Pollutant Disguise Plan (POLLUTANT)
[Too bad you can't draw it, hehe!]
[Also that contamination levels are rising. By human standards, the current readings are 830, 961—over 1k now, and still climbing.]
Black mist rapidly spread through the air, and the sense of unease grew increasingly palpable.
Humans could hardly survive in highly contamination areas. Even Pollutants struggled to move in excessively contamination zones. Only mutated beings and Pollutants of Level A or higher could operate in such overwhelming contamination.
"Bringing no one else was indeed the right call," Li Zhiyan muttered as he gazed at the darkening sky.
Then he turned to Shen Ji and asked, "Will the darkness affect the little mushrooms' growth?"
Shen Ji met his gaze, pausing briefly before answering, "If you must know, mushrooms thrive in dark, damp places."
Li Zhiyan began calculating.
The sky was now shrouded in black mist and growing darker by the minute—definitely dark. It had rained earlier, and though it was just the irrigation system, the air was thick with moisture—undeniably damp.
Conclusion: This was a dark, damp environment and perfect for mushroom growth!
Meanwhile, in the crystal forest, Chu Ye was attempting to stand.
The wound on his chest hadn't fully healed, but thanks to a Mutant's enhanced regenerative abilities, the pain had dulled significantly.
Just as he prepared to move—or even seek out Li Zhiyan directly—
He froze abruptly.
Though he lacked Li Zhiyan's exaggerated contamination detection skills and was only a B-class with no sensory-type abilities, he still sensed something amiss.
The atmosphere grew oppressive.
Black mist crept in from the distance and slowly engulfed the world. The sky darkened as if choked by storm clouds.
Chu Ye braced himself against a tree trunk as he rose unsteadily. His coat draped over his shoulders, with one hand resting on the gun at his waist.
Under normal circumstances, he shouldn't use his abilities now. In some ways, "abilities" and "contamination" were just different names for the same thing. But for survival's sake, he had no choice. At worst, he'd just spend extra time in the containment facility later, maybe have Li Zhiyan bribe Doctor Shen with more gifts.
Every nerve in Chu Ye's body tensed in the stifling air.
An overwhelming, suffocating wave of contamination rolled in, carried by the encroaching black mist, and seeping into the crystal trees around him.
Due to his prior fusion with the central crystal tree, traces of residual contamination still lingered in his body.
He heard the crystal trees wailing.
No—it was the humans fused with the trees who screamed.
Chu Ye fired without hesitation.
The bullet struck a crystal tree, shattering it like glass. The fragments scattered across the ground—only to vanish instantly, leaving no trace behind.
"Illusions."
Gritting his teeth, Chu Ye took a deep breath and focused before retracing the path from his memories of merging with the crystal tree.
Clutching his chest, he sprinted toward the remembered direction while firing ahead as he ran. Bullets struck countless transparent barriers, clearing a path through the illusions.
It seemed the trees had finally realized that illusions were useless against Chu Ye. They stopped creating hallucinations and instead appeared before him in their true forms—uprooting themselves while exuding dark, contaminated air with a human wailing inside each trunk.
"It hurts so much!" they cried.
"My roots are broken, my arms are broken! Why did you cut them off?"
Their wails gradually twisted into resentment.
"Why are you the only one who can escape? Why are you the only one who didn’t turn into a tree?"
Chu Ye didn’t listen to a single word. He just simply fired his gun.
Once they became Pollutants, they were no longer human. Obsessed monsters could never comprehend the ideals they once held as people.
All they had was endless hatred and hunger.
Meanwhile, Shen Ji and Li Zhiyan simultaneously sensed a shift in the atmosphere around them.
Contamination had a scent—and a sound.
They both caught the pungent stench of contamination that was sharp enough to burn, and heard the spreading wails. The surrounding trees were in turmoil as they violently tore their roots from the earth. With every root pulled free, clusters of fungal threads came with them.
Li Zhiyan stared at the threads for a moment before turning to Shen Ji.
Shen Ji silently averted his gaze.
"I'll handle this contamination rift," Li Zhiyan said. "Would our esteemed Dr. Shen mind dealing with the rampaging plants in this botanical garden?"
Shen Ji tilted his head as he studied Li Zhiyan before finally replying, "Why should I?"
