Warning: This chapter contains suggestions of psychological child abuse from family members.

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The blood from the side of Zhou Xiangzhe’s neck soaked his combat uniform, emitting a bloody smell.

After giving the candy to Shen Wang, Zhou Xiangzhe covered the wound with his hand, and when he put his hand down again, the wound started to heal at a speed visible to the naked eye.

After devouring [Deer God], Zhou Xiangzhe indeed paid a huge price, but he also gained some advantages that humans  don’t have.

For example: extremely fast healing speed and part of [Deer God]’s pollution ability.

It was like an equivalent exchange. 

Although he didn’t ask, Zhou Xiangzhe had strong doubts about why Shen Wang bit him. He even kept asking himself in his mind.

‘Why did he bite me? ‘

‘When did he start biting people when sick? Has he bit anyone else besides me? ‘

‘… Will biting make him feel better? ’

This was really an incomprehensible action. Zhou Xiangzhe knows Shen Wang’s illness and knows that when he is sick, he will be in an uncontrollable state of hunger and become  extremely aggressive. But when they were in the orphanage, Shen Wang never bit anyone during the illness. He would only grab food from everyone and stuff it into his mouth.

This was not a good move. It will scare other children and cause Shen Wang to eat too much and upset his stomach. So the director locked Shen Wang in the confinement room and only provided him three standard meals a day. Of course, Zhou Xiangzhe was the one delivering the meals every time.

At first, Shen Wang would attack him, but later he stopped doing so because Zhou Xiangzhe would not bring any food except for three meals.

Before the world stabilized and the conditions in the orphanage improved a little, Zhou Xiangzhe would save the candies given to him to secretly give them to Shen Wang when he was sick.

Now, Zhou Xiangzhe was thinking that Shen Wang might have developed this problem during the time he was separated from him. Was it caused by the unsatisfied appetite during the onset period?

Yes, that was the only explanation.

When we get out, let’s find a good doctor to see him.’

Finally, Zhou Xiangzhe thought calmly.

If Shen Wang knew what he was thinking, he would definitely frown.

You even thought of reason and didn’t think for even a second that it was my problem. How much do you love me!

After confirming that the wound on the side of Zhou Xiangzhe’s neck was healed, Shen Wang was much calmer than before. Zhou Xiangzhe continued to look at the painting on the wall. Although his vision had just recovered, fortunately, the light in this shabby gallery was faint, so his eyes were not overstimulated.

Shen Wang had the candy in his mouth and he looked at Zhou Xiangzhe’s back, feeling a bit doubtful.

Sometimes Zhou Xiangzhe’s attitude towards him was too strange. Was Zhou Xiangzhe such a tolerant person? But would someone who could sit in the position of the God of War of Central City really be so kind?

Gift him songs and candies, be indifferent when bitten, and he doesn’t even doubt the assaulter.

It can’t be that Zhou Xiangzhe likes him, right?

Shen Wang thought casually: I wonder if Lan’s talent of [Precognition] can be used for fortune-telling. Brother, please tell him what’s going on with Zhou Xiangzhe.

“Sure enough, there are still some left.” Zhou Xiangzhe said to Shen Wang: “There are a total of three numbered paintings.”

Shen Wang walked over, he looked at the number ① under the first complete painting, and then followed Zhou Xiangzhe’s direction to see the other numbers, and finally understood that in this huge gallery there were only three broken frames with numbers, which  means that the number of paintings they need to enter is three.

“So the paintings are randomly selected in this gallery.” Shen Wang spoke vaguely while holding the candy in his mouth, “And the domain within the paintings and that of the outside gallery are connected.”

“In other words: the people in the portraits were polluted and died in the corresponding paintings.”

Zhou Xiangzhe reached out and touched the worn-out empty frame with number ②.

“Remember, our purpose this time is not to clean up the Class A pollutant [Hundred Eyes]. Our initial purpose is to find the researcher from the Academy of Sciences who asked for help and bring back the precious information in their hands. This is our goal.”

Shen Wang hummed in response, but he internally thought: Of course not.

He entered Central City to find food, and now he is in the onset period. If he doesn’t eat it, he’s the one suffering now.

