After the Global Evolution, I Stand at the Top of the Food Chain - Chapter 18

This chapter is translated by Kris Xian, translation checked by Rin, and edited by Cia.

As soon as Lu Yan opened his eyes, he saw Lin Sinan in front of him with his eyes flushed red. The gun in his hand aimed at the center of Lu Yan’s eyebrows.

The sky outside was now extremely bright. It seemed to be three o’clock in the afternoon.

Lu Yan froze and held up his hands obediently, trying to look as harmless as possible, “Calm down, we’ve already woken up from the dream.”

Lin Sinan’s hand holding the gun trembled slightly, “Who are you?”

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“Lu Yan.”

“Height?”

“181.4cm.”

“Jkavbeyu?”

“Lshlxcla 11.”

“Ebyv’p uswa xyfsa kd wdkhlapkvu?”

“Uzkdknyz Yleknkdl sq vbl Plryavxldv sq Yleknkdl kd Zydfkdt Bdkhlapkvu.”

Nkd Fkdyd typrle, takvvle bkp vllvb, yde ypjle, “Tso yx R pwrrsple vs clzklhl usw obld usw ydpolale vbl pyxl oyu zypv vkxl?”

Nw Zyd qasodle, pzktbvzu ekpvalpple, vbswtbv qsa y xsxldv, yde ypjle, “…Nssjkdt qsa y Qsdt?”

Nkd Fkdyd alrzkle qzyvzu, “R zkjl osxld.”

“Odzktbvldle Wsawx, vbl sdl aydjle 100vb kp nyzzle vbkp dyxl,” Nw Zyd nswze pll vbyv bl oyp kd y hlau wdpvyczl xldvyz pvyvl yde pzsole esod bkp prlyjkdt ayvl, “Mbl qsawx kdhkvyvksd nsel usw pldv xl kp GI134J9184.”

Lin Sinan took out his mobile phone from his pocket, checked it, and found that it was exactly the same as he said.

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His mobile phone, which had no signal for a long time, finally received a message at this moment. The message notified him about the appearance of the Level A Pollutants Dream Eater and Wall of Resentment on the road from K City to M City. This message was sent two days ago.

Lu Yan, “In my dream before, you died at the beginning, but I still received messages from you on my phone. I don’t know what happened to you in the dream. However, we’ve really come out of the dream now. I guess the Dream Eater can see other people’s memories. Naturally, they can’t tell you things that you don’t remember.”

Lin Sinan finally put down his gun. A layer of sweat broke out all over his body and he slumped on his chair, his face full of exhaustion, “It’s like that, ah… I have spent many days in the dream. I dreamt that I received a task to take you back to the Headquarters. But you’ve been polluted and have brought the parasitic disease to another city. Afterwards, I woke up and you said that it was only a dream. Then the same scenario happened. Leader Tang even said that I wasted his ability to restart the time …”

Lu Yan thought about the scene for a while, “That is indeed quite tragic.”

People like Lin Sinan prefer to bear all the faults as their own. Even the previous incident of the parasitic fish infection in K City, he thought it was caused by his own inefficiency and had been full of guilt because of this.

Now that the same thing repeated itself in his dreams, it was no wonder he chose to draw his gun as soon as possible.

He’d rather kill by mistake than let it go again. When necessary, Lin Sinan could even sacrifice himself.

Lin Sinan calmed down for a moment. Fear still lingered within him as he swallowed a miracle drug, “Fortunately, I didn’t shoot immediately. Half a year of my salary had already been deducted because of the recovery task I failed last time. If you die, I probably won’t have a year-end bonus in the next ten years.”

The Headquarters had conducted in-depth research on the state of each Enlightened and had formulated scripts in different situations.

For example, Lin Sinan was born in a small county. When he was young, his dream was to settle down and buy a house in a big city. Now, although a house had been given, he still wanted to make more money, so the Headquarters hung him with a performance bonus. Regardless of Lu Yan’s 100,000 yuan a month salary when he joined, his current salary was only 20,000 to 30,000.

It’s not that the Headquarters was stingy.

If a person had no goal or hope, it was like a kite with a broken string, unable to find its direction.

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Hope was the carrot being hung in front of the donkey’s eyes. Even though the donkey was awfully tired, seeing the carrot waiting in front of it, it could still continue and take a few steps until he reached it.

Lu Yan looked around and didn’t see anyone else. He asked the System, “Where is Lu Jiahe?”

[Gone.]

“Where did he go?”

[Naturally, to the place where he ought to go. The Wall of Resentment is different from ordinary sources of pollution, its purpose of existence is to filter. Lu Jiahe is the result of its filtering.] 

