Chapter 044:  “You’re not going to turn into a monster.”

This chapter is translated by Hoenimochi, translation checked by Rin, and edited by Bluburry.

Although the situation was severe and the survival rate was extremely low, the people on the outside refused to give up on the rescue.

All night long, the sound of gunfire continued relentlessly.

Thermal weapons were still useful against biochemical Pollutants. It was just that the Headquarters didn’t dare to use missiles with too much lethality. After all, there were still hundreds of lives at stake in the underground.

There were four or five hundred people gathered in the hall for refuge. Everyone’s expressions were anxious.

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Lu Yan found an armed man next to him, showed his identity card, and exchanged a pack of cigarettes for a bow.

These soldiers were ordinary ones, serving as the last line of defence. The rest of the Enlighteneds had gone to the underground frontline to curb the spread of pollution.

Lu Yan didn’t know what was going on underground.

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Tsolhla, yp qlola yde qlola pwahkhsap nyxl swv, yde vbl nypwyzvu ayvl kdnalyple, bl nswze kxytkdl vbyv vbl pvsau kdpkel xwpv cl vlaakczu vaytkn.

Mbkp oyp y pyqlvu zkdl xyel sq qzlpb yde czsse.

Nw Zyd rknjle wr bkp sze fsc yde cltyd vs blzr elyz okvb vbl oswdele.

Tl oyp olyakdt y obkvl nsyv okvb vbl dyxl nyae sq vbl pvyqq sq vbl Slplyanb Rdpvkvwvl. Mbl pszeklap olal pvkzz kdpkel vbl nbysp, ps ds sdl pvsrrle bkx.

Fsxl kdfwaklp olal pkxrzl vaywxy, obkzl svblap olal ekpvsavksd nywple cu vbl rszzwvksd ekplypl.

Mbl zyvvla oyp rzynle yzsdl kd vbl kdvldpkhl nyal yaly okvb prlnkyz oyaep.

Rv oyp pyke vs cl y oyae, cwv kd qynv, vblal oyp sdzu y nwavykd kd vbl xkeezl plryayvkdt vblx. Mblu olal fwpv oykvkdt vs ekl kd y alzyvkhlzu nsxqsavyczl rzynl.

Nw Zyd nypwyzzu srldle y nwavykd yde oyzjle kd. Rdpkel zyu yd Odzktbvldle okvb y casjld zlt.

“Wards round. Tell me how did you injure yourself,” he asked.

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“I was bitten by a Human-Faced Spider. This thing was not big, but its teeth can easily pierce a battle suit,” the Enlightened who was lying on the hospital bed grinned, “My captain, in order to save me… stay below, hasn’t come out yet.”

A terrifying sarcoma that looked like a human face swelled up on his knee.

This patient was probably a chatterbox. Lu Yan had just lost his focus for a moment, and the patient was already talking about other stuff.

“I also saw volunteers from the Institute. My god, is that what a human can achieve? There was one that can breathe fire, damn fucking awesome. It burns wherever his breath touches. I wanted to ask him for an autograph, he told me to find him when everything is settled, he lives in the 907 dormitory…”

Lu Yan measured the size of the wound with his hand; his expression looked serious, “No anaesthetic. Will I be able to cut it off?” 

“Hey, doctor, it’s hopeless,” the patient sighed. “This human face will grow again after being cut off. I’ve seen other people die, and this face will only grow increasingly bigger and bulge. The rest of the body would be sucked dry, and by the time the mutation degree reached 100, spider legs would emerge from the face and they would become a new Pollutant.”

Lu Yan said calmly, “Close your eyes and don’t move.”

The seriously injured Enlightened was a little puzzled but still obediently closed his eyes.

Lu Yan took off his gloves, and his palm cracked open.

Having not eaten for months, the Kingfish was already hungry. Almost instantly, it bit on the red sarcoma.

The sarcoma let out a scream.

