Chapter 15-I Clean Up Garbage in a Wasteland World
Chapter 15 The Man-Eating Hotpot Restaurant-4
The power of this gun was about ten times that of an Air Round. After firing, the Pigman's entire head exploded directly. The pig head was blown apart, but the Pigman didn’t die. As expected, the Pigman was not the Source of Contamination.
According to the scene seen in the death forecast, there was a tentacle monster in this trash can.
Zhu Ning fired another shot at the trash can. Without waiting to see the results of her shot, she turned and ran. The combined lethality of the Pigman and the tentacle monster was extremely high, on a completely different level from the Fishmen.
In the death forecast, it only took them thirty seconds to dispose of Zhu Ning’s corpse. She had no intention of facing them head-on.
The backyard was also an enclosed structure; Zhu Ning couldn't get out and could only return to the hotpot restaurant. The Pigman struggled to get up, cursing loudly, "You actually... didn't eat."
Zhu Ning didn't listen to his nonsense and went straight into the house. As soon as she entered, screams erupted from the hotpot restaurant's main hall. Monsters writhed out of the boiling hotpots; long tentacles climbed up chopsticks and dragged diners into the pots by their arms.
In an instant, spicy beef tallow roiled, and screams and the gleam of blood shrouded the hotpot restaurant. They weren't even bothering to pretend anymore.
The main hall was a no-go zone. Behind her, the Pigman was getting up, still adapting to the fact that he had no head.
He was coming after her.
There were eight doors before her eyes. One was known to be the prep room, one the freezer, and one the back door leading to the trash can. How to choose among the remaining five doors?
Zhu Ning glanced around and saw five words written on one of the doors: Female Staff Dormitory.
Do seemingly normal things in an abnormal place.
Zhu Ning’s identity was a cashier, an employee of the hotpot restaurant. She should live in the female staff dormitory.
With a bang, Zhu Ning shut the door and locked it crisply.
There are some basic rules inside a Pollution Zone (contaminated area). This is a female staff dormitory; the Pigman is male, so he has no legitimate reason to enter.
Zhu Ning moved a cabinet to block the door. She didn't turn on the lights, relying on her helmet's night vision to survey the dorm room. It was a double room with two beds, both loft-style with a desk underneath.
One bed was covered in dust, while the other seemed to be occupied. Zhu Ning rummaged quickly through the room and found a work logbook in the corner of a cabinet.
A clue.
Zhu Ning opened the bright red logbook. It was originally meant to be a work log, issued by many companies, but this cashier had used it as a diary. People still write diaries these days?
New Calendar Year 50, January.
The first line.
Zhu Ning frowned. New Calendar Year 50 was the year the hotpot restaurant disappeared.
Zhu Ning remembered that this shop closed down in April of Year 50, and the forum post was dated April 13th, Year 50. This diary was from before the "incident."
New Calendar Year 50, January 2.
I've been a cashier at Hao Zailai Hotpot Restaurant for three days, but this shop is so weird. I need to write a diary to record it, or I'm afraid I'll lose my mind.
Business at Hao Zailai is exceptionally good. Standing at the register every day is exhausting, and I kind of want to quit. But their staff meals are so delicious; I can't bear to leave.
Our staff meals are made from the leftovers of the ingredients prepped for guests, pretty much the same as what the guests eat. I don't know what kind of meat it is; maybe it's their exclusive secret recipe.
New Calendar Year 50, January 10.
I can't take it anymore. I've had so many nightmares. I feel panicked every day, and lately, I've even been in a trance. I thought I was just too tired and would be fine after resting for two days.
But I took a day off today, and the situation didn't improve; instead, it got worse. Should I go see a doctor?
New Calendar Year 50, January 14.
I think I've gone crazy. While running the register today, I saw that the drawer was full of fingers. How could it be fingers? Am I hallucinating?
No, I can't do this anymore. If I keep working, I'm going to go mad.
New Calendar Year 50, January 19.
