Lu Yan couldn't remember the last time he'd been chased like this.
It must have been back during his school days, perhaps at a sports event. His body was agile, swift; back then, he'd always had seven or eight classmates trailing behind.
Unexpectedly, after many years, he felt that rush of tension once again.
Lu Yan glanced around hastily; pollutants were converging from all directions, no place resembling a safe zone.
He gritted his teeth and chose the nearest path to his destination.
"You're not a pollutant, yet you symbiotically coexist with Kingfishers. Hence, your blood is highly attractive to these parasitic fish-generated entities."
He could see it now.
Distorted beings in the vicinity surged towards him. Though not numerous, their grotesque appearance alone was enough to turn one's stomach.
Adrenaline surged through Lu Yan. "Shouldn't you have told me about this earlier?"
The system retorted assertively, "How can you blame me? If your psychic threshold wasn't so low, I wouldn't be stuck here like an amnesiac! Take a left, there's an SUV, keys inside. Oh, and I suggest you strip off your clothes."
Due to the mucous on the fish-man's tentacles, Lu Yan's arm continued to bleed profusely, staining a large patch of his sleeve with fresh crimson.
The strong scent of blood briefly lured those distorted beings.
Not only was there an SUV to the left, but also several wildly aggressive aberrant beings.
A frog-like creature leaped, aiming to tackle Lu Yan, but a kick sent it flying three meters away.
Lu Yan pounded the car window, wriggled inside, started the ignition, stepped on the gas - all in one swift motion. "Isn't this a bit of an eyesore for the city?"
"No worries, Bodhisattva. Hurry, strip," the system urged.
Lu Yan hesitated. For over twenty years, he'd been a law-abiding citizen, fearing the authorities. He complied but not entirely.
He tore off the blood-soaked piece of cloth, tossing it out of the window. If the bleeding persisted, he could tear it a few more times. More cost-effective than throwing the whole thing out.
Behind the car, a pile of grotesque pollutants, looking like a bizarre idol fan meeting, relentlessly attacked his discarded clothes.
Finally, the three-meter-tall Fish Head Guy triumphed over the weaker frog beings and swallowed the bloodied cloth, continuing to pursue Lu Yan by its scent.
The SUV swerved elegantly, evading a frog-person charging toward the front window.
Lu Yan usually resided in the city center and preferred walking to commute, so despite having a driver's license, he rarely drove. Unexpectedly, his return to driving was in this high-stakes scenario. Luckily, the streets were deserted.
Pollutants kept colliding with the car, the scraping of metal against metal made Lu Yan's teeth ache. Those were sparks caused by the aberrant beings' nails.
After shaking off some low-level pollutants, the forces trailing Lu Yan became clearer.
Two fish-people and three frog-people, all considerably larger than their normal counterparts.
"Reached E-class pollutant standards. Possess low-level intelligence," the system reported.
Lu Yan caught a whiff of the nauseating fishy odor.
The 7L engine SUV was already at its limit, yet only marginally faster than these pollutants.
Evolved beings with lower-level intelligence were different; they even learned to spew viscous stomach acid onto the wheels. The rubber tires corroded, emitting a sizzling sound.
"Feels like an eternity, doesn't it? Who would've thought only six minutes had passed since this began? Good news is, the Disease Prevention and Control Center has noticed the anomaly; reinforcements are on their way," the system announced.
Lu Yan could barely make out the path ahead. The off-road vehicle plowed through one pollutant after another, a relentless stream of mutated beings causing his scalp to prickle with unease.
The air around him reverberated with the howls of these mutated beings.
But Lu Yan understood that the more chaotic it got, the more critical it was to stay composed. Hence, he treaded cautiously with every step.
Tidal sounds once again echoed in Lu Yan's ears, accompanied by the deafening whirr of helicopter blades in motion. A row of glaring searchlights illuminated the ground, drawing a portion of the firepower.
Lin Sinan squinted, picking off a humanoid toad or frog creature that had leaped onto Lu Yan's vehicle with a sniper shot. Its tongue had extended halfway, a grotesque sight.
"Target located. Lin One, Lin Two, cover and retrieve the individual. Doctor, prepare," Lin Sinan ordered without a hint of relaxation despite finding their target. He took down two more mutants. "Mission priority level: highest."
Thanks to the suppressing fire from above, Lu Yan's survival became slightly less precarious.
Seizing the opportunity, he cautiously opened the car door and leaped from the leaking off-road vehicle. Climbing onto its roof, he awaited rescue by helicopter.
As the rescue ladder drew nearer, a voice filled with excitement suddenly rang in Lu Yan's ears.
"I'm here, I'm here! Where's the Healer?"
Almost as the voice faded, hands swiftly scooped Lu Yan around the waist.
Such speed, almost like a gust of wind.
Inside the helicopter, Lin Sinan cursed vehemently, "Ah Bai! You lunatic!"
In the span of a few breaths, before Lu Yan could react, Ah Bai's feet had touched down on the rooftop of a mall.
The pollutants below lost their target, emitting furious roars, and congregated around the vicinity of the mall following the scent. The mall's gates were tightly shut; the fish-like creatures seethed helplessly below while the frog-like mutants began a slow ascent.
Glancing down at Lu Yan, Ah Bai chuckled, "Wow, you're really good-looking."
His appearance was rather peculiar, the most striking feature being those silver eyes with four pupils continuously swirling within the eye sockets, an eerie yet captivating sight.
Lu Yan: "Thank you. Can you put me down, please?"
"Nope, I'm here to protect you," Ah Bai replied coolly. "It's still not safe."
