Chapter 28

Chapter 28

Li Yang has gone mad.

Early the next morning, Lin Juan received the news from Zhuang Yufeng.

"How did you find out? Is his madness related to the supernatural?" Lin Juan could only consider this possibility.

"Yes," Zhuang Yufeng's voice came through the phone amid some background noise, "We're at the prison where Li Yang is being held. Early this morning, the police notified us that there might be supernatural phenomena occurring there. Since Li Yang's case involves President Lu, you need to come over."

"Understood, we'll head over right away."

"We've already sent someone to pick you up."

After explaining the situation to Lu Yanzhou, who nodded in acknowledgment, arrangements were made for company matters, and they both took a car to the prison.

The driver was a superpower holder who explained, "Dr. Zhuang is busy, so he sent me to pick you up."

They soon arrived at their destination. Lin Juan got out first, then helped Lu Yanzhou out of the car. The superpower holder retrieved a wheelchair from the trunk and brought it over.

Lin Juan assisted Lu Yanzhou into the wheelchair: "Is your leg feeling better than before?"

"Much better. I should be able to be free of the wheelchair soon."

"That's good."

During this time, Lu Yanzhou had felt his leg growing stronger. The strange phenomenon that occurred in the bathroom that day never happened again. He had subtly inquired many times with Director Liu and Zhuang Yufeng, who both said that anomalous changes only occur when the contamination value in the body exceeds a certain threshold.

Ordinary people and superpower holders of different levels have varying tolerances for contamination. The higher the level of superpower, the greater the tolerance. In a way, the emergence of superpower holders is due to their exposure to contamination, but they were fortunate enough not to become corrupted.

They retained human consciousness, emotions, and a sense of self.

Lu Yanzhou's contamination value had always been very low, lower than that of ordinary people who had never experienced supernatural events. Under normal circumstances, he should not exhibit any anomalous changes.

Lu Yanzhou observed many times afterward, but the same situation did not recur.

He had considered whether to tell Lin Juan, but each time the words reached his lips, an inner will stopped him.

After several attempts, he knew he currently could not speak of this matter.

Li Yang was confined in a solitary room. All facilities had been removed, and he was tied to a single bed, continuously screaming in terror.

"Monsters!"

"Stay away!!"

"Ahhhh! Bugs! There are bugs everywhere!"

Scream after scream grew more desperate, as if countless bugs were swarming him from all directions, yet the room contained only Li Yang himself.

"We tested him with the latest version of the contamination detector. Li Yang's contamination value is very high," Zhuang Yufeng approached them, holding a square device the size of a phone.

It was a portable model developed by the experimental base based on the original contamination detector. After testing, it proved extremely accurate.

Most importantly, it was light, compact, and easy to carry. Next, the experimental base would work on scaling up production to issue one to every superpower holder.

"He's contaminated? When did it happen?" Lin Juan observed the restrained man in the room for a moment. "When we came yesterday, he showed no abnormal signs."

"This is what we don't understand. We inspected the prison where he was held, and there were no supernatural traces," Zhuang Yufeng said with a grave expression.

"What about the people who were with him? Have they been checked?"

"Yes, they're all fine."

That there were no issues was the real problem. Contamination doesn't appear without cause. Somewhere in the prison, a supernatural presence must be lurking.

Zhuang Yufeng broadened the search area, but strangely, still found nothing. Time was passing. Lu Yanzhou had a meeting to attend in the afternoon and needed to go to the company.

Lin Juan checked the time: "I'll go to the meeting with Lu Yanzhou first and come back afterward. If you find anything, contact me immediately."

"Alright," Zhuang Yufeng massaged his temples wearily. "You go ahead."

He had thought that, after being reborn, if not having full control over the future, at least seventy to eighty percent. Instead, while he avoided some situations, more unexpected events occurred.

The only consolation was that this time they were better prepared, unlike in his previous life when they had to grope in the dark, with many lessons learned through bloodshed and loss of life.

Lin Juan and Lu Yanzhou went to the company, while Zhuang Yufeng continued leading the search at the prison.

The young policeman who had interacted with Lin Juan followed his mentor, busy helping out.

The young policeman had many questions about the prison being suddenly taken over by strangers. During lunch, he couldn't hold back any longer and quietly asked his mentor, "Sir, who are those people? Isn't Li Yang just insane? What are they investigating?"

After those people took over, they were restricted to the periphery and couldn't approach, which he found confusing.

"Some things are not to be asked."

