BFET Chapter 15

Zhou Shan

Xie Yi reached out and touched the sensor on the door with his Smart Terminal.

After waiting for about two or three minutes, the door of the office in front of him opened.

Inside the office, Fei Yuelan sat behind her desk, looked up in his direction, “You’re looking for me at this hour, is there something the matter?”

Xie Yi called out “Captain” and then walked to Fei Yuelan’s desk, saying, “I want to talk to you about Shen Shu.”

Fei Yuelan paused when she heard his words, gestured for him to sit down, “What’s wrong? Has he been causing you trouble? Or did he perform poorly in Fengjiang Enclosed Zone, making you think he’s not up to par?”

“No.” Xie Yi sat down and looked at her, “His performance in this Fengjiang Enclosed Zone mission, as the team leader, I’m very satisfied.”

“Oh?” Fei Yuelan was surprised by Xie Yi’s high praise, “Then what do you want to talk about with him?”

Xie Yi went straight to the point and asked, “Is it really just an Evolutionary Awakening?”

The smile on Fei Yuelan’s lips faded, she didn’t answer immediately, but quietly looked at him for a long while before speaking, “Shen Shu followed you into the Source of Pollution?”

Xie Yi nodded, “Yes.”

Fei Yuelan leaned back, “So you and You Xue concealed this information in your previous reports?”

“You Xue was just afraid that I would be punished for taking a new recruit into the Source of Pollution without authorization.” Xie Yi replied, “She did it to protect me, the team leader.”

Fei Yuelan looked at him and smiled, “Then why are you admitting it in front of me now?”

“Because as a team leader, I need to know all the circumstances of my team members clearly.” Xie Yi’s voice was deep and cold, he slowly said, “Shen Shu, after I asked him to stay in the Peripheral Zone, followed me into the Source of Pollution on his own. At the time, I was highly alert, but I didn’t notice him at all.”

Fei Yuelan frowned, then listened as Xie Yi continued, “After that, he didn’t immediately rejoin me, but only appeared in front of me after the Lantern Mushroom evolved.”

“His pollution resistance data shows that it’s high, but when the Lantern Mushroom forcibly evolved with forced ripening, the pollution concentration in the entire Source of Pollution was violently rising with it as the center. No matter how high the pollution resistance, it would be passively mutated.”

“But he.” Xie Yi paused, “At the time, he didn’t seem to be affected, which is probably something even you can’t do, right?”

Fei Yuelan was silent for a long time after listening, “I thought of many reasons, but it seems that none of them can be used to explain this problem.”

“When I first heard that Shen Shu was staying in the Peripheral Zone with You Xue, I was relieved.” Fei Yuelan smiled, in a helpless tone, “I told him in advance, that kid is still dishonest after all.”

Xie Yi: …You clearly said he was very honest at the beginning.

“Xie Yi.” Fei Yuelan said, “First of all, I can clearly tell you, Shen Shu is an Evolutionary Awakening, he doesn’t have an Ability.”

“I was next to him when he Awakened, but there were some accidents at the time, accidents that can’t be explained by common sense.” Fei Yuelan seemed to be lost in memories, “I’ve never seen anyone fall into a Mutated Entity Assimilation state during Awakening and still be able to successfully Awaken.”

Xie Yi was stunned for a moment, “Assimilation?”

“Yes, assimilation.” Fei Yuelan looked at him and said, “Our Awakening is originally an adaptive evolution after being polluted. The higher the degree of pollution, the more difficult it is. If you succeed, you can complete the evolution and survive, if you fail, you will become those monsters.”

“After Shen Shu showed signs of assimilation at the time, I thought he wouldn’t survive, but Professor Hu didn’t give up, and he slowly recovered to normal after three days, and finally completed the Awakening.”

Xie Yi: “Generally, after Awakening successfully with severe pollution or higher, it’s a Complete Awakening, and you’ll gain an Ability.”

“Yes, the accident that can’t be explained by common sense is this.” Fei Yue shook her head, “Shen Shu didn’t gain an Ability, the only thing that’s more prominent is his pollution resistance.”

“Based on my experience taking him into the Enclosed Zone for training, even in a high-risk Enclosed Zone, he’s basically unaffected.”

“Xie Yi.” Fei Yuelan said, “I said before that there was a bit of personal reason for arranging Shen Shu into your team, and this is one of them.”

“I understand you, as long as you approve of your team members, you will always unconditionally stand in front of him. I can’t let Shen Shu’s specialness be exposed to the Main Force, so your team is the most suitable choice.”

“Fortunately, Shen Shu has gained your approval.”

Fei Yuelan’s words also made Xie Yi understand why, from the beginning, even though she knew he was suspicious of Shen Shu, Fei Yuelan still said nothing and put the person under his command.

“This time it’s because You Xue didn’t report at the beginning.” Xie Yi looked at her with a calm tone.

Fei Yuelan: “Without your authorization, You Xue wouldn’t do that, and you’re not the kind of person who’s afraid of being punished.”

“Aren’t you afraid?” Xie Yi was silent for a moment, “If I choose to report the truth.”

Fei Yuelan smiled, “But there is no ‘if’, is there?”

Xie Yi didn’t speak again, because Fei Yuelan was right, there was no “if”.

That night, Xie Yi got an explanation, in a certain sense, from Fei Yuelan about his previous doubts about Shen Shu.

In the next few days, in addition to going to the Research Institute for follow-up treatment on a regular basis, Xie Yi was preparing to set off for Zhou Shan, and occasionally, when he had time, he would unceremoniously call Shen Shu for sparring.

