Chapter 3-I Clean Up Garbage in a Wasteland World

Chapter 3 The Fishman

The helmet was incredibly intelligent, equipped with a lock-on function. In the pitch-black sewer, it highlighted sixteen Contaminants. They barely resembled anything human anymore.

The helmet had a filter, so Zhu Ning couldn't smell any stench, but she could tell the place must reek of foul odor. Shreds of rotten flesh were scattered on the ground. None of this was terrifying; Zhu Ning was long accustomed to the corpses of Beasts.

What was terrifying was what was on the corpses.

Droplets of blood seeped out from the bodies and floated in mid-air. The blood droplets varied in shape; some remained as teardrops, while others had already mutated, resembling menacing, clawed bacteria.

As Zhu Ning watched, the blood drops slowly drifted upwards, moving like jellyfish and glowing with a red light.

Immersed in the scene, Zhu Ning felt as if she had stepped into some ancient, mystical cavern. From a certain aesthetic perspective, it even possessed a strange, eerie beauty.

Zhu Ning carefully recalled what the instructional video had said. Once a Contaminant is killed, its life signs disappear, and it collapses into putrid flesh, simultaneously forming crimson Contamination Spores. These spores do not die; they seek out new hosts.

The host could be a human, a plant, an animal, or even non-living things like walls, tiles, or certain robots.

Contamination Spores cannot be eliminated, only contained.

This was why Cleaners were needed to tidy up. If not contained in time, the contamination would spread. The video had only shown a single spore. Now, an entire space was filled with them. The sewer was illuminated in a scarlet glow, leaving Zhu Ning utterly shocked.

With two soft thuds, Xu Meng and Li Nianchuan landed.

Xu Meng: "You didn't even puke."

Zhu Ning hadn't thrown up yet. A normal person's first reaction to this sight would be physiological nausea. She was the first rookie Xu Meng had supervised who hadn't puked.

Zhu Ning: "..."

Was she supposed to perform a vomit for them? Though, the field of rotten meat was indeed quite disgusting.

"Tsk," Li Nianchuan frowned as soon as he landed. "Water-type Contaminants are such a pain."

"What's wrong with water-types?" Zhu Ning asked.

Xu Meng: "Their water content is too high, making the Contamination Spores more active."

Now that she mentioned it, it was true. The blood drops Zhu Ning was seeing were floating noticeably faster than the ones in the video.

Li Nianchuan: "I think this place used to be a maglev station. No idea why they turned it into a sewer."

Zhu Ning scanned her surroundings. She couldn't make out the shape of a station platform at all. But they were trash cleaners; they didn't need to know the history of the place.

With a loud rumble, the opening above was sealed by a metal plate. In an instant, all light was cut off. Someone had blocked the entrance. Now, even if Zhu Ning wanted to escape, she couldn't.

"Don't be scared," Xu Meng said. "It's standard procedure to prevent spores from leaking out. It will open automatically after we finish our work."

So that was it. But being trapped in a sealed sewer still felt quite uncomfortable. Zhu Ning stretched her neck.

Xu Meng said, "This is an E-Level Mission. Not difficult, and the contamination concentration isn't high. We'll be done soon."

The spores' floating speed was limited. The Contaminants had just died, so they hadn't had time to spread far.

The contamination area Li Nianchuan had reported was 2,500 cubic meters, the size of a standard swimming pool.

This data wasn't precise; the given number was always larger than the actual contaminated area. Their smallest unit of measurement was 2,500 cubic meters, so anything less was still counted as one unit.

Zhu Ning found the job quite interesting. She had only ever fought Beasts before and had never participated in such detailed logistical work.

"Be careful," Xu Meng said. "Don't get contaminated by the spores."

The spores could easily become parasitic if they touched the skin, which was why their "work uniforms" were sealed so tightly. Zhu Ning was a complete novice, after all. One wrong move and she could get herself contaminated.

Xu Meng demonstrated. She took out a straw-like device from her cleaning pack and carefully touched the tip to a floating "blood drop."

With a soft whoosh, the blood drop was sucked into the transparent tube.

The back of the tube was connected to a transparent case. After the blood drop fell in, it settled at the bottom. Every ten drops automatically consolidated into a green-bean-sized cube.

The entire process was extremely satisfying for anyone with OCD. Xu Meng's movements were slow; she couldn't rush this delicate work.

It was a lot like... picking cotton.

An inappropriate analogy popped into Zhu Ning's head. They were like a three-person cotton-picking team.

The workflow was to first contain the spores, then clean up the corpses and any soil, water, or stones contaminated by the blood. Finally, they would scrub the entire area to ensure no spores were left behind.

