Chapter 67
[User “World’s Cutest Moe Girl” frowned at the shadow by your feet and felt that things were not that simple.]
[User “momo” guessed your scheme and is waiting to see what happens.]
[User “Oceanographer” felt the scene was too horrible to watch and left the livestream in anger.]
The pollutant was smashed until brain matter splattered everywhere. Scales mixed with blood and pulp scattered across the ground.
As soon as the one-minute countdown ended, Yu Zhi immediately let go of the pollutant and didn’t continue tormenting it.
Harming the enemy by a thousand while injuring oneself by eight hundred.
Besides, he was only testing things out—trying to disgust the esper hiding in the shadows. He had no intention of pushing things to the point of mutual destruction.
After all, Fu Suxi wasn’t nearby. If things really escalated…
the one who’d suffer would definitely be him.
Yu Zhi pulled two wet wipes from the desk and wiped his hands. He was about to leave and go find Fu Suxi when his gaze flicked to the software on the computer screen, and he froze.
Displayed on the screen was a medical software independently developed by Meteorite Biotech, bearing the company logo.
At this moment, the software clearly showed his photo and personal information—exactly the same as on his work badge.
[Consultation Time: 2**4 Year ** Month ** Day]
[Name: Yu Zhi]
[Identity: Public Welfare Department Planning Specialist]
Everything after that—chief complaint, diagnosis, and so on—was completely blank.
Yu Zhi clicked the mouse and checked the computer’s time.
The time on the software was masked with asterisks. The time displayed at the bottom of the computer screen was similar to that on the Public Welfare Department’s computers, showing only 9:30 a.m., while the specific date was garbled.
Time inside this polluted zone was different from the outside world.
After a moment’s thought, Yu Zhi tried typing in Chen Tingting’s name.
With a soft click, Chen Tingting’s medical record popped up on the screen.
Because it was locally stored data, her record showed a complete, normal timestamp.
[Consultation Time: February 17, 2XX4, 10:00]
[Name: Chen Tingting]
[Identity: Public Welfare Department Intern]
[Chief Complaint: Internship psychological health questionnaire.]
[Diagnosis: Severe depressive symptoms; severe anxiety symptoms.]
Yu Zhi lowered his gaze to the inky black shadow by his feet, recalling the timing of Chen Wan’s WeChat messages, his mind racing.
February 17. Chen Tingting’s first day of social practice. By ten in the morning, her diagnosis was already in the medical system. Clearly, the first thing high school students did upon entering the company was complete a psychological questionnaire.
Yu Zhi glanced at Chen Tingting’s diagnosis, his eyelid twitching slightly as he remembered what Nie Yue had said—she wasn’t optimistic about Chen Tingting, but rather Wang Lili.
He typed in Wang Lili’s name. Her record appeared on the screen.
[Consultation Time: February 17, 2XX4, 10:00]
[Name: Wang Lili]
[Identity: Public Welfare Department Intern]
[Chief Complaint: Internship psychological health questionnaire.]
[Diagnosis: Suspected antisocial personality disorder.]
Yu Zhi’s heart sank.
One with depression and anxiety. One with antisocial tendencies. Neither of them was mentally healthy.
Guo Qiang also had psychological issues.
And he himself had once gone through a period of mental instability.
One question after another surfaced in Yu Zhi’s mind.
Was Meteorite Biotech researching experiments related to the human psyche and pollution sources?
Were people with mental disorders more likely to become pollution sources?
And by what means were they turning living humans into pollution sources?
He tried entering Guo Qiang’s name.
Unexpectedly, the search result was completely blank.
There was no diagnostic record for Guo Qiang here.
Was it because this was the S City branch, not the H City branch?
Or was it because Guo Qiang’s pollution was special—parasitic pollution rather than mental pollution?
Yu Zhi furrowed his brows. New clues led to even more mysteries, snowballing larger and larger, pressing down on him until it became hard to breathe.
