Chapter 23-I Clean Up Garbage in a Wasteland World
Chapter 23 Level 1 User
[System Prompt: Please do not overuse Sanity, it will cause brain damage.]
At the same time, Zhu Ning felt a severe pain in her temples, as if a needle had been stuck in. She rested in place for a full minute before recovering.
One minute later, the symptoms of blacking out disappeared, but she still felt dizzy and couldn't help feeling nauseous. She washed off the nosebleed and stuffed two cotton balls in, the taste of rust filling her mouth.
Her current symptoms were somewhat similar to Li Nianchuan's when he was deeply harmed by Psychic Contamination. If she continued to use it like this, she would have to be hospitalized with Li Nianchuan.
People were constantly walking in the corridor. "What exactly happened? Is there an Ability User in our building?"
Another person replied: "Are you stupid? Would an Ability User come to live here? They can be wealthy and honored just by selling blood."
"But District 103 doesn't have earthquakes."
"Abnormal energy fluctuation, probably. Be careful recently."
The two walked away talking.
Zhu Ning: "..."
She pondered facing a distorted wall. She couldn't tell Auntie Wei. Once told, it would be discovered immediately. The Hive had two thousand households; she would lose her fortune paying for damages.
Zhu Ning only crumpled one wall of her own home. It looked quite nice. Art, this is art. She kept trying to brainwash herself.
En, very good, it looks pleasing to the eye now.
But Zhu Ning's head still had some aftershocks. She felt her brain buzzing, and her thinking wasn't very agile. Would she become a fool from now on?
She thought about it and sent a message to Song Zhizhang: "What to do for a headache?"
Zhu Ning and Song Zhizhang both did dirty work. It should be safe to find him. After all, they were "colleagues" in a certain sense.
Song Zhizhang should be quite free; his speed of replying to messages was incredibly fast.
"Baby, what happened to you? Psychic Contamination? Overuse of Sanity?" Before Zhu Ning could answer, Song Zhizhang said to himself: "Forget it, I won't ask. Anyway, it's all brain problems."
"Go to the hospital if it's convenient. Let me remind you first that hospitals are quite expensive. If not treated in the Sanitation Center's medical department, treatment outside costs about 1 million NewCred to fully recover."
Zhu Ning: "..."
She just typed the amount and silently deleted it.
Who were the medical expenses in the Wasteland set for? Should the poor just go die?
Zhu Ning: "I'm not serious. I can hold on."
Song Zhizhang: "..."
No need to be so strong.
"If the situation is not serious, take some medicine first. You should have received medicine. Rummage through the box; there is a medication guide inside."
Zhu Ning followed the prompt and rummaged through the suitcase. There was a medicine box inside. Before, Zhu Ning only recognized MegaHeal. Now she found quite a few agents lying in the box. There was a Sanity Healer inside. The medicine box didn't say Eternal Pharma.
But a very strange symbol was carved on it, like a snake wrapped around a burning torch.
Zhu Ning noticed it for the first time. Looking at it this way, many things inside the box had this tiny symbol. Could it be a totem of some cult organization created by Prometheus? Zhu Ning's mind was full of villain organizations.
She drank a bottle of Sanity Healer. The effect was immediate, relieving a lot right away. At least she didn't feel nauseous anymore.
Song Zhizhang was indeed in the service industry; he was very considerate: "Rest for two days after taking the medicine. If you have a good foundation, you can recover in three or four days. If the situation is wrong, you must seek medical attention in time. If you can still hold on, I suggest you go to the Sanitation Center for treatment."
"I'll teach you. Next time you go on a mission, pretend to be polluted. You can be hospitalized in the medical department for free."
Zhu Ning, with the Sanity Healer in her mouth: "?"
What? You often sponge off free medical care this way?
Song Zhizhang sighed over there, "I can't afford it either."
Zhu Ning realized. Song Zhizhang's superficial social identity was a host shop owner, which was considered a profitable industry. His private income from the Containment Department was also substantial. Even so, he didn't dare to go to a private hospital for treatment.
"I have a colleague here who got a tattoo on his arm: Kind-hearted person, if you see me fainting, please do not send me to the hospital. Leave me alone, thank you."
Song Zhizhang said earnestly: "If you have the need, you can go get one tattooed, lest you be sent to the hospital and have no money to get out."
