Pollutant Disguise Plan (POLLUTANT)
Chu Ye was assigned to an area under heavy guard by the security team.
This place was the medical training base of the containment facility, housing some young individuals who might awaken special abilities. The protective measures here were excellent, with comprehensive anti-contamination equipment.
Not just the Containment Facility—both the Security Team and the Anti-Contamination Control Center had similar setups. Back when Chu Ye was on the front lines, he had even gone to recruit people from such places. It was a cherished memory from the past.
As Chu Ye reminisced, the door beside him creaked open, and a little girl bounded out.
Chu Ye glanced over curiously, then his eyes lit up.
A Sensory-type Mutant? Such a promising talent, and she was in the Containment Facility? And so young!
No matter which side you looked at it, Sensory-type Mutants were rare talents. A high-level Sensory-type Mutant could quickly locate the core of contamination on the battlefield, saving precious time that could mean the difference between life and death for countless civilians and security personnel. That was why the security team had always prioritized recruiting them.
Chu Ye could barely contain his excitement and wanted to strike up a conversation with the little girl. But before he could act, another person emerged from the doorway—this time, an adult woman.
"Guoguo, stop jumping around. You'll disturb the people downstairs," the woman called to the girl ahead.
"Got it, Mom!"
The woman clearly noticed Chu Ye. She bent down to pick up the little girl named 'Guoguo' and gave Chu Ye a polite smile before carrying the child downstairs.
Realizing he might have startled the mother and daughter, Chu Ye felt a little awkward. In the end, he could only turn and retreat into his assigned room.
With a click, the door automatically locked behind him. He sank onto the sofa in this temporary residence.
He then called Li Zhiyan.
"Li Zhiyan, guess what? The Q City Containment Facility actually has a Sensory-type Mutant! A really young kid! A kid with limitless potential!"
Li Zhiyan tossed his phone onto the table and sighed, already exasperated by Chu Ye's booming voice.
"You didn't know? Before the Undertaker contamination outbreak in Q City, the facility had successfully cured a contaminated patient. After recovery, the patient awakened a talent and becoming a C-class Sensory-type Mutant, currently under the facility's protection”
"Is it her? A C-class at that—what a prodigy!"
Chu Ye exclaimed, "Do you think our Anti-Contamination Control Center can poach her?"
He didn’t even try to hide his intentions, his tone brimming with eagerness.
The Anti-Contamination Control Center, the Security Force, and the Containment Facilities were all part of the same system, but they still had different responsibilities.
With the number of Mutants being limited, competition was inevitable when resources were stretched thin—unless it was an emergency, in which case, personnel would be dispatched to the most critical areas.
For instance, during the recent contamination outbreak in Q City, the facility was operating beyond capacity and simply couldn’t cope. Even Zhou Ye’s first thought had been to send Shen Ji, a newly awakened Mutant, to assist the facility.
Under normal circumstances, if they could successfully poach someone, it means more power to them!
"Instead of trying to poach this Sensory-type Mutant, you should think about how to poach the doctor who cured her."
"Poaching the doctor would be downright heartless. Why would we do that?"
Sometimes, Li Zhiyan wondered if the battlefield had completely devoured Chu Ye’s brain. How could someone so sharp in combat become so clueless the moment he stepped off the field?
Li Zhiyan yawned, deciding against scolding him. Chu Ye was, after all, a patient—berating a patient wasn’t exactly proper.
"Figure it out yourself."
"Fine, I will." Chu Ye replayed their conversation in his head.
A contaminated patient had been cured, and after recovery, they awakened as a Mutant—a C-class Sensory-type talent at that. Such a thing was practically unheard of, given how low the cure rate for contamination disease was. To hit the jackpot on top of that?
It was like stumbling upon a Healing-type Mutant out of nowhere.
A thought flashed through Chu Ye’s mind, and he suddenly froze.
"Hey, no way…" Chu Ye stood up. "Don’t tell me Q City Containment Facility has a Healing-type Mutant."
