Pollutant Disguise Plan (POLLUTANT)
While Shen Ji was being fussed over by the facility, Li Zhiyan leisurely opened his eyes and stretched.
The guard’s uniform jacket draped over him slid to the floor with the motion, but he paid it no mind, simply exhaling deeply.
Only after finishing his stretch did he glance at his clenched right hand. Nestled in his palm was an almost imperceptibly thin strand of white-pink mycelium, translucent and shimmering like crystal. It looked so enticing—no, not in an edible way, but in a way that made him reluctant to let go.
The mycelium struggled to escape his grasp as it kept biting down viciously on his index finger.
Li Zhiyan blinked in surprise as a sharp sting shot through his finger.
This little thing could actually pierce his skin.
Now he was truly unwilling to release it. He turned the strand over before tugging at it playfully as it frantically gnawed at him in protest.
Did it really think it could escape once in his hands?
Just as he was thoroughly enjoying himself, the phone on the table rang. Li Zhian picked it up with his free hand.
"Hello?"
"Captain..." Jiang Ying drew out her words, looking like she was about to collapse from exhaustion. "You're awake now, so can you handle the aftermath?"
"Aftermath?" Li Zhiyan looked puzzled. "What aftermath?"
Jiang Ying had expected this response. "Everyone's asleep. If you don't wake them up, there's no way I can. If we wait for you to remember, they'll be sleeping for three days straight."
Li Zhiyan suddenly realized, "Oh, right."
He placed his phone on the table and casually snapped his fingers.
With a soft click, pale blue butterflies materialized before each sleeping person. They fluttered to people's ears, their wings beating just twice before the sleepers began murmuring in their dreams, and some even stirred awake.
Jiang Ying finally breathed a sigh of relief as she watched the person at the conference room door rub their temples and open their eyes.
"By the way, could you check with the facility for me?" Li Zhiyan added. "Ask how Dr. Shen is doing now."
"Dr. Shen... he's unconscious," Jiang Ying said, trying to break the news gently. "After you entered the dream, everyone who accepted the confession fell unconscious. They might be the only group affected by the peach blossom tree incident so far."
"He's fine. I ran into him in Female A's dream," Li Zhiyan replied while idly toying with the mycelium in his hand as he spoke to Jiang Ying over the phone. "Later, he disappeared from the dream, so I assumed he must have woken up."
Jiang Ying's eyes widened in shock. "He woke up?!"
"Are you underestimating him? His talent level is definitely no lower than yours," Li Zhiyan said, his tone relaxed. "Even if he had fallen unconscious like the others, he would've shaken it off quickly. Otherwise, why do you think I'd confess to him without being sure?"
Jiang Ying hesitated for three seconds. "Because you couldn't express your feelings and needed an excuse to convey your love..."
Li Zhiyan: "..."
"Because I trusted he'd be fine," Li Zhiyan sighed. "What weird stuff have you been reading lately?"
"Blame Zhou Ye," Jiang Ying admitted when she realized how absurd she sounded. She covered her forehead and closed her eyes. "He keeps whispering in my ear about how you're pining hopelessly, making compromises, even pretending our team has some lighthearted daily life just to get him to join."
Li Zhiyan: "..."
"Spreading baseless rumors within the team, showing no discipline—fine him a thousand yuan."
Jiang Ying: "..."
Ahem. Sorry, Zhou Ye. Getting you fined twice in a few days.
After hanging up, Jiang Ying contacted the facility and confirmed that Shen Ji had indeed woken up—even before Li Zhiyan had resolved the contamination.
Jiang Ying was a B-class Mutant, and even she had nearly been affected by the Gardener's contaminated seeds. That alone spoke volumes about the intensity of this contamination. Yet Shen Ji had managed to wake up on his own, suggesting his talent level was extraordinarily high—at least B-class, and maybe even A-class.
She couldn't help but marvel once again at Li Zhiyan's sharp eye for talent and on how he had singled out this one person in the entire Q City Facility.
This person was, at minimum, a B-class Mutant.
As the security team members gradually woke up, Jiang Ying reestablished contact with various sectors, including Li Yan, who had been stationed under the peach blossom tree earlier.