I told the store manager I wanted to resign and go home to recover. The manager didn't agree and asked me to reconsider. Reconsider what? The manager looks more and more like a pig-headed man to me; I really can't stand it.
But the manager won't let me go. He said I would fall in love with this place. Love my ass. I've been physically weak lately; I feel like I'm dying. There is definitely something wrong with this shop. Strange noises keep coming from the basement.
The boss is sick too. Something must have happened to the sick boss; they seem to be researching a new drug.
New Calendar Year 50, January 30.
I finally found out what I've been eating today. It's disgusting. How can they feed guests this kind of thing?
I want to call the police, but I don't dare. I can't even protect myself. I want to run away.
I want to run away! Run, run, run, run!
New Calendar Year 50, February 15.
I have made a detailed escape plan. Every Wednesday, the manager and the boss have a meeting in the basement. They aren't upstairs then. That is the best time to escape. I'm reaching my limit; this is my last chance.
It must succeed. It must, must succeed.
Zhu Ning flipped further back, but unfortunately, there was nothing else. The diary came to an abrupt end.
Skree—
Suddenly, the sound of dragging came from outside. The Pigman must have revived. Zhu Ning took the diary with her.
There was a peephole on the dorm door. Zhu Ning looked through it. Under the effect of the peephole, the entire corridor was twisting and deforming; the ceiling curved, and the rooms on both sides pressed inward.
Yang Tao was dragging an axe along the ground. A new "head" had grown out of his severed neck—if that could be counted as a head.
Clearly, he had little patience and didn't want to grow a completely new head, so he just grew something resembling one. A pair of eyes, a mouth, and an ear grew directly on the stump of his neck. He wasn't even given a nose because it wasn't needed.
"Why didn't you," Yang Tao made that very strange noise again, "eat hotpot?"
Zhu Ning: "..."
Does he have a problem? Is he forcing her to eat hotpot?
"Why didn't you..." Yang Tao was checking the rooms one by one. He slammed open the first door and didn't see Zhu Ning. "collect money?"
She did collect money. She opened the cash drawer, counted the fingers, and even lost 1% of her Sanity.
Bang!
Yang Tao pushed open another door. His patience was insufficient, already exhausted by Zhu Ning. He spoke viciously, "Why didn't you check the garbage bag?"
Yang Tao scraped his axe against the wall, creating a piercing sound. "Why can everyone else do it, but only you can't! What is wrong with you?"
Zhu Ning: "..."
She suspected this Pigman was gaslighting her. This accusatory tone was like a toxic boyfriend—if she didn't obediently listen, it was her problem; everything was her fault, right?
Eating hotpot, collecting money, and even throwing away rotten meat were all ways this Pollution Zone attempted to contaminate Zhu Ning.
But Zhu Ning remained unmoved. The Pollution Zone couldn't wait any longer and decided to strike first; the Pigman wanted to hack her to death with his axe to finish off Zhu Ning, the anomaly.
The internal logic of Pollution Zones is all the same. When they see Mental Pollution doesn't work, they choose physical attacks.
"Why?" The Pigman stopped in front of the female staff dormitory door. "Don't you listen?"
The Pigman's voice came through the door. The next moment, with a loud bang, the Pigman swung his axe and smashed it suddenly against the door.
Crack. Wood chips flew as he smashed a large hole in the wooden door. Was he cosplaying a certain horror movie?
The Pigman had no legitimate reason to enter the female staff dormitory, but he could use illegitimate reasons. Behind the door, Zhu Ning coldly held her gun, the muzzle pointing straight at the hole in the door.
As long as the Pigman tried to come in, Zhu Ning didn't mind giving him another shot. No need to waste words on trash who breaks into a girls' dorm.
Bang!
The Pigman smashed the axe down again. This fragile wooden door would be completely scrapped with one more hit. The Pigman raised his axe, about to strike a third time.
Inside, Zhu Ning applied slight pressure with her finger; she was ready to fire.
