Chapter 7

"Isn't this car awesome? A friend gave it to me as payment for a debt. It's a new model from two years ago, and it's worth over 100,000 yuan on the market."

Ah Zhe, completely oblivious, kept rambling on. He didn't think he had any serious illness; the medicine that person gave him was quite effective, and having medicine meant it could cure him.

"To pay off debts? Where did you get the money to lend to others?" Xiao Shengyun asked curiously.

“My friend made a lot of money in business a couple of years ago. But last year, his business didn’t go well, so he lent me 50,000 yuan, saying he would share the profits with me. But at the end of last year, he was suddenly ordered to stop selling goods overseas, and he went bankrupt. He could only give me his beloved car.”

"So you're not going to get your 50,000 back?" The factory salary is over 10,000 a month. After deducting expenses such as rent, it would take at least half a year to save 50,000.

“These are friends, and this car is so cool, I wouldn’t buy one that expensive for myself. We’re all just ordinary people, we have to work, buy a house, get married…”

Ah Zhe's eyes sparkled. He loved riding motorcycles, so when the opportunity arose, he indulged himself once.

A thunderclap came from the distant sky, but fortunately the rain was not heavy, falling in a light drizzle, sticking to my face with a slight coolness.

As silence gradually fell behind him, just as Xiao Shengyun was relieved that his ears were finally at peace, a cry of pain came from his ear.

The green shoots on A Zhe's body, wet with rainwater, sprouted from his skin like bamboo shoots after a spring rain. The pain of his blood vessels and subcutaneous tissue being pierced sent shivers down his spine, and A Zhe's vision went black. Xiao Shengyun helped him out of the car, and he almost collapsed to the ground.

Strands of black substance oozed from A Zhe's body, mingling with the rainwater.

His body is now like a tree trunk. When a tree encounters water, it sprouts new life, and countless green buds gradually grow into tender branches, completely enveloping the mother body.

This is the source of pollution. When these substances enter the human body and fuse with organs and flesh, they will transform into an unknowable state.

"Hey, wake up." Ah Zhe had already fainted from the pain.

If we can take these things away, will everything be fine?

Xiao Shengyun placed his hand on A Zhe's arm and tried to extract the source essence. In an instant, a large amount of source essence surged into his body, and his brain was hit by a wave of dizziness.

The more times power is used, the harder it becomes to maintain the human condition.

This outer shell was like a lock, keeping the monster inside, but now, with the intense infusion of source energy, that lock has opened a crack.

It smells so good.

It's like a person who has been starving for three days suddenly having a bowl of rice placed in front of them; they almost greedily absorb this power.

If someone were nearby, they would notice that the rain curtain at this moment formed a vacuum zone, from ten meters above the ground down, the water droplets within a radius of tens of meters seemed to have been completely evaporated.

[Alert! Alert! Strong pollution fluctuations detected]

The local supernatural abilities branch's security department sounded the alarm. The monitor stared blankly at the numbers constantly changing on the screen, wishing he could faint at any moment.

1000

2000

...

"A-level pollutant has been detected. Notify the operations team immediately!"

But within seconds, the data plummeted again, as if the alarm had been a hallucination.

"The operations team is in position. Please send us the specific location."

"Uh, it seems like everything's fine now." The monitor looked dazed. Everyone from the branch office rushed over after hearing the commotion, only to see the same surveillance screen as usual.

Even a hundred meters underground, something sensed this aura.

So hungry... Food... Food...

Suddenly, the ground seemed to tremble.

A lot of dust floated in the air, and everything around was shrouded in a gray haze.

"Is this the prevention and control center? There are people here infected by contaminants..."

Xiao Shengyun snapped out of his daze, making a phone call with one hand while hurriedly pressing back the small tentacle that had grown out with the other. He could only absorb the source essence, but he couldn't completely remove the pollution.

"I feel like I'm going to die—" A Zhe grabbed Xiao Shengyun's pants. He seemed to have regained some consciousness, but after being tormented, his face was pale.

Before he finished speaking, the ground began to tremble again, like another aftershock.

However, through the cracks in the ground, Xiao Shengyun seemed to see something extending underground.

A silent fear rose within him, like a human facing a lion; he had only seen the tip of the iceberg of this creature, yet he almost had the urge to flee in terror.

He recalled an article he had read somewhere that said humans generate olfactory receptors on the spot when facing a crisis. Would monsters have this function too?

Through the crack, one could see a massive vine, like a giant, dark python coiled and knotted in the ground. This thing could penetrate hundreds of meters underground, possessing immense penetrating power; even the hardest earth's crust could not stop it.

They traveled dozens of miles in search of food, but when they arrived, they found nothing to eat. The "giant python" lingered, and the underground rock strata cracked open with each movement.

The next second, the vines reached out towards A Zhe, sensing the scent of food emanating from this human, though not much.

"Drive away, I'll stop him!"

This was not a wise decision, because after just one encounter, Xiao Shengyun was already certain that he couldn't defeat this thing.

His life principle is to bully the weak and fear the strong; he strikes hard against those weaker than himself, and runs away faster than anyone else when he encounters those stronger than himself.

