Contamination Overture

Chapter 34

Lan glanced at Jian Ruofan sleeping in the ice coffin. Those silver-violet eyes held something that looked like pity — or maybe contempt. Hard to tell.

The Divine Vanishing Plan was born and carried out without Jian Ruofan ever having the power to stop it. And after it was done, he was the only one left. Lan thought: he was probably kept as a 'security device.' That's why his Contamination Level pushed all the way to 98%.

Lan looked away and kept reading.

'Grade-S Aberrant discovered by the Science Academy… talent: Sacrifice?'

In early Year Seven of the Apocalypse, the Science Academy finalized the Divine Vanishing Plan and announced they had found a special Aberrant.

This Aberrant had awakened at Grade A, and with further development would quickly reach Grade S. The Science Academy claimed his talent was Sacrifice — he could link Contaminants and Aberrants of equal rank together and detonate them in mutual destruction.

Once this Aberrant reached Grade S, the Divine Vanishing Plan could be executed immediately: a one-to-one exchange that would eliminate every Grade-S Contaminant active at that time.

Put it another way: they'd need to sacrifice an equal number of Grade-S Aberrants.

It was still the early Apocalypse. Grade-S Contaminants were rare, and Grade-S Aberrants were rare. A plan that wiped out both sides met fierce resistance — and nobody pushed back harder than Jian Ruofan.

It wasn't that Jian Ruofan wanted to live because he himself was Grade S. He thought the plan was too reckless. If every Grade-S Aberrant disappeared, humanity's already fragile grip would only get more precarious. He wouldn't agree to anything below an eighty-percent chance of success.

That July, an extreme Grade-S Contamination outbreak tore through Pretty Country. A single event wiped out most of the population Inside the High Wall of one city — they lost a Grade-S Aberrant and several lower-ranked Aberrants just to destroy the invading Grade-S Contaminant. The casualty numbers shook the entire world.

The Anti-Contamination Center had no choice but to reconsider the Science Academy's plan.

In Year Eight of the Apocalypse, the Anti-Contamination Center approved the Divine Vanishing Plan. Months of coordination with organizations across the world followed, and the plan was finally confirmed for execution.

Grade-S Aberrants in exchange for Grade-S Contaminants — buying humanity some breathing room. One Grade-S Aberrant would be kept behind as a failsafe against the unexpected. That's how the Divine Vanishing Plan was carried out.

'Year Eight came to be known as the Year of Divine Vanishing, because every Grade-S Aberrant vanished alongside every Grade-S Contaminant. Without Grade-S Contaminants striking at them, humanity stabilized rapidly and successfully established High Walls across major regions to hold back Contaminants and protect the living.'

'Jian Ruofan, serving as the Safehouse, drew on his own talent to build Sector S and the containment center from the ground up and begin treating survivors.'

'But in the middle of all that work, Jian Ruofan found a truth he hadn't been looking for.'

'The Grade-S Aberrant Sacrifice was not an already-awakened Aberrant discovered by the Science Academy. He was a half-successful subject the Science Academy had artificially created and force-awakened — nowhere near Grade-S standard. His Sacrifice hadn't fully worked. The Grade-S Contaminants weren't truly dead. They'd only been suppressed for roughly twenty years. Humanity's future was still on the edge of collapse…'

'The Divine Vanishing Plan had failed.'

The truth hit Jian Ruofan like a physical blow. His negative emotions peaked, his Contamination Level entered a stage beyond control, and it deteriorated until the only way to keep himself alive was to be frozen into deep sleep.

Lan exhaled.

'So what exactly is the point of this Science Academy? Always stirring up the worst possible messes.'

'But — this does explain what happened to mom and dad.'

Lan closed the book. He took one long last look at Jian Ruofan sleeping in the ice.

'Goodbye. Last sane member the Science Academy ever had.'

/

When Shen Wang got home, he found a note Lan had left.

'Gege got a lead on mom — I need to go check it out. Didi, remember: stop going to hang out with that little troublemaker.'

Shen Wang: ……

This 'little troublemaker' — couldn't be Zhou Xiangzhe, could it?