Li Zhiyan neither confirmed nor denied it.
"Holy shit, a Healing-type Mutant?!" Chu Ye paced around the small room, whether from excitement or something else, it was hard to tell. "Wait, all Healing-type Mutants are registered with the Anti-Contamination Control Center. How did Q City suddenly get one? Is it a newly awakened case?!"
"Shouldn’t we report this to the Anti-Contamination Control Center immediately?"
"If you report it, your treatment goes down the drain," Li Zhiyan said slowly.
Chu Ye, who had already pressed the first digit of the number, immediately withdrew his hand. "Why?"
"I’ve tested the waters. This suspected Healing-type Mutant has no intention of leaving the facility and is quite averse to the Security Force. The Facility has kept the news tightly under wraps—neither side seems willing to report it. If you blow the lid off this, I can’t guarantee this Mutant will still agree to treat you."
Sweat beaded on Chu Ye’s forehead.
He wiped it away before speaking again. "So that’s why you suggested I come to this facility for treatment?"
"But can this person really cure me?”
It wasn’t as if Chu Ye had never been treated by a Healing-type Mutant before.
Healing-type Mutants were rare but not nonexistent. The Anti-Contamination Control Center had a few, and they'd initiated a 'Contamination Disease Doctor Training Program’. However, the program hadn't been officially implemented yet. All selected candidates had attempted treatments on Chu Ye, but the final outcome was that his contamination couldn't be eradicated at all.
Those intangible, unfathomable things had already penetrated his internal organs, corroding down to the bone. When he went for scans, all that showed up were pitch-black clouds of fog.
He'd been given a death sentence and was issued a critical condition notice, but Chu Ye refused to accept it. So he kept searching for possible treatments.
He didn't want to die so quickly or easily. He had to hold on long enough to find the missing people before leaving this world.
Ding-dong—the doorbell rang.
"Can't talk anymore, the doctor's here."
Chu Ye hung up the phone and opened the door to see the young doctor standing outside.
He was still wearing a white coat, with strikingly good looks—sharp and handsome. Fortunately, the black-framed glasses on the bridge of his nose added a touch of refinement. The man seemed somewhat taciturn, but his clothes were impeccably neat and fitted, giving off a comfortable vibe at first glance.
People with this kind of demeanor were rare in the security team. No wonder he was a doctor.
Chu Ye glanced at his name tag again.
"Dr. Shen?”
"I'm not a doctor," Shen Ji replied. "The prescriptions are handled by Dr. Wen. I'm just here to deliver the medication and assess your contamination levels. In reality, I'm just a staff member—after the doctor prescribes the medicine, my job is to ensure contaminated patients take it and record their contamination levels at various intervals."
The facility was entirely different from the security team and the Control Center. It specialized in treatment and dealing exclusively with patients carrying contamination. There were far too few people who were both doctors and Mutants, so the facility recruited a large number of Mutants to assist in the work.
They were also medical personnel, even if they didn't participate in prescribing or preparing medicine.
Shen Ji placed the medication on the table. "This is your dose for today."
Chu Ye had always followed medical advice. After thanking him, he swallowed the pills in front of Shen Ji, then downed a glass of water. While taking the medicine, he also subtly assessed the type—no different from what he'd taken before, aside from minor variations in quantity.
Still, he couldn't shake a faint sense of unease and a little hope.
Without Chu Ye noticing at all, fungal filaments gradually infiltrated his body. They no longer resisted the new territory; instead, they excitedly scurried about, staking their claim while voraciously devouring the contamination.
Like an exuberant puppy.
【This contamination is truly terrifying,】 the system suddenly remarked.
【He's a B-class Mutant. For the contamination to have taken hold so thoroughly, the Pollutant must be at least Level A—possibly even Level S.】
Through the fungal filaments' perspective, Shen Ji could also sense Chu Ye's physical condition.
