Memory's Abyss

Chapter 11

Thick, solid walls completely seal off the area, sparks crackling across them, guards posted at the gate—like a prison from a bygone era.

This place is the infamous Sector S.

Sector S, the destination for mutants whose Contamination Level exceeds 70%. Those sent here lose their freedom, but they also gain the maximum chance to suppress the contamination inside them, keeping it from breaking 100% and turning them into a contaminant in the short term.

The Science Academy and the Contaminant Control and Containment Center are both involved, actively searching for ways to treat mutants.

So this place is a prison, but it’s also hope.

The guards saluted Zhou Xiangzhe and opened the door to let him in.

Sector S was far more oppressive on the inside than it looked from the outside — rows of buildings jammed together, rooms circling a courtyard. The Doctor in protective suits and white coats moved constantly along the corridors, and every so often you'd hear the sounds of agitation from the rooms: Mutants with mental abnormalities going berserk.

Zhou Xiangzhe was here this time to visit a Grade A Variant with the Talent: Spatial Dominion.

After returning to the Anti-Contamination Center, they'd investigated the full story of the Qianzhen Residential Area incident and learned that this mutant was the one who had ultimately isolated the Grade C contamination source.

A staff member led Zhou Xiangzhe into a slightly larger reception room, handed him a paper cup of hot water, and Zhou Xiangzhe sat inside for a while. Soon, someone was escorted in.

The person’s hands and feet clinked as he walked; a closer look revealed metal restraints clamped around his wrists and ankles.

Standard issue for a high-contamination mutant in Sector S.

The staff member removed the restraints from his ankles before stepping out.

“Long time no see, Zhou Xiangzhe.” The man greeted him from the doorway, the latest-model suppressor on his wrist flashing a steady green light.

Zhou Xiangzhe looked at him and, taking in his appearance, let out an almost imperceptible sigh.

His right eye had gone completely white, the pupil ringed with concentric stripes like wood grain. On the right side of his neck, the blackness was starkly visible, as if all his veins had pushed to the surface and his blood had turned black. And that wasn’t all—right at his shoulder, a length of black deadwood jutted out; his right shoulder was entirely petrified into wood, bark layered over his skin in a deeply grotesque way.

Advanced Aberration, Contamination Level 89%—a staggering number even by Sector S standards.

“Long time no see.” Zhou Xiangzhe nodded. “Xu Yue.”

Xu Yue smiled and walked over to sit in front of him. “What brings you here?”

“What, need my help with something?”

“Nothing major. I just need to pick your brain about something.” Zhou Xiangzhe was clearly not in the mood to waste time. “Do you remember a mission from two years ago? Qianzhen Residential Area. I want to know some details.”

Xu Yue froze, his smile stiffening. It took him a while before he spoke. “What about Qianzhen Residential Area?”

“It’s spreading contamination again. Using car-based broadcasts as a vector. Over fifty people have been affected. The Anti-Contamination Center has reclassified it as secondary contamination from the Qianzhen Residential Area contamination source.”

“Impossible. I sealed it with a spatial isolation barrier back then. How could there be a problem?”

Zhou Xiangzhe met his eyes. “And it’s precisely because there’s a problem that I came here to find you.”

Xu Yue grasped the gravity of the situation. He sighed, placing his hands on the table.

Revisiting the past was painful for Xu Yue; his mental aberration stemmed from that very pain. But right now, he had no choice but to remember.

The suppressor on his wrist started flashing red, signaling his mental instability and the fluctuation of his Contamination Level.

“Since you’re here, you must know about the contaminant incident at Qianzhen Residential Area—the one they called the Qianzhen Depression-Suicide Syndrome, a Grade D contaminant. You must also know that the whole thing was actually a mistake by the Anti-Contamination Center. It wasn’t an ordinary Grade D contaminant. It was a terrifying Grade C contamination source.”

That mistake back then had extremely serious consequences.

Because the Anti-Contamination Center had simply collected the bodies of the mental contamination victims after their suicides, never imagining that within a single day those corpses would undergo advanced Aberration—some even mutating into Grade E contaminants—and without warning, throw Central City into a state of severe panic.

Later tallies showed that the incident caused over a hundred deaths in total, and more than two hundred people were mentally contaminated, still stuck in the Mental Contamination Center unable to return to normal.

Even the urgent deployment of the Guard Corps to suppress the contamination was futile, because the contamination source kept churning out new aberrants and contaminants.

So the Anti-Contamination Center activated the Red Protocol: send a spatial-type mutant to isolate the contamination source immediately.

“Since they couldn’t reach the mutants inside the compound at the time, and the contamination source was so dangerous, and they weren’t sure if those mutants had been contaminated either—after a meeting, the leadership decided to abandon the seven Guard Corps members trapped inside, erect an isolation barrier, and designate Qianzhen Residential Area a Contamination Source Quarantine Zone.”

Xu Yue said, “I could only follow orders. I watched with my own eyes as Qianzhen Residential Area was sealed off, and that was the root of my rapidly increasing Contamination Level.”

