The Abyss of Memory

Chapter 15

In Jiang Mengchi's still-fragmentary consciousness, he felt those thorns weren't there to attack Shen Wang.

Although they looked terrifying enough — pure thorns with eerily striking flowers blooming on the spikes, wrapped around a mutilated Aberrant corpse riddled with holes that would make any normal person shriek in horror — Shen Wang didn't react that way at all. He was even trying to make the thorns leave before Zhou Xiangzhe showed up.

...It gave off a strong sense that Shen Wang and they knew each other.

Jiang Mengchi's lips moved, then were numbed by the Contamination Suppressor on his wrist.

His deathly pale eyes reflected the figures of Shen Wang and Zhou Xiangzhe. Finally he lowered his head and remained silent.

Forget it. Right now he was a Contaminant that needed to be disposed of. Zhou Xiangzhe wouldn't believe anything he said, and judging by his current state, he probably wouldn't believe that Shen Wang had any connection to the Contaminant either.

On the other side, Zhou Xiangzhe was still shaken.

'I didn't expect the Blood Thorn to be here,' Zhou Xiangzhe said. 'Thankfully it was me who came. Grade A Contaminants are extremely dangerous.'

Shen Wang looked at Zhou Xiangzhe with a subtle expression. 'Actually, it didn't seem that dangerous.'

'You don't understand the terror of a Grade A Contaminant,' Zhou Xiangzhe said seriously to Shen Wang. 'No. Other Contaminants can wait; the Blood Thorn has to be dealt with.'

Shen Wang thought: The Blood Thorn himself is standing right in front of you, how exactly do you plan to handle him?

But outwardly he nodded and said, 'Right, right, right.'

'Exactly, exactly. The Blood Thorn is way too dangerous, it should be eliminated immediately!'

'From now on, stick close to me,' Zhou Xiangzhe said, still stern. 'I'm going to deal with the flower sea left behind by the Blood Thorn.'

'Don't worry. I'll protect you.'

What else could Shen Wang say? He couldn't voice his thoughts, so he just followed Zhou Xiangzhe back to the Contamination Source Core and watched him deal with the flower sea he himself had left behind.

But when they reached the spot, they unexpectedly discovered the flower sea had vanished, leaving only bare flagstones. The thorns had uprooted themselves and fled, so the flagstones were all churned up, like ground that had been plowed for planting.

They looked up and around them; everywhere they saw little thorns peeking out. They hid in the shadows, stealthily sticking out their tendrils to steal glance after glance this way.

The woman who kept jumping off the building let out an angry shriek. Looking closely, you could see a few thorns tangled on her bloodstained white dress.

And sharp-eyed Shen Wang noticed that thorns had crawled up the abyss of the Contamination Source as well, flaunting little blossoms.

Oh, right. The Blood Thorn had a parasitic contamination habit, and the way it spread contamination was... seeds.

They'd actually taken advantage of Shen Wang's absence to slip away and use seeds to take over the entire Qianzhen Residential Area.

Shen Wang: ......

Zhou Xiangzhe: ......

'How cunning.' Zhou Xiangzhe watched the thorns thoughtfully. 'Contamination Sources amplify Contaminants. It's expanded this much, over such a wide area. Even if each individual one isn't high-ranked, dealing with them won't be easy for a while.'

'It's been a long time since I've seen a Contaminant with this much cunning.'

Shen Wang fell silent. Mm. Actually, he hadn't done anything. Really.

There was no way he was taking the blame for this!

......

'You just let him go in?'

Inside the Sector S reception room, Ming Guang clenched his fists hard to restrain himself. He'd almost lunged up and grabbed Xu Yue by the collar.

'Did you not know that right now he shouldn't be entering any Contamination Source?! Even if it's only a Grade C, if something goes wrong, none of us can bear the consequences!'

'Sorry,' Xu Yue replied very, very quietly. 'He insisted on going. I really couldn't refuse. You know Zhou Xiangzhe — once he decides to do something, he'll see it through no matter what.'