Inside, it was pitch-black. The contamination was far more stubborn than expected, having completely eroded this man. On the surface, his contamination level was only 39, but in reality, he was more dangerous than a patient at 89. Just a little more, and he could directly mutate into a Pollutant.
It seemed this was the real reason Chu Ye had chosen to stay in the contamination zone in the original story.
He had realized it—he wasn't just dying. He was going to become the very thing he despised most: a Pollutant. So he'd rather be buried in that unknown contaminated land alongside his teammates.
"Curing him is much harder than treating Chen Guo. Chen Guo was only at Stage I contamination, but he's actually reached Stage IV now."
"What a hassle. I should've just left it alone."
But Shen Ji had a terrible habit—he hated leaving things half-done. Once he started something, he would see it through, including treating these patients.
[That’s right, but it’s not entirely impossible.]
"Really?"
[In ancient times, they scraped poison from bones. Today, we use mushrooms to gnaw away contamination. His treatment can’t be gentle—we have to viciously tear through the contamination. It’ll damage his body, but that’s still better than letting him mutate into a Pollutant.]
"Sounds excruciating."
[It absolutely will be. He might even cry from the pain.]
Shen Ji studied Chu Ye for a moment, imagining what this man would look like in tears.
"Mr. Chu, I should warn you in advance—your treatment may be quite painful going forward."
His expression remained as composed as ever, calm and professional, as if he were simply informing a patient of standard precautions to prevent adverse reactions.
But to Chu Ye, those words hit like an earthquake.
"P-Painful?" Chu Ye was stunned, but a flicker of hope sparked in his eyes.
After seeking treatment for so long, no doctor had ever told him, "The process will be painful." Everyone else had just said, "There’s no cure for you."
Several Healing-type Mutants had already given him that verdict, even though his contamination level was only at 39.
"That’s no problem at all! I’ll cooperate fully—I can endure it!"
Chu Ye grew animated. "As long as it can cure me, I’ll do anything!"
"Your contamination levels may fluctuate. That doesn’t necessarily mean anything, so you’ll need to stay mentally stable," Shen Ji added.
"I understand!" Chu Ye said earnestly. "I won’t give up until the very end."
"Thank you for your cooperation." Shen Ji nodded. "I’ll return tomorrow morning with the medication. For now, get some rest."
As Shen Ji left, Chu Ye paced excitedly around the room, circling several times. He wanted to vent his exhilaration to Li Zhiyan right away but managed to restrain himself.
This unprecedented experience ignited hope in his heart. Could it really work? When would the painful treatment start?
Never in his life had he imagined he’d actually look forward to pain.
And contamination fluctuations—how severe would they be?
A year had passed since his contamination, yet his levels had barely changed, only creeping from 37 to 39 on the detector.
It didn’t seem dangerous at all, yet no one could cure him.
Telling himself to stay calm, Chu Ye picked up a ceramic cup to pour himself some cold water, hoping it would cool his feverish excitement.
Mid-pour, the contamination detector on his right wrist suddenly lit up.
Chu Ye froze while staring down at it. He’d worn the device ever since his diagnosis, but it had never activated on its own—except for the two times his contamination level had slightly increased.
He remembered Shen Ji’s warning about possible fluctuations…
Ding-dong. The detector emitted a mechanical chime.
"Alert: Current contamination level detected at 38, a decrease of 1 from yesterday. Contamination levels have dropped. Wishing you good health."
Chu Ye's hand trembled slightly.
He failed to grip the cup properly, and the ceramic mug slipped from his fingers before shattering on the floor with its remaining half-cup of cold water. The faucet was still running and was spilling water across the tiles, but Chu Ye paid no attention to the mess.
No one could comprehend what Chu Ye was feeling at that moment.
He didn't even think he was thinking at all—he couldn't feel anything. His mind went completely blank, leaving only sheer disbelief.
It decreased?
How could it suddenly decrease?
What had he done? He'd merely taken a handful of contamination medication that he'd believed to be completely ineffective.
