After several attempts to stop Shen Wang from biting him, Zhou Xiangzhe could only acquiesce.
He could never refuse Shen Wang.
In the end, he could only ask, “Did you finish all the candies?”
Shen Wang shook his head, “No, there’s one more.”
Knowing that he still had one piece of candy left, Zhou Xiangzhe breathed a sigh of relief. It was as if ‘one piece of candy left’ meant that Shen Wang would have no problems and wouldn’t bite pollutants again. Zhou Xiangzhe felt relieved and turned to look at the new painting on the wall.
Shen Wang leaned against the wall of the gallery and looked at Zhou Xiangzhe’s back. His black pupils reflected Zhou Xiangzhe’s figure, as if framing him in his eyes.
Yes, Shen Wang still had a piece of candy left.
But it was already difficult to control his appetite. This piece of candy won’t satisfy his appetite, and the moment he puts it into his mouth he’ll immediately crush it and swallow it.
But he won’t stop eating pollutants just because of Zhou Xiangzhe. After all, he was a very selfish person. Why should he treat himself badly for the sake of others?
Shen Wang had a small guess. But if said out loud, it might shock many people. He himself felt shocked.
But Shen Wang still felt that one should dare to make bold guesses.
After all, not everyone can accept that he might bite someone at any moment, or that when he’s so hungry he wants to eat pollutants, but Zhou Xiangzhe’s first reaction is still “Pollutants are unhygienic,” rather than “Are you crazy?”
And not everyone would be completely unconcerned after being bitten, or accept everything like this. This isn’t the post-apocalyptic world of the old era; there aren’t kind strangers here.
Zhou Xiangzhe being able to sit in his current position, Shen Wang didn’t believe that he would turn a blind eye to his teammate’s abnormal behavior just because of “trusting his teammate.”
This is not trust; it’s foolishness.
Of course, Shen Wang did not discuss this issue with him now. After all, they are still in the gallery of [Hundred Eyes].
Zhou Xiangzhe stood in front of the wall, and in front of him was the newly displayed painting.
The painting with number ② is completely different from the first one. Not to mention the appearance, but even the art style shows a huge contrast.
If the first painting leaned towards a surreal, realistic style, then the second one is entirely motivational. Seeing a motivational painting in the domain of a pollutant brings a subtly eerie vibe.
“A slightly more complicated simple drawing.” Zhou Xiangzhe said, “Can a person’s art style be so varied?”
Hearing this, Shen Wang walked over and stood next to Zhou Xiangzhe, also looking at the painting.
On the white paper was a large birdcage, divided into three layers, each adorned with smaller birdcages. A beautiful mother figure was bent over, resting on a birdcage that barely reached half her height. Her black eyes stared intently at the birds inside the cage.
In the birdcage, a girl with an indistinct face sat on the ground. Around her were scattered drawing papers and brushes. Under the woman’s gaze, she raised a piece of paper, which shimmered with a golden light.
This painting was titled “In Youth1“ signed: Bai Mu.
Even if they weren’t artists themselves, it’s hard to find any similarities between these two paintings. They look like works drawn by completely different people.
“Is it a comparison between the artwork from her youth and her later years?” Zhou Xiangzhe could only guess.
“Hundred Eyes’s pollution ability is [Drawing Reality]. When she draws her past using her ability, does it cause the painting to revert to the artistic level she had back then?”
Shen Wang smiled, “Guess bolder. I suspect that this [Hundred Eyes] has multiple personalities.”
“Anyway, she’s crazy. These two paintings are drawn by her different personalities.”
Zhou Xiangzhe: …
It’s really a bold guess.
“Anyway, there’s only one painting left. It’s useless for us to guess here.” Zhou Xiangzhe looked at the last painting.
“Let’s go see what’s in this painting.”
They entered the final painting. Zhou Xiangzhe wasn’t particularly nervous, but he wasn’t entirely at ease either. After the previous experience of being separated from Shen Wang, he worried that the last painting might still cause them to be split up.
Sure enough, after confirming they had switched locations, Zhou Xiangzhe noticed that Shen Wang was gone.