The meeting Lu Yanzhou attended in the afternoon was an international video conference. The Lu family's company had expanded abroad early on. Lu Yanzhou's birth mother, the second wife of Old Mr. Lu, was a Chinese emigrant.

However, due to some incidents in the past, Lu Yanzhou was not on good terms with that branch of the family.

One of the attendees in the meeting was a member of that family.

After the meeting ended, he kept trying to speak with Lu Yanzhou, but Lu Yanzhou ignored him.

Lin Juan curiously looked the man over a few times.

He had blonde hair, but upon closer look, his features somewhat resembled Lu Yanzhou's.

The man spoke French, which Lin Juan didn't understand, but he could see the man was worked up, as if he wanted to burst through the screen.

Noticing Lin Juan's curiosity, Lu Yanzhou offered, "Curious about who he is?"

"Yes," Lin Juan saw no reason to hide it. "I feel he looks a bit like you."

"He's a relative from my mother's side. Nobody important. Pay him no mind."

Lu Yanzhou's tone was dismissive, but Lin Juan detected an underlying disgust.

Having known Lu Yanzhou for so long, Lin Juan had never seen him show disgust just from discussing someone.

But he didn't ask.

"Oh," Lin Juan changed the subject. "Shall we go straight to the prison now?"

"Any new discoveries there?"

"I'm not sure if this counts, but they’ve zeroed in on the inmates, with particular emphasis on Brother Black."

Before Brother Black was captured, Li Yang was fine—aside from occasional outbursts of cursing, he wasn't this mentally unstable.

All the abnormalities started after Brother Black moved into the cell.

Zhuang Yufeng interrogated Brother Black, but Brother Black was stubborn and didn’t give up anything useful.

"It's not that he's stubborn—he might genuinely not know," Zhuang Yufeng said.

"He did it, but he doesn’t know about it?" Lin Juan was puzzled. "Does he have an alternate personality?"

"I’ve got a hunch I want to check out. Are you interested, Mr. Lin?"

Lin Juan was indeed curious. "How do you plan to test it?"

"By spending a night in the cell."

Lin Juan: "Huh?"

"I plan to recreate last night’s setup by swapping out Brother Black’s cellmate for one of ours to see if we can uncover anything."

"Lu Yanzhou, want me to take you back first?" Lin Juan admitted he had a bit of a thrill-seeking side. The daily grind with Lu Yanzhou felt somewhat dull, and he was eager to find something interesting to kill time.

"I’m staying too," Lu Yanzhou replied without hesitation.

"It might be dangerous."

"With you here, would you let me face danger?" Lu Yanzhou countered.

"Of course not." Lin Juan was confident about that.

"Compared to going back alone, I think staying with Xiao Juan is safer," Lu Yanzhou said seriously.

Lin Juan got a little flustered by his words. "Don't worry, I’ve got this."

Who would have thought that after coming to this world, he'd one day end up staying in a prison—and with the big villain, no less.

On the single bunk in the cell, Lin Juan was sitting cross-legged, with Lu Yanzhou beside him.

Across from them were Zhuang Yufeng and Brother Black.

Since Brother Black had met Lin Juan and Lu Yanzhou before, to avoid raising suspicion, Zhuang Yufeng brought in a superpowered individual to temporarily alter their appearances.

B-level ability "Chameleon," skilled in disguise.

Lin Juan stared at his reflection in the mirror—short hair, unremarkable looks—and sighed, "I really can't recognize myself at all."

He turned to look at Lu Yanzhou.

Lu Yanzhou's new appearance was that of a guy with a buzz cut and a scar between his eyebrows, giving off an intimidating look.

"What about the wheelchair?" Zhuang Yufeng, now in disguise too, walked over.

"He doesn't need to be in a wheelchair all the time. It’s mostly for appearances," Lin Juan didn't elaborate further.

Hearing this, Zhuang Yufeng understood.

Lu Yanzhou was wearing a tank top he rarely wore, revealing well-defined muscles on his arms. Lin Juan poked at the muscles on his arm and praised, "This style suits you too—a whole different vibe."

In a suit, he seemed reserved, commanding, and authoritative; in a tank top and work pants, he looked fierce and oozing testosterone.

Lin Juan imagined Lu Yanzhou wearing this outfit with his original appearance and thought it would be really hot too!

Lu Yanzhou seemed to get an idea. He leaned close to Lin Juan, whispering in his ear, "Does Xiao Juan like it? I'll wear it for you when we get back."