Zhu Ning: "..."
Thank you, she was considering it seriously.
Very practical Wasteland survival skills, already kept in mind. At the last second before fainting, one must shout loudly: Don't send me to the hospital, I can die!
After drinking two Sanity Healers, Zhu Ning's brain was much clearer, finally no longer like a pot of paste, and she could barely think. Her Sanity was high and could withstand abuse, but not long-term abuse. Use Metal Manipulation with caution, Zhu Ning thought.
She opened another Sanity Healer and opened the Sanitation Center forum casually. As soon as she clicked in, fireworks filled the screen: Congratulations on completing the mission of containing the hotpot restaurant!
The information was a bit delayed. Immediately after, a gray envelope popped up in the center of the page, different from the previous page.
After opening the gray envelope, it was another forum. The page was the simplest black and white style, named: Dead Post Enthusiasts Community.
Zhu Ning: "..."
Sounded like a forum for shamate enthusiasts. Zhu Ning became a brand new shamate among them.
[Please enter username]
Zhu Ning thought for a moment and filled in the name: Cosmic Cutie.
After registration, LV1 was displayed after her ID name.
Did this mean Level 1 User? The website didn't require choosing between Demon Hunter or Cleaner. As long as you wanted, you could take tasks from both sides, but most people would write their profession clearly on their homepage. After all, there is specialization in art.
After successful registration, a team button appeared next to it, meaning one could initiate an invitation to team up and enter a Polluted Zone?
To some extent, the ecology here was very similar to a bounty hunter organization. Zhu Ning began to browse the new forum.
The news of Zhu Ning purifying the hotpot restaurant was synchronized on the forum homepage, announced to the whole site: 【The man-eating hotpot restaurant has been purified by new user Cosmic Cutie!】
Zhu Ning's heart skipped a beat when she saw the words "new user". A bit shameful. She didn't know how many new employees had joined recently, and whether it would expose her identity.
But thinking carefully, "new user" in this context probably meant someone who received a Dead Post for the first time, not someone who joined the Sanitation Center for the first time. But everyone's reaction was quite big.
"New user? A new user played with a C-Level Polluted Zone right off the bat? Are newcomers so awesome now?"
"My first one was E-Level."
"Who is it? Cleaner or Demon Hunter?"
"We forbid doxxing Alts here. Don't ask."
"This cutie has a promising future. I want to team up with her."
"You look for her, she might not necessarily look at you."
Not bad. The atmosphere inside the forum was quite good. Everyone didn't like doxxing Alts. After all, if you doxxed others today, you might be the one doxxed tomorrow.
Taking Dead Posts must be unsafe. Once the Alt was exposed, there would definitely be life danger. The hotpot restaurant was a C-Level Polluted Zone, and not many people were chatting about it. Soon they went to discuss the real big shot.
It was said that a user flattened an S-Level Polluted Zone alone today. The ID was Lynx, user level 11.
There was a lot of relevant discussion, but everyone didn't even know if Lynx was male or female. They only knew it was a Demon Hunter who usually only took tasks above A-Level.
Lynx flattened the S-Level Polluted Zone and chose two Cleaner teams to cooperate. This meant Lynx only flattened it; collecting Contamination Spores was still left to the Cleaners.
However, it was normal to think about it. Generally, Demon Hunters were unwilling to do the dirty and tiring work of sweeping trash. Moreover, after purifying the Polluted Zone, they might be seriously injured or mentally polluted, lacking the physical strength to continue containing spores. Outsourcing was preferred if possible. Many people below sent team invitations, but this cold Lynx ignored them all.
Zhu Ning watched the real big shot's appearance for a while, closed the forum page. Fang Ying approved a seven-day leave for her. She spent one day taking private work, and the remaining six days lying like a corpse at home.
After experiencing the hotpot restaurant, Zhu Ning didn't want to move at all. She was too lazy to think about her life experience, the truth of her death, or the big secret of Eternal Pharma.
Zhu Ning was tired. She would lie down for a while, lying flat and straight.
...
Six days later, Zhu Ning received a notice from Fang Ying to go to the center for training. It happened that Li Nianchuan was discharged from the hospital. Xu Meng and Zhu Ning agreed to pick him up at the medical department together.
Mainly, Zhu Ning also wanted to case the medical department first, so she could come to sponge off medical resources like Song Zhizhang said in the future.
