No, It Was Them

You Li looked through his binoculars at the camp gradually being swallowed by the white fog in the distance, his expression complex.

A short while later, the adjutant came up and said in a low voice, "Captain, the statistics are complete."

You Li lowered his binoculars and looked at his adjutant, but did not speak immediately. After a pause, he sighed softly and said, "Just tell me how many people we lost."

"Nine." The adjutant's tone was harsh, and even through the thick mask, You Li could guess his expression. "They were all activated by Emergency Device in an instant..."

The adjutant couldn't continue.

You Li reached out and patted him on the shoulder, then said with great remorse, "It's my fault."

"No, you have no problem." The adjutant shook his head and said, "You are the only one among us who escaped from the pollution. If it weren't for you, we would all be dead there. Not a single one of us would be alive. Even if you had been any slower, we would have suffered even greater losses. Compared to total annihilation, the current losses are already acceptable. You saved everyone."

You Li didn't speak, but just shook his head with a wry smile.

The adjutant then asked, "But how did you manage to recover from the pollution?"

Faced with his adjutant's question, You Li remained silent for a long time before finally speaking slowly, "It was that Evening Star Knight who told me."

The adjutant was taken aback. "What did you say?"

You Li recounted his entire conversation with the Evening Star Knight to his adjutant.

After listening, the adjutant remained silent for a long time, but the rising and falling of his chest and the breathing that escaped from his mask revealed his state of mind.

"This... is truly astonishing." The adjutant was somewhat incoherent. "But we heard nothing, saw nothing; to us it was just a rotting corpse."

You Li said softly, "I also encountered this while I was under contamination."

"You mean, you encountered the Evening Star Knight from ten years ago while you were still contaminated, and it was his warning that freed you from the contamination and brought you back to reality?" The lieutenant shook his head violently. "Forgive me for being blunt, Captain, but I find that hard to believe. And you also said that he mentioned 'the Source is Contamination,' what does that mean?"

"I don't know." You Li shook his head and looked into the distance again. "Not only you, but I also doubt whether everything I experienced is real. But according to you, you had no memory of being contaminated. It was just a blink of an eye when you heard me screaming."

"... That's true," the adjutant said. "The situation you've encountered is indeed somewhat unusual."

At this point, the adjutant paused, seemingly hesitating about something. After a moment's hesitation, he still spoke to You Li.

"Captain, it's best if you don't reveal what you saw yet. If anyone asks, just say that you escaped from the pollution, but you don't know the specific reason."

"Why?"

"Because the atmosphere in the team is very bad right now," the adjutant said. "The team members all believe that the corpse brought them misfortune and corruption. They believe that you saved them, and if you stand up now and say that it was not you who saved them, but the corpse... it could cause morale to collapse."

You Li turned around and looked behind him.

The Devil Knight sat there in twos and threes, none of them speaking, but one could still feel the despair and oppression that surrounded them.

After all, they had witnessed their comrades being killed by the Emergency Device around their necks, and they themselves were only one step away from death.

"Although this isn't the first time the Emergency Device has been activated," the adjutant said softly, "Most of the time only one or two team members are contaminated, then die outside after the Emergency Device is activated, and our bodies are later retrieved. But like today, activating it in full view of everyone is something that only..."

Before the words were even finished, one of the Knight suddenly stood up and then frantically and recklessly began to remove his mask.

"Carlos! What are you doing?!"

"With this level of pollution, you'll die if you take off your mask!"

Two Knight rushed up and pinned him down.

Carlos roared through the mask, "To hell with it! I'd rather die than die at the hands of this thing!"

"Damn it, hold him down!"

After some effort, the Knight named Carlos was finally subdued.

Silence returned to the temporary camp once again.

But everyone could hear the clicking sound of the Emergency Device.

"Just as you see," the adjutant said in a low voice, "And we can't take off these masks or retreat until the reserve team comes up to test us for contamination... So, Captain, we can't bring any more uncontrollable factors into the team."

You Li looked at his comrades in front of him, knowing that his adjutant was right.

They've already been corrupted.

Before the extent of the infection could be confirmed, they had no way to retreat to avoid contaminating others, nor could they remove their masks. They could only wait there for the reserve team's support, their minds replaying the previous scenes and the countdown of the Emergency Device echoing in their ears...

Indeed, his team couldn't handle any more stimulation.

"I understand." You Li nodded. "However, I will prepare a formal report and send it to the rear for the bishops to decide."

"Of course, this is what you should do." After the adjutant finished speaking, seeing that You Li did not respond and looked at the distant camp again, he couldn't help but ask, "Are you still thinking about the saying 'the Source is Contamination'? Forgive me for speaking frankly, but that is very likely just your imagination after being polluted. You don't need to take it too seriously."

"So I'm still thinking about something else."

"What?"

