Recaps

Lu Xin hesitated to attack the secondary Pollution Source, a little girl, as her rage drove the factory workers into a frenzy. Mom intervened and frightened the girl into disappearing, abruptly ending the factory’s pollution.

• Lu Xin tried speaking to the little girl but found she could not communicate, while the workers tore through the racks and the pollution worsened.
• Gecko held back from restraining Lu Xin because he had not attacked the Pollution Source, and told Tie Cui that Lu Xin seemed to be negotiating.
• Mom arrived and questioned why the little girl was not at school, blaming Zheng Yuanxiong for forcing his daughter to work and failing to protect her.
• Mom took the girl’s stuffed toy and cut off its head with scissors, then asked whether the girl was obedient.
• The frightened girl vanished, Zheng Yuanxiong stopped convulsing, and the workers across the factory fell still.

After the secondary Pollution Source disappeared, Lu Xin watched the support team evacuate and restrain the contaminated factory workers, then considered the lasting damage they might suffer. When Gecko asked how he had defeated the little girl, Lu Xin claimed he had frightened her by taking apart her toy, leaving Gecko unconvinced.

• Gecko told Tie Cui that the secondary Pollution Source had been cleared, and Lu Xin confirmed it over the channel.
• Tie Cui ordered the support team into the factory, where they secured the unconscious Zheng Yuanxiong and carried out the workers for treatment.
• Gecko explained that the workers might recover from their contamination, though some could be left with severe depression and lasting mental damage.
• Gecko asked Lu Xin how he had handled the little girl, and Lu Xin said he had scared her by twisting the head off her toy.
• Gecko doubted Lu Xin's explanation, but Lu Xin suggested that Gecko's inability to do the same was his problem.

Lu Xin and his team cleared Special Pollution Source No. 039 after Lu Xin explained how exposing the imagined daughter’s contradictions severed its logic chain. The cleanup report impressed the professors, who saw Lu Xin’s instinctive actions as evidence of unusual potential and renewed their plan to guide and study him.

• Gecko questioned Lu Xin’s method, while Tie Cui explained that fear could deter some Mental Monsters but said the entity’s disappearance suggested its logic chain had been severed.
• Lu Xin explained that Zheng Yuanxiong’s guilt had created an imagined daughter whose purpose was to support him, and that exposing the girl’s unreasonable behavior had broken the source’s logic chain.
• Tie Cui confirmed that Pollution Source No. 039 had been cleared and ordered the team to withdraw to Qingzhuo Building for examination.
• Gecko asked Tie Cui to write his work report, but she refused because the baby was hungry.
• Tie Cui sent the cleanup report and audio files to Chen Jing, and the professors praised Lu Xin’s performance and discussed using it to support his guidance application.
• Professor Chen concluded that Lu Xin had acted before finding a theoretical explanation, and the professors agreed to use the report to persuade Old Shen to let them guide and study him.

After completing his first cleanup mission, Lu Xin underwent a routine contamination examination and wrote a report with Gecko, leaving out Mom’s appearance. He accepted a three-month special cleanup course arranged by Colonel Chen, and Gecko prepared to teach him how to avoid losing control.

• Lu Xin and Gecko completed their routine examination, where Gecko explained the questions tested memory, cognition, and reasoning.
• Lu Xin and Gecko wrote their mission reports, and Lu Xin omitted Mom’s appearance because he could not explain it.
• Gecko coached Lu Xin through the report and negotiated with him to split the mission payment evenly.
• A staff member gave Lu Xin details of Colonel Chen’s three-month special pollution cleanup course, and Lu Xin signed up.
• Gecko told Lu Xin that he would teach him how to prevent himself from losing control.

Gecko took Lu Xin to a nightclub and taught him that indulging his desires could help prevent losing control. The lesson ended with Lu Xin asking whether headquarters would reimburse the cost, and Gecko taking him outside after learning it would not.

