Starriver Eternal 5

Chapter 40

Shen Wang climbed out the orphanage window. He glanced back one last time; in this darkness, the bright orphanage was like a bright moon.

The butterflies didn't keep clinging to the orphanage. Once Shen Wang was out, they tried to follow him.

The lights flickered. The broken window restored itself and sealed all those butterflies inside the orphanage.

The director had blocked them.

Shen Wang clicked his tongue, turned, and headed in the direction the director had pointed.

As he walked, he pressed his earpiece. 'Hey, can you hear me? I've encountered a contaminant in Zone 1, I need details.'

Dead silence in the earpiece. No sound whatsoever. Shen Wang complained again.

'Utterly useless right now. What's the Science Academy even for?'

Shen Wang wasn't responsible for Zone 1. Besides the Grade S Contamination Source, the intel he'd gotten was mostly on Zone 3; Zone 1 was just a tacked-on afterthought.

The Anti-Contamination Center believed the contaminant's true form in Zone 1 was at least Grade A. Countless people died silently in their sleep. Staff had also found wandering dead inside the contaminated area, but the actual bodies were still laid out in the morgue, so those wandering things weren't the deceased themselves.

Then what were they?

A staff member went to approach these apparitions of the dead, but as soon as he got close they'd disperse and reform elsewhere, like images with no purpose at all.

If only that same staff member hadn't mysteriously fallen asleep and died that very night...

The Anti-Contamination Center immediately went on high alert and issued orders: no one was to make contact with these things.

That was exactly why they assigned Qiang Li'an to this zone. His talent was called 'Little Brat' — weird name, and just as weird in practice.

Despite his burly build, he'd loved sewing since childhood and had superb skills; the dolls he sewed by hand were cute and exquisite. When his talent awakened, he was surprised to find his dolls came alive and moved as he willed, like extensions of himself.

That meant he never had to make contact with contamination himself — he could just control the dolls.

This gave him a vastly different combat style from others: he'd toss out one of his homemade dolls and shout 'Little Brat!'

And then the doll would stand up.

Shen Wang sighed and decided to stop reminiscing. For now, he could only grope his way forward.

The road ahead was pitch black, nothing visible. Only the distant Lighthouse shone. Shen Wang wasn't sure if the director had pointed toward the Lighthouse or somewhere else, but in this night so dark you couldn't see your hand in front of your face, only the Lighthouse glowed afar — anyone walking would inevitably veer toward it.

'No choice.' Shen Wang said. 'Let's just walk.'

He took a step forward, and just as he did, a cold little hand suddenly grasped his.

Shen Wang froze; he looked down and saw who was holding his hand.

Xiao Ershiyi looked up at him, well-behaved, big eyes full of innocence. 'Big brother, come with me,' he said.

'What?'

'The director told me to guide you.' Xiao Ershiyi pulled him and ran forward. As he ran, the path gradually brightened, and at last they could see the full road.

The child pulled Shen Wang along, panting. After a while he stopped and pointed ahead.

'I can only bring you this far. Remember to keep going; someone else will be waiting ahead.'

After saying that, Xiao Ershiyi looked at him curiously. 'The director says you're Xiao Shiwu. Xiao Shiwu, will you bring me an umbrella next time? I want one too.'

Shen Wang reached out and ruffled his hair. 'If I can come back.'

'Great!' The child cheered and vanished into the darkness.

Shen Wang kept walking. After just a few steps, he saw someone new in the dark — the female teacher who had stared at him for so long at the orphanage gate.

The teacher smiled at him. 'Come, this way.'

'Teacher.'

'It's so nice to hear Xiao Shiwu call me teacher again.' The Female Teacher couldn't help wiping her eyes.

She smiled the whole way, happy to lead Shen Wang onward. Shen Wang didn't say anything more, just followed.

They were contaminants, monsters transformed after death by contamination, yet right now they gave Shen Wang the strongest sense of safety.

'Is it okay for you all to come out?'