"What would have happened if I had been a step too late, and been the only one who survived and returned to the rear?"

The adjutant didn't immediately understand. "What's going to happen?"

You Li turned to look at his adjutant and said softly, "In that case, do you think I'll be the next Jie La Er? Will anyone think that I killed my men?"

The adjutant was stunned. He instinctively wanted to retort, but didn't know what to say.

You Li reached out and patted his adjutant on the shoulder.

"Once the inspection is over, immediately send someone to find Ina," You Li said. "Tell her everything that happened today, and then..."

You Li seemed hesitant at first, but quickly became resolute again.

"Send her to find Xiaoxing."

Jie La Er easily infiltrated the processing plant.

With only a few symbolic security personnel inside the factory, it was incredibly easy for Jie La Er to slip past them.

After entering the factory, Jie La Er hid in a corner, frowning as he looked at the roads ahead. Then he slowly spoke, "Are we going to look for the original inspection report? But I don't know where it is."

"Why would I need the test report?" Bai Wei said lazily. "Who wants to see that stuff?"

"Where to?"

"Simple," Bai Wei said with a smile. "Just go wherever there are more raw oil samples... Hmm, I think that big room over there looks good."

A large room?

Jie La Er looked up at the large room Bai Wei had mentioned, and then his expression changed again.

Because that was a processing workshop.

It does contain a large amount of raw oil, but there are also hundreds of workers working inside.

"Go inside?"

"What?" Bai Wei asked, "You dare to go into Contaminated Land, but you don't dare to go into this place?"

Jie La Er ignored Bai Wei's teasing, but he also did not refuse Bai Wei, because he knew that Bai Wei would not make him do anything meaningless.

So, after looking around, he found a uniform hanging on the wall and put it on.

Then he entered the workshop.

The workshop was very noisy, with various machines with a distinctive Lyra style roaring. Hundreds of workers were busy on their respective production lines, either processing or refining. No one even looked up, and naturally, no one noticed Jie La Er suddenly walked in.

It's as if they are also parts in this workshop.

"What should we do now?" Jie La Er asked Bai Wei in his mind when no one noticed him.

Bai Wei replied, "Any barrel of raw oil will do."

Although he didn't know what Bai Wei wanted to do, Jie La Er did as he was told.

There are iron drums filled with raw oil everywhere, as well as various raw oils that have already begun to be refined; there's no shortage of them.

But just to be on the safe side, Jie La Er went to the farthest corner and found an unopened barrel of raw oil, which was obviously freshly transported from the Contaminated Land.

"Open it," Bai Wei said briefly.

Jie La Er didn't say much, and simply and neatly opened the cap of the oil.

Soon, a bucket of thick, viscous, dark yellow liquid appeared in front of the two of them, accompanied by an unbearable stench.

But that's only true for others. Jie La Er was already used to the smell, but Bai Wei... he couldn't smell it.

But that didn't stop Bai Wei from clicking his tongue and saying, "You actually call this stuff 'source oil'... isn't this just corpse oil?"

"Oil itself is made up of the remains of pollutants," Jie La Er said. "Is there something wrong with that?"

"It certainly doesn't seem wrong here," Bai Wei said calmly. "So, in your view, this is what it means to be uncontaminated? Are the contaminants that have been squeezed into juice truly dead?"

Jie La Er lowered his head and carefully examined the barrel of raw oil.

Dark yellow, sticky, and foul-smelling.

But apart from that, he couldn't sense anything else. If it were truly pollutants standing in front of him, he would definitely be able to detect them.

So he shook his head. "I didn't feel anything."

"I see..." Bai Wei suddenly sighed heavily, "Then this is the only way... put my finger in."

Jie La Er paused, then asked, "What?"

"I said, put my finger in." Bai Wei's words were full of disgust. "Don't make me repeat myself, or I'll regret it."

Although he didn't know what Bai Wei was going to do, he still raised his left hand and extended his middle finger.

"Just touch it a little," Bai Wei said. "Don't put the whole thing in."

Following Bai Wei's instructions, Jie La Er quickly stirred the oil in the source with his finger. Even though he pulled it back quickly enough, he still felt Bai Wei making him feel nauseous.

"It's a truly bizarre experience," Bai Wei said irritably.

Jie La Er wiped the oil off his fingers while staring at the metal bucket. "Things are about to change..."

He froze halfway through his sentence.

The once calm oil began to swirl slightly.

Then, under Jie La Er's gaze, a... eerie face slowly appeared.

"... It's watching me," Jie La Er said softly.

"No," Bai Wei said calmly, "It's them."

Bai Wei raised his middle finger, signaling Jie La Er to look up.

So Jie La Er raised his head.

Then he saw that hundreds of workers in the factory had stopped what they were doing.

He stared intently at Jie La Er.

That expression was exactly the same as the face on the oil.