Lu Yan was unaware that, due to his long-term paid leave and occasional exhaustion of three or more assistant doctors during hospital shifts, he had become a urban legend at the First People's Hospital in K City.
Or even if he knew, Lu Yan was indifferent.
Although only half a year had passed, the ordinary world seemed excessively unfamiliar to him. Because he couldn't control delirium very well, Lu Yan just gave a faint "Hmm" and hung up the phone.
On the other end of the call, Director Li from the Disease Prevention and Control Center couldn't help but feel worried. "Why does it feel like Lu Yan is becoming more reclusive?"
Several days ago, Director Li heard about Lu Yan topping the list of intermediate staff. For this reason, the center issued a directive specifically instructing him to pay special attention to Lu Yan's physical and mental health.
Director Li did want to care, but Lu Yan never gave him the opportunity. After half a year, the number of registered users on the Tianqi Forum had risen to 70,000. This number wasn't small, but when spread across every inch of land in the city, it appeared particularly minuscule.
On average, each Tianqi user had to be responsible for the security of 2,127 square kilometers. Fortunately, not every inch of land was inhabited.
Now, including Lu Yan, there were a total of seven resident Tianqi users in K City, responsible for its safety. Four of them awakened during the parasitic fish incident half a year ago.
The disaster brought endless pain to the city, but among millions of people, only 10 awakened as Tianqi users and survived. Four of them joined relevant departments, and four chose to destroy their records and return to ordinary life due to their average abilities. The remaining two were still observing and couldn't accept the changes in their bodies for the time being.
On the 5th of every month, a routine meeting was held at the Disease Prevention and Control Center. The main purpose was to allocate tasks and convey important files from higher-ups.
After joining the Special Operations Department, Lu Yan either got stuck in dreams or on an island during meeting times, or he stayed at headquarters for training.
Therefore, this was his first time participating in the meeting. The frequently absent Dr. Lu was also a urban legend at the Disease Prevention and Control Center in K City.
The meeting took place in the large conference room on the first floor, with attendees including members of the Special Operations Department, staff from the Pollution Disease Prevention Center, and representatives from the nearby Seventh Research Institute—about a hundred people in total.
Fortunately, there were name tags in front of each seat in the meeting room, so Lu Yan didn't have trouble finding his place. After he sat down, many people in the room cast curious glances his way.
Although Lu Yan's appearance and temperament couldn't be described as gloomy, the Tianqi users who awakened during the parasitic fish incident instinctively kept their distance from him.
A few small fish shivered on the side, saying, "I don't know how to put it, but I feel like he's so scary..."
Bloodline suppression, there was no way around it.
The head of K City, surnamed Wang, was a mild-mannered middle-aged woman. She belonged to the second group of the Special Operations Department and was a combat-type Tianqi user with a spiritual power threshold of 4300.
She had been working in K City for over thirty years. However, during the last pollution disease incident, she couldn't rush back in time due to a business trip, which left her often brooding over it.
Minister Wang was very dissatisfied with the headquarters' attitude of classifying incidents based on the danger level of pollution sources. She believed that the contagiousness of pollutants was far more important than lethality. Because, for ordinary people, even a pollutant with a pollution level of 100 could be deadly.
In the previous parasitic fish incident in K City, the most powerful pollutant was only a social algae person with a spiritual power threshold of 2300, so it was classified as a C-level pollution incident.
In fact, tens of thousands of people died in K City due to the epidemic, more than the total deaths from some B-level and A-level incidents combined.
Minister Wang said, "Let's first talk about several important files sent by headquarters."
"The former director of the First Research Institute, Gong Weibin, resigned and took away the important experimental subject 01, codenamed Hound, before resigning. The last known location is H City. Currently, Gong Weibin is on the wanted list, and any intelligence should be promptly reported back to headquarters."
Gong Weibin lived for over 140 years, with parents, wife, and children naturally passing away. His only social connections were colleagues at the research institute and a few students, so he had no mental burden for fleeing.
"According to satellite monitoring, a new high-level pollutant has appeared in the coastal waters of S City. The preliminary speculation is that the mutation involves tentacles and gigantism. The body shape resembles an octopus. The estimated pollution level is around 7000. Due to the blue eyes on its tentacles, it is currently codenamed 'Blue-eyed Octopus,' and it is unclear whether it is poisonous."
Lu Yan looked up at the screen.
On the image were many large tentacles entwined around ships, with numerous blue eyes on the surface of the tentacles.
[Do you recognize this octopus?] the system asked.
Lu Yan thought for a moment. "Shen Qingyang?"
The last time they met, Shen Qingyang was locked in a cage, and his lower half had transformed into black octopus tentacles. At that time, the eyes on the tentacles hadn't turned blue yet.
Satellite monitoring couldn't capture every inch of the sea surface at all times. Being able to retrieve such a blurry image was already fortunate.
At that time, Shen Qingyang's humanoid upper body was all in the sea and wasn't photographed. Most people at headquarters still thought he was a deep-sea giant octopus.
Supporting his chin, Lu Yan quietly browsed through the information and whispered, "He's the only patient in my medical career that I couldn't cure."
The hospital implemented a system where the first-contact physician was responsible. Patients Lu Yan dealt with always left the hospital intact.
The system comforted him, [This isn't your fault. It's just the inevitable result of evolution. He's no longer human.]
