Chapter 96: Prophecy Book Event

Chapter 96: The Prophecy Book Incident

Shen Ji pushed open the window, and a cold wind blew into the dorm room.

X City was located in the extreme north, where it was naturally cold. Shen Ji had just taken a bath, and his hair was still damp. As the wind blew, it felt like his hair was freezing into icicles.

The small mushrooms let out a whine and ducked into Shen Ji's clothes, hiding inside and cautiously peeking out.

Master, it's so cold!

Master is amazing! He’s not even afraid of the cold!

Aww! Because Master is the strongest!

Shen Ji pinched one of the small mushrooms at random. After he did, the remaining mushrooms immediately tried even harder to poke their heads out, hoping he would pinch them too.

Shen Ji couldn’t pinch them all, so he simply opened his hand and patted them instead.

Fortunately, the small mushrooms were easily pleased—even a pat was enough to satisfy them, and they contentedly snuggled back into his clothes.

"Hey!"

A voice rang out from below near the dormitory. It was loud enough that the motion-sensor light flicked on.

Shen Ji glanced down from the window and saw Li Zhiyan standing below. He was waving at Shen Ji. When Shen Ji had kicked him out earlier, he hadn’t even given him a coat, so Li Zhiyan was standing outside in just thin clothes. Once he noticed Shen Ji looking at him, Li Zhiyan happily went to call out again.

Shen Ji quickly made a "shush" gesture.

It was the middle of the night—past midnight, in fact. Disturbing everyone was bad enough, but being seen making a scene would be humiliating.

Li Zhiyan understood. He glanced around, then pointed to his phone and began typing.

Soon, Shen Ji’s phone dinged.

Shen Ji opened his phone and saw Li Zhiyan's message.

"Starry Butterfly: Let’s go together."

Shen Ji looked curiously at the message, then glanced down again at Li Zhiyan below. Li Zhiyan was still the same as before—when he saw Shen Ji looking at him, he waved eagerly like an excited puppy.

So Shen Ji sent a reply.

"Shen Ji: Where to?"

"Starry Butterfly: I couldn’t find anything you could eat. There isn’t much pollution left around X City, so I went to ask the Pollution Prevention Center for leave."

"Shen Ji: ?"

"Starry Butterfly: In modern terms, it’s like taking marriage leave—a honeymoon!"

Being kicked out by your partner in the middle of the night is usually a terrible thing, but for Li Zhiyan, it was different.

Because he’d kind of gone too far.

Shen Ji had told him to slow down, but he wouldn't. He’d even secretly bitten places Shen Ji told him not to touch, and he’d done it multiple times. The last time, Shen Ji got furious and kicked him out—but not before making him get dressed.

Shen Ji loved him!

Feeling deeply loved, Li Zhiyan wrote a leave request to the Pollution Prevention Center in the middle of the night. He even wrote one for Shen Ji, too. After sending it to the Pollution Prevention Center, he came back to find Shen Ji.

They were going on their honeymoon!

What? You say honeymoons are only for married people?

How were he and Shen Ji any different from a married couple?!

Shen Ji gave a helpless smile.

"Shen Ji: Did the Pollution Prevention Center approve it?"

"Starry Butterfly: Who cares if they approve? I take leave whenever I want. Just come down—let’s go on our honeymoon!"

"Starry Butterfly: Let’s elope together!"

The system muttered, "Who wouldn’t say 'the Pollution Prevention Center really has it rough' after seeing this?"

"Are you going on a honeymoon with Li Zhiyan?"

"Of course. Why wouldn’t I?"

Shen Ji turned to grab some clothes from his closet. "With the situation with the Pollution Forum still unclear, it’s best to steer clear of the Pollution Prevention Center for now. Besides, this way we can also test if that list tracks my location and updates in real time."

"Makes sense."

As he took off his bathrobe and changed, Shen Ji saw the marks on his body.

Even though he was a pollutant, these marks remained clearly visible on him. Whether it was the fingerprints on his waist and abdomen or the red, swollen bite marks on his chest—Shen Ji’s skin was pale. Actually, before the apocalypse, his skin hadn’t been this fair. As a journalist constantly on business trips, it was hard to maintain fair skin.

After becoming a pollutant, his skin took on an almost inhuman porcelain-like translucency, making any mark on him stand out vividly.

