Wasteland Border Inspector

Chapter 206 The Golden Legend, Extraordinary Decree!
"Good heavens, there really is a golden legend among the sources of infection?"

Cheng Ye was caught off guard.

The known red entries have two meanings: they represent both perfect-level talents and extraordinary creatures or skills.

However, the red associated with extraordinary talent is more dazzling than the red of perfect talent, and it also comes with some special effects.

But this was the first time he had ever seen a gold-colored item.

He had always talked about the "Golden Legend," but now that he had actually encountered it, he was at a loss.

"What does gold really represent? Does it mean higher rarity, or greater power?"

A complex and indescribable emotion welled up inside me.

At this moment, Cheng Ye was even conflicted. He hoped that what he saw in front of him was not a golden entry, but even just an ordinary blue one, or at most no more than the purple of the Netherwater Cave Crab. In that case, the difficulty of dealing with it later would definitely be greatly reduced.

But he couldn't help staring at that gold color, after all, visually speaking, gold looked more sophisticated than red.

What if this golden entry corresponds to an even more powerful supernatural entity, or even some kind of supernatural power that he simply cannot imagine?
If one could possess this power, it would be an unimaginable asset.

With this trepidation, Cheng Ye forced himself to concentrate and tapped the golden question mark entry.

【? ? ? 】

[Description]: No specific information is currently available. Collectors are requested to continue gathering information on civilizations or to supplement any related characteristics.

[Current level of impact]:
Within the affected area, there is no risk of mental pollution (outside the affected area, there is no risk; within the affected area, the protective fire of the heart is reduced; there is no risk).

Individual psychological pollution (probability of pollution: 100%)

[Currently Included Features]:
? ? ? **(0.00007%)

Aquatic Laws** (0.0091%)

Ocean current law** (0.0035%)

River Luo Laws** (0.0004%)

Mountain and River Laws** (0.0001%)

laugh.

Suddenly, a soft sound seemed to explode in my mind.

The moment Cheng Ye saw the three question marks clearly, he was astonished to find that he was hallucinating.

Just like when you equip a new skill, all the surrounding scenery is rapidly shattered, eventually being reassembled from the most primitive pixels.

This time, however, nothing materialized before his eyes; there was only an endless expanse of darkness.

There seems to be a sound coming from the darkness?

It was as if something was calling to him from afar.
It was as if someone was speaking to him from the depths of darkness.
Cheng Ye kept turning his head in the direction of the indistinct sound, but all he could see was darkness.

He tried to move the camera, but unexpectedly found that he had lost the ability to control the camera in this space and could only be passively fixed in place and turn his body.

The eerie state lasted for a few seconds, then the space suddenly shattered, all the hallucinations vanished instantly, and everything returned to normal.

"Is it because we haven't gathered enough information?"

Never before had Cheng Ye experienced such a strange phenomenon. He opened his eyes, his gaze returning to the control panel, his mind filled with questions.

However, the description on the panel clearly indicated the way: either continue searching for the corresponding civilization information, or try to collect more characteristics related to this golden entry.

But when he looked down, he was suddenly stunned, thinking he was seeing things.

The usual 'probability of parasitism' indicator has disappeared, replaced by a brand new 'level of influence' section.

The two sub-items below also contain no content related to parasitism; instead, they become descriptions of 'two-way mental pollution'.

Is this mental pollution the same category as the practitioner's abilities?

Cheng Ye became increasingly unsure as he thought about it.

If the entries were purple or even red, he would never have considered this kind of mental pollution comparable to that of a traveler.
But this unprecedented gold color was so mysterious and unfathomable that he couldn't help but be cautious.

When he saw those densely packed features further down, he was even more dazed.

The extraordinary tips marked with ** appeared one after another, totaling as many as five.

Based on his previous experience searching for the Heart-Protecting Fire, this means that as long as he can extract any one of them, he can obtain the corresponding extraordinary seed and thus master a new extraordinary skill.

"What exactly is this?"

"Is it an extraordinary remnant from the old era?"

