Chapter 19

Chapter 19: Polluted Entity

Feng Ling turned to Huang Fu Miao Miao. “Check if there are any aberrants among these people.”

Every nerve in the group pulled tight. No one moved. Even Zhou Zhou, who’d been loud enough to shake the streetlights, threw a probing look at his own teammates.

He trusted the inspection bureau.

But… what if?

Huang Fu Miao Miao scanned them, then shook her head.

The tension cracked. Everyone exhaled at once.

Huang Fu Miao Miao pointed at them, one by one. “Ordinary citizen. Ordinary citizen. Ordinary citizen…”

When her finger reached Zhou Zhou, she yanked it back and ducked behind Feng Ling. “Elite monster.”

Zhou Zhou’s eyebrows lifted. Some of that earlier frustration bled away. “Ha! So that’s how aberrants classify humans. You can tell I’m elite. No wonder you’re scared.”

Feng Ling looked at Huang Fu Miao Miao. “How many points do you get for killing an elite monster?”

“Points fluctuate based on difficulty,” Huang Fu Miao Miao said. “Usually between two hundred and five hundred.”

Feng Ling’s eyes gleamed. She looked at Zhou Zhou and said, matter-of-fact, “Me? Three thousand points.”

Zhou Zhou’s pupils jolted. “No way! That’s impossible! Why would you—”

“Enough,” Su Yu Qing cut in, raising his voice from the call. “Don’t forget your mission in Jiang Kou City.”

Zhou Zhou swung from shock to anger like a snapped cable. “Su, your favoritism is disgusting. She’s not even in the inspection bureau yet and you’re already hyping her while stepping on me?!”

Su Yu Qing ignored him and looked at Feng Ling. “Feng Ling. Why are you in Jiang Kou City?”

“Someone on the Alienstar Forum asked for help hunting aberrants,” Feng Ling said. “I came to take a look.”

She paused, then added, perfectly straight-faced, “I’m just looking. If there really is an aberrant, I’ll call the police.”

Su Yu Qing: “…”

Zhou Zhou snorted. “Stop pretending you’re a law-abiding citizen.”

A Special Assault Team member leaned in and whispered something to Zhou Zhou.

Zhou Zhou frowned, glanced at Feng Ling, and muttered, “Why is it her…”

He checked his phone, then looked at her again, uncertain now. “You… you’re the Dou Sha from that group?”

Feng Ling blinked. “You’re in Chao Qiang Chao’s group too?”

“I’m not.” Zhou Zhou lifted his chin like he was above it. “I’m busy. I don’t have time for this group and that group. I replaced one of their members. I’m going into the tunnel to see what the hell is going on.”

Su Yu Qing spoke again, voice steady. “We’ve been tracking a group of aberrants. Every lead stops at Jiang Kou City like they vanished here. Jiang Kou City doesn’t have an aberrant inspectorate branch bureau, so all related cases fall under Qing Jiang City’s oversight. Since you ran into Zhou Zhou, you can act together and watch each other’s backs. His ability card is strong.”

Feng Ling didn’t answer immediately.

She was thinking.

They were both humans. In theory, cooperation made sense.

In practice, “watch each other’s backs” tended to become “do what you’re told.”

Feng Ling hated messy obligations. She hated being pulled into other people’s hierarchy.

Su Yu Qing continued, voice turning more official. “By regulation, when the inspection bureau discovers an aberrant, we must report it to the central bureau. Even if the aberrant hasn’t shown aggression, it still requires testing and professional assessment. Your situation is special. This time, I can suppress the report for now to avoid unnecessary trouble and misunderstandings.”

A favor.

A leash, maybe—but still a favor.

Feng Ling weighed it, then nodded once. “I’ll cooperate as much as I can.”

Su Yu Qing’s expression eased slightly. “Zhou Zhou. Explain the operation plan to Feng Ling. The moment the suspect sends the location, inform me. I’ll pull nearby surveillance footage and support you remotely.”

“Got it,” Zhou Zhou said, sour-faced, but he didn’t refuse.

The call ended.

Zhou Zhou retracted his beast claws and slouched back into the van to sleep, as if explaining anything was beneath him.

Feng Ling and Huang Fu Miao Miao returned to the truck.

A Special Assault Team member approached Feng Ling, eyes bright with something like admiration. “Can I add you?”

Feng Ling stared. “…What?”

“I mean—we need to add you to the group.” The man was large, but his voice was shy. “We have an action-group chat. Info gets shared there.”

Feng Ling pulled out her phone, scanned the code, and joined.

The group had six people.

Su Yu Qing was the group owner.

Everyone’s nickname was their real name, so Feng Ling changed hers to her real name as well.

[Qin Liang: Map.dnf]

[Qin Liang: Sister Ling, take a look and get familiar. Our technician used phone signals to locate the suspect in this area, but we still haven’t found the tunnel entrance.]

[Zhou Zhou: She’s barely grown and you’re already calling her sister?]

Qin Liang didn’t reply.

No one else replied.

The chat went dead.

Feng Ling opened the map Qin Liang sent. It was a mall floor plan, detailed enough to show internal structure by level. The technician had done the best they could with what they had.

“A tunnel inside a mall?” Huang Fu Miao Miao asked, confused.

“Normally, no,” Feng Ling said. “But ‘normally’ doesn’t mean much these days.”

…

Night stretched on—slow and fast at the same time.

More people arrived at the station, all responding to Chao Qiang Chao’s call. Zhou Zhou’s team intercepted them, questioned them, explained the risk. One by one, they backed out, and Special Assault Team members quietly took their place and kept the operation moving.

Huang Fu Miao Miao watched with envy. “They all quit. Maybe we should too—”

She caught Feng Ling’s half-smile and immediately swallowed the rest of the sentence.

Feng Ling sighed. “With your guts, how did you earn sixteen points?”

“It’s not like every mission is dangerous…” Huang Fu Miao Miao mumbled.

“Then what do you usually do?” Feng Ling asked.

“There are daily-life missions,” Huang Fu Miao Miao said. “Like… getting from the east side of the city to the west. Or climbing the tallest building nearby. Or learning how to use a vehicle…”

She sighed, regretful. “But those don’t give many points. Killing monsters gives the most.”

“Killing monsters?” Feng Ling smiled. “So, killing people.”

Huang Fu Miao Miao got goosebumps. She hurried to explain, “N-no! Most kill-monster missions are for polluted entities.”

Polluted entities—failed products of gene fusion.

Feng Ling had read enough of Huang Fu Miao Miao’s notes to know the pattern. Anything holding an ability card could go one of two ways: evolution, or corruption. And the path of evolution was lined with the risk of corruption, again and again.

“Players who go around killing humans,” Huang Fu Miao Miao said softly, “if they aren’t psychopaths, they usually end up becoming polluted entities. Polluted entities are bloodthirsty. Brutal. No reason left.”

Her voice dropped even lower, like she was afraid the night itself would overhear. “When it comes to clearing polluted entities… players and humans are actually on the same side…”

She stopped mid-sentence, head snapping up.

Feng Ling’s eyes narrowed. “What is it?”

Huang Fu Miao Miao stared into the dark ahead of them, stunned. “System notice. A polluted entity has been detected nearby.”