• Gecko explained that losing control happened when emotions overwhelmed reason and that powerful mental strength could turn it into a Pollution Source.
• Gecko brought Lu Xin to the Blue Ocean nightclub and called indulgence a way to maintain a healthy mental state.
• Gecko scattered money across the dance floor, then drank and socialized while Lu Xin experienced the club's atmosphere.
• Lu Xin asked whether headquarters would reimburse the expense, and Gecko took him outside when he learned they would not.

Lu Xin began formal training with Han Bing at the Guard Department after keeping up with his work at the company. Han Bing introduced the Eclipse Research Institute’s history and the basics of special pollution, then started teaching him how pollution sources were classified.

• Lu Xin checked the market and manufacturers himself to keep the project on track and prevent Brother Zhang and Sister Sun from mishandling their responsibilities.
• After work, Lu Xin went to the Guard Department for professional training arranged by Chen Jing.
• A staff member escorted Lu Xin to a quiet fourth-floor office, where Han Bing greeted him through a screen and explained that she would teach him.
• Han Bing warned Lu Xin to keep all training materials and information about mental pollution secret from ordinary people.
• Han Bing explained the origins and uncertain state of special-pollution research before beginning lessons on pollution-source classifications and mental abilities.

Lu Xin gained a systematic understanding of special pollution through daily training with Han Bing while his work project succeeded and brought him praise, kickbacks, and the prospect of promotion. He returned home to find Mom away, Father asleep, and Sister singing overhead.

• Lu Xin attended training punctually, studied special pollution with Han Bing, and learned that Gecko handled practical fieldwork training.
• Lu Xin accepted a manufacturer’s kickback from Brother Zhang after his market research helped the company project progress smoothly.
• The Director praised Lu Xin’s work, said he was a leading candidate for Model Employee, and planned to apply for his promotion to supervisor.
• Lu Xin returned to Room 401, found Mom gone and Father asleep, and heard Sister singing as he quietly closed the door.

Lu Xin studied secondary pollution sources and asked Mom whether his family was real. Mom said their companionship was real, then gave him a letter from the orphanage inviting him to eat dumplings.

• Lu Xin reviewed information about secondary pollution sources while waiting for Mom to return home.
• Mom came home and told Lu Xin she had been shopping with her new friend, Miss Chen.
• Lu Xin asked Mom whether the girl from the factory had been real, then asked whether Mom and the rest of his family were real.
• Mom said Lu Xin could decide whether they were real and told him their shared companionship was real.
• Mom gave Lu Xin a letter from the orphanage inviting him over for dumplings.

Lu Xin received Teacher Lu’s invitation to celebrate the Crimson Moon Orphanage receiving its operating license and set off to visit. On the way, he passed a rose-selling boy whose flower seemed to affect a couple’s breakup, leaving the girl unable to throw it away.

• Lu Xin read Teacher Lu’s letter about the orphanage’s new license and decided to visit for dumplings.
• Lu Xin finished work, informed Han Bing, and traveled toward the orphanage with biscuits and candy for the children.
• A poor boy offered Lu Xin a rose for ten yuan, but Lu Xin declined and gave him a one-yuan coin.
• A young man bought one of the boy’s roses and offered it to Yuan Yuan after she broke up with him.
• Yuan Yuan took the rose and found that, despite her irritation, she could not bring herself to throw it away.

After an evening at the orphanage, Lu Xin noticed a bearded man following him and opened fire, but the man escaped with uncanny agility. Lu Xin pursued him to a construction pit, then jumped after him with help from Sister.

• Lu Xin left the orphanage after sharing dumplings and a celebration with Teacher Lu and the children.
• Lu Xin spotted the same bearded man watching him at several places along his route.
• Lu Xin pulled out a pistol and fired at the man, who dodged the shots and fled.
• Lu Xin chased the man through the streets until they reached a broken road beside a deep construction pit.
• Lu Xin jumped into the pit, and Sister caught him before he used a steel pipe to leap through the air.