It really was sweeping trash.

Zhu Ning joined the cleaning squad and touched a spore with her suction tube. The moment it was contained, a ding sound went off in her head.

System: [Primary Contaminant. Purity Points +1]

Purity Points? What Purity Points?

Zhu Ning tried again. Every time she contained a spore, the voice in her head sounded off. Whatever it was for, she knew how to grind for it.

Zhu Ning's movements grew faster and faster. Beside her, Li Nianchuan watched her with bewilderment. Normally, rookies were just there to slack off. It was his first time seeing a newcomer this motivated.

Was she trying this hard?

After working for a while, Zhu Ning's arm started to feel a bit stiff. She now had 45 Purity Points. "How long do we have to do this?" she asked.

Li Nianchuan: "About an hour."

Sweeping trash was manual labor. It wasn't exciting or thrilling, just a test of endurance. But Zhu Ning found the process quite therapeutic.

Xu Meng: "You can ask for a break if your mind can't take it."

Zhu Ning: "My mind can't take it?"

Xu Meng: "Our suits can't completely block the contamination. They only ensure you won't be parasitized by the spores, but the mental contamination is hard to defend against."

The hand Zhu Ning was using to suck up spores trembled slightly. She was starting to see these things in a new, unpleasant light. The spores constantly emitted contamination. Even with physical barriers, mental defenses weren't foolproof.

Zhu Ning: "What's it like to be mentally contaminated?"

Xu Meng: "Mild symptoms include vomiting, nightmares, and fatigue. Moderate symptoms are mental disorders, and you start to see hallucinations. We had a colleague whose case was quite severe; he thought he was a two-headed pink lotus."

Zhu Ning: "...?"

Was the sacrifice really that great?

Xu Meng: "In more severe cases, people become aggressive or are so deeply influenced they start worshipping cult gods and Beasts. Some commit suicide, some commit murder. There are too many cases to count."

In short, mental contamination wouldn't achieve parasitic infestation, but it could mess with your brain and make you act abnormally.

Xu Meng asked, "Are you feeling anything right now?"

When they took on a rookie, their primary concern was whether the newcomer themselves would be contaminated.

Zhu Ning felt around carefully and said cautiously, "I don't feel anything."

She really didn't feel anything. Xu Meng turned to look at her. Zhu Ning was quite unusual.

"I can't take it anymore," Li Nianchuan said after a while, already drenched in sweat. "I'm going to get some air."

His voice sounded pained. Zhu Ning asked, "How do you get air?"

Li Nianchuan: "Just get away from it. The closer you are, the heavier the contamination. For a typical Contaminant, you can't feel it from a thousand meters away."

That made some sense.

The contamination had a limited range. Otherwise, if the spores were indestructible and continuously radiated contamination without distance limits, wouldn't they infect the whole world?

Xu Meng: "Zhu Ning, go with him."

Zhu Ning wanted to say she was fine, but Xu Meng gestured to her. Was she supposed to keep an eye on Li Nianchuan?

There weren't many spores left, only about a fifth. Xu Meng could handle it alone.

Zhu Ning put down her tool and followed Li Nianchuan. They were in one of the Federation's sewers. District 103 was originally a garbage dump; all the Federation's trash was sent here.

The sewer system was a labyrinth. Li Nianchuan led Zhu Ning deeper into it. There was no extra lighting; they relied entirely on their helmets' night vision.

Li Nianchuan walked deeper and deeper. Anyone who didn't know better would think he was luring her away to kill her. Perhaps out of caution, he walked a full two thousand meters before stopping.

He took off his helmet and took a deep breath. "I was suffocating."

Li Nianchuan's face was pale, his forehead covered in sweat. He looked sick. Zhu Ning hadn't been affected by the spores, so she didn't follow his lead and remove her helmet. "Are you okay?" she asked.

Li Nianchuan cursed. "My head hurts."

Zhu Ning knew from their first meeting that Li Nianchuan had a short temper, but he was clearly more irritable now. Was this mental contamination?

Zhu Ning watched him cautiously. "Shouldn't you put your helmet back on?"

The handbook said not to expose skin, and the video said not to remove the helmet unless necessary. Li Nianchuan was acting more like a rookie than she was.

Li Nianchuan: "I can't breathe with it on."

He couldn't just breathe; he felt like he was suffocating. Why was he feeling more breathless the more he tried to get fresh air?

Li Nianchuan's eyes started to turn red. His eye pressure seemed to be very high, constricting the capillaries. Blood vessels slowly appeared in the whites of his eyes.

