Pollutant Disguise Plan (POLLUTANT)
"Quick! The contamination suppressant!"
Cheng Gu and the other medical staff wrestled the deranged driver to the ground while struggling to inject the suppressant with a specialized needle despite the freezing temperatures that had already numbed their skin.
But the moment the needle pierced the driver’s arm, Cheng Gu watched in horror as the suppressant inside the syringe instantly turned to ice.
"Dad!"
Cheng Shouzhen yanked Cheng Gu back just as—BANG!—the syringe exploded.
Shards of frozen suppressant scattered across the floor.
The driver staggered to his feet while shivering violently and his eyes bloodshot as he muttered deliriously.
"Where’s my son? Where is he?"
"He was just here—why did he disappear?"
"Did the Undertaker take him?! Tell me—did the Undertaker come to kill him?!"
Zhang Qingli clamped a hand over his mouth, suppressing a cough until his face turned redder than the driver’s and looking more contaminated than the actual victim.
The contamination detector in Cheng Shouzhen's pocket was vibrating—a warning that only activated in highly contaminated environments, indicating the contamination level around them had exceeded at least 60%.
"How did that guy knock out Liu Chuanyang?" The person who had been restraining the driver earlier grimaced in pain. "He's strong as an ox—we couldn't hold him down at all!"
"Maybe he's trained," another replied. "What do we do now? The patient's clearly having an episode, and we can't administer the contamination suppressants."
"Cough... Damn it! Even if we could inject the suppressants, it might be too late now." Zhang Qingli covered his nose and mouth, speaking muffled through his frown. "The contamination's progressing too fast. He's about to enter Stage III."
After a few seconds of hesitation, Cheng Gu made a decision.
"Leave him. We need to evacuate to safety immediately!”
Everyone present agreed.
Under such extreme circumstances, there was no reason to stay for the patient. Preserving more medical personnel was the right choice in facing this disaster.
Yet they hadn't gone two meters when the driver's voice suddenly rang out behind them.
In an eerie, icy tone, he said, "Did you hide my son?"
Cheng Gu's steps froze.
"Where did you hide my son?! Give him back to me!"
Zhang Qingli retched reflexively while pointing at the driver. "Look behind him!"
Pressed tightly against the driver's back was a massive black shadow that was twice the height of a person. Its hollow eyes fixed on everyone present.
The driver, eyes equally vacant, mechanically and despairingly pointed in their direction.
"I see him... My son is right behind you..."
"Run!" Cheng Gu shouted. "Everyone, run now!"
An ordinary person stood little chance against a Pollutant. Though most of them were Mutants, they were only low-level ones, primarily with auxiliary abilities and limited combat skills. For this mission, they'd only been issued basic self-defense equipment.
The team had excellent composure as they scattered in all directions the moment the order was given—all except Zhang Qingli, who remained rooted by his retching and coughing fits.
Intense contamination assaulted Zhang Qingli's body and mind. His entire frame convulsed involuntarily. Standing still had been manageable, but now his legs buckled beneath him.
Between ragged breaths, Zhang Qingli saw the driver appear before him in an instant. The enormous shadow manipulated the driver's arms as he raised a knife, its gleaming tip aimed straight at Zhang Qingli's eyes.
Just as the blade began its descent, a buzzing filled the air.
Zhang Qingli felt what seemed like an electric current surge through his body.
A peculiar sensation instantly soothed his mind and body, dissolving his stress reactions. The knife-wielding driver crumpled to the ground, unconscious. And the towering shadow behind him had vanished without a trace.
"Zhang Qingli!" Colleagues rushed back, frantically helping him up. "Are you okay?"
"I'm... fine." Zhang Qingli clutched his throat, speaking after a pause. "I think... I don't feel like coughing anymore?"
…….
Meanwhile, fungal tendrils had engulfed the entire security booth.
The guard hung limply from the doorway, barely clinging to life.
Shen Ji was impeccably dressed, his transparent glasses reflecting white light—he looked nothing like someone who would torment a Pollutant before hanging it upside down at the door.
[Oh? Zhang Qingli leveled up?]
[Mutants have a chance to enhance their innate abilities in high-contaminated zones. Extreme stress is harmful to ordinary people, but not for Mutants—those who developed immunity and special abilities after contamination. In such situations, they adapt more easily and advance in rank.]
Shen Ji nodded casually, then asked offhandedly, "Should we send him a gift?"
[...]
[The Pollutants Realm doesn’t do gift-giving.]
"What kind of gift would be good?" Shen Ji ignored the system entirely, lost in thought. "I really hate social obligations."
[I just said the Pollutants Realm doesn’t do gifts. Also—contamination level are changing.]
Shen Ji kept his head lowered, still pondering, as the system continued its updates.
[Contamination level: 63, 79, 95… 158.]
[371—there it is!]
A black shadow emerged from the ground.
Spotting the Pollutant hanging at the door and the familiar taint of contamination made it misjudge the situation instantly. It lunged forward, trying to save its other half.
At the same time, Shen Ji finally looked up. Behind his glasses, his dark eyes faintly glowed with a crimson hue.
"I’ve thought of the perfect gift."