/

The second painting is different from the first one. Zhou Xiangzhe is no longer blind after entering, and he secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

Sudden blindness is really too troublesome, especially for a normal person like him who isn’t used to not being able to see, even if he adapts to it, it’s still extremely inconvenient.

“Shen…” Zhou Xiangzhe called Shen Wang’s name, and he stopped after only one word, because he found that he was the only one here, and Shen Wang was nowhere to be seen.

Zhou Xiangzhe frowned and looked around.

This seems to be a human residence, but unlike the centralized collective housing built during the apocalypse, this seems more like a small villa from the old days before the apocalypse. He stood in a not-so-big room. There was a slight sobbing sound coming from outside. Someone was crying, and the voice was small and soft. It was a woman.

Zhou Xiangzhe took a step towards the door, but he lowered his head when he heard the sound of chains.

He saw a shackle on one of his ankles, and the shackle was connected to a thin chain, just like a prisoner. Zhou Xiangzhe felt a slight tingling pain in his arm, similar to a needle. After rolling up his sleeves, he saw that his arm had grown fine fluff, just like the down of birds in their infancy.

He put down his sleeves and observed the surrounding environment. Metal bird cages were hung all over the room like decorations. The cages were not empty, instead dead birds were lying in them.

The colorful birds died in various postures, leaving only stiff corpses, forming a beautiful and weird tomb group.

If you look closely, you will find that these birds are all wearing clothes, and their small eye sockets are empty, without any eyes. All the birds have their eyes gouged out.

Zhou Xiangzhe inexplicably remembered the information he had read before.

In the old days, humans would keep birds as pets. In order to prevent the birds from flying away, they would clip their feathers, and some would tie one of the birds’ legs and lock them in cages.

At the same time, the bird in the cage not only represents a pet bird, but also an adjective to describe a person without freedom.

Zhou Xiangzhe squatted down to check the shackles on his ankles. There was no keyhole or gap, as if it was something born on his ankles. The shackles were not easy to handle, but the chain could still be broken. Zhou Xiangzhe aimed his pistol at the chain, and the bullet broke the thin chain. Zhou Xiangzhe was temporarily free.

He stood up again and walked towards the door. The sobbing outside continued. Zhou Xiangzhe tried to open the door but found that the door was locked.

Just as he was about to continue to break the lock of the door with bullets, his arm suddenly began to ache and burn.

Zhou Xiangzhe hesitated for a moment, he put away his gun and rolled up his sleeves again, his exposed skin was covered with feathers, but this time the feathers were obviously much longer than before.

They are growing.

Pulling his sleeves back calmly, Zhou Xiangzhe endured the pricking sensation and fired at the door again.

“Where did Shen Wang go?”

“I have to find him first.”

On the other side, Shen Wang, who was being talked about, was walking out. It seemed to be a living room, with sofas and old-fashioned TV, broken porcelain fragments everywhere, and bird cages hanging all over the living room.

Behind Shen Wang, the female pollutant fell to the ground, her blood kept spilling, and it was a “murder scene” at first glance.

Let’s rewind the scene to ten minutes ago.

Shen Wang was not very interested in entering the paintings, but he did want to find the body of [Hundred Eyes] as soon as possible, so he and Zhou Xiangzhe entered together the unknown painting numbered ②.

When he opened his eyes again, he found that he had been separated from Zhou Xiangzhe. He didn’t know where Zhou Xiangzhe was, but he was sure that he was locked in a small room.

His condition was not very good, and his mood was too good. There was still a sweet taste of candy in his mouth, but the candy had been eaten up. The only thing left was the aftertaste making him barely remember what it felt like to have food in his mouth.

Irritability, anxiety, weakness, hunger…

The room was quite dim, with scattered papers everywhere, and messy stick drawings on the papers. These drawings were scattered all over the floor. The windows blocked by curtains were even sealed with red bricks. There were bird cages of various sizes hanging everywhere in the room, and each bird cage contained the corpses of birds.

Even this time Shen Wang still didn’t have debuffs. Maybe this painting has no special rules or he is immune to its effects again.

It is most likely the latter.

Because there is no light source, the room is very dark. Shen Wang began to look for the light switch. Since this is probably a memory and Hundred Eyes has painted here before, there must be a light source.