Shen Ji tsked, feeling more and more that he had been far too indulgent with a certain someone.

Weren’t virgins supposed to be quick?

"But he’s not just any virgin—he’s the protagonist of an apocalyptic novel! A special half-human, half-pollutant virgin!"

Shen Ji: …

Well, that was funny.

After changing, Shen Ji went downstairs. The moment he stepped out of the dormitory building, the cold wind hit him. Li Zhiyan ran over and hugged him. Having been outside for so long, he was chilled from the ice and snow. Shen Ji hugged him for a moment before patting his shoulder, a signal to leave.

The two slipped away into the night. Meanwhile, those who had been secretly watching from their dark dorm rooms finally turned away from their balconies and returned to their beds.

The curious never sleep.

So they started chatting in their group chat.

"Are they gone?"

"Yeah, they left. They hugged for a bit downstairs, then went who knows where."

"Aww, such a couple thing to do. So sweet."

"Li Zhiyan’s shout earlier scared me so badly my heart hurt. But getting the gossip was worth it. Why’d they have to switch to phones? Should’ve kept talking."

"Agreed."

Meanwhile, Li Zhiyan brought Shen Ji to the parking lot. Zhou Ye was squatting nearby, yawning—clearly, he’d been hauled out in the middle of the night.

Seeing that Li Zhiyan and Shen Ji had arrived, Zhou Ye finally got to his feet slowly.

"Aren't you a night owl?" Li Zhiyan teased him with mock disdain. "Why are you yawning so much?"

Zhou Ye got annoyed. "Even though I stay up late, I have to work during the day! After work, of course I need to sleep! You capitalist! Calling me to get up and work overtime in the middle of the night!"

"I'll increase your pay."

"Great move, boss! Nothing I love more than a night shift. So happy to serve the boss!"

Zhou Ye's attitude changed drastically. "How much more?"

"Double the year-end bonus." Li Zhiyan pulled Shen Ji into the car. "Drive us to Moth Valley."

Zhou Ye responded, fastened his seatbelt, and started the car, quickly driving out of the parking lot.

He was no longer surprised by Li Zhiyan's trips to Moth Valley.

Li Zhiyan really liked the Moth Flowers in Moth Valley, so every year he would pick a time to spend a couple of days there. Sometimes he would go when he was in a bad mood too. For normal people, the entire Moth Valley was a terrifying contamination exclusion zone, but to Li Zhiyan, it was as ordinary as home.

That's why the Pollution Prevention Center concluded that no S-class pollutant had emerged inside Moth Valley.

If there really was an S-class pollutant, with Li Zhiyan going in and out so many times, a fight would have broken out by now.

Shen Ji asked Zhou Ye curiously, "Does he always work you this hard?"

Zhou Ye stared dead ahead, afraid he might accidentally blurt out insults about Li Zhiyan, especially since Li Zhiyan was right next to Shen Ji.

But Shen Ji was a journalist. When Zhou Ye stayed silent, Shen Ji knew exactly what he was thinking.

"So pitiful," Shen Ji said, prompting him, as was his habit. "Ever thought about quitting? Too much stress can make you sick."

Li Zhiyan complained, "I'm not exploiting him! I pay him a very high salary!"

Shen Ji directly reached out and yanked Li Zhiyan over. Since Li Zhiyan wasn't wearing a seatbelt, he spilled onto Shen Ji's lap as soon as he was pulled, limping against Shen Ji as if boneless. He tried to say something, but Shen Ji covered his mouth with his hand to keep him from speaking.

Zhou Ye, who was driving with his seatbelt fastened: ...

Damn it, you dog couple!

/

By the time they reached the edge of Moth Valley, the sky was already bright. Shen Ji and Li Zhiyan were still in good spirits, but Zhou Ye, who had driven all night, was exhausted.

Zhou Ye couldn't go any further. Even though he was an A-level Mutant, it was hard for him to enter the core of the original contamination rift. A short time was fine, but staying too long, his mental state would deteriorate.

Waving goodbye to Li Zhiyan, Zhou Ye drove off, planning to rest at the guard post closest to Moth Valley.

As for the frantic calls from the Pollution Prevention Center, Zhou Ye chose to ignore them.

