Chapter 21 – Maze
For how long had Fu Suxi been watching? And how much had he seen?
Once the source of the pollution was dead, the lockdown on the core contamination zone was lifted. He could have entered directly, or even just blown up the building.
Thinking of this, Yu Zhi quickly calmed himself down. He kicked away the stainless steel rod at his feet, pretending that he hadn’t seen Fu Suxi.
Seeing that Lu Liming had healed his leg and was getting up from the ground, he walked over quickly, helped him up, and whispered, “Don’t look back, Fu Suxi is on the roof of the building behind us.”
Lu Liming’s face, which had just regained its color, turned pale again. “So fast?!”
Yu Zhi stared at the door leading to the stairwell and said calmly, “It’s been six hours.”
If Fu Suxi still didn’t know the pollution source was here after six hours, he wouldn’t deserve to be the protagonist of the novel.
He was more surprised that Fu Suxi hadn’t done anything than the fact that he was here. Something felt off.
Yu Zhi blinked and said to Lu Liming, “Be prepared, run as soon as we enter the stairwell.”
The door to the rooftop was wide open, and from a distance, they could see many cockroaches crawling around.
With the source of the pollution dead, the pollutants were no longer afraid of the rooftop. Many cockroaches crawled out, big and small, black and white. After being exposed to the sunlight, they crawled back towards the shadows, lying quietly in the dark corners.
As soon as he saw the cockroaches, Lu Liming inevitably recalled the scene of cockroaches swarming in the corridor, and his scalp tingled.
He said with a pale face, “Brother Yu, I feel my head is still so itchy. Even if the source of the pollution is dead, the mental pollution still exists, right? Otherwise, these cockroaches would have croaked along with the pollution source. No, my head is getting itchier and itchier…”
Seeing that his lips had lost their color again, Yu Zhi said, “Your head itches because you didn’t wash your hair yesterday.”
Lu Liming was slightly taken aback, then continued, “But my head also hurts.”
“That’s because you bumped your head just now,” Yu Zhi replied.
Lu Liming fell silent. It sounded so reasonable. But he had treated his head just now, hadn’t he? Could it be that it wasn’t completely healed? That must be it, listening to Brother Yu is definitely right!
As if possessed, Lu Liming felt the pain and itching in his head lessen. He muttered to himself, “When we get to a safe place, the first thing I’ll do is wash my hair…”
Walking to the rooftop door, Yu Zhi looked down at the stairwell ahead. The cockroaches, having lost their source of pollution, seemed to have lost their backbone. They were no longer surging upwards and had dispersed in all directions.
Even so, there were simply too many cockroaches. The walls and steps were still covered with a layer of wriggling white baby cockroaches.
Like a layer of white mucus, it parted as Yu Zhi approached, revealing the true appearance of the building underneath.
Yu Zhi strode forward, glancing at the opposite rooftop without a trace. Fu Suxi stood where he was, lighting a cigarette. The smoke lingered on his face, half concealing it, making it impossible to see his expression.
Yu Zhi let go of Lu Liming’s hand. “Run!” he said.
*
Residential Building Rooftop
The personal information that Fu Suxi saw kept changing and jumping.
[Mental Power Value: 60/400]
[Mental Power Value: 80/400]
[Mental Power Value: 100/400]
The lower a person’s mental power value, the more severe the mental pollution they suffer. Once it exceeds the critical value, they will become a mindless pollutant.
Just as injuries can be treated, mental power can also be restored, but it requires a certain amount of time and professional psychological treatment.
The man with the braid had a healing ability, not purification, so it was impossible for him to purify and restore his mental power value by himself.
Fu Suxi flicked the ash off his cigarette, his gaze falling back on the short man. In the short time it took to say a few words, his mental power value had recovered by one-fifth…
[Unable to view]
[Unable to view]
The two figures disappeared into the stairwell.
Fu Suxi half-closed his eyes, the cigarette burning gently between his fingertips.
After finishing half the cigarette, a black SUV flashed past the street behind the apartment building.
Suddenly, a phone ringtone pierced the air. The phone in the palm of the headless corpse beside him was ringing.
Fu Suxi walked over and answered the phone. Without waiting for the person on the other end to speak, he asked directly, “For a B-rank ability user, how long does it take to recover one-fifth of their mental power value, at the fastest?”
The person on the other end was stunned for a second, then answered his question. “For a B-rank, it would take at least a day. Why are you suddenly asking about this?”
The voice wasn’t the intern from before, but someone Fu Suxi knew well.
The man chattered on, “Are you mentally polluted? Holy shit, don’t scare me, if you turn into a pollutant, the whole of China is finished. Don’t you fucking dare leave H City! I’ll arrange for someone to pick you up! Is it because you completed the pollutant instance? Are the pollutants now different from before—”
Fu Suxi interrupted him. “I didn’t enter the instance.” He lifted his eyelids, looked in the direction the SUV had left, and said lightly, “But it doesn’t matter. Killing them is the same.”
“What do you mean it doesn’t matter?!” the man roared, his voice filled with panic. “Don’t kill! Do you know how many people have died in the past two days?!”
