The drizzle of rain fell, and everything was wet. The wind and rain in early spring were very cold, and soaking the body would quickly take away human body temperature.
Under the unfinished building overgrown with weeds, several people wearing black raincoats or special protective clothing were busy. They wore special protective masks and gloves and were collecting things on the ground into special containers similar to coffins.
The only person wearing a red raincoat was standing by and taking notes, with a silver badge of [Polaris] on his chest.
If Shen Wang was here, he would be surprised to find that he was the young man who sent him back to his residence at that time.
At this moment, footsteps were heard outside the alley, and a person holding an umbrella stepped into the unfinished building where the road was overgrown with weeds.
The person who took notes heard the sound and looked over, and showed a look of disgust after three seconds.
“You are so picky.” He complained, “You still hold an umbrella in such a messy place?”
The person he complained about was Zhou Xiangzhe, the captain of Polaris.
At this time, Zhou Xiangzhe was holding a black transparent umbrella, with long white hair tied into a high ponytail, straight black trousers and a white combat uniform that was easy to move in. With his excellent figure and nearly 1.9 meters tall, he didn’t look like he was here to do a mission, but rather to walk the runway.
The young man silently complained in his heart: Even if he is so handsome, he is still a single dog.
Zhou Xiangzhe didn’t care about his dislike, but just asked calmly: “What’s the situation?”
“Completely the same.”
“Oh yes, in addition to the clown’s body, we also found the last victim on the rooftop of the unfinished building. He is still alive, but mental pollution has completely destroyed his brain. He can’t say anything except some words of fear and terror.”
“The guard team has sent him to the Mental Pollution Center for treatment.”
The young man’s name is Ming Guang, the deputy captain of Polaris. He is a good friend and partner of Zhou Xiangzhe. He came to the scene to collect materials as soon as the incident happened.
Mingguang handed him the file he had recorded, “The same person killed D591 The Clown and B023 Meiyu… uh, the same mutant.”
Zhou Xiangzhe took the file from Mingguang and looked through it.
Ming Guang’s files are always very organized. There are not only photos but also various analysis reports.
“When we came back, I was surprised to hear that a B-level pollutant broke out in Central City, but I was even more surprised to know that the death toll is less than a hundred. You know, a B-level pollutant can kill a whole city. At that time, I felt something was wrong and decided to check it out immediately.”
Ming Guang snapped his fingers, “Sure enough, there is something wrong.”
The B-level pollutant Meiyu was not eliminated by the dispatch team. At that time, Polaris was out of the city to eliminate [Hibernation], and there were no A-level mutants in the city. There was only a B-level mutant from the guard team guarding Central City. That mutant led a team with the idea of delaying the pollutant even if he died, but he didn’t expect to go there and see the pollutant already dead.
It laid motionless on the ground like a clown, its skin shattered at the touch, like a weed that had been exposed to the sun. Withered thorns pierced the body, and the thorns were covered with blood-colored thorns, and there were still pieces of red petals scattered around.
This kind of death is not something that a human could do. It is likely that it was killed by another high-level pollutant.
Aftersome research, they finally identified the target.
A012 [Blood Thorn]
“Blood Thorn, a Class A pollutant, has no record of entering human cities. The last observed location is near the edge of the No. 2 Contaminated Area, which is likely to be its territory.”
“The third year after the outbreak of the doomsday was the first time that humans observed Blood Thorn. The recorder claimed that he saw a glass house garden, and the sunlight sprinkled on the flowers, like a layer of light. In the center of the beautiful garden stood a white-haired man, his body was covered with flower vines, revealing an abnormal beauty. The recorder was seduced but a companion with the ability [Crisis Warning] pulled him. “
“It only took a moment for the recorder to realize that something was wrong. Mutants are less easily mentally affected by pollutants. After breaking free from the spirit pollution, he found that there was no garden in front of him. All around him were white human bones, and countless flower roots were rooted in those bones. The man was not entangled with flower vines, but bloody thorns. “
“Later, the recorder’s entire team was lured into the garden. After entering, they were instantly polluted and died becoming fertilizer for the flowers. Only he and the mutant who warned of the danger escaped. “
But… even so, they could not escape.
They rested in a village on the edge of the high wall. Then they relaxed their minds, they did not realize that they were carrying seeds. The seeds germinated in their bodies, devoured their blood and grew rapidly, drilling out of their bodies greedily looking for new prey, in the end destroying the entire village overnight.