He was a member of the Special Operations Team and only took orders from his captain. Whatever the captain told him to do, he did. As for why the captain suddenly took time off to go have fun, that had nothing to do with him—he had no say in what his captain did.

The higher-ups at the Pollution Prevention Center, who saw Li Zhiyan's leave request early in the morning, urgently called the person in charge of X City, and then found out they had already left last night: ...

This is so draining.

An employee like this will be the death of me!

Wu Chi, get better soon! Let them see what it's like to have a good employee!

Meanwhile, Shen Ji and Li Zhiyan trod on withered weeds as they walked into Moth Valley. Soon, Shen Ji saw Moth Flowers scattered across the ground.

The tender yellow Moth Flowers looked like burning flames, and the area around the flowers was warm. Because of this, the temperature in Moth Valley was higher than the surroundings. The plants on the opposite side had withered from the cold, but here, you could still see green, as if Moth Valley were an eternal spring paradise.

As they went further in, the warmth grew stronger. Feeling the heat, the small mushrooms began crawling out from Shen Ji's sleeves and collar.

They curiously stared at the Moth Flowers around them, and some had already climbed off Shen Ji to poke at the yellow flowers.

"Moth Flowers release heat all year round, so even in winter, Moth Valley isn't cold. In fact, winter is when Moth Valley is most beautiful."

Li Zhiyan held Shen Ji's hand as they walked, saying, "No matter when I come, it's always like this. It's never changed."

Shen Ji looked at him. "Maybe it's because you like it this way."

"Is that so?"

"The original contamination rift is the territory of an S-class pollutant. Moth Valley is essentially your territory, so it naturally changes according to your preferences. You like plants and trees, so this place is filled with them, vibrant and full of life all year round."

Li Zhiyan smiled. "That's really nice."

Shen Ji looked at Li Zhiyan, a hint of laughter in his dark eyes.

He thought: Li Zhiyan has finally let go of his resentment toward this place.

Before, whenever Moth Valley was mentioned, even if Li Zhiyan acted normal, Shen Ji could still sense his well-hidden guilt and blame. This was the place where his friend died, and where he was forced to become a contaminated being. He hated it, but he had to come back.

Whether to search for his friend's remains or to remember them.

But now, Li Zhiyan actively brought Shen Ji here. There was no more resentment in his voice.

Perhaps regret still lingered, but he finally no longer blamed himself.

"Because you changed him," the system said.

Shen Ji was puzzled. 'Me? When?'

"It's okay if you don't remember. Just know that you're the one who changed him."

Alright.

The withered grass gave way to green branches, and further in, butterflies could be seen. But these butterflies were more like ordinary contaminated species, mutated from normal butterflies. Their contamination index was low, but they were a bit smarter than regular butterflies.

After walking a bit more, Li Zhiyan pointed ahead. "We're here."

Shen Ji stood there, feeling like he was in Li Zhiyan's dream back at Zero Abyss.

This was the spot where Li Zhiyan and his friends gathered to set up camp. Further down was Moth Valley, with its babbling streams and white Moth Flowers.

"Is it beautiful?" Li Zhiyan asked him.

Shen Ji nodded. "Very beautiful."

"This is the perfect place for a confession," Li Zhiyan sighed. "Such a beautiful scene, and it'd be great to take a photo to remember it."

Shen Ji looked at him.

Li Zhiyan was caught in the red mist incident the day before his birthday. He had originally planned to take some photos in Butterfly Valley to post on his social media account. After this birthday, he was going to step into a difficult but free new life. He would face many challenges, but he was prepared.

But in the end, his path was cut short. He didn't get to take the photos, didn't get to finish his birthday, and didn't get the new life he wanted.

"Let me take a photo of you," Shen Ji said.

Li Zhiyan was stunned for a moment. He turned to look at Shen Ji, his pale blue eyes held a hint of hesitation. "You're giving it to me?"

"Didn’t you want to take photos on your birthday and post them on your account?"

Shen Ji said, "I’ll be your photographer today."

But Li Zhiyan thought: I regret never properly learning photography.

I’ve summited the highest mountains, crossed the most treacherous rivers, visited countless places called fairylands—yet none compare to you now.

Your eyes are the most magnificent gems, your smile surpasses all the scenery I’ve ever seen. With you standing here, I can see no one else.

I want to capture you as you are now in a photograph, only to realize I can only imprint you in my memory.