Lu Xin pursued a strange man to High Wall City’s outskirts and shot him off the wall with Sister’s help, but the headless body escaped on a motorcycle. After City Patrol Army soldiers stopped him, Lu Xin asked to make a phone call.

• Lu Xin chased the man across the city and fired at him as they reached the wall.
• Lu Xin tossed Sister his reloaded revolver, and she shot the climbing man in the neck, severing his head.
• The headless corpse climbed over the wall and fled into the wasteland on a motorcycle.
• City Patrol Army soldiers surrounded Lu Xin, checked his identification papers, and lowered their guns.
• Xie Chen introduced himself as captain of the Fourth Unit and asked what had happened, and Lu Xin requested a phone call.

Lu Xin described how he pursued and shot the Headless Knight near the Crimson Moon Orphanage, and Chen Jing investigated the encounter. After the support team found the missing head, Chen Jing concluded that an ability user from outside the city was causing trouble.

• Lu Xin told Chen Jing that the Headless Knight escaped on a motorcycle after climbing over the wall without his head.
• Chen Jing arrived with a support team, and the soldiers secured the area while Lu Xin indicated where the head had fallen.
• Lu Xin explained that the man had appeared repeatedly, that living threads reached toward him, and that he attacked because the man was near the elementary school.
• Chen Jing reasoned that the Headless Knight had come from outside the wall and suspected an outside-the-city ability user was behind the incident.
• The support team reported that they had found the missing head.

Chen Jing and Lu Xin examined the severed head of the headless man and identified him as a Mental Modification Human controlled by a powerful Puppet-type ability user. After ordering the evidence sent to the Research Institute, Chen Jing took Lu Xin with her and warned that they had to prevent a repeat of the Technological Church’s disaster in Satellite City No. 4.

• Two support team members brought the head in a glass box, and Lu Xin realized it belonged to the headless man who had escaped on a motorcycle.
• Chen Jing tested the head’s responses and used her ability to make its eyelids twitch, but it could not communicate further.
• Chen Jing ordered the support team to dissect the head, revealing a shriveled, lifeless brain.
• Chen Jing explained that the man was a Mental Modification Human, likely controlled by a powerful Puppet-type ability user, and told Lu Xin that researchers suspected his own ability might belong to an undiscovered type.
• Chen Jing sent the evidence to the Research Institute and drove Lu Xin away, saying they must prevent another disaster like the Technological Church’s attack four years earlier.

Chen Jing warned Lu Xin that the Technological Church’s past evacuation of Satellite City No. 4 might be connected to new threats against Qinggang City, and arranged security measures after Lu Xin was targeted. The chapter ended with Chen Jing ordering a deeper investigation into the former Crimson Moon Orphanage.

• Lu Xin recalled how the Technological Church had persuaded most residents of Satellite City No. 4 to leave with it four years earlier.
• Chen Jing told Lu Xin that outside organizations might be targeting Qinggang City and warned that the orphanage could be at risk.
• Chen Jing arranged to relocate Crimson Moon Elementary School and its residents from Area C3 to Area A4, charging rent under standard procedures.
• Chen Jing received headquarters’ approval to investigate nearby gathering points and black markets, intensify the cleanup of Special Pollution Events, and keep Lu Xin on standby.
• Chen Jing secretly added an accelerated investigation into the former Crimson Moon Orphanage and its records to the response.

Lu Xin took a week off from his commercial job and waited on standby while the city carried out a widespread investigation for hidden Pollution Sources. He was dispatched to investigate Special Pollution Source--072 in a residential complex where fear had spread among the residents, but the investigation team was too frightened to continue.

• Lu Xin told his Director that his sister was sick, and the Director readily granted him a week's leave.
• Lu Xin stayed on standby at the training floor while investigation teams and local officials searched the Satellite Cities for Pollution Sources.
• Han Bing notified Lu Xin of suspected Special Pollution Source--072 at Block C of the Mine Cave Residential Complex in Satellite City No. 2.
• Han Bing explained that residents were gripped by unexplained fear, leading to hallucinations, a fatal fight, frantic drinking, and people abandoning their homes.
• The investigation team confirmed signs of Mental Pollution but could not proceed because its members were too afraid.

