Chapter 74
Yu Zhi’s mind flashed with two huge words: Conspiracy!
No—damn it, this wasn’t even a conspiracy. It was an open scheme.
If he hadn’t thought it through, he would’ve gone into the operating room in a daze.
Now that he had thought it through…
He still had to go.
This instance mission—the existence of the pollution source and the contaminated zone—left no other choice.
Yu Zhi clenched his molars. Just as he lifted his leg, a deafening crash exploded overhead.
“Boom—!”
The sound struck like lightning, blasting straight through the floor Yu Zhi was on. The building shook violently from side to side like an earthquake.
Yu Zhi grabbed the stair railing at once.
When the tremors stopped, dust filled the air. The corridor door ahead—along with the wall—had collapsed. Amid the rubble lay a black-robed man wrapped head to toe in black threads.
Yu Zhi’s gaze paused. He looked up.
There was a three-meter-wide hole in the ceiling.
More precisely, a three-meter-wide hole that pierced through several floors.
The black-robed man had been smashed down the building by Fu Suxi, his body crashing through four or five floors.
In the next instant, a tall, straight black figure appeared above.
At the same time, the previously silent chat in Yu Zhi’s livestream began scrolling like crazy:
[User “World’s Cutest Girl” urges you to join their game and tips 50 universal coins.]
[User “One Life, One Love” sincerely wishes the three of you happiness together and tips 50 universal coins.]
[User “Pure-Hearted and Abstinent” looks forward to you being r*ped and killed by that little brother and tips 50 universal coins.]
[User “Rich Young Master Domineering Cool” looks forward to your actions and tips 0.1 universal coins.]
Yu Zhi turned to run—but the black figure instantly appeared in front of him and grabbed his arm.
A pair of scarlet, inhuman vertical pupils stared at him.
“Yu… Zhi—” Fu Suxi called his name, enunciating each word.
Yu Zhi’s expression didn’t change. “No manners. I’m your brother.”
“Call me Brother.”
The next second, the black-robed man’s voice came from behind him:
“Brother.”
The voice sounded much weaker than before—clearly he’d been beaten badly.
Yu Zhi: “…”
Taking advantage of Fu Suxi’s diverted attention, the black-robed man melted back into the shadows. Staring at Yu Zhi’s thin back, he said, “Brother, didn’t you say the three of us would play together? Why did you disappear?”
Yu Zhi replied calmly, “You two just met. I’m letting you get familiar first.”
He looked up at Fu Suxi, who was gripping his arm. Fu Suxi appeared delirious, his entire body radiating undisguised, almost tangible killing intent.
For some reason, though, he hadn’t attacked Yu Zhi directly—he was just holding him.
Yu Zhi tried moving his arm. Fu Suxi’s hand was like iron pliers; he couldn’t pry it loose.
He could even feel the scales on Fu Suxi’s wrist—cold, slick scales brushing against his skin, raising goosebumps.
“Yu Yi,” he tried calling him.
Fu Suxi didn’t react at all, as if he couldn’t hear him. No expression, just staring and gripping.
Yu Zhi immediately activated the title “God of Lip-Love.” While attracting the pollutants, he stalled for time. “Looks like you two had a lovely little world together.”
The black-robed man said faintly, “Brother, how could it be pleasant being with a madman?”
Yu Zhi’s brow twitched. You perverted freak still have the nerve to talk. Outwardly calm, he said, “Scolding is affection. Your second brother is showing you love.”
The black-robed man eyed Fu Suxi, restless. “Then what about r*pe?”
Yu Zhi sneered. “That gets you three to ten years in prison.”
Black-robed man: “…”
The next second, countless hair-thin black needles sprouted from the corner shadows, raining down toward Fu Suxi.
Yu Zhi’s face changed—he was standing right beside Fu Suxi!
He instantly used “Asking Makes It Hard.” At the same time, Fu Suxi slashed at the needles.