He instinctively scanned his surroundings but was surprised to find that this place felt very strange.
It was as if he was standing in some hollow space. The area was very small, like an upright coffin, and even stretching out his arms was a challenge.
All around him felt like cold glass windows, and after feeling around for a while, he couldn’t find any gaps. He furrowed his brow slightly, and just then, a sudden light appeared in front of him.
“Welcome to Miss [Hundred Eyes]‘s Art Exhibition!”
The man’s voice was sharp and high-pitched, sending a wave of shrill screams through the air, as if this was not an elegant artworks exhibition hall, but a concert.
Zhou Xiangzhe stretched out his hand and touched the cold transparent wall in front of him. After a moment of dim light, Zhou Xiangzhe slowly saw the scene in front of him clearly. It was a magnificent corridor pavilion. On the wall opposite him hung gray, blurry paintings, which details were unclear.
He realized that there was something wrong with his perspective.
This viewpoint didn’t feel like a person standing on the ground, but rather of a person suspended in mid-air.
A stranger leisurely walked over to him. He was wearing an extravagant tuxedo, a magician’s hat, and had two small mustaches.
The stranger locked eyes with Zhou Xiangzhe, and in his eye sockets, glass-like eyes rolled briefly.
No, they should be glass balls.
Zhou Xiangzhe never thought that a person’s eyes could be as transparent and pupilless as this, just like a doll.
“Wow! What a perfect work! It is worthy of someone called [Hundred Eyes]. How could someone draw such a great painting!”
The stranger commented on Zhou Xiangzhe, but Zhou Xiangzhe felt that the man couldn’t see him at all. His eyes weren’t eyes at all.
“I really want to own it!”
“I wonder how much money I need to bid for this painting?”
The stranger rambled on, continuously praising Hundred Eyes and this painting.
And finally, Zhou Xiangzhe saw his own condition reflected in the glassy eyes of the stranger—though, it might not be his “condition” at all, but rather the position he was in.
It was a portrait, but it was not clear. There was only a gray hazy canvas framed in a glass frame. Zhou Xiangzhe waved his hand, but the people outside seemed to ignore him.
It seemed that he was… inside the painting?
“Trapped?” Zhou Xiangzhe pressed his hand against the transparent wall in front of him. “Can a A-level pollutant have this much power?”
His golden eyes were cold. After realizing that something was unusual, he immediately took off the black gloves on his hands, put his fingertips on the wall and slid down from the left little by little, until Zhou Xiangzhe withdrew his hands. It was a bit difficult for him to squat down. The space here was just too narrow.
“… “…Definitely a spatial ability, not [Hundred Eyes]’s pollutant ability.”
“This level of space isolation… Xu Yue?”
“Isn’t he dead?”
/
This painting is different from previous paintings because Shen Wang is not indoors; he was outside.
There is no wind in the air, nor is there temperature Shen Wang exhaled a breath, squinting slightly, and looked up to see a cloudy sky.
When he turned around, Shen Wang saw a gallery.
This gallery looked familiar, because Shen Wang had seen it before. It was the art hall standing amidst the ruins after the apocalypse, with bright tiles, white sculptures, green ivy hanging on the walls, and pale yellow flowers adorned with dew drops.
But unlike when they came, there were many people standing in front of the gallery this time.
They were lined up in a long queue, each person with their head lowered, quietly waiting. Standing at the entrance of the gallery were two individuals. Their faces wore stiff, mechanical smiles, and their eyes resembled two glass balls, completely void of any sparkle.
Shen Wang walked along with the people, his eyes scanning their faces as walked.
After walking for a while, Shen Wang stopped because he found that he recognized the person in front of him.
Well not exactly acquaintances, this person was one of the members of the Pollution Control Center dispatch teams.
His surname was Wang, and he was the captain of a dispatch team. Zhou Xiangzhe introduced them before he set off.
Now, Captain Wang was standing quietly in the long queue. He lowered his head, and his eye sockets were bloody. He had no eyes. It could even be said that his consciousness had disappeared. It was unknown in which painting he was polluted and ended up controlled by [Hundred Eyes].
