Chapter 18
A black beetle nearly a meter long, a reptile with a lizard's body and a snake's tail, a giant ant with hundreds of eyes...
This container holds all the pollutants discovered in City S over the past six months. These specimens are currently placed in liquid nitrogen at -198 degrees Celsius. Or perhaps they are not specimens, because as they passed through these large glass jars, the wings of a certain butterfly species fluttered.
Every single creature here has never appeared in any human database; they are aliens to this planet.
"These are all pollutants, how can there be so much?"
Xiao Shengyun gasped. The labels showed that these specimens had been stored for the past three months, and there were about thirty specimens in total. This meant that at least one type of contamination case occurred every three days.
"No, that's not much. Have you heard of the 'Great Cataclysm'?" Before Xiao Shengyun could answer, Zhou Zhi continued, "That was a disaster that happened twenty years ago. The earliest appearance of pollutants can be traced back to the early 22nd century. Many new species were discovered in countries around the world. When humans tried to analyze the structure of these new species and classify them into the prokaryotes, protists, plants, fungi, or animals, as before, people were surprised to find that these new species—had no cellular structure."
"At that time, the entire biological world was shaken by what felt like an earthquake. Fortunately, the pollutants were not nearly as potent as they are now, so the discovery only circulated within a small academic circle. But then 'pollution' appeared, and people discovered that these new organisms could cause mutations in the human body. They also attacked humans in various ways. In 2110, the Bureau of Supernatural Abilities, the Lighthouse, and the Five Research Institutes were officially established. For a long time afterward, humanity maintained a dominant position until 2130—when pollution erupted like a tidal wave, known as the 'Great Cataclysm'."
"Wait, I haven't heard anything about this incident. If the pollution had already occurred, why were ordinary people completely unaware until recently when it was brought to the public eye?" Xiao Shengyun noticed the loophole.
"Because in the year the cataclysm ended, everyone's memories were erased."
Zhou Zhi said coldly, "That's the most terrifying thing. No one remembers that disaster. Our memories are like a lump of clay, a piece of which is cut out of thin air and then kneaded back together, as if nothing ever happened. But everything that exists leaves a trace, like the annual rings of trees, the ice cores in snowy rivers, the strata of sedimentary rocks... Humans may not remember, but the mountains and rivers remember, and the plants and trees remember too."
2133 years later, in order to verify this seemingly non-existent disaster, scholars from different disciplines such as history, biology, and geography joined together, traveled to every region, and pieced together the whole picture of the event from fragments.
As the tide recedes, the desert seems unchanged, but some small seashells will eventually remain on it.
"These past ten years have been a time for humanity to catch its breath, but now, the storm is coming again. Pollution incidents in various cities have risen sharply recently, like cicada larvae bursting out of the ground after a rain. The death rate among commissioners has reached 30%, and if we include those who suffered secondary pollution and those who were seriously injured and retired, this number could be even higher."
Zhou Zhi checked the current condition of the specimen, then walked through the corridor covered with posters, briefly explaining the contents of the posters to Xiao Shengyun as they went.
These things are also covered in the new recruit training at the operations department, but not in such detail or with such a touch of...poetic flair.
The theme on the right side of the corridor is "The Great Cataclysm," with thirty posters displaying the findings of scholars from different fields, piecing together that blood-stained history.
The two then entered the testing room, whose walls were made of some kind of metal that shielded against contamination, and which contained various instruments.
Zhou Zhi turned on the computer, and a mechanical voice echoed in the empty room: "Welcome back, Master. What service do you require?"
"A full-body checkup is required, including all indicators."
"Master, the current air pollution index is 200. We do not recommend testing again. You should get an injection of the antagonist as soon as possible."
"I didn't ask you to test me." These words seemed to be squeezed out from between clenched teeth.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't notice you had a guest with you."
An orange cat appeared on the computer screen, its round face almost filling the entire screen: "Hello, my name is Jinqiu, and I'm the assistant in this testing room. Please feel free to ask me any questions. If you'd like to have a test done, you can stand on the platform in front of me. Master, please leave temporarily; your presence might interfere with the test results."
Zhou Zhi: "..."
"Okay, Golden...ball."
Xiao Shengyun did as the orange cat instructed. Then a bunch of robotic arms swept around in front of him. The process was very boring, and it took ten minutes to get a stable result.
"Was your name given to you by your owner? It's quite cute."
"Of course, I chose it myself." The cat rolled around on the computer screen. "I wasn't originally called Golden Ball, but Golden Autumn, but I thought that name sounded awful, not as nice as Golden Ball."
To everyone's surprise, Xiao Shengyun replied, "The original name was also wonderful. Was it taken from a poem?"
