Bai Yu moved with agility, darting left and right through the narrow alley until the sound behind him finally faded away.
Running out of breath, he forcibly suppressed it so as not to appear suspiciously flustered and disheveled.
Emerging from a narrow alleyway, he was met with a bustling crowd that looked lively, appearing completely discordant with the battle raging on the edge of the town.
Watching these people at close range treat danger as if it were nothing allowed Bai Yu to understand just how deeply that numbness was etched into them.
They were discussing the ling infection, bringing up how a few days ago, several Tai Fangs had slipped into the crowd, disguised as injured people to trick kind-hearted folks and murder them, then dismembering and discarding the bodies as infection sources.
“Those beasts are truly cruel. They look like humans and have pretty good brains, but they are only Level 2. The mecha self-defense force can handle them; otherwise, why would we have the leisure to stroll around here?”
“Listening to intelligence from the front lines, it seems quite a few first-line mercenaries have died or been injured. Level 2 mutated creatures are not that simple to deal with.”
“Death is natural. Mercenaries die on the battlefield, ordinary people die from infection. Since our town is poor and lacks the conditions to even make the Esper Association send people to protect us, we can only rely on batch-distributed purification potions to dilute the ling pollution, trusting our own immunity to heal. It is already our blessing as ants. If even a single purification-type esper came, the heavily infected patients in the town could also have a glimmer of survival, instead of being forced to sign a death consent form, executed, and having their bodies disposed of with special methods so not even a handful of ashes remains.”
Hearing the passersby discuss this to this point, Bai Yu’s action of taking off his lab coat paused involuntarily.
The disposal method for heavily infected patients mentioned by these people bore a striking similarity to how heavily infected patients of biological genetic technology contamination were handled in the apocalypse.
In the face of the macro-environment, life was just that fragile and insignificant.
Bai Yu fell silent and sighed inwardly.
He quickly stripped off the already soiled lab coat, leaving only the white shirt underneath, paired with black trousers and black Martin boots.
After shedding the lab coat, most of his distinct features were gone, and blending into the crowd did not look quite as glaring anymore. The only difficult thing to deal with was his head of white hair.
His hair was neither dyed nor caused by albinism; it was naturally like this. Many people found it curious, but Bai Yu had long since grown numb to it.
He wanted to find a hair salon to dye his hair, but he was currently an undocumented person without a single penny.
Bai Yu walked along the road, seemingly looking straight ahead, but actually observing the surrounding environment the entire time.
He noticed that everyone was using the holographic bracelets on their wrists for payment transactions. It seemed this situation was no different from the apocalypse, except that getting a holographic bracelet must be extremely difficult, as identity was required first.
Thinking of this, Bai Yu felt a bit more pain in his heart.
However, the most urgent matter now was to escape this town and go somewhere else, then ask around in a mixed-up area to see where fake documents were made, getting an identity sorted out first.
As for whether he could ever transmigrate back to the apocalypse, it was probably hanging by a thread. Generally, people who transmigrate to alternate worlds can never return.
Yet Bai Yu was not sorrowful; at the least, he now possessed a healthy body.
After blending into the noisy crowd, Bai Yu walked while keeping an eye on the surroundings. Seeing that indeed no one was chasing him, the boulder hanging in his heart put down more than half.
Walking a short distance, Bai Yu slipped into a small alleyway, crossed from the bumpy, narrow asphalt road to the other side, and walked from there onto a main thoroughfare to leave the town.
In an instant, the hustle and bustle was cut off, though the noise from the battlefield became significantly louder.
Moreover, after crossing just a fifty-meter-long alleyway, the people he met were vastly different from the numb and indifferent crowd he had just seen.
These people clearly felt anxious and solemn, periodically raising their heads sensitively to look in the direction where the war had erupted.
Bai Yu finally gained some tangible sense of reality. This kind of reaction from people was what an alien-beast attack should look like; even if numb, they should feel afraid.
To avoid standing out, Bai Yu also feigned a bit of fear as he merged into the crowd, walking along his planned direction.
However, not long after walking, passing by a dilapidated residential building, Bai Yu was stopped in his tracks by a commotion on the roadside and involuntarily turned to look.
He saw a young man clutching his head while being beaten by three men. Those three men were not particularly tall, but they looked fierce and indeed possessed a certain aggressive momentum.
In just a few seconds, the young man’s hands protecting his head fell limply. He was half-conscious, his face covered in bruises and blood.
“If you still cannot cough up the money next time, it will not just be a beating. Even if we have to sell you off, this money must be paid!”
“Giving you two more days. If you cannot scrape together the money, just wait to sell your body parts!”
“Let us go, let us go.”