But if they don't fight back at this point, the two of them might be wiped out.

But the person behind him was his only friend...

Is the so-called friendship that requires risking one's life for something that is sometimes just a casual chat?

The thick vines pounced on it like wolves seeing bloody meat. The contents of A Zhe's body were delicious, but now it had seen something even more delicious.

Everyone knows that a plant's weakness is its roots.

But the vines in front of me were sprouting from the ground, with thick and tough skin; even a knife would leave a notch when it was cut into them.

How can you block this thing? By risking your life?

A black primal substance condensed in his palm. This substance had a strong corrosive effect; any living thing that came into contact with even a tiny bit would dissolve instantly, just like gold meeting aqua regia.

This is also Xiao Shengyun's trump card.

With a swift stroke, the soft, liquid substance instantly burned a crack in front of the thick vine, but it seemed to have no effect on it; lower organisms do not have a nervous system.

A large amount of red liquid instantly drenched Xiao Shengyun, the liquid resembling the color of blood.

At this point, clothes no longer mattered; the enormous vines were extending even faster toward the food it had been longing for, accompanied by the roar of motorcycle engines.

"I thought I could distract it, but this thing keeps chasing you. How did you become such a hot commodity in its eyes?" A-Zhe cursed as he pulled the man into the car.

He's a good driver; he was a young cyclist for a few years when he was younger, so he has some basic driving skills.

"I might be a piece of braised pork in its eyes, while you might be a leafy green vegetable in its eyes."

Xiao Shengyun guessed that he didn't know much about his "kindred spirits," but one thing he could deduce was that, in the eyes of pollutants, their kind were more nutritious than humans.

"Being a leafy green vegetable is fine at times like this."

As Xiao Shengyun ran, he subconsciously sniffed the air. There was no fishy smell; instead, it smelled a bit like the herbal detergent that the merchants were heavily promoting.

This garment should still be wearable after a wash.

Although he owns dozens of plaid shirts, he cherishes them all, treating each one as a treasure.

Behind them, tall buildings collapsed and the ground shattered, as if it were the end of the world.

A strange noise came from the sky—the sound of a helicopter rotor—and a sliver of dawn was quietly approaching.

A miniature missile was dropped from the air, leaving a trail of smoke before landing precisely in the crack in the ground.

The black dots in the sky grew larger and larger—those were the agents from the operations department.

"Attention residents, the government has dispatched armed personnel to the scene. The disaster has not yet subsided. Please immediately move away from high-rise buildings and seek shelter in open areas. Shaohua Road is currently the main source of the disaster; please stay away as soon as possible."

"Attention residents, Shaohua Road is currently classified as a high-risk area. Residents in the vicinity should evacuate as soon as possible."

The piercing red alarm kept sounding, and the hearts that had just settled were raised again. The security personnel stared intently at the large screen, which showed that the current energy fluctuation had exceeded four thousand and was rising directly to five thousand.

"With this energy fluctuation, the level of pollutants is no longer A, but S."

This marks the third time in human history that we have directly confronted a Class S pollutant.

Two hundred years ago, in a small rural town in the West, the Dream Master, an S-class pollutant, was born. The Dream Master pulled the entire town into a dream, and the whole town fell into a state of tranquility, like the kingdom of Sleeping Beauty in a fairy tale, devoid of any living life.

The town was in a remote location, and very few outsiders entered it until a merchant who came to buy wool blankets broke the tranquility.

The merchant was horrified to discover that everyone in town was asleep, their faces rosy, their bodies warm, and they were still breathing, but they would never wake up again.

Soon, news of the strange phenomenon in the town spread to the outside world, attracting not only the media and onlookers, but also many doctors and researchers.

Unfortunately, even the most advanced medical personnel at the time were unable to revive these people.

People suspected the presence of some unnatural creatures in the town, and to prevent anyone from entering, the government erected a tall electric fence around it.

Over the next century, these people died one by one, their breathing gradually stopped, their bodies began to rot, and the town began to become a huge graveyard, emitting a foul stench.

It wasn't until the concept of pollutants emerged that people remembered the City of Dreams. However, because humanity currently has the least understanding of this type of pollutant involving the mental realm and lacks corresponding countermeasures, it is classified as an S-level pollutant.

Another incident involving S-class pollutants became the top secret of the Supernatural Abilities Bureau, buried deep beneath layers of data, unknown to anyone.

"The shockwaves caused by this pollutant are equivalent to a magnitude 5 earthquake, with an impact range of hundreds of kilometers. The pollution incident will likely be exposed to the public soon. This will cause great panic among the public, and relevant departments must do a good job in follow-up work."

The Minister of Security looked serious. No one had expected that an S-class pollutant would suddenly appear, which was a huge test for everyone.

Over the years, the Superpower Bureau has recruited a large number of awakened individuals with generous rewards, including RVs, free medical care, and official certifications, which are quite tempting.

The General Administration has already taken control of the vast majority of the Awakened's combat power, and with a large number of firearms, most of the pollutant activities are small-scale.

Despite years of peace, everyone carries a heavy weight in their hearts, and the sense of impending doom remains ever-present.

Now, it seems that the days of great turmoil are fast approaching.