Brian Carter nodded. He slowly calmed his emotions, but still couldn’t help asking the question he’d always wanted to ask:

　　“Since it’s so dangerous, you—you arranged for me to go in. Aren’t you afraid I’ll also be... contaminated?”

　　“……”

　　Faced with this question, Grace Brooks wasn’t surprised at all, and was even a bit amazed that Brian Carter only asked now.

　　“You won’t be contaminated!”

　　She stubbed out her cigarette, looked at Brian Carter, and said, “Or rather, you’re already contaminated!”

　　Brian Carter’s eyes instantly grew a bit confused. “What?”

　　“Our assessment isn’t to send you to your death, but has two purposes.”

　　Grace Brooks answered carefully, “First, to determine your abilities. Second, to see if you’ll lose control!”

　　“The Red Moon Event brought about spiritual mutations.”

　　“And these spiritual mutations led to two outcomes. One is the emergence of spiritual monsters. They can’t control their own psychic power, and will affect those around them, posing a huge threat to the high city walls and the surviving humans of the world;”

　　“The second outcome is the appearance of mutants who have mastered psychic power and gained mental abilities!”

　　“……”

　　As she spoke, she picked up the file, flipped a page, and pushed it in front of Brian Carter.

　　Brian Carter saw that it was filled with complex data and various assessment items. Feeling a headache, he glanced over it and could only make out his own photo, address, age, and the large words “Spider Type.”

　　……

　　……

　　Grace Brooks lit another cigarette, waved away the smoke in front of her, and said, “You are a psychic mutant.”

　　“In the analysis of your abilities, the first is precise control of your body through your mind!”

　　“After the Red Moon Event, some people’s minds became stronger and stronger. With powerful mental strength, they can control their bodies better—even down to every muscle and every bone. This is a truly terrifying ability!”

　　“Before the Red Moon Event, the world’s best athletes could only control about ten percent of their bodies.”

　　“But now, more and more people can control their bodies much better.”

　　“In our action team, there’s someone with the codename ‘Gecko’. His control over his body has reached eighty percent. This gives him strength unimaginable to ordinary people. He can dodge bullets, control all kinds of firearms almost perfectly, squeeze through gaps as small as a teacup, and even climb walls as if defying gravity!”

　　“……”

　　“From our observations, you have similar abilities!”

　　Grace Brooks explained, pointing to a section of the file and saying to Brian Carter, “We call this ability the Spider Type. It means they can control their muscles—and even bones—with spider-like precision, increasing speed and reaction time, and doing things ordinary people can’t.”

　　“With this ability, your capacity to handle crises and the bizarre is greatly enhanced.”

　　“And as fellow psychic mutants, you’re also much more likely to sense the presence of spiritual monsters and escape danger.”

　　As she spoke, she looked seriously at Brian Carter and said, “So, you’re very well-suited for contamination cleanup work!”

Chapter 7: Me and My Family

　　“Spiritual contamination, psychic mutation?”

　　Brian Carter sat honestly in his seat, a look of surprise and confusion on his face.

　　Growing up in this city, he naturally knew that the world under the red moon was very different from before. He’d often heard colleagues or others talk about all sorts of mysterious events—ghost sightings, madmen from outside the city, the ruthless wild knight gangs, and so on. But to him, those were mostly rumors. Life was still repressed, but stable.

　　Even though he had the company of “family” around him, which didn’t seem all that normal.

　　Even though his little sister often crawled around like a ghost and brought him strange happenings, he’d never thought the world had become so abnormal—that even the mind itself could be contaminated and spread like a disease?

　　Seeing Brian Carter’s expression, Grace Brooks gave him some time to process.

　　Of all the people she’d met, this young man before her was undoubtedly one of the calmest and most normal.

　　Even though she’d already seen the madness beneath his calm.

　　But she’d seen many like him.

　　As long as someone could stay rational in normal conversation and when facing spiritual monsters, that was good enough.

　　“In previous tests, although we’d already assessed you in advance and were sure that with your mental strength, a level-one contamination source would have a hard time harming you, we still prepared emergency measures. If you couldn’t handle it, someone would help you solve the problem. But you didn’t wait for our people to act—you resolved the street corner café contamination incident yourself!”

　　“Your performance exceeded our expectations!”

　　“Right now, we need people like you to help resolve contamination incidents between the main city of Qinggang and the five satellite cities……”