The medical inpatient department was on the 70th floor.
Zhu Ning entered the Sanitation Center again, feeling differently from the first time. Not long ago, she was a new employee, finding the Sanitation Center building novel.
Now seeing the building, it was actually very familiar. Although she had only been here once, it seemed she had worked here for three to five years.
Sure enough, working wears down one's will.
She was worse off; she worked two jobs.
As soon as Zhu Ning entered the door, she felt many people looking at her, whispering while looking at her. Zhu Ning didn't know many people in the Sanitation Center and had no idea what they were looking at, walking in carelessly.
Xu Meng was waiting for her in the waiting area at the entrance of the medical department. She saw Zhu Ning from afar. Zhu Ning wasn't wearing work clothes but a set of casual clothes: a gray T-shirt on top, a pair of black jeans below, a high ponytail, and holding a bouquet of fiery red roses in her hand.
Zhu Ning had long legs. From a distance, she looked like she was all legs below the chest. Clearly the same person, and the dressing wasn't anything outstanding. But don't know if it was Xu Meng's illusion, Zhu Ning seemed to have changed a lot. She was extremely conspicuous in the crowd.
Not because of how outstanding her appearance was—in an era where beauty could be mass-produced, New Humans all looked not bad, and beauty was worthless—but because of her temperament. The sense of calmness on her was stronger.
Like the kind of... person who had experienced strong winds and big waves, not quite like a 19-year-old girl.
Xu Meng asked: "You're holding flowers to propose to Li Nianchuan?"
"..." Zhu Ning: "He asked me to send him a discharge gift."
Xu Meng said "Ah", totally not understanding the routine of young people nowadays.
They waited at the entrance of the medical department. Soon they saw Li Nianchuan walking out, his face full of numbness and dullness.
Zhu Ning whispered to Xu Meng: "Why this expression? Psychic Contamination hasn't healed?"
Zhu Ning was actually very curious about how Psychic Contamination should be treated. Would one be the same as a normal person after recovery? Would there be sequelae? Did one need to continue taking medicine?
Xu Meng: "No, right? I read his discharge report; he has returned to normal."
When Li Nianchuan walked up to them, Zhu Ning stuffed the roses into his arms. "Although I can't give you burning wings, I brought you a bouquet of burning flowers."
Li Nianchuan: "..."
It was fine if Zhu Ning didn't speak, but once she spoke, Li Nianchuan wanted to die. He just recovered his Sanity today. He looked at his chat records and the behavioral videos the doctor took of him. In the hospital, he had once wept with folded arms, shouting that he was a wandering mushroom.
When he saw the video of him and Zhu Ning purifying the D-Level Polluted Zone posted on the forum, he was still very proud. Prestige! Never had such prestige in this life!
When he saw himself in the forum saying he wanted to be sister's puppy, and saw the video views exceed 100,000, he wanted to hit his head and die. He wanted to be polluted again and simply lose his memory. He really couldn't afford to lose this face.
Xu Meng saw his embarrassment and comforted: "The bonus this time should be quite a lot, right?"
Speaking of this, Li Nianchuan finally breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, there was money.
Thanks to Zhu Ning, the reward for killing Contaminants was split equally between Zhu Ning and him. Li Nianchuan earned more than 600,000, the most he had ever earned from a mission.
Li Nianchuan: "I want to take this money and live in seclusion in the mountains and forests."
He wanted to retire on the spot.
"Not to that extent, not to that extent," Zhu Ning comforted. "And there are no mountains and forests now. If you want to see mountains and forests, you have to walk out of the Survivor Base and fight with the Beasts outside. Might as well stay well here."
Li Nianchuan: "..."
Let him die. Li Nianchuan struggled for a moment. Things had come to this; apart from living in another world, the effect should be about the same.
Xu Meng cleared her throat lightly: "Did Li Nianchuan receive the training message?"
Li Nianchuan responded with a muffled sound, even more depressed. Just discharged and had to go to training.
Xu Meng: "Go to the 45th floor for training at 1:30 PM. We three are still in the same group."
Li Nianchuan hugged the roses and didn't react. He asked with a shocked face: "What do you mean we are still in the same group? Zhu Ning, you didn't choose Demon Hunter? You chose Cleaner?"
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