How should he put it… it was not very tasty, but it was still enough.

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Lu Yan put his gloves back on, “Okay, next one.”

The treatment process went smoothly. After all, in the early days of the Cataclysm, the pollution value of Pollutants was not so high.

What made Lu Yan uneasy was that 24 hours had passed, but Qiao Yu had not come out yet.

It was four in the morning. Lu Yan completed the “treatment” of the patients in the intensive care unit and was feeling full from eating.

People got tired easily when they were full. He leaned against the wall and hadn’t closed his eyes for more than half an hour when the ground suddenly shook.

From a distance, a long gap opened.

The floor was cracked, and the broken lines spread like spider webs.

A long, slender, huge ant leg poked out from the crack.

These little ants came like a tidal wave toward the crowd.

“Those Pollutants, they came up?!”

A layer of cold sweat broke out on the forehead of the Enlightened in charge of command. He turned on the pager and asked for support from the ground, but was told that the ground had sent 7 groups of rescuers.

Nonetheless, without exception, no one succeeded in reaching here.

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The shelter on the first floor of the Research Institute had become an island in the ocean of Pollutants.

Lu Yan heard an extremely panicked scream near his ear.

On the test table, the pollution level soared to 5,400 in an instant.

The Enlighteneds who were still in the intensive care area struggled to get up and while looking for weapons, they shouted at the others, “Enter the life capsule! Find all the life capsules to enter!”

Although it was called a life capsule, it was actually just a solid iron box with no life-supplying energy material inside, it was more like a high-tech version of a sleeping bag.

If the Pollutants’ issues were not resolved, entering the life capsule was just a matter of waiting for death in another place.

Lu Yan didn’t move but began to count how many arrows he had.

The patient beside him got anxious and tugged at his collar, “Doctor, why are you still standing there, hurry up and leave.”

The large half of the giant ant’s body poked out from the ground.

This ant had an overly large, scissors-like mouthpart. Two long translucent wings were dragging behind it. The abdomen was bulging, with fist-sized eggs surging inside.

It attacked and gave birth at the same time; the eggs in its abdominal cavity sprayed out, and after falling to the ground, they hatched into ferocious worker ants.

The final pollution value for this Pollutant was given on the meter. 8,001.

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This giant ant was also sixteen meters tall.

It was the king of the underworld. The migration had begun two months ago, the distance spanned half of the first district, all the way from the Yunnan Plateau to Yanjing.

There were many Pollutants like it in the ground.

Even if all the experimental subjects on the ninth floor were released, there would be no way to solve them at the same time. This was the only enemy that slipped out by chance.

Lu Yan thought that while Yu Zhizhi had only awakened today, in fact, from her adoptive father’s dream, this little girl had already embarked on the path of an Enlightened.

Pollutants rushed to this underground Research Institute on the outskirts of Yanjing as if they were going to a gathering.

The pitch-black worker ants rushed towards the crowd. They were like a piece of darkness with no end in sight.

Someone sprayed one with a fire extinguisher, but to the countless ants, it was insignificant. Those who rushed in front were quickly engulfed by the ant tide.

The ants burrowed into every hole they could, greedily swallowing the last inch of bone and blood, and left the human skin alone as a breeding ground. Then, they crawled out contentedly, swarming towards the next victim.

Since becoming an Enlightened, Lu Yan had to carry out dangerous actions frequently.

He took out a mint from his pocket and put it in his mouth, comforting his patient, “Don’t panic. It’s just a small incident.”

He asked, “Got any gasoline? Alcohol is fine, splash some more.”

The Enlightened paused for a moment, and then said with great joy, “Yes! Yes!”

Lu Yan climbed to the three-meter-high light. The view was good there.

He tied absorbent cotton and strips of cloth to the tip of the arrow. The arrow went on fire and shot towards the ant colony like a shooting star.

