Contamination Prelude

Chapter 3

Shen Wang is a patient, someone who should be in a hospital getting treated for Genetic Disease.

The new type of Genetic Disease has a simple cause: hidden Contamination in the parents causes genetic Aberration in the fetus during uterine development. That's why the symptoms vary wildly — hardly any two patients have the same ones.

Back in the early days, some scientists even thought this new Genetic Disease was more like Mutants who failed to awaken.

Shen Wang's symptoms are strange, too. Normally, his body is much stronger than an ordinary person's. But during an episode, he gets ravenously hungry, his body so weak he can't move, while his aggression spikes — he'll bite anyone he can reach.

He needs to eat a lot, but ordinary food never fills him up — it only makes his urge to devour even stronger.

That kind of experience shaped Shen Wang into someone who's casual and spontaneous day to day, but turns absolutely extreme the moment something happens.

Life hasn't been kind to him, so he couldn't care less if his way of handling things makes others uncomfortable.

So when he's woken up in the middle of the night, Shen Wang's mood is awful, borderline losing it. He lies there staring at the ceiling, thinking about nothing but burying the noise-maker alive.

‘Dad, I'm sorry! It hurts so much!’ The girl's crying echoed through the whole floor.

‘Worthless little money drain! You're such a curse! How are you still alive? Just like your mother — a bad-luck jinx out to get me!’ The man's curses weren't any quieter, the sound of the whip rising and falling with the girl's cries.

It was the neighbor on the right.

Shen Wang sat up in bed, expressionless. He pushed open the door, but didn't expect to find someone else in the hallway this late at night.

The man was the left-side neighbor, just back from outside, still carrying the lingering chill of the night air. He wore a guard team uniform, a noticeable bulge at his waist — probably a firearm — so it looked like he'd just gotten off duty and come home.

Seeming to hear a door open, the man looked over.

‘Hey, just moved in? Hi, I'm Song Chen, your next-door neighbor.’ The guy was the chatty, no-boundaries type.

Shen Wang glanced at him, then looked to the right. Stepping out, the noise got louder, the motion-sensor light flickering with the sound.

Song Chen immediately got why he'd come out. ‘Don't bother. Can't do anything about it. That guy's a Mutant — got infested by a Contaminant during a mission, had to cut off his leg to survive. After he came back, his wife ran off and left their girl. Mutants have a tendency to go crazy anyway, and after that whole mess, his brain's fried. These fits happen all the time.’

‘If the noise bothers you, you can call the cops. He'll quiet down for a month or so after they come.’

Shen Wang thought: If the cops coming makes him shut up, then his brain isn't completely fried — he still knows to behave for a few days after someone shows up at his door.

He understood that type of psychology all too well.

‘No need for the cops.’ Shen Wang suddenly smiled.

Song Chen paused mid-motion opening his door, caught off guard.

Shen Wang's looks were absurdly good. Even without smiling, he had a three-tenths amusement in his face, looking harmless and easygoing — like those veteran slackers in the team who mind their own business and no one dislikes. But when he suddenly smiled for no clear reason, the harmlessness faded, replaced by a subtle creepiness.

‘I have a good way to shut him up fast.’

Song Chen gave Shen Wang an odd look. ‘What way?’

‘You'll find out in a minute.’ Shen Wang walked over to Song Chen. His voice was low, and that slightly husky tone paired with his delicate, striking face sent an inexplicable chill down one's spine.

He even asked politely, ‘Your gun — could I borrow it for a second?’

Huh? What? Borrow what?

Song Chen barely processed it. In all his time with the guard team, no one had ever asked to borrow his gun. Damn!

‘Of course not!’

So Shen Wang just shrugged, turned, and walked off. But about three meters later, he said casually, ‘Sorry, I went ahead and did it without asking.’

Song Chen froze, then quickly patted his waist. Sure enough, his sidearm was gone. He hurried after him. Every Mutant in the system was issued a firearm, but that didn't mean they could hand it over to outsiders. If he got caught, he'd have his pay docked!

But before he could say a word, Shen Wang had already reached his target. At lightning speed, he fired at the door where the noise was coming from.