Lu Xin arrived at Building C in the mining district, where an unidentified pollution source had filled investigators with overwhelming fear. After Han Bing identified it as likely Special Pollution Source No. 072, Lu Xin entered the building alone to investigate.

• Lu Xin reached the cordoned-off residential complex and met Cheng Hui, who explained that investigators had failed to approach the suspected source on Building C's ninth to twelfth floors.
• Cheng Hui said the source caused growing fear, dizziness, and exhaustion, while Han Bing suggested Special Pollution Source No. 072 was amplifying terror among the investigators and residents.
• Lu Xin agreed to investigate without protective equipment and told the others to stay farther away.
• Lu Xin entered Building C, saw burned paper offerings in the corridor, and headed for the stairs after Han Bing advised against using the elevator.

Lu Xin climbed through the building while Han Bing monitored him, locating the Pollution Source by tracking the growing fear. He reached the source’s locked room on the tenth floor, where Sister tore the lock apart.

• Lu Xin reported the escalating fear as he climbed, but told Han Bing he had grown used to it and continued upward.
• Lu Xin spotted Sister crawling through the darkness, then picked her up and gave her candies so she would settle down.
• Lu Xin climbed to the tenth and eleventh floors and determined that the Pollution Source’s core was on the tenth floor.
• Lu Xin found a locked iron-barred door radiating intense fear, and Sister tore its lock apart.

Lu Xin investigated the fear-filled apartment and found a dead man, Wang Chu, whose fear had become an E-class Pollution Source. After containing the corpse and medicine bottle, Lu Xin learned that Wang Chu had died alone from a heart attack and was left thinking about the family members who stayed by his side.

• Lu Xin searched the apartment with Sister and found a corpse and a shadowy Pollution Source in the second bedroom.
• Lu Xin turned on the lights, making the shadow disappear, and Han Bing identified the dead tenant as Wang Chu.
• Lu Xin found nitroglycerin beside Wang Chu's outstretched hand, and Han Bing concluded that he most likely died from a heart attack.
• Lu Xin sealed Wang Chu's corpse and the medicine bottle in a containment bag, and the fear in the apartment quickly faded.
• Han Bing explained that Wang Chu's fear of dying alone had formed the Pollution Source, and Lu Xin felt reassured by having Sister and his family with him.

Lu Xin finished the investigation and reflected on the lonely Wang Chu, while Han Bing helped secure his reward. Afterward, an elderly man named Mr. Xu watched Lu Xin leave and arranged to commission him privately to help his gravely ill daughter.

• Lu Xin told Han Bing he hoped there would be fewer pollution incidents and said Wang Chu had probably hoped someone would find him sooner.
• Han Bing promised to handle Lu Xin’s pay and secured him a reward of at least twelve thousand for the mission.
• Sister teased Lu Xin about Han Bing, while Cheng Hui and the nearby officers treated Lu Xin with awe after he resolved the incident.
• Mr. Xu watched Lu Xin depart and heard an associate describe Lu Xin’s record and ability to see and deal with Mental Monsters.
• Mr. Xu decided to bring his daughter to Satellite City No. 2 and privately commission Lu Xin, saying her condition had become extremely serious.

After calculating his savings, Lu Xin was approached outside the Guard Department by a Main City consultant offering a private commission to treat an elderly gentleman’s daughter. Lu Xin considered the lucrative offer but ended the chapter by saying he needed to apply to his superiors first.

• Lu Xin calculated that he had saved sixty thousand and seventy yuan and considered buying a home near the orphanage.
• A young policewoman brought Lu Xin dinner while he worked through his accounts, and he later left the Guard Department for the night.
• A fat man named Liu approached Lu Xin outside the Guard Department and said he had been sent by an elderly gentleman to request help for his ill daughter.
• Liu offered Lu Xin ten thousand yuan for the visit and one hundred thousand if he cured the daughter, while Lu Xin watched him cautiously and had Sister release the man’s hand.
• Lu Xin told Liu he needed to submit an application to his superiors before accepting the private commission.