This is the horror of Class A pollutants.
Zhou Xiangzhe concluded: “Mental pollution temptation, parasitic seeds, lethality A, no clear restraint method.”
“Very bad.” Ming Guang also concluded, “This A-level pollutant is suspected to have mixed into the Central City, and it’s hunting other pollutants.”
No one knows whether this A-level pollutant will attack humans after hunting pollutants. Afterall it has a history of hunting humans.
In the absence of mutants that can fight against it, this A-level pollutant is enough to kill a whole group of people inside the high wall.
“Issue a B-level pollution alert.” Zhou Xiangzhe gave an order, “The guard teams should be on guard.”
“I know.” Ming Guang nodded.
After the alert was issued, Zhou Xiangzhe glanced at the sky. It was no longer raining outside. He put away his black umbrella and shook off the water on it. He looked unexpectedly cherishing toward the umbrella.
Ming Guang asked curiously: “Why do you always use a black umbrella when it rains? And all of them are a bit transparent.”
“A gift from a friend.” Zhou Xiangzhe answered while holding the umbrella: “At that time, there were only two umbrellas in the orphanage. There was no way to share them among dozens of children. I couldn’t get one every time.”
“Once he went to the hospital for treatment and it happened to rain. The nurse gave him an umbrella, and he gave it to me when he came back.”
“Since then, I have been the only child in the orphanage who has an umbrella.”
Ming Guang didn’t expect Zhou Xiangzhe to have such a past. His eyes softened a lot when he looked at the umbrella. “Is this the umbrella?”
Zhou Xiangzhe looked at him strangely, “Of course not.”
More than a decade later, even the best of umbrellas will be damaged, especially if it’s a fragile disposable small umbrella.
And… he didn’t have time to take the umbrella out of the orphanage. It was buried in that dead place with the people Zhou Xiangzhe knew.
So now he can only buy an umbrella of the same color and style to remember it.
……
When the alarm sounded, Shen Wang was filling out his identity file at the pollution prevention center. The staff in charge of the onboarding repeatedly confirmed whether he really wanted to join the dispatch team.
After Shen Wang confirmed it several times, the staff was relieved and let him join.
This is not because the staff looked down on the dispatch team, but because too many people who initially joined the dispatch team asked to transfer to the guard team after their first mission began or ended. They even complained that the staff members did not inform them of the degree of danger encountered by the dispatch team before they joined. Therefore, every time the staff saw someone who wanted to join the dispatch team, they would remind that person repeatedly.
The moment after his file was sent, the alarm sounded, and the entire Pollution Control Center was silent for three seconds.
“An alarm?” Shen Wang looked at the flashing red light.
The staff’s face was extremely ugly, “B-level alert…?”
Shen Wang looked at him, “What does B-level alert mean?”
“Central City is suspected to have an extremely dangerous pollutant inside! It may even be A-level!” The staff even stopped working and began to search for information continuously, “How could it be? Central City has not had A-level pollutants for seven or eight years.”
Shen Wang’s eyes lit up when he heard this.
What? A-level pollutants? !
He had been inside the high wall for only a few days and he was already able to find food?
So he asked: “What kind of pollutant is it?”
“All mutants will receive a message with details.” The staff said: “You can see what the terminal has received.”
Hearing what he said, Shen Wang opened the new terminal he received after joining the Center, and indeed saw the message that had just been sent in the terminal.
He clicked in with interest, and then saw the name of the suspected pollutant this time.
A012 [Blood Thorn]
Shen Wang: …
Sorry, it turned out to be an old dish, which was accidentally discovered and was thought to be a new dish by Central City.
After finding out that it was a misunderstanding, Shen Wang lost interest. He went to get a set of combat uniforms and weapons then prepared to leave the Pollution Control Center to wait for the next orders. Of course, only Shen Wang knew that this so-called A-level pollutant was fictitious and would not be found no matter how hard they searched.
Thinking of this, Shen Wang felt a little funny, so he laughed and started humming.
Like a bad kid who had successfully played a prank.
Carrying the weapon box and walking out, Zhou Xiangzhe and Mingguang got out of the car at the ingress door, and they looked at each other.
Shen Wang nodded to them, still smiling, but didn’t ask any questions because he was busy. He nodded and prepared to leave.
