Chapter One: The Purifier
Early spring, 2055 AD, the 20th year since the outbreak of the apocalypse.
Inside the purification room of the First Hospital of the Army Defense Force at the Central Plains Base No. 3 in China, Qi An saw her ninth patient of the day through a one-way glass.
He was a burly male soldier, wearing a dirty camouflage training uniform, sitting on the only round stool in the empty room, seemingly biting his nails.
The moment Qi An turned the corner, the alarm in the cleanroom went off.
The male soldier wasn't biting his nails; his eyes were glazed over, and his mouth was agape.
With a "crunch," he bit off his left thumb!
Dark red blood flowed from the severed finger, which he licked with his tongue, chewing it crisply along with the half-thumb in his mouth.
"Warning! Patient No. 09, Liu Wenle, has a rapidly rising contamination level, currently at 45%...52%...59%! Level 3 Anomaly Warning!"
Qi An pushed open the door to the cleanroom and rushed inside. Her blue name tag fluttered as she ran.
Qi An, 20 years old.
Physical enhancement rating: D, brain enhancement rating: B.
Occupation: Purifier. Job Rating: 3 stars. Capable of performing routine and non-battlefield emergency purification tasks.
Qi An's expression was solemn and cold. She rushed to the male soldier's back and pushed a tube of strong blocking agent into his mouth before he could attack her in shock.
The male soldier's body stiffened for a moment, and the pollution level on the large screen in the cleanroom froze at 59%.
Qi An risked his life to pry the severed finger out from under the male soldier's mutated sharp teeth, ignoring the excruciating pain of being bitten, and then grasped the male soldier's hand.
She gently enveloped his hand, but her voice remained calm: "Mental resonance access."
The male soldier's frantic expression froze once again, like a refreshing rain being poured over a raging fire; his remaining will trembled as he embraced the coolness.
The pollution levels on the large screen began to decrease, but the pollution level on Qi An's monitoring bracelet was gradually increasing, albeit relatively slowly.
Time passed second by second. Beads of sweat appeared on Qi An's forehead, his pupils split open, and several strange, overlapping pupils appeared in his eye sockets.
This is a sign of an anomaly.
However, the pollution levels for both sides ultimately settled at 32%.
The male soldier calmed down, and the changes in his body were restored. He finally felt the excruciating pain of his severed finger, but he was even more attached to the gentle energy that soothed his collapsed mental world.
He hugged Qi An, his strong and burly body tightly enveloping the petite figure, his furry head nuzzling and sniffing against Qi An's slender neck with endless dependence.
Qi An's expression, which had just calmed down a bit, turned ugly again, and she struggled and shouted at her.
Two security personnel who had been alerted by the alarm at the entrance of the cleanroom rushed forward and pulled the male soldier Liu Wenle away.
After being purified, patients may develop an attachment to the purifier, and may even touch or touch the purifier, or engage in more extreme intimate behavior. However, this happens more frequently in Dr. Qi's case.
Perhaps it's because Dr. Qi is beautiful?
The security guards were adept at handling these minor incidents.
Liu Wenle was pinned down, her longing gaze following Qi An intently until she left the purification room, at which point she lowered her head in resentment and frustration.
Qi An filled out the medical form with a cold face. Through the one-way glass, she watched the security guards pick up the thumb that hadn't been bitten off yet and bandage it up.
There is still a possibility of reconnecting them.
Qi An smoothed out her white coat, turned around and went back to the end of the corridor to her private rest room.
She applied only a tiny bit of iodine to disinfect the wound on her hand that had been rinsed.
In the apocalypse, this kind of injury is nothing, not even worth wasting gauze on.
After disinfecting the wound, Qi An left it to air dry while closing his eyes to meditate.
Qi An was born in the year the apocalypse broke out. Her only relative, her father Qi Wanquan, passed away eight years ago. She now lives alone in the base.
According to the knowledge Qi An gained from the general education textbooks at the base, the apocalypse initially broke out due to the discovery and leakage of an ancient virus.
The virus is called "Kuroshio," and it is said to have appeared because a magnitude 9 earthquake in the southeastern plateau of China tore apart the earth's strata and exposed an ancient underground lake.