'Then couldn't you have stalled him until I arrived?!'

Ming Guang slammed the table. 'If I'd been here, I might have talked him out of it! But you just let him go right in!'

Hearing Ming Guang, Xu Yue clammed up, looking like he was refusing to communicate.

Seeing him like that, Ming Guang sighed and closed his eyes. Finally, all he could do was ask, 'Can you still open this Isolation Barrier? Can you let Zhou Xiangzhe out?'

The Contamination Suppressor on Xu Yue flickered red, indicating how unstable his mental state was right now.

'Not right now. I need a break. Using my talent will worsen my Contamination Level.' Xu Yue frowned as he lifted his arm. Every movement of his woodified limb made him wince with pain. His fully white right pupil could no longer blink. After leaving the well-equipped Sector S, his condition had deteriorated.

Ming Guang's voice turned caustic. 'You're not even sure if you can let him out, and you let him go in?'

'You're a real great friend.'

It seemed like he had finally given up. Without saying goodbye, he got up and left the reception room, leaving Xu Yue alone.

Ding. Xu Yue, still there, glanced at the Contamination Suppressor on him.

Green light. Safe.

His eyes narrowed slightly.

On the other side, as Ming Guang walked away, he made a phone call.

'How is it?'

'You guessed right...' The voice on the other end was full of surprise. 'Xu Yue really is problematic!'

Ming Guang was sharp. As North Star's vice-captain, he always handled the planning. So the moment he learned Zhou Xiangzhe had entered Qianzhen Residential Area, he sensed something was off.

Zhou Xiangzhe is a Grade S Mutant. His Contamination Level has already exceeded 80%, which is extremely dangerous. The moment his Contamination Level goes over the limit, he'll be a textbook Grade S Contaminant.

A normal person would never allow Zhou Xiangzhe to recklessly step into such a hazardous zone. But Xu Yue — once the most capable, who had a mental breakdown after harming a teammate under orders — let him go.

That was too strange.

So Ming Guang had someone look into Xu Yue's treatment records.

'His treatment records looked normal on the surface, but I still found traces of tampering. So I went to see his attending doctor and got a terrifying piece of news.'

As a Grade A Variant, Xu Yue had his own personal physician — The Doctor had always been responsible for his testing and treatment, and every one of his treatment records bore The Doctor's name.

Three months ago, that doctor had an occupational exposure inside Sector S. After becoming mentally abnormal, he was sent to the Mental Contamination Center for treatment.

In the ward, this now-insane doctor told him secretly: he saw Xu Yue's Contamination Level break through 100% and reach 109%. He's a Contaminant!

'As expected...' Ming Guang wasn't surprised by this. What puzzled him was something else.

'Why?'

'A Grade A Contaminant — why stay in Sector S like he's under confinement? I don't think he still has any human morality.'

'And how did he evade contamination detection?'

/

Xu Yue returned to his private ward in Sector S.

As a Grade A Mutant, his treatment was quite good.

But once a Mutant's Contamination Level reached 70%, no matter what kind of person you'd been or what you'd done before, you'd be thrown here as someone to be guarded against. The so-called private ward was nothing more than a private prison.

The only person to break the Rules was Zhou Xiangzhe — that genius whose Contamination Level exceeded 80% yet could still move freely outside.

Knock, knock.

Soon after returning to his ward, Xu Yue heard a knock on his door. He walked over and opened it, already used to this.

Standing outside was a young man. He looked tall and thin, dressed entirely in black, like he'd draped a black sack over himself. Head lowered, his whole demeanor was gloomy and oppressive.

'Where did you go today?' the young man asked in a flat, expressionless voice.

Xu Yue let go of the door handle and sat back on his small bed. 'I have to report even something like this to you?'

'Speak.' There was not a single fluctuation in the young man's tone, but that one word made Xu Yue's skin crawl.

Xu Yue felt like his brain was about to burst from the sense of danger. He almost stood up and ran.