"Your patient is still in that crystal forest," Li Zhiyan countered, referring to Chu Ye. "If something happens to him, your previous efforts would’ve been wasted."
That hit Shen Ji right where it hurt.
He truly didn’t want to save Chu Ye a third time.
Shen Ji stepped past Li Zhiyan, turning his back to him as he faced the endless expanse of mountains behind them. Li Zhiyan stood with his back to Shen Ji, confronting the contamination rift that keeps spewing black mist and the Gardener whose branches were madly extending.
This was their first collaboration.
Shen Ji thought expressionlessly: And maybe their last.
The fungal threads had long since spread across the entire plantation and were just lurking beneath the soil of several mountains, ready to erupt at Shen Ji’s command.
Now, the order has come.
Shen Ji’s silver eyes gleamed with a cold, moonlit radiance as he spoke into the darkness.
"Devour them."
In an instant, the fungal threads surged forth, no longer hiding but frantically swarming toward the contaminated plants.
Hui—the most terrifying Pollutant as decreed by the author—what kind of harmless little thing could its contamination possibly be? They existed solely by their master’s will, not as some naive, docile creatures.
The threads viciously attacked every plant, undeterred even by the strengthening black mist.
In the crystal forest, Chu Ye struggled harder as blood seeped from his chest again. But he had no time to tend to it as he was forced to dodge the relentless strikes of the crystal trees.
Just as he was cornered in the center with no way to fight back, countless fungal threads suddenly burst from the ground.
Chu Ye’s eyes widened in terror.
"What?!" He stumbled back. "More weird plants?!"
But soon, he realized—these weren’t attacking him.
Those translucent, slightly pinkish things spread like an overwhelming sea that instantly envelops all the crystal trees in sight.
They were like a swarm of ravenous locusts.
Within seconds, the crystal trees collapsed with a thunderous crash before shattering into piles of glass fragments on the ground.
Just like that, Chu Ye watched as the crystal trees fell one after another. In less than ten minutes, the entire crystal forest had vanished, leaving behind nothing but an empty field and scattered debris.
This was a speed Chu Ye could hardly comprehend.
As a high-ranking official in the Control Center, he had never personally faced a Level S Pollutant (though the Gardener didn’t count). Still, he had studied the contamination capabilities of Level S Pollutants through various records.
During the earthquake in Abyss Zero, countless low-level Pollutants had fled to human settlements—all because they couldn’t withstand the corruption of [Rage].
[Rage] would devour them completely. It wouldn’t even take ten minutes for it to consume all contamination and humans within a ten-kilometer radius.
Back then, Chu Ye had wondered: What kind of scene could possibly swallow so much contamination in just ten minutes?
Now, he was witnessing it firsthand.
It was the kind of panic that came from suddenly seeing something unbelievable and the helplessness of an event defying all common sense.
Chu Ye sat on the ground, motionless. The mycelium, having finished its feast of contamination and let out a satisfied burp, noticed him. Some strands quietly crept onto his pant leg.
Chu Ye didn’t dare move a muscle with his eyes locked onto them.
Once they confirmed this human posed no threat, the mycelium swarmed away in a grand procession—they still had more contamination to devour!
Their master’s mission was clear: Destroy the entire plantation!
…….
Taking advantage of Shen Ji’s turned back, Li Zhiyan stole a glance at him.
No matter how he looked at it, it was hard to believe Shen Ji was a Pollutant. Aside from his obvious signs of contamination and the tainted aura around him, Shen Ji didn’t fit the stereotype of a Pollutant at all.
Even the way he stood was unmistakably human.
With a conflicted sigh, Li Zhiyan turned back to face the massive rift of contamination.
The Gardener was still relentlessly spewing contamination upon having realized its botanical garden had been turned upside down by Shen Ji. Now, it could only desperately protect its rift.
"Then let’s see if we can push it to the edge."
Flickering lights surrounded him—upon closer inspection, they were countless blue butterflies. Under Li Zhiyan’s command, they surged into the rift, fluttering toward the Gardener. The moment they touched the contamination, they burst into flames.
A deafening boom echoed—the sound of fire igniting in an instant.