He gave a bitter laugh. “I could never stomach it. I always felt like I’d killed people through my actions—and the ones I killed were my own teammates.”

“I could never let it go, so I couldn’t control my mental abnormalities. A vicious cycle.”

He closed his eyes, the withered branches on his right shoulder trembling, the black leaves knocking together with a dry rustle.

“If Qianzhen Residential Area really has a problem, and it has to be dealt with again… do me a favor and find out what happened to those seven Guard Corps members from back then.”

“Otherwise, I’m afraid I’ll never be able to let it go, even in death.”

Zhou Xiangzhe gave a slight nod. He had always been the listener; only after the other had finished did he offer his own thoughts.

He said, “I’m going into Qianzhen Residential Area.”

“You?” Xu Yue’s eyes shot open. “The contamination inside a contamination source is more than triple what you’d face against a single contaminant. In your current state, you’re in no condition to enter a contamination source. Even if there’s a problem at Qianzhen, they shouldn’t be sending you!”

“But there’s someone in there I care about a lot.”

Zhou Xiangzhe said, “I have to go in and bring him out.”

“Otherwise, I’d end up just like you… unable to let it go, even in death.”

Xu Yue stared blankly at Zhou Xiangzhe. He suddenly understood why Zhou Xiangzhe had come to him to ask about the past. It was Xu Yue who had set up the isolation barrier; now only Xu Yue could let someone in.

Zhou Xiangzhe had only come to tell Xu Yue that he was definitely going into Qianzhen Residential Area.

And all Xu Yue had to do was consider whether to agree.

/

Meanwhile, inside Qianzhen Residential Area, Shen Wang and Jiang Mengchi were still in the suicide victim’s apartment.

Jiang Mengchi wasn’t the type to overthink things. He took life as it came, never letting external events or personal feelings sway him—that was how he’d survived here so long. So he very naturally chalked it all up to contamination. His body was already moderately aberrant; it made perfect sense that his brain had followed along.

It was Shen Wang, the outsider, who suddenly had time on his hands and felt like picking at the puzzle.

“When did you get separated from your teammates?”

“Probably not long after we got trapped here—less than a month?” Jiang Mengchi tried to recall. “…But come to think of it, something strange happened the day I got separated from them.”

Shen Wang grew even more curious. “What kind of strange thing?”

“I must have passed out. When I came to, I was in some corner, but I have no memory of how I got there.” Jiang Mengchi said, “And that was the day I noticed the aberration on my body. I might have lost control too, because after that, the woman started avoiding me whenever she saw me.”

A Grade D contaminant has no rational mind, but it will avoid threats and seek advantage—instinctively steering clear of anyone who could harm it.

The fact that she inexplicably avoided Jiang Mengchi was already strange, and on top of that, he’d briefly lost consciousness and undergone Aberration.

Jiang Mengchi chalked it up to his brain short-circuiting and him going berserk on the contaminant. Afterwards, his body mutated from the high Contamination Level, and the woman, spooked by his feral charge, started avoiding him.

That was the most reasonable explanation.

Shen Wang laughed. “You’re pretty good at fooling yourself. You’d rather believe your brain got messed up from the Aberration.”

Hearing Shen Wang say that, Jiang Mengchi’s gaze didn’t waver in the slightest. He even shot Shen Wang a calm look and countered, “So what, are you going to tell me I actually lost my memory back then—forgot a year and a half, even two years of memories?”

“It wouldn’t mean anything for me right now.”

Determining whether he had amnesia was meaningless. Recovering those lost memories was meaningless. Even his own body, trapped here with moderate Aberration, held no meaning.

It was precisely because Jiang Mengchi was a person with no meaning that he could stay alive.

That might not be such a bad thing.

“Your life is truly lacking in ambition. That’s not good—not positive enough. People should get out more, look forward to things.” Shen Wang clicked his tongue, shaking his head as he lectured Jiang Mengchi with mock seriousness, as if imitating someone. “That’s what the head of my orphanage used to tell me when I was a kid. I think it makes a lot of sense.”

“What’s the difference between a person with no ambition and a salted fish? My ambition is to make this whole world suit my tastes and stop annoying me!”

“And while I’m at it, revive the music and entertainment industry. There’s way too little good music to listen to these days—might as well just debut as a singer myself.”

Jiang Mengchi: …

How could he say all that with a straight face? The orphanage director definitely didn’t mean it like that! And once again, he was baffled: What kind of rebellious character had the North Star recruited?

Completely ignoring Jiang Mengchi’s speechless stare, Shen Wang made a suggestion.

“To help you be a little more positive, how about we go check out the place where you woke up back then?”

Jiang Mengchi leaned against the dust-covered doorframe. After a moment’s hesitation, he replied, “Positivity is also a kind of extreme emotion, in its own way.”

“But, fine.”

Shen Wang raised an eyebrow. “Why the change of heart?”

“Whether I’ve lost my memory or not means nothing to me now.” Jiang Mengchi repeated. “But as the captain of Unit 337, I have a responsibility to know the status of my teammates.”

“I have to confirm their safety.”