But he himself only seemed to feel that his eyes were itchy, and he rubbed them desperately. Zhu Ning took half a step back, her hand inconspicuously moving to the gun at her waist.

She couldn't tell if Li Nianchuan was infected or not.

"Should I report to the captain?" Zhu Ning recalled the handbook's instructions: if suspected contamination symptoms appear, report to your superior immediately and withdraw from the mission if necessary.

Li Nianchuan: "No need, I'll be fine after a quick break. We still have work to do."

He sounded coherent enough, but Zhu Ning didn't move her hand from her gun. She had realized it now: the only source of danger on this job was your own teammates!

Second rule of the handbook: Always watch your teammates.

The veterans' experience was truly a godsend. While keeping an eye on Li Nianchuan, Zhu Ning contemplated whether to report him.

Suddenly, rustle—

Zhu Ning frowned. What was that sound?

Rustle, rustle, rustle—

Was it coming from Li Nianchuan? No, he was rubbing his eyes. The strange sound was farther away.

It sounded like something was moving.

"Did you hear that?" Zhu Ning asked.

"What?" Li Nianchuan had been rubbing his eyes for so long that he looked completely dazed and clueless.

Zhu Ning reacted in a flash, quickly drawing her gun and pointing it into the darkness.

Li Nianchuan, who was already in a bad mental state, was startled into full alertness by the sight of her gun.

"What are you doing?" he yelped. "Put the gun down, I'm not contaminated!"

Li Nianchuan reacted instantly. Did Zhu Ning think he was contaminated and wanted to eliminate him?

Cleaners had to be wary of their teammates going insane. Zhu Ning was wary of Li Nianchuan, and Li Nianchuan was wary of Zhu Ning. He now suspected that she was the one who was contaminated.

"Don't get agitated," Li Nianchuan said. "We don't have authorization."

To prevent Cleaners from killing each other, all issued firearms were locked by authorization. They couldn't be fired unless ordered by a superior.

Wait. Li Nianchuan suddenly frowned. Zhu Ning's gun stance was perfect, incredibly steady, without a single tremor.

Zhu Ning knew how to use a gun? What was a 19-year-old girl doing with a gun? Where did she get the experience? Li Nianchuan was now far beyond being contaminated; he was terrifyingly sober.

"There's something behind you," Zhu Ning said.

Li Nianchuan was confused. He finally realized she wasn't pointing at him, but at what was behind him.

He turned around. Behind him was a pitch-black sewer tunnel. With no lights on, the helmet's night vision had a limited range. He saw only darkness.

"What?" Li Nianchuan was more afraid of Zhu Ning than whatever was behind him. He only glanced back for a second, not daring to leave his back exposed to her.

"Can you please put the gun down and talk?"

Zhu Ning stared into the depths of the darkness and spoke into the public channel: "Captain Xu Meng, requesting weapon authorization."

There was no reply from Xu Meng on the channel. It was unclear if she hadn't heard or was weighing the decision. Li Nianchuan, of course, heard it too. Why was this person so reckless? There was no one else in this sewer besides the two of them.

Li Nianchuan didn't want her to cause trouble on her first day. "Can you please calm down?"

Zhu Ning ignored him and repeated, "Requesting weapon authorization."

She stared resolutely into the darkness and activated the flashlight function on her wrist. With a swoosh, a beam of light shot out a hundred meters.

Rustle, rustle, rustle, rustle—

The strange noise grew closer. The beam of light caught something. Li Nianchuan's body stiffened. Now he saw it too.

It was a man, dressed in a suit and a red tie, carrying a worn-out briefcase. His white shirt was a bit dirty, and his pants cuffs were caked with mud.

Judging by his attire, the man looked like an office worker who had just gotten off work. Zhu Ning's flashlight moved upward, a circular spot of light landing on the suited man's face.

From the neck up, there was no head. No, to be precise, there was no human head.

Where a human head should have been, there was instead a giant fish head, complete with cold, shimmering scales.

A... fishman, wearing a suit and carrying a briefcase?

The fishman's lips were pointed upward. Its fish mouth moved, and a fist-sized, dead fish eye stared at Zhu Ning. Despite having no face, it gave off an air of extreme exhaustion.

"Excuse me..." the fishman spoke, its voice a strange, bubbling sound. "Is this the last train for Line One?"

"A Contaminant!" Li Nianchuan's face paled, and he instantly snapped his helmet on.

He pressed the distress button. "Report, we have a live Contaminant! Requesting weapon unl—"

Author's Note:

Cleaner Handbook, Rule #2: Always watch your teammates.

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