumors originated. In any case, the Pollution Prevention Center acknowledges its existence.”

“No one knows what’s inside. Do you want to go looking for the Time Forest?”

“I want to know what exactly happened to Hui,” Shen Ji leaned back against the sofa. “Why did he appear in Q City, and why did he confront Li Zhiyan? Since Hui was once human, whether or not it’s actually me—these are things I need to figure out.”

“That makes sense,” the system agreed. “Alright, our goal has changed. From now on, we’re searching for the Time Forest!”

Seeing how excited the system was, Shen Ji began to doubt whether the system was connected to this series of events.

It seemed kind of dumb, not very smart.

But the Prophecy Book Event was indeed sensitive.

While lost in thought, Shen Ji looked down and saw the black writing on his finger.

He stared at his finger for a long time, and then small mushrooms began to sprout from his wrist, extending all the way to his fingers, wrapping around them and keeping him company as he looked at those three characters.

What is this?

They’re words.

The owner seems to really like these three characters.

Like! The owner likes them!

Shen Ji smiled.

Though there were still things he didn’t understand, he had no regrets about coming here. Whether he had truly died or not, he had now found a place to belong. He had found someone to spend his life with, and perhaps that life would become very long.

As a human, he never put much stock in relationships. His parents had gone from being deeply in love to arguing and divorcing in just a few years.

In a broken family, how could he ever trust love?

It was only now that Shen Ji felt: maybe it’s okay to give it a try.

If it’s Li Zhiyan.

If it’s him, everything will definitely be alright.

“Should we start investigating from the Prophecy Book Event?” the system asked. “But the Prophecy Book Event has long since disappeared without a trace.”

Indeed, there were no clues at all.

Whether it was the Prophecy Book Event or the Time Forest.

Just then, a *ding!* rang out. Shen Ji shifted his gaze to his phone and saw that an icon on his screen was changing.

It was the Pollution Forum.

The icon of the Pollution Forum was gradually transforming from a strange symbol into the shape of a book.

Soon, a notification popped up on the phone.

“System update successful!”

“The update was successful?”

Shen Ji opened the forum. Unlike before, the moment he entered, a line of text appeared.

“Checking identity information”

“Verification passed”

Shen Ji tilted his head slightly, suddenly remembering something.

“Speaking of which, there’s one thing I’ve been very puzzled about.”

“What?” the system asked curiously.

“The phone numbers on the phone,” Shen Ji recalled the various contacts he had seen when he first transmigrated into the book. “On the phone Hui got for free, why were there so many contacts of pollutants? Hui himself wasn’t very accustomed to human life—where did he get these contacts?”

“There was even The Gardener’s contact. The Gardener doesn’t even use a phone.”

“…Ah.”

The system didn’t answer, as if it had no idea how to explain.

Shen Ji wasn’t expecting an answer from the system anyway. He calmly watched as the forum spun in circles for a long time before finally loading a new page.

Once inside, Shen Ji quickly saw a new post.

"Finally updated successfully, and they even added identity verification!"

Original Poster: Without this forum, I wouldn’t have known about the recent pollution incidents. It’s kind of scary.

1F: Yeah, last time I relied on this forum to avoid a pollution event.

2F: What did the forum update with? I haven’t noticed anything.

3F: I’m looking into it, but the posts still seem the same as before.

4F: Hey? Check next to the usernames—is that something new? And there’s an extra interface too?

Shen Ji clicked on the user page and saw something new below his username.

"Username: Mushroom King, Identity Verification: S-class, Danger Level: SSS."

He exited the user interface and saw more people posting about it.

Many regular users' profiles now showed identity verification, labeled as "Forum Member Level."

"This forum member level looks like a pollution level," the system remarked. "Access to this forum requires certain conditions, and now it looks like pollution level might be one of them. Only people who are polluted can enter the forum, and once inside, their pollution is turned into forum pollution."

"Are you saying people can be polluted by multiple pollutants at once?"

"Exactly."

Shen Ji nodded and opened the new interface everyone was talking about. The moment he saw it, he frowned.

It was a pollution level list, with entries ranked from highest to lowest.

"Pollution Level List."

NO.1 ***, S-class pollutant, Location: Time Forest.

NO.2 Hui, S-class pollutant, Location: Unknown.

NO.3 Fury, S-class pollutant, Location: Abyss Zero.

NO.4 Li Zhiyan, S-class ***, Location: ***

……

NO.8 Pollution Forum, S-class ***, Location: None.

The list ranked all pollutants and mutants in order, including Wu Chi, who had recently been promoted to S-class. However, some entries were incomplete or blurred out, but it was enough to stir up trouble at the entire Pollution Prevention Center.

For example: two S-class pollutants that the Pollution Prevention Center had never noticed before appeared on the list.

For example: Shen Ji, who they thought was an S-class Healing-type mutant, was not on the list.

Shen Ji looked away, raising an eyebrow slightly, his dark eyes with a hint of something unreadable.

"It ranked itself eighth," Shen Ji said. "But it knows a lot of information, including about the Time Forest and Hui."

"The Pollution Forum has always been a mysterious entity in the novel’s setting. Almost no novel explains its origin, but since this is a complete world now, perhaps it really has some significant background."

Shen Ji tsked.

"But now I need to come up with an explanation."

Explain why he didn’t appear on this list at all.

Even though he actually had.