Contamination

"Dr. Lin, I've ranked up." Ren Yi leaned in close to Dr. Lin.

"Oh, great job." Dr. Lin had curled back onto the sofa to munch on his apple. He didn't even look up, his response as half-hearted as could be.

"Hey, can you help me test it out? Now that my ability has evolved, I want to know exactly what new effects it has."

For professional matters like this, it was best to consult the professional in charge of the Awakening Ceremony.

Dr. Lin finally looked up, staring at him with a look of resignation.

"Research your own abilities yourself. Helping you test during the awakening was a special case; don't expect that kind of treatment from now on."

"I want to, but I don't have a target to test it on," Ren Yi said, looking troubled.

"Hmm?" The crystal bobbed slightly. "How about... using me? I can sense that even if I die now, I can apparently be reset and resurrected through the Alliance's rules."

Dr. Lin rubbed his chin and thought for a few seconds. "You haven't been officially registered as an Instance NPC yet, so the resurrection fee is actually quite expensive... but we can certainly give it a try."

Since they had nothing better to do, the two Anomalies and one crystal huddled together and began messing around with Ren Yi's ability.

"What do you see now?" Ren Yi stared at Wang Zhixin's crystal and asked in a low voice.

"Uh... a huge ship. Is this what they call a steamship?"

"There's a very young and beautiful woman standing at the bow with her arms spread wide. A man is holding her from behind, and they're feeling the sea breeze. It's quite a picturesque scene." Wang Zhixin's voice was full of curiosity.

"Uh, I think I hear some music too. Da-da-da~ da-da-da-da~ da-da-daaa—daaa—daaa—"

After messing around for a while longer and switching through several illusionary scenes, Ren Yi reached a conclusion.

"It seems the basic effects of the illusion have evolved significantly. Besides sight, it can now affect hearing. I'm not sure about touch or taste yet... and the range of targets it can influence has increased quite a bit..."

"Targets? What targets?" Wang Zhixin bobbed the crystal curiously.

"You don't have eyes right now."

Ren Yi looked at the swaying crystal before him and explained, "But the illusion still worked."

When dealing with Extinction before, his illusion had been stubbornly resisted because the opponent had no eyes. Now, it could influence a sightless soul crystal.

"Congratulations, congratulations," Dr. Lin chimed in from the side. "Can you make stones watch movies now?"

Ren Yi ignored the teasing and rubbed his chin in thought.

"But besides that, there doesn't seem to be any other change. Is this all there is to this evolution?"

Ren Yi frowned, filled with doubt. Was this evolution a bit too minor? There was no fundamental change.

"It's already very good," Wang Zhixin said, sounding quite positive. "We should look on the bright side."

"At least the Ammunition limit has been relaxed, and the range of targets you can affect is wider. These are all tangible improvements."

"There's no way it's just that," Dr. Lin said cryptically.

"I told you long ago, 'illusion' isn't the essence of your ability. Letting you treat it as an illusion for the time being was just to make it easier for you to understand."

He paused. Seeing Ren Yi perk up instantly, he continued, "I can't say for sure what it is exactly, but I can guess the general direction."

"Oh? What direction?" Ren Yi leaned in.

"This evolution of your ability should be related to your second rule."

"The second rule? Isn't that supposed to be unlocked only after reaching C-rank?" Ren Yi was completely baffled.

"Yes, it's just related. I didn't say you have the second rule right now." Dr. Lin shrugged.

Ren Yi immediately caught the key point and pressed, "Then how do you know what my second rule is? I don't even know it myself?"

"Ha, that's simple." Dr. Lin lazily chewed on the rest of his apple, his tone casual.

"For Ammunition-type Anomalies, the second rule and its effects are more or less the same."

"What is it?"

Dr. Lin flicked the finished apple core precisely into the trash can and spat out a single word.

"Contamination."

Ren Yi froze. He had only recently encountered this term for the first time while browsing the forums.

Just as he was about to ask further, Dr. Lin's floodgates seemed to finally open.

"Contamination is also a type of ability—you could even say it's the core threat mechanism for us Anomalies."

"Actually, in most Instances, some of our instant-death rules are quite difficult to trigger."

"Uh, I remember some world once summarized it. How did they put it...?"

"As a relatively simpler erosion mechanism, Contamination is generated and intensified by touching taboos, staring at abnormalities, violating rules, or coming into contact with contaminated entities. Sometimes, just entering an Instance is enough to get contaminated."

"Deep levels of Contamination will gradually invade a participant's cognition, perception, spirit, and body."

"It destroys their stable perception of reality and self, eventually assimilating them as part of the Instance or erasing them entirely."

"Sigh, look at how they phrase it. We're clearly just helping them conform to the rules."

Ren Yi could feel that Dr. Lin was exceptionally sincere when he said this.

"So in high-level Instances, things usually turn into a tug-of-war of Contamination."

"We try to get them to conform to the rules, while the participants avoid Contamination as much as possible, racing against time to clear the game before being completely contaminated."

As soon as he finished speaking, Dr. Lin's tone suddenly shifted. He leaned forward, his face twisting into an expression of deep, tragic grievance.

"Xiao Yi, you've grown up now. There are some things you should understand."

He paused, enunciating every word with exaggerated emotion.

"The truth is... we Anomalies are actually very weak."

Out of the corner of his eye, Ren Yi saw Wang Zhixin's crystal bob slightly and hesitantly lean closer, as if he wanted to say something.

Ren Yi's lips twitched secretly. Wasn't Dr. Lin's acting a bit too over-the-top?

Dr. Lin gave a casual wave of his hand, and the crystal inexplicably went flying, hitting the wall with a soft thud before slowly drifting to the floor.

"You have to realize that what you encountered before were just Internship Instances and Pasture worlds—places where the Alliance had already smoothed over the rough edges and removed most of the threats."

Dr. Lin glanced at the crystal silently floating up from the floor in the distance, his tone a bit sour.

"You have no idea how difficult a world's will can be... Your brother is really too good to you."

Ren Yi opened his mouth.

Actually, I think I know a little bit.

"Anyway, in those worlds where we face off directly, the world's will can give participants far more cheats in the Instances."

"In places like that, our rules might be stripped bare by the world's will and shown to the participants as soon as they appear. No talent or ability can be hidden. Want to blend in with the participants and launch a sneak attack? Not a chance."

"For example, you might be restricted to a single room, and the rule might be: 【There is a bratty kid in this room; do not feel any positive emotions toward him.】 How are you supposed to play then?"

"In such cases, Contamination is actually a means to greatly increase the complexity of the rules."

"It adds many layers to the game. Participants need to follow rules, stay away from contamination sources, hold onto existence anchors, find safe zones, and so on and so forth."

Dr. Lin began to ramble on again.

As Ren Yi listened, he felt like the focus was drifting, so he quickly interjected.

"Uh, but Dr. Lin, you said that's for the second rule, right? So what is the effect of my current first evolution?"

Being interrupted seemed to annoy Dr. Lin slightly, but he still answered.

"Generally speaking, your illusionary Ammunition will carry a weakened version of cognitive influence."

"It's not true Contamination; it won't intensify with the rules and isn't contagious. To put it simply, it's just an early unlock of a rudimentary form of your future Contamination effect."

"So what kind of cognitive influence is it exactly?" Ren Yi pressed.

"I don't know." Dr. Lin spread his hands.

"But don't you think..."

He pointed to the crystal in the corner, which was currently spinning in circles out of sheer boredom.

"...that he's been a bit too lively since a moment ago?"