Since The Red Moon Appeared

*Clatter*

Lu Xin saw the chaotic surroundings as he was leaving the station.

The empty street earlier was now filled with countless black jeeps.
Many in military clothing were appearing out of the station.
They were armed with weapons, and their steps were heavy.
They hastened through the streets to set up blockades and turrets, sealing any possible way out.

Hearing all the rustlings and gunshots, Lu Xin couldn’t help but be a little anxious.
He swiftly jumped onto the edge of the wall and escaped by climbing through the run-down buildings.

Fortunately, it seemed like they didn’t account for the possibility that someone would flee through the walls, adding on with how fast he was going, Lu Xin wasn’t noticed.

He climbed through the buildings using both his hands and feet like an agile spider.
Already a few hundred meters away, he jumped and crouched on a multiple-storey building.
He turned and saw innumerable figures filling the road where he was from, including the café and the station.
The entire place was already surrounded by people.

That made him a bit unsettled.

“How are you going to thank me, Big brother?”

Her voice resounded.
Not very far away from Lu Xin was his sister with her stitched teddy bear.

Her fluttering hair and the glowing eyes suggested her satisfaction.

“You? To thank you?”

The uneasy Lu Xin couldn’t find anywhere to express his agitation, “I was going to hit you…”

Just as the words were escaping out of his mouth he remembered the events earlier.
Then, his temper softened,  “thanks…”

“You are my brother while I’m your sister, why are you thanking me?”

She giggled.
Her face, mostly covered by her untidy hair, manifested an odd type of cuteness.

Just as Lu Xin was about to praise her, she suddenly lifted her head and said, “how about you buy me a new toy?”

“Another toy?”

Lu Xin looked at the teddy bear she was holding and said resignedly,

“What about that?”

“The teddy bear is cute!” She embraced the toy tightly, “But it can’t speak!”

With her voice hinted excitement she detailed, “I want the type that can speak…”

“I’ll get you one of those toys with sounds!” Lu Xin said perfunctorily.

“Those are no fun…” An eerie smile appeared on her face, “I want those with not only sound but that can scream! The more desperate the scream the better!”

“Have you heard of the screaming chicken?”

Silence took over the siblings for a moment, the little sister was the one who broke it,

“Boring! I’m not playing with you anymore!”

“Eh, you…”

His little sister jumped just as Lu Xin was about to say something.
The little body like a nimble cat jumped down straight from the top of the building only to land on a tense electric wire connected to the opposite building.
The wire wobbled and the little girl wobbled slightly as the wind drifted, the girl shook her head at Lu Xin and said, “Be careful big brother, somebody has their eyes on you…”

Feeling a little nervous from the warning, he asked, “Who?”

“I’m not telling you…”

She smirked at Lu Xin.
Following the wire, she climbed to the other side and disappeared.

“This brat…”

He looked down and felt a small headache.

“How am I supposed to go down without you?”

…

…

The cautious Lu Xin jumped to the near building and ran down towards the street.
He purposely walked around the buildings couple of times to make sure no one was following him and eventually went on his way to a popular street a few hundred metres away.

Fixing his clothes and shoving his hands in his pockets, he tried to blend in with the crowd.

“Get in the car, I’ll get you a cup of coffee!”

He heard a voice directed at him just before he could even take a step.

Frightened, he turned his body around at once and saw a woman leaning on a jeep.

The short-haired woman was wearing a casual suit and brown sunglasses.
Her body was slim and fit with a sense of wildness while her heels were sharp.
The car behind also looked like a ferocious metal beast.

Coffee?

The anxious Lu Xin immediately recalled what his sister said.
He was 23 but was never asked out by any woman, especially that the woman in front of him was the type that wouldn’t even bother looking at him. So, was she one of them that was surrounding the train station? Did she already have her eyes on me? Asking me out for a cup of coffee… she doesn’t seem like an enemy…

Even though it was strange for a guy like him to get asked out by a woman like her, Lu Xin didn’t have the courage to refuse.

“Anything except coffee? I don’t really like coffee at the moment.” He said timidly.

It seemed like the woman was surprised by his nonchalant reaction, but she had seen more of such people.

“Let’s go to the pub then!” 

The woman chuckled, remembering the previous incident.

She naturally opened the door for Lu Xin.

Lu Xin sat on the passenger’s seat reservedly.
He was a grown adult, but he had little experience going around in a car.
Sitting quietly on his seat, he refrained from touching the things in the car or looking at the driver.