Startled, Shen Ji instinctively turned around, and in that moment, he witnessed the most magnificent blaze he had ever seen.
Blue flames roared from the sky down into the depths of the rift, fueled by the contamination itself. The Gardener, trapped within the inferno, struggled to extinguish the flames—but how could paper ever smother fire? Its contamination only made the blaze burn fiercer.
It reminded Shen Ji of the legendary feat that had made Li Zhiyan famous in the original story.
He had incinerated an entire rift of contamination, burning it to utter ruin.
The Gardener’s blood-red eyes locked onto them with venom. In the next instant, countless leaves erupted from the rift, forming countless clones of the ‘Gardener.’ They lunged toward Shen Ji and Li Zhiyan.
These Gardener doppelgangers were another form of the Gardener created while collecting plants. They possessed abilities homologous to the plants and were only slightly stronger.
This was precisely why the Gardener continuously sought out different plants.
Li Zhiyan drew the gun at his waist.
The bullet shot out with a blue trail, and with a bang, one of the Gardener Doppelgangers burst into flames.
Without needing Shen Ji’s signal, the mycelium surged forward eagerly and wrapped around those [Gardeners]. The rapidly intensifying aura of contamination caused Shen Ji’s left eye to faintly shift toward red again.
[You should avoid excessive use of contamination for now.] The system chimed in. [I checked—though your soul and mind are human, your body is still a Pollutant, and a particularly potent one at that.]
[Overusing contamination will subject you to the instincts of a Pollutant, just like before.]
[That’s the devouring urge inherent to Hui.]
"Annoying," Shen Ji frowned, his tone growing colder. "When I don’t eat, I crave it. When I do, it affects me. Why is it so troublesome?"
[...See? It’s happening again.]
Normally, Shen Ji was adept at masking his nature. Though his demeanor was naturally cold, he would soften it with deliberate refinement, presenting himself as gentle, magnanimous, and righteous—crafting the image of a reserved, upright man. But once influenced, that icy detachment returned in full force, and even amplified further.
It made him seem all the more ruthless.
A perfect match for the Pollutant Hui depicted in the original work.
Li Zhiyan overheard Shen Ji’s muttering—his nose and ears had always been sharp—and turned to glance at him, as if intending to ask what he had just said.
Then he met Shen Ji’s frigid gaze.
...Damn, he looked good.
The mycelium impaled every Gardener Doppelganger in the vicinity, yet Shen Ji remained motionless, standing coldly in place. Those heterochromatic eyes stared at him calmly—no smile, no expression—as if simply observing.
Li Zhiyan felt his heartbeat quicken.
Shen Ji studied Li Zhiyan with a slight frown.
He thought: This person looks delicious. Why didn’t I eat him before?
[...Don’t!] The system intervened just in time. [First, you can’t eat him. Second, you don’t want to eat him when you’re sane. Third, he’s the protagonist—if you eat him, how will the plot progress?]
‘But he looks so tasty.’
[No matter how tasty, you can’t eat him!]
Li Zhiyan: "..."
For some reason, Shen Ji watched him for a moment longer before reluctantly looking away—only to glance back again, with his gaze brimming with dissatisfaction.
Li Zhiyan couldn’t shake the feeling that Shen Ji had just entertained some very impolite thoughts.
"Keep your mycelium away from the contamination rift," Li Zhiyan reminded him despite his confusion.
Shen Ji shot him a glance, his eyes carrying a trace of cold elegance—Why?
Li Zhiyan fired at another Gardener Doppelganger. "My ability isn’t entirely under my control, so I try not to push it to the limit."
He was referring to the blue flames burning within the contamination rift. "Once unleashed, there are only two outcomes."
"Either the contamination burns out completely and the flames die, or I exhaust myself and the flames fade without a supply of contamination."
"If they fall in, your little mushrooms will end up roasted."
Shen Ji: "..."
"Grilled mushrooms?" Shen Ji pondered thoughtfully.
Are they tasty?
[...Don't eat that!]
The Gardener finally realized the fire burning in the contamination rift couldn't be extinguished. As it stepped out of the rift, trailing flames still flickered in its hair.
Watching the contamination rift burn was even more agonizing than having its botanical garden overturned.
Born from the contamination rift, this was its territory, its home—and now its home had been set ablaze by thieves!