"The peach blossom tree has withered," Li Yan reported upon successfully connecting with Jiang Ying. "The tree is clearly dead. Its roots are exposed, petals scattered everywhere, leaves turned to dry husks, and the trunk has become wrinkled. We just tried cutting it with a knife—it left marks."
"Good," Jiang Ying nodded. "Now cut it down. Once we confirm the contaminated individual is completely dead, send it to the Contaminant Disposal Center."
Li Yan didn't dare delay. He immediately called over nearby workers to start cutting the tree with chainsaws.
Midway through, blood suddenly began oozing from the trunk. Li Yan halted the operation before cautiously collecting samples for contamination testing.
The detector read zero contamination levels. Exchanging glances, they decided to continue after a brief discussion.
Avoiding the bloody areas, they sawed through the withered peach tree. With a loud thud, the trunk crashed to the ground, revealing something unexpected.
At the tree's core was a hollow cavity containing a woman in a white dress that was now stained crimson with blood, her body embedded in the wood. Her open eyes stared skyward.
A gaping wound at her neck revealed withered vines within the bloody cavity—like uprooted seedlings torn violently from soil, leaving distinctive crater-like patterns.
Li Yan frowned momentarily before his expression smoothed. "It's the Gardener's contaminated seed."
Though neither high-ranking in the Anti-Contamination Control Center nor part of Special Task Force, Li Yan was a veteran guard who'd handled numerous contamination incidents.
He instantly recognized this wasn't ordinary contamination, but the Gardener's contaminated seed
"What's that?" asked a rookie team member. "Is 'Gardener' a Pollutant's name?"
A colleague answered for Li Yan, "A Level S Pollutant. Only four are confirmed globally, and the Gardener from [Horror Botanical Garden] is the most active."
The rookie paled. "This is Level S?!"
"Don't worry, this isn't the main entity."
Then they proceeded to educate the newcomer.
The Level S Pollutant [Gardener]'s plantation was mysteriously mundane. Occasionally, humans who wandered in were released but most were mentally broken and implanted with contaminated seeds.
To prevent catastrophe, the Control Center issued execution orders for such cases. In response, the Gardener began erasing victims' memories before release, making detection impossible.
Nowadays, discovery only occurs during seed germination—the most dangerous and destructive phase.
"Gardener seed incidents happen frequently even now," Li Yan concluded with a weary sigh. "It's a cruel Pollutant. Rather than infecting humans with contamination disease, it prefers merging them with plants to create inhuman abominations."
"Look at her—she's still human, yet forcibly stuffed into the trunk of a peach blossom tree."
Li Yan shook his head as he spoke. "Let's test immediately whether this corpse is the missing Lu Kexin."
Regardless, the fact that such terrifying contamination erupted in City Q was sheer luck, given that Li Zhiyan happened to be temporarily stationed there. Had it been any other city, it might have turned into a wasteland overnight, with the contamination seeds draining all life in mere hours.
The thought of this possibility sent a chill down Li Yan's spine, especially that he had personally experienced the horror of losing control of his own mind.
It was high time for the Anti-Contamination Control Center to elevate its alert level for the Level S Pollutant known as Gardener.
……
Li Zhiyan prepared a transparent glass container. As soon as he placed the fungal filaments inside, they immediately clung to the crevices of the box.
"How beautiful," Li Zhiyan murmured as he crouched beside the glass case. "Let's cultivate them."
Nodding in satisfaction, he repeated, "Yes, let's cultivate them!"
Standing up, he carried the container to his flowerbed and placed it at the center. Sunlight spilled over the glass, rendering its contents invisible.
"As expected—its concealment ability is extraordinary," Li Zhiyan remarked before glancing up at the skylight.
Since the apocalypse began, new lifeforms had emerged worldwide, particularly mutated plants. Even the contamination inhibitors developed by the Containment Facilities were extracted from post-apocalyptic flora. So the appearance of peculiar fungal strands wasn't entirely surprising.
But what if these filaments could roam freely through nightmares and were completely unaffected?
What if they could devour the contamination clinging to Li Zhiyan himself, swallowing his little butterflies one by one?
Now that was extraordinary.
"Little one, what exactly are you?" Li Zhiyan tapped the glass container lightly.
"Captain!”
Before Li Zhiyan could finish his soliloquy, a loud voice echoed outside the door.
"Captain!" Zhou Ye wailed. "Why did you dock my pay? No way! Captain, please tell me this isn’t true!"