The woman was driving concentratedly and also didn’t bother talking.

They finally arrived at a quiet street after 20 minutes in the car.
The woman with Lu Xin walked through a dark underground alley and arrived at the pub with a metal entrance.

The pub wasn’t open, the lightings were dark and soundless.

The sleepy waiter opened up the gate, placed 2 glass cups in front of them and left to sleep again.
Lu Xin and the woman were just left in the giant pub on their own. 

“My name is Chen Jing.
I do not mean any harm though I do admit, the stuff that happened to you today was on me.”

The woman said honestly and placed a green-leathered ID in front of him.
Lu Xin took a glance at the ID and figured she was the highest-ranked officer of the Inspection department from the main city Qingcheng.
Lu Xin couldn’t help but stare at her.
The people from the main city were beyond the reach of the people of the satellite cities, especially with her high status.
He was perplexed by her invitation.

Recalling when his director gave him this random task, the monsters he encountered in the café, he knew something wasn’t right.
Being set up and experiencing such a terrifying thing was infuriating but when he saw the gun bulging up in her clothes, he held his head confusedly,

“Why?”

Chen Jing also didn’t bother explaining.
She bit off the cover and filled the two cups with alcohol.

“I work in a department that deals with abnormal incidents, especially the contaminations within the walls.”

Lu Xin blinked puzzledly, obviously unable to handle the conversation.

Chen Jing pushed a cup towards Lu Xin and said,

“You can understand us as The Officials.”

“Ever since the red moon, we handled the reshuffle of main cities and satellite cities, the extermination of the lunatics, the resistance of the wilderness knights and psyche group, the construction and repairs of the high walls.
Currently, the main thing we are handling is the contamination incidents within the main city and the 5 main satellite cities.”

“Abnormal incidents?”

Lu Xin looked up and stole a glance of her.

“Yup, the supernatural incidents that’s beyond our understanding – like what happened to you at the café.”

She nodded and gave Lu Xin a piece of document.

“You can take a look.”

Lu Xin saw the title page said “CLASSIFIED”

Slowly opening it up, he saw the first page filled up with printed words and different data.

Target number: Class D special contaminated source – 036

Target level – Level 1

Contamination level – Low (Direct contact infection/Infection rate – 90%/Deep Infection rate – 70%)

Growth potential – High

Hazardous level – Low

Target traits – The target is a level 1 psyche monster, being able to infect any lifeforms it touches.
Doesn’t acquire the ability to airborne infect.
Can be exterminated by the means of exterminating psyche parasites.
The parasite is within the human category as it could be damaged by physical methods.
The source of contamination also doesn’t acquire high intellect according to investigations, it appears to be doing only the things it did before being infected.
Could be communicated easily.

Special elimination method – none

…

…

As he was slowly reading the document, the woman leisurely lit up her cigarette.

“Ever since the red moon, more than 70% of the population became lunatics.
Those who were able to survive could only live in the cities within the walls.
But in reality, not everyone that survived was ‘normal’, a lot of us experience psyche mutations just like them outside the walls.
They will cause disturbance for the things and people around them.
And we call such circumstances as contamination.”

“Contamination?”

Lu Xin felt familiar yet odd towards that word.

The red moon caused great devastation against humanity.
The crumbling of civilization, the disappearance of order, the destruction of countless factories and power stations, the leakage of wastes.
All these things caused scars of contamination around the world, especially the world outside the walls.
Many things didn’t really improve over the span of 30 years, the residents in the walls were also not strangers to reality.
But the “contamination” the woman was saying was different.

“Exactly, Contamination.”

Chen Jing repeated, saying,

“Just like your average source of radioactive contamination that affects its surroundings and the people around it, similar to a plague.
This contamination I’m talking about however, is more mysterious and horrifying!”

“The café you entered today was one of them, it infected 52 people before today.”

“…”

“But…”

Lu Xin was surprised by the figure, he said while trying to digest her words, “What happens if you’re contaminated though?”

“You’re gonna get sick.”

Such a simple answer, she answered robotically as if she answered the question too many times.

“A normal contamination gets your body sick while a psyche contamination makes your mind sick.”

“There are different outcomes for those who were infected.
Some might get anxiety, unable to handle it and kill themselves.”

“Some lose their mind and attack those around them.”

“Some just lose their ability to communicate with the surroundings.”

“There are also symptoms that cause the patient to self-harm.”

“…”

“To put it simply, the source of contamination can give birth to a transmittable psyche disease!”