When They First Met
The villa door was open, and a strong stench of blood wafted from inside. It was a good day; the light was excellent, and Ye Yanran could clearly see the piles of... in the villa's living room.
Corpse.
Ye Yanran's pupils contracted.
A rustling sound arose, Ye Yanran mechanically raised her head. A face peered out from the roof of the villa, gaunt and pale, its eyes filled with cruelty and excitement—it was Jing Qiu's face.
The face moved slightly, revealing a deformed, enormous body hidden beneath, segmented like a centipede. It crawled onto the roof and coiled around it.
Ye Yanran immediately understood that it was this thing that killed the people in the villa. These people were children who had been sponsored by Jing Qiu and had gathered here to take care of it.
Jing Qiu regarded these people as children, but this thing cruelly killed them.
It is not Jing Qiu.
Ye Yanran's eyes were bloodshot as she turned and shouted towards the car, "Run!"
rustling sounds.
The deformed Living Dead passed by her and landed with a thud. Its hard feet pierced through the specially modified official vehicle as if it were stuck in a block of tofu. Inside the vehicle, Qin Xiu, Pang Wen, and Jia Le were dazed and didn't even react. They were impaled by the Living Dead's clawed feet along with the vehicle, and their blood splattered onto the vehicle.
Ye Yanran stopped, her head feeling heavy.
Sister Xiu...
Uncle Wen...
Jia Le...
Two weeks ago.
"I'm so grateful that you could Special Affairs Office; I'm truly touched."
Despite being rejected, she saw the three people who had rejected her at the entrance of the Special Affairs Office the next day.
The lone commander of the Special Affairs Office rushed forward excitedly and hugged them.
"Let's work together to show the world that our Special Affairs Office is truly dedicated to serving the people!"
The scene shifts, Ye Yanran sees a deformed, undead Living Dead, excited by blood, repeatedly plunging its black, clawed feet into the car, each time causing blood and flesh to splatter.
From a distance, Xiao Pei forcefully suppressed the urge to go forward and help.
This is an illusion.
This is an illusion.
She repeated it to herself over and over again.
"... A-Rank Polluted." She gritted her teeth.
Three hundred years ago, Xiao Pei thought there were only Polluted who didn't meet the standards here, but now the facts tell her that's not true; A-Rank Polluted have appeared.
Chapter 167 First Encounter and First Acquaintance
Why did this happen?
Ye Yanran's head felt heavy. She tried to clear her mind, but her brain felt like it had crashed, only fragmented images flashing through her mind in a choppy fashion. One moment it was Sister Xiu scolding her for being improper, the next it was Uncle Wen placing small potted plants in the empty office with a smile, and then it was Jia Le lying on his desk drawing a design, then starting to space out.
This hastily assembled team was not professional, and Ye Yanran did not want it to last long. She just wanted the mission to be completed as soon as possible so that everyone could return to their normal lives.
Elementary school teacher Sister Xiu went back to teaching, psychological counselor Uncle Wen returned to his office to listen to patients' stories, and physics genius returned to his field to shine.
But now...
Everything is over.
Ye Yanran felt the world in front of her was shaking so much that she felt dizzy.
What did she and Sister Xiu say in the end?
I can't remember.
She couldn't remember.
My brain felt like it had been shredded; even Sister Xiu and the others' memories were becoming blurry.
We have to kill that thing.
The thought flashed through my heavy mind.
It must die.
Her trembling hands and feet moved, but she did not rush forward as bravely as she had imagined. In stories, a dashing swordsman would slay a notorious thief with a single stroke, but in reality, she could only drag her heavy body, like a toddler learning to walk, step by step, toward that evil thing.
It's so heavy.
My steps are so heavy, I can't lift them.
The chilling aura seemed to infuse the air with moisture, making it damp, sticky, and suffocating. She even felt as if she could see something dark, writhing maliciously, swaggering over her, this worthless creature.
Unable to distinguish between illusion and reality, her eyes bloodshot, she struggled forward step by step. Almost there, almost there, almost there.
The evil alien was right in front of them, its armored feet pounding against the car, drooling with excitement.
stop.
stop.
Stop it.
Trembling, she raised the dagger in her hand, aimed it at the evil creature, and—boom—the evil alien suddenly burst from its mouth.
It spewed out a mouthful of fire, instantly engulfing the car in flames. She barely managed to get close to the murderous alien, only to be thrown off her by the heat of the explosion. The alien didn't even glance at her, abandoning the car and speeding away. Crackling sounds echoed as hundreds of its armored legs rubbed against each other, sending chills down one's spine. It quickly headed towards the city.
Ye Yanran lay prone on the ground, only moving slightly after a long while.