"Is it the treasure left behind by that giant creature that visited Earth?"

At that moment, Cheng Ye suddenly realized that, in addition to courage, there was another, more direct and effective way to fight fear and dread.

eager!

Or rather, greed!
At this moment, he had little mind to ponder what threats were lurking in the White Water River; his mind was filled with these exciting and extraordinary hints.

Law?

Literally, it should mean "to establish rules and control order".

So, do these "water-related laws" and "mountain and river laws" mean that they can directly influence the flow of mountains and rivers, like the extraordinary beings in old legends who use superhuman power to change the course of water systems?
Hard to say.

However, one thing can be determined by the name.

Compared to the protective fire, which acts from within and affects oneself, these "laws" are clearly abilities that can directly influence the outside world.

More powerful, and more mysterious.

Recalling the faint calls he had just heard in that dark space, Cheng Ye's mind raced for a few seconds before he finally raised his hand and closed the panel.

Now is clearly not the time to ponder these things. Even if we wanted to investigate further, we'd have to wait until tomorrow or later.

This golden, unknown source of infection must be hiding at the bottom of the Baishui River, or perhaps in some secret corner near the river.

Like the shell plates of the vortex turtle, it hides in places that humans cannot currently find.

Others, even those with superhuman abilities, do not possess his capacity to directly analyze the source of infection.

Just like now, even if we see the marks on the infected person, we can't analyze the source of the marks.

However, one thing is certain: this unknown golden legend should not pose a significant threat at present.

As long as its mode of action is "pollution" rather than "direct parasitism," then it's fine as long as you don't step into its sphere of influence.

It's highly likely that the area affected is underwater.

Gathering his scattered thoughts, Cheng Ye didn't rush to get up. Instead, he walked back to the first infected person and began the autopsy and observation according to the standard procedures at the checkpoint.

The collector can provide the answer directly, but ultimately, the answer can only be verified by collecting clues yourself.

If he hadn't communicated with Wang Kang beforehand and hadn't discovered this golden entry, he might have skipped these tedious dissections and gone directly to the riverbank to look for traces of the two people going into the water.

But now, he has a vague idea of ​​the path he should take.

With the ability to collect and verify the source of infection, he might be able to compile a more detailed manual on preventing and controlling the source of infection.

Spreading knowledge so that everyone can learn how to identify, protect themselves, and contain sources of infection is far more convenient than having inspectors stand guard in quarantine zones.

Of course, this is a process that seems incredibly long just to think about.

It may take years or even decades to build the checkpoint, no less than or even more than Cheng Wu did back then. But as long as you walk this path, just as Wang Kang said, even if he falls, countless people will stand in front of him.

If it succeeds, it will surely become famous throughout the wasteland.

Currently, it is much more efficient to look for problems in reverse with a clear answer in mind.

He quickly identified the key features of the catfish.

After turning the infected person's head over, Cheng Ye felt around on the scalp for a moment, found a protrusion, and then decisively raised his hand and cut it open.

He scooped out a dark, viscous substance with his bare hands. It emitted a strong stench and its color was similar to the liquid that had flowed from the gun hole earlier; both were charred black and thick.

The substance was rubbed against the infected person's clothes, revealing its true form.

It was a piece of flesh covered with tiny bumps on its surface, and it looked extremely disgusting.

Rococo turned his head, paused, and exclaimed, "A succulent catfish?"

"Correct!"

Cheng Ye nodded, then calmly placed the fleshy beard into the containment tray, and then groped around the infected person's face.

Even without finding a suitable point to cut, he didn't panic. He gripped the corpse's jaw and applied slight force, actually prying open the infected person's mouth.

Amidst the astonished and terrified gazes of the crowd, he stretched out a few fingers and rummaged inside his mouth, quickly prying out the core of the infection source again amidst a teeth-grinding crunching sound.

The core of the face-changing fish, a fish fry no longer than a little finger, has already died along with its host.