Li Zhiyan: "…"
He sighed, leaving the mycelium and glass container behind to first deal with this big cat who had just returned from a business trip only to find his salary cut.
Inside the glass container, the mycelium quietly observed Li Zhiyan and waited until they were certain he had truly left before frantically scurrying around the box.
Wuwuwu! We’ve been caught! Master, come save us!
Shen Ji had been awakened by the Containment Facility staff, and the moment he regained consciousness, he withdrew most of the mycelium. However, a few strands had accidentally remained in the dream and hid on Lu Kexin while nibbling on residual contamination as they waited for Li Zhiyan to leave. But who would’ve thought Li Zhiyan would lure them out with a butterfly?
Wuwuwu, but the butterfly was delicious, and so pretty!
The moment they saw it, they forgot all about hiding.
The little mushroom didn’t mean to!
Now that the big butterfly was gone, they had to find a way to escape quickly!
The mycelium gathered together to form a single mushroom—pinkish-white and translucent. They spread their caps while releasing spores into the air. In the next moment, countless mushrooms sprouted inside the glass container and filled it completely within seconds.
They continued multiplying until the glass container cracked under the pressure.
Crack!
The container shattered, and the mycelium scattered in all directions, fleeing.
They swarmed over Li Zhiyan’s entire garden.
To reproduce, they had to consume the contamination stored within them, which was agonizing. So after escaping the glass box, they immediately started gnawing and devouring every trace of contamination in the garden.
What? These flowers barely had any contamination?
The little mushroom didn’t understand, and the little mushroom didn’t care! They were going to nibble anyway!
Crack!
The contamination suppressor installed at the top of the garden split open. The next second, an alarm blared from Li Zhiyan’s communicator.
"Warning! Contamination suppressor malfunction detected. Immediate action required!"
Li Zhiyan glanced at the communicator in confusion before raising a hand to silence Zhou Ye’s complaints.
Zhou Ye blinked as he cautiously studied Li Zhiyan’s expression to confirm he wasn’t angry before speaking. "Boss, your communicator is linked to a contamination suppressor? Where?"
"My garden." Li Zhiyan turned and strode back.
Zhou Ye hesitated for three seconds before deciding to follow and see for himself.
Upon reaching the garden, Zhou Ye realized: some spectacles really aren’t worth watching!
Li Zhiyan’s beloved garden had been utterly ravaged—broken branches and withered leaves everywhere, shattered flowerpots, and flowers lying half-dead on the ground with their roots exposed. The slightly sentient contaminated flowers swayed their leaves as if sobbing in complaint.
Li Zhiyan’s brow twitched imperceptibly. He looked up, but the mycelium had already spotted the window. The moment his gaze landed on them, they darted through the opening and vanished.
Not even a single spore was left behind.
Blue butterflies rapidly materialized in the air and swarming out the window in pursuit of the fleeing mycelium.
Sensing the oppressive aura around Li Zhiyan, Zhou Ye didn’t even dare to ask about his salary anymore. He carefully retreated, step by step, trying to escape this disaster zone.
"Stop." Li Zhiyan’s voice froze him in place.
Zhou Ye suddenly stopped in his tracks before shaking his head rapidly. "Captain! This has nothing to do with me, I don't know anything about it!"
"Nobody said it did." Li Zhiyan glanced at his disheveled flowerbed, then at the large cat beside him.
Forget it—asking a cat to tidy up the garden was too much to expect.
Li Zhiyan crouched down and flipped over the nearest flowerpot. "You're supposed to be contaminated entities. Surely you're not so fragile that a little fall would kill you."
"...Hm? Where's the contamination on you?"
After a second of silence, Li Zhiyan frowned. "Eaten away?"
Just then, the doorbell rang again.
Li Zhiyan set the pot aside and went to answer the door. The moment it opened, he saw a familiar face.
Shen Ji stood at his doorstep while holding a little girl in his arms.
Shen Ji, who worked at the facility, rarely wore anything other than his uniform—it made up the bulk of people's impression of him. But on the rare occasions he did change clothes, it was always striking. Like now, in his light tan overcoat and white dress shirt.
The white shirt made him look proper and aloof, while the tan coat lent him an oddly gentle air. He always had a penchant for using refined touches to polish his image.