His low, slightly hoarse voice made Lin Juan shiver, and his ears went red. "N-no, that's not necessary."

Lu Yanzhou stared at his flushed ears, a dark gleam in his eyes.

Zhuang Yufeng felt oddly like a third wheel and quickly interrupted, "Are you ready? It's about time."

Lin Juan had lived in many places, but staying in a prison was a first.

While Brother Black hadn't arrived yet, he curiously looked around, touching things here and there, and muttered, "The place isn’t half bad. No need to worry about downpours or windstorms."

Zhuang Yufeng was doing a final check on the specially arranged cell and didn't hear Lin Juan's comment.

Lu Yanzhou, who was nearby, caught that. Remembering the information about Lin Juan's background that he'd seen from his father, he felt a pang of sympathy.

What kind of life had Lin Juan lived in the mountains before coming to the Lu family?

Did he struggle to have enough to eat or decent clothes or a roof over his head?

With no parents, how’d he make it on his own in the mountains at such a young age?

Hearing his remark, it sounded like where he lived before was worse than jail. What kind of place did he call home?

Did he freeze when the wind picked up? Did he get soaked when it rained? How did he get through scorching summers and freezing winters?

Sensing the increasingly strange look on him, Lin Juan turned around and met Lu Yanzhou's eyes, full of pity.

Lin Juan: ?

What? Why is he looking at me like that all of a sudden?

"Lu Yanzhou?" Lin Juan waved his hand. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

As if I'm some poor guy with a sad backstory.

I’ve never heard that Lu Yanzhou is someone who’s big on pity.

Lu Yanzhou closed his eyes briefly, shutting away his feelings. "It's nothing. From now on, you'll have the best place to live, eat the most delicious food, and do whatever you enjoy."

The past can't be changed, but with him around, he could at least ensure that Lin Juan wouldn't suffer anymore.

"Why are you suddenly saying all this?" Lin Juan tugged at his torn clothes. "This is just pretend anyway. Besides, we'll change soon."

They were all wearing prison uniforms.

"Well, well, new faces today," Brother Black walked in, acting as if he weren't in prison. "What did you two do to end up here?"

"Hurt someone," Lin Juan adjusted his clothes, though his scrawny build didn’t exactly sell it.

Clearly, Brother Black thought the same. He laughed loudly, "You? Hurt someone? I’d believe it if your big friend here did it."

"Don’t underestimate people," Lin Juan flexed his fingers. "Who says only big guys can hurt others?"

"Who knows," Lin Juan shrugged, "I heard someone in your original cell had gone insane, didn't you know?"

"You're pretty well-informed. Of course I knew. He was screaming in the middle of the night and woke all of us up."

Lin Juan pretended to be casual as he started digging for info.

He had dealt with all sorts of people from various backgrounds, and in no time, he was calling Brother Black "brother." Probably because he hadn't had anyone to talk to for so long, Brother Black ended up spilling everything.

First, he bragged about how much clout he had on the outside, with countless followers who obeyed his every command. Unfortunately, he screwed up and was brought down by Li Yang, landing him in jail.

When it came to Li Yang, Brother Black was pissed.

"Last night, I was sleeping soundly when I was woken up by a piercing scream. I had no idea what was happening. When I opened my eyes, that kid Li Yang was standing right by my bed, staring straight at me. It almost scared the life out of me."

In the middle of the night, with only faint moonlight streaming through the window, opening his eyes to see someone who clearly wasn't right standing by his bed, staring blankly—Brother Black got chills and almost pissed himself.

Once he realized who it was, Brother Black blew up and started cursing: "Li Yang, are you trying to die?! What are you doing by my bed in the middle of the night? You looking for a beatdown?"

Li Yang didn't respond, just kept staring straight at him.

Brother Black was totally creeped out by his gaze. He threw off the covers, got out of bed, and put a hand on Li Yang's shoulder: "What are you up to, kid? Think Brother Black is a pushover?"

Li Yang slowly turned his neck, and Brother Black heard a sound like rusty screws turning—as if the person standing before him wasn't alive, but some broken machine.

It was the middle of the night, and Brother Black was frightened by his own imagination. Steeling himself, he said, "I’m not gonna mess with you. It's late, I need to sleep. You should go back to bed too."

He expected Li Yang to ignore him, but to his surprise, as soon as he finished speaking, Li Yang stiffly turned around and shuffled step-by-step back to his own bed. Like an old robot, he moved onto the bed and then went still.

