Doomsday Traveler

Chapter 315 I think that must be respect.
Lu Xi'an's words left Lu Laoshu stunned for a long time.

After a long while, he finally let out a soft breath and said with a smile, "The way you say that... makes it sound like you're a good person too."

The emotions behind that smile were complex and hard to decipher, containing a hint of composure, a touch of mockery, a dash of helplessness and despair, and behind that despair lay a strange, inexplicable hope.

Why not?

Lu Xi'an said, "Now that I think about it, that boy named Gouzi, and the person who jumped into the Guanhai River today, have already swum downstream and met you, right?"

"They've all met me before, didn't they tell you I'm a good person?"

Lu the Rat was silent for a moment before finally saying, "I've said that before..."

Lu Xi'an asked, "So you don't believe me?"

Lu the Rat said, "What difference does it make whether you believe it or not?"

"Of course there is a difference."

Lu Xi'an picked up Lu the Rat.

The rat's limbs were still dislocated, wobbling uncontrollably.

Lu Xi'an continued, "If you trust me, we can still be on the same side and face those people coming from the northern county in half a month."

"If you don't trust me, then there's nothing we can do but part ways and fight our own battles."

Lu Laoshu shook his head and smiled bitterly, saying, "It's no use. It's no use saying anything now."

"I sent everyone away before I left the village. If there are any people there, it'll probably just be Old Bird waiting there, right?"

Lu Xi'an asked, "Is 'Old Bird' the person we met before that you mentioned?"

Lu Laoshu nodded and said, "Yes. He drifted over from the Guanhai River. I fished him out and learned about the situation in the sick village from him. I knew then that the sick village was finished and there was no need for me to stay there."

“I dismissed the others and left him there—I told him that it was no use for him to run away; he was deliberately left behind by the people of Northern County. He will always be targeted by them and will not be able to escape.”

"Then I came here alone. I asked him, and he said your car was heading north, so I thought you must have gone north—I thought you were from Beifang County, so I came here to catch up."

Lu Xi'an asked again, "You should know you can't beat the people from Northern County, so why did you chase after them?"

Lu Laoshu said dejectedly, "If I can't beat them, I can't beat them. There's nothing I can do. I'm just a Type B New Human. I haven't eaten any fungal stones or meat yet. This is all the strength I have."

"But they destroyed my sick village, what can I do? I don't want to live anymore, I just want to fire a cannon before I die, it would be best if I killed them, if not I'll let them know that I'm going to fire a cannon at them!"

He spoke through gritted teeth, as if he truly hated the people of Beifang County.

Lu Xi'an asked curiously, "Aren't the people in Binghe Village all ordinary people? Why are you, a new human, so concerned about ordinary people?"
"Also—I saw the distance between the downstream and the broken bridge on the map of the resonance gene scanner. At that distance, those who jumped into the river should have drowned even if they drifted to Binghao Village, right?"

"And that doesn't even mention those who were already seriously ill and on the verge of death. How could they possibly survive if they went to you?"

Lu the Rat remained silent for a long time, seemingly unwilling to reveal the secret.

But after a long silence, he finally gave in, sighed, and said, "Fine, we're all going to die anyway, so there's no harm in telling you this secret."

"Besides, this kind of secret is only useful to fools like me; it's useless to you."

He paused slightly before continuing, "You people only know that fungal stones are useful to new humans, but you don't know that after processing, they can also be used by ordinary people."

"After soaking the fungal stones in water, the water can be diluted dozens or even hundreds of times before it can be given to ordinary people to drink."

"After ordinary people drink it, those with illnesses will recover quickly, and those who are about to die or have just died can be saved immediately."

“I built the Village of Sickness and Recovery downstream of the Guanhai River. I let the people in the village who were about to die or who had recovered jump into the river. Then I would fish them out, give them the water from the fungus stone, and they would come back to life.”

"Then, they can live a good life in Binghao Village and usher in a new life."

"Hmph! This is useless to you. You people probably won't figure it out in your entire lives."
"Even if I told you, what could you do? Use the fungal stones on ordinary people? Don't be ridiculous! Who in the world would do that besides me?!"

He seemed to consider himself a saint, sneered, and looked at Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei with a mocking expression.

But Lu Xi'an glanced at him and said, "You found this use for fungal stones, so you must have experimented on a lot of ordinary people and killed a lot of them, right?"

Lu Laoshu was taken aback and said, "Didn't you say I was a good person?" Lu Xi'an said, "When I said you were a good person, I was referring to the present, not the past."