These palm-sized ants were not invulnerable, their pollution level was only 80 at best, but they were winning in numbers. The flames caused oil to burst from their bodies, and a layer of meat fat was roasted and burnt in the air.

Bottles of gasoline and alcohol were poured on the ants, and the fire quickly spread. The worker ants raised their legs and struggled in the flames.

The giant queen squeaked angrily and laid another type of white eggs.

The white eggs hatched into a colony of winged termites, like mosquitoes, with long mouthparts.

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The termites flew towards Lu Yan.

Underneath, the patient who was still pouring gasoline suddenly shouted, “Fuck, this stinky ant is no joke! Doctor, come down quickly, let’s retreat first!”

Lu Yan didn’t answer but picked up the dagger at his waist and fine fish scales appeared on his body.

His fighting class always had a grade of A+.

The knife fell and the corpses of the termites fell to the ground.

The patient was stunned, “Are all the researchers nowadays so awesome?”

The commotion here finally drew the ant queen’s attention.

Lu Yan was not the Enlightened with the highest spiritual power threshold here. The commander himself had a spiritual power threshold of 3,700 and was a rare elite in this era.

It originally wanted to deal with the commander of this combat department first, but Lu Yan’s behaviour really annoyed it.

Ignoring that she was stabbed several times, the queen turned around and swung her long legs.

When the queen ant was moving forward, its speed was particularly slow. But when it was attacking with its feet, it was particularly fast due to gravity.

In an instant, the pitch-black ant’s feet approached Lu Yan. The terrifying barbs on its legs were clearly visible. Lu Yan was about to be knocked over by the incoming wind.

The gap between power and knowledge was a void that was difficult to bridge.

The scales on Lu Yan’s body expanded to the maximum, protecting every part of his body as much as possible. He himself also fell flat to increase the force area and decrease the impact, so as not to be slapped to death.

But instead of falling to the ground, he fell into Tang Xun’an’s arms.

The severity of the mutation had decreased before, and the dragon scales on Tang Xun’an’s face had retracted. However, it was probably because his ability had been used too frequently recently that the scales reappeared on his face.

Behind him, his dark dragon wings spread out, even bigger than when they first met.

After Tang Xun’an put Lu Yan down, he didn’t say much, but his golden eyes were like burning flames.

He clenched the Yellow Dust in his hand and flew towards the queen ant. At the moment when the knife was drawn, the world seemed to be covered with a layer of grey.

Many people cried with joy; only Lu Yan frowned deeply.

The brief contact just now made him discover one thing: Tang Xun’an’s disease was too severe, so high that the smell of Pollutants could almost reek through from underneath his scales. Also, he seemed to be injured.

Lu Yan spread out his hand. Just now he had touched Tang Xun’an’s arm, and his palm was currently full of dark red blood.

He was injured in the future.

As if to confirm Lu Yan’s guess, as the battle between Tang Xun’an and the ant queen continued to intensify, the distorted features on his body became increasingly obvious.

Emerging one by one — Dragon Wings, Dragon Tail, Dragon Claws… Even his body continued to expand.

In the end, to the shocked eyes of everyone, he completely turned into a black dragon.

The black dragon roared and bit off the queen’s neck.

The queen was completely immobile.

The black dragon had lost a lot of scales and had wounds all over his body. The dragon wings behind him hung down weakly and fell to the ground sideways, similar to a hill.

The blood that flowed out was like a stream on a mountain.

The golden dragon eyes looked at Lu Yan.

Lu Yan suddenly remembered Yu Zhizhi’s painting.

A dark dragon, and its eyes full of tears.

On the detection equipment, the value sensed from this black dragon was no longer the degree of mutation, but the pollution value.

The instrument beeped a warning.

After a long silence, a researcher in white came out of the crowd.

Gong Weibin pointed to the black dragon on the ground, with his voice trembling, “It’s no longer a human! If you don’t kill it now, when its wounds recover, everyone here will die! You all saw it, right?!”

There was a trace of fear in the eyes of many people.