Especially when holding a little girl—it amplified that gentle quality, making him instinctively trustworthy.
Truly, good looks made any outfit work.
"So when are you going to notice I'm here too?"
Li Zhiyan turned to see Chu Ye in his Anti-Contamination Control Center uniform and was staring at him gloomily. "You only have eyes for Dr. Shen, don't you?"
Blinking, Li Zhiyan asked in confusion, "When did you get here?"
"Do you respawn or something?"
Shen Ji: "..."
Chu Ye: "..."
[...I give up. Anyone who befriends Li Zhiyan is just doomed to suffer.]
……..
Shen Ji was in a shared sensory state with the mycelium. He'd just been celebrating escaping the protagonist after being awakened from his dream by facility staff—only for the mycelium to get caught by Li Zhiyan the next second.
Those greedy little things had been lured out by Li Zhiyan's butterflies, leaving Shen Ji with heart palpitations, a splitting headache, and utter sleeplessness in the dead of night.
Now Shen Ji had no choice but to find a way to retrieve the mycelium.
Coincidentally, the security team came to borrow Chen Guo from the facility.
They'd practically begged on their knees behind Director Wen and even piled gifts in the office just to get Chen Guo's temporary assistance. Currently, in all of Q City—no, the entire Q Province—Chen Guo was the only near-B-class Sensory-type Mutant left!
In the end, Wen Jingyu had no choice but to relent after consulting Chen Guo, who agreed to help.
But they couldn't just send a child like Chen Guo alone—her mother was an ordinary person. That was when Shen Ji volunteered to escort her.
Who knew what Wen Jingyu was thinking? He hesitated and gave Shen Ji several conflicted looks before finally agreeing—though not without reminding Shen Ji to come back and that the facility would always be his home.
...As if seeing off an adopted son.
[But now that the mycelium escaped on their own, we don't need to take extra action. That's good—it's too easy for the protagonist to notice any tricks.]
Shen Ji sighed silently to himself.
Although the mycelium had fled, they hadn't completely escaped. The butterflies chased after them, making it impossible for them to return to Shen Ji's side. They could only run while wailing loudly, utterly aggrieved.
Each strand was crying for their master to hurry up and bite the big butterfly! To avenge them!
Shen Ji: "..."
If he actually tried to bite Li Zhiyan, he wouldn't even need to expose himself—Li Zhiyan would send him straight to the Containment Headquarters's psychiatric ward.
"What do you want?" Li Zhiyan turned to Chu Ye. "I need to tend to my garden. It was vandalized today."
Then he looked back at Shen Ji. "Dr. Shen, would you like to help me with the garden? Though it looks a bit unsightly now, your photography skills could surely work wonders!"
"Huh? Someone actually dared to steal from your place?" Chu Ye interjected. "You're an S-class Mutant!"
"And they ate several of my butterflies," Li Zhiyan sighed. "So, why are you really here?"
Chu Ye was speechless. "Seriously, did you forget? I'm the lead investigator for this contamination incident!"
Li Zhiyan thought for a moment. "Oh! Now I remember."
"The Level S Pollutant, the Gardener, right?"
After recovering, Chu Ye had returned to work at the Anti-Contamination Control Center. It was then that fragments of sealed memories began resurfacing.
He suddenly recalled seeing peculiar plants in that mysterious contamination zone. He even vaguely remembered being so frightened by something that he fell to the ground and desperately grabbing at vines from a tree.
And strange noises seemed to have echoed in his mind back then.
Though the memories were hazy, his experience told him that the contamination plaguing him for so long was likely the work of the Level S Pollutant, the Gardener!
Thus, he insisted on leading this investigation, determined to find that plantation and locate his missing teammates.
That was why he was here now.
Li Zhiyan opened the door. "Alright, come in."
Watching Li Zhiyan walk away, Shen Ji held Chen Guo and turned to Chu Ye.
"What's wrong with him?"
As the protagonist, Li Zhiyan might be eccentric, but he wouldn't normally forget details about Pollutants. Yet today, he'd asked twice why Chu Ye was here.
He even seemed unaware of why Shen Ji had brought Chen Guo.
"His ability—using it too many times at once turns him into an idiot," Chu Ye whispered conspiratorially. "Many at the Anti-Contamination Control Center say his power is too overpowered, so this is the price. His memory deteriorates for days after each use."