Lu the Rat let out a heavy sigh and said, "You're really smart. I didn't say much to that Yang Shuxia, and you guessed it all."

"Yes, in my attempt to find out how to use fungal stones, I did harm quite a few ordinary people."

"Even when I first started looking for ways to use fungal stones, it wasn't for ordinary people."

"I just want to find out if there are other ways to activate the fungal stone's effect—that is, if I eat the fungal stone after giving it to ordinary people, can I eliminate the toxicity and still improve myself?"

“I know that ordinary people cannot withstand fungal stones, and cannot even touch them, so I tried other methods, such as cutting off the tendrils of the fungal stones to feed them, etc.”

"I didn't try the soaking method at first, since I can drink the water I soaked in mushroom stones myself."

"But later I gradually lost my mind and wanted to try everything. As a result, I discovered this use..."

"I found that fungal stones are ineffective for living patients, but they can work after a person has died. I think that's because the disease is gone from the patient's body. Diseases also have a lifespan, and when a person dies, the disease also dies."

Lu Xi'an felt that this guy was really something else, actually discovering the virus in such a strange way—although he just called the virus a disease and didn't distinguish it.

However, Lu Xi'an did not interrupt Lu Laoshu and continued to listen to Lu Laoshu.

As Lu the Rat spoke, his voice trembled slightly, and he added, "Because of this, I have harmed many ordinary people in the sick village."

"But later, after I saved the lives of the people in the sick village with diluted fungal stone water, they actually thanked me, kowtowed to me, and said I was a good person."

“I told them to get lost, but they wouldn’t. They even went out of their way to find food for me. After they found some, they gave me all the good stuff and only ate what I left over.”

"They built a place for me to rest, packed my things, and did everything for me. It felt like I was back in the past, when I was a tyrant in the county, with a bunch of servants waiting on me."

"But it's completely different. When they do things for me, they are so diligent and attentive. They are not afraid of me when they see me, and they will greet me and smile at me."

"I think that's what respect is... I gradually stopped wanting to kill them."

"The lower reaches of the Guanhai River were originally where I hid."
"I stole the mushroom stone, and fearing that the people of Beifang County would find out, I hid there."

"Firstly, it's far from the northern county, outside the scanning range of their resonance gene scanner. Secondly, it's a sick village, a place where ordinary people gather and it won't attract their attention, so it's convenient for me to find materials to experiment with."

"As a result, the number of people I saved gradually increased, and a village was formed downstream."

“I named that place ‘Sick and Well Village’ and sent someone to Sick Village to tell the people there my rule—that is, the one you know, people who are about to die or who are cured can jump into the river and go to Sick and Well Village.”

"I know that the new humans in Northern County won't be in the mood to talk to the people in the Disease Village properly, and the people in the Disease Village have no choice but to listen to me if they want to live, so I dare to tell them these things."

"More and more people in the village are getting better, and I am becoming more and more respected. This respect is genuine, and I feel that I am living a much happier life than when I was in the county."

He glanced at Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei, and said sarcastically, "Can you understand this feeling? You probably will never understand it in your entire lives."

Lu Xi'an said, "It's alright. We often hear people say that we are good people. The guy who was with Gouzi before, and the guy who was with Gouzi after him, both said so."

Lu the Rat slightly suppressed his laughter.

Lu Xi'an continued, "And I think you're hiding something, aren't you? There's a saying that as long as you're alive, you can always find a way to rebuild. You could have taken the rest of the villagers from Binghao Village and run away to find another place to set up camp. Why did you have to risk your life?"

"I don't think it's a rational choice for you to give up everyone else for someone who's been marked."

Lu Laoshu's laughter completely stopped, and he sighed, saying, "You're really something; nothing can be hidden from you."

"Yes, I did hide some things, but I didn't mean any harm. I just wanted to make myself seem more tragic and gain your sympathy. Please don't mind."

"I also vaguely felt that you were indeed good people, and I thought this method might be useful, so that's why I said it."

"What I'm hiding is that the marking is also contagious. This contagion won't happen to ordinary people, but only to the new humans."

"I have actually been infected, but this effect won't appear all at once. It will take some time before the marks on my body show up."

"This period of time is no more than a month, but I don't know exactly how long. So I'm sure I can't escape anymore. I can only make the people of Binghao Village run away, but I'm still angry, so I want to come and find them and have sex with them."

Lu Xi'an said, "So, we were actually already infected long ago, and meeting this Type C new human only accelerated the infection?"

(End of this chapter)