Either way, Lan had clearly gotten some kind of information and left in too much of a rush to say a word in person — just this slip of paper. Shen Wang tore the note into pieces and dropped it in the trash.

The next day was Baihe's funeral. The turnout was small — just the Polaris members, and one white-haired woman.

She was Baihe's mother. The only family she had left.

The middle-aged woman stood beside Baihe's portrait, her gaze blank, fixed somewhere no one else could see. She didn't say a word for the entire service. It was only at the end, when the pallbearers moved to slide the coffin toward the cremation chamber, that she broke — a raw, wretched sound tore out of her, and she collapsed over the casket with both arms spread, refusing to let anyone touch Baihe's body.

What happened after that, Shen Wang didn't know. He'd barely known Baihe — two chance meetings, nothing more — and he knew even less about her family.

Zhou Xiangzhe was still in Sector S with no way out, so in the end it was Ming Guang handling everything. The captain couldn't make it, and as vice-captain Ming Guang had no choice but to come in his place and offer what comfort he could to the bereaved.

On the third day, the Anti-Contamination Center updated Shen Wang's talent threshold to Grade B. He officially became the fastest-ranking Aberrant on record — C to B in under half a month.

He went to see Zhou Xiangzhe again. Zhou Xiangzhe looked completely at ease with life in Sector S, like he'd been in and out of here more times than he could count.

When Shen Wang asked, Zhou Xiangzhe told him: every time he used his talent, he ended up back inside.

But dispatch work was complicated and dangerous. Low-level Contaminants were manageable, but high-level ones left him no choice except to use his talent. He was the captain — it was on him to protect his team, to make sure everyone came back in one piece. To make sure what happened to Baihe didn't happen again.

That was exactly what drove Ming Guang crazy.

In twenty years, Huaguo had produced exactly four Grade-S Aberrants. One of them — Lan — had defected. Of the other two besides Zhou Xiangzhe, their Contamination Levels had crept to the edge of seventy, and the Mental Contamination was gnawing at their performance. In the end, Zhou Xiangzhe was the only one who, despite a Contamination Level of eighty percent, showed zero signs of mental impairment and could still do the work.

Zhou Xiangzhe was irreplaceable.

'Is it worth it — hurting yourself to protect other people?' Shen Wang asked.

Zhou Xiangzhe looked at him. He sat with the question for a moment. 'If you're the one I'm protecting,' he said, 'then yeah. Pretty worth it.'

Shen Wang sighed. 'You're a real self-sacrificing martyr, you know that?'

It was the first time anyone had ever said that to him. Since absorbing the Deer God, Zhou Xiangzhe carried a faint trace of Contamination about him at all times — ordinary people couldn't get near him, and the Aberrants who could were sensitive enough to feel it, which meant they instinctively gave him a wide berth. Everyone respected him. Everyone feared him.

Only Shen Wang called him a martyr.

'I can't stand someone giving themselves up with no limits.' Shen Wang said what he thought. 'Because that kind of person falls into a trap — they think, if I do this, everyone else will be okay. But they forget to ask whether the people who actually care about them would even want that.'

'So no. I don't like that in a person.'

Zhou Xiangzhe went quiet.

Shen Wang had just called him a self-sacrificing martyr. And then said he didn't like that in a person.

Conclusion: Shen Wang disliked him.

Zhou Xiangzhe dropped his head. A little deflated.

Watching that almost-invisible shift in expression, Shen Wang rested his chin on one hand. Zhou Xiangzhe's reflection floated in those dark eyes — no smile on his face, and the usual calm gone from those peach-blossom eyes too, replaced by something that had always lived in him and rarely came out. He wanted to see it. The way Zhou Xiangzhe looked when being disliked by him actually hurt.

A small, private cruelty. That's all.

'That said,' Shen Wang finally drawled, 'you're the one exception.'

'I think you're a good person. I like you a lot.'

Zhou Xiangzhe looked up and their eyes met for a moment. He turned the Ring on his wrist — an unconscious habit, the kind of small thing your hands do before your mind catches up.

But Shen Wang could clearly feel his mood lifting.