"You... deserve to die!"
The Gardener glared at them with hatred, its voice growing increasingly distorted.
The high-pitched shrieks of children, the furious shouts of adults, the righteous tones of the elderly—countless voices merged together that finally formed the Gardener's hoarse, rasping timbre.
Countless branches burst forth from its back, each exuding a distinct aura of contamination. The branches surged wildly toward Shen Ji and Li Zhiyan.
Li Zhiyan dodged the branches while also searching for cover, only to realize that the area had already been overturned by Shen Ji’s fungal threads. Aside from bare soil, there was nothing left to shield behind.
Just as he debated whether to set another fire, he turned and saw Shen Ji.
White fungal threads formed a flowing river in the air, shielding Shen Ji. The branches struck them harmlessly, and the moment the threads made contact, they began climbing upward.
Of course, the fungal threads weren’t omnipotent—they could die, they could be harmed by contamination—but their rate of death was far outpaced by their reproduction.
Invisible mushroom spores scattered, just as the Gardener had failed to eradicate the fungal threads before. Now, it was powerless to stop them.
So Li Zhiyan quietly moved behind Shen Ji.
Shen Ji glanced at him but gave no further reaction.
Even though he was outwardly calm and composed, he was actually pondering what to eat.
This person isn’t edible… roasted mushrooms aren’t edible… then can I roast the Gardener?
Wait… Huh? No, this one’s fine! This one’s safe to eat!
[But I should warn you—I just looked into the issue of the original contamination rift. Level S Pollutants can’t be completely eradicated.]
[As long as the contamination rift exists, even if you kill the Pollutant born from it, another will emerge in its place. If you eat this one, another Gardener will eventually appear.]
[But with the protagonist’s flames burning like this, the rift will likely sustain damage. It won’t produce another Level S for a while.]
"Then it’s fine."
Shen Ji’s heterochromatic eyes are fixed on the Gardener. "Time for a barbecue."
"Barbecue?" Li Zhiyan frowned. "What do you want to eat?"
Shen Ji didn’t answer. So, Li Zhiyan could only watch as Shen Ji charged forward with his mushroom army.
The Gardener’s branches were entangled by countless tiny fungi from all directions, coiled around it like ropes and pinning it in place. The Gardener struggled with its branches growing and snapping, trying to break free from the mushrooms’ grip.
Finally, the fungal threads grew impatient. They tore through the Gardener’s defenses and forcibly ripped the branches from its back. Green blood sprayed out.
The Gardener shrieked—for the first time, it felt fear.
Even among Level S Pollutants, there were differences in strength. The Gardener had always believed itself to be invincible as it keeps spreading seeds of contamination among humans and collecting grotesque plants. It naively assumed humans could never stop it, so it grew ever more reckless and arrogant.
Only now did it realize—it wasn’t omnipotent.
A fellow Level S pollutant, or an S-class Mutant of the same tier, could render it helpless.
When all its methods failed, the Gardener abandoned its territory without hesitation, severing all its branches and turning to flee.
But Shen Ji wasn’t about to let it escape.
Fungal threads blocked its path one after another, and for the first time, a hint of predatory desire flickered in Shen Ji’s eyes.
Watching all his escape routes being sealed off, the Gardener grew increasingly frantic.
"Journalist!" The Gardener gasped for breath like an old man on the verge of death from an asthma attack.
"Being aggressive benefits neither of us. We shouldn’t be competitors."
"Humans have endless territory—they are the real resource, the common enemy we should unite against!"
Shen Ji didn’t listen to him, nor did he care about his words.
"This is just giving humans an advantage!"
"Even if it benefits humans, it won’t benefit you."
Shen Ji finally spoke, his gaze icy and his tone frigid. "I warned you to leave my territory, but you refused. Now, I won’t let you go."
"Karma. You deserve this."
The Gardener finally realized he had provoked a Pollutant he shouldn’t have. Gnashing his teeth, he mustered all his contamination energy and charged at Shen Ji.
The mycelium had long been prepared for this move. They flipped the Gardener over and dragged him straight into the still-raging blue flames.
Roasted Gardener!
Roasting makes it tastier!
