CH 22.1

Chapter 22.1 – Changes

Shi Yuan said, “I don’t know you.”

The man’s work sign read [Shi Yi], that’s his… That was his former name, he was no longer him. “Shi Yi” twitched, more vines surged out, climbed up the wall, bent the street lamp, and extended down the stone road, breaking the ground.

For a while, Shi Yuan couldn’t tell whether it was a human or a monster.

It was between the two, it had the language of a human, but it had the thinking of a monster — Shi Yuan was very sure that it spoke to him as a monster just now.

When in the wilderness, most monsters avoided Shi Yuan, never actively approached, and had absolutely no language expression ability.

It was the first time Shi Yuan had seen such a half-human, half-monster existence that happened to be in the process of transformation.

Shi Yuan said again: “I don’t know you, you admitted the wrong person.” He urged, “Get out of the city quickly, or they will kill you if you are discovered by humans – don’t hurt humans, they are all very good.”

The man looked at him steadily, took a few steps forward, and faced him face to face.

Shi Yi’s physique was originally medium, after the infection, the bones and muscles were forcibly stretched, and the joints were filled with plant fibers. Now he was two or three times as tall as Shi Yuan, and the vines that burst out made its size expand several times, like a small mountain.

And such a monster knelt down in front of Shi Yuan, lowered his body as low as possible, and looked at him with green eyes: “I don’t know where to go, there is no place for me.”

Shi Yuan looked at it.

In the fog, his skin looked even whiter and more delicate, and his facial features and neck were the lines of a work of art.

“…I know.” He stretched out his hand and stroked away the blood flowing under the monster’s eyes, his tone was light, “I know how it feels, it must be lonely.”

The vines were endless, emerald green vines covered five or six floors of the newspaper office, every inch of the cracked ground was crowded with rhizomes, and in the blink of an eye, the place became a miniature jungle. The man remained on his knees, his sharp claws gripping Shi Yuan’s wrist lightly so that his hand rested on his cheek.

Pious as a knight kissing the hand of the king, fervent as a devotee visiting the gods.

It said, “Take us to war, destroy everything, and this will be our new home.”

Shi Yuan said, “This is not right, it can’t be done.” He drew back his hand. “I’m sorry, I’m not only quite stupid, but also very timid. I can’t do many things, my hourly salary is only 6 yuan, and my tail is always tied in a knot… I’ve ruined all of other people’s clothes, all the flowers I raised withered, and I probably won’t be able to pay back the money for the rest of my life, I’m a poor man.”

The other party was obviously dumbfounded by what he said, froze for a few seconds, and hissed: “How come it’s only 6 yuan?”

Shi Yuan was also sad: “You see. I can’t grant your wish, I just want to stay with my human.”

The man looked at him in a daze: “But you are clearly…”

Vines wrapped around its face and covered its features.

The last touch of sanity disappeared, and the words turned into a roar. It shook its head in pain, took a few steps back, and when it looked at Shi Yuan again, its expression was exactly the same as that of other monsters – fearful and uneasy.

It didn’t dare to approach Shi Yuan, and Shi Yuan said again: “Let’s go, humans are coming soon—”

“Boom!”

A gunshot rang out, and the monster’s forehead burst into blood. A heavy-caliber gun blasted it in the head, followed by several more shots. The vines danced wildly, seeming to have hit a few comers, but soon withered away.

It died.

The sound of the police siren approached quickly, and Shi Yuan’s hand was still scarlet, which was the blood and tears he stroked away for it.

“Good night,” he said.

…

Shi Yuan was holding a cup of hot tea, sitting on the hospital bed, and drinking slowly.

Professor Guan pushed the door in: “The blood test report is out, you are not infected, you are free to go.”

“Thank you,” Shi Yuan said.

His last blood test was also done by Professor Guan.

Professor Guan sighed: “Fortunately, nothing happened to you, otherwise, how can we explain to the general – he was fighting outside, but his family was attacked by a monster in the city? This is unacceptable to anyone.”

Shi Yuan said, “Nothing will happen to me.”

“Why not? I heard what they said, that monster almost put his face on you.” Professor Guan sighed again. “As for Editor-in-Chief Liu, he is not so lucky, he is still lying in the ICU.”

He explained to Shi Yuan, “The person who attacked you is called Shi Yi, he is the 4th Abyss Watcher to mutate in the city in 27 years. Because of this incident, the work of other retired Watchers was called off in preparation for evaluation and further observation.”