It’s not me who should be photographed—it’s you.

Seeing that Li Zhiyan didn’t respond, Shen Ji didn’t press further. He simply turned to look down into the valley. As he walked forward, his foot caught on a stone. The stone shifted, and Li Zhiyan reached out to pull Shen Ji back, but Shen Ji deliberately tugged him down, and together they tumbled downward.

The butterflies, startled, fluttered their wings and scattered in all directions. Petals shook loose and drifted down around them.

"Exciting?" Shen Ji asked Li Zhiyan with a smile.

Li Zhiyan sighed helplessly. "Way too exciting."

So they lay there amidst the sea of Moth Flowers, watching the butterflies dance in the sky.

The moment he landed, the small mushrooms eagerly burrowed out from his clothes. Now they had spread beneath the grass across the entire Moth Valley, starting to catch little butterflies and devour Moth Flowers, eating with sheer delight.

Fortunately, this was a primal rift where food was inexhaustible, so they didn’t devour the whole place.

As the small mushrooms ate, Shen Ji’s own hunger finally subsided a little. Instead, after such heavy eating, he began to feel somewhat drowsy.

He turned his head to glance at Li Zhiyan, only to find that Li Zhiyan had been watching him all along. Their eyes met.

"Sleepy?" Li Zhiyan asked him.

Shen Ji nodded.

Li Zhiyan shifted closer to Shen Ji and offered his arm as a pillow.

"Then sleep for a while."

Li Zhiyan said, "It’s alright, I’ll watch over you."

"No one will come here anyway."

Familiar warmth enveloped Shen Ji, and he closed his eyes, feeling at ease.

As his consciousness grew hazy, Shen Ji dreamed of the past.

Back then, he was still a journalist, leaving early and returning late, one story after another. Just before the medical dispute incident, he had stayed up all night finishing his last report, working until the early hours until his heart ached from exhaustion. He began considering whether to resign and take a break, maybe try his hand at self-media.

It was at that moment—ding—his phone chimed.

Shen Ji was already exhausted. Getting a message in the middle of the night, he assumed it was another emergency overtime notice from his superiors. Frowning, he opened his phone, only to find it wasn’t an overtime message but a strange symbol displayed on the screen.

"What is this?"

Shen Ji long-pressed the icon, trying to delete it.

But after holding it down, no delete option appeared. He couldn’t find it in his list of apps either.

For most people, discovering a rogue app would warrant a system reset, but Shen Ji’s phone contained a large number of important files. A full reset wasn’t an option. He tinkered helplessly for half an hour, confirming that it couldn’t be deleted. Strangely, though, its presence didn’t affect the phone’s basic functions.

So he decided to take it for repairs once his work eased up.

This seemed to be the beginning of his mental anomalies, because someone of Shen Ji’s temperament would never keep a suspicious, potentially problematic app.

The next day, while searching for materials, Shen Ji accidentally opened the app—or perhaps, strangely, he instinctively tapped on it.

Inside the app was a novel.

The content was bizarre: it foretold the precursors of an apocalyptic world.

Mental anomaly incidents were occurring all over the globe, but unlike ordinary mental illnesses, this kind of mental aberration was contagious.

In a distant mountain village, an entire community threw themselves into a river, insisting to their loved ones beforehand that they saw gold and jewels at the bottom. A square-dancing auntie saw a human-faced balloon under the streetlights, and the balloon followed her home—the next day, her entire family was found dead. A man grew a second head on his neck, and the new head claimed it was the body’s true owner.

Finally, the red mist incident erupted, and the apocalypse descended in full force.

Shen Ji didn’t think much of it at first, dismissing it as just a strange story—until a few days later, when he came across a report his company had suppressed and never published.

"Mass Suicide by Drowning! Mountain Village Collective Suicide Incident!"

His supervisor said it was an exclusive they’d gotten ahead of others, but before it could be published, higher-ups intervened, and the story was shelved.

There seemed to be some secret behind it.

"Not the same," Shen Ji muttered to himself.

Sitting in his chair at home, he murmured as if retaining self-awareness even in his dream.

"The original story I saw was a dystopian novel set thirty years into the apocalypse, with Li Zhiyan as the main character."

"But the Prophecy Book I saw predicted events from before the red mist incident all the way through its outbreak. The system wasn't lying to me—the Prophecy Book Event really only goes up to the red mist incident. So what was that 'original work' I saw?"