'Mm.' Zhou Xiangzhe said: 'Whatever you say is fine.'

Whatever you say is fine — sure, but he was obviously happier than before. How had he gotten so much less willing to show what he felt as he got older?

Shen Wang felt a small pang. He wished Zhou Xiangzhe still smiled the way he used to — eyes bright, lit up like when they were kids.

That visit wrapped up eventually. When Shen Wang left, Zhou Xiangzhe watched him go the whole way, not pulling his gaze back even as he rounded the corner. Shen Wang glanced back and their eyes caught. Zhou Xiangzhe seemed caught off guard — he froze for a second, then gave him a small wave.

A little bit like before, finally.

Shen Wang smiled back and waved, easy and unhurried.

This time he didn't look back again. His mood had finally turned.

/

When he got home, Shen Wang was planning to spend the evening alone with the music Zhou Xiangzhe had given him last time — but before he could hit play, his phone started buzzing.

The screen went red automatically, black text appearing across it: Emergency Request.

Emergency Request — an internal distress system for the guard corps.

Every Aberrant had to register with the Anti-Contamination Center and choose between the dispatch unit or the guard corps. In practice, the dispatch unit only took higher-ranked Aberrants — Grade D and below went automatically into the guard corps, which also included a large number of ordinary people without talents, since it operated Inside the High Wall.

Which meant that when something went sideways, the guard corps personnel on duty might not be able to handle it.

That's why the Emergency Request system was built.

Whenever they ran into a Contaminant situation beyond their capacity, they could trigger an Emergency Request. The alert would go out to all nearby off-duty high-ranking Aberrants, pulling them in to assist the guard corps with containment.

Not optional. Shen Wang had no choice but to head to the location.

The site wasn't far from where he lived — that was probably why the Emergency Request had been routed to him specifically. The area was on the quieter, more out-of-the-way side of things, and he was likely the only off-duty Aberrant Grade C or above for blocks around.

When he arrived, he found a handful of guard corps members waiting, in uniform, deep in discussion.

One of them was his neighbor, Song Chen.

'Hey? Aren't you—' Song Chen spotted him first, blinked, then caught up. 'You're the Aberrant they sent for backup?'

Someone nearby looked surprised. 'Song Chen, you know him?'

'He's my next-door neighbor,' Song Chen said.

'I'm the Aberrant they called in.' Shen Wang answered Song Chen's earlier question, then fished the Polaris insignia out of his pocket and pinned it on. 'Shen Wang, Polaris. Good to be working with you all.'

Everyone present sucked in a sharp breath.

'Polaris?!'

To everyone in Central City, Polaris was basically a legend.

The only team with a Grade-S Aberrant. Undisputably Central City's top special operations unit. Even a Grade-A Contaminant was nothing they couldn't handle.

They'd put out an Emergency Request and pulled in an actual Polaris member. The relief that hit the room was almost embarrassing.

The guard corps members wasted no time getting Shen Wang to the scene.

Since Song Chen and Shen Wang were neighbors, the communication side of things quietly defaulted to him, which Song Chen found mildly exasperating.

Today was supposed to be the last day of his vacation. Instead this case had dragged him in before the sun was even up, and he'd spent an entire day working through it only to realize it was completely beyond their capacity — which meant putting out an Emergency Request to find someone who could actually deal with it.

'The person who filed the report was an ordinary civilian coming home from late-night overtime.' Song Chen passed him the file.

'He'd made an error at work and ended up stuck at the office until around nine. On the walk home he suddenly spotted someone standing under a streetlight. This person was acting strange — just walking back and forth on the road, slow, repetitive. The guy's pretty gutsy. Figured it was a thief, so he went right after them.'

'He got close and the person just vanished. He turned around and found them back down the road behind him, wandering again.'

'He panicked — mind went completely blank, ran straight home — then realized the thing had followed him all the way to his floor and was pacing back and forth right outside his door.'

Shen Wang looked at the photos.

Taken in the dark, by someone who was clearly terrified — the images were blurry and fragmented, barely resolving into the shape of something vaguely human standing under a streetlight.