'Alright, alright, I'll tell.' Xu Yue said hastily, 'I trapped Zhou Xiangzhe in a Grade C Contamination Source!'

After becoming a Contaminant, Xu Yue lost his human heart. He wasn't sad about what happened back then anymore; on the contrary, he gloated. He grew sick of humans, especially Zhou Xiangzhe. That was why he'd so readily sent Zhou Xiangzhe inside. To him, this was practically a new game tailor-made for him.

'Zhou Xiangzhe?' The gloomy young man finally lifted his head. Under the hood, his delicate features and silver-purple eyes were revealed. He was clearly no ordinary person.

Hearing the gloomy young man's query, Xu Yue quickly spilled everything that had happened, afraid that hesitating even one second would get him destroyed by this guy.

Even now, Xu Yue didn't know if he was human or a Contaminant.

All he knew was that at the moment his Contamination Level shot over the limit and he transformed into a Contaminant, he had lost his reason, causing the doctor who rushed over at the alarm to suffer Mental Contamination. When he went mad, standing right in front of him was this strange man, who hit him with the corner of the book he carried in his arms.

And just like that, he regained his reason, and at the same time became that man's pawn.

The man demanded he stay in Sector S and observe the Science Academy's activities. Whenever the Science Academy recruited test subjects, he had to sign up. The man needed all information on the Science Academy.

Xu Yue refused. He thought: when he was alive he was a Grade A Mutant, and after contamination he was a Grade A Contamination Source. Why should he listen to him?

Then he got a thorough, solid beating and was nearly turned into fertilizer for the earth. So he obeyed, continuing to squat in Sector S like a prisoner, digging up information about the Science Academy. And of course he was curious: why hadn't Sector S discovered that he was a Contaminant?

After thinking it over, it could only be that this man had tampered with something in him.

He vaguely sensed: whether Mutant or Contaminant, this man had reached Grade S.

'You've been discovered.' The gloomy man opened the book he always carried and said in a flat but certain tone.

Xu Yue froze. 'What did you say?'

'You did something extra. From the very beginning, I told you: don't do anything extra.' Saying that, the gloomy man turned to the next page, looking at him as if he were already dead.

'That's impossible!' Xu Yue kept backing away. 'No one would find out. I just, I was just following Zhou Xiangzhe's wishes!'

'Do you think humans are stupid?' The gloomy man tilted his head, his silver-purple eyes full of ice.

'No, they're not stupid. On the contrary, they're excessively clever. The only stupid one is you.'

'Worthless.'

/

Tonight, Sector S was ablaze with lights, alarms ringing to the heavens. All medical personnel went into shelters; only staff members kept rushing through the corridors.

Because something big had happened in Sector S today.

Xu Yue, Grade A Mutant with the talent [Space], died in his ward. A great fire incinerated the entire isolation room, and the final Contamination Level detected in the ward was as high as 126%.

The gloomy man in the black hood stood on a small hill not far from Sector S, his silver-purple eyes reflecting the firelight of Sector S. After watching for a while, he lowered his head. In the pitch-dark night, he once again opened the book he held in his arms.

He muttered to himself as he read, an eerie, gloomy aura swirling around him.

'The Science Academy's experiment failed again. It was bound to fail — after all, I've been searching for ways to destroy their lab.'

'Five more to go. You can hide for a while, but not forever. I'll eventually root every last one of you out.'

'Need to find a new pawn. Need a Mutant at least Grade C with a Contamination Level above 70%. What a pain.'

'In a week, ambush another batch of Science Academy experimenters. Even if it involves Zhou Xiangzhe, I don't care. But... it seems I might accidentally lock my little brother inside.'

The gloomy man stalled for a second.

'...Huh? Little brother?'

He spoke the words in a bizarre tone, even flipping the book back several pages in shock.

'What did you say? My little brother?'

Checking again and again, countless characters streamed through the gloomy man's pupils. His eyes widened. After a long moment, he slowly closed the book.

'Shen Wang.'

'...My little brother. He's still alive.'