Chapter 1
At midnight, Xiao Shengyun got off the subway, exhausted, and then staggered home.
Normally, the streets are brightly lit at this time, but not long ago, a notice was inexplicably issued from above, prohibiting all shops from operating after 8 p.m. Many restaurant owners cursed the decision-makers countless times before reluctantly closing down, and the streets suddenly became much quieter at night.
The elevator had just stopped on the first floor and was about to close when he rushed up to stop it.
The woman inside the door was startled, unsure whether it was because of his face, which was filled with a sense of utter despair as if he were about to face the King of Hell at any moment, or because of his tattered clothes with several tears in them.
"Thank you, thank you." Xiao Shengyun gasped for breath, leaning against the elevator wall, where two large dark circles were clearly reflected.
"Why are you back so late? Did you work overtime again?" the woman said casually. The woman's name was Wang Qing. She worked as an accountant at a company not far from her home. The two lived on the same fifteenth floor and would greet each other occasionally when they bumped into each other.
Wang Qing also seemed to be radiating exhaustion. Her face was ashen, devoid of any color, and her eyes were deeply sunken, as if she had been up for days and nights.
"Yes, I was kept on again." Xiao Shengyun smiled wryly. "It's not like I work overtime all the time, just seven days a week."
"That must have been really tough," Wang Qing remarked casually, placing her hand on her slightly protruding belly.
"Isn't Sister Wang working hard too? Coming back so late while pregnant, how many months pregnant is she?" Xiao Shengyun glanced at Wang Qing's belly out of the corner of his eye. He could sense that something terrible was growing inside.
"How many months?" Mentioning the baby, Wang Qing seemed somewhat dazed, her hand constantly stroking her belly. "I have to give birth to this baby... give birth to this baby..."
"Yes, no matter what, we have to give birth to her..."
She muttered to herself nervously.
But Wang Qing isn't married yet.
Xiao Shengyun reached out and grabbed at Wang Qing's stomach with superhuman speed, but the next second, his hand was stopped by an invisible force.
"Don't touch my child!" Wang Qing screamed and pounced on him like a lioness protecting her cubs.
A mayfly trying to shake a tree is overestimating its own strength.
She was choked and pressed against the elevator wall.
Damn it.
Xiao Shengyun rarely felt like he was being held by the neck. Although this thing was still in the womb, it had a self-protection mechanism, and there was a layer of flesh between them, so he couldn't easily make a move.
Clang—
The elevator stopped on the fifteenth floor.
Wang Qing snapped out of her hysterical state, and her eyes regained their clarity.
"Sister Wang, we've arrived." Xiao Shengyun withdrew his hand, as if nothing had happened.
"Oh, we're here. I'm going home now." She placed her hand on her stomach again, a smile on her face, like a mother looking forward to the birth of her child.
Xiao Shengyun watched her take out the key, open the door, and close it.
He clenched and unclenched his fist; he couldn't move the embryo now unless it detached from the mother's body.
3 a.m.
Crack, crack...
one two three……
The eerie sound rang out again, seven times in total, paused for three seconds, and then reappeared.
one two three……
Xiao Shengyun was jolted awake from his dream by his heightened senses. The clattering sound kept coming, and he could also smell a faint scent of blood in the air.
The knocking sounds continued incessantly, gradually forming a rhythmic wave of sound, like the enchanting song of a mermaid in legend.
The sound came from across the street, from Wang Qing's room.
"Hey, are you trying to get a good night's sleep?"
A series of loud knocks sounded at the door. The man upstairs stood at the door, his face full of anger, his eyes bloodshot from staying up all night.
That night, he was first woken up by a woman's screams, and now he can't sleep because of the bird's noise.
"It wasn't me," Xiao Shengyun rubbed his sleepy eyes and subconsciously retorted, then immediately woke up. "Oh, sorry, I got carried away playing games. I'm going to sleep now. Big brother, you should go to sleep too."
He shoved the man into the stairwell, praying that he would go back quickly.
At that moment, there was another series of crackling sounds from the other side.
The man glanced at Xiao Shengyun suspiciously, walked to the other side, and only when he got closer did he realize that the door was not closed properly and there was still a gap.
Inside, there was only black silence, as if some monster was hiding there.
A sense of fear rose in the man's heart. The next second, something hooked onto his foot, and he stumbled and fell into the doorway.
Half an hour ago
Behind the door, a heavily pregnant woman lay on the ground, her belly bulging high, with black veins and blue streaks protruding from it.
Something seemed to be wriggling under the thin belly, and as it wriggled, bulges of different shapes appeared on the mother's belly.
Two men stood nearby. They looked like normal humans, but their clothes were covered with dense, tender buds.
Those tender buds, just like those growing on trees in spring, are green, pointed, and stuck to the skin and flesh, just like the peel of a custard apple.
"The fruit seems to be growing well this time; out of so many seeds, only this one has mutated."
A man said.
The companion next to him did not respond.
"Tch, you're such a silent type." The man stretched out his hand, the shape of his arm changing, and a woody gray began to appear. Each of his fingers gradually lengthened, turned green, and eventually extended into long vines.
He cut open the woman's swollen belly, revealing an embryo the size of a baby, with a thick, black liquid flowing out.
Footsteps echoed in the stairwell.