'It's fine. The director is watching over us from behind, so we can occasionally come out for a walk.' The Female Teacher smiled. 'Don't worry, we're one with the director. Even if those butterflies are Grade A contaminants, they can't erode us that easily.'

'But child, I can only walk you this far. Keep going; others will be waiting.'

Shen Wang nodded, thanked her, and walked on.

A little girl was waiting ahead. Shen Wang had partially forgotten who she was, but she gave him a bright smile.

One after another, they guided Shen Wang's way, then disappeared into the darkness.

The children knew nothing; when they met him, they'd ask curiously if he was really Xiao Shiwu, why Xiao Shiwu had suddenly grown so big and tall. The teachers, more aware of the situation, would tell Shen Wang whatever they knew before leaving.

Inside this Grade S Contamination Source, aside from the director and Xiao Yi, there were two more contaminants.

They were on opposite sides of the orphanage, using it as a divider, and never encroached on each other's territory.

The orphanage in the middle still stood thanks to the director's persistence. Those two contaminants didn't bother fighting over such a small territory; what they really wanted was the human world beyond the contamination source.

So they coexisted peacefully. The people at the orphanage only vaguely knew that they might be a butterfly and a fish.

The last child to guide him was Xiao Ershijiu, a tiny girl. The moment she saw Shen Wang, she wanted a hug.

Shen Wang picked her up, and she happily whispered in his ear that she'd spoken with Xiao Qi. She'd found a stranger's phone, and that day the phone rang again, so she answered it.

Xiao Qi was on the other end, so she greeted him.

But Xiao Qi didn't answer after hearing her, and that made her really angry.

Shen Wang listened to her all along. Finally Xiao Ershijiu pointed ahead. 'It's right there.'

'Xiao Qi is in that place.'

She squirmed down from his arms and waved at him. 'Goodbye, Xiao Shiwu!'

'Make sure you find Xiao Qi!'

With that, she skipped back into the darkness.

Shen Wang gazed at the endless dark behind him, a hint of a smile in his eyes.

'Goodbye.' Shen Wang said. 'We'll definitely meet again.'

The darkness before him cleared, and a door appeared. Its handle was carved with butterfly wings, ornate and beautiful.

Zhou Xiangzhe hadn't been able to enter the orphanage because everyone there subconsciously remembered pushing Xiao Qi out of that terrifying place, and so they didn't want him to come back. Zhou Xiangzhe might have been sad when he left, but because of that he never knew that the 'Xiao Yi' inside had turned into a contaminant, nor that his umbrella was long gone.

And now, it was the orphanage's people who had guided him to find Xiao Qi.

Shen Wang pushed open the door. With a creak, the moment it opened, he saw Zhou Xiangzhe with his back to him.

'Zhou...'

Shen Wang's call died in his throat. He frowned, realizing the person in front of him didn't seem to be the real Zhou Xiangzhe.

It looked more like an illusion?

A Zhou Xiangzhe in black combat gear was surveying the area. Shen Wang followed his gaze and saw carvings that were practically artworks — countless butterflies layered into an extravagant, ornate chandelier, with real butterflies perched all over it.

The winding stairway banister was also carved with butterflies, each one in a different pose, like buds about to bloom.

'HQ, HQ.' The illusory Zhou Xiangzhe was trying to make contact, but something seemed to have gone wrong.

'Located Grade A contaminant nesting site, butterfly-type. Preliminary assessment suggests link to Zone 1 contamination. Tentatively designated: Phantom Butterfly.'

Zhou Xiangzhe repeated it several times. When no one answered, he gave up on the call, turned, and started up the stairs.

Shen Wang followed, watching from the lower steps as Zhou Xiangzhe's silver hair swayed with movement. A few butterflies silently landed on it from behind, making that simple hair look more... exquisite.

Of course, not the kind of exquisite Zhou Xiangzhe would like.

He was picky about clothing styles and liked turning his Contamination Suppressor into harmless little accessories, but he hated fussy things. Butterflies like these were definitely the kind of fussy things he despised.

