Wasteland Border Inspector

A kaleidoscope of sensations surged from all directions, as if I had plunged into a time-space tunnel.

Consciousness roamed in a void dimension, both drifting and instinctively seeking a connection to the body.

Until a faint sensation came from the fingertips, Cheng Ye suddenly snapped back and opened his eyes.

The slightly dim yellow light outside the window fell on the lower part of the hospital bed; from the looks of it, it must already be evening.

Huh, only fainted for three to four hours?

"Inspector Cheng, you’re awake!" came a voice from the medical staff beside him. Cheng Ye turned his head to look, wanting to prop himself up but found his arms were filled with needles.

Both arms were connected to four bottles of infusing agents, internally flickering with various gentle lights.

"What’s this? Why did you turn me into a porcupine?"

Cheng Ye was extremely shocked; they purely turned him into a medicine tank?

"You’ve been asleep for five days, these agents are used to maintain your basic nutrition and restore your body..." the young nurse hurriedly explained.

"What? Five days?"

Cheng Ye gasped, "What’s the date today?"

"Yes, you fainted right after finishing the run. It’s now August 28th."

28?

Calculating this way, including the half-day before the coma, he had been out for a full six days??!

Cheng Ye was briefly bewildered; since the second round package assessment, it’s been 26 days.

Almost a month now, with 11 days spent recovering at Rebirth Medical.

Although compared to the regular recovery cycle of the A-level infection source, his speed is already unbelievably fast, yet to the always time-pressed Inspector Cheng, it’s like a long vacation.

Adding the time spent traversing this wasteland, unknowingly, it’s nearly half a year now.

Half a year...

Cheng Ye lay quietly until Cui Qiao pushed the door open and asked the young nurse to leave, refocusing his gaze:

"Is the cost so severe?"

"The cost itself is indeed substantial; these medium and high intensity levels are calculated according to your physical fitness, but more is that your body can’t sustain it, after running 2000 kilometers, and then immediately performing 50 kilometers of high-intensity exercise, it has seriously overdrawn, both combined almost caused a physical collapse."

Cui Qiao softly said, "However, there seems to be a special energy supporting inside you, Elder came during your sleep; he asked me to tell you..."

Before finishing, she suddenly froze as if stuck.

The next second, Elder Qian’s voice unpredictably reverberated in the room, clearly reaching Cheng Ye’s ears:

"This path is a route, the only known one that humans can possibly reach the end of. Coexistence is essentially an exchange of life forms with the infection source; the stronger the source, as long as it doesn’t halt in growth, your endpoint is further. But the human body cannot withstand the cost of life form transformation in coexistence, needing unimaginable resources to safeguard."

"Had you been born thirty years earlier, Happiness City still had the resources preserved from the previous era to support you, perhaps letting you reach the level we are at today. But now, those resources are nearly exhausted, over the years we walked a crooked path, lacking Shelter City’s technology to artificially cultivate treasures to sustain life forms, so... henceforth, never use this power again, just act like you never possessed it."

"After returning to Inner City, go to the research institute to find Yu Erlan, let her extract three treasures for you from the Idealist Faction’s share. These treasures allow you to use the Shrinking Earth Giant Louse’s power three times without suffering the retaliatory cost."

After saying the three sentences, Elder Qian’s voice completely dissipated.

Cui Qiao’s expression instantly revived, as if the earlier pause never happened, continuing her speech, "...must use the infection source’s power cautiously."

What kind of means is this?

Could the Elder also possess similar immortal objects, powers that affect one’s mental state?

Cheng Ye hesitated briefly, yet his mind swiftly processed Elder Qian’s words.

Coexistence with the infection source is humanity’s only known path to possibly reach the end?

Coexistence...

Is this what coexistence means?

Cheng Ye suddenly realized, the so-called "Coexistence State" actually referred to the life forms of humans and Extraordinary Creatures becoming consistent?

Then reaching the end, wouldn’t it mean becoming like Tan Ming, no longer human, but an Extraordinary Creature?

But Extraordinary Creatures might still be attacked by evolving viruses; this doesn’t qualify as a "path."

What role does faith play in this process?

What path have Happiness City’s ten elders taken to remain fearless against the next viral assault?

An array of questions surged up but remained unanswered, only to be suppressed in his heart.

At his current level, accessing this information feels too early, with short time and limited power, it’s impossible to extract truth from fragmented words.

Moreover, according to Elder Qian’s second statement, possibly reaching the elders’ current height relies on the sustenance of immeasurable resources?

Indeed... frightful!

Furthermore, although Happiness City took a wrong path over these years, Shelter City—in Natural—is on par with Firewood as a Super Shelter City, a dominant presence in the southern hemisphere, they’re actually researching artificial treasure cultivation to pursue this path.

"I have the Collector, which can extract traits to generate treasures, akin to Shelter City’s route. But my assumption proved correct; Happiness City’s resources only output without input, perhaps reaching its limit supporting the ten elders and City Lord, incapable of distributing treasures below, nurturing more powerhouses, now seems genuinely on the brink of exhaustion."

"And the elders have no way to go out seeking more treasures, must rely on those below to find them, even depending on non-extraordinary Inspectors to maintain Shelter City’s normal operations, this truly is... restrained by their own power."