Sure enough, Shen Wang found the light switch at the door. He turned on the light, with a click. The light in the room did not light up.

Click, click, but still nothing. Instead there were hurried footsteps outside.

“You are in there, right? I heard your voice.” It was a very gentle and soft voice, a female voice, and she was standing outside the door.

Shen Wang raised his eyebrows slightly, and he asked, “Who are you?”

The woman outside knocked on the door softly, “I’m mom, can you open the door for mom?”

“Mom knows you are sad, but mom is really worried about you. You locked yourself in the room like this. Mom will blame herself to death.” The woman outside began to cry, and her voice became weaker and sadder, “Mom’s eyes are going blind from crying.”

“Open the door for mom.”

“Mom is really worried about you.”

Mom? Mother? Shen Wang, who had no parents since childhood, doesn’t have much feeling for this word. He just thinks that there is a pollutant outside.

A pollutant who calls herself a mother and has thinking ability, conservatively estimated she’s C-level.

Shen Wang ignored her and wrote down the most important characteristics of the room first.

The window made of red bricks, the scattered drawings on the ground, the hanging birds cage and the dead birds inside, the switch which can’t turn on the light but can attract the pollutant outside, that is, the [Mother].

In the old times, artworks created including parents, children and bird cages were usually metaphors for “failed education” and “children’s lost freedom”.

This seems to be a painting from before the end of the world.

It seems that after Shen Wang has not responded for a long time, the people outside finally couldn’t wait any longer.

She was silent for a while, and then she spoke hesitantly, “Do you hate mom so much?”

“Mom knows, mom forces you to study, forces you to work hard, but mom is doing this for your own good. Mom just wants you to be successful.”

“Mom is doing this for your own good.”

Shen Wang, an orphan who grew up without a father or mother, didn’t quite understand these sentences. He recently learned that he actually had relatives: a brother and a pair of mysterious missing parents. But he had never been taken care of since he was a child. There was only the director of the orphanage who put him in solitary confinement when he was young when he got sick.

Seeing that Shen Wang still didn’t speak, the outsider became anxious.

“Are you going to force me to death?!”

The woman’s soft voice suddenly became sharp.

“Mom didn’t treat you badly! You were born from my belly, so you are my property! You have to listen to me!”

“You don’t listen! You don’t study! Do you know how much your mother has suffered because of you! It’s because of you that your father thinks I am useless. I didn’t give him a useful child, so he beat me and divorced me!”

“This is all your fault!”

“My child, my child, please save me. Mom will die without dad!”

“I beg you, I kneel down for you!”

“You are the most useless! You have studied painting for so many years, but you can only draw these things. No one likes your paintings, and no one buys them. What can you do?! Mom has trained you in vain!”

“You are useless, you have achieved nothing! That’s why dad doesn’t like you or me!”

“It’s all your fault, it’s all your fault!!”

The woman cursed hysterically, and suddenly begged in a sad voice, like a psychopath.

“You don’t want to come out, right? You want to watch mom die, right? Mom will never let you do what you want!”

Shen Wang heard her leave quickly, but she came back soon, and then Shen Wang heard the sound of her picking the lock.

Click, click, this sound rang in the empty room.

The woman kept talking in a low voice while picking the lock, and laughed a little from time to time.

“I’ll catch you now.”

“You want mom to die, you unfilial son!”

“Mom can’t live without dad, dad is everything to mom, but you ruined it all.”

With a click, the lock of the door made a crisp sound when it was picked, and Shen Wang heard the crazy laughter of the woman outside.

“Opened!”

With a creak, the door was pushed open.

The woman’s moon-white dress was revealed first, followed by her thin and pale wrists and ankles. She was well-maintained but thin, with thin and delicate bracelets on her wrists and ankles. Finally, she poked her head out. Her face was covered with white powder, and she looked as white as a dead person.

She was extremely delicate, and her whole body was filled with a fragile aura, as if she would break with a simple snap.

The woman looked around for Shen Wang’s figure, like a light ghost.

The ghost hummed softly, “Mom is here.”

The light shone through the crack of the door to form a gap of light. She looked around but found that there was no one differently from how she imagined, so she was stunned.

“Where is he? Where is he?”

“Impossible, he is inside, I heard it right!”

“Where is he hiding?!”