Normal human height. Black hair. Probably dark clothing. Head down. Nothing about it stood out at all.

The next photo was a bit clearer, just shot from an odd angle.

'There's footage too.' Song Chen showed him security footage pulled that morning. 'All the residential buildings have cameras installed — for exactly this kind of situation. The audio's a little distorted, but you can make it out.'

The recording opened with a man screaming as he sprinted into frame and hammered on his own door. But the door needed a key, and panic makes your hands useless.

He fumbled with the key, kept twisting to check the stairwell, and finally got the door open after a full minute. He threw himself inside. The door slammed shut.

Right then the footage cut to static.

Something with its head down appeared in frame without warning. No one could see it take a single step — but it was moving, inch by inch, drifting toward the door the man had just gone through.

In the footage they could see clearly: its body was warped. Every time it moved, its arms swung low and dragged along the floor. It was standing upright — but its arms reached the ground.

'It paced outside his door for the whole night. Seven hours straight. It was gone by morning.'

And the poor overworked civilian hadn't slept a single minute. He'd wanted to call for help, but the line wouldn't go through — every call he tried just died. It wasn't until daytime, once the thing had gone, that he finally got the call out. By the time the guard corps arrived he was barely coherent. They'd since contacted the containment center for a deeper Contamination assessment.

'It just followed him. No obvious active Contamination, no effect on other residents.' Shen Wang said: 'Should be low-ranked.'

'That's what we thought at first — which is why they dragged me back from vacation.' Song Chen said. 'But once we dug into it, the situation turned out to be something different.'

They'd tracked down existing records on this Contaminant. The Anti-Contamination Center had already logged it.

Near-Grade-D Contaminant: The Night Wanderer. Semi-compulsive behavior pattern. Appears at night. Defining characteristics: street wandering and following behavior.

Once observed, it immediately follows the observer home and circles the area around them. It typically leaves at dawn the next day — but the following behavior doesn't stop. It tracks a target for at least three days before fully disappearing.

Victims tend to spiral into intense negative emotions — because having something that moves like a ghost blocking your doorway and pacing endlessly day after day is enough to shatter anyone's nerves.

But once the Contaminant finally left, those people would almost immediately develop severe attachment to the people close to them.

They'd need to be near their loved ones every single moment. Being apart, even just to use the bathroom, would send them into a breakdown.

Through that pattern of Mental Contamination, they'd traced the Contaminant's identity in life.

Before the Apocalypse: an ordinary person with everything — a solid career, a loving marriage, parents still in good health, a kid in middle school. Then the Apocalypse hit, and he lost all of it — separated from his family, badly injured himself, and died searching for them until the very last second.

In reality, his entire family had died in the early days of the Apocalypse. They'd only told him they were missing to keep him holding on.

A kind lie that became a terrible trap.

After he died, he transformed into a Contaminant and spent every night wandering the streets looking for his family. Anyone who observed him was mistaken for a family member, and he'd follow that person home — but they didn't know him, and besides, he was a Contaminant.

Three days in he'd realize he'd found the wrong person. Then he'd leave and start the search again.

'It'll show up again tonight.' Song Chen said. 'Our orders from above: eliminate this Contaminant.'

Shen Wang thought for a moment, then asked a strange question. 'The residential corridors have cameras — do the rooms inside?'

Song Chen took a beat to answer. 'Of course… not, I'd think. They're private residences — whether to install cameras is up to the owner.'

'So there aren't any?'

'None. We checked.'

Shen Wang nodded, deliberate. 'Good. I'll handle it tonight.'

Song Chen: ?

You haven't told us your plan at all — just like that, we leave it all to you? Is this what being a high-ranked Aberrant does to a person?!

/

Night. The whole residential building was completely quiet. Not a single unit had a light on.

All the residents had already been evacuated by the guard corps — cleared out to prevent any collateral in case things went sideways.

Every guard corps member on site had their eyes locked on the monitors, waiting for The Night Wanderer to appear.

Around nine o'clock, the lights flickered. In the next instant, the figure appeared on screen — head down, same as before, drifting back and forth through the corridor in that endless, unhurried loop.

