Chapter 77: 秩序之城11

Chapter 77

'I make the rules. If I say no, then it's no.'

Order spread its hands. Its black, ceramic-like arms seemed to melt into starlight as it pointed at Shen Wang and Zhou Xiangzhe.

'The entire Order City is my word alone.'

'I say: the Lust Layer forbids lust.'

As soon as the words were spoken, the disheveled people in the Lust Layer instantly collapsed. Everyone cried out in pain, writhing on the ground from intense headaches. Their fingers gradually turned into black ceramic as they struggled, and endless Contamination seeped out of them.

Order watched them coldly. 'My rules are as solid as bedrock.'

It had foreseen the two men before it suffering for violating the rules. By leaving Order City, they had automatically forfeited their status as residents, which meant they had to obey the rules of the first three layers. Violation would turn them into ceramic—this was the mandatory talent of an S-Class Pollutant like itself.

But unexpectedly, they showed no abnormality at all.

Shen Wang and Zhou Xiangzhe stood quietly in place. They were of similar height, one in black and one in white. Their excellent looks and physiques made them seem utterly out of place in the Lust Layer, radiating an aura that would attract everyone but also make anyone see at a glance that they were a pair.

No wonder Qiang Li'an had sensed something between them at first sight—they were just that well-matched.

But they... actually weren't being punished?

Shen Wang sneered. 'I told you already: we have a license, it's legal. Whether we do it or not is none of your business.'

Zhou Xiangzhe glanced at Shen Wang but didn't refute the fact that they actually hadn't done anything.

In the entire Lust Layer, only the two of them hadn't engaged in any lustful behavior.

Order didn't believe a word Shen Wang said. It lowered its hand, its abyss-black eyes like those of a dead fish.

'You... you actually didn't spend anything in the Lust Layer? You...'

It seemed at a loss for words, and in the end, it said nothing.

'But don't think that's enough,' Order said. 'Two S-Class Mutants from the Pollution Control Center. Since you're here, that means there's no one guarding the outside. I can expand out anytime, and no one can stop me.'

'Do you think we'd stand here and let you go out and expand?' Zhou Xiangzhe finally spoke up this time. 'It seems we didn't underestimate you—you underestimated us.'

'Hmph!' Order snorted coldly and spoke again. 'My rules are as solid as bedrock.'

'More like fragile as ceramic,' Shen Wang cut to the heart of it. 'You're ceramic, your Pollutants are ceramic. Doesn't look much like bedrock to me.'

Hearing this, Order jerked its head up. Those dead-fish eyes finally filled with sharp malice.

Order hated nothing more than someone mocking its rules.

Was there fairness in this world? No. This world held no fairness. There was none in the old era, and even less now. The apocalypse had shattered all social order, leaving the Pollution Control Center and Mutants standing at the top of the rules. Ordinary people had no freedom, confined within the High Wall.

They couldn't obtain fairness, but Order could help.

Throw the wicked into purgatory, keep the good in the great Order City. Order City would forever have only good people, competing and growing healthily, gradually becoming a beautiful world like a utopia. Yes, that was Order's goal.

For this goal, it had been Devouring those around it, constantly selecting qualified people.

If it weren't for that damned Pollution Control Center somehow managing to contain it back then, its Order City would have been built long ago.

'You have absolutely no talent for governing a city. Do you really think you can create a perfect one?' Shen Wang seemed to have grabbed its sore spot, his eyes full of sarcasm. 'You set up various tests to select righteous, kind people, but you ignore that some people inherently think in reverse.'

'You establish three layers of hell to punish the bad, but you deny that some people can change.'

'Your Order City—if it weren't for your Mental Pollution constantly controlling it, wouldn't last a week.'

But Order didn't care at all. It said calmly, 'So what?'

'Fairness under control is still fairness!'

Before the apocalypse, Order was just an ordinary person. Fresh out of college, he only wanted to be a diligent worker. Unexpectedly, his roommate invited him to start a business, promising dividends just for investing. He trusted his roommate, gave all his savings, and was tricked into becoming the company's legal representative.

In the end, the roommate's company went bankrupt, and he became the scapegoat, thrown into Prison.

In Prison, he kept saying he was a deceived victim, but no one listened. Because everyone was just following procedure. The moment he was tricked into signing the contract to become the legal rep, he had already stepped into the Abyss.

He thought the procedure was bad, unfair. The whole world was unfair. He shouldn't have to bear such a future.

In Prison, he kept thinking this, and then the apocalypse came.

He became a Pollutant in the apocalypse, a top-tier S-Class Pollutant at that. In that moment, he decided to create a fair Order City.

Everyone would live inside his Order City. He'd screen out all those wretched liars and bad people, leaving only the good ones to live within the walls.