With that said, he extended a hand and, with a chilling gaze towards the ground below, uttered four words: "Be still, like a mountain."
【Talent - Heavy Pressure】
While not ranking high on the talent hierarchy, combined with Ah Bai's nearly 9000 threshold of spiritual power, against these low-level pollutants, it became a terror akin to the scythe of death.
Below, the densely packed pollutants seemed to be crushed by an invisible weight.
Regardless of size or type, these pollutants were all flattened into a bloody pulp, none spared.
Ah Bai set Lu Yan down and asked, "Do you think I'm handsome? Oh, right, let me introduce myself. I'm Ah Bai."
He flashed a smile that could easily pass off as harmless.
Except for the fact that his revealed fangs were excessively sharp, almost as intimidating as the pollutants themselves.
But in Lu Yan's mind, the system provided more detailed information.
[Ah Bai, 29 years old, 172 cm tall, wearing 6-inch lifts... Oh, that's not important.]
[Spiritual power threshold 8700, morbidity level 42.]
[Possesses talents: Barrier, Teleportation, Heavy Pressure.]
Lu Yan briefly shook his hand, "Lu Yan."
City K, Disease Prevention and Control Center.
On the second day of the outbreak of the contamination disease, Lu Yan had wanted to call this place, but the system blocked him. Surprisingly, after stumbling around for twenty days, he ended up here of his own accord.
The Contamination Center had specially arranged a small room for him to recuperate.
"Well, the good news is, even though you haven't temporarily awakened your second talent, they've mistaken you for a healer-type Harbinger. There isn't much information about healer-types due to the scarcity of cases," the voice echoed as Lu Yan was taking a shower.
Due to the water shortage, he filtered rainwater for his bath, a luxury he hadn't indulged in for a long time.
"Why have you consistently prevented my contact with the Disease Prevention and Control Center and shown such aversion to the institute?" he inquired.
He wasn't worried about surveillance here. All conversations with the system occurred solely within his mind.
The system paused before responding, "Harbingers aren't limited to possessing just one talent. Apart from self-awakening, they can acquire talents from the external world."
"For the future of humanity, they perform complex surgeries, stripping me to give to a more suitable recipient."
"But this kind of stripping causes irreversible damage to your brain, such as intellectual disability, brain atrophy, or brain death. And the process requires the mother entity to remain fully conscious."
"The institute isn't uniform in its principles. Some are driven by lofty ideals, while others see the contamination disease as a stepping stone. Inhumane experiments abound within."
"You might think the contamination disease emerged only in the last decade, but in fact, there were precedents since the last century. Over time, individuals awakened sporadically. Some foolish ordinary people always believe they can control Harbingers..."
"Additionally, as I mentioned, the evolution of pollutants surpasses that of Harbingers by far. There are already several entities approaching a 'god-like' status. Although in the institute's archives, they're uniformly labeled as 'S-class pollutants.'"
...
After a simple cleansing of Lu Yan's wounds, he finished his shower and blow-dried his hair.
A staff member guided him to an office.
Lin Sinan stood up to greet him, pulling out a chair with a warm smile. "Dr. Lu, I didn't expect us to meet again."
At the forefront of the conference table, Ah Bai rested her feet lazily on the wooden surface. "Don't cozy up to him; I'm the one who saved him."
"You're emotionally unstable. Please leave," Lin Sinan pointed to the door.
"The one standing before you is the Deputy Chief of the Special Operations Department and the overall head of the Second Team. Is this how you speak to your superior?" Ah Bai was angry.
Lin Sinan wasn't very interested in engaging with him.
Lu Yan cautiously surveyed the surroundings, finding no windows. There was only the door for entry and exit.
Lin Sinan tried to appear amiable, saying, "No need to be nervous. Let's start with a simple test."
He held up a device resembling an electronic thermometer and scanned Lu Yan with it.
The device displayed two lines of numbers: "Spiritual Power Threshold 174, Pathogenicity 1."
"Only 1?" Ah Bai arched her eyebrows.
It was surprisingly low. It was hard to imagine that the calm-faced young man standing before them had been struggling to survive in a heap of pollutants just an hour ago.
Lu Yan withdrew his hand, calmly asking, "Does that hold any particular significance?"
"No, the index is good. A threshold of 174 is decent for someone newly awakened. Normally it's around 150," Lin Sinan replied.
Lu Yan felt a bit embarrassed to admit that his spiritual power threshold was actually 0 when he first awakened.
Lin Sinan's gaze intensified. "Dr. Lu, after awakening, have you sensed your abilities vaguely?"
"At the end of the last century, just before his death, the head of the institute, Qiao Yu, organized a talent sequence periodic table, ranking all talents based on their strength. The closer to the front, the rarer the talent. Mine, 'Omniscience,' is number 6... I don't really understand this ranking, but I think I'm at least in the top three. After all, pure healing abilities like 'Harbingers' rank first. Humans and pollutants share the talent sequence."
Lu Yan wasn't entirely sure either. It seemed information was valuable everywhere, or else a system that rambles a lot wouldn't rank sixth.
"At present, there are only three healers left in the world, and the only remaining unknown healing talent is 'Devouring.'"
"That's what you're pretending to be."
"Aren't healer-type talents afraid of being stripped?" Lu Yan queried within himself.
"Stripping isn't always successful. Also, not everyone in the institute is corrupt. The law is a higher-dimensional existence than talent, similar to rules. It's a bit verbose to explain, but having me is a win for you."
After a brief exchange in his mind, Lu Yan looked up at the person across from him.
After much contemplation, he replied, "I feel... a bit hungry."