Chapter 108
Yu Zhi froze in place, gripping the gun so tightly that his knuckles turned white, every muscle in his body drawn taut to the extreme.
Worried that the pollutants might attack at any moment, he forced himself to keep his eyes wide open and watch them.
Watching these figures—almost identical pollutants—was itself a form of mental contamination.
Behind the windows were pale faces, devoid of expression. Their bulging eyeballs stretched their upper and lower lids wide, as if they were stuck in place and might fall out at any second.
There wasn’t the slightest emotional fluctuation in those black pupils—no goodwill, no malice. They weren’t empty, yet not calm either. Just indescribably eerie.
Yu Zhi unconsciously held his breath. When he could no longer endure it, he slowly inhaled and blinked hard to soothe his stinging eyes.
The pollutants did not attack them. They didn’t even move.
Yu Zhi exhaled slowly. As long as one followed the rules of the contaminated zone, the pollutants generally would not attack. But if one violated the logical rules of the zone, they certainly would.
Which meant that when Dr. Qi had just fired at the eyeball, it hadn’t violated the zone’s logic?
Yu Zhi pressed his lips together and cautiously took a small step forward.
The next second, several black pupils shifted in unison, staring straight at him.
He could clearly feel countless gazes settling on him.
They were still only looking. No other movement.
They didn’t even tilt their heads—only their eyeballs turned.
He took another step. The eyeballs shifted again.
Steeling himself, forcing himself to ignore the pollutants on both sides, Yu Zhi beckoned to Lu Liming and Dr. Qi behind him.
Seeing this, Lu Liming moved his stiff, aching neck and followed awkwardly, limbs moving in sync.
Dr. Qi was slightly better off than Lu Liming, changing magazines as he walked forward.
After two steps, Yu Zhi suddenly felt a tug at the corner of his clothes. He turned to see Lu Liming leaning close, opening his mouth: “Yu—”
Probably from excessive nervousness, Lu Liming’s voice cracked sharply, sounding especially abrupt in the deathly quiet night.
Startled, Lu Liming clapped a hand over his mouth and looked around with wide eyes. The figures in the houses seemed not to have heard anything. He let out a shaky breath and whispered, “Brother Yu, are these all pollutants?”
Yu Zhi nodded. “Most likely.”
Lu Liming grimaced. “I was just focused on that eyeball rolling over earlier—I didn’t even notice when these people showed up.”
“Me neither,” Dr. Qi said.
At the mention of the rolling eyeball, both of them instinctively glanced at the nearest streetlamp.
The lamp wasn’t lit. Moonlight fell on the fist-sized white bulb. Suddenly, it shifted, revealing a black pupil on the other side.
The bulb hanging from the post had turned into an eyeball, staring down at them from above.
Lu Liming and Dr. Qi stiffened and instantly lowered their heads.
Yu Zhi noticed and reminded them softly, “It’s fine. Don’t think about when they appeared.”
Imagination would only worsen the mental contamination.
“Think about something else. Distract yourselves.”
As he spoke, Yu Zhi pulled up the floor plan of the temporary shelter zone.
The area around the old banyan tree and exercise equipment was the community leisure zone, located between Buildings 14 and 15.
To get there, they still had to pass four more buildings.
Yu Zhi recalled the time when the ability users had led people into the complex and when the scream had sounded.
Calculating roughly, it matched the time needed to walk from the main gate of the temporary shelter to the leisure zone.
Was the leisure zone the core site of the incident?
After a moment’s thought, Yu Zhi asked Dr. Qi, “After ability users bring people who pass inspection inside, what do they usually do? Is there a fixed procedure?”
“Mostly just escort them to their assigned buildings and give a brief introduction to basic matters,” Dr. Qi paused. “As for the rest, it depends on the individual. The Bureau doesn’t have hard requirements.”
Just then, Lu Liming suddenly hissed.
Yu Zhi glanced over. Lu Liming was blinking rapidly, sweat covering his forehead.
He swallowed and whispered, “Th-the pollutants in the houses… are they getting closer to us?”
“Or is it just my imagination? Have I already been mentally contaminated? I feel like my brain’s even clearer than when I was at Taijiang High…”
Yu Zhi quickly glanced at the residential building on the right.
The figures inside were indeed closer—closer to the windows. The enormous eyeballs were clearer under the moonlight. Some had turned to their extreme limit, staring straight at them.