The meeting lasted for an hour, which wasn't particularly long. In the later part of the meeting, Lu Yan also received commendations from headquarters. As a new employee, he successfully outperformed his peers in the fight against pollution, and for this, he was awarded with a bonus and an honorary medal.
In the meeting room, thunderous applause erupted. Director Li from the Prevention and Control Center, in particular, gazed at Lu Yan with a motherly affection.
Lu Yan hadn't expected such a dramatic turn in this meeting, feeling somewhat surprised. Fortunately, during his student days, he often inexplicably became the "City's Outstanding Three Good Student" or the "National First Prize Scholarship Winner," so standing on stage for recognition wasn't unfamiliar.
The system chimed in, "[Regular meetings each month are to instill discipline in you all; commendation is to enhance your sense of belonging.] [If the Harbingers feel rejected by human society or believe they no longer belong to the human category, it could significantly impact social stability.]"
After the meeting, Lu Yan once again sat in the lecture hall-like briefing room and began drafting the action report for the Mermaid Island operation. Due to the inconvenience of revealing the system, Lu Yan's writing process was quite rudimentary, and he attributed most of the credit to Talent 915 for inter-species communication.
The staff's expressions gradually became confused, "So, all this information is what the merfolk told you?"
Lu Yan nodded, maintaining a calm demeanor.
"In that case, next time when the Institute updates the talent sequence list, 'Inter-Species Communication' can be moved up a bit." The staff pondered.
Initially, the talent sequence list had only around three hundred talents. However, as more and more Harbingers awakened, the contents of this chart continued to enrich, getting updated every few years. Lu Yan single-handedly succeeded in pushing Talent 914 forward.
The staff noted down the information on paper and continued to inquire, "You really haven't awakened any other combat-oriented talents?"
In the special prison for Harbingers, the Lone Wolf had fully confessed to his crimes and candidly admitted to being defeated by Lu Yan. Fortunately, the Lone Wolf was unaware of Lu Yan's specific talent, and the records in the file did not detail the combat process.
Just as Lu Yan was contemplating whether to fabricate another talent, the system chirped, "[No need to worry; someone helped you conceal it.]"
"Who?"
"[Doggy Dragon.]"
So, Lu Yan replied, "None."
The talents he currently possessed were Omniscience, Delirium, and Regeneration. These three talents were quite unique and couldn't be directly used for combat. As for Talent 25, Devour, initially, the system had him disguise it as a healing talent, claiming that he could use the Kingfisher to devour sources of pollution. After several special treatments, Lu Yan discovered that, indeed, the Mutants gradually returned to normal after devouring pollution, not much different from genuine healing talents.
Lu Yan speculated that he might indeed possess the ability of the Devour talent. However, the talent owner was not him, but the Kingfisher inside his body. After all, other fish could give the skill book when eaten, except for the first one.
The staff didn't press on with further questions. Later, Lu Yan underwent a psychological health assessment test using a holographic gaming capsule called the "Brain in the Jar," co-produced by the tenth and thirteenth research institutes. It was said that the game's main brain was called the "Brain in the Jar," derived from a special mental contaminant.
Under the stimulus of bioelectricity, the testers would briefly mistake the virtual world for reality. Lu Yan didn't know about others, but he vividly remembered that he was doing a test... and the game was called "Emperor Development Plan."
The data showed that Lu Yan's mental state was excellent. Even among ordinary people, he belonged to the group with extremely high morality and a strong sense of justice.
When forced to exit the game, Lu Yan felt a bit sentimental. After all, given a few more hours, he could lead feudal society toward communism.
...
...
In the office, Director Li knew that Lu Yan liked good-looking things and understood that he had no chance of turning young again. Therefore, he could only choose more expensive wigs to wear on his head.
To lighten the atmosphere, Director Li's office was transformed into something like an afternoon tea café. He even kept an affectionate little cat.
On the table were some desserts and snacks, as well as frozen ice cream coffee, reportedly all of Dr. Lu's favorite flavors.
Lu Yan sat on the soft sofa, and after a few days of recovery, the injuries from the fight had healed. The newly grown body gradually adapted, and he no longer encountered situations where he wanted to use his right hand but lifted his left leg instead.
He didn't feel like talking much, so he gestured to Director Li with his eyes to speak directly.
Having caught his gaze, for some reason, Director Li felt pressured. "It's like this, Mr. Lu. According to the rules, you've just returned from out of town, and you're still on vacation. We shouldn't make such requests... However, other employees either lack the skill or have ongoing tasks or have an excessively high degree of infection mutation, making them unsuitable for the mission. So, I had to shamelessly come to you... Do you have time for a mission recently?"
Lu Yan thought for a moment and asked, "What mission?"
His voice was very pleasant to listen to.
Director Li, still somewhat in a daze, replied after a moment of waking from his dream, "It's not very difficult... Because you are a healing-type Harbinger, that's why the higher-ups chose you. When the botanical garden in Luochuan was attacked, the headquarters borrowed Experimental Subject 07 from the research institute, but 07 escaped without permission."
"Recently, someone has been found near City X. But 07's mutation level is too high now, making containment very dangerous. The headquarters hopes you can go to City X and use your healing-type talent on 07."
Lu Yan hadn't seen 07 in reality, but he had worked at the First Research Institute for three months. Initially, 07 wasn't the name, and he lived in Room 07 on the 9th floor. He was a university student from the National Defense Military Academy who played the guitar.
Lu Yan thought for a moment.
Remembering that volunteer who lived in Room 07 on the 9th floor, his name was Zong Yan.
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