The blade aura severed most of them and shot toward the black-robed man. The remaining needles embedded themselves into Fu Suxi’s black longsword.
The blade was instantly pitted with countless tiny dents.
Expressionless, Yu Zhi punched Fu Suxi. “Yu Yi. Let go.”
Overusing his ability had left Fu Suxi’s mind like a tangled ball of thread churned by some unknown force—utterly incapable of rational thought.
His body instinctively wanted to tear apart every living thing in front of him, anything that made a sound.
But when he met Yu Zhi’s clear black-and-white eyes and heard his voice, it was as if someone had cut into the tangled mess with scissors, giving him a thread he could reorganize.
His scarlet vertical pupils contracted and expanded as he finally heard Yu Zhi’s words clearly:
“Why don’t you just give in to Xiao Hei?”
“Don’t be fooled by his black clothes—his heart’s even darker.”
“….”
Meanwhile, rustling sounds filled the corridor and stairwell.
Yu Zhi turned his head. Pollutants were appearing at both ends of the corridor and up and down the stairwell. The fish-men from the ward area crawled down the shattered ceiling like spiders, slamming onto the ground as if they felt no pain, rushing forward relentlessly.
The ones coming up from below were the frog-human fish-men from the Public Welfare Department, scrambling up with flailing limbs.
Faster than the pollutants was the black-robed man. A gust of cold wind struck Yu Zhi’s back.
His eyelid twitched. He immediately bent and spun, using the arm still held by Fu Suxi to slip behind him.
Because Fu Suxi still gripped him tightly, Yu Zhi couldn’t get far—his chest almost pressed against Fu Suxi’s back.
His nose brushed Fu Suxi’s clothes, filled with a heavy, fishy stench of blood.
Yu Zhi’s face twisted. “You stink!”
“…You too.”
Yu Zhi jerked his head up. “You can talk?”
Fu Suxi, struggling to stay lucid, rasped hoarsely, “Am I mute?”
Yu Zhi: “Oh. You’re crazy, not mute.”
Fu Suxi: “…”
Just as Yu Zhi was about to tell him to let go—
The black-robed man lunged out of the shadows at lightning speed.
Yu Zhi seized the chance and viciously grabbed Fu Suxi’s butt.
Fu Suxi froze.
Feeling the grip on his arm loosen, Yu Zhi broke free, kicked off to retreat, and shouted at the black-robed man, “Xiao Hei! Your second brother’s butt feels great!”
“Hurry up—”
Before finishing, he deactivated “God of Lip-Love” and darted through a gap between the pollutants.
He had just reached the stairwell door when a pollutant suddenly lunged out—then fell with a thud, mouth wide open.
Without thinking, Yu Zhi stepped over its corpse. Then he froze and looked back.
The pollutant lay stiff on the ground, mouth agape, eyes bulging as if about to pop out.
It looked like… it had suffocated.
Yu Zhi remembered what Jiang Shengnan had said:
[I felt like a fish without gills—unable to live in water, and not long for land either.]
Pollutants obeyed the logic of the pollution source. If the source believed they couldn’t survive in water or on land, then they would exist that way.
Yu Zhi reacted instantly.
The fish-man pollutants here were neither aquatic nor terrestrial?!
No wonder he’d felt chest tightness and difficulty breathing ever since being contaminated.
He glanced at Fu Suxi fighting the black-robed man. Fu Suxi was breathing rapidly, his uncovered skin faintly reddened.
Compared to him, the black-robed man’s breathing looked completely normal.
He hadn’t been contaminated.
Yu Zhi’s heart pounded as he belatedly realized something he’d overlooked.
He and Fu Suxi had been separated as soon as they entered the instance—so how had the black-robed man been able to follow him all along?
Unaffected by contamination. Free to move.
He wasn’t bound by the instance’s restrictions.
Yu Zhi’s stunned expression was obvious to livestream viewers. The barrage scrolled wildly, many users tipping to grab his attention.