It looks somewhat like a goldfish, but its head is covered with a layer of human skin that gives you goosebumps. If you look closely, you can barely make out a blurry human face.

Cheng Ye pinched the fish head and shook it. Chang Kai, who was not far away, walked forward tremblingly.

Only when they got within three meters and could clearly see the face on the fish's head did they nod frantically: "It's him! It's him! It's A Mao!"

"Face-changing fish".

Cheng Ye sighed, then did the same to another infected person next to him, and soon dug out another small fish.

“That’s right! This is Zhang Hu!” Chang Kai hurriedly confirmed.

"Identities confirmed, these two are the missing team members." Cheng Ye breathed a sigh of relief.
It's certainly a pity that people have died, but at least we can't let them die without any evidence or a complete body; we have to give them an explanation.

"Xiao Kang, bring the containment box over here."

Cheng Ye called out, and Wang Kang immediately reacted, grabbing a box and running forward quickly.

While Wang Kang was getting the box, Cheng Ye dug out the fleshy catfish whiskers from the scalp of the second infected person and put all four sources of infection into the containment box.

"Brother Cheng, I believe you." Wang Kang stared blankly at the contents of the box and murmured.

"What do you believe in?" Cheng Ye asked casually.

"I believe you could kick this guy's head off with one kick." Wang Kang's tone was full of dumbfounded shock.

Inspectors also have different styles of dealing with infected individuals. For example, Rocook, a phase III inspector, spent a lot of time fiddling with the powder but still couldn't find the source of infection corresponding to the mark.

Cheng Ye was decisive and efficient; he made a cut here and a dig there, and in the blink of an eye, he found four sources of infection.

"Uh"

Cheng Ye was taken aback. He wanted to explain, but then he thought about it again.
If he can leave an impression of being a "violent maniac" in the eyes of outsiders, it will actually make it easier for him to carry out many of his plans later.

And most importantly, he didn't use violence. Isn't it normal to kick a weak point?
He was just a tiny bit stronger!

"Prosecutor Luo, have you found anything here?"

Cheng Ye wanted to take out the You Shui Cave Crab from the heart, but after thinking about it for a long time, he still hesitated to make the cut.

"The only discovery is that this mark is not left by a living organism; it looks more like a form of pollution."

"Oh?" Cheng Ye was somewhat surprised, and immediately adopted a listening posture.

Unexpectedly, Rokuk actually had some real skills. He only learned about mental pollution by looking at the panel, but Rokuk actually analyzed the results through testing.

"Do you know that in the old days, well, a long, long time ago, it wasn't called Sanctuary City, it was called a Kingdom?"

“I know, I’ve been to school,” Cheng Ye interrupted directly.

“Alright, then I’ll get to the point.” Rokuk didn’t mind and continued, “In the old days, kingdom lords would brand slaves with marks. On the one hand, it was to establish ownership and indicate which lord the slave belonged to, so as to prevent other lords from taking the slave away or making it difficult to trace the slave if he ran away. On the other hand, it was also a kind of identity marker.”

"You mean, this mark is a contamination mark left by some source of infection? Proving that these two infected people are what it has its eye on, and other sources of infection cannot touch them?" Cheng Ye immediately grasped the core issue.

“That’s possible, but the meaning of the brand goes beyond that. I suspect it’s more likely to represent ‘rules’.”

Rococh pondered and explained, "You should know that water ghosts parasitized by the Soul-Snatching Catfish can never go ashore. If their feet are out of the water for more than a minute, they will die instantly. But these two people have been ashore for at least ten minutes and are perfectly fine, which means that the Soul-Snatching Catfish's 'outbreak rule' has failed."

He paused, then emphasized, "Based on past experience, there is only one possibility for this situation: there is a more powerful infection rule that has suppressed the Soul-Snatching Catfish's outbreak mechanism, or even fundamentally changed its triggering conditions."

"Are there any relevant cases?" Cheng Ye pressed.

"Wait a minute." Compared to the daytime, Rokuk's attitude was much better now.

