Chapter 93: Only Saving Lives
Chapter 93: Only Saving Lives
“The preliminary Logic Chain of Special Contamination No. 096 could be confirmed.”
“Through a gifted Rose, the recipient becomes contaminated, growing within the recipient’s Emotion.”
“When the recipient’s Emotion reached a certain intensity, it became activated—it couldn’t be ruled out that someone manipulated the Source of Contamination covertly, hence triggering mass simultaneous Contamination Incidents—after activation, the recipient transforms into the primary vector for secondary Contamination, manifesting as stimulating surrounding crowds into abnormal fervor.”
“Couples afflicted by this secondary Contamination exhibited the following symptoms:”
“1. Amplifying their longing and desire for their lover, rushing to meet them regardless.”
“2. Expressing intense affection through actions like embracing or kissing their lover.”
“Analysis of existing data indicates that groups experiencing secondary Contamination mutate after a set period—approximately thirty minutes—exhibiting identical aberrant behavior: Collective love suicide!”
“Those with their partners might choose mutual death to prove their love.”
“Those unable to find their partners might develop an impulse to leap from a high building to demonstrate their devotion…”
“…”
As Lu Xin charged into the tall building, depriving those hand-holding couples rushing upstairs of their mobility, Han Bing in the communication channel rapidly organized the information. She relayed it up the chain while briefing Lu Xin. Her analysis, clearly articulated, integrated findings from other Operation Teams, consolidated and interpreted.
The sudden Contamination Incident wasn’t isolated to Wanzhong Plaza alone; other locations reported similar outbreaks. Therefore, intelligence wasn’t sourced solely here. Investigations and discoveries from all sites converged at the Information Analysis Team.
“How can it be so complicated…”
Lu Xin inquired quietly, waving his flagpole while distinct “crack-crack” sounds echoed around him. His voice carried both anger and bewilderment.
Anger, because this Contamination Incident caused massive casualties.
Real people—could eat, work, kiss, grow vegetables, might even help others—snuffed out just like that?
Bewilderment, from the complexity of the incident.
Lu Xin wasn’t unfamiliar with Special Contamination Incidents, having handled several. Previously encountered Logic Chains were either painfully simple or bizarrely inexplicable. Yet this one originated from a single source presented an unprecedented complication: within the Logic Chain, a mutation had occurred.
…
…
“Because it’s man-made…”
Han Bing’s voice in the channel met Lu Xin’s simmering anger with calmness, weighted with gravity:
“Naturally occurring Sources of Contamination rarely cause such sudden, uncontrollable mass Chaos.”
“What we face now likely connects to the reported theft of the mysterious Oil Painting by Team Leader Chen. Ability Users from Outside the City probably orchestrated this series of Special Contamination Incidents to create Chaos, facilitating their escape…”
“Only through careful human conspiracy can the destructive potential of a Contamination Source be maximized…”
“…”
“Still that Qin Ran doing this?”
Lu Xin’s heart sank slightly, his question quiet.
“Yes!”
Han Bing’s voice remained composed: “Emergency investigation into Special Contaminant-041 has been initiated. However, clues are scant; definitive conclusions aren’t possible. What we know: Ability Users Outside the City incited major disorder in Satellite City No.2. Regardless of their objective, Contamination has already occurred.”
“Our only course now is maximum cleanup effort… Before more lives are lost!”
“…”
Hearing Han Bing’s words, a heaviness settled in Lu Xin’s heart. He pressed his lips into a tight line, fell silent, and sprinted faster up the building’s staircase to the rooftop.
En route, he had deprived five more people of mobility.
Upon reaching the rooftop, he saw three individuals nearing the edge.
At the left ledge stood a middle-aged man hand-in-hand with a plump woman.
At the right was a thin young man.
They were perilously close to stepping over.
Lu Xin forcefully pushed himself into a state of urgency, his eyes snapping to Little Sister.
Throughout this ordeal, Little Sister had remained exceptionally obedient. Sensing Lu Xin’s intense focus, she provided seamless support, never once distracting him.
Meeting his urgent gaze, she instantly understood his unspoken directive.
The distance was too vast; saving all three simultaneously was impossible.
They would have to split tasks.