So what if it was naive? So what if it lacked planning?

It was an S-Class Pollutant! It had the chance to trial and error. At worst, it would just replace everyone with a new batch!

'A Pollutant cannot be equated with its life before death,' Zhou Xiangzhe frowned. 'After becoming a Pollutant, they become monsters driven by desire, with no remaining feelings for humans. Their sense of racial identity completely disappears. They see humans as consumables.'

'Order is just obsessively trying to fulfill its wish of building a 'just city.' Of course it wouldn't consider the victims' feelings.'

That's why the union between the 3S-Class Pollutant Despot and the S-Class Mutant Siren was a complete Miracle. Even Despot maintaining its original nature was nearly impossible.

Lan wasn't wrong to say she and Shen Wang were children of a Miracle. That probability was even lower than a Miracle.

Shen Wang clicked his tongue. 'Can't go giving other Pollutants a pass just because of my dad.'

Zhou Xiangzhe: "..."

Even if that was true, it sounded a bit weird.

The ceramics shattered by the Deer God Entity were slowly repairing themselves. They stood up again, their stiff smiles unchanged, but their bodies and faces were covered in ceramic. Shen Wang's pupils turned blood-red. Thorns erupted from the ground, winding around the standing ceramics and dragging them back down.

With a crack, the ceramics shattered again. This time they broke even more dramatically, looking utterly incapable of repairing themselves again.

But soon, as Order reached out its hand, they opened their eyes again, slowly standing up from the ground. The cracks made their faces indistinct, only dense black patterns visible.

An intense aura of Contamination emanated from these ceramics.

Shen Wang frowned, looking strangely at these ceramics. He tried to use Moon Theft's ability to make them unable to stand again, but Zhou Xiangzhe grabbed his hand.

Zhou Xiangzhe looked at the ceramics for a long time before speaking. 'They... don't seem to be just secondary Pollutants.'

'Of course not,' Order watched the shattered ceramics coldly.

Its expression was haughty, its black eyes full of disdain, as if these ceramics weren't its subordinates but something it detested.

It said, 'They are those who violated the rules.'

'People in the Greed Layer who couldn't pay for their desires. People in the Desire Layer who lacked the ability to strive for power. People in the Lust Layer who couldn't escape lust. After being eliminated, everyone turns into ceramic, becoming the attendants of the Greed Layer, the commoners of the Desire Layer, and the lust of the Lust Layer.'

'Because this is their punishment for violating the rules.'

Order's eyes were sinister, yet it asked provocatively, 'Do you want to hear their voices?'

It didn't need an answer from Shen Wang and the others, because the next moment, it played the sounds of these shattered ceramics.

The stiff smiles vanished from all the ceramic faces. They collectively let out wretched screams, the sound carrying bone-chilling fear and despair.

'It hurts, it hurts! I don't want to shatter!'

'Someone save me!'

'I'll never break the rules again, I'll never spend money to enter the Greed Layer again! Please, let me go!'

'I'll pay back all the money, I really will, I was wrong, please let me go!'

'Kill me! Let me die!'

A cold, evil smile appeared on Order's face.

It said, 'This is the real punishment.'

After the apocalypse, Zhou Xiangzhe had witnessed many hells on earth. Everywhere were people who had lost family and friends. The High Wall protected the survivors inside, but outside remained tragedy as always. However, most of those contaminated lost their ability to think during contamination.

They turned into monsters, mentally polluted, no longer their original selves, but empty shells under control.

This was the first time Zhou Xiangzhe had seen people suffering in full awareness.

And this... only an S-Class Pollutant could achieve. Only Order, which could establish rules, could be so cruel as to maintain their sanity.

Order spoke again. 'Guess how many of them are from the Pollution Control Center?'

Zhou Xiangzhe frowned slightly. This time, it was Shen Wang who reached over and held him back.

'The Pollution Control Center people are all brain-dead. Every one of them refuses to enter the Greed Layer. But so what? Whether they enter or not, they'll turn into ceramic from contamination, and then I'll assign them to all the places they don't want to go, as greeters.'

'Next time I expand, I'll send them out. They can't speak anyway. And doesn't your Pollution Control Center only know how to clean up Pollutants? This is called: cleaning house, right?'

Amid Order's self-satisfied voice, Shen Wang watched it calmly.

His black hair slowly grew longer. Then his pupils stained blood-red, while his other eye gradually filled with bright moonlight. A red line spread from under his eye down into his collar. Shen Wang snapped his fingers. Order turned to look at him.

Seeing his appearance, Order frowned slightly.

'Wait? You are...'

'Human? No. Pollutant? No...'

'What are you?'