As if hearing Shen Ji’s words, the scene before him began to change.

The warm yellow walls of his rented room turned into the cold blue-white of a hospital. Shen Ji sat on a hospital bed, bandages wrapped around his abdomen, holding a phone with only 10% battery.

After glancing around the room, Shen Ji lowered his head and looked back at his phone.

He opened the strange app again and found its content had changed. Chaotic symbols filled the screen, scattered with starbursts of censored words.

Shen Ji frowned slightly. He turned off his phone and, just like in the previous dream, stood up and walked toward the hospital room door.

Once again, he saw the red mist outside the window. From within the mist came one or two sounds like firecrackers, occasional human screams, and the constant paging from the nurses’ station.

Shen Ji reached the door, gripped the handle, and pulled it open. The moment the door swung aside, countless mushrooms, large and small, crowded into the room.

They were expanding wildly. Shen Ji lifted his head to look at them, their forms reflected in his dark eyes.

Suddenly, a sharp pain shot through his head.

He pressed his temples, unsteady on his feet, and collapsed to the ground.

Amid the intense headache, he seemed to hear voices—no, rather, he sensed countless consciousnesses, each drilling relentlessly into his mind.

Hungry, so hungry.

Want to eat something, ugh, there's gotta be something to eat here?

Something smells so good, where is the food?

So hungry, so hungry, the small mushroom is so hungry!

Shen Ji abruptly raised his head; all the little mushrooms on the ceiling shot upright at once, stopping spreading, their caps aimed at Shen Ji on the floor.

Can he see us?

We've been spotted?

Huh? Why did he notice us? What is he? Human? Snack-sized? Meal-sized?

Ooh, pancakes, bacon, scrambled eggs! Humans are delicious!

Is that delicious scent coming from him?

Dunno, but let's take a bite!

Countless small mushrooms transformed into fungus threads, descending from above; countless tendrils enveloped Shen Ji’s body. Blood soaked through the bandages and spilled out, red streaks slowly creeping across the white floor. But as the fungus threads surged in, his blood gradually turned white.

A large black mushroom emerged from Shen Ji’s heart, dripping white blood as it slowly dug roots into his body.

Just then, a hand lifted and clamped down on the mushroom growing from his heart.

Shen Ji forcefully pulled out the mushroom and sat up from the floor. His black pupils gradually turned white, while his black hair started lengthening.

The small mushrooms shook in terror, attempting to flee.

But the next moment, Shen Ji grabbed their stems, and raw contamination energy flooded into his body.

It wasn’t the small mushrooms devouring Shen Ji; from the very beginning, it was Shen Ji devouring the mushrooms.

After consuming all the small mushrooms, Shen Ji slumped to the floor and fell into a deep sleep. Meanwhile, the phone beside him lit up with updates.

Text flashed and disappeared constantly, as if the spreading contamination allowed it to rapidly foresee the distant future, only to lose all vision as something chased and consumed it.

"Apocalypse Year 27, the Pollution Prevention Center discovered S-Class Mutant Li Zhiyan in Moth Valley."

"Apocalypse Year 30, Q City pollution leak incident, S-Class pollutant Filth appeared."

"The Prophecy Book Event only foretold up to the Red Mist Incident, until you devoured the Prophecy Book pollution that had long been present in your body while consuming the mushrooms. Due to the mushrooms’ massive pollution source, the Prophecy Book foresaw the future twenty-seven years later before your eyes—this is the 'original work' that only you have seen."

"Because it was devoured by you, the Prophecy Book Event disappeared, the Prophecy Book itself hid and restored."

A system voice rang out in Shen Ji’s ears.

"A human body cannot withstand such powerful pollution; if you hadn’t been polluted by two nearly S-Class pollutants simultaneously, you might have become an S-Class Mutant."

"Pollutants are creatures of fixation, yet you are not a monster. Even after losing your memories as a human, you did not harm anyone."

"Having lost your memory, you forgot the contents of the 'original work,' thus losing the crucial condition for being influenced by the Prophecy Book: 'having seen the prophesied content and panicked about it.' You are the Filth that ate the Prophecy Book but forgot about it, a powerful S-Class pollutant."

"You are Shen Ji, and indeed, you're actually Filth."