Chapter 103
Lu Li had been following Doctor Qi in the Operations Department’s observation room these past few days. Seeing each other day and night, they had grown much more familiar.
Noticing that Doctor Qi’s expression wasn’t quite natural and that there was faint worry in his eyes, Lu Li immediately said, “With Brother Yu here, you can relax—like, a hundred and forty percent.”
“There’s no way the pollution source can escape Brother Yu’s palm.”
Doctor Qi knew Lu Li loved praising Yu Zhi, but to still be saying this right before entering a pollution zone…
He looked at Lu Li, then at Yu Zhi, who remained calm and composed.
Yu Zhi’s abilities were considered semi-classified within the Special Operations Bureau. One was a prophecy ability—personally confirmed by Minister Yu. The other was recorded in the report from the Taijiang High School pollution zone: spatial ability and teleportation.
He had multiple abilities—but none of those three had anything to do with eliminating a pollution source.
After thinking for a moment, Doctor Qi hesitantly asked, “Brother Yu… do you have any other means of dealing with a pollution source?”
Lu Li grinned. “Of course! Don’t worry—like, one hundred and forty percent. Brother Yu has strength and methods!”
Doctor Qi: “…”
Yu Zhi: “…”
Yu Zhi had originally wanted to explain. But after glancing at the gun in his hand, he felt like that statement… wasn’t entirely wrong.
He followed Lu Li’s line of thought. “Doctor Qi, I’ve got plenty of firearms and ammunition.”
“If you run out, I still have more.”
After all, he currently possessed the weapons and ammo of an entire armored vehicle.
He had never fought such a well-funded battle in his life.
Thinking of that, Yu Zhi calmed down, filled with a strong sense of security.
He couldn’t help glancing at [My Items], curious about the armored vehicle’s description.
[Item: Handsome Chinese Police Armored Vehicle]
[Function: If ordinary cars have it, I have it. If ordinary cars don’t have it, I also have it!]
[Description: One shot and the Earth explodes!!! Left hook gun! Right hook gun! Uppercut gun! Downward hook gun! Sweeping leg gun! Spinning gun!
Crow convulsion! Mouse howl! Elephant wriggle! Sinister growl! Furious octopus! Crawl! Split! Go ashore! Octopus twist!
Indiscriminate attack! Indiscriminate attack! Indiscriminate attack! Indiscriminate attack! Completely insane! Completely insane! Completely insane! Completely insane…]
“……”
Yu Zhi looked away and asked Doctor Qi directly, “When you’ve encountered instances that split teammates apart like this before, what did you do?”
Doctor Qi answered honestly, “Earlier pollution zones weren’t this severe. They wouldn’t affect space or separate teammates.”
“This only happened in late-stage zones.”
He paused, then added dryly, “I’ve done missions in late-stage zones before.”
Yu Zhi fell silent.
The three of them stared at each other again—wordlessly asking: So what do we do now?
Yu Zhi lifted his eyelids and looked toward the temporary resettlement area ahead.
Outside, it was still night—but inside the instance, it was already deep into the night.
Dim yellow streetlights flickered on, barely illuminating the residential buildings looming on both sides. The walls were mottled and peeling, exposing reddish-brown surfaces beneath—at first glance, like dried bloodstains.
Farther away, a few buildings were faintly lit by distant lamps; the rest were completely swallowed by darkness.
The entire resettlement area was utterly silent.
No voices from He Hanhai’s team.
No explosions or crashing sounds from Fu Suxi.
No noises from pollutants.
Dead silence. Eerie and oppressive.
“Why is there no sound at all…” Lu Li muttered quietly.
After waiting a full minute without hearing anything from inside, Yu Zhi said, “Let’s go in first.”
If they were inside a pollution zone, he had plenty of ways to gather people.
But here, in this restricted zone, they hadn’t even seen a single pollutant yet. They didn’t know the rules of this place. They couldn’t act rashly—caution was essential.
He Hanhai and the others were experienced ability users. Yu Zhi wasn’t worried about them.
He strode into the temporary resettlement area.
Though it was technically a residential complex, the buildings weren’t tall, and the land area wasn’t large. There were a little over ten buildings, each with four units, capable of housing a few thousand people.
They passed a crooked banyan tree at the entrance. Residential buildings flanked both sides, and more stood ahead.
Every building was pitch-black—no light shining through, no sound at all.
Doctor Qi lowered his voice. “Where first?”
“I’ll take a look,” Yu Zhi replied.
He glanced at the live comments.
[User “momo” hopes you clear the pollution source and tipped 20 universal coins.]
[User “Cyber Bodhisattva” urges you to complete the instance quickly and tipped 10 universal coins.]
[User “World’s No.1 Cute Girl” is waiting for you to find your temporary lover and tipped 20 universal coins.]
[User “Scarecrow’s Straw” maliciously reminds you that you will die in this pollution zone.]
The comments offered no useful hints. Some viewers had noticed he seemed unsure how to approach this instance and started randomly guessing the locations of Fu Suxi and He Hanhai.
Ignoring them, Yu Zhi turned to Lu Liming. “Xiao Ming, where do you think we should go?”
Without much thought, Lu Liming scanned the area and casually pointed to a building that “felt right.”
The building on the far right.
“Building Five,” Yu Zhi said, putting away the floor plan. “Let’s go.”
Lu Liming followed immediately.
Doctor Qi lagged behind, then hurried after them.
Seeing neither of them intending to explain, he couldn’t help tugging Lu Liming’s sleeve and whispering, “Why did Brother Yu let you choose?”
Lu Liming looked blank. “No idea. He told me to pick, so I picked.”
Doctor Qi: “???”
You don’t even know why, and you just followed like that?!
