Contamination Prelude

Chapter 7

Perception Type mutants are searching Central City for any possible traces of contaminants.

Although Zhou Xiangzhe issued a Grade B alert among mutants, the alert didn’t affect ordinary people’s lives. Originally he had wanted ordinary people to be placed under a home Isolation Barrier for a while, but the guard team vetoed the idea.

The guard team argued they patrol every day and nothing's ever happened. Besides, the deaths of the Grade B Contaminant Plum Rain and the D-grade contaminant The Clown show that even if that contaminant exists, its targets are its own kind. A full city lockdown would be overkill.

'That's unbelievably careless.' Ming Guang totally disagrees. 'What if this Grade A Contaminant turns its sights on humans?'

Zhou Xiangzhe sits in a chair, having changed clothes again — this time into a white casual outfit. The color makes him look a bit more refined; bright tones really amplify his good looks. And this time he's also wearing a pair of black gloves, with two linked silver rings on his ring and little fingers.

He offers no opinion.

'We deployed every Perception-type mutant.' Across from Zhou Xiangzhe, someone in a guard team uniform says, 'Zhou Xiangzhe, you should know this — it's not just our guard team deployed this time. Your dispatch squad members are in there too, but not a single Perception-type mutant has detected this Grade A Contaminant.'

'So everyone has concluded it has already left Central City.'

'I can put all mutants on alert, but I can't disrupt ordinary people's daily lives.'

Zhou Xiangzhe looks at the person across from him. 'Are you sure?'

'Of course.' The man meets Zhou Xiangzhe's gaze.

'You may be Central City's strongest mutant, but Zhou Xiangzhe, you are still in the dispatch squad. You spend most of the year outside the city. Nobody knows the situation inside better than I do. Overly high alert will affect ordinary people's mental state, making them more susceptible to contamination. I guarantee this Grade A Contaminant won't appear again.'

Ming Guang frowns slightly. He really wants to ask, 'What exactly are you guaranteeing with?'

'I can guarantee it too.' A voice comes from the doorway. Zhou Xiangzhe glances toward the door as a smiling man walks in from the meeting room entrance.

'Zhou Xiangzhe, you might not trust him, but you can trust me, right?'

The man says, 'I also haven't sensed any trace of a Grade A Contaminant within Central City — unless this contaminant isn't a contaminant at all.'

The sharpness in Zhou Xiangzhe's eyes softens a little.

That smiling person is Bo Wenhuan. His innate ability is A23 [Perception Tracking]. He’s a human Contamination Detector — he can detect where contamination levels have exceeded the limit faster than any machine, and track a contaminant’s location using the traces it leaves behind.

What Blood Thorns left behind is more than enough for him to track multiple times.

If even he says that, then chances are high that the Grade A Contaminant really has left Central City.

The people here may differ in temperament and faction, but they're all here to protect the ordinary citizens of Central City.

'Fine.' Zhou Xiangzhe concedes. 'Since you're both giving your word, of course I'll trust you.'

With that, Zhou Xiangzhe gets up and leaves the meeting room, Ming Guang following him out.

The Anti-Contamination Center is a large headquarters. It's not open to the public except to employed mutants and staff. When they leave, there are hardly any people outside.

'Looks to me like they never planned on dealing with this from the start,' Ming Guang says as they walk.

'The death of the Grade B Contaminant Plum Rain reeked of something off. All those clues at the scene and they couldn't tell that Plum Rain was taken out by a higher-grade contaminant? And they didn't even investigate for days, until we got back and the D-grade contaminant The Clown got killed too — only then did they slowly start looking into it.'

Zhou Xiangzhe slips one hand into his jacket pocket. 'It's not that they didn't want to investigate. They couldn't.'

'What do you mean?'

'Ordinary people's mental state affects their Contamination Level. If their minds aren't stable enough, they're more easily contaminated. A Grade B Contaminant like Plum Rain showing up in Central City was already enough to cause panic. If they then announced that the Grade B contaminant was killed by an even higher-grade one instead of being wiped out by the guard team, public sentiment would get even more volatile.'

'So the guard team's been covering it up this whole time? And they only started investigating slowly once we came back with good news?' Ming Guang suddenly understands.

Zhou Xiangzhe glances at him. 'Did you finish what I told you to do earlier?'

'What thing?'

'Shen Wang's enrollment.'

Ming Guang grits his teeth instantly. 'Zhou Xiangzhe, you've got some nerve. Do you have any idea how many times the higher-ups grilled me? Kept asking why I was adding a new member, if our squad had attrition losses or something. You never pull anything shady normally, but when you do, it's huge!'

'So, did you?'