Shen Ji said, "He’s always wanted to dissect a Pollutant, hasn’t he? I can give him one completely stripped of its contamination."
"This one’s just right."
Then a surge of fungal hyphae erupted!
Having been forced to expel contamination earlier, the little things were already discontent. Under Shen Ji’s command, they had obediently held back—but now that he was letting them feast, why wait?!
The mushrooms coiled around the Undertaker’s body, their dense roots piercing into its form and madly devouring the contamination within.
The Undertaker finally began to panic. It tried to tear through the hyphae and escape, but how could the fungal threads let go of prey already in their grasp? They smothered the Undertaker layer after layer, crushing and consuming it bit by bit, and then sucking it dry from the inside out like jelly.
This was a one-sided annihilation with no room for resistance.
Not far away, the containment team—having finished their discussion without figuring out why the Undertaker had left—prepared to set out again.
But Zhang Qingli suddenly sensed something strange.
He turned toward a certain direction, where, in his vision, a distant building was rapidly being covered in a strange white substance. The white mass seemed to writhe under the sunlight, as if it were alive.
"Beep beep beep!"
The contamination detector blared a sharp alarm. Zhang Qingli checked it and saw a horrifying number.
He muttered to himself, "Contamination level 1,563… It’s the same reading as before."
[If this were a real Level A Pollutant, it might’ve put up a fight,] the system remarked. [Too bad it’s just an ordinary Level C.]
Having gorged on vast amounts of contamination, the hyphae began to multiply and spread, swiftly taking control of the entire neighborhood. It wasn’t just the Undertaker—they started gnawing at the already contaminated residents.
By the time Shen Ji noticed, they had quietly finished off every Pollutant in the area.
Only the patients who hadn’t fully transformed into Pollutants remained, while being huddled in corners and trembling in fear.
Shen Ji quickly retracted the mycelium to prevent these little creatures from gnawing on the patient too.
Only after everything was settled did he roll up his sleeves and look at his wrist. The small half-black mushroom on his wrist had now turned completely black—a tiny ink-dark mushroom, as if dipped in black ink.
"Kind of cute," Shen Ji poked at it. "Like an ink wash painting."
[Stop admiring it and get moving! The protagonist's here!]
Hearing this, Shen Ji turned toward a certain direction.
Beautiful blue butterflies fluttered in the air, with their trailing wings dotted with light, like spirits molded from sunlight and ice—so ethereal they defied logic.
Shen Ji stared at them while gradually nurturing ill intentions.
"Can I catch a couple to keep? Butterflies that didn’t evolve from caterpillars—perfect."
[Maybe you should just stick to making mushroom soup. At least that way, you won’t be risking your life.]
……
Waiting for the Sensory-type Mutant to arrive had taken far too long. Fires were breaking out all over Q City, and the Sensory-type Mutant had nearly run his legs off.
After locating the Undertaker’s location, the overworked Sensory-type Mutant rushed off to put out fires elsewhere.
Li Zhiyan led the security team inside. Using life detectors, they quickly found the medical staff without much effort.
Thanks to the timely rescue, aside from two individuals showing clear signs of contamination, the rest exhibited contamination levels that hadn’t yet reached Stage I standards.
Among them, Cheng Shouzhen had the highest contamination level, reaching 9—just one point away from entering Contamination Stage I. This was largely due to her overwhelming worry for her elderly father, Cheng Gu.
After rescuing the medical staff, the team moved on to other survivors in the area, as well as the Pollutants that needed to be cleared.
However, what surprised everyone was that the neighborhood with the highest contamination levels had no active Pollutants.
Instead, the rooms were filled with the corpses of Pollutants, while the contaminated patients huddled in corners, silent and motionless. If not for their faint breathing, one might have mistaken them for the dead.
The Undertaker’s corpse lay abandoned outside the security booth, with its body hollowed out like that of the Death Messenger Bird, reduced to an empty shell.
The security team began clearing the Pollutant corpses and evacuating the contaminated patients. Fortunately, they had containment facility staff on-site to provide immediate preliminary treatment.
Li Zhiyan stood at the entrance of the security booth, staring at the Undertaker’s remains.
A blue butterfly landed on his fingertip. He glanced at it briefly before returning his gaze to the corpse.
"It’s been completely devoured," Li Zhiyan murmured. "Nothing left but an empty shell—not a trace of contamination remains."
"What an appetite."
Just then, an excited shout came from the containment team.
He turned to see a group of relatively stable survivors crowding around a young man. Even from a distance, Li Zhiyan’s sharp hearing caught their words clearly.
"Xiao Ji, you’re finally back!"
"You have no idea what we’ve been through!"
"Thank goodness you’re safe! Once this is over, we’re definitely celebrating!"
Li Zhiyan observed the young man in the crowd—dressed in a white lab coat and black-framed glasses.
His expression was cold, his features stern, and his gaze lacked warmth. Yet, he listened attentively to those around him and occasionally responded with a few words, exuding an air of quiet approachability.
After watching for a while, Li Zhiyan reached into his pocket and pulled out a white mushroom.
He held it up, then tilted it toward Shen Ji’s face as if framing him.
After a moment of contemplation, he nodded in satisfaction.
"A feast for the eyes."
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