The three men finished speaking viciously, then turned and left with gloomy expressions. Their eyes were filled with anxiety, as if failing to collect the money was an extremely troublesome matter for them.
Meanwhile, the surrounding people merely cast accustomed glances toward this spot, paying no mind to the injured young man lying on the ground. It seemed such occurrences were commonplace; in their perception, staring a few extra seconds in the direction of the battle was far more valuable than spare glances at the youth.
Bai Yu stood not far away, feeling rather conflicted watching this scene.
He figured this might be because the young man failed to repay a debt, which was why his creditors tracked him down and beat him up.
He merely watched for a few extra moments before stepping forward to continue on his way.
Yet after taking a few steps, he stopped again, sighed heavily, and turned back toward the young man.
He truly was not being a busybody—he could not even guarantee his own safety—but seeing this young man lying there while passersby ignored him completely, as if abandoned by the world with no one caring about his life, he could at least wake the other person up, let him understand his situation, and make proper arrangements before he himself left.
Bai Yu approached the young man, stared at him for two seconds, squatted down, and reached out to shake his shoulder.
“Hey, can you hear me? Wake up. You cannot just sleep like this. Should I send you to the hospital?”
However, the young man on the ground showed no reaction.
Seeing this, Bai Yu frowned and subconsciously stretched his fingertips under the youth’s nose to test.
There was still a weak breath, warm—he was not dead.
Pausing for a moment, Bai Yu pinched the philtrum and pressed down hard.
In just a few seconds, the young man twitched, his eyelashes fluttering as he showed signs of waking up.
Bai Yu withdrew his hand, rested both hands on his knees, and silently watched him wake up.
Someone nearby cast a complex gaze over. Bai Yu caught a glimpse and instantly understood what the other party wanted to convey.
Wasn’t it just thinking he was being a busybody?
He merely withdrew his gaze, lowered his eyelids, and kept his expression cold and aloof.
Within half a minute, the young man woke up, blinking blankly as he opened his eyes. After a moment, he directed his gaze toward the shadow casting over him.
Coming into view was a white-haired man with a very young face, around twenty-two or twenty-three, staring at him intently.
After a pause, the young man finally spoke with difficulty: “Thank you… you saved me.”
“It’s nothing,” Bai Yu answered indifferently. The fact that the other party could still speak logically meant his injuries were not too severe. “Do you want me to send you back?”
The young man let out a helpless smile, struggling to crawl up, but pulled at his injuries in the process, hissing in pain before breaking into a weak, fitful cough, unable to support himself as he fell back to the ground.
Seeing this, Bai Yu hurried forward to support him.
“Take it easy,” he said, his gaze sweeping over the bruises and blood on the young man’s face. The other person probably had quite a few injuries on his body as well.
The young man eased up a bit before his coughing fit subsided, panting heavily.
“Can you… help me get home? It is right in the residential building here.” As he spoke, he glanced at the building in front of them, looking at Bai Yu with pleading eyes.
Bai Yu stared at him for a moment, paused, then gave an assent and prepared to help him up.
“Thank you,” the young man said.
“Where is there medicine for sale? Or should I take you to a clinic?” Bai Yu thought for a moment and asked.
The young man sighed and simply replied, “I have no money.”
Thinking of the young man’s earlier inability to produce money and subsequent beating, Bai Yu fell silent. Indeed, asking was pointless.
He said nothing more, only supporting the young man, propping him against his shoulder, staring at the residential building ahead, and asking, “Which floor?”
The young man replied, “Top floor, seventh floor, no elevator. Sorry to trouble you.”
Bai Yu fell silent for a fraction of a second before saying an oh.
Thus, with Bai Yu supporting him, stumbling and stopping along the way, they finally made it up to the seventh floor.
Entering by inputting the password lock and pushing the door open, the young man let out a breath of relief, and Bai Yu did too.
As expected, the seventh floor without an elevator was the most painful floor.
Closing the door, he helped the young man sit down in the small living room. This was a typical one-room apartment, narrow in space—around forty-some square meters—exuding an aged air, though it was kept clean and tidy.
Bai Yu glanced around hurriedly and said, “I will pour you a cup of warm water,” before walking toward the water dispenser.
The young man sighed deeply. Back in his residence, that sense of safety made his injuries feel slightly less painful.
“Thank you,” he said gratefully.
Bai Yu said nothing, quickly taking a cup and dispensing a cup of warm water.
He walked over to the young man, handed him the cup, and simply asked, “Do you have medicine? Let me treat your wounds.”
Hearing this, the young man felt another wave of gratitude, pointing toward the area near the bed. “There is a first-aid kit in the bedside table with topical medicine. I cannot afford healing potion, so I can only use this ordinary medicine.”