'Done.' Ming Guang fishes a piece of paper out of his pocket and hands it to Zhou Xiangzhe. 'Here's the enrollment notice. Just needs a signature.'

Looking at the stamped notice, Zhou Xiangzhe nods and puts it away.

'Now that we're done here, take me to Shen Wang's place. I'll bring him for his talent threshold test.'

What else could Ming Guang do? He just nods.

'So, what exactly is your relationship with this Shen Wang? I don't remember you having a friend like him. He's only been in Central City, what, ten days? And spent a whole week of that in the containment facility.'

Zhou Xiangzhe shoots Ming Guang a look.

'The one who gave me an umbrella.'

'Huh? But I remember your orphanage back then was hit by that Grade S Contamination Source Outbreak... Wait!'

Ming Guang remembers something. 'The kid who survived because he was out getting treatment for a Genetic Disease?! Wait, no, I remember you searched for him, but the hospital where he was treated got attacked by a Grade C Contaminant and he's been missing for over three years. Wait — are you sure it's him?!'

'It's him.' Zhou Xiangzhe says, 'And don't worry that he's not human. The containment facility isn't easy to get out of. He's human — warm, breathing, blood in his veins — not a contaminant.'

Ming Guang gets momentarily flabbergasted, then thinks it makes sense.

If Shen Wang were a contaminant, he'd never have gotten out of the containment facility. They conduct screening tests several times a day.

Then where has he been all these three years? Why didn't he show up before? And why now?

But more than that, Ming Guang has a more pressing question.

'Does he know you've been looking for him? I saw the way he treats you — no different from anyone else. Don't tell me he doesn't recognize you, and you never planned on revealing yourself?'

Zhou Xiangzhe falls silent for a few seconds. 'He seems to have changed his identity. I'm not sure if he wants me to recognize him.'

Ming Guang recalls the question Zhou Xiangzhe asked him earlier and his own answer at the time...

Oh no, so that's when it was.

Ming Guang and Zhou Xiangzhe had their talents discovered at the same time and trained at the same school. They've been close classmates and comrades-in-arms. He's always known how much Zhou Xiangzhe cares about that orphanage from his youth. The undetected Grade S Contamination Source Outbreak swallowed his childhood and his home — he was the only one the director pushed out the door.

That's a nightmare carved into his bones, a thorn that draws blood at the slightest touch.

After graduating, Zhou Xiangzhe started searching for the other children who survived. He searched and investigated for a long time, and years later, he finally found traces of Shen Wang — but by then, Shen Wang had already gone missing during the contaminant attack on the hospital.

Who would have thought Shen Wang was still alive, and even came back.

So Zhou Xiangzhe's protective instincts went into overdrive. He's determined to keep a close eye on Shen Wang, absolutely not letting him go through such a disaster again.

[Polaris] is the safest place Zhou Xiangzhe believes he has.

...

Even though Shen Wang has joined the dispatch squad, he won't be heading out of the city to eliminate contaminants that quickly.

The dispatch squad is split into many teams, so he'll have to wait for team assignments. Plus, Central City just issued a Grade B alert, and all squad outbound missions have been temporarily suspended.

Shen Wang is happy to take it easy, joyfully playing on his phone at home.

The man next door who beat his daughter moved out yesterday. The door Shen Wang smashed in was never repaired, and at night you can see the pitch-black emptiness of that room. Song Chen from the guard team is so busy he only comes back in the middle of the night and crashes the moment he gets home.

It's so quiet there's not a single peep.

Shen Wang is very satisfied.

So when a knock comes, Shen Wang wonders if someone got the wrong door. He's all alone now; there shouldn't be anyone dropping by.

The person knocking, seeing no one answers, waits ten seconds and knocks again — three knocks each time. Shen Wang sits on the sofa, staring at his door, wondering if there'll be a third round in ten seconds. So he waits a bit, and sure enough, ten seconds later the person outside knocks three more times.

Tch, OCD much.

Shen Wang stuffs his phone back into his pocket, gets up, and walks to the door.

The person outside is a huge surprise. He racked his brains and still couldn't figure out why a living, breathing Zhou Xiangzhe would show up at his doorstep.

Zhou Xiangzhe doesn't care why it took three knocks for Shen Wang to open the door. He gets straight to the point. 'Starting today, you're assigned to Polaris. This is the enrollment notice.'

Shen Wang reflexively takes the flimsy piece of paper.

He reads the notice from top to bottom, then finally looks at Zhou Xiangzhe.

'Why?' Shen Wang leans against the doorframe, posture lazy, a smile tugging at the corner of his lips. It completely erases his usual harmless, placid demeanor, replaced by a sharp, 'no idea why but can't be bothered to care' attitude.