Cheng Ye even had a feeling that Rokuk had already treated him as a senior prosecutor of the same rank.

After taking off two layers of rubber gloves, Rokuk didn't take out the Firefly Controller. Instead, he took out his bulky, black Defense Controller, clicked a few times, and found a picture in the storage.

Then, just like before, I turned the screen around.

The first thing that catches the eye is a picture.

Cheng Ye leaned closer to take a look and saw that the plant in the picture looked somewhat like the Bodhi tree commonly seen in temples, with an unusually wide canopy that almost covered all the land below.

But the "fruits" growing on the tree are very strange: they are shaped like ginseng fruits, with blurry human-shaped fruits hanging on the branches, looking somewhat eerie.

Below that is a text description.

[Codename: Tree of Righteousness (Special Infection Source)]

[Classification: Terrestrial Environment, Plant Type, Environmental Range Type, Mental Pollution Type]

Threat Level: SS-

[Latest sighting record: Old Era of the Extraordinary]

[Ability: Within its coverage area, no living being can harbor any evil thoughts]

"The Tree of Righteousness"

Cheng Ye stared at the text on the screen and read it aloud in a low voice.

Plant-based source of infection?

This is truly rare. After the New Era, the number of such infection sources has long since dwindled to almost nothing, especially in places like Shi Province, which is covered by supernatural curses, where plant-based infection sources that can take root and survive are even rarer.

Unless they reached the extraordinary level in the old era, they will eventually be cursed to slowly absorb all their qualities and perish completely.

As he continued reading and saw the threat level, Cheng Ye felt a chill run down his spine.

SS-!

This was definitely the most threatening source of infection he had ever seen, and it had been around for an exceptionally long time, dating back to at least thirty-five years ago.

"Why is the ability description only one sentence long?"

"To leave you enough room for your imagination." After he finished reading, Rokuk put away the defense device and explained, "If the boundaries of the ability are written too rigidly, and you have a clear understanding of them, when you encounter certain special mental pollution-type infection sources, they can even reproduce the things in your imagination. You should be able to understand that, right?"

"Could it be possible to revive a Tree of Righteousness out of thin air?" Cheng Ye was increasingly astonished.

"It's hard to say, but this requirement wasn't set by the checkpoint; it's a rule of the Torch Alliance."

Rococo shook his head, then changed the subject, "Once you are contaminated by the Tree of Righteousness, a mark will appear on your body. The more evil thoughts you generate, the more and denser the marks will become. When the marks reach a certain level, punishment will be periodically imposed, and each time it will be more severe than the last, until it tortures you to death. After death, the person will become a fruit on the tree, which is called 'evil fruit'."

"What's the use of bad consequences?" Cheng Ye asked, even more curious.

To everyone's surprise, Rococo smiled helplessly: "Do you think this is something a third-term prosecutor should know?"

"Three phases aren't enough?"

Cheng Ye clicked his tongue, and seeing Rokuk's increasingly helpless expression, he immediately realized what was going on.

Well, this is putting this "new colleague" in a bit of a bind.

“When you advance to a higher level in the future, you might be able to find the answer. If it’s convenient, let me know then, I also want to know what the negative consequences are for,” Rokuk said half-jokingly.

"Let's see. Maybe this stuff will contaminate us too tomorrow."

Cheng Ye waved his hand, bringing the topic back on track.

In fact, combining Rocco's findings and panel descriptions, he was already able to deduce a considerable amount of information:
The spiritual pollution of the Tree of Righteousness is to prevent humans from having evil thoughts.

So what kind of mental pollution does this question mark creature cause? Is it by prohibiting humans from going into the water?
It sounds a bit outrageous, but in this wasteland where the dead can be resurrected, a few special rules are not unacceptable.

"This infected person should have the source of infection from the Water Cave Crab. Can you come and collect it?"

"Thanks." Rokuk nodded immediately, a sincere smile on his face.

and many more?

Thank you for what?
Cheng Ye was stunned for a moment before he realized that this was a dirty job he didn't want to get involved in.

