Chapter 164 - 163: A Distressing Topic

Chapter 164: Chapter 163: A Distressing Topic

The public’s hopes could not be dashed, nor could the Inspectors’ morale be allowed to fall. In short... when a person’s glory takes on so much significance, their life and death are no longer under their own control.

’How could a hero who fought the Alien Species turn into a filthy Pollution Body?’

If such news got out, not only would the public fall into despair, but the entire inspection system would be shaken. Even the Hunters standing beside Feng Ling right now—wouldn’t they begin to question themselves?

’If even someone as powerful as Ye Zheng could become a Pollution Body, can we really win against the Alien Species?’

Squirrel.

’What a damn Squirrel Card.’

What infuriated Feng Ling the most was this: the Alien Species had used a simple, disgusting trick to deal a devastating blow to every organization and group fighting them.

The Alien Species had made even Ye Zheng’s death pathetic and humiliating!

Feng Ling had never met Ye Zheng, yet now she couldn’t help but empathize.

She put herself in Ye Zheng’s shoes, imagining herself as the strongest person alive, only to suddenly run into a squirrel...

Disgusting!

So damn disgusting!

Feng Ling’s expression was so grim that Li Qing couldn’t help but ask with concern, "What’s wrong? Is there a problem with your Pollution Value? Why the sudden questions about Pollution Bodies?"

Feng Ling glanced around before grabbing Li Qing and pulling him aside. Once they were a little farther from the group, she said, "It’s not me. It’s Ye Zheng. I suspect she’s already become a Pollution Body."

Li Qing didn’t know Ye Zheng personally, but he’d heard Su Yuqing and Xu Yiming mention her name so often on their journey that he knew the gist of her story.

"The news only reported that the operation was a complete success, without a single mention of casualties. I’m guessing they’ll announce Ye Zheng’s death in a few days." Feng Ling glanced at the distant Su Yuqing. "I just looked at the chat log between Su Yuqing and Ye Zheng. Ye Zheng sent him a single word, ’Squirrel,’ and the messages after that were all incomplete. I suspect she’s lost her human mind—she probably doesn’t even know how to use her phone anymore."

Feng Ling paused, her thoughts inevitably turning to a more dreadful possibility.

"If something happened to even Ye Zheng, then the other members of the expedition, if they’re not dead, must be gravely injured. They’ve recruited so many Hunters to enter the Maze this time... maybe it’s not just to clear out Pollution Bodies. Maybe it’s to eliminate... a genetically contaminated Ye Zheng."

The more Feng Ling thought about it, the more plausible it seemed.

She said to Li Qing, "I thought it was strange from the beginning. Why weren’t any Inspectors assigned to a large-scale operation like this? I know the Inspectors were ordered to reinforce city security, but couldn’t they spare a single one? They should have at least assigned one Inspector to brief the Hunters on the conditions inside the Maze."

Li Qing considered this and nodded. "That is a bit odd."

Feng Ling continued, "Because Inspectors are more familiar with Ye Zheng—her gear, her preferred weapons, things the Hunters wouldn’t know. If an Inspector found traces of her in the Maze, they could easily guess that something had happened to her. If you look at it that way, it all makes sense, right? ...Of course, it’s also possible I’m just overthinking things."

"So what are you going to do?" Li Qing asked with a frown. "Are you going to tell Su Yuqing? Give him a heads-up so he can prepare himself?"

Feng Ling immediately shook her head. "He’s so sick already. Better not. Besides, this is all just speculation. I can’t be sure unless I see Ye Zheng myself."

"If she’s really turned into a Pollution Body, you probably wouldn’t recognize her even if you did see her," Li Qing said.

Feng Ling was speechless.

’This topic is so damn depressing.’

She asked in frustration, "Wouldn’t a Divine Statue work? If we pull out all the Cards she absorbed, can’t that restore her sanity?"

"The prerequisite for drawing Cards is that there are Cards *to* draw," Li Qing told her calmly. "In a creature classified as a Pollution Body, the genes are mostly chaotic. If you’ve ever killed a Pollution Body, you should know that very few Cards can be extracted from them after they die."

Feng Ling frowned. "That’s not right. I killed a Pollution Body once, and it dropped over a dozen Cards."

Li Qing was speechless.

He couldn’t understand why Feng Ling always seemed to run into these one-in-a-million occurrences!

Li Qing glanced around, spotted a shallow pit in the ground nearby, and pulled Feng Ling over to it. He then squatted down and, right in front of her, started rolling the dirt into little balls, not minding getting his hands dirty.

Feng Ling asked, confused, "What are you doing?"

"Think of these balls as Cards, and this pit as our body."

Li Qing tossed a few of the dirt balls into the pit and continued, "Compatible Cards are like these little balls getting along. They can sit peacefully inside the pit."

He then picked up a nearby stick, poked it into the pit, and began to stir. "Incompatible Cards create conflict. It’s like they’re fighting, constantly crashing into each other inside the body, like this—"

He stirred with increasing force, and the dirt balls in the pit began to crack.

As he continued to stir, the balls crumbled even more, gradually losing their shape until they were no longer recognizable as spheres.

Li Qing stopped.

Only two or three intact balls remained in the pit. The rest had crumbled back into dust.

"A Pollution Body’s body is just like this pit," Li Qing explained. "Setting aside the fact that they’re completely mindless, even if a Pollution Body retained a shred of sanity and could operate a Divine Statue, it could only withdraw the intact Cards. As for the broken ones, their genes will remain inside the body forever."

Feng Ling stared at the dirt balls in the pit, silent for a moment before asking, "Then what about that Pollution Body I ran into?"

Li Qing thought for a moment. "Perhaps it accidentally killed a Squirrel."

Feng Ling couldn’t help but ask, "So it killed a Squirrel, absorbed the Cards that dropped from its body, and then turned into a Pollution Body? Then where did the dozen-plus Cards inside it come from? Shouldn’t they have been ground to dust like the balls in this pit?"

"After a Pollution Body is created, the system issues a kill mission in the area, notifying players to head over. The reason it dropped over a dozen Cards was probably that the contamination hadn’t set in for long, so the Cards inside its body were still relatively intact," Li Qing said. "Feng Ling, you were very lucky. If those Cards hadn’t been in the Pollution Body’s system but were stored in a Squirrel Card instead, the Squirrel Card would have made those Cards detonate the instant the Pollution Body died. You would have had no way to defend against it."

Feng Ling stared at the sky, a forlorn look on her face. She let out a long sigh and asked, "So there’s nothing that can be done now, is there?"

Li Qing was silent for a moment before replying, "If she has already fully turned into a Pollution Body, then no, there’s nothing we can do. But if she has only lost her sanity because her Pollution Value is too high, then maybe... she can still be saved."

Hope flickered in Feng Ling’s heart at his words.

’Wasn’t she a perfect example of not seeing the forest for the trees?’

’The Squirrel Card could indeed spike someone’s Pollution Value in an instant, but a high Pollution Value didn’t necessarily mean they’d turn into a Pollution Body.’

Maybe Ye Zheng was just experiencing a temporary "loss of humanity" because her Pollution Value was too high.

If they could just find a Divine Statue and remove the Card with the highest Pollution Value, there might still be a chance to save her.

However, Feng Ling glanced toward the other Hunters in the distance.

If she was going to carry out this plan, she would have to find a way to get past them.