Zhou Xiangzhe spoke, “The song Ten Years?1“
Shen Wang stopped, his eyes lit up, “What a coincidence, Captain Zhou also likes to listen to songs?”
Few people know this song, because it is a song from the old era. After the end of the world, entertainment declined, and countless songs disappeared in history. Only people like Shen Wang who like to listen to songs will deliberately search for them.
What? Zhou Xiangzhe is a fellow enthusiast?
“Unfortunately.” Zhou Xiangzhe raised his eyebrows, “I had a friend when I was a child, and he liked to sing this song to me.”
“That’s even more coincidental.” Shen Wang smiled very happily, “I also sang this song to my friend when I was a child, but he didn’t seem to be very interested.”
Every time the delicate child like a porcelain doll would listen and start yawning, and then falling asleep beside his bed without knowing.
Shen Wang will never admit that it was because he sang the same song over and over again for half an hour, and normal people would get tired of it.
I2 don’t know whether he is dead or alive now, and whether the survivor on whom there is no news is him.
Zhou Xiangzhe thought for a while, and couldn’t find a moment in which he showed disinterest, but he still spoke against his will.
“It means he doesn’t have good tastes.”
Ming Guang stood next to Zhou Xiangzhe, he looked at the two.
Once again, he was sure in his heart that there must be something between the two!
He had never seen Zhou Xiangzhe talk to anyone casually.
…
After Shen Wang left, Zhou Xiangzhe openly opened up his employment file in front of Mingguang.
When he saw that he chose the dispatch team, Ming Guang nodded with satisfaction.
“Good boy, he is very courageous. Those who can join the dispatch team are all good seedlings!”
Zhou Xiangzhe didn’t care about these. He looked at Shen Wang’s file carefully, especially the past.
Healed from the new genetic disease, I(ZXZ) don’t know why this sentence was added at the end. He(SW) didn’t seem to want to write this at first. There are obvious traces of it on the paper.
A wandering and stateless mutant, born in the suburbs of Hantian North City, his parents died when he was a teenager. He once joined a wild adventure team, but the whole team was destroyed due to encountering high-level pollutants. He wanted to find a stable place, so he came to Central City.
This file is wrong. It doesn’t match Shen Wang’s experience at all. Except for the new genetic disease, everything else is fabricated.
Then, Zhou Xiangzhe realized why “healed from the new genetic disease” was added later, it’s because he didn’t intend to write it down from the beginning, but because Zhou Xiangzhe shouted out his identity at the containment center, he suspected that the center would find out about it, so he could only write it down to avoid being exposed.
… Shen Wang changed his identity.
“Ming Guang.” Zhou Xiangzhe was silent for a few seconds and asked the person next to him.
“Why would someone hide their past?”
“Ah?” Ming Guang was a little surprised by Zhou Xiangzhe’s question.
But he didn’t just give a perfunctory answer, and thought about it seriously.
“Maybe it’s because this is a past that he can’t bear to look back on…right?”
Zhou Xiangzhe put the file back.
A past that he can’t bear to look back on.
But no matter what, Zhou Xiangzhe realized that Shen Wang didn’t seem to want his identity to be discovered.
Recognizing each other wouldn’t improve their relationship, and it might even get extremely bad.
Thinking about this, Zhou Xiangzhe suddenly felt relieved that he hadn’t recognized Shen Wang at first, due to his identity
“Transfer him to Polaris.” Zhou Xiangzhe ordered his deputy captain without any pressure.
Ming Guang was stunned for a moment, “Ah?”
“That’s it.” Zhou Xiangzhe turned and walked inside, without any intention of explaining.
“Zhou Xiangzhe!” Ming Guang almost exploded, “”Is this something you can just adjust by saying so? [Polaris] is the strongest special operations team in Central City, and the requirements for joining the team are very high! If you abuse your power for personal gain, you should also consider what others will think! Who are you trying to make things difficult for?”
“Zhou Xiangzhe, Zhou Xiangzhe!”
- Ten Years: a real chinese song made by Eason Chan https://youtu.be/BqbvK2I_Baw?si=_G_L2zJ8D_x0TkEF ↩︎
- ZXZ doesn’t know if his friend is alive or not ↩︎
Translator: The fact that Central city is surrounded by high walls reminds me of aot lmao
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