Bam! The shot wasn't loud, but the bullet blew out the lock. Shen Wang followed up with a clean kick, and the neighbor's door was kicked wide open.

Shen Wang moved so unexpectedly that not only Song Chen, whose gun he'd swiped, but also the man beating his kid in the room was stunned. The girl was still sobbing, her whole body covered in red welts under the fluorescent light.

‘Good evening.’ Shen Wang smiled into the room, a smile as gentle as spring sunshine. His voice was airy, like dandelion fluff drifting in the air.

‘I'm the new neighbor from next door. Name's Shen Wang.’

Shen Wang raised the gun, the barrel aimed at the man's head.

The moment he saw the gun clearly, the man panicked. He tried to run, but his crippled right leg sent him sprawling.

‘Who are you?!’ he shouted, trying to scare Shen Wang off. ‘What do you want?! This is a law-abiding society!’

Hearing the man yell, Song Chen almost burst out laughing.

So this bastard still knows we live in a law-abiding society?

Too bad Shen Wang didn't listen to any of that. He quietly pulled the slide, then without any hesitation fired a shot right at the man's feet — just one centimeter from his toes.

The man let out a miserable, terrified scream.

‘Shut up.’

Shen Wang kept speaking in that exceptionally gentle tone, as soothing as a spring breeze — if only he weren't pointing a gun at someone…

‘Starting today, we're neighbors. For the sake of neighborly goodwill, I feel a strong sense of responsibility. So I need to tell you something, just to avoid any misunderstandings.’

‘I really hate noise. How much? Probably to the point that if you make noise like this again, I'll do to your other leg what I just did to your door.’

‘Do you understand?’

The man instinctively clamped both hands over his mouth, his whole body trembling.

‘Seems you understand.’ Shen Wang nodded, satisfied. He put the gun away, turned, and walked out.

Song Chen stood frozen by the doorway, so Shen Wang just tossed the gun back into his arms.

‘Thanks, handsome.’ Shen Wang even felt good enough to compliment him. ‘Nice weapon.’

By the time Song Chen snapped out of it, Shen Wang was already back inside with the door locked, leaving only a dumbfounded Song Chen and the neighbor's ruined door behind.

Song Chen looked at the gun in his arms, then at the wife-beater who was still petrified and hadn't come to his senses, and finally couldn't help but wince through gritted teeth.

‘Damn. Another lunatic.’

‘But honestly, the best way to deal with a madman is to be even crazier. From now on, when problems like this pop up, I'll just stick them next door to a high-Contamination Mutant.’

Song Chen's words were full of implication.

‘No, I don't want that!’ The fear in the abuser's eyes grew even greater. Even with his legs gone weak from terror, he dragged himself on his one good leg out into the hallway.

He clung to the doorframe, practically on his knees.

‘I can't go to Sector S! My Contamination Level isn't even 70%, and I have a daughter. Sector S is full of crazy Mutants — we'd die if we went there!’

Song Chen looked at him calmly. ‘Oh, so now you remember you have a daughter? Where was that attitude when you were being all high and mighty?’

‘We got a great new neighbor. He figured out how to handle you on day one. That's a real good method.’

‘One more disturbance, and your daughter goes to an orphanage, you go to Sector S. That's settled.’

The abuser's face went pale. He slumped to his knees, looking like he'd aged ten years in an instant.

He was terrified.

Because Central City's Sector S was the most unique area. On paper, Central City was in charge, but in reality it belonged to the Anti-Contamination Center.

Everyone living in Sector S is a Mutant whose Contamination Level is so high it's out of control, or whose mental state has gone extreme. They're sent there to live and get treatment, but every Mutant knows the attrition rate is high — because every so often, someone's Contamination Level hits 100%.

Sector S is a kind of prison for Mutants.

And once you enter Sector S, it means that Mutant has reached the end of the line.

/

After that outburst, the rest of the night was silent, just as expected. Shen Wang slept straight through until morning.

On his way out, Shen Wang glanced at the neighbor's door. The lock he'd broken still wasn't fixed; they'd just tied the door handle shut with a rope to barely keep it closed. Now it was dead silent. No telling what was going on inside.

Shen Wang shrugged and left the residential area.

