Pollution Source

His head hung straight down.

He Li raised an eyebrow and realized that his head was detached from his neck, held in place by Spider Silk.

His lower body clung to the ceiling, with two large, pale legs sprouting from his waist.

A narrow shaft of sunlight shone through the glass, its distorted light making everything here look even more sinister.

"Student, will you study hard?"

"If you don't work hard, how can you face your parents?"

"How can you face your teachers?"

"How can you face Sky City?"

"Has anyone ever told you your breath stinks?"

Fighting back her disgust, He Li smiled at the Aberrant. Before he could react, her delicate hand seized his head.

Whoosh!

In an instant, He Li braced herself against the desk and vaulted lightly, her whole body flipping upside down as her long, fair legs traced a perfect arc through the air.

Then she wrapped them around his body.

Riiip-

Holding his head in one hand, she used the blade in her left to slice through the Spider Silk connecting his head to his body.

His head hit the floor with a thud.

Spurt, spurt, spurt!

As the Aberrant died, vast quantities of liquid gushed from his body, coating the office floor with clear, foul-smelling bodily fluids.

He Li flipped nimbly again, leaping lightly through the doorway and landing outside.

Whoosh!

The two Flame-Red Blades spun in her hands, reflecting the blazing sunlight, before she sheathed them behind her with a stylish flourish.

"Done!"

The Aberrant's body rapidly shriveled into a sheet of human skin.

"I found an Aberrant here. Very weak, but highly infectious. He contaminates students by wrapping them in Spider Silk. His catchphrase is 'study hard.'"

"Seriously..."

He Li wanted to complain, but she didn't even know where to start.

This was the first time she had seen such an inspirational Aberrant.

"So, what's next?"

He Li closed the office door and leaned beside it, the sunlight showing off her voluptuous figure to perfection.

"Xu Ye, what do you think?" Li Yunyao watched the screen while keeping one eye on another computer, her fingers clattering across the keyboard.

"What do I think..."

Xu Ye sat in his seat without answering immediately.

The bell had already rung, and their homeroom teacher had left the classroom. Some of the students who usually did well were going to the bathroom or chatting, while others ran to the school shop for snacks.

The campus gradually came to life.

Since they were seniors, their term had started early, so there weren't many students on campus yet.

Just then, Zhao Qianqian suddenly walked up to the lectern.

Her expression was solemn, her face covered in cracks like a fractured ceramic tile. Her eyes were completely bloodshot. She staggered up to the lectern, her cracked lips moving as a shrill, feverish voice squeezed out of her throat.

It sounded like a novice playing a suona-enough to kill you.

"Study! We have to study!"

"We were born at the bottom. Our parents are at the bottom. If we don't work hard, our children will be at the bottom too."

"Here in the Wasteland, oppression is everywhere. Studying is our only way out!"

"Only by studying hard and carrying our parents' hopes can we break the shackles of class, rise above our station, and move into the Rich District, or even Sky City!"

"Classmates, do you want to tighten screws in a factory or deliver food out in the wind and sun? Can you bear to watch your aging parents scavenge in garbage dumps or hunt outside the city, exposed to nuclear radiation?"

"Study! Study!"

"Our duty as students is to study!"

"..."

Zhao Qianqian raised her arm and shouted, her eyes bulging and their rims red. She hadn't even noticed that her voice had become more piercing than nails scraping a blackboard.

At her words, more than half the class grew increasingly feverish, rapidly flipping through their books. The rustling pages sounded like ocean waves.

"I think I've figured out some of the connections." Xu Ye left the classroom and leaned against the corridor wall, watching his frenzied classmates chant "study" in unison.

"Most of those infected are students from poor households. Their families have little means, and studying is their fastest route to success."

"But their grades are really bad."

"If we trace it back to the root, that suggests the pollution source went through the same thing."

"Based on the case involving Lin Aiqiao, whom I killed yesterday, we can assume the pollution source is someone from the bottom of society. So far, the method of infection is wrapping people in Spider Silk. Once they mutate, they take on a spider-like form."

"Mm." Li Yunyao acknowledged him softly. "From my assessment, that should be the pollution source's primary means of transmission. The secondary method is what people like Zhao Qianqian are doing: using words and actions to resonate emotionally with people who've had similar experiences, then contaminating them."

Xu Ye frowned. "This contamination seems to spread a little too fast. Night Spirit City No. 1 High School allocates plenty of places to people from the bottom every year."

"So right now, I'm not sure how many seniors have been contaminated."

Li Yunyao said quickly, "Fortunately, this counts as mild contamination. It targets a specific group, so it won't spread indefinitely. It's relatively easy to handle."

"Anyone with mild contamination can recover."

"But people like Zhao Qianqian and your deskmate have probably already undergone slight mutations. Humane termination is the only option."

"As for the actual pollution source..."

Xu Ye watched the bizarre scene in the classroom and spotted a figure among them. He sighed inwardly.

"Born at the bottom, frequently bullied, a broken family, connected to Zhang Xuliang's death..."

Li Yunyao interrupted him. "I just found some new information. Lin Aiqiao and Wu Xiuxiu were close friends. They often visited each other's homes. Wu Xiuxiu is Wang Yong's mother."

"The answer is all but obvious."

Lu Mingwang: "???"

He stood in the corridor less than five meters from Xu Ye, listening to their conversation with a bewildered expression.

In just a few seconds, he felt as though he had sat through a math exam.

Did top students' minds always leap around like this?

He Li said, "Hey, you two, stop talking in riddles. You're giving me a headache. I'm just a pretty face. Tell me the answer and what to do."

"..."

Li Yunyao's voice turned solemn:

"Wang Yong, male, eighteen years old. His father was a construction worker who was beaten to death for demanding his unpaid wages. The construction site belonged to the Zhang Group-Zhang Xuliang's family."

"His mother, Wu Xiuxiu, was unemployed. After her husband's death, she supported herself by selling her body. She had sex with Zhang Xuliang several times but never received any money."

"Wu Xiuxiu was extremely strict with Wang Yong. She once beat Zhang Yong so badly over his poor grades that he ended up in the hospital. The records are on file at Third Hospital."

"Wang Yong is withdrawn. Our preliminary assessment is that, under the intense pressure from his mother, he developed a second personality and became contaminated."

"After mutating, Wang Yong began taking revenge."

"After contaminating Lin Aiqiao, he used her to kill Zhang Xuliang and Qian Bing in No. 1 High School's parking garage."

"As his mutation progressed, Wang Yong lost his human reason and began showing a tendency to infect others with his emotions and behavior."

"He has now begun contaminating students and teachers at school."

"All contaminated students display extreme study behaviors: studying nonstop, without eating, drinking, or going to the bathroom. When confronted with a difficult problem, they may even develop an extreme sense of inferiority, leading to self-harm, jumping off buildings, and similar acts."

"Recommendation: eliminate the pollution source immediately."