Treatment? When had he been treated? Why hadn't he noticed anything at all?
The contamination level decreased.
The contamination level decreased.
The contamination level decreased...
Only after coming to his senses did Chu Ye realize he was crying.
Large teardrops fell onto the contamination detector, and he hurriedly wiped them away.
As a high-ranking official in the Anti-Contamination Control Center and a frontline soldier, how could he possibly cry?!
But no matter how hard he tried, the tears wouldn't stop—they only came faster. Eventually, he gave up wiping them and simply let them fall.
It was as if he was finally releasing all the terror he'd felt when he was first diagnosed with contamination disease, and the years of desperate searching that had yielded nothing.
...So miracles really could happen to him.
…….
After delivering the medicine to Chu Ye, Shen Ji's work was essentially done.
Zhang Qingli had returned to work after being discharged from the hospital. All his patients had been returned to him, but something was very strange these days—Zhang Qingli couldn't understand why these patients had shown clear improvement under Shen Ji's care, even if their contamination levels had only dropped by a few points. Under his own supervision, however, not a single point would budge.
It was downright humiliating.
To this, Shen Ji could only console him: "Perhaps they've developed resistance after taking the same medication for too long. Just adjust the prescription slightly and it should be fine."
Zhang Qingli was half-convinced and went to consult the doctor in charge about adjusting the medication.
After changing into casual clothes, Shen Ji left the facility.
Following the "Midnight Singing" contamination incident, the facility had arranged new accommodations for Shen Ji and Zhang Qingli. The new place was quite far from the facility and required a shuttle bus to get there.
Yes, the facility even had its own shuttle service.
While waiting for the bus, Shen Ji's phone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket and glanced at the screen—it was [Troublesome Protagonist].
Shen Ji: "..."
He didn’t want to answer.
[He usually just sends you random photos of flowers and plants. Why is he calling today?]
[I’m curious—why has he suddenly become so persistent in contacting you?]
"I’m curious too," Shen Ji muttered while staring at the caller ID. "If I ignore him, given the protagonist’s personality, he’ll stop after one missed call."
"Just say I was too busy with overtime to answer."
Indeed, in the original story, the protagonist was fiercely independent and self-centered, and acting entirely on whim. He could casually pick poisonous mushrooms in contamination zones to toss into a hotpot, or lounge beside a Pollutant’s corpse and play mobile games. If something displeased him, he’d drop it without hesitation.
With that kind of temperament, one missed call should be enough to make him lose interest.
Yet this time, Shen Ji miscalculated.
He watched in disbelief as Li Zhiyan dialed a third time.
His colleagues waiting for the bus kept glancing over with their expressions, a mix of concern, curiosity, and the post-overtime irritation of people who just wanted silence.
Shen Ji sighed, stepped out of the bus facility waiting shed, and answered the call in a secluded spot.
"Good evening, Mr. Li," Shen Ji said smoothly, as if he hadn’t been deliberately ignoring him. "Apologies—I was working earlier and didn’t have my phone on me."
Li Zhiyan couldn’t care less whether Shen Ji had missed his calls due to overtime. As long as he picked up now, it was fine.
"Is Chu Ye under your treatment?"
"If you wish to inquire about a patient’s condition, please contact the facility’s administration or the patient directly. Staff members are not permitted to disclose medical information to third parties." Shen Ji’s tone was impeccably professional, his words textbook official. "If there’s nothing else, I’ll hang up now.”
Li Zhiyan cut straight to the point. "You’re being pretty obvious about avoiding me."
"Not at all," Shen Ji denied. "Mr. Li, you’re one of the facility’s most valued collaborators. Having you around puts everyone at ease."
"Quite the opposite. I’m probably the last person your facility wants to work with. The contamination zones I lead my teams into are high-risk areas. Your people wouldn’t want to be assigned to such deadly missions either."