Lu Xin learned that Headquarters allowed Special Operations Team members to take private commissions as long as they recorded them and reported risks. He agreed to meet a wealthy client the next evening and arrived at the client's villa in Qingyan Mountain, where the commission was about to begin.

• Lu Xin called Han Bing, who explained Headquarters' rules for accepting and recording private commissions.
• Lu Xin told the fat man he could investigate the matter, and they arranged to meet the following evening at six.
• Lu Xin spent the next day training at the Guard Department and looked forward to the commission's payment.
• The fat man picked Lu Xin up and brought him to a villa district in Qingyan Mountain.
• Lu Xin admired the villa's grounds, heard it had been valued at five million Alliance currency, and headed inside.

Lu Xin met Mr. Xu, whose daughter Xiao Xiao had become violently unstable, and agreed to examine her in secret. After Mr. Xu released her from a padded metal box, he revealed that her madness manifested as frantic, indiscriminate mating.

• Lu Xin signed a contract with Manager Liu to examine a woman for a hundred thousand after she was cured.
• Mr. Xu explained that his daughter Xiao Xiao had inexplicably gone insane, and he wanted her treated privately to protect her reputation.
• Lu Xin agreed to examine Xiao Xiao and watched as Mr. Xu unlocked the metal box containing her.
• Lu Xin saw Xiao Xiao restrained and injured, struggling and roaring inside the box.
• Mr. Xu told Lu Xin that Xiao Xiao's main symptom was frantic mating with anyone.

Lu Xin investigated Mr. Xu’s daughter after her erratic behavior and learned that he had restrained her in an iron box. After releasing her, Lu Xin restrained her and, with Sister’s help, spotted a moving face beneath her skin.

• Mr. Xu told Lu Xin that his daughter had begun acting hysterically after returning home and described her increasingly reckless behavior.
• Lu Xin examined the young woman but saw nothing unusual, then asked Mr. Xu to release her so he could control her himself.
• Mr. Xu released his daughter, and she charged at Lu Xin, who tripped her and pinned her to the floor.
• Lu Xin’s gaze prompted Sister to crawl over from the iron box, allowing him to see something moving beneath the young woman’s skin.
• Lu Xin tore away part of the young woman’s pajamas and saw a face form beneath her skin; Sister smiled at it, and Lu Xin smiled too.

Lu Xin tried to restrain Mr. Xu’s daughter and investigate the eerie face moving beneath her skin, but it transformed into a mass of tentacles tipped with human heads. After Sister tore off two heads, the remaining tentacles fled into the living-room objects, making them seem alive and alluring.

• Lu Xin restrained Mr. Xu’s daughter and considered cutting the face out of her back, asking Mr. Xu to find a knife.
• The girl screamed, and black-scaled tentacles with human heads erupted from her back without breaking her skin.
• The Head Tentacles turned toward Lu Xin when he smiled, then rushed at him.
• Sister intercepted the attack, tore off two heads, and chased the retreating tentacles.
• The Head Tentacles scattered into the living-room objects, which appeared animated and alluring to Mr. Xu.

Lu Xin recognized the Head Tentacles as contamination and realized their source was the motionless girl, while Sister gleefully tore through them. When the tentacles joined into a monstrous snake to defend the girl, Sister bit it and pulled it from her body.

• Lu Xin watched the Head Tentacles distort the living room and confirmed they were contamination.
• Sister independently raced around the room, tearing apart tentacles while Mr. Xu's perception fell into chaos.
• Lu Xin realized the tentacles' mental power remained undiminished and identified the girl on the floor as their source.
• Lu Xin approached the girl with his gun as the tentacles attacked, and Sister rushed to defend him.
• The tentacles joined into a toothed serpent, but Sister bit it and pulled it from the girl before biting its body.