He looked at the building on the left. His eyelid twitched faster.
It wasn’t just one pollutant moving closer.
All of them had.
“Move.”
Yu Zhi quickened his pace. The farther forward they went, the closer the pollutants inside pressed toward the windows.
At first they stood behind them. Then at the window edges. Then pressed against the glass. Finally, their entire faces were mashed flat against it.
Yu Zhi only glanced sideways once, and his scalp prickled, goosebumps rising all over his body.
Pale faces were flattened against the bluish glass, noses and mouths distorted. Eyeballs were squashed against the surface. Already horrifying faces became grotesque, flattened planes.
At the center of each plane, the eyeball trembled as it stared at them. Lines of sight felt almost tangible, crashing down upon them.
Not highly aggressive. Extremely contaminating.
Yu Zhi sucked in a breath and immediately withdrew his gaze.
Even with his head lowered, he could clearly sense the countless stares pressing in from all directions, like needles in his back—an invisible net wrapping tightly around them.
[User “Strongest King” looks forward to you being contaminated and tips 10 universal coins.]
[User “momo” finds the contamination rules of this instance very interesting and tips 20 universal coins.]
[User “Cyber Bodhisattva” wonders why the pollutants aren’t attacking you.]
[User “Pure Love Warrior” hopes you continue using blind box items.]
Yu Zhi ignored the barrage, closed his eyes briefly, and strode forward.
Dr. Qi, overwhelmed by the staring, cursed under his breath. “What the hell is wrong with them? Why are they all squeezing against the windows to look at us?!”
Lu Liming was using a sensory-blocking device and didn’t feel the stares. But he could still see the pollutants—and even if he didn’t look, he could imagine the scene behind the windows.
Hearing Dr. Qi, he muttered nonstop, “Could the contamination source in this instance be some kind of peeping tom? Secretly watching us? Master Qi, does your Bureau check whether people entering the safe zone have criminal records?”
“‘Raising my head, I gaze at the bright moon; lowering it, I think of home’—is it possible this is a local voyeur?”
Yu Zhi said, “Probably not. Dr. Qi fired just now, and the pollutants didn’t react.”
Lu Liming froze, belatedly realizing the implication. “Firing a gun doesn’t violate the logic of the contamination zone…”
“Could it be that the source was someone being watched by a peeping tom? So eyeballs appear on everything? Always feeling watched?”
Yu Zhi reminded him, “When these eyeballs look at people, there’s no emotion at all.”
If the source had been the one being watched, then logically the gaze would carry malice—or at least some emotion. But these pollutants’ stares held none.
This contamination zone was too strange.
From the red moon to the eyeballs to the logic rules—everything about it felt eerily different from other zones.
And one more thing—where were He Hanhai and the others?
These pollutants didn’t react much to sound; they wouldn’t attack just because of noise. So why hadn’t Fu Suxi or He Hanhai made a single sound?
Yu Zhi lowered his lashes thoughtfully, treating every anomaly as a clue and piecing them together one by one.
Soon, the smell of blood began to spread through the air.
The leisure zone was just ahead.
Yu Zhi lifted his eyes. After seeing the scene in front of him, he abruptly halted.
The pollutants had come out of the houses.
Some stood by doorways, some on balconies, some lay on the ground. Their bodies were twisted into grotesque, unnatural shapes—some lower halves knotted like twisted rope, some bloated like balloons about to burst, some cleanly sliced vertically so only the left half remained, the bloody cross-section as shocking as the exposed eyeballs.
“Ugh—” Lu Liming gagged.
Yu Zhi felt nauseous too. He forced it down, kept his eyes lowered, and continued forward.
Lowering his gaze helped him avoid the pollutants at doors and balconies, but not those lying on the ground.
One suddenly entered his field of vision.
This pollutant had only most of its head remaining. A protruding eyeball stared at him at an angle.
Yu Zhi inevitably saw the skull wound—flesh peeled back, bone shattered, pink brain matter exposed to the air, faintly trembling.
He gagged as well. “Ugh—”
The next second, the grooves and ridges of the pollutant’s brain widened.
In the blink of an eye, countless eyeballs burrowed out from the folds, rows of fingernail-sized eyes filling every crevice. Dense black pupils turned toward Yu Zhi in perfect unison.
Disgusting. Horrifying. An indescribable discomfort.
