Chapter 5: Class D Special Contamination Source—036

“Clatter…”

Lu Xin scrambled out of the subway station only to find chaos spreading wildly around him.

Earlier, this neighborhood had appeared eerily deserted, as if devoid of any living soul. Now, countless black Jeeps appeared out of nowhere, accompanied by scores of uniformed soldiers. They seemed to have burst forth from beneath the earth—heavily armed, boots thudding—and swarmed toward the area with alarming speed. They immediately began setting up barricades, positioning firearms, swiftly sealing off every exit.

Muffled sounds of pursuit, capture, and even gunfire became faintly audible. Lu Xin couldn’t hide his shock. Refusing to linger, he leapt swiftly across corners and scaled apartment walls dotted with shattered window frames, fleeing far into the distance.

Fortunately, it seemed no one anticipated an escape along the walls. Combined with his blistering speed, Lu Xin managed to slip away unnoticed.

Hands and feet working frantically, Lu Xin’s body coiled and stretched like a nimble spider as he climbed to the top of a nearby building over a dozen stories high. After hauling himself onto its narrow edge, he crouched low and peered back toward the subway station. Squads of dark figures were massing from every street corner. The entire area, including the coffee shop and subway station, was besieged by an impenetrable blockade.

A shiver of dread coursed through him.

“Big Brother, how about you thank me properly?”

The voice belonged to Little Sister, crouched not far away with her arms wrapped around a roughly stitched bear doll. Her messy hair cascaded around her shoulders, almost obscuring her face, yet her slight frame emanated an unnerving aura. Eyes gleaming with satisfaction pierced through the tangled strands.

“Thank you?”

Furious disbelief washed over Lu Xin, whose nerves still weren’t calm. “I ought to beat you senseless for this,” his thoughts surged. But recalling his near capture moments ago, his indignation dissolved. “Fine… Thank you.”

“You’re my Big Brother. I’m your Little Sister. What’s this talk about thank-yous?” she chirped back. Hair veiling much of her face, she giggled lightly. It should have sounded wholesome—instead it carried a note of twisted sweetness.

Lu Xin was about to praise her earnestness when she abruptly raised her chin, eyes sparkling with expectation. “Forget thanks! Get me a toy instead!”

“A toy? Again?” His gaze fell to the mismatched cotton bear still clutched in her arms. The bear’s sewn expression seemed as frayed as his patience. “You already have one right here!”

“This little bear is darling!” Little Sister pressed the creature tighter against her. “But he doesn’t speak.” A tremor of excitement threaded through her voice. “No, I want… I want one that talks. Like a real voice.”

Lu Xin tried brushing it aside. “Later, I’ll get you one with digital audio. It can make sounds.”

“Digitally boring.” A shadow crossed her smile, sharpening it. “Not just sounds. I want one that screams. Agonizingly loud! Sobbing for mercy! The more wretched, the better!”

Lu Xin considered for a beat. “You ever heard of a screaming chicken?”

The question deflated her instantly. Little Sister fell silent. Then the next moment declared petulantly: “I’m done playing!”

“Wai—”

Before Lu Xin could finish, his sister sprang upward like a dark cat leaping into the void before landing gracefully on a sagging power line below. Wind buffeted her frail figure as the cables thrummed beneath her weight. She began swaying lightly while looking back at Lu Xin. Giggling low, she waved a hand. “Better be careful, Big Brother. Someone’s got their sights on you now.”

Lu Xin tensed. “Who?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know!” Her snicker echoed mockingly as she scrambled along the wire before vanishing through a broken window frame across the street.

Lu Xin swallowed hard as he surveyed the dizzying drop below him. “And now… how exactly am I supposed to get down?”

Cautiously scanning the streets below, Lu Xin vaulted from his rooftop perch onto a neighboring building’s lower ledge and began descending through its decaying stairwell. Near the ground floor, he took deliberate detours—crouching behind crumbling pillars and snaking past tilting power lines or structures reduced to solitary walls. After winding through debris and shadow, he emerged onto a street hundreds of meters away.

Quickly smoothing his rumpled clothing, Lu Xin slid both hands into pockets and attempted to blend naturally into the scattered crowd drifting along the avenue. He’d almost succeeded in taking even his first step.

“Car’s open. How about I buy you coffee?”

A brisk female voice sliced through the air behind him.

Lu Xin whirled around.

A woman leaned casually against the frame of a black military Jeep. Trim-cut hair brushed her shoulders under a tailored suit jacket layered atop a silk tank. The oversized amber-tinted lenses enveloping her eyes didn’t soften her presence so much as frame her intensity. There was a whip-thin musculature to her posture—the stance of someone coiled for combat. Even her stiletto heels seemed as keen as blades at the moment. Beside her, the armored vehicle loomed like an impatient iron beast.

Coffee?

Alarm flickered through his mind as Little Sister’s warning resurfaced: “Someone’s got their sights on you.” At twenty-three, he could count the times anyone had truly taken interest in him—let alone a woman like this. Someone whose coiled energy screamed competence and control. She surely wasn’t singling him out from attraction.

Which meant she had tracked him. Probably part of the unit that had trapped the subway station moments earlier. For now, she wanted conversation… not an arrest. That meant possibility—or manipulation. Either way, refusal didn’t seem an option.

He forced steadiness into his voice. “Could we… skip the coffee? Don’t exactly crave it now.”

He noticed a slight twitch of surprise beneath her glasses. Clearly his reaction was neither panic nor arrogance—a nuance she registered instantly but didn’t probe. Assessing his recent ordeal, however, she smiled lazily. “Bar instead. No problem.”

