Chapter 407: with translation of chapter title

Ying Duo leaned on the sofa, Luo Jinyou sat at the other end, the tip of his tail resting on the armrest occasionally curling.

"What examinations did Fang Zhiyan perform on you?" Ying Duo asked.

Luo Jinyou's tail stiffened slightly, "Just the usual ones, like drawing blood and such."

Ying Duo gave an "hmm" and didn't pursue it.

"He said I'm integrating well with the Mutation, my consciousness is also clear," Luo Jinyou added, his voice a little uncertain, "That's probably a good thing, right?"

"What Fang Zhiyan thinks is good isn't necessarily good for you."

To be honest, Yang Yixie doesn't really understand Luo Jinyou.

Luo Jinyou seems a bit... too honest?

In this man-eating wasteland world, how on earth did Luo De'an raise Luo Jinyou to be so naive?

He can't comprehend Luo De'an's overprotectiveness toward Luo Jinyou; doing this in this world, what's the difference from slow suicide?

Luo Jinyou fell silent for a moment, "... What can I do?"

Luo Jinyou couldn't think of any other way to survive.

After becoming an Aberrant Species, he left the human faction, willing or not, it seems this place is the only refuge he has.

"There's nothing we can do, after all you've become an Aberrant Species."

Ying Duo reacted to this fact with extreme coldness; Luo Jinyou's face still bore youthful innocence, yet his brows and eyes held something that didn't belong to someone his age.

Not maturity, but the exhaustion after being forced to grow too fast.

He isn't unwilling to think about it; the more he thinks, the more he realizes his situation is increasingly hopeless.

Luo Jinyou lowered his head, his hand clenched and then relaxed on his knee, "... Thank you."

Ying Duo stared straight at him; it's said that after becoming an Aberrant Species the mind also goes awry—could Luo Jinyou have developed Stockholm syndrome?

"There's something I must declare: from the start I entered the Academy intending to deceive your feelings, then bring you here to the Dome."

Yang Yixie has always held himself to a single standard: never regret, because regret changes nothing.

Since he learned the truth of this game world, he had long prepared himself to be condemned by thousands of NPCs, the kind who could curse him as a traitor day after day without him even blinking.

But now...

Perhaps he's feeling a bit guilty; he genuinely worries that Luo Jinyou's mind might also go wrong.

"But you brought me all the way out of the Church's territory by force—you can't fake that."

Luo Jinyou insisted, "If we're being honest, Ying Duo has never concealed his purpose; it's been quite clear and direct."

No wonder Ying Duo back then clung like a medicated plaster you couldn't shake off.

Friends can be fake, the so-called Mercenary Corps could be a scheme to get close, but Ying Duo bringing him out of Tianmian City by force is surely genuine, right?

Ying Duo's expression didn't change; seeing Luo Jinyou about to continue his long-winded self-justification, he narrowed his eyes.

"If it weren't for you, I might already——"

"Enough," Ying Duo cut him off directly, his tone tinged with impatience, "Don't go on about irrelevant stuff."

Ying Duo turned to look at him, his Ying Guang Lu hair flickering in the light.

"If you truly have that much spare conscience, next time you see someone trying to mess with me, just remember to raise your shield and block the damage for me."

"Of course, as long as I'm here, I won't let them hurt you."

Ying Duo looked at his face, which seemed to scream "I'm ready to go through fire and water for you," and he felt something was off about nine-tenths of it.

He genuinely suspected Luo Jinyou's brain was also ill, physiologically.

As it happened, just then Luo Jinyou's tail swept the sofa armrest again, as if seeing through Ying Duo's thoughts.

"So... is it really sick?" he asked softly, his tone full of careful concern.

Under Ying Duo's wary gaze, Luo Jinyou added another sentence quietly.

"It's your head, Ying Duo—are you really ill or just faking it as an undercover...?"

He was genuinely curious.

Mainly because of the things Ying Duo did before, which really don't seem like something a single person could pull off.

By the way, is Ying Duo also an Aberrant Species? Then he really doesn't seem human...

Luo Jinyou's brain also started to burn.

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Bai Mu Yun hung up the phone with the Field Operations Department chief; the latter seemed to have something urgent, and more details would have to wait until next time they had a chance to talk.

He used his communicator to open the living room monitor, originally wanting to see if Ying Duo had left, after all Fang Zhiyan had arranged separate lodging for this kid; it was impossible for him to still come crowding into his apartment.

...... Then he saw Luo Jinyou and Ying Duo leisurely lying together on his black leather sofa, watching TV.

Luo Jinyou still seemed a bit restrained, while Ying Duo acted as if it were his own home, lying there stiffly.

Bai Mu Yun hung up and turned off the monitor; with things as they are, he definitely won't be leaving the studio today!

——————————————

On the TV screen was local news from the Dome, showing a gray-white building with a woman in uniform standing before the camera, her expression stern.

"...... The Dome's Field Operations Department has just issued an emergency bulletin; the newly discovered toxin has been confirmed contagious, first found in an attack on a public figure, and now multiple cases have appeared in various regions......"

"Toxin?" Luo Jinyou frowned instinctively; poison is hard not to associate with something bad, and the poison he knows best is Chen Mo Zhi's.

But since they've hardly ever gone on missions together, his deepest impression of Chen Mo Zhi is probably those potions that seem endless to drink.

The TV picture switched to a map marked with several red dots distributed across different areas, the densest cluster near the exhibition center.

A bespectacled man stood before the map, with subtitles scrolling at the bottom of the screen:

"...... Early symptoms in the infected are wounds turning black, uncontrollable bleeding, followed by fever and confused consciousness, confirmed to spread via blood and bodily fluids......"

"Because treatment was timely, there has so far been no large-scale outbreak; it is recommended that citizens who recently attended large gatherings proactively go to designated sites for screening......"

What a coincidence, that large gathering seems to refer to the fan meeting he was supposed to attend but was forced to cancel, huh.

So that means his side quest is just one part of it, and there's another quest chain you can take later, right?