The other person was somewhat flustered. He looked around, but his gaze did not fall on the embryo.
The longer you stare at pollutants, the higher your pollution level will rise, and the more severe the mental pollution and physical deformities will become, until you turn into a complete monster.
Linzhou doesn't want to become a monster.
He was an ordinary person, but one day, mental pollution suddenly descended upon him. At first, he heard incomprehensible whispers in his ears, which his family thought were hallucinations. But as time went on, his mental condition worsened until one day he slashed his younger brother with a knife, at which point his family sent him to a mental hospital.
His memories after that were a jumbled mess. It seemed like many people wanted to kill him. He watched as the people around him were sent into the crematorium one by one. When the flames licked his face, Lin Zhou thought he was going to die.
But then he was rescued and taken from one hell to another, and he never had the chance to return to the human world.
He was on edge, listening intently to the sounds outside the door: "When can we finish this? We need to get this done quickly, or those guys in the operations department might find out."
"What's the rush? Why don't you come and do it yourself?" Yue Yang said impatiently as he injected the reagent into the embryo.
He didn't like Lin Zhou very much. The two of them went to the church at the same time and received the Pope's "enlightenment" at the same time, but Lin Zhou's superpower was much stronger than his.
Looking at the nervous Lin Zhou, Yue Yang cursed inwardly.
Bah, a pretty boy who's all looks and no substance.
The embryo, which had been trembling and constantly contracting and relaxing like a beating heart, instantly quieted down after the reagent was injected.
Yue Yang breathed a sigh of relief, but the next second, the embryo sprang directly from the mother's body. It was like a huge, pulsating lump of flesh, with some tiny black tentacles extending out.
"Holy crap, how did this thing grow legs and run away?" The danger level of a dormant pollutant is completely different from that of this lively, jumping, and collapsing thing. The moment it came to life, a strong pain exploded in their minds.
This turn of events was completely unexpected for the two of them. Yue Yang hurriedly sent a message to headquarters on his mobile phone: "The pollutants are out of control, come quickly."
"We need to get out of here quickly." Lin Zhou's body tensed up. He felt his mental pollution gradually increasing, and a white fog gradually appeared in front of his eyes, giving him a momentary illusion of blindness.
He tried rubbing his eyes, but his vision was still blurry.
Linzhou didn't want to involve more people, but there were always people who stayed up late and went to visit other people's homes.
When he heard voices and footsteps at the door, his blood ran cold instantly.
Don't come in!
It's too late.
The embryo was throbbing violently. It had just emerged from its mother's body, and although the woman who had conceived it had become a withered piece of human skin, it was still extremely hungry.
But it was lucky today because the food delivery was brought right to its door.
From the moment the tentacles dragged the man into the room, everything changed.
The room was covered in red, crisscrossing like a spider, forming a giant symbol.
The Church of the Rose had high requirements for the personnel responsible for this delivery, requiring them to be knowledgeable in both science and theology.
Welcome to the Kingdom of God.
When the lights came on and he saw the scene before him, Xiao Shengyun froze on the spot.
A black and red liquid, of unknown origin—whether blood or something else—flowed through the living room, emitting a foul odor. The liquid formed a network-like structure, resembling veins growing from the floor. Two men sat in the center of the room; one clutched his head, half-crouching on the floor, while the other examined the unidentified object on the floor.
The man who just came in upstairs is lying face down on the ground; it's unclear whether he's dead or alive.
This scene resembles a classic home invasion murder scene from a movie.
"Another one who's just asking for trouble." Yue Yang sneered. He didn't even need to lift a finger; the mental pollution caused by the S-level pollutants alone was enough to drive an ordinary person to the brink of collapse.
He met the same fate as the one on the ground.
"Yue Yang, give a detailed report on the uncontrolled pollution situation... Why aren't you responding? What happened on your end?"
"It's nothing, just two bugs that accidentally wandered in."
His tone was contemptuous; some people, once they gain a little power, will unconsciously display an arrogant attitude towards ordinary people.
The embryo sensed the presence of fresh flesh and blood, and lunged straight at it, its countless tentacles breaking through the thin membrane on the surface and extending out, waving wildly.
However, as it approached, a force stopped it.
"This is disgusting. I'll skip breakfast tomorrow," Xiao Shengyun muttered to himself, grabbing the lump of meat in his hand.
In his palm, electric currents crisscrossed, making a "buzzing" sound as they came into contact with the skin.
How is that possible?
Yue Yang stared wide-eyed at this unbelievable scene.
The lump of flesh twitched and trembled from the electric current. Some pollutants lack a nervous system, but that doesn't stop them from sensing danger from the person in front of them.
At the same time, a "crackling" sound kept coming from the ground as countless cracks appeared, resembling the patterns on some porcelain.
There were other people present, so Xiao Shengyun wasn't worried about being convicted of trespassing and causing damage to someone's home.
"Hey, what are you dawdling for? Just take care of those two ordinary people. We need to be quick and get them out of there before those guys from the operations department."
Yue Yang spat out a mouthful of saliva and said tremblingly, "It was like that a moment ago, but I'm not sure now."
"What do you mean by uncertain? Is there anything wrong with the embryo?"
He glanced at the sizzling, oily mass of roasted meat: "It's probably almost cooked."
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