Central City requires all Mutants to join the Anti-Contamination Center. Either become a guard team member to protect the city, or join a dispatch team to go outside and eliminate Contamination sources on a regular basis.

Shen Wang was issued a new ID card, stamped with the Mutant insignia.

Of course he wasn't going to go prove his original identity to the Anti-Contamination Center.

Three years ago, the hospital he was staying at was attacked by a high-grade Contaminant. He went missing during that incident and was declared dead.

That would be a huge hassle. If he used his old identity, he'd have to explain to the Anti-Contamination Center why he wasn't dead, where he'd been, and why he only came back after three years…

Much easier to just pretend to be an undocumented wandering Mutant looking for work.

Unlike the containment center built in some remote area, every district in the city has a subway line leading straight to the Anti-Contamination Center headquarters.

A lot of people say the city center of Central City is the closest thing to the old era. People live in peace and prosperity, the streets are lined with all sorts of shops, guard teams patrol every intersection, and even the streetlights stay on all night. For anyone born into the apocalypse, it's practically the Garden of Eden.

That's why countless people dream of entering Central City and becoming its residents. But aside from Mutants, the requirements are extremely strict — you can't just come because you want to.

Shen Wang followed the flow of people, stopping at a crosswalk to wait for the green light. The crowd around him was thick.

Central City is packed to the brim, land worth its weight in gold, crammed with who knows how many people.

So, having some performance artist around isn't that big a deal, right?

Shen Wang casually thought, watching the figure standing at the intersection.

It was a clown in a costume, wearing a messy red wig, its face painted with a twisted smile in red and white. In its hand, it held a bunch of red balloons — probably helium, since they'd float away if not tied with a string.

Cars kept zipping past the clown, looking absolutely hair-raising, but it didn't even blink.

Shen Wang looked at the clown, the clown looked at Shen Wang, and then it suddenly flashed him an eerie grin.

In the space of a single breath, the clown that had been at the intersection was suddenly right in front of Shen Wang. No one noticed the strange extra clown in the crowd — people just kept scrolling on their phones or counting down the crosswalk timer.

Ding-dong. The light turned green, and the swarm of people surged across the street. Not a single one glanced at the clown.

Only Shen Wang raised an eyebrow slightly, finally sure the clown was here for him.

The clown raised its hand, holding a single balloon, and offered it to Shen Wang.

‘For me?’

The clown didn't speak. Its smile grew more grotesque. It just kept holding the balloon out, insisting Shen Wang take it.

Just then, a bang came from somewhere in the distance, along with a voice screaming its lungs out.

‘Don't take the balloon!’

The bullet passed right through the clown's body without leaving a scratch. Its smile grew even more disgusting, and it stubbornly pushed the balloon toward Shen Wang. Shen Wang reached out, as if to take it, making the clown's smile twist even wider, more chilling than ever.

But at that very moment, the outstretched hand grabbed the clown's wrist. The clown froze, its smile stiffening on its face.

It seemed utterly unable to comprehend that someone had actually grabbed its hand.

Shen Wang finally spoke, his gaze calm and fixed on the clown. His deep, dark eyes were utterly serene, beautiful and harmless — yet somehow they sent a nameless chill crawling under one's skin.

‘I hate balloons mixed with human blood the most.’

‘You've caused me psychological damage. What are you going to do about it? How will you compensate me?’

The clown tried to yank its wrist free, but for some reason, it couldn't pull away no matter what.

Low-grade Contaminants have no intelligence, only instinct: hunt, expand, survive, and a primal fear of predators.

It was scared. Its instincts screamed that if it stayed here any longer, it would die!

Another bang. This time the bullet shattered the balloon in the clown's hand. The clown finally seized the chance to yank free of Shen Wang's grip and vanished into thin air.

Shen Wang glanced at the balloon fragments on the ground, then turned his head to the side.

A uniformed guard ran over, clutching his gun. He looked at Shen Wang with a complex expression, then pressed the communicator by his ear.

‘Report: D591 Contaminant, The Balloon-Selling Clown, has reappeared.’

He paused for a moment before speaking. ‘One victim involved this time.’

Although he couldn't help but feel that clown looked more like it was fleeing for its life.