After seeing him, Shen Wang had a bad feeling in his heart. He quickly observed the people in the crowd. Sure enough, there were at least ten people he recognized.
The number of fallen members was really quite high.
Ding Dong.
A bell rang and the people in the long queue raised their heads at the same moment.
Countless people looked towards the gallery door in front of them, but their faces were eyeless.
Two stiff pollutants in the front finally spoke.
“Welcome to the Art Gallery, today is the personal exhibition of the painter [Hundred Eyes].”
“Ms. Hundred Eyes has decided to give back to the public by offering a free exhibition! So everyone can experience the beauty of art!”
“Anyone who wishes to enter the exhibition and admire the artwork can come to me and present their membership proof, and you will be granted access.”
After saying that, the first person of the line immediately took a step forward. He held something and handed it to the two people in front of him. Looking closely, it turned out to be a pair of eyes.
He put his eyes in the box next to him. The eyeballs fell into the box without a sound, but it still had a layer of sticky blood.
The two people let the person into the gallery with satisfaction.
“Next.” They shouted.
Shen Wang raised his eyebrows slightly. The membership proof turned out to be eyes.
But not going in was also not an option. Shen Wang had tried—this place was like a game world, where if you reached the edge, you couldn’t move any further. The only place that could be accessed was this gallery. And Zhou Xiangzhe was nowhere to be found. Shen Wang searched around but couldn’t locate him. In the end, he could only deduce that this painting must have respawned Zhou Xiangzhe inside the gallery.
Shen Wang stood still for a while, observing. In the end, he confirmed that everyone who handed in something was submitting their eyes—no, it seemed that they were all handing over their own eyes.
Only those who handed their eyes could enter the gallery.
Finally, Shen Wang walked to the end of the line. The ‘visitors’ handed in their eyes very quickly, because they dug out their eyes before they got in the line, they just threw their eyes in. The whole line was ending in less than ten minutes. Soon Shen Wang was the only one left.
The two stiff people smiled at Shen Wang.
“Dear guest, please hand in your membership proof.”
“I will hand it in.” Shen Wang looked at them, “Wait for me for a few seconds.”
“Guest…”
His voice stopped abruptly, because a piece of thorn pierced his body, and he opened wide his eyes. Now this weird stiff thing actually had an expression. Even the lowest level of pollutants could sense danger and fear death. His whole body shrank, and two glass eyeballs rolled out of his eye sockets.
The thorns took the two eyeballs and held them in the air. Shen Wang instructed the thorns to put the eyes in the box.
The membership proof is eyes, but it doesn’t say whose eyes it had to be.
Aren’t the eyes of the pollutants eyes?
“How is it?” Shen Wang’s pupils turned red. He smiled and stared at the remaining staff who was still standing there. Shen Wang was obviously smiling, but he seemed full of threats.
“Is this enough for membership proof?”
The remaining pollutants smiled stiffly, glancing at the eyeballs in the box before looking back at Shen Wang.
“Welcome, guest, to the gallery.”
“Good, you know how to read the situation.”
Shen Wang took back the thorns and entered the gallery.
After the pollutant at the door confirmed that Shen Wang had entered, he immediately reported to the exhibition hall, “Security, pay attention, there is a fake…”
Puff, the pollutant opened his eyes wide, he lowered his head and saw the thorns piercing through his heart.
The hungry little thorns swallowed his blood.
‘It’s not delicious, woo woo2! ‘
‘Hungry, eat, don’t be disgusted! ‘
‘Woo woo, master, it’s not delicious! ‘
‘Hungry, want to bite the delicious big deer! ’
Shen Wang knew that this low-level pollutant was not tasty, but there was nothing delicious around now, except Zhou Xiangzhe, who he couldn’t eat.
Even though he was now in the domain of an A-level pollutant, Shen Wang couldn’t guarantee that he could handle [Bai Mu] alone. The safest option was to let Zhou Xiangzhe deal with [Bai Mu] and then pick up the pieces afterward.