Hearing this, Bai Yu couldn’t help clicking his tongue inwardly. As expected, in a world of espers, even magic to heal wounds existed.
He went to fetch the first-aid kit, walked back to the young man, opened it on the small coffee table, and scanned it carefully.
Those prepared medicines were not much different from ordinary medicines in the apocalypse. However, in this alternate world, these medicines probably belonged to the most ordinary tier, used only by those at the bottom. After all, with healing espers around, wealthy people undoubtedly used healing methods.
Even earlier, when passing by a pharmacy on the street, he had seen miniature healing robots on sale. Although inferior to healing espers, they were presumably much better than purely using medicine.
In the apocalypse, didn’t wealthy people also regularly keep robots in their homes—developed from his research achievement on short-term cell division and development promotion—to heal wounds, while poor people without money could only enjoy the research results at hospitals or obediently use ordinary medication?
Although Bai Yu was a biological genetic researcher, he understood medication quite well. Glancing at the young man’s stock medicines, he knew how to apply them for the best efficacy.
The young man slowly drank his water, his gaze locked tightly onto Bai Yu, the gratitude in his eyes growing even more intense.
In this difficult world, having someone reach out a helping hand unconditionally was purely a stroke of incredible luck.
The young man before him had a cold and aloof expression yet a kind heart. Although his brows carried a trace of casual arrogance and detachment, it didn’t feel uncomfortable—perhaps because the other person’s goodwill made that arrogance and indifference seem pleasant, and furthermore, the person was handsome, tall, and confident and calm in every word and action, making it impossible not to hold a deep sense of favorable impression toward him, even though they were strangers.
“Thank you,” he said a second time.
Bai Yu lifted his eyes to look at him, approached with iodophor and medical cotton swabs, and said, “It’s nothing.”
After a pause, he casually started chatting: “Did you owe money?” Then he began treating the bruises on the young man’s face.
Hearing this, the young man’s expression turned gloomy again. He smiled helplessly and simply said, “If it were just owing money, that would be fine. I owe protection fees. Those people are town civil servants who came to collect protection fees. This year’s protection fee for the town hasn’t been paid to the Esper Association yet, and it hasn’t been collected in full. Many people are like me and can’t pay it. That’s a huge sum of money for an individual, and the amount scraped together by the entire town is simply an unfathomable astronomical figure. This is the slums, after all.”
Bai Yu’s hand applying the iodophor paused involuntarily. Connecting this with the battle starting and the absence of any espers, was there this underlying reason?
The town needed to pay protection fees to the Esper Association so that the association could dispatch espers to deal with these mutated creatures. Unable to pay meant losing protection, leaving the town at the mercy of mutated creature invasions.
Though the young man didn’t say it and he shouldn’t probe too much, the reality must be just like this.
Then the existence of this Esper Association was far too villainous.
Bai Yu fell silent.
At that moment, he heard the young man smile with helpless self-mockery: “I originally thought that with humans awakening esper powers, the world would finally get better. But it’s also a scam. The Esper Association of every country is a running dog of the government, and these protection fees all flow into the hands of the major families controlling the government behind the scenes. The Asian suzerain state China has five major families. In the name of a round-table meeting, each family takes turns holding the general directorship of the Asian Esper Association for a year, directly governing branches established in various countries. They hold absolute power, yet the things they do become increasingly outrageous.
“Just last year, Guting Town, which is even larger than Nancun Town, paid its protection fees and waited for espers to come handle mutated creatures. In the end, the Esper Association dragged their feet until that town was razed to the ground overnight by a Level 5 mutated creature. The people of the town suffered massive casualties overnight. Not long after, people from the Esper Association arrived, only doing the job of purifying the infection source, and even suppressed all kinds of protest voices in public opinion. My maternal grandparents were in that town, but not even their bones remained. I participated in a protest parade, got beaten up, and lay in bed for a while, taking medicine every day—which is how I ended up in such a poor state today.”
The young man’s voice was very soft, without much drastic emotional fluctuation, but hearing it in Bai Yu’s ears felt extremely heavy.
This alternate world was indeed even more cruel than the apocalypse.
At least in the apocalypse, while chaotic, there was still order to a certain extent, and the country he was in was also called China, with an order that was arguably the most orderly among several nations.
On matters of principle, at least it wouldn’t disregard human lives to this degree.
Seeing Bai Yu fall silent, the young man smiled apologetically and said, “Sorry for letting you listen to me complain.”
Bai Yu snapped back to reality, looked at the young man with deep eyes, said nothing, and continued treating his wounds.
The two remained silent for a few minutes.
