After Bystander A Bound to JJ Literature City – CH30

Chapter 30

Taijiang High School

It was 10:00 AM, nearing lunchtime, yet the vast cafeteria was deserted and silent.

There was no sign of cafeteria staff, nor any food carts or meals. However, a rich meaty aroma, seemingly from nowhere, quietly filled the air, involuntarily compelling everyone to take a deep breath.

Zuo Feiyang, hiding in a corner outside the cafeteria, was no exception. He inhaled the fragrance, once, twice.

Only when he heard the loud gulping beside him did he suddenly snap back to reality.

“This smell… something’s not right.”

His teammate’s pupils were dilated, swallowing hard, nervously biting his fingernails. “Why hasn’t the vice-captain come back yet? I’m so hungry.”

Zuo Feiyang suppressed the urge to sniff deeply and said in a deep voice, “Let’s wait another ten minutes.”

Three hours ago, he led his team into Taijiang High School, planning to investigate the female voice.. After they entered the high school, the voice disappeared.

Taijiang High School had six teaching buildings. To quickly investigate information related to the pollution source, they split into two small teams.

Without communication devices, they agreed to meet at the cafeteria at 10:00 AM sharp.

Time passed by minute by minute, but the other team was still nowhere to be seen.

Zuo Feiyang’s heart sank. Although Vice-captain Nie Yue was a B-rank ability user, this wasn’t her first time clearing pollutants. She was a veteran and knew the rules of the polluted zone.

Another ten minutes passed, and Nie Yue and the other two still hadn’t appeared.

Zuo Feiyang’s brows furrowed tightly. Something must have happened.

The longer one stayed in the polluted zone, the greater the probability of being polluted, and the greater the danger.

“We can’t wait any longer,” Zuo Feiyang turned and left a mark on the wall. “Let’s go.”

He had just lifted his foot when his teammate grabbed his arm.

“Captain, I’m so hungry.”

Zuo Feiyang turned his head to see his teammate’s mouth wide open, biting fiercely towards his face.

“So hungry…”

“So hungry…”

*

Thick, heavy, dark clouds swallowed all the sunlight, obscuring the entire sky.

It was a moment before the rain, as if an external force was pressing down on the sky, shrouding the whole world in a gray hue.

The air grew heavier and heavier, yet the meaty fragrance in the air became even richer, as if something was being simmered, the longer it simmered, the more fragrant it became.

Lu Liming smelled the meaty fragrance and couldn’t help but salivate. “This is too fragrant…”

“What kind of meat is it? Who’s cooking? It’s making me hungry.”

Yu Zhi paused, turning his head to look at him.

Lu Liming licked his lips, his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down, as if he was constantly swallowing.

After the apocalypse began, Lu Liming’s appetite decreased, and he didn’t eat much, as if his body had evolved after awakening his ability.

Now he was so interested in this fragrance…

Yu Zhi frowned and handed him a napkin. “Plug your nose. There’s something wrong with this smell.”

“It might be mental pollution. Try not to smell it.”

Hearing this, Lu Liming quickly tore open the napkin, rolled it into two strips, and stuffed them into his nostrils, physically blocking most of the fragrance.

Yu Zhi: “How is it now?”

Lu Liming felt it for a moment and said honestly, “Much better. Not so hungry anymore.”

Yu Zhi hummed in response and ate a candy. The sweet fragrance bloomed on his tongue.

Perhaps because of the aroma in the air, eating the candy didn’t alleviate his hunger but made him feel even hungrier.

Fortunately, he had long been accustomed to hunger, and he could still endure this level.

Seeing that he didn’t block his nose, Lu Liming asked curiously, “Brother Yu, don’t you find it fragrant?”

Yu Zhi: “I do, but someone has to smell it.”

“The fragrance here is a bit stronger than before. There must be something emitting it.”

“Maybe it’s the pollution source.”

Lu Liming scratched his head. “Then, Brother Yu, if you can’t hold on, remember to tell me, and we’ll take turns smelling it.”

Yu Zhi nodded and walked straight ahead.

It was still unclear what was going on in this town, what the pollutant or pollution source was. He didn’t dare to let Lu Liming drive rashly and chose the most basic mode of transportation—walking.

“Let’s go to Taijiang High School first. The female voice we heard before sounded like a high school teacher.”

Yu Zhi didn’t walk towards the street where they had driven earlier but chose a quiet, deserted alley, weaving between old buildings.

The closer they got to Taijiang High School, the stronger the meaty fragrance floating in the air became, and the darker the sky grew.

Walking into a long, narrow alley, Yu Zhi whispered to Lu Liming, “Through here is the back gate of Taijiang High School.”

On both sides of the alley were tall residential buildings, without streetlights, dark as night.

Looking at this completely unfamiliar road, Lu Liming turned to look at Yu Zhi’s vague profile in the darkness and suddenly remembered what Yu Zhi had said yesterday.

His eyes widened, and he blurted out, “You said you studied in S City before, could it be in this town?”