“Boom—”
A dull, distant collision sounded again, snapping him out of his thoughts.
Yu Zhi came back to his senses and knew this had to be Fu Suxi’s doing. He quickly left the consultation room and followed the direction of the explosion deeper into the medical health center.
Whether or not Fu Suxi had found the pollution source, Yu Zhi had to find him.
If nothing else, he needed to dump the huge trouble hiding in the shadows onto him first.
Following the sound, he passed through a long corridor. The ground by the wall had been violently blasted open into a huge hole. The edges of the dark opening were twisted steel and concrete, with blood-soaked severed limbs hanging there, blood dripping steadily downward.
Yu Zhi walked to the edge and looked down.
Below was a wide space with scattered medical equipment.
At first glance, it looked like a storage room. But one piece of equipment near the wall had been split in half, exposing a concealed mechanical door behind it.
Although the lights inside were bright, the air was filled with an overwhelmingly strong, salty stench—like a thick layer of dead fish spread across the sea’s surface, the sea breeze mixing the rot of dead fish with the ocean’s own scent and slapping it straight into one’s face.
So stinky!
Yu Zhi’s face turned slightly green from the smell.
[User “Pure Love Warrior” urges you to hurry down.]
[User “Strongest King” is curious about the secrets hidden within your company.]
[User “Cyber Bodhisattva” looks forward to you completing the dungeon and unlocking the hidden quest.]
[User “National Top-Grade Humanoid Weapon” is curious about what’s hidden underground.]
Yu Zhi suppressed the urge to vomit, hardened his resolve, and jumped down.
The lock on the mechanical door had already been cut off by Fu Suxi. With a light push, it opened.
Behind the door was a passage leading underground.
The moment Yu Zhi stepped in, bone-chilling cold seeped up through his feet, drilling into his bones, threading through his body, making him shiver uncontrollably.
The only silver lining was that the lights along the path were on. Anywhere with light felt less terrifying.
The further he went down, the more his left arm—covered in scales—hurt. It was a throbbing pain that kept spreading outward, every inch of skin pulsing with pain.
He could clearly feel the surface of his skin lifting like scales, bit by bit, while the dermis beneath contracted and expanded continuously, as if writhing, as if opening and closing.
Yu Zhi couldn’t help but take out the detector and check.
[Pollution Concentration: 100%]
He cursed under his breath, inevitably thinking of Zhang Feng’s honeycomb-speaker head.
He really didn’t want a honeycomb arm.
His fingers trembled. His pace quickened until he finally clenched his teeth and broke into a run.
As he ran, he cursed nonstop in his head—first the system missions, then Fu Suxi, then the esper hiding in the shadows. No discrimination. Everyone got cursed.
When he was panting heavily, a wide corridor finally appeared ahead. On both sides were silver-white rooms—clearly laboratories at a glance.
This was Meteorite Biotech’s underground research facility.
“Bang—”
Something fell over deep inside.
Yu Zhi paused to catch his breath and looked toward the source of the noise, his brows knitting tighter.
Was it his imagination? Why did it feel like Fu Suxi was getting farther and farther away?
Before he could think further, the lights around him suddenly buzzed twice—and went out.
The world seemed to be dragged into an endless abyss of darkness in an instant. He couldn’t see his own hand in front of his face.
Yu Zhi felt a chill creep up his back, his breathing hitching uncontrollably.
That esper could hide in shadows, hide in darkness. Now that everything was dark—could he move freely through the darkness… including through Yu Zhi himself?
The next second, he didn’t know whether it was a gust of cold wind or the esper brushing against him, but Yu Zhi felt his pant leg loosen slightly, as if an icy hand was stroking his ankle.
As if a cold, freezing hand slipped into his pant leg, climbing slowly up his calf.
Yu Zhi’s right leg jerked involuntarily. Cold sweat broke out on his forehead.