Without noticing the butterflies in his hair, he kept walking up step by step.

The whole nesting site had almost nothing besides butterflies. Zhou Xiangzhe even began to doubt if this really was a contaminant nesting site.

But just then, he heard a crunch. He drew his gun and walked toward the sound, muzzle aimed forward.

And then he saw something absolutely disgusting.

A towering tree stood in the center of the second floor, branches lush with tender green leaves. But every leaf had a caterpillar on it, and the caterpillars were voraciously gnawing at the leaves. Each time a leaf was devoured, the tree let out a human-like wail.

The wails never stopped, but the caterpillars only chewed more gleefully.

Zhou Xiangzhe frowned and stepped back. Shen Wang knew how he felt — Xiao Qi had hated bugs since childhood. He was a bit of a clean freak and couldn't stand little creatures with more than four legs or none at all.

Butterflies were at least decent-looking, but caterpillars were truly beyond his limits.

'What is this tree?' Even nauseated, Zhou Xiangzhe still maintained the sharp instincts of an excellent operative.

'What exactly are these bugs eating?'

'As if they're chewing on human souls.' Shen Wang answered from behind Zhou Xiangzhe, though he knew this was only an illusion. 'I don't sense contamination on these trees, but all these caterpillars are parasitic contaminants.'

Zhou Xiangzhe studied the tree for a long while. Finally, he took a few photos of it, then continued upstairs.

The towering tree extended all the way to the third floor. Its crown was still visible up there, but no caterpillars.

Zhou Xiangzhe let out a tiny sigh of relief — that made Shen Wang can't help but smile.

The protector god of Central City, but bug-phobic version.

Just as Zhou Xiangzhe was about to leave, a sharp scream came from the tree. Zhou Xiangzhe immediately returned to his original spot and observed the treetop.

A bubble gradually swelled on the tree. Inside it was a curled-up man, screaming pitifully like an infant forced back into the womb when it should have been born. Eyes closed, its whole body was splitting and melting, dissolving into a pool of blood right before Zhou Xiangzhe's eyes.

The tree quickly swallowed the bubble, and more leaves sprouted on the branch.

'A Mutant.' Shen Wang said. 'That was a Mutant devoured by contamination.'

Zhou Xiangzhe seemed to hear something. He turned and aimed his gun at Shen Wang, golden eyes empty. Coldly, he stared ahead and pulled the trigger.

Shen Wang tilted his head to dodge Zhou Xiangzhe's bullet, his gaze unfriendly.

'You dare shoot at me?'

'Everyone at the orphanage sent me here to find him, because they all know Xiao Qi would only welcome me. None of them believe Xiao Qi would dare shoot me.'

'What the hell are you? Wearing his face and trying to hurt me?'

That 'Zhou Xiangzhe' sneered at Shen Wang. It fired again, laughing as it shot, deformed butterfly wings bursting from its back — looking like a deranged mental patient.

The bullets were blocked by thorns. Shen Wang walked forward step by step, grabbed the gun in 'Zhou Xiangzhe's' hand, and drove his knee hard into its arm.

It screamed and let go. The gun clattered to the ground. Shen Wang stomped on it, grinding twice; under his foot, the gun turned into dead butterflies, crushed into a mess.

'Zhou Xiangzhe' clutched its arm, its eyes full of malice as it looked at Shen Wang.

'He won't wake up.' That 'Zhou Xiangzhe' said.

'You're too late.'

'He'll soon drown in dreams and stay here forever.'

Shen Wang spread his right hand, thorns slithering from his sleeves, a complete counter to the 'Zhou Xiangzhe' opposite him.

Shen Wang looked at it coldly. 'That's not for you to decide.'

'I know what you fear, and what you worry about, because I am this kind of contamination.' 'Zhou Xiangzhe' fixed its gaze on Shen Wang. 'Too bad I can't drag you into a dream, so I can't deal with you that way. You're too strange.'

'But it doesn't matter. You'll fall into despair eventually.'