Yu Zhi: “Yes, I used to study at Taijiang High School.”

Lu Liming: “Brother Yu, are you from S City?”

Yu Zhi: “No.”

Lu Liming remembered that Yu Zhi had said he was an orphan, so he definitely wouldn’t have come to S City for his parents’ work. “Then why did you study in S City?”

Yu Zhi said casually, “Just picked it randomly.”

Lu Liming didn’t quite believe that. Who would randomly choose an ordinary high school in a small town outside their hometown?

Seeing that Yu Zhi didn’t want to talk about it, he didn’t press further, instead letting his imagination run wild.

Brother Yu must have had a hidden reason for coming to S City to study from another place.

Considering Brother Yu’s mysterious identity…

Thinking of this, Lu Liming suddenly saw the light.

With Brother Yu’s identity, it must be because of the pollution source!

“Brother Yu, I understand.”

Yu Zhi looked puzzled. “What do you understand?”

Lu Liming originally wanted to say that the pollution source was in Taijiang High School, but then he thought that the pollution source might move, so he changed his words: “I understand, there is a pollution source in this town.”

Yu Zhi gave him a strange look. The instance mission had already been issued, so of course there was a pollution source in the town.

He was about to ask further, but before the first word could leave his mouth, the sound of high heels suddenly came from behind.

Click, click, click.

He immediately turned around. Someone had walked into the alley.

The light was too dim, and Yu Zhi could only vaguely make out the figure of a woman, wearing a dress and carrying something in her hand.

Suddenly, the light in a room of the residential building next to them turned on.

Yellow light spilled into the alley, illuminating the woman’s appearance.

Yu Zhi’s expression instantly changed.

It was a pollutant.

The woman’s body was that of an ordinary person, wearing a floral dress and carrying a thermal lunch box, but her neck was twice as long as a normal person’s.

The neck was thin and long, like a flower stem, with the other end supporting a human mouth as big as a face.

There was no head, no face, only a tightly pursed human mouth. At first glance, it looked like a flower with only two petals, one upper and one lower.

The lips, one upper and one lower, were painted with bright red lipstick, with vertical lines clearly visible and the corners of the mouth downturned.

Even though it was just a mouth, it inexplicably gave people the feeling that she had a bad temper.

The Lip-person stopped, standing still, only the thermal lunch box in her hand swaying slightly.

Yu Zhi also froze in place, giving Lu Liming a look, signaling him not to move.

He stared at the Lip-person for thirty seconds and tentatively took a step back.

In the next second, the Lip-person took a step forward.

Yu Zhi took another step back.

The Lip-person took another step forward.

Yu Zhi cursed inwardly. This blind thing, how did it even notice he took a step?

“You…”

The Lip-person spoke, in a slightly hoarse female voice.

The large mouth slowly opened, revealing human-like teeth, tongue, and oral cavity inside. “Are you a student of Taijiang High School?”

The mouth was so big that Yu Zhi could even see her throat.

He said with a straight face, “No.” “You’re mistaken.”

The Lip-person took a step towards him. “Then you—”

After confirming that it was running with human legs, Yu Zhi didn’t wait for it to finish speaking. He pulled Lu Liming, turned, and ran towards the exit of the alley.

“Run!”

“Why is it so fragrant!” The Lip-person’s voice behind them rose to a distorted pitch, piercing the silent alley.

Yu Zhi ran even faster, startled by the shout, and used his “Null Intent” ability on the pollutant.

But the Lip-person’s movements didn’t pause at all, rushing towards them. Because its neck was so long, the large mouth that occupied the position of the head swayed from side to side as it ran, saliva splattering everywhere.

Yu Zhi’s face darkened. Shit!

The “Null Intent” ability had no effect on it.

He shouted to the system while running, “System, there’s a bug with my ability.”

The system replied instantly: “Please try again.”

Yu Zhi threw another “Null Intent” ability behind him.

He didn’t look back, but he could clearly hear the rapid clicking of high heels behind him, the clanging of the thermal lunchbox, rising and falling, echoing loudly in the air.

Still no use.

“It’s not working!”

System: “Please explore on your own and take active action!”

Yu Zhi: “…”

The noise in the alley grew louder, and lights in the houses on both sides began flicking on one after another.

The alley was narrow and cramped, making it easy to see the interiors of the rooms without needing to look too closely.

Just two meters away from Yu Zhi, standing by a window, were two lip-faced creatures—one tall, one short. Their mouths, varying in size, were engaged in conversation like a bickering couple:

“What’s all that noise? So annoying.”

“Probably those parents delivering lunch to the school again. Always so loud at this hour.”

Yu Zhi’s sharp instincts caught the key phrase: “those parents.” His eyelids twitches uncontrollably.

He quickly glanced at the surrounding residential buildings.

In the rooms where lights had just been turned on, more and more lip-faced creatures appeared. They stood by the windows, drooling as they spoke, their lips opening and closing with unsettling precision.

“Who are those people?”