She bit her nails nervously, and her nails made a creaking sound. She glanced around in panic, and at this moment, a very light breathing sound came to her ears.

The woman was stunned for a moment, and she slowly looked to the side, to be precise, behind this door.

Shen Wang put his hand high on the edge of the door, and his dark eyes reflected the woman’s face. They looked at each other, only 20 centimeters apart. The woman opened her eyes wide, as if she had never expected Shen Wang to be standing behind the door, as if waiting for her to find him.

Shen Wang was smiling, his peach blossom eyes were full of tenderness, but his eyes were full of ridicule for the woman.

No one would ever stand behind the door waiting for someone outside to pry it open.

Such a contrast, so unimaginable, so weird…

He said: “Surprise.”

The thorns came out from under the woman’s feet, and in just a moment, she was hung in the air. The thorns climbed on the wall. She opened her mouth wide, and she gradually became terrified.

Shen Wang just looked up and watched the woman hanging in the air. Her blood flowed down her wound, just like that, a small pool of red was formed in front of Shen Wang’s feet.

“You came here looking for trouble because you have nothing else to do.” Shen Wang said, “I have done nothing wrong.”

“It is impossible for me to take the blame for you.”

He is talking about how the mother blames her daughter (Hundred Eyes) for everything.

“You are a pollutant. Can you be more conscious, blame yourself more, and be considerate of others?”

The woman stretched out her hand. Protruding bones could be seen on her extremely thin and pale wrist. She opened her mouth but did not speak. Instead, she slowly showed an extremely evil smile to Shen Wang.

“Hehe.”

With a puff, the thorns were pulled out of her body, and the female pollutant fell to the ground and stopped moving.

Shen Wang ignored her and walked out of the room.

I don’t know where Zhou Xiangzhe went? Could it be that he didn’t enter the same painting?

Just when Shen Wang was wondering. Bang. A muffled gunshot sounded. Shen Wang turned his head to look at the door next to him. The door lock was completely broken by the bullet. The person inside opened the door and looked at Shen Wang. The beautiful golden eyes told Shen Wang: Zhou Xiangzhe is able to see this time.

Tsk, doesn’t this mean that I can’t use my pollutant ability in front of Zhou Xiangzhe anymore?

Seeing Shen Wang, Zhou Xiangzhe breathed a sigh of relief, “You’re here.”

He walked out of the room, with a crisp collision sound on his body with every step.

After hearing the sound, Shen Wang subconsciously looked for the thing that made the sound, and then saw the shackles on Zhou Xiangzhe’s ankles. A small section of the chain still attached to his ankle.

Shen Wang:…?

His expression suddenly became very strange.

Zhou Xiangzhe noticed Shen Wang’s gaze and looked down. He didn’t care much and found another candy and put it in Shen Wang’s hand, and then explained.

“This seems to be an effect of this painting. But you should understand why I wanted to customize pollution suppressors.”

“Shackle-looking pollution suppressors are easy to make people have a bad impression.”

It must be said that Zhou Xiangzhe’s explanation convinced him quite a lot.

Shen Wang peeled the new candy and put it in his mouth. The sweet taste filled his mouth again, temporarily suppressing Shen Wang’s crazy appetite.

Zhou Xiangzhe looked Shen Wang up and down, and waited until the latter put the candy into his mouth before saying: “Let’s test your ability again after leaving here.”

Shen Wang was stunned for a moment, “Huh?”

“You were not affected this time either. Maybe your talent is not [Fear Intimidation].”

“What would it be?” Shen Wang asked him in surprise.

Zhou Xiangzhe thought for a while, “Compared to [Fear Intimidation], it’s more like the A-level talent [Pollution Immunity].”

The Academy of Sciences hasn’t summarized many A-level abilities. Of course, there are many abilities in this world. It’s normal that some are not included or are underestimated, but after confirming [Pollution Immunity], the Academy of Sciences put it in the A-level ranks.

A-005 Talent [Pollution Immunity], a passive ability. A mutant ability that makes the user completely immune to pollution effects.

Mutants with this ability will not be distorted, nor will they be mentally polluted. They will be the strongest pathfinders for dealing with high-level pollutants.

Oh.

Shen Wang thought: This ability seems to be more useful than the previous one, and the number of excuses he can use have increased. It’s really good.