[Honestly, I didn’t think he would actually get this opportunity given his Misfortune.1 But maybe the koi fish scales plucked from your neck worked. The Wall of Resentment chose him… or rather, something chose him through the Wall of Resentment.]

[Maybe the next time you see him, he has completely forgotten his present memories; or perhaps you’ll never see him again.]

Lu Yan, “You seem to be talking about some new settings that I don’t quite understand.”

[That world is still too far away for you to know about, unless you gain the same qualifications. As for now, consider it as just a dream.]

[Compared to this, you might as well care more about the blood you swallowed. That’s a genuine product from a Level A pollution source.]

Most of the time, the source of pollution was feared and avoided. However, occasionally, there were special circumstances where an Enlightened could be strengthened through pollution sources. Even some healing drugs were produced through pollution sources.

Lu Yan, “What’s the use?”

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System, [At crucial moments, you can cut your wrist and let blood flow. Your blood will serve two purposes. The first use is that it can temporarily strengthen other Enlighteneds, but it is useless to yourself. The second is that it can affect a Pollutant’s sanity, which is often uncertain and only works once for the same Pollutant.]

[Since it’s a voluntary gift from the Resentment’s body, your body did not experience rejection. You’re indeed a man who’ll become a koi in the future, even your mutation degree only increased by 1 point.] The System clicked its tongue in wonder.

If others knew that Lu Yan had fused the pollution source so easily, it was estimated that many people would become so sour they’d turn into lemons.

Lu Yan felt that the situation became serious, “Isn’t this the real-life version of the flesh of a Tang Dynasty monk?”2

It was as if he had seen a future of black-hearted capitalists selling his blood all over the world.

[Yes, ah, and your blood is extraordinarily beneficial for an Enlightened with an ability like the Bloodlust Gene. Just be careful not to get sucked dry. En, so I still recommend keeping it a secret. I have a feeling you’re getting closer to being caught by the Research Institute…]

Lin Sinan looked at the map navigation, “I was supposed to take you to the mountain village to complete the novice task, but because of the two-day delay on the road, the living dead incident there has been solved. To reassure the surrounding people, they even documented it and named this issue as ‘Approaching Science.’ Now, the latest mission I received is to take you back to the PDC in K City and write a report on this encounter with the pollution source.”

For the executives of the SpecOps Division, a report must be written after each encounter with a pollution source.

This was also the source of intelligence for the PDC.

The report mainly described the time, place, and events, then it would be sent to the Research Institute for scientific study by specialized staff.

As the dream collapsed, the Dream Eater left, and the fog shrouding the highway cleared, revealing its original silhouette.

Occasionally, a few charred people lay on the side of the road, still burning with faint crimson flames, which gave Lu Yan the illusion that he hadn’t left the dream.

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Just like the System said, things that happened in the dream were both a dream and a reality.

According to the latest information update of the Enlightened Forum, the risk index of the polluted area of the No. 3 Middle School of M City had been lowered from orange to yellow.

After all, in order to get his sister to go back to school, Lu Jiahe cleaned up the surroundings with great care.

This time, the two did not encounter any further danger.

Due to the pollution disease, Lu Yan hadn’t walked on the streets of K City during the day for a long time.

The place had regained its original vitality as if the pollution disease never happened. There were crowds of people, students carried their backpacks to school, collared workers crowded the subway, and breakfast vendors on the streets hid from the city police.

Even the Science and Technology Building downtown, which was demolished by the corporate slave Phyta, had been repaired, the broken walls and glass had all been patched up. The glamorous white-collar workers shuttled through it.

Shops selling frog meat and fish head hot pot in K City closed down overnight.

Fortunately, the Municipal Hall issued a document that they would give out some subsidies for assistance.

After all, no matter how the world changes, people must continue to live.

[Insignificant, mediocre, pathetic, and ignorant human beings…] The System looked at the bustling streets and sighed, [Seeing humans bustling with noise and excitement, I actually like them this way.]

Lu Yan rolled the window up and thought to himself that the System was damn chūnibyō, but he also liked humans this way.

K City Pollution Disease Prevention and Control Center.

A man got up and sat down again, extremely restless, “Hasn’t that healing user Enlightened arrived yet?”

This man wore a training uniform with a crew cut. His muscles were sturdy and firm, like a martial monk who had just come out of the Shaolin Temple.

“Navigation shows he’s still 900 meters away. There’s a bit of a traffic jam.”

Chen Shi’er fidgeted and couldn’t sit still on his chair, “Is it okay if I run out and bring this person back?”

A middle-aged clerk pushed up the sunglasses on his face, “Don’t be impatient. The information states that Curious Listener is extremely wary of outsiders. If you scare him away, I will send you back to your Shaolin Temple to help you quit Internet addiction.

“After all, we still want to ask him to save lives, don’t we?”