“Are you guys leaving for Zhou Shan Enclosed Zone tomorrow?” Jiang Li glanced at Xie Yi’s completely recovered indicators, tilted her head and asked.

Xie Yi hummed in acknowledgement.

“Then, as your nominal and actual attending physician.” Jiang Li straightened up and looked at him, “I once again solemnly warn you, don’t mess around.”

Xie Yi: “I have a sense of propriety.”

“You have no sense of propriety whatsoever!” Jiang Li got angry as soon as she heard that, “I don’t think you can find a second person in the entire Main Force who’s more willful than you!”

“That’s because their Abilities don’t allow it.” Xie Yi replied frankly.

“?” Jiang Li was incredulous, “You’re quite proud of it?”

“No.” Xie Yi finished speaking and got up to walk outside, “I’m leaving, you’re busy.”

…

The next day, it had just turned light.

Xie Yi and his team of three gathered at the entrance.

You Xue climbed into the car listlessly, wailing, “The happy days are about to be gone forever.”

“It’s not your first time on a mission.” Xie Yi raised his eyes and looked at the rearview mirror in the car.

“It’s the same no matter how many times!” You Xue grimaced with a painful mask, “This time there are six zones! I’m going to be gnawing on instant food and nutritional supplements for at least three or four months!”

After she finished speaking, she asked Shen Shu in the passenger seat, as if looking for empathy, “Shen Shu, don’t you think so?”

Shen Shu, who had been staring out the window absentmindedly, came back to his senses after hearing this, “What?”

“The pain!” You Xue said loudly, “Is this your first time on a long-distance mission? Three or four months of instant food and nutritional supplements, don’t you think it’s painful? These things are notoriously unpalatable even in the base!”

Shen Shu tilted his head and smiled, “I’ve eaten these with Captain Fei before, I think they taste okay.”

“…” You Xue: She should just step down.

Xie Yi, who was driving to the outside of the Safety Zone, glanced at the two of them, “Stop talking nonsense, where’s the Space Button I asked you to get yesterday?”

You Xue gave an “oh” and then rummaged out three black button-like gadgets from her pocket, “Here they are, one for each person, you can connect them to your Smart Terminal.”

“Because it was developed through research on Space-type Abilities, and it was only recently put into use, the people in the supply room said not to put pollution-decomposing items inside.” You Xue said, “So bullets with pollution dissociation and pollution suppressants are still in the trunk, and the others are in here.”

Xie Yi emptied a hand and was about to take it, but Shen Shu took it first.

“What are you doing?” Xie Yi looked at Shen Shu strangely.

“Isn’t it supposed to be connected to the Smart Terminal?” Shen Shu looked natural and didn’t think there was anything wrong with his behavior, “It’s not convenient for the captain to drive, it’s better for me to help you.”

After saying that, he tilted his head and asked You Xue, “How do you connect it?”

“Just touch it, anywhere is fine.” You Xue, who also didn’t think there was anything wrong with Shen Shu’s behavior, replied, “The Smart Terminal’s system updated a few days ago has a corresponding sensing program.”

Shen Shu touched the terminal on Xie Yi’s wrist with the Space Button, and the screen lit up, showing a checkmark.

“After the program is connected, you can see the things inside through the Smart Terminal and then take them out of the Space Button, oh right.” You Xue took out a few new wristbands, “These are the newly received wristbands, there’s a special place to put the Space Button on them.”

“Give me mine later.” Xie Yi retracted his hand, “You guys finish organizing and rest, switch drivers in three hours.”

The Zhou Shan area is one of the currently recorded Class C Danger Enclosed Zones, located in the southeast direction of Kui City.

Xie Yi and his team arrived on the afternoon of the third day after departure.

Different from the solidified vegetation covering most of Fengjiang, Zhou Shan is more like an abandoned old city.

However, it’s equally scarred.

After arriving, the three of them moved along the Peripheral Zone towards the Central Zone, and spent about three days completing the Extraction of the Peripheral Zone, entering the Mid-Section Zone.

“The Mid-Section Zone is where mid-level Mutated Entity Corpse Reefs and Mandrakes start appearing.” Xie Yi opened and zoomed in on the map of the Zhou Shan Mid-Section Zone, which had several specially marked places, “You Xue, Shen Shu and I will go ahead first, you can come directly after you finish setting up the Tagging Anchors here.”

“Okay.” You Xue operated the spider-like detector and just connected it to the Tagging Anchor.

If the location of the Mid-Section Zone of Zhou Shan is viewed in terms of the old city blocks, the area it encompasses used to be the most prosperous business district of the city.

But it’s been too long, the wind, frost, and the destruction of the Mutated Entities have made it impossible to see what it once looked like here.

Xie Yi and Shen Shu followed the marks on the map and entered a shopping mall with a relatively complete exterior.

As soon as the two entered, a series of chewing sounds came intermittently from ahead.

Xie Yi quickly pulled Shen Shu down and then gestured to him, and the two of them quietly approached a pillar to the left front one after another.

Using the pillar to hide their figures, Xie Yi saw that at the gap in the railing on the second floor, there was a huge black reef-like thing entrenched there, with about seven or eight black dried corpse-like monsters on it.

Those monsters had no feet, their lower bodies were completely stuck on the reef-like thing, as if they had grown out of it. Their hands suspended in the air were all grabbing a ball of something that couldn’t be identified, and were constantly tearing, biting, and chewing.

Perhaps because they were swallowing too quickly, some liquid mucus flowed from the corners of their mouths, and some even overflowed from their bulging bellies, dripping down, and then falling on the empty ground floor, making a sound of “drip drip drip”.