After finishing the treatment on the young man’s face, Bai Yu told him to take off his clothes. The young man didn’t hesitate much and directly pulled at his clothes.
Yet he couldn’t help muttering, “The town is probably in danger.”
Bai Yu frowned involuntarily and asked, “How so?”
The young man paused before saying, “When I was in college, my major was mutated creature research—studying their habits, behavioral motives, and the material value of their bodies. Over the past month, Tai Fangs have appeared frequently, indicating that at least a Level 4 mutated creature is quietly lurking near the town. The tragedy of Guting Town might repeat itself in Nancun Town. Even the mecha self-defense force is useless; they can only deal with Level 3 and below mutated creatures. First-line mercenaries are just meat buns hitting dogs, destined to be cannon fodder. Only espers can resolve this crisis, and there must be a purification-type esper to cleanse all the ling pollution in the town, keeping everyone away from the infection source so they can be completely cured through purification potions. If the infection keeps repeating, even if the alien-beast invasion crisis is lifted, there’s only a dead end in the end.”
Hearing these words threw Bai Yu into another bout of silence.
The two fell quiet abruptly.
Bai Yu treated the bruises on the young man’s body while the young man lowered his gaze, sinking into worried contemplation.
Once the wounds were treated, Bai Yu called the young man back to reality: “All set.”
The young man finally snapped out of it, expressed his thanks, and sighed: “I really hope someone can overthrow these upper-class rulers to rescue this mutated world. I’ve had enough of this era known as the ‘Shanhaijing Mutation’.”
Bai Yu fell silent for a moment before saying, “They will.”
The young man couldn’t help looking at Bai Yu in slight surprise, then laughed, saying, “I think so too. Things will change for the better after reaching an extreme.”
After a pause, he added, “My name is Jiang Jin. You?”
“Bai Yu,” he answered coolly, turning to pack up the first-aid kit for the young man.
At that moment, Bai Yu’s stomach let out two uncooperative growls, startling him. The young man was startled as well, and then burst into laughter.
“You must be hungry. I do have some food here. Let me go make you something.”
Bai Yu’s face heated up slightly, but he admitted honestly, “I haven’t eaten anything for several hours.”
Moreover, having gone through so much escape-related physical and mental exhaustion, naturally, a person would be tired and hungry.
“Thank you,” he said again.
The young man shook his head with a smile and said, “I should be thanking you for saving me.” As he spoke, he braced himself against the sofa armrest, struggling to stand up, barely steadying himself before walking toward the small kitchen.
Bai Yu stared at him for a moment before saying, “Don’t mention you’ve seen me.”
Hearing this, the young man looked confused and turned to glance at Bai Yu, though he didn’t probe further. Since the other person told him this, there must be a reason.
He gave a soft assent.
Bai Yu nodded; he didn’t want to drag down this young man named Jiang Jin who was already living a miserable life.
Jiang Jin prepared a sandwich for Bai Yu, to be eaten with warm water.
Bai Yu ate very slowly, chewing and savoring every tiny bit. An ordinary bacon, salad, and vegetable sandwich was eaten by him as if it were a world-class delicacy.
He hadn’t eaten food requiring chewing in a very long time; given his illness, he only consumed liquid foods or nutrient supplements.
It was painful.
Bai Yu ate in silence, drinking water to help swallow.
His heavy mood eased slightly.
Jiang Jin held a cup of water, drinking while observing Bai Yu.
The other person’s manners were filled with absolute elegance. Even eating a sandwich looked like enjoying a grand feast that required slow chewing.
Such a person didn’t look like a figure from the slums at all.
Pausing, he couldn’t help asking, “Are you from the wealthy district?”
Hearing this, Bai Yu’s chewing action paused. He looked at Jiang Jin, and after settling his thoughts, simply shook his head innocently without elaborating further.
Jiang Jin couldn’t help glancing at him a few more times, merely thinking, “I just felt your temperament was out of place with people in the slums; you look more like someone coming out of the wealthy district.”
Bai Yu slowly chewed his food, swallowed, took a sip of water to clear his throat, and said, “My situation is a bit complicated,” still without saying much more.
Naturally, he couldn’t expose too many of his own affairs.
Jiang Jin, however, couldn’t help letting his imagination run wild. No wonder Bai Yu told him not to tell anyone he had seen him. Thus, he asked no more questions.
After finishing a sandwich, Bai Yu felt like he had recovered well over half of his energy.
He prepared to bid farewell to Jiang Jin.
However, just as Bai Yu was about to open his mouth, an unceremoniously loud knock suddenly sounded at the door.
Knock, knock, knock, knock!
“Jiang Jin, pay up!”
Bai Yu couldn’t help being stunned, yet he felt this voice sounded somewhat familiar.