After nodding at each other, Lu Xin suddenly kicked off, charging towards the teenage boy near the right-side building edge.
As he surged forward, Little Sister had already leaped from his back, darting toward the middle-aged couple on the left.
One reached the teenager’s side, abruptly wrapping arms around his waist and tackling him down less than ten centimeters from the cliff-like edge. The other, unnaturally appearing beside the middle-aged couple on the left, forcibly dragged them back.
“I love you, Nannan…”
The boy’s eyes were dazed as he yelled, still struggling frantically toward the edge.
His face held a sorrowful, hopeless expression, and he clutched a photo of a girl in a denim jacket.
Even after being pulled back by Lu Xin, he kept struggling toward the drop, voice choked with sobs: “I’ve said it so many times, I genuinely love you! You never believed me! Now I’ll die to prove it! Then you must believe me, right…?”
…
Lu Xin wasted no time arguing. Snatching a flowerpot from nearby, he smashed it directly onto the boy’s forehead.
“Crash!”
The pot shattered. The boy crumpled, unconscious. Finally quiet.
“Whether she believes your sincerity… might be a separate issue from her choosing to stay with you,” Lu Xin murmured, glancing at the photo in the boy’s hand. He sighed softly, then turned his gaze to Little Sister.
That single look made his eyes widen slightly.
He saw Little Sister had already bound the middle-aged couple… by using the man to tie up the woman and the woman to tie up the man.
The elderly couple were twisted like soft dough.
…How had she done that?
…
“Stop it!”
Lu Xin said in a low voice.
Little Sister made a face at him before sulkily untangling them.
Once freed, the old couple appeared completely unharmed – their arms and legs whole and functional.
Lu Xin felt even more puzzled. How had Little Sister managed that?
“Who are you talking to?”
The voice from the comms channel was Han Bing’s, sounding tense.
“…A boy trying to jump,” Lu Xin explained, letting out a slight sigh of relief. He looked up—and abruptly froze in place.
A chill shot straight up from the core of his being.
…
From his rooftop perch, looking out across the cityscape, he could see numerous rooftops of varying heights.
Now, every rooftop held shadowy figures.
Some were couples walking hand-in-hand toward the precipice, faces marked by sickly sweetness or vacant bliss. Others stood in solitary silence, shuffling step by step. One solitary figure walked woodenly forward, dragging a sobbing, struggling person who screamed for help by the hair.
They all reached the edges regardless, forming ragged lines… and plunged off together.
Pairs jumped silently, hands still clasped.
One lone jumper screamed in impotent rage, the cry stretching into a long, fading arc from rooftop to ground.
Some wept, locked in a final embrace as they fell.
…
Lu Xin’s heart lurched into a frantic rhythm. Just in that first wide-angle glance, he saw dozens of people. Further out, stretching across nearby buildings… hundreds. But the distances were immense. The nearest rooftop was forty, fifty meters away. Beyond that, a hundred meters, then two hundred… He could see them with grim clarity, perfectly impossible to reach.
The sheer enormity of the space suddenly made him feel minuscule. Powerless.
“What’s happening?”
Han Bing’s voice came through the earpiece from Lu Xin’s chest-mounted camera, her view obscured by distance.
“The other rooftops… there are so many…” Lu Xin’s voice sounded hollow, strained. “I… I can’t get to them… not in time…”
Silence crackled for a heartbeat on the channel as Han Bing understood.
Her heart sank like a stone.
“Capacity… has limits…” she said after too long a pause, forcing calm into her voice. “Don’t… blame yourself…”
The underlying strain, the raw horror she obviously shared, vibrated through the reassurance.
Help those you can. Those beyond your reach… that lies outside your capacity.
Lu Xin knew the old teaching, the one the Old Dean had often repeated.
Knowing it rationally, though, didn’t extinguish the strange emotion churning within him when faced with this panorama of countless figures stepping up to the fatal drop.
…
He didn’t know if it was profound helplessness, cold and suffocating… or a visceral panic at the sheer scale of life being extinguished around him.
It had been a very long time since Lu Xin had felt an emotion this intense.
Suddenly, the roaring beat of helicopter rotors descended from directly overhead.