Brother Black swallowed hard, quickly scrambled back into his own bed, and covered his head with the blanket, blocking everything out.

He didn't know how much time had passed when he was woken by some noise. Opening his eyes, he saw it was already morning. Several guards opened the door, hauled them out, and asked if anything had happened the night before.

"I only found out from the guards that Li Yang had gone crazy in the middle of the night, causing a huge scene and attracting the guards, swearing there were bugs."

"Were there really bugs?" Lin Juan pretended to be curious.

"No!" Brother Black wiped his face. "I asked my cellmates—none of us saw any."

This lined up with the intel the Special Anomaly Division had gathered.

The other two inmates in the same cell hadn't even woken up, let alone seen any bugs. The only two who had woken up during the night were Li Yang and Brother Black.

They couldn't get any information from Li Yang, and what Brother Black said might not be the full story. To figure out what really happened, they had to wait until night.

Prison was run on a tight schedule. Li Yang was placed in the next cell. Originally, he should have been taken away to a specialized contamination hospital, but Lin Juan suggested keeping him there—just in case Li Yang was a necessary condition for the anomaly to appear.

They needed to recreate the situation as much as possible.

Lin Juan was sleeping in the spot where Li Yang had slept.

When lights-out hit, Lin Juan closed his eyes.

It was still early, and he wasn't sleepy. After lying there for a while without falling asleep, he turned over.

Not long after, snoring came from the opposite bed.

Brother Black had fallen asleep, snoring loudly.

Lin Juan was even less able to sleep.

Phones weren't allowed in prison, but for convenience, Lin Juan and the others had brought special communicators. He put his communicator to his face and whispered, "Are you guys asleep?"

After a moment, Lu Yanzhou's equally hushed reply came: "Not yet. Can't sleep?"

"A little. It's too early now." Lin Juan was a total night owl.

Plus, perhaps it was true that it's easier to go from frugality to luxury than the other way around. After getting used to the big bed at Lu Manor, the hard single bed just wasn't comfortable.

People really are too easily corrupted by their environment.

Lin Juan cursed himself out but wasn’t about to change.

If you have the means, you should make yourself comfortable. Even when he couldn't save money in the past, he still tried to live as comfortably as possible.

Having money and not enjoying it is just making life hard for yourself.

Zhuang Yufeng didn't say anything. Lin Juan figured he was asleep. Since he himself couldn't sleep and Lu Yanzhou was still awake, he quietly chatted with him.

There was no particular topic—they just talked about whatever came to mind, and neither of them got bored.

After who knows how long, Lin Juan's voice grew softer, gradually fading away.

From the communicator came the sound of his light, steady breathing.

Lu Yanzhou closed his eyes and, accompanied by that gentle breathing, fell asleep.

Rustle, rustle.

Rustle, rustle.

Scrape, scrape.

Strange noises arose, and Lin Juan woke to a rank, fishy stench.

Before he even opened his eyes, he felt countless creepy stares fixed on him, making his hair stand on end.

There really was an anomaly.

Lin Juan sensed the contamination. He remained still as the rustling got louder and louder.

It was as if countless insects were crawling over fabric, coming closer and closer toward him.

Lin Juan opened his eyes.

In the dim moonlight, he saw a figure standing by his bed.

It was Brother Black.

Brother Black's eyes were open, only the whites showing. The black scar running across his face squirmed, like a twisted, big insect, squirming downward.

It wasn't his imagination.

Lin Juan really saw countless tiny feet sprouting around the black scar, digging into Brother Black's skin, emitting a harsh, grating sound.

The black scar twisted, its upper half arching and slowly rising. At its tip, it resembled a human face.

After a long wait, the black scar—now transformed into a large black insect—turned its head left and right, its red eyes glowing. Its body seemed not limited by the scar's original size, stretching out longer and longer until it reached straight out toward Lin Juan.

Lin Juan felt the malice washing over him.

Lin Juan lowered his gaze to the monstrous worm whose body had stretched to impossible lengths. Up close, he could see that the face on top of the worm’s head was almost a miniature replica of Brother Black’s face.

“Li Yang went mad after seeing you.”

It wasn’t a question, but a flat assertion.

Lin Juan remained motionless, utterly unshaken. The anomalous worm, puzzled and cautious, halted its advance and slowly began to slink back.

Was Lin Juan the kind to let it retreat?

He reached out, grabbed the worm’s head, and wrenched it forward.

“Aaaaaahhhhh!!!!!” Brother Black, who had been standing still, suddenly clutched his face and let out an agonized shriek.

