Lord of Prayer

Chapter 115: Chapter 98: Mild Contamination

In front of the fitting room mirror.

Erin held a black, knee-length dress up to herself. When Zhou Chen approached, she turned, pressing the dress against her body to show him. “How about this one?”

Zhou Chen looked her over and shook his head. “The style is too mature. It doesn’t suit you.”

“What about this one?” Erin picked up another garment from the side.

“That style is hard to coordinate. Not great either.”

“This?”

“That color doesn’t suit you.”

“Then what about this one?”

“That’s a JK uniform. I think that one’s good. It would really bring out your youthful energy,” Zhou Chen praised her earnestly, eager to see what Erin would look like wearing it.

’A blonde in a JK uniform… what a rare sight.’

About ten minutes later, Erin bought the few suitable outfits she had selected and paid by scanning a code.

“This is so convenient. In the Kingdom, we have to pay for everything with Gold Coins. They’re so heavy and troublesome,” Erin couldn’t help but exclaim as she looked at the charge notification on her phone.

She felt as if she had arrived in a world of the future, filled with novel things that were both advanced and convenient. Although she had learned about it in her classes, the firsthand experience was far more profound.

Before leaving, Zhou Chen shot one last glance at the motionless mannequin. He didn’t spot anything unusual, so he followed Erin out of the store.

In an unnoticed corner, the mannequin’s eyeball twitched. Its gaze slowly tracked their figures until a wall blocked the view.

After a moment of silence, Zhou Chen suddenly leaned back, his head peeking out from behind the wall.

He caught the mannequin’s eyeball just as it hastily snapped back into place.

“Gotcha,” he said with a triumphant smile.

An Ascender’s perception was rarely wrong. ’Just as I thought, there’s something wrong with this mannequin.’

According to the Star Association’s records, there were many cases of non-living objects like sculptures, wax figures, dolls, and mannequins gaining life after being polluted. Some of the more famous examples included Forbidden Object C-155: Miss Mary, the Abyssal Curse Object·Annabelle, and the Contaminated Species: Wax Figure Men…

“Erin, call Jiang Che. Tell her a pollution event is happening in the mall.” A pale flame ignited in Zhou Chen’s palm, and he hurled it at the mannequin.

As if it had come to life, the mannequin abruptly dodged to the side, evading the incoming flame with unbelievable speed. It charged straight forward like a fearless soldier, its footsteps CLANKING.

BANG!

Zhou Chen met its charge with a kick that shattered the plastic mannequin into pieces. Though it had come to life, its body was still just plastic. Forget an Ascender; even an ordinary person could have easily taken it down.

’So weak. The source of the pollution must have only just appeared; it hasn’t had time to develop…’ Zhou Chen’s thoughts raced as he looked at the scattered fragments. The malevolent, polluting power within them was being incinerated by the Cyan Flame.

“M-Mr. Zhou Chen…” Erin whispered from the side, “All the other mannequins… they’re all looking this way…”

At that moment, every single mannequin in the surrounding clothing stores seemed to come alive. They twisted their heads in unison, staring toward them with lifeless eyes.

Dozens of mannequins rose to their feet or shifted their poses. After staring silently for several seconds, they erupted into motion, smashing through shop windows and assembling into ranks. Like a veritable army, they charged toward Zhou Chen and Erin.

Screams erupted one after another as employees and shoppers, terrified by the suddenly animate mannequins, fled in a panic.

“It managed to pollute this many…” Zhou Chen frowned. ’How was the source of the pollution not detected?’

With a mere thought, an Alloy Long Saber materialized in his hand—a Weapon created by the Transformation of his Defensive Battle Armor. Wreathed in Cyan Flame, the Long Saber swept forward. With a whoosh, the blade suddenly elongated, neatly cleaving the heads off a dozen or so mannequins in front of him.

BANG! BANG! BANG! Gunshots echoed through the mall.

Erin pulled a handgun from her purse. She fired at the charging plastic mannequins with one hand while quickly navigating her phone with the other, finding and dialing Jiang Che’s number.

Her Spear Technique was excellent; every shot was a headshot. However, she quickly realized this was a waste of bullets and changed her tactics. She began aiming for their torsos so that the bullets would pass through one mannequin and have a chance to shatter the next one in line.