Fu Suxi sneered. “None of my business.”
The man quickly said, “It is! We need manpower now, and we need that kind of expert who can snatch your instance!”
Fu Suxi raised an eyebrow. “You think he’s a good person?”
The man immediately said, “I don’t know if he’s a good person, but I know very well whether you’re a good person.”
Fu Suxi: “…”
“Boom—”
A deafening explosion ripped through the sky. The apartment building was engulfed in flames and collapsed with a roar. Before the dust could settle, countless cockroaches crawled out from the ruins.
The man on the other end of the phone was silenced by the loud noise.
Fu Suxi took a drag of his cigarette and said slowly, “Ji Yangqiu, do you think I can’t go back to B City?”
Hearing the threat in his words, Ji Yangqiu quickly softened his tone. “No, no, the situation is special now, I just accidentally said the wrong thing. By the way, where did you get the explosives? Is it your new ability? Did you newly awaken it? Or did you snatch it?”
“Fuck, there’s no time,” he paused, the following words coming out in a rapid-fire torrent. “The reason you just asked about mental power recovery, is it because of that person? Don’t touch him, bring him back to the bureau, we’ll study him properly. Just think of it as for your own sake, it’s most beneficial to you if your mental power value can increase in a short time. Please, please, please spare his life, just treat it as me begging you, brother, dad, can I call you dad—”
Three minutes were up. Ji Yangqiu’s voice stopped abruptly, and the call automatically disconnected.
[User “Green and Lush” is curious about your plan and has rewarded you with 50 general coins.] [User “World’s Cutest Girl” is looking forward to your actions and has rewarded you with 50 general coins.]
[User “Scarecrow’s Grass” is curious if you will spare them and has rewarded you with 100 general coins.]
[User “Rolling in Wealth” asks if you will kill them.]
Fu Suxi: “I don’t lack sons.” “And I don’t have a hobby of helping others.”
The implication was, of course, to kill.
A moment later, a man crawled out of the collapsed apartment building.
Although he had human limbs, he didn’t look human. His triangular head was bald without a single hair, his eyeballs bulged high, and he crawled out like a cockroach using both his hands and feet.
[Gender: Male]
[Age: 30 years old]
[Mental Power Value: 0/100]
[Physical Fitness: D-rank]
[Ability Talent: Flame Sequence – Fire Control]
[Comprehensive Evaluation: Ordinary ability user turned pollutant]
Fu Suxi slowly extinguished his cigarette.
At the same time, the ability user who had turned into a pollutant suddenly exploded, his body torn apart, yellow-green blood splattering everywhere.
*
The black SUV sped along the broken road, kicking up dust.
This city seemed to have experienced a catastrophe. Most of the buildings had collapsed, the once bustling streets were now ruins, and occasionally a few large cockroaches could be seen crawling over the rebar. Under the setting sun, everything looked desolate and dilapidated.
As they approached the intersection, the SUV slowed down.
“Brother Yu, where to next?” Lu Liming asked.
Yu Zhi: “Turn right.”
Lu Liming turned the steering wheel to the right.
After driving for less than two minutes, they saw that the road ahead was blocked by a collapsed building and impassable.
Lu Liming had to turn around and drive towards another road. Five minutes later, they came to another intersection.
“Brother Yu?”
Yu Zhi hesitantly said, “Turn left.”
After driving left for five minutes, the familiar road was blocked again by a collapsed boulder.
Yu Zhi frowned and had Lu Liming turn around and change roads.
Ten minutes later, they faced another intersection.
Yu Zhi: “Turn left.”
It was a dead end again.
At the next three intersections, wherever Yu Zhi pointed, the road was blocked, and they had to turn around and start again each time.
When they reached the fourth intersection, Yu Zhi said to Lu Liming, “Don’t ask me, decide for yourself.”
Lu Liming responded and hesitantly turned the steering wheel.
The next road was clear.
Yu Zhi: “…”
He frowned and looked out the window.
As the SUV approached, a large black cockroach hurriedly crawled into a crack in the wall, leaving behind a crooked road sign.
Seeing the street name on it, Yu Zhi frowned even more.
This was the road to the upper city district, the opposite direction of their destination.
He knew the way, but the few roads he knew were all blocked, so they could only drive in this direction, otherwise Fu Suxi might catch up soon.
In the next second, Yu Zhi’s heart skipped a beat. After blowing up so many buildings, why was there still a passable road?
He realized something and turned to look back.
As the SUV passed the intersection, the road behind was obscured by collapsed buildings.
The familiar city seemed to have become a strange maze, and he didn’t know where this road led.
Although there was no sign of Fu Suxi behind the SUV, they could occasionally hear the faint roar of a motorcycle, like a death knell, forcing them to move forward.
Yu Zhi gritted his teeth, Fu Suxi was doing this on purpose.
He deliberately didn’t attack the apartment building. He deliberately let them run; He deliberately left a way out.
This mad dog had turned H City into a maze while they were doing their instance mission!
Fu Suxi, you f*cking b*stard!
Smart