Her lean arm swept toward the passenger door—an effortless, unthreatening gesture. Wordlessly obedient, Lu Xin slid into the leather-clad seat without glancing at the dashboard controls or weaponry stowed within reach. He kept his posture straight, elbows tucked neatly at his sides, refusing even the slight temptation to look toward the driver’s hands gripping the steering wheel.

The woman wasn’t in a hurry to speak either, merely focusing on driving.

After about twenty minutes of travel, the car had entered a sparsely populated street. The woman stopped the car and led Lu Xin through a dim underground passage, arriving in front of a bar entrance secured by iron bars.

The bar wasn’t open for business yet; it was dimly lit and silent.

A waiter with bleary eyes, still heavy with sleep, opened the door for them without a single question. He placed a bottle of liquor and two glasses on their table before shuffling back off to catch more sleep. In the vast, empty bar, only Lu Xin and this woman remained.

“My name is Chen Jing,” the short-haired woman stated frankly, placing a bluish-leather credential in front of Lu Xin. He glanced at it: she hailed from Main City Qingcheng and was the highest-ranking agent in its Patrol Hall. He couldn’t help but look up at her. People from the Main City were already beyond what Satellite City residents could fathom, especially someone with her high status. Her buying him a drink felt particularly strange.

Thinking about the Director inexplicably sending him to deliver documents, and the presence he encountered in the café, Lu Xin knew something wasn’t right. Being maneuvered like this, subjected to such terrifying events, should have made him furious. But noticing the distinct bulge at the woman’s waist where the gun rested beneath her clothes, Lu Xin simply drooped his head and asked, “Why?”

“Allow me to explain the routine matters first,” Chen Jing sidestepped the direct question, biting off the cork and pouring two glasses.

“I belong to a department that handles anomalous incidents, specifically managing Contamination Incidents within the Highwall Cities.”

Lu Xin blinked; he clearly struggled to process such words.

Chen Jing slid a glass towards him. “You can understand us as: official.”

Lu Xin instantly grasped that simple designation.

Chen Jing continued, “After the Crimson Moon Incident, the reorganization of the various Main Cities and Satellite Cities, the handling and eradication of those maniacs Outside the City, the resistance of the Knights Order in The Wilderness and the Spirit Cults, the construction of the High Walls, and their ongoing maintenance—all these were handled by our people.”

“And now, our primary focus is managing Contamination Incidents within Main City and the five Satellite Cities!”

“Anomalous incidents?” Lu Xin looked up at her.

“That’s right,” Chen Jing nodded, confirming. “Events beyond normal understanding, aberrations. Like the situation you encountered in the coffee shop.”

She pulled out a file and pushed it across the table towards him. “Take a look.”

Lu Xin saw the word “CONFIDENTIAL” stamped on the file’s cover.

He slowly opened it. The first page contained rows of text printed in type and numerous data points.

Target Designation: Class D Special Contamination Source – 036

Threat Level: Tier 1

Infection Level: Low (Contact Transmission / Infection Rate 90% / Deep Infection Rate 70%)

Growth Potential: High

Danger Level: Low

Description: Target is a Tier 1 Psychic Entity. Capable of infecting any lifeform making close physical contact. Lacks airborne/aerosol transmission capability. Can be neutralized by eliminating the parasitic host body harboring the Psychic Entity. Host body remains within ordinary human physical parameters and is susceptible to physical damage. Current observations indicate the source entity lacks higher cognitive functions; its actions are confined to repetitions of pre-infection behaviors and limited, simplistic interaction.

Special Containment Procedures: None

…

As Lu Xin scrutinized the file, Chen Jing slowly lit a cigarette.

She began to speak, her voice measured. “The Crimson Moon Incident turned over seventy percent of the world’s population into maniacs. We survivors only managed to keep going by retreating behind the protection of the High Walls in the Main Cities and Satellite Cities. But in truth,” she took a drag, “even among the survivors, not everyone remained sane. Many experienced Spiritual Mutations. These distortions can affect the people around them, or the events surrounding them.”

“We call such situations Contamination.”

“Contamination?” Lu Xin looked up, the familiar word suddenly feeling alien.

After the Crimson Moon Incident, with the collapse of civilization, the shattering of order, countless chemical plants, power stations, and other facilities destroyed, leaks of hazardous waste had indeed created vast swathes of pollution across the world, especially Outside the City. Even after thirty years, many areas hadn’t recovered. Residents of the Highwall Cities were certainly familiar with pollution. But this “Contamination” the woman spoke of seemed different.

“Correct, Contamination.” Chen Jing nodded, reiterating the term. “Just like a conventional source of contamination, it radiates outwards, influencing the people around it, causing them to develop the same symptoms. It functions similarly to a plague. Only, this type of Contamination… it’s more mysterious. Far more terrifying.”

“The coffee shop you entered today is one such source. Before today, it had already Contaminated fifty-two people!”

“…”

“So… what…” Lu Xin was visibly startled by the number. Struggling to digest her words, he gestured vaguely with his hand. “What happens… if you get Contaminated?”

“They get sick.” Chen Jing’s reply was starkly simple, almost mechanical, as if she’d answered the question countless times. “Conventional contamination causes physical illness. This kind, spiritual contamination… it causes sickness in the mind.”

“The consequences of this sickness vary. Some experience intense despair and commit suicide.”

“Some lose their minds, violently attacking those around them.”

“Some lose the ability to communicate with anyone or anything…”

“Others develop a powerful, obsessive urge to harm themselves.”

“In essence,” she concluded, tapping the file, “a Source of Contamination spawns a type of infectious mental disease.”