No way…
No way, no way, no way…
He took two quick steps forward and rapidly pulled out his phone from [My Items], turning on the flashlight.
Even with the flashlight set to maximum brightness, it only illuminated one or two meters ahead. The boundary between light and darkness was blurry and indistinct.
Yu Zhi didn’t dare look back. Gripping his phone, he ran forward.
His running movements were large—and the movements of the pitch-black shadow beneath his feet were even larger, as if it might detach from the ground at any moment.
As if… it no longer wanted to hide.
A strong sense of unease rose in Yu Zhi’s chest.
Hang in there, bro. You’ll find Fu Suxi soon.
This time, you’re feeding the novel’s main character—ahhhhhh!
In the deathly silent corridor, his hurried footsteps, breathing, and heartbeat echoed clearly—along with a faint, lingering rustling sound that refused to go away.
Suddenly, a man’s voice sounded by his ear.
“Brother.”
Yu Zhi nearly went into cardiac arrest.
He couldn’t believe it. He’d endured having that honeycomb-speaker fishman smashed against him earlier—so why did this suddenly pop up now?!
A bone-chilling cold surged from behind, plunging Yu Zhi into an icy abyss. His body nearly froze in place, unable to move.
His heart rate skyrocketed. He swallowed hard and forced himself to calm down.
“Who?!”
Pretending he hadn’t noticed the man’s presence earlier, Yu Zhi asked, “Who’s talking?”
The other party chuckled softly. Cold breath brushed against Yu Zhi’s neck.
Goosebumps erupted all over his body.
Still acting, Yu Zhi demanded, “Who the hell are you?!”
“Are you… human?”
“Were you also dragged into this dungeon for no reason?”
As his words fell, Yu Zhi heard the man burst into laughter, excitement laced thickly through it.
The man suddenly stopped laughing.
“Brother, you were already looking for me, weren’t you?”
Yu Zhi’s expression changed slightly.
This guy wasn’t going to play along. Why is everyone in Meteorite Biotech like this?!
Grinding his back teeth, Yu Zhi turned around cautiously.
He turned—but the shadow on the ground did not.
The next second, the shadow seemed to be pulled by an invisible force, growing darker and more distorted, grotesquely sprouting limbs.
In the blink of an eye, a black-robed figure grew out of the shadow.
His entire body was black, perfectly blending into the darkness. His face was covered by a pitch-black mask; in the dim light, his eyes were impossible to see, his expression unreadable.
The only color on his body was his lips—deathly pale.
When Yu Zhi didn’t answer his question, the man continued on his own.
“Let me think… it should’ve been in the consultation room.”
“You took out your phone and confirmed my location.”
“And then you deliberately killed that pollutant, right?”
His voice sounded young—early twenties—yet the smiling tone made one’s scalp crawl.
Yu Zhi subtly scanned his surroundings, searching for an escape route.
The black-robed man smiled at him.
“Hide-and-seek is over. Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Brother, you’re so bad.”
Yu Zhi forced himself to stay calm and replied, “Men aren’t bad, or little brothers won’t love them.”
At that, the black-robed man laughed even louder.
Yu Zhi probed cautiously, “Then why have you been following me?”
The black-robed man answered matter-of-factly, “To play hide-and-seek with Brother.”
“Brother doesn’t like hide-and-seek?”
Is this even hide-and-seek?!
Yu Zhi felt his skin crawl. This guy seemed like a pervert.
Thinking that, he still replied calmly, “No. Hide-and-seek is the game I hate the most.”
The black-robed man let out a disappointed “Ah.”
“Then what game do you like?”
Before Yu Zhi could answer, he suddenly began laughing again—unhinged, twisted laughter echoing wildly through the dead corridor, sending chills down the spine.
“I know!”
Every nerve ending in the black-robed man’s body seemed to ignite. His excitement made his whole body tremble.
“Brother likes playing r*pe games!”
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