D-Class Special Pollution Source - 036

"Whoosh..."

When Lu Xin escaped the subway station, he saw that the surrounding area had already descended into chaos.

The neighborhood that had seemed so deserted just moments ago, as if not a single person was around, was now filled with countless black jeeps and soldiers in uniform. They seemed to have emerged from beneath the ground, heavily armed, their military boots pounding as they rapidly closed in on the area. Roadblocks were quickly erected, guns set up, and every road was sealed off.

Faintly, he could even hear the sounds of pursuit, capture, and gunfire. Lu Xin was startled and did not dare to linger. He quickly leaped through corners along the walls, climbing apartment walls embedded with broken windows and fleeing far away.

Fortunately, no one seemed to expect that someone would escape by climbing the walls. Combined with his speed, he did not attract anyone's attention.

Using both hands and feet, Lu Xin climbed like an agile spider in one breath until he reached the top of a building more than ten stories high, several hundred meters away. Only then did he leap high into the air and crouch on the edge of the roof. Looking back toward the subway station, he saw every road packed with dark masses of people. The entire area, including the coffee shop and subway station, had been surrounded so tightly that not even water could pass through.

That left him feeling a little frightened in retrospect.

"Brother, how are you going to thank me?"

Sister's voice rang out. Not far from Lu Xin, she was crouching there with the patched-up teddy bear in her arms.

Her messy hair hung loose, and her eyes glimmered faintly. That was a sign of how unusually satisfied she was.

"Thank you?"

Still shaken, Lu Xin snapped, "I ought to beat you up..."

But when the words reached his lips and he remembered the danger just now, his resolve softened. "Thank you..."

"You're my brother, and I'm your Sister. Why are you thanking me?"

Sister grinned. With her hair hanging down and covering most of her face, she had an eerie sort of cuteness.

Lu Xin was just about to praise her when she suddenly raised her head, her face full of expectation. "You should give me toys instead!"

"More toys?"

Lu Xin looked at the teddy bear in her arms helplessly. "Don't you already have one?"

"Teddy bears are very cute!"

Sister hugged the teddy bear tightly. "But teddy bears can't talk!"

Her voice sounded a little excited as she described it carefully. "I want one that can talk..."

Lu Xin brushed her off. "I'll buy you one with an electronic voice later."

"Electronic voices aren't fun..."

Sister's smile became a little eerie. "Not just one that can make sounds. I want one that can scream, the more miserable the better..."

Lu Xin said, "Have you heard of a Squeaky Chicken?"

Sister was struck silent. After a moment, she suddenly said, "I'm not playing with you anymore."

"Hey, you..."

Lu Xin had just started to speak when Sister suddenly jumped up. Her tiny figure was like an agile kitten as she leaped straight off the building. He hurriedly craned his head to look, only to see that she had landed on a horizontal power line outside. The wind blew around her, and she swayed gently with the wire. Shaking her head at Lu Xin, she smiled. "Brother, be careful. Someone has their eye on you..."

Lu Xin became wary. "Who?"

"I'm not telling you..."

Sister giggled, crawled along the power line to the other side, and quickly disappeared through a broken window.

"This girl..."

Lu Xin looked down from the tall building and felt a little dizzy. "Now that you've left, how am I supposed to get down?"

Remaining alert, Lu Xin jumped from the apartment building to the neighboring one, then made his way down the rundown stairwell floor by floor. When he was almost at street level, he deliberately took several extra turns. Following a crooked utility pole and passing ruined houses that had collapsed until only a single wall remained, he arrived on a street several hundred meters away and quietly slipped out.

He deliberately straightened his clothes and put his hands into his pockets, preparing to blend naturally into the crowd.

"Get in. I'll buy you coffee!"

But after taking only a few steps, he suddenly heard someone say that.

Lu Xin was startled and abruptly turned around, only to see a woman leaning against a jeep.

She wore a casual suit and had short hair. A pair of oversized brown sunglasses covered her face. She was slim and athletic, carrying a wild aura about her. Under that aura, even the high heels on her feet seemed to possess a few extra traces of sharpness. The pitch-black jeep behind her looked like an iron beast, fierce and savage.

Coffee?

Lu Xin was startled inwardly and immediately thought of what Sister had just said. He was already twenty-three years old and had never been asked out by a woman, especially not a woman like this. She definitely would not like someone like him. So she was one of the people who had surrounded the subway station? Maybe she had been watching me all along? Asking me out for coffee doesn't seem hostile...

Although being suddenly asked out for coffee by a woman seemed rather abnormal, Lu Xin did not dare refuse.

So he said quietly, "Can we have something else? I don't feel like drinking coffee right now."

The short-haired woman seemed somewhat surprised by Lu Xin's calmness, but she had clearly seen plenty of people like him.

Remembering what Lu Xin had just gone through, she smiled. "Fine, then let's go to a bar!"

As she spoke, she naturally opened the car door for Lu Xin.

Lu Xin obediently sat in the passenger seat. Though he had rarely ridden in a car in all his life, he did not look around or touch anything. He simply sat there obediently and did not even sneak glances at the woman driving.

