Chapter 80
Yu Zhi stared at Jiang Shengnan’s profile description for a while, lips pressed thin.
Meteorite Biotech believed the surgery had failed.
Jiang Shengnan claimed it had succeeded.
So something had indeed gone wrong with the surgical outcome.
Meteorite Biotech wanted to “tame” the pollution source—they had done that.
They wanted to brainwash the pollution source with the rule “The ocean is our hometown”—they had done that too.
Inside a pollution zone, aside from the pollution source and its rules, only pollutants remained.
—And the fishfolk pollutants clearly did not meet their expectations.
What kind of pollutant were they trying to create?
Was Chen Tingting also a failed product? Was that why Nie Yue and the black-robed man hadn’t stopped him from killing her?
Yu Zhi frowned slightly. He compared the similarities and differences between Chen Tingting’s and Jiang Shengnan’s pollution zones, yet still found no clear lead.
He shifted his thoughts to the scattered clues within the zone.
The laboratory on Basement Level 8 had been clean and orderly. No researchers had turned into pollutants. Some files remained on the computers—apart from Jiang Shengnan’s related reports, there were only experimental records about drugs used to kill the fishfolk.
Meanwhile, the ward areas on Basement Levels 9 and 10 had been in complete disarray. Nurses and patients alike had all turned into pollutants…
Linking the clues together, it wasn’t hard to guess what Meteorite Biotech had done.
Environmental and biological contamination from a pollution source wasn’t instantaneous—it required time.
After Jiang Shengnan became a pollution source, the nurses and patients in the ward became subsequent experimental subjects.
—Subjects contaminated by the pollution source.
The experimental scope had expanded from Ward 356 to the entire ward area.
Those contaminated subjects became amphibious fishfolk. They did not meet Meteorite Biotech’s requirements, so the laboratory then developed a drug specifically to kill the fishfolk.
Yu Zhi’s heart sank.
Meteorite Biotech had conducted their research methodically, step by step.
Before the branch office building was even constructed, they must have planned to conduct pollution-source experiments there. Otherwise, they would never have built an eighteen-level underground structure.
Since Jiang Shengnan was deemed a failure, they did not allow the contamination to spread further. Instead, they focused on developing the fishfolk-killing drug.
If Jiang Shengnan failed, there would be Zhao Shengnan, Zhang Shengnan…
To Meteorite Biotech, every employee was a reserve resource—potential experimental material.
They had also been involved in countless charitable projects, covering nearly every age group.
Orphans with no family, the impoverished, the financially desperate—the entire underclass of society were all part of their reserve resources.
If you didn’t strive, you became a capitalist’s plaything.
If you strove harder, you were still a capitalist’s plaything.
Before the apocalypse, Meteorite Biotech had never exposed its true face. Perhaps rumors of employee deaths had surfaced before—but they could easily shift public attention to their “free medical treatment” programs.
An employee fell ill. The company provided free treatment. The employee died despite treatment. To outsiders, the company had already done its utmost.
If the illness was mental? Even easier to manipulate.
How could the underclass fight against a giant like Meteorite Biotech?
Struggle or not, they were still toys.
Yu Zhi exhaled slowly. If A-Zheng hadn’t helped him reject Meteorite Biotech’s project back then, would he have become a pollution source too?
Questions surfaced one after another, like vines proliferating and tangling together, impossible to untangle.
The only thing he could confirm now was this—
Meteorite Biotech was trying to create a specific kind of pollutant. And to do so, they kept manufacturing pollution sources.
—
The barrage of comments pulled him from his chaotic thoughts.
He slowly remembered the matter of the invitation.
Had he lost it?
He casually felt inside his pocket—and paused.
The invitation was still there.
Not only that, it was completely dry. Not a single trace of seawater.
Yu Zhi’s brows lifted involuntarily. Even his underwear had been splashed wet by seawater. How could this letter remain untouched?
This wasn’t ordinary paper.
He narrowed his eyes and slowly ran his fingers along the envelope inside his pocket—from the kraft paper to the wax seal.
It felt completely normal. No discomfort at all.
Just as he was pondering, Fu Suxi suddenly lifted his gaze and looked over. His eyes settled on Yu Zhi’s slightly bulging pocket.
Yu Zhi’s heart skipped. He immediately struck first: “Watch yourself outside. Stop staring at me so clingily.”
Fu Suxi: “……?”
He narrowed his eyes slowly, scrutinizing Yu Zhi’s dark pupils. “What’s in there that I’m not allowed to see? What are you hiding?”
Yu Zhi’s heartbeat quickened. He immediately stored the invitation in [My Items], withdrew his hand, and said calmly, “My life is upright and honorable.”
“The only thing worth hiding—something shameful—is my incestuous love affair with you.”
Fu Suxi let out a soft snort. “Isn’t our relationship already known to everyone who should know?”
“What exactly are you hiding?”
Yu Zhi remained expressionless. “Hiding is an attitude.”
“……”
Just then, a short burst of laughter rang out inside the car.
Both Yu Zhi and Fu Suxi looked up at the same time—toward Shang Yu in the driver’s seat, her mouth stretched wide in barely contained glee.
She pressed her lips together and said, “Pretend I don’t exist. Pretend I’m just air.”
“Say whatever you want. Kiss if you want.”
Yu Zhi: “……”
Fu Suxi: “……”
With that interruption, Fu Suxi’s attention finally shifted away from Yu Zhi.
Yu Zhi glanced at Shang Yu’s headrest and changed the topic. “What’s the bureau’s procedure for clearing pollutants? Are Xiao Lin and the others enough?”