[User “Pure-Hearted and Abstinent” hopes you’ll join that little brother’s game and tips 50 coins.]
[User “Cyber Bodhisattva” awaits your action and tips 30 coins.]
[User “World’s Cutest Girl” reminds you your second brother’s condition is off and tips 50 coins.]
[User “National Special-Grade Humanoid Weapon” hopes you’ll make a move on that little brother and tips 30 coins.]
Yu Zhi took a deep breath, pulling himself from his chaotic thoughts. Seeing the flood of tips, he said quickly:
“Since everyone is so sincerely begging me…”
“Then I’ll help improve the brothers’ relationship.”
He pulled out lubricant from [My Items] and tossed a bottle each to Fu Suxi and the black-robed man. Fair and square.
Then he bolted downstairs.
“Crack—!”
Fu Suxi slashed the bottle midair. Transparent viscous liquid splattered across the pollutants charging at him.
With Yu Zhi gone, his mind spiraled into chaos again. The air itself seemed against him, suffocating his chest. Driven by physical and mental torment, he instinctively chased in the direction Yu Zhi had disappeared.
A figure blocked his path.
The black-robed man grinned. “Let’s play first.”
“When Brother comes back, you can r*pe him. How about that?”
Fu Suxi beheaded a pollutant and crushed another’s skull. The blood mist in the air made his vertical pupils widen slightly.
He slowly uttered six words:
“The pollution source is below.”
—
As soon as he entered the stairwell, Yu Zhi used a normal kick to flash to the bottom.
After descending five or six floors, the most immediate sensation was oxygen deprivation.
The air on the lowest floor felt like thick glue—damp and viscous, hard to inhale.
The scant oxygen made him gasp instinctively, but all he inhaled felt like water.
“Cough—cough—!”
He coughed uncontrollably, then forced himself to slow and steady his breathing.
Looking up, he saw a sign by the stairwell door:
[S18]
Basement Level 18.
Meteorite Biotech, you’re truly hellish.
Cursing inwardly, he pushed open the door. Foul, fishy water splashed against his legs.
The corridor was flooded up to his calves. In the water lay nonhuman, non-fish skeletons; bloated pollutant corpses floated everywhere; heaps of gray-green scales piled up.
It looked like a hell belonging to fish-man pollutants.
The stench made him gag.
“Ugh—”
One by one, the corridor’s motion-sensor lights flicked on, illuminating the operating room at the far end.
Yu Zhi closed his eyes briefly and gritted his teeth.
“Kick the operating room door.”
He kicked it.
The locked door trembled. The smart access panel flickered and emitted a mechanical female voice:
“Please swipe your card.”
Yu Zhi’s eyelid twitched. He looked down at his work badge.
“Beep—”
“Verification successful. Welcome, Yu Zhi.”
The doors slowly opened.
Yu Zhi looked up—his pupils shrank.
A translucent panel popped up:
[You have completed the instance mission: Break the Cocoon and Be Reborn.]
[Reward: 4000 universal coins; Random blind box ×1.]
Standing atop pollutant remains, Yu Zhi stared at the far end of the operating room.
Embedded in a massive transparent glass wall was a woman’s body.
Half inside the operating room, half exposed to the sea.
Her withered yellow hair drifted like seaweed in the water.
Almost her entire body was covered in gray-green scales. The scales opened and closed as if breathing—each opening revealing tiny mouths beneath.
The only human part left was her exhausted, tightly shut brows and eyes—enough to identify her as Jiang Shengnan.
She had said she couldn’t live in water, nor long on land.
So they embedded her between ocean and earth.
She had said she couldn’t breathe.
So they made her entire body breathe.
Step by step, Yu Zhi walked toward her. His gaze grew colder.
Between the scales on Jiang Shengnan’s chest was a pure white invitation letter.
Her existence in this instance—was Meteorite Biotech’s invitation to him.
