Even with incomplete consciousness Jiang Mengchi felt that those thorns were not trying to attack Shen Wang.

Although they looked quite intimidating, with thorns, strange eye-catching flowers and pieces of pollutants’ corpses all over them, normal people would be scared and scream, but Shen Wang didn’t have that reaction. He even wanted to make those thorns disappear before Zhou Xiangzhe appeared.

…There was a strange sense of déjàvu, like Shen Wang knew these thorns.

Jiang Mengchi tried moving his lips, but then the electric shock from the suppressor on his wrist activated and numbed him.

His dull white eyes reflected the figures of Shen Wang and Zhou Xiangzhe. In the end  he lowered his head and remained silent.

Forget it, he is now a pollutant that needs to be eliminated, and no matter what he says Zhou Xiangzhe won’t believe his words. Looking at his current appearance, he probably won’t believe that Shen Wang is involved with the pollutants.

On the other side, Zhou Xiangzhe is still anxious.

“I didn’t expect Blood Thorn to be here.” Zhou Xiangzhe said, “Luckily I’m here. Class A pollutants are too dangerous.”

Shen Wang looked at Zhou Xiangzhe subtly and said “In fact, it doesn’t seem that dangerous.”

“You don’t understand the horror of Class A pollutants.” Zhou Xiangzhe said to Shen Wang seriously, “The elimination of other pollutants can be postponed, but Blood Thorn must be dealt with.”

Shen Wang thought: Blood Thorn is right in front of you, how are you going to deal with it?

But he nodded and said yes, yes, yes.

That’s right, the Blood Thorn is too dangerous and should be eliminated immediately!

“Follow me from now on.” Zhou Xiangzhe’s tone was still serious, “I’m going to deal with the flower sea left by the Blood Thorn.”

“Don’t worry, I will protect you.”

What else can Shen Wang say? He has nothing to say so he can only follow Zhou Xiangzhe back to the center of the pollution source and watch him deal with the flower sea he left behind.

But when they arrived at the location, they unexpectedly found that the sea of ​​flowers had disappeared, and only bare stone slabs were left. Because the thorns had uprooted and ran away, the stone slabs were turned upside down, just like turning the soil.

They looked around, and saw small thorns sticking out from all directions. They hid in the dark and quietly stretched out their tentacles to look at them again and again.

The woman who repeatedly jumped off the building screamed in anger. If you look closely, you will find that several thorns are entangled on her blood-stained white skirt.

And the sharp-eyed Shen Wang also found that thorns had climbed up to the center of the pollution source, and small flowers were blooming ostentatiously.

Oh, yes, blood thorns have the habit of parasitic pollution, and they use… seeds for that.

They actually took advantage of Shen Wang’s absence and quietly slipped away covering the entire Qianzhen community with seeds.

Shen Wang: …

Zhou Xiangzhe: …

“So cunning.” Zhou Xiangzhe looked at the thorns thoughtfully, “The pollution source has an amplifying effect on pollutants. It has expanded so much and the range is so large. Even if the level of a single tree is not high, it is not easy to deal with all of them at once.”

“I haven’t seen such a scheming pollutant for a long time.”

Shen Wang was silent. Well, he didn’t do anything, really.

This matter must not be framed on him!

…

“And you just let him in?”

In the reception room of S District, Ming Guang clenched his hands tightly to restrain himself. He almost jumped up to grab Xu Yue’s collar.

“Don’t you know that he shouldn’t go into any pollution source now?! Even if it’s just a Class C, if something unexpected happens, none of us can afford it!”

“I’m sorry.” Xu Yue responded very softly, “He wanted to go and I really couldn’t refuse. You should also know that once Zhou Xiangzhe wants to do something he must do it”

“Then couldn’t you delay him until I came?!”

Ming Guang slammed the table hard, “If I came, I might’ve been able to convince him! But you directly let him in!”

Hearing Ming Guang’s words, Xu Yue stopped talking, looking like he refused to further communicate.

Seeing him like this, Ming Guang closed his eyes and sighed, and finally he could only ask Xu Yue, “Can you still open this isolation? Can you let Zhou Xiangzhe out?”

The suppressor on Xu Yue’s body flashed red, showing his current mental instability.

“Not for now, I need to slow down. Using my ability will increase my pollution.” Xu Yue frowned and raised his arm. Every movement of his wooden arm made him frown. His right pupil was completely white and he couldn’t blink. After coming out of the well-equipped S area, his situation became worse.

Ming Guang said sarcastically, “You didn’t even know if you could let Zhou Xiangzhe out, but you let him in?”

“You are such a good friend.”

He seemed to be disappointed. He got up and left the living room without saying goodbye, leaving Xu Yue alone there.

Ding, Xu Yue, who stayed in place, glanced at the pollution suppressor on his body.

Green light, safe.

His eyes narrowed slightly.

On the other side, Ming Guang made a phone call while walking away.

“How is it?”

“You guessed right…” The voice on the other end of the phone was full of surprise, “Xu Yue actually has a problem!”

Ming Guang is very perceptive. As the deputy captain of Polaris, he has always done planned work, so he immediately noticed something wrong when they told him that Zhou Xiangzhe entered Qianzhen Community.

Zhou Xiangzhe is an S-level mutant,  his pollution level has exceeded 80% and is extremely dangerous. Once Zhou Xiangzhe’s pollution level exceeds the standard, he will become a S-level pollutant.

Normal people would never let Zhou Xiangzhe step into such a dangerous area. 

But Xu Yue, who was once one of the most talented ability users and had a mental breakdown because of sacrificing his teammates, let Zhou Xiangzhe go.

This is too strange.

So Ming Guang asked someone to check Xu Yue’s treatment records.