Feeling that the emptiness in his stomach was barely filled a little, Shen Wang finally exhaled and entered the gallery.
He walked and looked, he casually compared the current gallery with the one when they first entered.
When they first entered the gallery, it was a long corridor, with portraits lining both sides. Every painting was an eerie portrait, each face covered with eyes. But this time, what he saw wasn’t a long straight corridor but a winding, curving passage.
The corridor was filled with scattered paintings, each one a blurry gray, with no distinct image. The people who had entered before him walked back and forth in the corridor, eventually choosing to stand in front of one of the paintings.
They stood quietly, heads lowered, as if they were statues. But Shen Wang noticed that in the gray paintings in front of them, lines gradually started to appear lines.
The victims began to speak.
“The great artist Hundred Eyes painted our portraits.”
“We are so honored!”
“Can such a perfect painting really be ours?”
“What a precious gift!”
Their expressions became ecstatic, and even without eyes, Shen Wang could feel their strong excitement.
They raised their hands and placed them on the frames. Afterwards, the lines emerged faster and faster, finally forming their portraits and hanging them on the wall. After the portraits were formed, large and small holes quickly opened on their exposed skin, and eyes emerged from them.
It was as if they had abscesses all over their bodies.
At the same time, cracks appeared on their portraits at the same time, and those eyes emerged from the cracks, and they were also gurgling in the painting.
This reminded Shen Wang of the exhibits that appeared in the gallery at the beginning.
Such a large number of eyes is really a disgusting sight.
“Using human eyes as tickets and then painting people into portraits, this pollutant is very creative.”
Shen Wang turned his head and looked to the side.
The man had green hair, unlike the victims around him, he still had his own eyes, but his pupils were strangely pale. He stood quietly in front of a painting, not showing surprise nor fear in his eyes, he wasn’t neither sad nor happy.
Only the sack-like clothes on his body and the book in his arms told Shen Wang that this is someone he knew.
“Lan?!”
“You should call me brother.” Lan made a shushing gesture to Shen Wang, “I haven’t seen you for a few days, but brother is still so cute.”
“That’s not the point, the point is your appearance…”
Lan turned his head to look at him, his pale eyes as gloomy as ever.
“I’m using other abilities. Different abilities will change my appearance. It disguises me so it’s very useful.”
Well, Shen Wang also knew about this. After all, his appearance would also change when he used the ability of Blood Thorn.
But…
Shen Wang asked again: “How many days has it been?”
“Five days.” Lan held up one hand. “In the domain of high-level pollutants, time differences often appear. The cause of these discrepancies remains unexplained, and it’s said to be one of the characteristics of high-level pollutants.”
“So, you’re here to find me?”
“Of course, my dear little brother disappearing did make me anxious, but with you being with an S-level mutant, you don’t need to worry about your safety.” Lan opened his book and looked at the blank pages, musing, “I had foreseen this, so I wasn’t that worried.”
“I’m here more because of the Academy of Sciences.”
Shen Wang remembered that he was the main attacker of the Academy of Sciences, and even that unlucky researcher from the Academy who ran into [Hundred Eyes]‘s domain had been trying to avoid him.
So, Lan was continuing his pursuit: to continue to cause trouble for the Academy of Sciences and eliminating the Academy once and for all
“The Academy of Sciences has data that absolutely should not fall into their hands. I’ve been chasing them for a long time just to destroy that data,”
Lan said: “The Academy is so determined that they even sent Zhou Xiangzhe, they must really want to get the data back. This means there’s something in it that I want,”
He closed the book and looked at Shen Wang, “By the way, you’re feeling sick right?”
Shen Wang frowned and looked at him, “You noticed?”
“That’s perfect, there is a Class A pollutant here.” Lan said, his expression gentle and approachable, but his words were cold, brutal, and all too natural.
“Here is a ready-made ability waiting for you.”
TLS: Sorry for the blank chapters (TvT)! I tend to skim through long chapters when reading, but since I’m translating, I can’t do that, so it’s taking me a bit longer to post new chapters.
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