The worm struggled in Lin Juan’s grip, thrashed its head wildly, and opened its mouth wide to bite him.

Its mouth was filled with layer upon layer of razor-sharp teeth, enough to give anyone trypophobia.

Lin Juan instinctively released his hold.

With a hissing sound, the worm retracted back onto Brother Black’s face, writhing and screaming.

The skittering sounds grew louder.

Lin Juan shot a glance around and saw that the floor, walls, and bed were now crawling with black worms.

They resembled giant centipedes, the largest among them half a meter long.

These worms had legs lining both sides of their bodies. The main difference from the one on Brother Black’s face was that their heads bore no human faces. At a glance, they looked exactly like oversized centipedes.

The racket woke Zhuang Yufeng and Lu Yanzhou. The three of them were all but surrounded by the swarm. With some distance between Lin Juan and Lu Yanzhou, Lin Juan chose to restrain Brother Black first.

For Lin Juan, this was no great challenge, and it seemed like the logical move. But no one expected that a torrent of aberrant worms would crawl out of Brother Black’s body after he was subdued.

These worms swarmed toward Lin Juan with clear intent.

Lin Juan felt vexed.

Dealing with one, a few, or even a dozen of these worms was easy, but these creatures were indestructible.

Even when severed in half by Lin Juan, they regenerated from the severed ends, each half becoming a new worm and continuing their attack.

Lin Juan also had to dodge sudden strikes from the worms.

“Dr. Zhuang, do you have any insecticide?”

As a stopgap, Lin Juan wrapped Brother Black entirely in a bedsheet, tied it tightly, and bound him to the bed.

This was only a temporary fix, as the worms would eventually gnaw through the sheet. Fortunately, Zhuang Yufeng quickly contacted their companions outside, and backup soon arrived.

Lin Juan retreated to Lu Yanzhou’s side, holding the monstrous worms at bay.

There were too many worms. No one noticed that some of the worms buried under layers were dying off without warning, crumbling to dust.

Sheng Tianzong entered with his team. His pyrokinesis proved highly effective against the worms. Under the extreme heat of his "Starfire," the worms writhed briefly before burning to ash.

“Powers sure come in handy,” Lin Juan remarked, taking a wet wipe from Lu Yanzhou and scrubbed his hands hard.

After tossing the used wipe into the trash, Lin Juan walked over to Brother Black, who was trussed up like a dumpling, and nudged him with his foot.

“What’s wrong with him?”

Sporadic worms crawled out of Brother Black’s body. Lin Juan couldn’t tell if it was his imagination, but Brother Black seemed noticeably shrunken.

It felt wrong underfoot, too.

Lin Juan bent down and ripped the sheet open.

Inside, all that remained was a large worm with a bloated belly and Brother Black’s face.

A continuous stream of worms burrowed out from the belly of the large worm bearing Brother Black’s face. Brother Black had effectively become an incubator for these creatures.

“How did this happen?!” a young superpower holder exclaimed in shock. “When we examined him during the day, his corruption readings weren’t high at all.”

Unless he had close exposure to an anomaly, his corruption readings couldn’t have risen so rapidly.

“Test him again,” Zhuang Yufeng said, though he knew well that Brother Black, now fully mutated, couldn’t possibly have low corruption readings.

Sure enough, the corruption level inside Brother Black, now transformed into a giant black worm, had reached 800.

He was nearly a Class D Anomaly.

The worms crawling out of Brother Black’s body looked even more like centipedes than the ones Lin Juan had seen earlier—almost identical—and their corruption levels were low, as if they were ordinary centipedes.

Lin Juan stared silently at the endless stream of centipedes.

“Mr. Lin, is there something unusual about these centipedes?”

“I was thinking…”

Lin Juan paused briefly. Everyone perked up, expecting him to share some crucial discovery, listening intently.

“Do these things count as centipedes?”

“Well…” They weren’t sure either.

A few superpower holders crouched down for a closer inspection. One of them spoke up: “I keep centipedes at home. These… they really do seem just like ordinary centipedes.”

Lin Juan’s gaze snapped toward him.

The young superpower holder, stared at intently by Lin Juan, blushed. “M-Mr. Lin?”

“I remember centipedes can be sold for money, right? Can these centipedes be sold?” Lin Juan’s eyes grew brighter. “With so many centipedes, we could make quite a bit of money, couldn’t we?”

Suddenly, these insects suddenly looked a lot more profitable.