“His treatment records are still normal, but I still found traces of tampering, so I went to find his attending physician and got terrible news! “

As an A-level mutant, Xu Yue has his own exclusive doctor, who is responsible for his testing and treatment. All his treatment records are signed by this doctor.

Three months ago, this doctor was exposed to occupational pollution in Area S and was sent to the Mental Pollution Center for treatment after he became mentally unstable.

In the ward, the crazy doctor quietly told him: He saw that Xu Yue’s pollution level had exceeded 100% and reached 109%. He was a pollutant!

“Sure enough…” Ming Guang was not surprised by this. He was curious about another thing.

“Why?”

“Why should an A-level pollutant stay imprisoned in S district? It’s not a pollutant’s normal behaviour.”

“And how did he avoid pollution detection?”

/

Xu Yue returned to his exclusive ward in district S.

As an A-level mutant, he was treated very well.

However, once the pollution level of a mutant reaches 70%, no matter what kind of person you were before or what you did, you will be thrown here as something who needs to be guarded against. The so-called exclusive ward is nothing more than an exclusive prison.

The only one who broke this rule was Zhou Xiangzhe, the genius who could move freely outside even with a pollution level higher than 80%.

“Knock, knock, knock.”

Just after returning to the ward, Xu Yue heard a knock on his door. He walked over and opened the door. He was now used to it.

Standing outside the door was a young man. He looked tall, thin and was wearing all black. When he lowered his head, he looked gloomy.

“Where did you go today?” The young man asked in a flat voice.

Xu Yue let go of the door handle and sat back on his small bed. “I have to report even this kind of thing to you?”

“Say it.” The young man’s tone was flat, but just these few words gave Xu Yue goosebumps.

Xu Yue felt that his brain heavy, like it was about to be crushed by the sense of crisis. He almost got up to ran away.

“Okay, okay, I’ll tell you.” Xu Yue said quickly, “I trapped Zhou Xiangzhe in a level C pollution source!”

After becoming a pollutant, Xu Yue no longer had the heart of a human being. He was no longer sad about what happened back then, instead he felt complacent. He started to get tired of humans, especially Zhou Xiangzhe, so he sent Zhou Xiangzhe in without second thoughts. In his opinion, this matter was simply a new opportunity tailor-made for him.

“Zhou Xiangzhe?” The gloomy young man finally raised his head, revealing his delicate face and silver-purple eyes under his hood. At first glance it was obvious that he’s not an ordinary person. 

Hearing the gloomy young man’s question, Xu Yue quickly told him everything that happened, for fear that he would be destroyed by this guy if he was even a second late.

Until now, Xu Yue still didn’t know whether he was a human or a pollutant.

He only knew that when his pollution level skyrocketed and he lost his mind turning into a pollutant, he caused the doctor, who heard the alarm and had come to check him, to become mentally polluted. When he(XuYue) went crazy, this strange man stood in front of him, and after the man knocked him with the corner of the book in his arms:

He regained his sanity and became a pawn of this man.

The man asked him to stay in S District to observe the actions of the Academy of Sciences. Once the Academy of Sciences recruited experimental subjects, he had to sign up. He wanted all the information possible about the Academy of Sciences.

Xu Yue refused. He thought that he was an A-level mutant in his lifetime and now he’s an A-level pollutant. Why should he listen to him?

Then he was beaten up and almost became fertilizer, so he obeyed and continued to squat in S District like a prisoner and inquired about various news of the Academy of Sciences. Of course, he was also very curious why S District didn’t discover that he became a pollutant. 

After thinking about it, the only possibility is that this man did something to him.

He vaguely felt that whether he was a mutant or a pollutant, this man had reached S level.

“You have been discovered.” The gloomy man opened the book he had been holding in his arms and said in a calm but affirmative tone.

Xu Yue was stunned for a moment, “What did you say?”

“You did something extra. I told you from the beginning not to do things beyond my orders.” The gloomy man turned to the next page and then looked at him as if he was looking at a dead person.

“This is impossible!” Xu Yue kept backing away, “No one will find out. I just, I just followed Zhou Xiangzhe’s wishes!”

“Do you think that humans are stupid?” The gloomy man tilted his head, his silver-purple eyes full of coldness.

“No, they are not stupid. On the contrary, they are too smart. Only you are stupid.”

“Garbage.¹“

/

The lights in S District were bright tonight. Thee alarm sounded through the sky, and all medical staff entered the Center. Only the staff kept shuttling in the corridor.

Because something big happened in S district today.

Xu Yue, an A-level mutant with the ability [Space], died in the ward. The fire burned the entire isolation room. The last detected pollution value in the ward was as high as 126%.

The gloomy man wearing a black hood stood on a small hill not far from S District. His silver-purple eyes reflected the firelight of S District. After looking for a while, he lowered his head and opened the book in his arms again in the dark night.

He read and talked to himself, with a strange and gloomy feeling sorrounding  him.

“The experiment of the Academy of Sciences failed again. It will definitely fail. After all, I have been looking for bases to destroy them.”

“There are still five left. You can hide for a while, but you can’t hide forever. I can always catch you all.”

“I need to find a new chess piece. I need to find a mutant at a least C-level or above and with a pollution level of more than 70%. It’s really troublesome.”

“I have to snipe another group of experimental personnel of the Academy of Sciences in a week. It doesn’t matter even if Zhou Xiangzhe is involved. However, it seems that my brother will be coinvolted accidentally.”

The gloomy man was stuck for a moment.

“…Hmm? My brother?”

He uttered strange words in a strange tone, and even turned the book forward several pages in shock.

“What did you say? My brother?”

After repeated confirmation, countless characters floated in the gloomy man’s pupils. He opened his eyes wide and slowly closed the book after a long time.

“Shen Wang.”

“…My brother, he is still alive.”

1. Insult toward XuYue.  ↩︎