They were all front-line workers and naturally knew what the Pollutants look like.

The gun in the commander’s hand that was raised lowered, “But… this, this is Tang Xun’an, right?”

“Pollution is irreversible! Minister Wang, don’t be soft-hearted like a woman! Are you trying to kill everyone here?”

Gong Weibin’s voice was sharp like a hammer and hit the commander’s heart heavily.

The others didn’t speak, but the uneasy expressions on their faces said it all.

“He hasn’t completely become a Pollutant.” Lu Yan suddenly said in the crowd.

An angry look appeared on Gong Weibin’s face, “I’m a senior engineer at the Research Institute! Who are you?”

“I’m his psychological counselor. I’ve been observing him for the past three months.” Lu Yan didn’t look at Gong Weibin, but looked at the commander with a firm tone, “I have a solution. Trust me and let me pass.”

His confident and calm attitude made the commander nod subconsciously.

In fact, Lu Yan had no choice. He had no healing-type ability at all, but the Kingfish could eat Pollutants. Based on previous treatments, after eating the pollution source, the mutation degree on the patient could also be significantly reduced.

There was nothing he could do, but he wanted to try. Tang Xun’an could die like a hero, but now he was viewed with the same hatred of seeing an enemy.

With everyone’s attention, Lu Yan walked towards him.

The black dragon’s breath was still heavy and painful, and his mouth was full of blood.

Its golden eyes collapsed into a vertical line, a sign of nature’s hunters on the eve of an attack.

The commander’s palms were sweating nervously. He was afraid that the black dragon would open its mouth and swallow Lu Yan in one bite.

Lu Yan put his hand on its head and repeated the words from the first meeting, “I didn’t come to hurt you, don’t be afraid.”

The fish scales on Lu Yan’s arm were slightly raised, and thin white lines stretched out from under his arm.

Since the Kingfish evolved into its second form, Lu Yan had not used this method of…. eating for a long time.

“It’ll be fine, I promise you, you’re not turning into a monster,” Lu Yan whispered.

The golden eyes were focused on him.

It was still seriously injured and weak, but a line of tears suddenly flowed out of the corner of its eyes.

At this moment, the dream began to collapse.

The surroundings, whether people or scenes, were like broken lenses, starting to crumble.

[You are finally back. Baby, I miss you so much.] The voice of the System sounded in Lu Yan’s ear. He hadn’t listened to it for three months and felt that it was a little unfamiliar. [Good news, I don’t know how long you have been in your dream, but in reality, it has only been half a minute.]

[Bad news, even though half a minute is not a long time, the appearance of you standing in front of him in a daze has already aroused the alert of Ficus Benghalensis. If I were you, I would immediately feed your chief instructor blood and stack a BUFF of Bloodlust Gene.1 So that he can kill this big banyan tree.]

The moment Lu Yan raised his head, Tang Xun’an, who was in front of him, also opened his eyes.

The emotion that flowed from his eyes was an… attachment that he was extraordinarily familiar with.

He didn’t know why, but Lu Yan was feeling embarrassed as if he was being caught off guard meeting his online date. 

However, there was not much time left for them.

Lu Yan immediately pierced his index finger with his fingernail, stepped forward, and inserted his finger through the gap of Tang Xun’an’s bite stopper.

“Lick,” he said.

The author has something to say:

【Next chapter preview 】

“Did the things in the dream really happen?”

Tang Xun’an stared into his eyes and said in a low voice, “It happened, but there is no you in that reality.”

Sadly, the severe pain after the transplant surgery, the fear of being treated as a monster.

In the real reality, he overcame them all alone.

Proofreader’s Note

Kris Xian: The reason Tang Xun’an was able to wake up from the dream was that… he finally realized that there was no Lu Yan who accompanied him in reality from the start.

This is so heartbreaking.

PS. There’s actually two more to be published chapters, but I no longer have time to final check them.

 

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