——”Due to the impact of an unknown particle storm, we advise citizens to remain at home as much as possible for the next three days. Do not go outside to avoid being contaminated by the particle storm.”
The lead anchor of Alliance Television Channel 1 reported the emergency news with a grave expression.
“According to research findings released by the Royal Academy of Sciences, the probability of flora and fauna mutation caused by this ion storm is 100%. The Alliance Government advises citizens not to consume food exposed to the contamination. Please try to find hermetically sealed food; mutation may cause unknown contamination to the human body…”
Lin Xia sat propped against the headboard, his thin chest rising and falling rapidly, his face flushed with a sickly heat.
He felt that he was most likely finished.
When the ion storm erupted, he happened to be on his way to work. Like most civilians in the Fourth District, he hadn’t taken the intercity flying vehicle to save money, so he had witnessed the entire process of the contamination firsthand.
In an instant, the sky turned blood-red. The star and its two companion stars were obscured by red clouds, and the world was filled with grey mist.
But at the time, he didn’t think there was any problem. After all, the Fourth District was nicknamed the “Junkyard,” as all the waste treatment plants and sewage ponds of the entire Alliance were built here, and it was common for unscrupulous companies to engage in illegal dumping.
It wasn’t until three days later that the Alliance Government finally issued an emergency notice—the red sky of the past three days was not ordinary pollution, but a passing particle storm. Everyone exposed to the outdoors had been contaminated!
Cough, cough, cough, cough—
Lin Xia coughed until it felt like his heart was being torn out; his chest burned as if it were on fire.
After hearing the news, he had packed his bags to leave, but Chi Zheng had thrown his luggage aside, then pinned him to the bed, holding him down.
“You’re crazy!”
Lin Xia pointed at the television news still playing the emergency notice.
“Didn’t you hear? I’ve been contaminated; I might mutate!”
“Fake.”
Chi Zheng turned off the TV.
With one hand, he restrained Lin Xia’s resistance, using his free hand to pull up the quilt and tuck him in, wrapping him up like a chrysalis.
“It’s a lie. Unscrupulous TV stations love to pull these kinds of pranks.”
He pressed his forehead against Lin Xia’s, feeling the temperature for a moment.
“A bit hot. You have a cold.”
Lin Xia was speechless, but he couldn’t overcome Chi Zheng’s restraint; this bastard’s strength was shockingly great.
He could only try to reason with him.
“It’s not a cold. It’s radiation, or some other kind of contamination. Stay away from me; my condition is very bad.”
Chi Zheng didn’t listen to him. He was especially averse to hearing the words “stay away.”
When Lin Xia told him to move away, he insisted on pressing closer, reaching out to pin down the feet kicking under the quilt.
“Don’t move, it will hurt.”
Lin Xia was so angry he laughed. This bastard knew it would hurt? Yet he still pressed on regardless. His abdominal muscles were as hard as iron plates; the impact just now had nearly made him cough up blood.
“You’re just sick!”
The tall man sat up, pulled Lin Xia’s feet out from under the quilt, and placed them on his lap to rub them for a while.
Lin Xia’s forehead was burning, but his limbs were ice-cold; even after Chi Zheng rubbed them for quite some time, they didn’t feel much warmer.
He held the bare, fair ankles, confirming that neither the toes nor the ankles were injured, before carefully tucking them back in.
“Don’t run around. I’m going to find you some medicine.”
“Don’t…”
“It’s okay.”
Chi Zheng stood by the bed, his eyebrows slightly drawn, unusually talkative.
“If you’re sick, just take medicine and you’ll be fine.”
“Be good, Xia Xia. I’ll be back soon.”
Having said that, he vanished behind the door.
Lin Xia lifted the quilt and got out of bed, shuffling in his slippers toward the main door, only to find that Chi Zheng had locked it from the outside and piled heavy objects against it, clearly determined not to let him leave.
