Abyss of Memories

Chapter 13

Jiang Mengchi sensed a shift in the atmosphere.

The dark clouds in the sky grew thicker, the air so heavy and damp it was hard to breathe. Jiang Mengchi felt as if the entire space was bracing itself, ready for a sudden enemy.

Shen Wang left as soon as he finished speaking, not giving him any chance to argue or refuse—just vanished in the blink of an eye.

“Sss...” Jiang Mengchi felt his consciousness blurring. He pressed a hand to his neck. That section of black branch was still growing—he could clearly feel the tip pushing against his palm, black leaves unfurling and squirming in his hand like insects.

Just as he was wondering how much longer he could hold out, the sound of footsteps approached slowly.

Jiang Mengchi turned his neck. His fragile neck let out a creak—a motion that should have been terrifying and excruciatingly painful, yet he felt nothing at all.

But in that position, he saw who had arrived.

The person wore black combat gear, silver hair draped over their shoulders. A silver North Star badge hung at their chest—gold should have been a warm color, but on him it looked exceptionally cold.

In his daze, Jiang Mengchi felt this was someone very formidable.

His hollow mind churned for a long while before he remembered: this person's name seemed to be Zhou Xiangzhe.

Zhou Xiangzhe spotted him and walked up to Jiang Mengchi, staring at him.

“Guard squad uniform, a Grade C Contaminant.” Zhou Xiangzhe asked him, “You're Jiang Mengchi, captain of Guard Squad 13th Street Patrol Unit 337?”

“The only C-class Mutant in that squad, back then.”

Jiang Mengchi lifted his head to look at Zhou Xiangzhe. Finally he opened his mouth, but no words came out—instead a voice entered Zhou Xiangzhe’s mind.

It was a very strange sensation: without anyone speaking, there was a voice, its tone full of grief. This was a Mental Contamination that spread through nonexistent sounds.

Zhou Xiangzhe understood at once—he was the culprit behind the Car Radio Contamination Incident, the one responsible for over fifty deaths.

‘Why did you only come now?’

‘If you’d come earlier, none of them would have died...’

‘Why did you abandon us!’

Zhou Xiangzhe pulled a handcuff-like object from his pocket and snapped it onto Jiang Mengchi’s wrist. In an instant, Jiang Mengchi let out a piercing scream.

That was a Controller developed by the Science Academy specifically for Contaminants—an apparatus built by those Academy lunatics to study Contaminants. Zhou Xiangzhe carried it because he’d considered that there had been Mutants among the former guard squad members, and Mutants would 100% become Contaminants.

Inside a contamination source, eliminating a Contaminant was obviously useless. Better to restrain it first than waste effort killing it.

Watching Jiang Mengchi collapse to the ground, Zhou Xiangzhe spoke in a flat tone.

“Abandoning the entire squad was a decision made by the Anti-Contamination Center. I understand your urge to get your teammates out, but you need to get a grip on your emotions. As captain, you should know very well what needed to be done in that situation.”

“Can you understand what I’m saying?”

Jiang Mengchi stared hard at Zhou Xiangzhe, and in the tug-of-war between reason and craving, he realized something strange.

Why hadn’t Zhou Xiangzhe just finished him off?

So he shook his head. A trace of emotion flickered in his pale pupils as he answered, “...Yes.”

“Good.”

Convinced that Jiang Mengchi’s condition had improved a little, Zhou Xiangzhe stood up, scanned the area, and finally asked the question he’d intended to from the start.

“Have you seen a certain person?” Zhou Xiangzhe asked him. “Male, very young, black hair. A bit of a bad attitude but doesn’t go too far bullying people. He’s a member of North Star.”

Jiang Mengchi: ...

So that’s why he’d spared him—to confirm Shen Wang’s location.

/

By then, Shen Wang had already reached the Contamination Source Core.

It was a small abyss-like depression, about ten meters across. Standing at the edge and looking down, it was pitch black with no bottom in sight. But on the cliffs of the abyss hung many black dead trees, covered in black branches and leaves, their roots burrowed into one corpse after another.

The corpses were pale and withered, all nutrients already devoured by the branches and leaves, leaving only empty shells.

Shen Wang crouched by the cliff edge, studying the corpses inside. He spotted several skeletal remains in guard squad uniforms.

A few had obvious gunshot wounds—likely the teammates Jiang Mengchi had killed with his own hands.

A Contamination Source was more dangerous than a Contaminant. When a Contaminant released contamination, it didn’t contaminate everyone, but all normal people who stepped into a Contamination Source would be contaminated—either they’d undergo Aberration or transform into Contaminants of various grades. Only Mutants could resist for a short time.

But low-level Mutants still had a hard time maintaining their sanity under continuous contamination. In the end, like Jiang Mengchi’s teammates, they would all be turned into Contaminants by Mental Contamination.

Including Jiang Mengchi. This Grade C Mutant had ultimately failed to withstand the dual corruption of mind and body, and become a Contaminant.

Shen Wang narrowed his eyes slightly and let out a 'tsk.'

“This place really does need an Isolation Barrier.”

As soon as the words left his mouth, Shen Wang heard a chaotic shuffling of footsteps. He stood up and looked around: stumbling Aberrants were approaching step by step. Like the one Shen Wang had killed earlier, their bodies were twisted and deformed, with Black Branches piercing through their eye sockets.