'Asking someone what they are is really rude, and I'm sick of being asked.' Shen Wang's eyes held coldness. 'So, let's get straight to the point.'

In an instant, black mist condensed like soaring tentacles. They sprouted from the floor in place of thorns. Order stepped aside to avoid contact, but the next moment, it felt its ankle entangled.

As it looked down, Order heard Shen Wang's voice.

'Forbidden: using abilities.'

With a crack, all the ceramics in the room shattered instantly. But as they broke, each ceramic face regained a smile.

This time, it wasn't a forced, rigid grin. It was a look of serene relief, full of longing for death.

They'd finally succeeded in stepping into the Yellow Springs. They'd never have to stay in this living hell again.

Order broke free from the black mist at its feet, but the ceramics were already completely shattered. Even though they were just ceramics from one layer of the Lust Layer, it still made the entity utterly agitated.

It stared at Shen Wang with loathing. Countless characters appeared on the small screen before its eyes.

'Ha. I know how to deal with you now,' Order said.

It pointed at Shen Wang and Zhou Xiangzhe and spoke a sentence. 'You two: forbidden from using abilities.'

Shen Wang and Zhou Xiangzhe both froze for a moment.

But the next instant, black characters rose up around them. The characters instantly branded themselves onto the two men's arms. The moment the characters formed, Shen Wang felt his ability vanish directly from his body. He even reverted directly to his human form.

'Hahaha!' Order began to laugh maniacally. 'Now you're helpless!'

Shen Wang was somewhat surprised.

But at the same time, he felt excitement.

Rules could restrict abilities. In other words: rules could also suppress Contamination Level.

'Zhou Xiangzhe,' Shen Wang said. 'It seems like it really can control your Contamination Level.'

Zhou Xiangzhe didn't reply.

Shen Wang found it strange. He turned to look at Zhou Xiangzhe and found him kneeling on one knee, clutching his chest. The pain was making cold sweat bead on his forehead. His lips were deathly pale. He didn't utter a single cry of pain, but anyone could tell he was enduring immense agony.

'Zhou Xiangzhe?!'

Zhou Xiangzhe couldn't even kneel steadily anymore. He leaned his whole weight against Shen Wang's shoulder. His breathing was rapid. A stabbing pain spread from his heart all the way to his fingertips, as if needles were being driven in one by one.

He lifted his head with effort to look at Order before him, finally speaking a sentence in a very soft voice.

'...You're really asking for death.'

The surrounding Contamination was rising. Shen Wang keenly sensed something wrong around them. As Zhou Xiangzhe trembled, his Contamination Level was continuously climbing.

The whole world fell silent. Even the victims screaming in the rooms stopped moving. They lay as if dead, without even a sound of breathing. Order's laughter froze on its face. It felt an indescribable sense of dread, as if something was watching it with predatory intent.

But what could possibly pose a threat to it?

Two Class S Mutants couldn't use their abilities. And this was Order City, its stronghold. No one could hide in its territory.

Splatter, splatter. Shen Wang, holding Zhou Xiangzhe, turned to look out the window. He saw that Order City was actually starting to rain.

Shen Wang's eyesight was excellent, so he clearly saw the tiny golden Light Point flecks mixed into the rain. The rain struck the window, leaving streaks of golden metal.

Order kept looking around, uttering a sound of confusion. 'What?!'

'It's the Deer God Entity...'

Zhou Xiangzhe coughed up a mouthful of blood. The blood was shot through with countless fine, dense flecks of golden Light Point.

The Deer God Entity had always existed within Zhou Xiangzhe's body, locked in a stalemate with his ability until now. Devour couldn't consume the Deer God Entity, and the Deer God Entity couldn't contaminate Zhou Xiangzhe, forming a delicate balance.

But now, because of Order's rule, that balance was broken.

Zhou Xiangzhe's ability was restricted. Devour could no longer restrain the Deer God Entity. So it... was about to emerge.

/

The Deer God Entity, the only Class S Pollutant born from faith. It had no physical form, no past. It wasn't a Pollutant formed from a human's death, but a true monster born from nothingness.

Its existence shattered many people's understanding of Pollutants. During the Deer God Entity incident back then, the Pollution Control Center didn't even know how to find it or deal with it. It wasn't until Zhou Xiangzhe entered Yutang South City alone, using a near-self-destructive method to Devour the Deer God Entity.

A newly born Class S Pollutant could be deceived by Zhou Xiangzhe, but the current Deer God Entity wouldn't miss this chance again.

The pattering rain kept falling. Mist rose around them. Order immediately grew alert. A dozen or so transparent screens appeared around it, each displaying lines of data. It kept scrolling through anomalies, but all the data told it: no anomalies.