"You’re mistaken," Shen Ji replied earnestly. "When it comes to saving lives, our facility shares the same resolve as you."
Li Zhiyan fell silent
Just as Shen Ji thought he’d hung up, Li Zhiyan suddenly spoke again.
"Every time I talk to you, I’m reminded of how perfectly you match my ideal. I was ready to give up yesterday, but you fit too well—I can’t bring myself to let go."
Shen Ji: "..."
‘What does the protagonist mean by that? Is he actually into me?’
[No way? The protagonist is actually gay?! Shen Ji, you must not agree to him!]
‘Absolutely not!’
"But I called this time about Chu Ye's matter." Li Zhiyan changed the subject, "Can he be cured?"
Shen Ji feigned confusion, "You should really consult the doctors at the facility for such matters. I'm not a doctor; I don't handle medication preparation. I only administer the prescribed drugs to each contaminated patient."
"Same difference as asking you." Li Zhiyan didn't care about these details. "Can your facility cure Chu Ye?"
"That depends on the doctors, but I believe they'll do their utmost to treat Mr. Chu."
Silence fell on the other end again.
After a few seconds, Li Zhiyan spoke, "Impressive. Your answer might as well have been no answer at all..."
"Fine. If Chu Ye can be cured, I'll unconditionally agree to one condition from the facility. How about that?"
[What?! Unconditionally agree to one condition! Right, why didn't I think of that?!]
[The protagonist and Chu Ye are friends, good friends at that. If we cure Chu Ye, the protagonist will owe us a favor. How could he possibly hunt us down after that?!]
[Shen Ji! Agree! This will be our bargaining chip later!]
Shen Ji: ...
Fickle system, you were just begging me not to agree a moment ago.
Moreover, Shen Ji thought the system was being overly optimistic.
After all, Li Zhiyan was the protagonist and an S-class Mutant on humanity's side. Born to protect humans, how could he possibly spare a Level S Pollutant that was capable of causing massive terror incidents just because of a friend's debt of gratitude?
At best, this promise would only serve as moral leverage to use against him later.
But moral leverage wasn't bad either.
Thinking this, Shen Ji responded with some amusement, "Then to what extent can Mr. Li commit?"
Li Zhiyan sat in his chair, deep in thought.
Across from him, a man and woman pretended to be handling documents, but their ears were practically perked up and dying to crowd around Li Zhiyan for gossip.
Zhou Ye and Jiang Ying exchanged glances, their faces alight with excitement.
'See, Vice-captain? I wasn't lying! The captain's really being controlled by someone!'
Jiang Ying shot him a look in response, 'Keep it down. If the captain notices, we'll be kicked out.'
'If we miss out on the captain's embarrassing moment, it's on you!'
Li Zhiyan ignored their antics as he seriously considered before answering earnestly: "Nothing that crosses my bottom line."
Here it comes—the bottom line issue.
Shen Ji knew all too well that for a novel's protagonist, their bottom line was always the biggest problem.
Usually, a protagonist's bottom line involves grand moral principles about protecting humanity.
[His bottom line? What exactly is the protagonist's bottom line? Could a Level S Pollutant even touch it?]
'Not sure.'
A shuttle bus arrived, and all the waiting passengers boarded. Shen Ji hesitated but ultimately stayed behind to continue the conversation with Li Zhiyan.
He asked, "What is Mr. Li's bottom line, then?"
Was it humanity? The Anti-Contamination Control Center? Or perhaps his team members?
Amidst these thoughts, Li Zhiyan slowly replied, "Wearing red underwear."
Shen Ji: ...
[...]
"Red is my unlucky color. Every time I wear red, something bad happens. So no one can make me wear red underwear—not even during my zodiac year."
Shen Ji: ...
[...]
Shen Ji hung up the phone and gazed at the departing shuttle bus, lost in thought.
A few seconds later, he murmured very softly, "I should've just hung up and boarded the bus to go home and sleep."
[Same.]
Translator:
I'm also speechless :-)
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