Shen Wang thought: a person's aura is really a wondrous thing.

With the exact same appearance, the real Zhou Xiangzhe came off as aloof yet elegant, with a hint of tenderness when facing Shen Wang — a beauty no one could forget.

But this thing in front of him, even without making any strange moves, still made you feel its face was twisted and ugly, its whole body radiating an off-putting gloom.

'Get lost.' Shen Wang aimed his thorns at the treetop. 'Or I'll burn this tree down.'

'Zhou Xiangzhe' sneered, glancing at the tree, then at Shen Wang.

It didn't persist; it simply scattered into countless butterflies.

The butterflies landed in different spots, looking down at Shen Wang as if they were countless surveillance cameras.

Shen Wang had no time to care about the overwhelming swarm of butterflies; he quickly turned and headed up.

Above the third floor was the rooftop. There, Shen Wang finally saw Zhou Xiangzhe.

He was sitting on the ground, leaning against the wall, sleeping quietly. No change in expression, as if he'd simply dozed off.

'Zhou Xiangzhe?' Shen Wang held his hand.

His hand was still warm, meaning he hadn't been asleep long and hadn't run into too much trouble in the dream yet.

For a Grade A contaminant, trapping a Grade S Mutant in a dream was a stretch, but not entirely impossible.

Because when people dream, they can't notice they're dreaming.

'Wake up.' Shen Wang tried calling to him.

Unfortunately, this level of effort couldn't wake him. He'd have to use another method.

...

At Squad Two Headquarters of Polaris, everyone was in a meeting — about Zhou Xiangzhe and Shen Wang, missing inside the Grade S Contamination Source.

Communications with the two had been down for quite some time, and they still hadn't found any trace of them.

Zhou Qing sat at the head seat in his monk's robes, reciting Buddhist chants while listening to the latest reports from below.

'We sent people to investigate the river Mr. Shen mentioned, but when we got there, forget about the river — we couldn't even reach the middle of the complex before Aberration set in.' The person who took over Shen Wang's mission to explore Zone 3 was so worried his hair was falling out. 'Sending more people is pointless.'

'But there's good news: the contamination source hasn't expanded further. Maybe Captain Zhou did something inside.'

'But what exactly did he do? We have no idea.'

'Mr. Shen was right. The Science Academy gets so much funding every year and all they came up with is this? What a waste!'

Zhou Qing coughed. 'Amitabha. Donors, please don't panic. This humble monk has some clues.'

'Huh?' Qiang Li'an looked at Zhou Qing in surprise. 'You actually have clues, boss?! I thought you were in charge of Zone 2? And your work is mostly victim prevention and treatment.'

'Yes, which is precisely why this humble monk could detect the anomaly.'

Zhou Qing claimed his talent was 'Scissors,' but in truth his talent was the devastating Sever the Threads of Love.

Humans have all kinds of emotions. Amplifying them can kill — that's what Mental Contamination is. When extreme emotions are magnified, people naturally seek death on their own, and that's how they become mass contamination victims. Zhou Qing's talent can sever those affected emotions.

He can make the fearful stop fearing and the sorrowful stop sorrowing, thereby curbing the scope of Mental Contamination.

That's why he could become a Grade S Mutant.

But for those whose emotions are severed, they may be unable to normally feel that severed emotion for years. That's actually a terrifying thing. Zhou Qing wouldn't use it unless absolutely necessary, especially never on a Mutant.

With such massive regional contamination happening here, Zhou Qing was urgently dispatched to sever the grief of all victims in Zone 2 and stop them from committing suicide.

'Every day this humble monk treats many victims. Because the contamination is ongoing, the number of victims keeps rising.'

'But just yesterday, no new victims appeared. This humble monk waited a full day and night and only received a dozen or so — all were previously undetected stragglers. In other words: the contamination has vanished.'

Qiang Li'an stared at him in surprise. 'You mean: the contaminant itself was eliminated?'

