MASG chapter 57

 

After going in circles, they ended up back where they started.

Xiang Xing opened his eyes wide. “That’s exactly what he said.”

“That same phrase again?” Lao Gui’s head ached at the mere mention of those eight words. “What ‘Apocalypse Knights’ stuff? This hospital is like a cult.”

“My mom said they wanted to draw my blood back then.” Midou got angry whenever he heard that name. “If they really wanted to cure Moruote patients, they should have come to me after I recovered. But they never looked for me again, which proves that refusing them was the right choice back then.”

“With their manpower and resources, they might already be conducting live experiments on genetically engineered humans. Of course, they wouldn’t need to contact you,” Lao Gui guessed. Those people were capable of anything. “If only we could get rid of them.”

“Impossible. Rijianmei Hospital has become a global metropolis.” It has branches in every region. Its roots are deeply entrenched around the world. There are several in Qingyao City alone. Xia Yu knew they couldn’t get rid of Rijianmei. “Jingwei, could you help me check how many Rijianmei branches there are in Qingyao City?”

Jingwei: [Statistics in progress. Statistics complete. There are a total of 31, and one of them has a main branch license, meaning Rijianmei’s headquarters are in Qingyao City on Meili Street in the northeast of the city.

“I know that street. It’s full of plastic surgery hospitals.” The hospitals Mi Dou mentioned not only offer anatomical surgeries, but also mechanical replacements. Nowadays, replacing unsatisfactory bodies with high-tech machinery is the most fashionable trend.

It’s truly sigh-inducing. When Nuwa betrayed humanity, they were forced to modify themselves mechanically for survival, praising the Cult of the Almighty Machine. In just six years—only six years—humanity has forgotten the purpose of these modifications. Under the Cult’s guidance, more and more children are joining this trend.

Jingwei: [Are you going? With the abilities I gained from Ling Shi, I can access the legal surveillance zone of Rijianmei Hospital.]

“Let’s not go now. Even if we go, we won’t have any evidence. We can’t prove these things are related to it. We might just alert them.” Xia Yu isn’t that foolish.

If the Tide Ship incident six years ago was just the beginning, then the Black Sea incident indicates that they have officially entered a grand plan or conspiracy. They haven’t experienced many things, but are there really so many coincidences in the world?

Impossible. It must be a deliberate arrangement.

There must be a thread running through it all. As Xia Yu pondered quietly, his eyes revealed a strange “sea color.” It was the true color of the ocean—indescribable and breathtakingly beautiful. But his mood wasn’t so pleasant. He wanted to find the cause of everything, the source of it all.

The source was probably… Nuwa’s betrayal?

Xia Yu couldn’t stop speculating. If they were going to face the truth sooner or later, he hoped they would be prepared when that day came.

The sea conditions calmed, and they reestablished contact with Yanxia and Milian. Once the ship docked, Yanxia arranged for a drone to pick up the guards, and the rest traveled to Power Plant No. 3 in Talos’s driverless car.

Jingwei: [I feel like we haven’t been there in ages. The road ahead is clear, but watch out for pedestrians.]

Mo An had just awakened when two people separated him from Xia Yu. “Why are we going there… Why did I faint again just now?”

“Because you’ve been poisoned again,” Talos replied.

Xia Yu apologized, saying, “It’s all my fault. I’ll get a medical checkup when I get back.”

“It’s not your fault… Maybe I’ll develop an immunity after being poisoned a few more times,” Mo An offered, suggesting an impossible hypothesis.

“Give me a break. Meng Qingqing said the Blue Jellyfish is your natural enemy. Based on what we know now, ordinary people must eat Xia Yu’s flesh and blood to be poisoned. But you mermaid only need to touch his skin, sweat, or bodily fluids to be poisoned,” Lao Gui said, giving Mo An a side-eye.

“Why is that?” Mo An turned to Xia Yu in surprise. Did this mean he could never hug xla again?

Xi Ban, however, understood perfectly. “Mo An, you shouldn’t contact Xia Yu for now. Don’t underestimate the poison. It’s a neurotoxin. If you’re poisoned too deeply, you’ll go insane.”

“But… okay, there will definitely be a solution in the future.” Mo An barely suppressed the urge to get closer to Xia Yu. “Actually, I have another question. Talos, why were you able to enter Power Plant No. 3?”

Mi Dou and Xia Yu looked over at the same time.

Jing Wei: [Yeah, why were you able to enter the power plant? This question confuses me greatly. According to my records, you are not listed as ‘permitted personnel.'” Talos had avoided this question for six years. “Haha, well, that’s a long story. But I can tell you, I don’t know why either. I’m just guarding that place, obeying my family’s will.”

“What family are you from?” Xia Yu guessed that Talos must be extraordinary. “You were able to talk to Leviathan. Everyone who came into direct contact with Leviathan on the edge of the Black Sea went mad.”

Mo An thought of the ship in the sea. Thankfully, Leviathan hadn’t found him.