Ding-a-ling-ling—
Just then, a bell suddenly rang out. The bell vibrated frantically, sounding like a school dismissal bell, appearing very abrupt in a hotpot restaurant.
What sound is this? Why would a bell ring in a hotpot restaurant?
A Pollution Zone must conform to basic logic. The ringing bell proves that the hotpot restaurant had a bell installed in the past.
Who has nothing better to do than ring a bell in a hotpot restaurant? It’s not a hotpot training school notifying students of class times.
But after the bell rang, the Pigman outside stopped his movements. His towering figure blocked the door like a mountain pressing down.
He remained silent for two seconds, then turned and walked away, as if summoned by something.
Not only that, but the others in the hotpot restaurant moved as well. The waiters and the diners half-swallowed by the hotpot did the same. They stumbled to their feet and walked straight toward one direction without looking sideways—the stairs at the end of the corridor.
They were going to the basement.
Zhu Ning remembered what was written in the diary: the manager and the boss would hold a meeting in the basement, which was the only chance to escape. Was the bell notifying them of the meeting? What was being kept in the basement?
Were they summoned by someone?
Based on the limited clues, summarizing the internal rules of this Pollution Zone, the organizational structure of the hotpot restaurant seemed to be a pyramid. Employee authority was greater than that of the diners; if diners were told to eat hotpot, they had to eat.
The Pigman Yang Tao’s authority was greater than other employees; he could order other employees around and maintain order in the shop. The bell’s authority was greater than the Pigman; as long as the bell rang, no matter what Yang Tao was doing, he had to stop his current actions.
Unknown what was a level above the bell.
Zhu Ning tentatively pushed the door open. A minute later, the corridor was empty. They had all gone into the basement. The piercing bell sound still hadn't stopped; who knew how long it would last?
But Zhu Ning surmised that she was relatively safe while the bell was ringing. Taking advantage of this time, she planned to take a good look at the other rooms.
Now that she had the ability of Danger Sense, she could boldly search for clues. She already knew what was behind four of the doors; four remained.
The Pigman had smashed open two doors. Behind the fifth door was the cleaning room, piled high with dishes to be washed and cleaning tools like mops.
Behind the sixth door was the male staff dormitory.
Zhu Ning wanted to go in and find clues like a diary, assuming maybe Yang Tao lived there, but she found nothing after a search. Zhu Ning opened the second to last door; it was a public bathroom used for showering and using the toilet.
The conditions in this hotpot restaurant weren't great. The lighting was dim, the tiles were covered in yellow limescale, the faucets dripped continuously, and there were messy traces on the walls.
To be safe, she didn't want to miss any blind spots, so she specifically opened every toilet and shower stall to check.
In the second toilet stall, there was something on the toilet tank lid. Taped above the tank lid was a waterproof bag, seemingly hidden there on purpose.
Inside was a very old voice recorder.
It was too ancient, inconsistent with the speed of technological development in this era, but still more advanced than the voice recorders from Zhu Ning's original time. It had a hard shell and a smaller overall design, about the size of a thumb.
There was a plug at the bottom of the recorder that could be inserted into a device. Zhu Ning's new work uniform had an interface on the inside of the wrist, and her helmet was still functioning. She herself barely counted as a "device."
This thing might be a Mental Pollution like the Fishman's mobile phone before, but her Sanity was high, so she could handle the strain.
Zhu Ning plugged the recorder into her wrist. The helmet broadcast internally: [Importing audio data. Audio data import complete.]
First, a crackling sound of electric current came through her ears, followed by the sound of someone running and panting. It took a long time to get to the main topic.
Zhu Ning listened to the recording, planning to search while listening. She had walked to the last door. Written on the door was: Store Restricted Area. No Unauthorized Entry.
Zhu Ning grabbed the door handle, ready to push in, when a human voice suddenly came from the recording: "I know the hotpot restaurant boss's secret."
"He... he is a Defective."
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