'Yes.' Zhou Qing nodded. 'Based on donor Shen's last message, after he entered the Grade S Contamination Source, he encountered the doll from Zone 2. So I'm boldly concluding that donor Shen eliminated this contaminant.'

'No freaking way — that guy is insane! He took out a Grade B Contaminant solo?!' Qiang Li'an was shocked. 'Is he really just a regular Grade B Mutant?!'

'No, it's more than that. Donor Shen's talent is Contamination Immunity. In other words, he can't be contaminated. That's why most contaminants' best abilities are useless against him. That's how donor Shen can deal with contaminants more easily than us.'

Qiang Li'an understood. He nodded seriously. 'That means his survival odds are high. Together with the captain, they can definitely make it out!'

Everyone present visibly relaxed, convinced.

'I have a new finding too.' Qiang Li'an raised his hand.

'The contamination in Zone 1 is still spreading, even beyond Zone 1, moving deeper.'

'Moreover, a doll apparition has appeared in Zone 1 — a black doll wandering around.'

This doll roams the streets just like all the dead. Once approached, it immediately dissolves, then coalesces again further away. Compared to the dancing doll in Zone 2, it seems more like the doll's true form.

This deeply worried Qiang Li'an, because they were clueless and had no idea what this thing was.

'But luckily, we found a Mutant among the victims — one who awakened after being contaminated in the zone.'

'Through him, we learned what people dream about in their sleep.'

That Mutant was still terrified when he woke up. His Contamination Level hit 60% at one point, nearly becoming the first case to have to enter Sector S right after awakening.

Under the Anti-Contamination Center's calming, he finally settled down, his Contamination Level dropping to 40%, and he could calmly recount everything from the dream.

In the dream, he said, he saw a big tree with leaf after leaf, and he became one of those leaves. That wasn't all — the real horror came after.

Because a caterpillar was on the leaf, chewing on it.

Every bite was bone-deep pain, as if flesh were being gouged out, but he couldn't scream and couldn't wake up, could only watch helplessly as the caterpillar took another bite, the pain ceaselessly eroding his mind.

He was in so much pain he just screamed and yelled, but out of the corner of his eye he seemed to see some caterpillars, after devouring an entire leaf, immediately spin a cocoon and a beautiful butterfly emerge.

The butterfly flew out the window.

And he remembered, before he fell asleep, he seemed to have seen that very butterfly.

In agony and terror, he somehow remembered he was dreaming. So he kept breaking down trying to wake up, and unexpectedly, he actually did wake up. The first thing he saw upon waking was the Anti-Contamination Center staff.

'A big tree? You become a leaf on the tree, get eaten by caterpillars, caterpillars turn into butterflies, butterflies appear before victims, and then the victims dream.'

'In the dream there's a big tree, the dreamer turns into a leaf...'

Zhou Qing frowned. 'What a vicious contamination cycle.'

'It's pointless to clean up contaminants inside a contamination source because the source keeps spawning them, but we absolutely cannot let this contaminant keep existing.' Qiang Li'an said earnestly. 'We must destroy the contaminant's true form, otherwise this vicious cycle will only get worse.'

After saying that, Qiang Li'an choked up. 'But we can't contact the captain!'

Zhou Qing sighed. 'Then pray that donor Shen and donor Zhou can meet up. At least donor Shen knows the Zone 1 situation better.'

'Ugh...' Qiang Li'an covered his face. 'I just set a flag, so let's not pray, or it'll just become another flag.'

'If that happens, not just the captain, even little Shen would come beat me up.'

Zhou Qing said casually, 'Getting beaten up or cleaning up this contaminant — which do you choose?'

'The latter!' Qiang Li'an didn't hesitate at all.

Zhou Qing nodded with satisfaction. He pressed his palms together and closed his eyes. 'Then come pray with me. Tell all your wishes to this humble monk, and this humble monk will pass them on to the Buddha. Seeing as we're colleagues, I'll only charge you half of what others pay.'

Qiang Li'an: ...

'This fake monk, impious and greedy!'