He had no choice but to shuffle back to the bed. He stared at the sky outside the window for a while and drifted off to sleep without realizing it.
In his dreams, Lin Xia hazily saw many scenes. There was the time he was bullied at the orphanage, the time he found Chi Zheng, and the time the orphanage closed down and he and Chi Zheng were left homeless on the streets—none of these were pleasant memories.
He hadn’t thought about those things for a long time. After all, ever since the orphanage closed, he and Chi Zheng had been struggling desperately for survival. Social welfare in the Fourth District was practically non-existent; to live, they had to rely on themselves, even when they were still underage children.
Fortunately, by relying on his self-taught cooking skills, Lin Xia successfully fed himself and raised his companion, Chi Zheng.
They currently rented a cheap house in the Old City for 500 credits a month. After paying rent with their meager wages, they barely had enough to live on. Sometimes, he and Chi Zheng would go to the market to set up a stall to make a little extra money. Lin Xia had decent skills, and they could always make a small profit during festival celebrations. At this rate of saving, perhaps before long, they would truly own a little nest of their own.
“This must be my life flashing before my eyes…”
Lin Xia lay flat on the bed, his expression serene.
But the next second, he bolted upright.
“Oh no, Chi Xiaozheng doesn’t seem to know the password to the home deposit certificate!”
Lin Xia broke out in a cold sweat.
The black-hearted banks of the Alliance were no philanthropists. If one didn’t know the password, the deposit certificate would be voided by the bank, and their savings of many years would vanish in an instant!
He leaned against the headboard, feeling a chill run down his back in waves. Sweat poured down like a floodgate, but even so, his body temperature continued to soar. His mind was clear one moment and muddled the next. He knew he couldn’t last much longer; he had to write down the deposit password as soon as possible!
Stiff hand, move, move!
He fumbled to find paper and pen, but accidentally touched the TV switch.
——”The human mutation probability is 50%. If you are unfortunately contaminated and experience symptoms such as excessive sweating, high fever, dry cough, or skin ulceration, please self-isolate. You may turn into blood-mud in the next 24 hours.”
——”After turning into blood-mud, you will lose your consciousness as a human and only briefly retain the instinct to devour, which will cause harm to your family and community…”
Damn it! Who cares what happens after turning into a monster!
Feverish and delirious, Lin Xia slumped back onto the bed, not forgetting to complain even through his clouded consciousness.
This crappy TV station was just as unreliable as the current government. They had the energy to study mud; they should have solved the signal delay problem sooner. If the Fourth District had received the particle storm warning immediately, he wouldn’t have been exposed to the contamination for three whole days and ended up becoming a mud monster.
Damn it! Do the poor not deserve to live?!
He didn’t know how much time had passed when he felt himself being gently lifted up.
Lin Xia’s pupils were already slightly unfocused. He vaguely saw a familiar face. High brow bones, deep eye sockets, thin lips—except the color of the eyes was a bit wrong; why were they white-gold…
“Chi Zheng… you…”
“Drink some water.”
Cool liquid flowed into his mouth. He swallowed instinctively, which slightly eased the dry itching in his throat.
He wanted to ask about Chi Zheng’s eye color, but in the blink of an eye, Chi Zheng’s eyes had returned to normal, so black that the pupils were almost invisible—the way he had seen them since he was a child.
Ugh, I must be turning into a mud monster; I’m already having hallucinations.
Lin Xia pushed Chi Zheng away.
“Go… I’m about to mutate…”
Chi Zheng didn’t budge and fed him another mouthful of water.
“No mutation, and no mud monster.”
He insisted on his previous claim.
“Everything is normal; the TV is lying.”
“I… I…”
Lin Xia gestured anxiously.
“I have a fever, dry cough, excessive sweating, skin ulcerations…”
“It’s a cold.”
Chi Zheng stuffed a white, spherical object into his mouth and fed him another mouthful of water.
“Eat the medicine and you’ll be fine.”