The city defense team actually came very quickly. The monitoring center found the pollution value, and it took a total of 6 minutes from Shi Yi’s mutation to his death, and only Liu Hongzheng was injured.

Shi Yuan left the medical center and went to the Garcia Grand Theater.

On the way, he received a call from Lu Tinghan.

Lu Tinghan asked about his situation, his tone was calm and steady, no different from usual – he even understood what happened earlier than Shi Yuan and saw his blood test report sooner.

He finally said: “Shi Yuan…”

For the first time, he wanted to say something and then stopped.

Shi Yuan: “What’s the matter?”

“Nothing, it’s good that you are safe,” Lu Tinghan said. “Wait for me to come back.”

Shi Yuan continued to take the wobbly bus, and on the city wall of the main city, the elite troops standing guard looked into the distance. As far as they could see, the fog was thick, and there seemed to be a huge monster.

Lu Tinghan hung up the call. Beside him, a huge sniper turret aimed at the distance, high-frequency buzzers were arranged in a matrix, and teams of mutants stood in the cold fog, with strange appearances and tall statures, most of their faces were covered by tactical eyepieces, only the firm, steel-like lips and jaw were exposed.

This was a proactive hunt.

The adjutant reported to him the types of monsters that had been observed, the infected swarms of Abyss No.3 and No.5.

“…I see.” Lu Tinghan lowered his eyes as he slowly and methodically put on his gloves. “Let’s get started.”

The turrets rotated, and the aircraft whistled past, like eagles cutting through the sky.

*

Meanwhile, Shi Yuan went to the theater, where everyone in the troupe knew what had happened to him and reassured him that it was okay. Wolfgang also intended to grant him three days of paid leave to calm down and rest.

Shi Yuan said, “I’m really fine.”

Qin Luoluo said suspiciously: “Are you really, okay? Are you not afraid?”

“Yeah,” Shi Yuan was sure. “Look, my tail isn’t even knotted.”

This was indeed strong evidence.

Everyone was dubious and asked him to clean up the backstage.

Shi Yuan was busy for a while, saving 20 yuan for Isabella and putting it in the safe on the second floor. When he went downstairs, he accidentally saw the camellia raised by Qin Luoluo blooming. His eyes widened and looked in front of the vase, wagging the tip of his tail happily.

Xia Fang was shocked, and said to Qin Luoluo: “Worthy of the general’s fancy, he is still different. It really is like nothing happened to him at all! Awesome!”

“Maybe that’s just great nerves,” Qin Luoluo muttered. “I wish it could be that great on stage.”

When he went home in the evening, Shi Yuan changed the water for the flowers.

Turning on the radio station, the host excitedly said the good news from afar: [Today, the Alliance’s initiative was a great success, and the infection group of Abyss No.6 was annihilated. Under the command of General Lu Tinghan, the Alliance army set out from the main city, cleared the potential threat of the southwest outpost, and continued to advance towards the infection group of Abyss No.2…]

Shi Yuan lay on his back, supporting his head to listen.

The host said a lot of words he didn’t understand, what “pincer attack”, what “armored spearhead tactics” and “defense-in-depth”. Anyway, he understood that they were praising Lu Tinghan, he saw through all the actions of the monsters, and his tactics were impeccable.

Since they were praising his human, even if he didn’t understand, Shi Yuan still listened to the two-hour radio explanation.

He changed the station again and heard the host say: [Today, there was a wounding incident on New Moon Road, Gleaning City. The victim, Mr. Liu, was attacked by an infected creature and is not yet out of danger. It is reported that the suspect, Mr.Shi, is the editor of the New Moon Newspaper. He has been behaving abnormally since the 26th. At 8 o’clock this morning, he was mentally infected by the abyss and mutated…]

[Our station learned that Mr. Shi was once an Abyss Watcher. This is the fourth case of a retired Watcher being infected in the past 30 years. At present, a number of institutions in the city have reported that they have received notices to suspend the work of retired Watchers.]

[This station reminds all listeners to maintain physical and mental health in extraordinary times and overcome difficulties together. At the same time, this station calls on you to abandon discrimination against Watchers. This is a great job, and being mentally infected is only an isolated case after all…]

Shi Yuan listened for a while, he was a little uneasy.

Before he could figure out why he was upset, the phone rang, and it was Lu Tinghan.