She propped herself up and coughed up a mouthful of blood; her body was covered in cuts from the shards.
She stared at the burning car, then at the direction the alien had gone, two streams of bloody tears streaming down her face.
She struggled to her feet, gripping the dagger, and staggered after the alien.
She has to kill that thing, otherwise...
However, the alien had long since vanished, leaving behind only corpses strewn across the ground. Some were charred black from the fire, while others were torn to pieces. It was unknown whose parents, wives, children, or relatives and friends had perished here.
That was nothing compared to what Ye Yanran finally experienced upon returning to the city. She discovered what a true hell on earth was: flames soared into the sky, and enormous aliens rapidly traversed the dense urban area, screaming excitedly and spewing fire in all directions, their armored feet covered with the mangled corpses of humans.
Boom!
Boom!
Human cannons were aimed at it, but to no avail; human weapons seemed like mere toys to it.
What... what is this thing?
The Living Dead in the hospital somehow broke through the walls and rushed into the crowd, as if they had finally gained freedom. Human care and love were just shackles to them; now they were finally free.
They became increasingly deformed, inhumanely slaughtering everywhere. Humans screamed and fled, but could not escape the carnage of the Living Dead.
die.
Death is everywhere.
The city was filthy.
Ye Yanran blankly at everything.
A family of three, chased by the Living Dead, ran towards Ye Yanran Ye Yanran. They recognized her and shouted, "You are... you are from the Special Affairs Office! Save us! Save us!"
Ye Yanran instinctively reached out to them, wanting to grasp their hands as they pleaded for help.
prick--
A tentacle shot out from the Living Dead's chest, piercing through the entire family of three. Their cries for help were still on their lips when the light in their eyes slowly faded.
Ye Yanran froze, raising her eyes to see the Living Dead clearly. It was the second Living Dead she had once cared for. It had changed somewhat, with tentacles growing from its chest, but its eyes remained unchanged, as cold and evil as ever.
Ye Yanran suddenly felt waves of stomach cramps. What had she been taking care of for the past two weeks?
Blood began to flow again.
The Living Dead didn't look at her; their gaze passed right through her, just like the other Living Dead she had encountered along the way, and like the centipede alien—they all seemed to be blind to her.
Ye Jiang saw Ye Yanran at that hospital. The latter was sitting on the steps at the hospital entrance, with the corpses of the experts in front of her. They seemed to have been maliciously chased and dismembered just before they could escape the hospital. The entire hall was filled with blood and limbs, as well as... scattered blood-stained documents. Until their last moments, these experts protected their research.
Ye Yanran sat there blankly, the dagger lying at her feet, the light in her eyes gone, as if her soul was no longer there, only an empty shell remaining.
Three hundred years ago, when Ye Jiang returned to the hospital, this was the scene she witnessed. Looking at the human, she recalled the joy on the human's face before leaving the hospital. But after only half a day, she had a premonition that she would never see that human's smile again.
He looked around. It was already dark, but the city was brightly lit. The fire had engulfed the city, and the air was thick with the scent of death.
Three hundred years later, Ye Jiang looked at Ye Yanran on the steps and walked towards the human in the illusion.
"... Don't go." Xiao Pei stopped her, her voice hoarse, "... It's no use, you know this is just an illusion."
Xiao Pei never imagined she would witness such a horrific massacre, such a tragic event that had been completely lost to history.
The appearance of A-Rank Polluted sparked Pilgrimage among lower-level Polluted, who together destroyed the city, shattering people's hopes and their initial innocence.
Humans are emotional beings and do not easily sever their emotions. When faced with mutated fellow humans, they will inevitably struggle. With some naive thoughts, Xiao Pei once wondered when exactly people began to change their attitude towards the Living Dead. Now she has some ideas.
It was after this disaster.
The brutal disaster forced them to face reality.
Xiao Pei put aside her distracting thoughts, looked at Ye Jiang whom she had stopped, and shook her head at her.
Don't go.
It's useless.
Ye Jiang bypassed the obstruction and walked towards Ye Yanran on the steps, just like He did three hundred years ago.
She walked forward, her figure getting shorter with each step, her hair growing longer, and her eyes becoming single-eyed. When she arrived in front of Ye Yanran, she looked exactly like Him from three hundred years ago.
Xiao Pei, who was chasing Ye Jiang, suddenly stopped when she saw this, her eyes widening slightly.
Ye Jiang didn't look at her. She came to Ye Yanran, stopped, and looked down at the human. The human slowly raised her head, saw her, and looked dazed.
They are dead.
Ye Jiang, in place of her self from three hundred years ago, once again projected these words into Ye Yanran's mind. This human, deeply affected by spiritual Pollution, had lost her agility and her reactions had become very slow, but she still managed to understand the words.