'We met at the containment facility. There's no need for me to act around you. I'm bad-tempered and don't follow orders. Put me in Polaris and I'll stir up trouble.'

Shen Wang still remembers how he choked an Aberrant to death right in front of Zhou Xiangzhe.

Zhou Xiangzhe, of course, knows his temper is rotten — he's known it since they were kids.

'Then just pretend a little, act like a good person and sign the notice.'

His voice is still cool, and even his jokes don't sound like jokes, creating an odd contrast.

'Absolutely not.' Shen Wang laughs, his peach-blossom eyes that always carry a hint of mirth now look full of feeling, incredibly captivating.

'Trying to sweet-talk me into signing away my soul?'

Zhou Xiangzhe keeps the notice extended, gazing at Shen Wang.

'You don't want to join Polaris?'

'I'm kidding.' Shen Wang shrugs, still with that whatever-happens casual air. 'When Central City's strongest mutant comes recruiting, how could I possibly say no?'

But in truth, it's because Shen Wang realizes that picking up strays in Polaris might be way more efficient.

Since he's here to scavenge and treat his illness, obviously he'd pick the most efficient route. He hadn't considered Polaris before because the odds of Zhou Xiangzhe finding out were too high. But now that Zhou Xiangzhe has personally come to invite him, refusing would only draw more attention.

Might as well just join.

Zhou Xiangzhe breathes an internal sigh of relief. He gestures for Shen Wang to sign his name at the bottom of the notice.

'Sorry, I don't have a pen on me.'

Shen Wang taps his index finger on the signature line. Though he says sorry, there's no apology in it.

He really doesn't have a pen, and he doesn't feel like going back inside to look. Even if he did, it'd be useless — he never buys pens. His place looks pretty much the same as before he moved in, except now he's living in it.

Zhou Xiangzhe looks at him, a bit exasperated. '...I have a pen in my pocket.'

Shen Wang raises an eyebrow, then directly reaches into his jacket pocket to find the pen he mentioned. Zhou Xiangzhe freezes, momentarily caught off guard.

Only after Shen Wang casually presses the notice against the door, signs with the pen, and hands both back to Zhou Xiangzhe without a care for his stunned reaction does Zhou Xiangzhe almost speak, then stop, his expression strange and subtle.

Zhou Xiangzhe thinks: Has no one ever taught Shen Wang about personal social boundaries?

In the end, Zhou Xiangzhe says nothing. He takes the notice and smoothly tucks the pen back into his pocket.

'There's one last procedure. You haven't had your talent threshold tested yet. Do you have time now?'

'Of course.'

Shen Wang follows Zhou Xiangzhe downstairs. Ming Guang is waiting in the car, and he waves when he sees them coming down.

But, talent threshold, huh.

After the apocalypse, people who awaken talents are called mutants. The Science Academy classifies known talents by their ability to handle disasters, but just because someone awakens an A-grade talent doesn't automatically make them a Grade A Variant. A mutant's grade depends on their talent threshold, also known as the contamination tolerance value.

In other words: mutants and contaminants are both contaminated individuals. The higher a contaminant's Contamination Level, the stronger it is. Same with humans — the more contamination they can bear, the stronger they become.

The place for testing talent threshold is even more remote than the containment facility. The official explanation is: testing talent thresholds requires mutants to exert their abilities to the fullest. Some mutants have psychic-type abilities that could affect nearby residents, so they must steer clear of residential areas.

So Shen Wang sees the staff fully suited up, head-to-toe in protective gear, looking less like they're testing and more like they're defusing a bomb.

They test Shen Wang with trembling caution, only breathing a sigh of relief once it's over.

'Grade C! Just a hair away from Grade B!' The staff member looks at the results in great excitement. 'To reach this level so soon after awakening is incredible! Talent thresholds grow over time, and I believe this gentleman could eventually reach Grade A or even Grade S!'

Ming Guang lets out a hiss. 'Zhou Xiangzhe, what grade were you when you first awakened?'

To be judged as a potential future Grade S mutant — Ming Guang was also Grade C when he first awakened, and after all these years he's only at Grade B.

Zhou Xiangzhe, sitting nearby, answers casually. 'Grade A.'

Ming Guang: ...

Nope, can't compare to this freak.

In any case, the bureau pinned great hopes on Shen Wang, convinced he'd be the next Grade A or even Grade S mutant. Shen Wang smiles as he receives their blessings, but inwardly thinks: They're going to be sorely disappointed.

Once he's scavenged a few high-grade contaminants in Polaris, they'll discover he's a fake mutant, and then he'll make a run for it.

What future, indeed.

Might even get hunted down as a contaminant.