“I’ll tell you when you’re a few years older.” Talos winked at them. The less a child knows, the better.

A year and a half had passed since their last visit to the power plant, but nothing had changed. They still entered through the manhole cover directly beneath the Rijianmei Plastic Surgery Hospital. The hospital’s advertisement slogan, “Let yourself become more beautiful day by day,” practically touched the edge of the manhole cover.

Xi Ban had been here before, and Xiang Xing, a new partner, came along, looking around curiously.

“I sensed traces of some kind of fungus,” he suddenly said.

“You’re right; we were attacked by fungal people here.” Xia Yu was greatly shocked. “You could detect the fungal cells from years ago?”

“Yes. If there’s no food, they can be my food.” Xiang Xing was clearly more knowledgeable. “Did you manage to escape the fungal attack?”

“Haha, back then, I was the one who chased the fungal man away.” Mi Dou pointed to himself.

“You?” Xiang Xing reached out and touched Mi Dou’s body with a fungal hyphae before withdrawing it. “Impossible. Fungal infections involve engulfing and contamination. They don’t feel pain, just like me. You couldn’t have chased him away. He must have noticed something and released Xia Yu on his own.”

“Oh? That’s really strange. We were all young back then, and Xia Yu wasn’t poisonous yet. “Mi Dou calculated their ages. They were just children back then.”

“That’s even stranger…” Xiang Xing’s face, identical to Xia Yu’s, changed appearance, becoming a fungal person. “Was that parasite like this?”

Xia Yu shuddered. “How terrifying. It’s exactly the same.”

“I’ve seen their host. We came from the same lab. Coincidentally, that fungus escaped on its own. I didn’t expect it to end up in Qingyao City.” Xiang Xing’s face returned to normal. “Before it consumes food, it assimilates it into a bacterial cell. If it can’t infect something, it spits the food out.”

“Yes, the fungal person spit out Xia Yu.” Mi Dou quickly said.

Xiang Xing continued to ponder, then suddenly extended a hypha to poke Xia Yu in the face. “I understand. It can’t assimilate you. You survived not because you were infected and not because Mi Dou injured the fungal person either. You survived because you rejected the infection. You are a pure being.”

“Huh?” Xia Yu had never heard this concept before. If not for Xiang Xing, the fungal person would remain a mystery.

“The blood of someone who cannot be contaminated is called pure. Trust me; I definitely won’t lie to you. I believe my hyphae cannot grow in your blood either. You are someone we cannot invade,” said Xiang Xing.

“See? I told you X-series people aren’t ordinary.” Lao Gui had long suspected that the X-series had secrets.

“But Professor Wang Qin didn’t mention any of this.” Xia Yu touched his arm.

“Wang Qin. That name sounds familiar. Isn’t she a very thin person with half-white hair tied up in the back?” Xiang Xing stopped.

Xia Yu and Mo An looked at him together. Xiang Xing’s face changed again, but more slowly this time, as if he were struggling to recall something. After ten seconds, his face settled, now bearing feminine features.

“Xia Yu.” He spoke again, and this time it was a woman’s voice.

Xia Yu was startled at first, but by the time he recovered, a deep longing overwhelmed his thoughts. He knew this person was Xiang Xing. Seeing the face he had longed for day and night, he realized that the passage of time hadn’t erased the impression she had left. On the contrary, it had become even more profound.

It was Professor Wang’s face and voice. It really was her.

Xia Yu ran to Xiang Xing and hugged him tightly in a few steps. He was immersed in the brief, intoxicating feeling that Xiang Xing brought and freely released his longing. Tears streamed down his face involuntarily. “Professor Wang, you’ve finally come back. Look at me; I’ve grown up.”

“That’s Professor Wang’s voice. I recognize it.” However, Mo An was much calmer. He had never met Wang Qin in person; he had only heard her speak.

“How do you know Wang Qin?” Talos was deeply uneasy; things were getting increasingly complicated.

Xia Yu was still lost in thought, but reason brought him back. After wiping away his tears, Xiang Xing’s face returned to normal. “Because I saw her. She touched my petri dish in the lab in Yukun City. She was talking to someone about the X series, but I was in the petri dish at the time and couldn’t hear everything. So, the X series she was talking about is you guys. What a coincidence.”

“Professor Wang Qin went to the lab in Yukun City?” Xia Yu was even more puzzled. Xiang Xing was the thread connecting the two cities.

“I saw her.” Xiang Xing nodded again to confirm.

He was definitely not lying; otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to conjure up Professor Wang Qin’s likeness. Xia Yu touched Xiang Xing’s face. “How strange. I never knew Professor Wang did research in Yukun City. But never mind; scientists are always on the go.”