"Like now, where he needs reminders several times to remember something."
"But this state only lasts about a week before he returns to normal."
Shen Ji nodded thoughtfully. "I see."
Yet the original novel had never mentioned Li Zhiyan experiencing this condition.
Or perhaps he'd simply never noticed it in the story.
[It was probably there.] The system scanned the text again. [The novel describes the protagonist being in poor condition after handling Pollutants—sleeping excessively and avoiding outings but usually recovering within days. The author just didn't emphasize it, so readers overlooked it.]
[This might have been foreshadowing for... well, you know what I'm going to say but since the story was axed, this plot point was never resolved.]
[Now that the novel has become reality, it will automatically fill in the gaps.]
Shen Ji hesitated for a few seconds before turning to Chu Ye.
"Should we send him some tonics?"
Chu Ye was taken aback. "Huh?"
"Brain-boosting tonics," Shen Ji pondered. "Ginseng? Realgar wine? Or maybe Dong'e donkey-hide gelatin would be better?"
Chu Ye: ...?
Wait—ginseng is one thing, but realgar wine? Dong'e donkey-hide gelatin??
"So you think ginseng would be better?" Shen Ji shoved Chen Guo into his arms and immediately headed for the door. "I'll go buy some now."
Hah, venting anger doesn’t require biting someone—he could just mock him sarcastically for turning into an idiot.
And so, Li Zhiyan stared blankly at the ginseng on the table. After a while, he glanced at Shen Ji, then turned his gaze to Chu Ye, who was shrinking into the chair across from him.
Chu Ye looked everywhere—the sky, the floor, the clock—anywhere but at him.
That bastard had gone around spreading rumors again, claiming he’d turned into an idiot.
"Dr. Shen, would you like some water?"
Since it was free, Li Zhiyan tore open the ginseng and broke it into his cup.
Chu Ye, ever the opportunist, grabbed his own cup to pour water, refusing to give Li Zhiyan the chance to retaliate.
Shen Ji shook his head. "Not thirsty right now."
Li Zhiyan sighed and poured water for himself before sitting back down. "So, what’s the situation now? Why is Dr. Shen here too? Were you also part of this plan?"
"No," Shen Ji said while adjusting Chen Guo, who was sitting on his lap. "I came with her."
"You should drink more water," Chu Ye muttered in exasperation. "Chen Guo is a Sensory-type Mutant—I had to beg to get her here. Dr. Shen is just accompanying her. Don’t scare them off."
Li Zhiyan took a sip of water. "So, the higher-ups are really planning to deal with the Gardener this time?"
"Naturally."
When it came to serious matters, Chu Ye finally became earnest. "The Gardener’s contaminated seed incidents have been happening more and more frequently lately. It’s not just Q City—many regions have seen outbreaks of its seeds and causing severe damage. You could even say it’s growing increasingly brazen."
Humans always test boundaries, let alone a Pollutant.
After repeated failures to handle its contaminated seeds, the Gardener had concluded that human forces were nothing more than ants in the dirt and unworthy of concern.
It then had begun spreading its seeds relentlessly, and its methods growing ever more brutal.
The Anti-Contamination Control Center had finally had enough and resolved to eliminate it.
As Shen Ji listened to their discussion, he sighed inwardly to his system.
‘Feels like the plot has changed… and yet, it hasn’t.’
[Huh?]
‘Humans can no longer tolerate the unchecked actions of a Level S Pollutant, so they send the protagonist to deal with it.’
‘Only this time, the Level S Pollutant isn’t Hui—it’s the Gardener.’
[That’s just how the apocalypse is.]
[One Pollutant falls, another rises to take its place, continuing as humanity’s next target.]
[But for us, it’s different.]
The system perked up. [As long as the protagonist’s focus stays entirely on the Gardener, we can breeze right past the original story’s death flags!]
Shen Ji: …
Ah, this naive system.
Even if they bypassed the original plot, Shen Ji was still the Pollutant Hui.
Staying in the Containment Facility carried the risk of exposure—paper couldn’t hide fire forever.
Sooner or later, his identity would be revealed.
The only question was whether he’d be seen as a thorn in their side or if someone would actually believe he was a Pollutant.
Of course, Shen Ji was working hard toward the latter.
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