Shen Wang raised his gun and shot, blasting the Black Branches off an Aberrant’s head.

The Aberrant fell backwards, hitting the ground with a thud.

But a moment later, that Aberrant climbed back up, rising with half its skull shattered. Behind it, more Aberrants were crawling over.

Shen Wang estimated the count—there were no fewer than a hundred Aberrants and low-level Contaminants here.

“Even if you could wipe them all out with heavy weapons, I don’t have any powerful heavy weapons. This gun only has a dozen or so bullets.” Shen Wang shot another Aberrant in the head, his tone utterly casual. “What a pain, seriously.”

“But with these hundred low-level ones, it’ll probably hold for about half a month.”

At that thought, Shen Wang put the emptied gun back in his pocket. Then he stood where he was, extended one hand toward the dense mass of Aberrants in front of him.

“Then, let’s make this quick.”

Thorns slithered out from his cuffs, and at the same time, identical briars emerged from his collar. His black hair faded strand by strand to white, and his pupils seemed dyed blood-red. Shen Wang’s appearance shifted as the thorns extended; the wind swept his hair aside, revealing his brow and eyes—a delicate face with an enchanting allure.

As a human, Shen Wang couldn’t easily wipe out a hundred low-level Contaminants in one go. But the Contaminant Blood Thorn could.

After all, Contamination Talent was a very handy thing, whether for Contaminants or humans.

Shen Wang clenched his fist and smiled, gazing at the low-level Contaminants before him.

His voice was light, so light it almost floated, yet it carried an indescribable allure that made you want to keep watching him, and keep watching him.

Shen Wang said, “Blooming Flowers.”

Starting from beneath his feet, vivid red flowers radiated outward, blooming in seconds into a circular sea of blossoms. It was as if sunlight shone down, creating a warm and beautiful little Garden of Eden.

The moment the sea of blossoms bloomed, the Aberrants and Contaminants stopped snarling as if mesmerized. They stared blankly at the flower field, then began to move forward, step by step.

【Blooming Flowers】: the Contamination Talent of the Grade A Contaminant Blood Thorn. When the talent is activated, a sea of flowers blooms within range. Anyone or any Contaminant that sees it will be lured in; once they step into the flowers, they are immediately devoured.

Thorns writhed within the sea of flowers. As soon as an Aberrant stepped in, it was instantly bound by the briars. The Aberrants didn’t scream or struggle; they just stood still, like puppets.

It was an extremely eerie scene.

A beautiful sea of flowers completely out of place in a contamination source; at its center stood an exquisite, almost inhuman man with white hair; and the Aberrants and low-level Contaminants, one after another, walked into the blossoms as if possessed, then were devoured without the slightest struggle.

This was exactly the sight Zhou Xiangzhe saw when he arrived.

A Grade A Contaminant—emergency incident!

Zhou Xiangzhe drew the gun from his waist and aimed it at Blood Thorn. At the same moment, Shen Wang whipped his head around and their eyes met.

In that instant of eye contact, both of them showed expressions of shock.

Zhou Xiangzhe hadn’t expected that the Grade A Contaminant Blood Thorn would be this humanlike, nor had he expected to run into it here. But that explained why Bo Wenhuan and the other Perception Type Mutants hadn’t been able to detect Blood Thorn’s presence.

Because it was inside the quarantined Grade C contamination source.

Shen Wang was simply stunned that Zhou Xiangzhe had shown up here. He knew the Anti-Contamination Center would send someone, but he never thought they’d send Zhou Xiangzhe!

What the hell? A Grade S Mutant? At an ordinary Grade C contamination source?

But...

“Tsk.” Shen Wang clicked his tongue, his gaze at Zhou Xiangzhe unfriendly. “You really know how to ruin things.”

He was just about to finish off all the low-level Contaminants.

But he couldn’t stay here and drag things out with Zhou Xiangzhe. Getting hurt was a small matter; having his cover blown was serious. If Zhou Xiangzhe stripped his disguise here, how was he supposed to pick up scraps later?

At that thought, Shen Wang pointed a finger at Zhou Xiangzhe. Instantly, all the low-level Contaminants and Aberrants that hadn't yet been devoured turned their heads in unison, staring eerily at Zhou Xiangzhe—over thirty of them. Roaring with anger, the Black Branches on their necks leading the way, they charged.

Over thirty monsters created immense visual pressure, not to mention they were all rushing straight at him.

They lunged at Zhou Xiangzhe at high speed, but froze in place three meters away, unable to move. After a brief struggle, they let out wretched cries.

Their bodies twisted, as if being torn apart by an invisible hand. Within seconds, they stopped moving altogether, frozen in place like marionettes.

Their faces shifted, their expressions finally settling into a strange reverence. The black branches on their necks were gradually stained gold.

Zhou Xiangzhe, expressionless, stepped past the Aberrants and stopped at the edge of the flower sea.

The flower sea was still the same flower sea, but the Contaminant at its center had already vanished. The moment it had commanded the Aberrants to attack him, Blood Thorn had fled.

“Ran off fast.” Zhou Xiangzhe said, “Didn’t even get a chance to ask it any questions.”

“Where the hell did Shen Wang run off to?”