For some reason, he always felt that Dean Zhou's words had a poetic quality. This person didn't seem like someone who spent his days fiddling with reagents in the lab; he seemed more like someone who would write something by the lake with a pen.
Perhaps it was because he lacked education, Xiao Shengyun thought helplessly. For a little monster like him, learning a foreign language was still a bit too difficult.
"No, he said it was because he ate a variety of orange called 'Golden Autumn' before coming to the lab that day, so he set me to orange and gave me that name."
Xiao Shengyun: "..." Another unexpected answer.
Ten minutes later, Zhou Zhi walked into the laboratory, looked at the test results, and raised an eyebrow.
The pollution level wasn't zero this time, but 67, which isn't a high number.
Perhaps it was a mistake from the beginning; this person did not have a system that completely shielded against pollution, but rather—purified the pollution.
This is more valuable than the former.
Zhou Zhi's eyes lit up, and remembering Ye Ting's words, he pursed his lips again.
"Is everything alright? You can rest assured now." Xiao Shengyun leaned closer, smelling the faint fragrance emanating from beside him, and sincerely suggested, "Perhaps you should take an antagonist."
...
Less than two weeks later, two of his colleagues were involved in an accident, and Xiao Shengyun used this as a reason to resign from the company.
This reason is reasonable, and the company has been busy dealing with the investigation by the Supernatural Abilities Bureau. The higher-ups are overwhelmed and no one cares about a lowly employee. They simply gave him some money and sent him away.
The operations department humanely granted him two days off to allow him to recover properly.
On the other end of the phone, Captain Ye sounded very cheerful, whether because he had an extra worker or because he had finally beaten Zhou Zhi.
Xiao Shengyun slept until noon, then washed up and casually opened a packet of instant noodles.
All shops are now closed, and only some factories that produce food and necessities have the permits issued by the government and are able to continue operating.
Many of these factories may also have to close down due to a shortage of raw materials.
Although food is unnecessary, Xiao Shengyun has been eating for over twenty years, and the sudden change is still a bit difficult to adjust to.
He opened his phone, and a long string of message notifications flooded in—from the forum Tao Zhe had last registered on.
All netizens on the forum are polluters. At present, different countries have different attitudes towards polluters. Some let them go, some imprison them, and some eradicate them completely. In order to survive, these people can only stick together for warmth.
The atmosphere on the forum was a bit off. Starting three years ago, it would send an account to every person who was infected. At that time, the person was usually in a state of extreme panic and fear, and would choose to grasp at this lifeline.
However, most people still go to the government-run hospitals for treatment. The forum is more like a large mental health exchange center than a terrorist gathering place.
But now, it seems someone wants to gather these people together.
Xiao Shengyun's indirect inquiries only revealed that some forces seemed to be secretly recruiting polluters, and the treatment was extremely generous.
Happy times always fly by. After scrolling through his phone in bed all afternoon, Xiao Shengyun finally got out of bed when he felt hungry.
Recently, energy consumption has been too high. People get hungry even after working. On the battlefield, source energy is thrown out like it's free, so it's inevitable that the body will be depleted.
Moreover, the source matter can be understood as the energy of the inner world. Both worlds follow the law of conservation of energy, but the two types of energy are different in nature and cannot be converted into each other.
In conclusion, food alone cannot alleviate this hunger unless he finds several polluters to gnaw on.
Thinking of this, Xiao Shengyun suddenly realized why he had wanted to take a bite out of Zhou Zhi yesterday.
After all, they are of a higher level and have more source essence. As for why they don't want to eat poisonous snakes, those things look too disgusting.
After a two-day vacation, Xiao Shengyun officially reported to the Operations Department. He recorded information in the morning and officially started his job in the afternoon.
"Welcome, welcome!" My colleagues were very enthusiastic and even left some small gifts at my workstation beforehand. The office was filled with a cheerful atmosphere.
Xiao Shengyun's tense nerves relaxed slightly, causing him to overlook the meaning behind his colleagues' smiles.
He turned on his computer—nowadays, most work information is sent directly to his email from there, and an 8GB compressed file was lying inside.
"You're finally here! We've been working like crazy!"
Seeing Zheng Xuan's smiling face, Xiao Shengyun had an urge to smear the documents on it.
"No wonder you were in such a hurry; you actually wanted me to come and do the work!"
Xiao Shengyun quickly buried himself in piles of documents.
The email contained work guidelines, basic information about pollution, and information about recent cases.
The Operations Division has five teams. Ye Ting's team is currently handling cases related to plant contamination. According to the investigation, in the past three months, a large number of ordinary citizens have experienced vegetative changes in their bodies. These people are now being treated at Nanshan Hospital.
Xiao Shengyun's first task after taking office was to go to Nanshan Hospital to investigate and learn about the relevant information about patients before and after their infection.
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