But for Rokuk, this was a way of giving him credit, so that he wouldn't seem too useless if he hadn't found a single source of infection throughout the entire process.

Alright, our Chief Prosecutor is really perceptive!

Cheng Ye secretly found it amusing and turned his head slightly until he saw Rokuk cut open his heart and take out a blue crab the size of a fingertip. Only then did he quietly breathe a sigh of relief.

On the first day of pioneering, thankfully, all problems were under control.

In comparison, the previously troublesome Cave Crab now seems "cute" and its threat level has been greatly reduced.

Tomorrow's main objectives, besides eliminating the parasites, are to explore the hidden water crab.

To find out whether those toxic water crystals drifted from upstream or whether the source of the infection was actually hiding near Dabo Town.

It is still uncertain whether the subsequent handling of these sources of infection will be taken over by personnel from the checkpoint or by the inspectors participating in the assessment.

If it's the former, it will save a lot of trouble.

If it were the latter, Cheng Ye pondered, and a sense of anticipation arose in his heart.

Knowing the dangers in the water, he would never jump in without proper diving equipment.

Who knows how many sources of infection are still lurking at the bottom of the Baishui River?
We need protective gear like armor to give people a little peace of mind.

“Then tonight,” Rokuk said, putting the Water Cave Crab into its containment box, taking off his rubber gloves and walking over, his tone hesitant.

No one could have imagined that he, a prosecutor in his third term, would actually be discussing follow-up plans with a trainee prosecutor.

But in reality, within the buffer zone, he was a higher-ranking third-stage prosecutor, while Cheng Ye was a trainee.

Once outside the buffer zone and into this wilderness, both of them were just ordinary people struggling to survive, equally helpless in the face of the source of infection.

At times like these, we can only stick together for warmth. As for the previous conflicts, we can deal with them when we get back to a safe zone.

"Let's take turns keeping watch tonight. Who will keep watch for the first half of the night?" Cheng Ye proposed the solution directly.

“I’ll do it,” Rokuk said frankly, taking a breath. “It’s just that I’m not good at fighting, and Garcia is even weaker than me. What if we encounter a situation we can’t stop?”

"Just call me whatever you want, no need to be polite." Cheng Ye grinned, revealing a set of white teeth.

It's rare to see a senior prosecutor being so "polite".

Indeed, in the end, whether it's professional skills or hard power, you have to be strong enough.

On the way back with the people, Cheng Ye glanced back.

Rokuk was still standing at the intersection, staring blankly in his direction, lost in thought.

What kind of person is this?

Cheng Ye was somewhat puzzled, but he was certain that the conflict between the two should not recur.

Someone as intelligent as him shouldn't bother arguing with him again, only to make a fool of himself.

As for Garcia, the more Cheng Ye interacted with him, the more he felt that the checkpoint's "third phase" was like an invisible chasm.

Under the three phases, everyone is equal, and everyone possesses a kind of clear-eyed stupidity.

Whether it's the academics from the East or the Westerners like Garcia who rose to power by taking sides.

They're like plants grown in a greenhouse, never having experienced real hardship, and completely lack the abilities an inspector should have.

But once you get to the third phase and above, each prosecutor has their own unique characteristics: Li Matai, Song Hai, Gu Xinjing, and now Luo Kuke. Each of them has their own methods and thoughts, and they are by no means easy to control.

"Holding the flag, it seems this flag isn't in the hands of the lower-ranking prosecutors, but rather in the hands of these higher-ranking officials."

Cheng Ye paused for a moment, then suddenly turned his head.

The familiar cawing sound came from the horizon again, indicating that the flock of thornbirds that had been vying for leadership for most of the day had returned.

"Alright," Cheng Ye nodded to himself. With these thornbirds harassing the area, even if there really was an infected source hiding in Dabo Town, the commotion would alert them.

I just hope everything goes smoothly tonight, and that Prosecutor Cheng won't be forced to resort to "violence" again!
　P.S.: Two chapters, 1.2 words delivered! Please vote!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)