Zhou Xiangzhe coughed up another mouthful of blood.

The faint sound of a bell came from within the mist. The bell seemed to ring from somewhere far away, yet also right by the ear.

Hearing the bell, Order uttered a sound of shock. 'Impossible!'

'Under my rules, no one can use abilities!'

Order kept repeating. 'Why? Where is it? Why can it still use an ability?!'

'You're wrong.' Blood stained the corner of Zhou Xiangzhe's mouth. He lifted his head. Golden liquid seemed to churn within his golden pupils. Zhou Xiangzhe said, 'The Deer God Entity has no ability. It only has Contamination.'

Golden threads abruptly shot out from the ground, attacking Order en masse.

Order retreated to avoid the golden threads. When it tried to counterattack, it found the threads had vanished.

The mist grew thicker. Within the mist, faint humanoid shadows seemed to appear, but when you looked, you'd find the figure wasn't there—it had appeared somewhere farther away.

Dong. The bell grew closer.

Accompanying the bell was a child's voice singing a nursery rhyme, praising the Deer God Entity's greatness.

'What the hell is this?!'

'It's nothing.' Zhou Xiangzhe wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth. 'You just released a Class S Pollutant, that's all.'

Order: ...?

The Deer God Entity, having no physical form, wanted to leave. This was the best chance it had gotten. However, this was Order's Order City, a place under Order's control. It wasn't that easy to leave either. So the Deer God Entity launched an attack on Order City.

The Deer God Entity possessed powerful erosion capabilities and extreme Mental Pollution. Its only option for escape was: to take control of Order City!

When the snipe and the clam fight, the fisherman profits. But Shen Wang had no mind at all to deal with those two Class S Pollutants right now.

He helped Zhou Xiangzhe up, his eyes full of worry.

'Zhou Xiangzhe,' Shen Wang asked. 'How are you?'

'I'm fine.' Zhou Xiangzhe coughed again, but the intense pain in his body had eased somewhat. 'Don't worry.'

Those golden eyes were fading. Even his silver hair was slowly being dyed black.

He wasn't originally an inhuman figure with silver hair and golden eyes. Like everyone else, he'd just had black hair and black eyes. Devouring the Deer God Entity had caused the abnormality in his appearance, altering his looks like a Contamination Distortion. And now, the thing that had changed his appearance was leaving. Naturally, he was returning to his original form.

When the blood from the corner of his mouth no longer carried any gold, his pupils finally turned back to a deep black. His eyes were like the night, carrying a hint of coldness, serene and clean.

It was a very peaceful aura, making anyone who saw him feel he was a person worthy of great trust.

But aside from that, Zhou Xiangzhe frowned and covered his collarbone. Shen Wang grabbed his hand, but Zhou Xiangzhe had already torn open the button at his collar. On his collarbone was a large patch of black marks. The marks resembled coiling, growing floral vines, spreading from under his collarbone all the way to the tip of his ear.

A single, small curved horn pushed out from deep within his hair, creating a tiny bulge.

Shen Wang froze for a moment, his attention completely captured by this small horn.

He reached out and touched the horn. Zhou Xiangzhe trembled and grabbed Shen Wang's hand.

'Don't touch!' Zhou Xiangzhe's voice held a rare tone of urgency. He seemed... a bit flustered.

'But,' Shen Wang looked at his hair. 'A horn. You grew a horn.'

'I know.' Zhou Xiangzhe seemed somewhat at a loss, but still answered Shen Wang's question methodically. 'Even without the Deer God Entity, my Contamination Level exceeds 90. Such a high Contamination Level causes Distortion. This is probably...'

Shen Wang suddenly understood. 'The Black Furry Sphere's ability Distortion.'

Zhou Xiangzhe nodded.

Shen Wang glanced outside at Order. The mist had grown very thick. He couldn't even see Order's position anymore, but he could occasionally hear Order's cursing.

Looked like they were fighting pretty fiercely. Probably had no time to bother with them.

So Shen Wang continued observing Zhou Xiangzhe's small horn.

'Even I can't touch it?' Shen Wang stared at the horn, his hand itching to move.

Zhou Xiangzhe firmly pressed his hand down. 'No... At least not now.'

'Why?'

Zhou Xiangzhe lifted his gaze. Shen Wang's figure was reflected in those deep black eyes, looking peaceful and mysterious. After regaining his original appearance, he carried a sense of calmness that matched his aura, fitting perfectly with the Xiao Qi from childhood, making Shen Wang feel a bit... unable to let go.

Seeing Shen Wang's gaze, Zhou Xiangzhe's throat moved.

Finally, he spoke.

'Because: the Lust Layer forbids lust.'

Shen Wang: ...?

Huh?