Yu Zhi overheard and explained, “Xiao Ming has good luck. I’ll leave multiple-choice questions to him.”
Doctor Qi paused.
Lu Liming nodded in sudden realization, fully accepting the explanation. “That’s true. My luck’s really good now.”
“How good?” Doctor Qi asked.
Lu Liming replied seriously, “When the apocalypse first started, I ran into Brother Yu.”
“Think about that. Really think.”
Doctor Qi: “…Anything else?”
“I cleared an instance with Brother Yu.”
Doctor Qi fell silent again. He wanted to ask for an example that didn’t involve Yu Zhi—but rationally, he knew the answer would probably still revolve around Yu Zhi.
He looked Lu Liming up and down thoughtfully.
Stylish clothes. Half-tied wolf-tail hairstyle. Efficient handling of a gun. He looked sharp and capable.
So why was his head full of Yu Zhi?
Then it hit him.
Lu Liming and Yu Zhi had another relationship—ex-boyfriends.
So this kid’s love-brained.
On second thought… from a certain perspective, wasn’t Minister Yu also love-brained about Brother Yu?
Maybe…
Maybe the real problem was Yu Zhi?
Doctor Qi gave Yu Zhi a long look and subtly slowed his steps. Instead of standing between Lu Liming and Yu Zhi, he repositioned himself so Lu Liming stood between him and Yu Zhi—maintaining a certain distance.
The silence around them was so deep you could hear a pin drop. Yu Zhi naturally heard their entire exchange.
He was already used to Lu Liming’s mental gymnastics. He didn’t comment, didn’t overthink it—just kept walking.
The path was narrow, barely wide enough for three men abreast.
Residential buildings on the left. A wall on the right. Beneath the wall, fallen electric scooters and bicycles lay scattered. Cars were dented as if struck by something.
They passed Building Four. As they stepped into the narrow gap between Buildings Four and Five, Yu Zhi caught a glimpse of red out of the corner of his eye.
He stopped instantly and turned his head.
Above the buildings, a sliver of sky was visible.
Hanging in midair was a faint red moon.
Yu Zhi only glanced at it—didn’t even have time to compare it to a normal moon—before a chill shot up from his tailbone.
The blood in his veins seemed to freeze inch by inch. His eyes began to ache as if pierced by icy needles. His thoughts grew muddled.
His vision blurred—but the translucent system panel became startlingly clear.
The comments were refreshing rapidly.
[User “Strongest King” admires your pollution zone and tipped 10 universal coins.]
[User “Electronic Wooden Fish” is curious about your discovery and hopes you’ll report honestly.]
[User “Pure Love Warrior” finds the red moon familiar and tipped 20 universal coins.]
Yu Zhi’s eyelashes trembled. He forced himself to blink hard.
He heard Lu Liming and Doctor Qi’s voices.
“Brother Yu?”
“What’s wrong? Is there something over there?”
Yu Zhi took a deep breath and lowered his eyes with difficulty. He turned his body, presenting his back to the red moon.
His face was pale.
He raised a hand to stop the other two. His voice was hoarse.
“Don’t look up.”
“The moon is red. There’s mental contamination.”
Lu Liming and Doctor Qi froze, then immediately copied his posture—turning sideways with their backs to that section of sky.
Lu Liming whispered, “The instance is called ‘Raising My Head to Gaze at the Moon.’”
“Could it be trying to trick us into looking at the moon and then mentally contaminate us?”
Yu Zhi pressed his lips together. “Not sure.”
“But instance titles usually have some connection to the pollution source.”
Guo Qiang’s instance was called I Am a Cockroach.
Chen Tingting’s was Save the Child.
Jiang Shengnan’s was Break the Cocoon and Be Reborn.
All closely tied to their lives.
Yu Zhi looked at the mission panel.
[Instance Mission: Raising My Head to Gaze at the Moon.]
[Objective: Eliminate or purify the pollution source in the current area. Defend S City!]
He quickly looked away.
Before identifying the pollution source, there was no way to tell whether the title was a clue—or a misdirection.
“Raise my head to gaze at the moon, lower my head to think of home?” Doctor Qi murmured. “Could the pollution source be someone from S City?”
Lu Liming frowned. “If they escaped to S City, would they still be placed here? Couldn’t they just go back to their own home?”
Doctor Qi explained, “The safe zone’s protective wall was built along pre-apocalypse administrative divisions. It can accommodate the entire S City region.”
“Anyone with property inside the wall would be assigned to temporary housing…”
Yu Zhi didn’t continue that line of speculation.
He casually took out a pack of biscuits and started eating while walking. “Let’s check Building Five first.”
Building Five had four units. The closest to them was Unit One.
When they reached the entrance, Yu Zhi saw the pitch-black, silent stairwell. He had just taken out his phone to turn on the flashlight when Lu Liming let out a soft “Huh?”
“There’s… writing on the door?”
Yu Zhi followed his gaze.
On the rust-red, mottled security door of the unit, several distorted, warped characters had been carved into the metal.
Each character was twisted and uneven. It was hard to tell how many there were.
The three of them stared for a long time before barely making out a few.
“Be… careful… eye.”
“Careful eye?” Lu Liming scratched his head. “Probably some naughty kid vandalizing it.”
Doctor Qi immediately shook his head and pointed to a faint symbol in the lower right corner.
“That’s a Bureau marking.”
“These words were left by another ability user.”
“He’s telling us to be careful of… some kind of eye.”
Lu Liming blinked. “So what eye?”
Doctor Qi shook his head. Both of them turned to Yu Zhi.
Yu Zhi thought for a moment. “Needle eye? Corn eye? Bellybutton? Mind’s eye? Ass—eye?”
Lu Liming: “…”
Doctor Qi: “…”