“Probably students from Taijiang High School.”

“High schoolers wandering outside the school at this hour—what a disgrace. Their parents work so hard to send them to school, and instead of studying, they’re out playing.”

Yu Zhi, who was running for his life, wheezed indignantly: “???” Playing?!

Are you blind, you damn pollutants?!

Lu Liming also noticed the swarm of lip-faced creatures, his reaction an incoherent mixture of terror and disgust. “Wah-wah-wah! What the hell are these things?! Oh my god! I never realized mouths could look so gross—AAAAAHHHH!”

The alley had no other exits. They couldn’t enter any of the houses, nor could they turn back. Their only option was to run forward.

Gritting his teeth, Yu Zhi summoned all his strength for one final sprint, charging out of the alley.

At the alley’s end was the back gate of Taijiang High School, barely ten meters away from the alley entrance. The gate was packed with an uncountable number of lip-faced creatures.

Thick lips, thin lips, crimson lips painted with lipstick, bloodless pale lips—they layered over one another, writhing like an ocean of grotesque mouths.

Despite bracing himself, Yu Zhi’s skin prickled, and his hair stood on end at the chilling sight. His stomach churned in revulsion.

Damn.

This many mouths is just way too horrifying.

The cockroach creatures had been terrifying because of their enlarged insect features, which evoked pure disgust.

But these lip-faced creatures invoked a surreal, spine-chilling kind of horror that made Yu Zhi’s back tingle with cold.

Caught off guard by the nightmarish scene, Lu Liming turned pale. His stomach heaved violently, threatening to spill.

Seeing the lip-faced creatures in the alley rushing out, Yu Zhi had no time to worry about whether Lu Liming would vomit. He grabbed him by the arm and ran alongside the school wall.

The commotion soon caught the attention of the lip-faced creatures at the back gate, and they began pursuing them as well.

Running for his life, Yu Zhi kept his eyes on the bricks of the wall. Turning a corner, he finally spotted a section where several bricks were missing.

“Climb up!”

Letting go of Lu Liming, Yu Zhi used the gaps in the wall to scramble up in seconds. He then leaned down and pulled Lu Liming up just as one of the lip-faced creatures reached his feet.

The creature snapped its mouth shut on empty air, its jaws clamping audibly.

“Delicious—”

“Holy crap…” Lu Liming shivered uncontrollably as he curled up his legs, still shaken. He had been a hair’s breadth away from being bitten.

Several more lip-faced creatures gathered at the wall, crowding the base beneath them, mouths agape and upturned.

Noticing that none of the creatures showed any inclination to climb, Yu Zhi exhaled slowly.

Good.

At least these pollutants aren’t that smart.

Glancing behind him, Yu Zhi saw that this part of the school grounds was a small, quiet wooded area. There were no signs of people or pollutants.

The wall seemed safe for now.

Yu Zhi shifted his gaze downward to the mass of lip-faced creatures below.

They resembled fish in a pond, all open-mouthed and waiting to be fed. Their grotesque mouths jostled and bumped against one another, forming O-shapes.

Beneath the lips were rows of yellowed teeth, slick and uneven oral cavities, and tongues thick with saliva stretching outward, writhing hungrily in the air.

“Ugh—” Lu Liming couldn’t hold it in anymore and turned away to vomit violently.

Yu Zhi fought the rising bile in his own throat, forcing himself to test “Null Intent” ability on the creatures.

Once again, it was useless.

The lip-faced creatures remained unchanged, their gaping mouths large enough to swallow a human head in one bite.

Grinding his teeth, Yu Zhi demanded an explanation from the system: “This doesn’t count as them wanting to kill me?! Why is my ability useless?”

The system responded with its usual unhelpful tone: “Please explore further and actively complete the task.”

Lu Liming, overhearing Yu Zhi’s conversation with the system, asked between bouts of vomiting, “Brother Yu, is your ability—ugh—”

Yu Zhi turned his head away from the nauseating sight of Lu Liming retching uncontrollably.

The system clearly knew nothing about his ability, so Yu Zhi could only rely on himself to figure it out.

Exhaling sharply, he began analyzing.

Null Intent was designed to eliminate murderous intent.

But the behavior of the lip-faced creatures wasn’t driven by a desire to kill—it was driven by a desire to eat.

If Null Intent was ineffective against their hunger, it likely wouldn’t work on other forms of parasitic or mental pollution either.

It could only neutralize pure murderous intent, leaving desires like hunger or corruption untouched.

In other words, in a dungeon full of pollutants, his ability was utterly useless.

Damn it!

Yu Zhi closed his eyes briefly, his frustration bubbling over.

Fine, fine. So my ability doesn’t let people say the word “kill”—whatever. But now it’s also completely useless in this dungeon?

He let out a heavy sigh.

I want to die. But I have a feeling the person who deserves it more is someone else entirely.

—

Translator Note:

I decide to change the “Mouth, mouth” ability to “Null Intent” ability because it sounds more fluent in the text.