When the call connected, Erin immediately reported the situation. “Ms. Jiang Che, we’ve encountered a pollution event at Taisheng Mall. Er… it’s not that urgent, because it seems Mr. Zhou Chen is about to wipe out all the hostiles…”

“Wait five minutes. People from the Special Operations Team will be there to take over.” Jiang Che’s tone was a bit strange. ’How does Zhou Chen run into a pollution event just by going for a walk?’

Meanwhile, Zhou Chen had charged into the horde of mannequins, his saber a blur. He carved through them with ease, shattering all several dozen in moments.

The source of the pollution wasn’t among them.

He extinguished the flame on his saber and, with a few quick slashes—SWISH, SWISH, SWISH—severed the limbs of the last few mannequins. This kept them “alive” but immobile, leaving them as clues to find the source of the pollution.

「Five minutes later.」

Two Operators from the Special Operations Team arrived.

They used a special instrument to record the pollution fluctuations inside the mannequins, then activated a scanning radar. It wasn’t long before they picked up the trail of the pollution’s source within the mall. The signal was extremely faint; if they hadn’t been scanning on-site, it was unlikely the problem would have ever been detected.

The group followed the traces of pollution to the underground parking garage. As soon as the scanner was aimed at the security office, it let out a high-pitched alarm.

The young security guard inside looked utterly baffled.

Seeing several handguns aimed at him, he wisely raised his hands and stepped out of the security booth.

“Sirs… Ma’am… is there a problem?” the young security guard asked, screwing up his courage.

“Is it him?” Zhou Chen asked.

“No, this is an ordinary person,” one of the Special Operations Team Operators said, glancing at his instrument. He then demanded, “What’s your name?”

“Li Qiang,” the young guard answered honestly, his hands still in the air.

“We’re investigating a pollution event. Our instruments indicate the source is inside this security office. Besides you, is anyone else in there? And have you noticed anything unusual lately?” the Operator asked sternly.

“Th-there’s also Brother Liu. His name is Liu Li. He’s sleeping right now; he works the night shift.”

Li Qiang had been a guard for several years and had heard horror stories from his peers about pollution events. Knowing how serious this was, he racked his brain to recall the last few days and told them everything he could think of that was out of the ordinary.

“Brother Liu has been acting a little strange the last couple of days. He works the night shift, so he sleeps during the day. Yesterday, in the middle of the night, I woke up groggily and found him standing by my bed, just staring at me like a statue. It scared me wide awake. Brother Liu said he was just pulling a prank, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off. I was too scared to go back to sleep all night…”

“And, and also, when I was watching the security monitors out of boredom, I saw him talking to the plastic mannequins in the mall during his shift…”

Zhou Chen and the others exchanged a look. It was settled, then.

“I’ll go drag him out.”

To be on the safe side, Zhou Chen covered his entire body in his Alloy Armor, strode into the security office, and dragged the sleeping Liu Li outside.

“Wh-who are you people?” Liu Li shouted, waking with a start, his face a mask of panic.

A Special Operations Team Operator aimed the scanner at Liu Li, and the alarm immediately shrieked even more piercingly.

“Liu Li, do you remember what happens during your night shifts?” one of the Operators asked gravely.

Liu Li looked lost. He didn’t understand why they were asking that. He subconsciously tried to remember, only to realize he truly couldn’t recall large chunks of his recent night shifts. It was as if that time was a complete blank.

He froze on the spot like a wooden puppet, stammering incoherently, “I… I…”

One of the Operators decisively drew a stun gun and knocked Liu Li unconscious.

“Minor pollution. His personality and memories are being slowly overwritten. In a few more days, it probably would’ve progressed to moderate pollution. By then, every mannequin in the mall would have likely come to life, and they might have even undergone some bizarre evolution. We’re lucky this was caught early,” the Operator said, a hint of fear still in his voice.

Evidently, Liu Li had been unconsciously polluting the mannequins every night during his shift. Perhaps due to his limited Ability, he had only affected the few dozen on the first floor. And because the polluting power he released was so faint, it had gone undetected by the standard monitoring systems.

“How did he become a source of pollution?” Zhou Chen asked, puzzled.

“We don’t know yet,” an Operator said, shaking his head. “We’ll take them both back for questioning and see if we can find any leads. We’ve had a spike in pollution events the last couple of days.”

“Thanks for the hard work, then. We’re going to get back to our shopping,” Zhou Chen said before leading Erin away.

The two Operators stared after them, their faces pictures of utter dejection.

’Why do we have to work overtime while he gets to take a pretty girl shopping…?’