Is that so?
Lin Xia looked at Chi Zheng hesitatingly.
What kind of medicine was that? Why had he never seen it before?
But his brain was burned to mush, and he didn’t have the energy to think about it further. He obediently swallowed the pill and drifted back into a daze.
After making sure he was sound asleep, Chi Zheng took off his coat, revealing the blood-stained undershirt underneath.
He took off the undershirt and walked naked into the bathroom, taking the opportunity to tear off the parasitic appendages that had grown out of his body.
These things grew too fast; they would burst his clothes. After washing them clean later, he would have to mend them carefully. He couldn’t let Xia Xia see them.
The blood on his clothes wasn’t his own; it came from the mutated beasts and mud monsters he had killed along the way.
The Old City district where they lived had already fallen, and monsters were everywhere outside. That was why he had hidden his coat after leaving the house—there was no choice, they were very poor, and there were no extra coats or pants for him to waste.
Chi Zheng guarded Lin Xia for a day and a night. Finally, in the early hours of the third day, Lin Xia’s fever broke.
He opened his eyes, feeling as though his whole body was much more refreshed.
Just as he was about to stretch, the slight movement startled Chi Zheng, who was dozing off by the bed.
He opened his eyes, which were so black that the pupils were invisible.
“Xia Xia, you’re awake?”
“Yeah.”
Lin Xia touched his head. Although there was still sweat, his temperature had returned to normal.
“What time is it?”
“Three in the morning. Are you still sleeping?”
What else is there to do but sleep? He had been lying in bed for 24 hours.
He turned on the TV again.
——”Emergency announcement from the Alliance: A mutation tide is coming. According to statistics, in the past 24 hours, at least 821,874,721 people in the Alliance have turned into blood-mud. If you are still alive 24 hours after being contaminated, congratulations, you have likely awakened a new ability.”
Lin Xia: …?!
——”Mutated organisms are extremely sensitive to sound. If there are mutated organisms active around your residence, please be sure to keep quiet. Sounds below 30 decibels are currently considered safe. 31 to 50 decibels may attract the attention of some sound-sensitive mutants. At 51 to 70 decibels, the vast majority of mutants will discover you. If you use high-powered speakers or sirens at home, you may trigger a siege by mutated beasts…”
Lin Xia: …So, who on earth would use high-powered speakers or sirens at home anyway?!
Just as he was about to instinctively open his mouth to complain, he suddenly heard scratching and banging sounds coming from outside the door.
“I’ll go check.”
Chi Zheng stood up. Before leaving, he didn’t forget to put away his coat carefully, an action that left Lin Xia very puzzled.
Soon, the sounds of fighting, as well as some strange shrieking and tearing, reached them from the door.
Lin Xia felt that something was wrong. He stumbled over to the window. Outside, Chi Zheng was holding a crowbar, smashing the head of a mutated rat with every strike.
…It should be a rat, right? Even though it was about the size of an ordinary wild dog.
Lin Xia opened the door, subconsciously wanting to rush out to help, but was stopped by Chi Zheng’s shout.
“Xia Xia, go back. Don’t look. It will be over soon.”
His voice was more severe than ever before.
Lin Xia didn’t move, because he saw more rats scurrying over, baring their fangs and brandishing their claws, not at all frightened by the miserable state of their companions.
Lin Xia’s heartbeat began to accelerate again, and his head spun.
Just then, a mutated crow discovered him, diving toward him with its massive, sharp-toothed mouth agape.
“Xia Xia!”
Chi Zheng’s eyes were bloodshot. He threw the rat aside and ran back, but he couldn’t keep up with the speed of the mutated crow.
Bang—!
The crow slammed heavily into something. Before it could break free, its neck was snapped by the approaching Chi Zheng.
Lin Xia: ?!
Chi Zheng: ?!
The two of them stared blankly at the iron-skinned cart that had suddenly appeared.
No, this thing, where did it come from?!