"Ahhh!!" The sensation of being burned alive made the Gardener let out a blood-curdling scream.
Li Zhiyan: "…"
Now he finally understood what Shen Ji wanted to eat.
The flames continued to burn and the surrounding contamination grew thinner as it was incinerated. The Gardener’s screams gradually faded, as if he had been completely reduced to ashes.
Or perhaps already devoured by the little mushroom.
Shen Ji stood at the edge of the contamination rift and staring into its depths. His back was turned to Li Zhiyan, looking no different from the Shen Ji that Li Zhiyan knew.
Even with a cluster of small white jade mushrooms sprouting from his forehead.
The flames made his white shirt flutter, while his dark blue work pants clung to his frame, accentuating his tall, straight figure.
Li Zhiyan thought: He needed to figure something out.
How to perfectly smooth this over so Shen Ji could stay in the Containment Facility—or remain in his security team.
"Shen Ji," Li Zhiyan called his name.
Hearing his voice, Shen Ji turned around.
Against the dazzling blue flames, his silver-red pupils slowly receded, returning to an ink-black hue. The mushrooms on his hair quietly vanished, leaving only the most fundamental human essence of this person.
"Want to go back together?" Li Zhiyan asked.
Shen Ji and Li Zhiyan locked eyes. After a few seconds, Shen Ji smiled faintly.
Before he could answer, a charred black vine suddenly lashed out, wrapping around Shen Ji’s ankle and yanking him straight into the burning blue flames.
[Perfect opportunity!] The system said quickly. [Death escape plan activated! Shen Ji, don’t resist!]
[Li Zhiyan’s flames are the natural counter to Pollutant. A primal contamination rift + Li Zhiyan’s innate flames—this is enough for us to fake our death!]
Caught off guard, Li Zhiyan instinctively lunged forward. He managed to grab one of Shen Ji’s fingers, but it wasn’t enough to stop a person from falling into the abyss. The finger slipped from his grasp, and Li Zhiyan could only watch helplessly as Shen Ji disappeared into the vast blue flames.
"Hahaha!" The Gardener’s laughter echoed through the botanical garden. "Journalist! If you won’t spare me, then let’s die together!"
"It hurts, it hurts!"
"Hahaha! Die together! None of us will survive!!"
Li Zhiyan felt his mind go blank.
Amid the Gardener's struggles, the flames grew ever larger, staining the sky with their glow.
The distorted air shimmered with flecks of blue as tiny azure butterflies emerged from the fire's tail, only to dissolve back into sparks that vanished within.
Countless branches and leaves gradually enveloped the entire rift of contamination—not to escape, but to prevent anything from breaking free. The Gardener released all its accumulated contamination in a desperate attempt to drag Shen Ji down with it.
"Shen Ji?" Li Zhiyan finally realized.
More blue butterflies materialized and plunged into the inferno in search of the person who had accidentally fallen inside while simultaneously tearing at the rift the Gardener had tightly sealed.
Yet they found nothing.
Within lay only the ceaselessly escaping miasma from the rift, the Gardener—now burned to its absolute limit—and a motionless black mass restrained by countless branches.
The Gardener could endure no longer. With maniacal laughter, it dissolved into primal contamination before merging with the rift as it awaited its distant second birth.
Only Li Zhiyan remained standing there and helplessly trying to retrieve his little mushroom from the inextinguishable flames.
The black mass lay utterly still, devoid of any contaminating aura, as though completely incinerated.
How had things come to this?
Li Zhiyan reached out, his hand probing the flames as he attempted to retrieve the lifeless dark clump.
"Li Zhiyan?!" Chu Ye finally arrived while leaning on his staff. Upon seeing this scene, he threw the staff aside and rushed forward to grab Li Zhiyan's arm. "What are you doing?"
Li Zhiyan regarded Chu Ye silently before finally frowning slightly. "Fishing for mushrooms."
"...What?"
Li Zhiyan offered no further explanation.
Chu Ye turned to observe the terrifying blue conflagration. The fire had grown even larger, with its crackling filling the air as the intense heat evaporated all moisture from their clothes.
After a long silence, Chu Ye spoke, "With a fire this big... is there really any mushroom left to retrieve?"
"Li Zhiyan, did you accidentally burn something again?"
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