Shang Yu rolled her eyes subtly, glanced at Fu Suxi through the rearview mirror, and seeing he had no intention of answering, replied:
“This pollution zone isn’t large. They’re enough.”
“As for procedure—we kill all pollutants in the zone. A specialized cleanup team handles corpse incineration afterward.”
“How long does it usually take?” Yu Zhi asked.
“For non-parasitic pollutants, we’re required to handle them immediately. Usually finished the same day.”
“And the pollution source?”
“About the same. The longer you stay in a pollution zone, the easier it is to get contaminated.”
“After entering, the first priority is eliminating the pollution source.”
“If the source doesn’t die, the contamination continues.”
Yu Zhi watched her relaxed expression in the rearview mirror and asked casually, though it was what he truly wanted to know:
“What about purifying a pollution source? Didn’t the system say purification is also possible?”
This time, Shang Yu did not answer immediately.
She was silent for a moment, glanced at Fu Suxi twice, then slowly said:
“Before the system appeared, the bureau never had the concept of ‘purifying’ pollution sources.”
Yu Zhi froze.
“Our orders have always been: eliminate pollution sources and fully contaminated pollutants immediately.”
“It already takes days to purify mentally contaminated ability users. Trying to purify a pollution source would take even longer, cost more lives—it’s not worth it.”
“A pollution source must die.”
Killing it was the fastest, most effective, most convenient solution.
Yu Zhi pressed his lips together. “Is there nothing that can isolate a pollution source from the outside world?”
“No,” Shang Yu replied. Then, remembering their earlier discussion about the company creating pollution sources, she added, “At least not in the bureau. As far as I know.”
Yu Zhi understood the implication.
The bureau didn’t have such means. The system might. Meteorite Biotech might have been researching it.
But here, within the Special Operations Bureau, Jiang Shengnan had no path to survival.
Only death.
Yu Zhi sighed silently.
For now, Jiang Shengnan would have to remain inside his ability.
The off-road vehicle roared forward, dust trailing behind. Soon they left the industrial park. The faint salty scent of the sea gradually disappeared.
—
“You’ve gotten bold. Yu Yi and Yu Er are both S-class ability users.”
“They just left a dungeon and reunited with bureau members. They’ll be relaxed right now. What’s there to fear?”
“Look—the car’s already far away.”
“They left—but there’s still a whole ability-user team at the company. Professor said not to clash head-on with the bureau yet.”
At the mention of “Professor,” the woman let out a cold snort and stepped out from beneath the reef’s shadow.
Wearing sunglasses and a bucket hat, she stared in the direction the off-road vehicle had gone.
Only when it fully disappeared from sight did she retract her gaze. She picked up the fishing rod at her feet and cast the hook into the sea.
Moments later, the float dipped.
Hooked.
She jerked the rod upward and reeled in her catch.
At the other end of the hook was a man wearing a cracked mask.
His black robe was in tatters. Faint black lines covered critical areas—head, throat, heart—barely preserving his life through his ability. His flesh was ravaged with bite marks; his arms and legs gnawed down to white bone.
The woman clicked her tongue twice and waved at another man. “Hurry and treat Yingmian. I need to ask him something.”
A man stepped out from the corner and began treating the black-robed man called Yingmian.
After a while, the unconscious Yingmian began coughing up murky seawater mixed with blood.
The woman tossed aside the disposable fishing rod and crouched down, prying open his eyes. “Wake up.”
His pupils shifted sluggishly, slowly focusing, before he spat out another mouthful of blood.
She slapped his cheek lightly, mocking without mercy. “The Professor told you to invite a newcomer. How did you end up like this?”
Yingmian parted his lips. Blood, seawater, and swollen scraps of flesh spilled out.
She grimaced in disgust and pressed his mouth shut. “Explain later.”
After more than ten minutes of healing, his broken ribs fused, his collapsed chest gradually flattening back to normal.
He finally had the strength to speak. His voice was hoarse and slow.
“I played a r*pe game with big brother.”
The woman: “?”
Her lips twitched violently. “Are you insane?”
“I told you to monitor him. Who told you to r*pe him?”
Yingmian said quietly, “I wanted to.”
The woman: “……”
She adjusted her sunglasses and sneered, recalling the gossip about Yu Zhi and his “brother.” “So his brother beat you into this?”
“Let me inform you—Yu Zhi’s information is in the company database. No siblings listed.”
“Either their brotherhood is fake, or Yu Yi’s file is specially classified. Either way, be careful of that man.”
Yingmian sighed faintly. “For big brother, I was even prepared to reluctantly r*pe him.”
The woman: “……”
“What’s wrong with you? Hit puberty?”
He clutched his chest and slowly sat up, coughing. “The two brothers like to play. Why can’t I play too?”
The woman glared. “They’re brothers—or at least a couple. What are you?”
“If you really want to join them, show some sincerity. You—you…”
“Why not drug both of them?”
The declaration rang out firm and resonant.
The man who had been treating Yingmian fell silent, then said, “…The rest are minor injuries. No more treatment needed.”
“I’ll withdraw first.”
He quickly left the reef shore.
The woman glanced at his retreating back, then asked, “Ability confirmed?”
Yingmian nodded. “Teleportation. Body hardening.”
“And the most important ability—big brother told me himself.”
She leaned forward eagerly. “What is it?”
Yingmian replied, “Heaven-bestowed pollutant.”
The woman blinked. “??? What the hell does that mean?”
He looked at her calmly. “It means if you keep asking, I’ll heaven-bestow you a slap.”
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