Eyes everywhere. No escape from the gaze.
Yu Zhi felt numb under the staring, even imagining the tiny black dot of his phone’s front camera watching him—like an eyeball might pop out at any moment.
If one did appear, could the phone still be used?
It had been a prize A-Zheng won and gifted to him—but it was expensive at retail price!
Thinking of that, the sting of financial pain and anger overpowered his nausea and mental contamination.
He took a deep breath, aimed at the eyeball-filled head on the ground, and pulled the trigger repeatedly.
Bang bang bang—
Several shots in quick succession blew the skull and the eyes inside to pieces.
After catching his breath, Yu Zhi said to Dr. Qi and Lu Liming, “If you really can’t stand it, just shoot.”
Lu Liming nodded while gagging.
Dr. Qi, pale-faced, asked, “What if I can’t stand any of them?”
Yu Zhi thought for a moment. “If you’re not dead, it’s fine. If you are… you won’t die twice.”
Dr. Qi: “…”
Lu Liming chimed in, “Don’t worry, Master Qi. For the sake of our teacher-student bond, I’ll give you a grand funeral.”
Dr. Qi: “…………”
Yu Zhi took a bottle of water from [My Items], drank a couple of sips, and strode into the leisure zone.
Blood was everywhere. The old banyan tree’s branches and leaves were smeared with half-dried blood. Benches and exercise equipment were drenched red.
Under the dim moonlight, the entire area gleamed with a sinister sheen. The heavy stench of blood filled the air, suffocating.
Many had died here. Not even bones remained.
Yu Zhi’s lashes trembled. Holding his breath, he scanned the surroundings quickly.
Pollutants from the surrounding buildings stood outside now, silently watching them. Otherwise, everything was as it had been when they first entered. The entire temporary shelter was utterly silent. He could clearly hear his own heartbeat pounding like a drum.
Yu Zhi tightened his grip on the water bottle. “We’ve fired four shots since entering.”
Lu Liming looked at him blankly. “Right.”
Yu Zhi analyzed calmly, “He Hanhai and the others have been through many contamination instances. They’re experienced in clearing sources. They would definitely notice the anomaly here and come investigate.”
“Secondly, they should have heard our gunshots.”
And since Fu Suxi was in this instance, even if not for clearing the source, for Fu Suxi’s mental condition alone, He Hanhai would have come looking for him.
After so long, not only had they not come—they hadn’t made a single sound…
Yu Zhi’s heart slowly sank.
Dr. Qi paused. “Could they be trapped somewhere?”
Lu Liming said, “Shit, they’re not all dead, are they?”
Yu Zhi shook his head slowly. “I suspect they never entered the instance at all.”
———
Three streets away from the temporary shelter zone.
A bald man strode to the armored vehicle, glanced inside, then turned to Shang Yu, who was sitting on a roadside stone block. “Old Shang, why are you the only one here? Where are Old Qi, Xiao Ming, and Brother Yu?”
“They all entered the instance. Team He’s group went in too,” Shang Yu said, briefly recounting everything that had happened after Lin Xiangyuan and Zuo Feiyang left.
After listening, Lin Xiangyuan asked in disbelief, “Director Yu told Brother Yu to leave, and you still let him enter the instance? Aren’t you afraid Director Yu will be furious?”
Shang Yu shot him a glance. “If Director Yu knows Brother Yu went to save him, he’ll be too happy to be angry.”
“Don’t forget—Brother Yu is an S-class ability user. Counting Director Yu, that’s two S-classes. Add in Team He’s A-classes—if they still can’t handle the contamination source, the entire safe zone is finished—”
Before she could finish, Lin Xiangyuan interrupted urgently, “Team He is coming out!”
Shang Yu immediately stood and looked over. He Hanhai and the others were striding toward them, expressions grim, as if facing a formidable enemy.
Not seeing Yu Zhi among them, Shang Yu’s vision went black for a moment.
Did something happen to Brother Yu?!
Was she about to become the unlucky subordinate in some forced-plot story?!
The next second, she noticed Fu Suxi wasn’t there either and let out a breath, realizing something must be wrong with the contamination zone.
She walked quickly toward He Hanhai. “Team He, what happened?”
He Hanhai’s face was grave. “Only Mr. Yu and the other two healing ability users entered the instance.”
“We tried every method and couldn’t get in.”
“This contamination source… it seems to be selecting people.”
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