The woman was in no hurry to speak either, focusing only on driving.

After driving for around twenty minutes, the car entered a sparsely populated street. The woman stopped the car and led Lu Xin through a dark underground passage until they reached the entrance of a bar fitted with an iron gate.

The bar had not opened for business yet. It was dim and quiet.

After a sleepy-eyed waiter opened the door for them, he did not ask a single question. He placed a bottle of liquor and two glasses on the table, then went back to catch up on sleep. In the huge bar, only Lu Xin and the woman remained, surrounded by emptiness.

"My name is Chen Jing. I mean you no harm, but I admit that what happened to you today was arranged by me."

The short-haired woman spoke candidly and placed a green leather credential before Lu Xin. He glanced at it and learned that she was from Qingcheng Main City, a top-ranking agent of the Qingcheng Inspection Department. He could not help looking up at her. People from the Main City were already beyond the imagination of those from Satellite Cities. It was especially strange for someone of such high status to invite him out for drinks.

Thinking of the file the Director had inexplicably asked him to deliver and the monster he had encountered in the coffee shop, Lu Xin knew that something was wrong. Being arranged into such a terrifying encounter by someone was supposed to be infuriating, but Lu Xin noticed a bulge beneath the woman's clothes at her waist and knew it was a gun. So he merely lowered his head and asked, "Why?"

"Let me give you the standard explanation first."

Chen Jing did not say much about that question. She bit off the cork and poured two glasses of liquor.

"I belong to a department that handles abnormal affairs, specifically dealing with pollution incidents within High Wall Cities."

Lu Xin blinked, clearly unable to process words like that.

Chen Jing pushed a glass of liquor toward Lu Xin. "You can think of us as the authorities."

Lu Xin understood immediately.

Chen Jing continued, "After the Crimson Moon incident, the reorganization of the major Main Cities and Satellite Cities, the handling and extermination of the lunatics outside the cities, the resistance against the Wilderness Knights and the Spiritual Cult, as well as the construction and routine maintenance of the high walls, were all handled by our people."

"And now, what we mainly deal with are pollution incidents in the Main City and the five major Satellite Cities!"

"Abnormal incidents?"

Lu Xin raised his head and looked at her.

"Yes. Strange incidents beyond ordinary human understanding, like what you encountered in the coffee shop."

Chen Jing nodded, took out a document, and pushed it in front of Lu Xin. "You can take a look."

Lu Xin saw the two words "Confidential" printed on the cover page of the document.

He slowly opened it. On the first page, he saw lines of typewritten text, along with a large amount of data.

Target Number: D-Class Special Pollution Source - 036

Target Level: Level 1

Infection Level: Low-Level (Contact Transmission/Infection Rate 90%/Deep Infection Rate 70%)

Growth Potential: High-Level

Danger Level: Low-Level

Target Characteristics: The target is a Level 1 Mental Monster capable of infecting any living being that comes into close contact with it. It does not possess long-range transmission capability. It can be eliminated by destroying the host of the Mental Monster. The host remains within the range of ordinary humans and can be harmed by physical attacks. Based on current observations, the infection source itself does not possess advanced intelligence and will only repeat everything it did before becoming infected, with limited communication.

Special Disposal Method: None

As Lu Xin read the document, Chen Jing slowly lit a cigarette.

She spoke slowly. "The Crimson Moon incident turned more than seventy percent of the people in this world into lunatics. Those of us who survived could only live in Main Cities and Satellite Cities protected by high walls. But in truth, even among the survivors, not all of them were normal. Many experienced mental mutations, and they could influence the people or things around them."

"We call this kind of situation pollution!"

"Pollution?"

Hearing this familiar yet suddenly unfamiliar word, Lu Xin raised his head.

After the Crimson Moon incident, civilization collapsed and order broke apart. Countless chemical plants, power stations, and other facilities were damaged, while leaking waste left traces of pollution throughout the world, especially outside High Wall Cities. Even after thirty years, many places had not recovered. Naturally, the residents of High Wall Cities were no strangers to pollution, but the pollution this woman spoke of seemed different.

"That's right. Pollution."

Chen Jing nodded and repeated herself. "Like an ordinary Pollution Source, it radiates outward, affects the people around it, and causes them to display the same symptoms. It is similar to a plague, except this kind of pollution is more mysterious and more terrifying."

"The coffee shop you entered today was one such case. Before today, it had already polluted fifty-two people!"

"..."

"If..."

Lu Xin was somewhat shocked by that number. He tried hard to digest Chen Jing's words and gestured with his hand.

"What happens after someone is polluted?"

"They get sick!"

Chen Jing's answer was extremely simple. Perhaps because she had answered the question too many times, her tone was somewhat mechanical.

"Ordinary pollution makes people's bodies sick, while mental pollution makes their minds sick!"

"The consequences of getting sick vary. Some develop intense depression and cannot bear it, so they commit suicide!"

"Some lose their reason and madly attack the people around them!"

"Some lose the ability to communicate with anything around them..."

"Some also develop an intense urge to hurt themselves..."

"..."

"Simply put, a Pollution Source gives rise to a transmissible mental illness!"