The Kuroshio virus has modified the genes of humans and a significant portion of existing life on Earth.
The transformation process was rapid and brutal. More than 80% of humanity died during the pandemic, while the remaining 20% coexisted with the virus and were unexpectedly enhanced.
Human enhancement can be divided into physical enhancement and brain enhancement. Brain enhancement has two indicators: mental enhancement and intelligence enhancement, with a value range of 1-10.
Qi An is able to have a stable job at a military hospital and a small 20-square-meter apartment in a safe residential area because her brain enhancement level is B, her intelligence enhancement value is 4, and her mental enhancement value is as high as 7.
Those with a mental enhancement value of 6 or higher can become a Purifier, and Purifiers are rare and precious.
The wound on Qi An's hand clotting and healing at a speed visible to the naked eye.
This is the self-healing ability that the virus has given to humans.
But the paradox of the apocalypse is that just when people thought they could regain their confidence from the disaster brought by the virus, a polluting message from outer space, beyond human comprehension, descended upon Earth.
This kind of polluting information has no physical form; it is just a piece of information. Neither humans nor the most advanced AI at the time could interpret its meaning, yet it could exist and spread through any form of carrier.
It could be a distorted geometric symbol, a song, or a taste... It can be captured by all of human senses.
Once captured and absorbed into the brain, this contaminated information remains like a parasitic brain worm, forever consuming one's reason when mental resistance declines, causing physical mutations, turning one into a monster, or a slave to some will behind that information!
The polluted information and the alien legions formed by these polluters are the greatest threat to humanity in the apocalypse.
However, the virus has given humans a mental boost, making them more resistant to pollution.
Therefore, the number and ability of a base's purification specialists are crucial to the base's survival.
Qi An closed his eyes for an hour, and the pollution level on his bracelet returned to 25%, with the displayed color changing back to green, representing safety and health.
This demonstrates the professional purifier's high resistance to mental pollution and their powerful ability to suppress it.
Of course, among the purifiers of the same level, Qi An's suppression power was particularly strong, and her recovery time actually did not need to be so long.
Qi An washed himself, changed his clothes, filled out today's work report on his phone, and then picked up his bag to go home.
Today is the weekend, so she can treat one or two fewer patients than usual and get off work at 6 pm.
It was shortly after the New Year, and the base was well-stocked. On her way home, she could buy some potatoes and a couple of pieces of chicken to make soup.
She doesn't get a vacation, and the purification work is arduous and often dangerous, but she's quite satisfied with the current situation.
Compared to most ordinary people in the apocalypse, she earned 300 contribution points a month, had two meals provided by the company canteen, and received occasional subsidies for living supplies. Her life was quite stable and affluent.
She's still not satisfied; she'll probably be struck by lightning.
Qi An was walking briskly, about to leave, when he suddenly received a message.
The boss asked her to come to the office.
Qi An's heart skipped a beat, and he couldn't help but look back at his little house.
The small room was tidy; she had finished all her work for the day without any mistakes, and her boss usually wouldn't call anyone to a meeting after get off work on weekends.
Confused, but only able to reply with "okay," Qi An nervously knocked on her boss's office door.
The office has a window, outside which is the dim blue sky. Inside, a tall, capable middle-aged woman is flipping through a stack of documents on her desk by the dim light of a small desk lamp.
This is Sister Qu, the head of Group 2 of the routine purification department of the military hospital and Qi An's direct superior.
A bad feeling welled up in Qi An's heart.
Because Sister Qu's expression was complex, seemingly happy, yet also regretful and worried.
Sure enough, Sister Qu beckoned Qi An to sit down, and after a moment of silence, smiled at her:
"Xiao Qi, congratulations! The results of your physical enhancement rating test last week are in, and you've gone from D to C!"
They also checked your purification records from the past year and a half since you joined the military hospital. Your average purification level was 20%, with error and refusal rates both below 10%, and a 99% patient satisfaction rate—truly excellent!
Sister Qu stood up, extended her hand to Qi An, and solemnly said:
"Purification Technician Qi An, starting the day after tomorrow, you will be transferred to a field post and officially become a battlefield first aid purification technician!"
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