Xiang Xing’s mycelium began probing Xia Yu’s body again. Sure enough, his blood was different, though it was hard to pinpoint what made it special. “If you trust me, I can go back to Yukun City and help you investigate. I can infiltrate the research lab…”

“Too risky,” Lao Gui immediately interrupted. “Yukun City is in complete chaos. You won’t come out alive if you go back. You can explain these things to Yan Xia and Silver Fang in detail. Let’s get Mo An to do the important stuff first.”

Jingwei: [Xie Dang is right, listen to Xie Dang.]

“Shut up.” Lao Gui roared.

By the time they finished talking, they had already passed through the gate. The scene before them shocked Xiang Xing, who was visiting the place for the first time. A forest of black power storage towers stood before them. A few were brightly lit; the vast majority were in darkness.

Mo An walked to the base of one of the towers and placed his hand on it. The screen above his head flashed again, and he felt an electric current flowing through his hand. However, it was different from previous times. The current was no longer flowing slowly but rather through an inductive current. It was abnormally strong, and sparks spread from his fingertips into the air as if he were grasping a half-meter-long bolt of lightning.

The brightness was so intense that Mo An couldn’t open his eyes.

[Storage Tower No. 233, charging preparation.]

[Charging complete, awakening initiated.]

[“Reclamation” project, officially launched.]

These words weren’t unfamiliar; they were the same as last time. But what followed was completely foreign. It was as if a sun had exploded before his eyes. The flashes were so bright that they were temporarily blinding. Their vision was stolen, and everyone covered their eyes with their hands.

A bright blue light shone through, and one spiraling energy storage tower after another lit up silently, like an endless, steep, insurmountable mountain range from left to right and from the outermost circle to the innermost. Even as Mo An’s eyes adjusted to the light, the number of lit towers continued to increase.

The blue light became a sea of electrons.

Just when Mo An thought he could see them all lit up, the lighting ceremony… It was completely over.

[The “Reclamation Project” has been halted, progress at 23.3%.]

The dome’s progress has also come to an abrupt halt. However, this number is still a miracle that Mo An hadn’t anticipated. Lighting up even one tower before had been incredibly difficult, yet this time, progress had advanced to one-fifth of the overall plan. This was an even greater shock than the aftereffects of the lighting ceremony. It proved that Operation 002, the land reclamation project, was possible.

“My God! It’s progressed so much!” Lao Gui was more excited than anyone else present. “Mo An, what kind of chip did you get your hands on?”

Mo An was equally puzzled and turned to Xiang Xing for an answer. “Why is that person’s chip so powerful?”

“I don’t know.” Xiang Xing was equally confused.

Jingwei: [Chips capable of inducing Electronic Corruption possess different levels of power. It seems Mo An has come across a high-level chip this time. The energy storage tower at Power Plant No. 3 can only be powered by eco-electricity. Mo An, please keep going.]

“What do I need to keep going?” “I have no idea what this place is for…” Mo An remained indifferent to the reclamation project. In his mind, the matter’s seriousness paled in comparison to Xia Yu’s toxicity.

Regardless, the operation had undoubtedly been very successful. Xia Yu had a premonition that they were getting closer to discovering the truth, which all pointed back to Professor Wang Qin. Although she was no longer with him, her spirit lived on, and her thirst for the truth had been “inherited” by Xia Yu.

What was all this? What exactly was the X series? What was the purpose of a pure body?

When they returned to the middle floor, Xia Yu and Xiang Xing were taken immediately to the examination room. Milian came to pick up her son. She had already made funeral arrangements for the fallen and was in a low mood. Yan Xia sent Silver Fang to receive Xiang Xing personally, while Mo An and Xi Ban waited outside the examination room for Xia Yu’s results.

An hour later, Xia Yu emerged, accompanied by Lao Gui and holding his medical report.

“How is it?” Xi Ban grabbed Mo An’s wrist to stop him from hugging Xia Yu again.

“He’s developed a venom, but it isn’t very toxic yet, only moderately so. The venom gland is behind his vocal cords[mfn]The vocal cords, also known as vocal folds, are located within the larynx, just above the trachea, and are essential for sound production.[/mfn]. He went through puberty, and after his vocal cords developed, the venom gland was activated.” Lao Gui gave a bitter laugh. “His toxicity has a wide range. For ordinary people, just touching his flesh or blood will poison them. For you…”

“Bodily fluids? Even sweat won’t work?” Xi Ban was desperate. He had guessed right.

“I’m afraid so. As his toxicity increases, he will become more and more deadly to you…” Lao Gui understood the relationship between Xia Yu and Mo An, so his words were exceptionally cruel. “From now on.. don’t be so intimate.”

Mo An heard every word, each one clear and swirling in his mind.

Xia Yu’s hand was already crumpling the report from gripping it so tightly. He had thought of many comforting words, but in the end, he could only say dryly, “I’m sorry.”

Meng Qingqing’s prophecy had come true—he would become poisonous sooner or later. When that day came, it would probably be the day Mo An left and returned to the deep sea. Now, even a simple touch between him and his brother was dangerous. Every inch of his skin was a small dose of poison to Mo An.

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