“So, you have a problem again?”

“Well, a little bit.” Zhou Xiangzhe replied: “In addition to the chain that suddenly appeared on my ankle, there are some things that have nothing to do with humans growing on my body.”

Shen Wang looked at him curiously, “Things that have nothing to do with humans?”

Zhou Xiangzhe rolled up his sleeves and showed him the feathers growing on his arms. Those feathers were not very long, but platinum-colored fine wool lined up on his arms, looking quite fluffy and a little cute. But once you remember that Zhou Xiangzhe is a human being, it’s actually a bit weird.

“These are bird feathers.” Zhou Xiangzhe said, “Just like the birds in these cages.”

Shen Wang retracted his gaze, “You mean in this painting, people will turn into birds little by little?”

“So…” Shen Wang looked at the bird cages hanging in the living room, “Are all these bird cages full of people who have been polluted?”

“More than 80% probability.” Zhou Xiangzhe nodded.

“But the growth of these feathers should have certain conditions. First of all, excluding time, it has grown once, and it grows every ten minutes. People will turn into birds within two hours, which is not in line with common sense.”

Zhou Xiangzhe asked again: “Have you encountered any strange things?”

“Strange things?” Shen Wang thought for a while, “It seems not, everything I encountered is consistent with the characteristics of the pollutant’s domain.”

This is indeed a strange thing.

Zhou Xiangzhe is sure that there must be some conditions for the growth of feathers on his arm, but he can’t find them

Thinking about it, he looked at Shen Wang, and then frowned slightly. His eyes were staring at Shen Wang’s collar, and he reached out to grab Shen Wang’s wrist, which was a bit unexpected.

Zhou Xiangzhe used his other hand to gently grab Shen Wang’s collar, where there was a bit of blood, still wet.

“Where did the blood come from?”

Shen Wang was stunned for a moment. He bit the candy in his mouth and recalled that it seemed to be the blood that fell when he hung the female pollutant in the air. He didn’t avoid it in time and it dripped on his body.

“Just dealt with a pollutant, probably C-level, female, claiming to be a mother.”

Zhou Xiangzhe let go of Shen Wang’s hand. He calculated the time and found that the time was just right.

Shen Wang was not stupid. He immediately understood what Zhou Xiangzhe meant.

“You mean: I killed a pollutant, causing your feathers to grow?”

“Not necessarily, it’s just that the time is very close.” Zhou Xiangzhe asked him, “Where is the pollutant you killed?”

“Just…”

Shen Wang pointed to the front, but at that moment he found that the dead female pollutant at the door had disappeared, and even the blood on the floor had disappeared.

“Disappeared?”

They looked at each other and walked together to the small room where Shen Wang left.

The door still looked like it had been pried open, and the screwdriver was still inserted in the keyhole. The traces of violent destruction were very fresh, which was enough to prove that Shen Wang was not lying. According to Shen Wang’s character, a pollutant pried his door open, so it would be strange if he didn’t get rid of it immediately.

There was a sound of footsteps.

The two turned their heads and looked behind them.

A weak and beautiful woman walked out of the stairs. She was wearing a moon-white long skirt. The bones were visible on her thin wrists. She looked very fragile, like a rose with thorns pulled out.

“Is it her?” Zhou Xiangzhe asked Shen Wang.

“Yes.” Shen Wang raised his eyebrows slightly, “I’m sure I have killed her.”

“Special pollutant, above level C or even level B.” Zhou Xiangzhe looked at her.

The woman walked down the stairs step by step, and she looked at Shen Wang with sad and sad eyes.

“I’m sorry.” She apologized in tears.

“Mom didn’t control herself. It was my fault. Can you forgive me?”

“Mom will never do that to you again. Can you forgive me?”

“Mom is just too sad.”

“Mom loves Dad, but she also loves you. She just had no choice. How could she not love you?”

Shen Wang frowned. “What is her plan?”

“I don’t know.” Zhou Xiangzhe thought for a moment, “A mother who feels guilty?”

The two people who grew up in an orphanage looked at each other and then looked away at the same time.

They thought: Oh no, this can’t be a painting about maternal love right?

Neither of the two orphans has ever experienced the baptism of maternal love.