The moment it appeared, the Contamination alarm pulsed red — but the audio alert was switched off, so only a remote signal went out to the guard corps.

Environmental Contamination Level: 68%.

Song Chen swallowed. He pressed the comm unit at his ear.

'It's here!'

'I see it.' Shen Wang was at the door. He opened the peephole and looked out.

The peephole warped everything it caught — the view outside came back as a convex, fishbowl distortion. Through it he saw a man with his head down, moving past the door frame, drifting left, then back right, then left again, over and over.

It was beyond horror-movie territory. Horror movies at least had the decency to stay on screen.

'What's he doing?' The guard corps members were talking among themselves.

'He's Polaris — he's definitely got some cutting-edge equipment on him.'

'What's his talent? I heard he's Grade B — maybe he can just use his talent and that's it.'

'Quiet.' Song Chen kept his eyes on the screen. 'Everyone hold for orders.'

The room went still. They kept watching — and then, right then, the door on screen swung open.

Shen Wang stood in the doorway, looking out at the Contaminant wandering the hall.

'Want to come in?' he said.

Every guard corps member present: ……?!!

The Contaminant froze for a moment — it even took a mechanical step forward out of pure habit — but the next instant something like wild elation broke through it. It thought it had finally found its family. Someone had opened the door for it. It rushed inside, overjoyed.

Shen Wang watched it enter with a quiet smile. The door clicked shut behind it.

The guard corps members all looked at each other.

'Lost visual.'

'Yeah, no cameras inside — we've lost visual.'

'So now what?'

'Should we go check in person?'

They sat in silence for a few seconds, then all moved together, gearing up and heading out. They'd been stationed inside the building all along to stay close, just not on the same floor — so it didn't take long to get there.

The corridor lights were still flickering. Unsettling as ever.

The guard corps members swallowed quietly, fanning out on both sides of the door and pressing close to listen.

Dead silence inside. Like there was no one there at all — except they knew perfectly well that Shen Wang, a Grade-B Aberrant, was in there, along with a near-Grade-D Contaminant that had just walked through the door.

How was there not a single sound?

They were on edge, unsure whether they could even reach him — if a call came through mid-fight, that could go badly.

A crackle of static. Everyone heard it cut through their comm units, then just as quickly clear.

'Mission complete.'

Shen Wang's voice.

A beat of stunned silence, a collective glance around the hallway, and then the door opened.

Shen Wang saw them and stopped, visibly puzzled. 'What are you all doing out here?'

'Just making sure everything was okay.' Song Chen answered, eventually. 'It's actually done?'

'Yeah. Contaminant's been neutralized.'

Song Chen pulled out the Contamination Detector he'd been carrying. Sure enough — the environmental Contamination Level was dropping steadily. At this rate it'd be back to normal in no time.

Not a single person there had any complaints. As far as they were concerned this was straight-up good news, and on top of that — Shen Wang was Polaris. They told him enthusiastically that they'd make sure to file a thorough report, and that this Emergency Request would absolutely come with a solid payout.

Shen Wang thanked them and said his goodbyes. He was just the assist — cleanup was their job.

Back home, Shen Wang went to the couch, found the track, hit play. Soft music drifted through the apartment.

He hummed along for a couple of bars, then pulled a painting out of his pocket.

He leaned back against the cushions and looked at it.

If any of the guard corps members had been there, they'd have been floored: what was painted on the canvas was the very thing they'd spent all night on high alert for — The Night Wanderer, rendered in precise detail. A face too dark to read. Arms hanging all the way to the floor. A narrow corridor. Flickering lights.

It was unmistakably The Night Wanderer.

Shen Wang used the talent he'd taken from Hundred Eyes via Plunder — turning the Contaminant who'd walked in with him straight into a painting. That was the thing about Paint into the Picture: it was exactly that strange.

'Turns out there's a new use for this.' Shen Wang dropped the painting on the couch. 'I can stock up on Contaminants.'

'Who doesn't love a portable snack?'

'Build up enough of a supply and I'll never have to go hungry again.'