Chapter 8-I Clean Up Garbage in a Wasteland World
Chapter 8 The Tide is Turning
Zhu Ning opened her Interface, re-examining her stats. Many new fields had unlocked.
Name: Zhu Ning
Age: 19
Education: Mechanical Engineering Bachelor's
Status: Fifth-Class Citizen
Talent: Danger Sense
Mutation Path: Unknown
Degree of Mutation: Unknown
Physical Strength: Unenhanced
Sanity: 100 (Average human: 20)
Health: 20 (Average human: 70)
Luck: 1 (Average human: 50)
Purity Points: 545 (Exchangeable for boosts to other stats; 100 Purity Points = +1 Health)
Health and Luck were newly activated. Luck at 1 made sense—explaining her misfortune with the misrated contamination zone.
Purity Points could buy rewards or add to stats: 500 minimum, +5 Health per exchange.
Notably, her Health seemed low at just 20.
She'd gained a beginner talent, Danger Sense—Li Nianchuan had mentioned them before; time would tell how it worked. Mutation Path and Degree of Mutation? No clue.
The Putrid Fish Head seemed practical. Before, she could only get contaminated; now she could contaminate others.
Notably, it worked on contaminants too—fight dirty with dirty? For escapes, full speed boost.
But it cost Health, and hers hadn't grown yet—couldn't afford the drain. The other reward, the K003 Explosive, could level buildings, but no such large-scale tasks yet.
Its lethality was too high, scenarios limited. Zhu Ning at least needed to ensure no friendly fire.
Post-action review: Got rewards? Yes. Usable? Not really. Summary: Pointless haul.
The items were solid, but unusable now—wasted.
Couldn't they give newbie-friendly props? Dropping high-end stuff on day one and leaving me stumped.
Wait... A hunch hit Zhu Ning.
These high-grade items forced her to grind Purity Points and Health to use them. Was this damn system pushing her to level up?
Zhu Ning: "..."
The system had seen through her slacker soul and intervened? She'd fought for her life, yet Main Quest: Purify the Homeland was only at 1%.
Her gut was right—this was a massive pie. Completing it would cost her whole life.
But she'd grasped purification's basics: to finish the Main Quest, keep entering contamination zones? Collect Contamination Spores?
The platform rotted, revealing sewer walls beneath—the zone crumbling with the contaminant's death. Zhu Ning sighed deeply, facing the dancing spores in silence for a minute.
Cleaner Handbook Rule 5: Containment of Contamination Spores is top priority.
From her cleaning pack, she pulled a straw-like tool and dutifully began "picking cotton."
[Ding—Purity Points +1]
Each spore contained netted +1 Purity Points. This wasn't picking cotton—it was farming Health!
Li Nianchuan raced down, frantic. The whole last train reeked of rot. First thing: find Zhu Ning.
There she was, fine—and diligently... cleaning trash.
Wrecked as she was—Hazard Suit clawed, helmet cracked—she moved methodically, collecting spores one by one.
Li Nianchuan gaped. What breed of workaholic was Zhu Ning? Forgetting duty even now? Fighting monsters and sweeping—sweeper monk incarnate!
"You—" Li Nianchuan pressed, "You're working?"
Zhu Ning didn't look up: "What else?"
"Not this hardcore, right?" Li Nianchuan lacked the mindset. The horrors in the zone would fuel a month's nightmares.
He didn't have the mental fortitude: adrenaline faded, and bam—back to work.
Zhu Ning sighed. "It's all commission."
Her head kept chiming +1 Purity Points. Hard not to get hooked.
Li Nianchuan: "..."
So on the Sub-rail, Zhu Ning had meant it? She was creating revenue?
"Hey? Li Nianchuan?" Static crackled in the helmet. With the Fishman dead, Psychic Contamination gone, comms restored.
Li Nianchuan nearly sobbed at Xu Meng's voice. "Captain!"
Xu Meng sounded urgent. "You okay? What about Zhu Ning?"
Zhu Ning, mid-spore collection: "Alive."
Xu Meng exhaled. Two Cleaners surviving a contamination zone was a miracle.
Xu Meng: "Tech center misrated it—you entered a D-level zone."
D-level indeed, Li Nianchuan thought. His estimate was spot-on.
Xu Meng: "The zone's cracking now. I can reach you soon—stay put, don't move. Demon Hunters are inbound; they'll launch rescue on landing."
D-level was no sweat for Demon Hunters.
Li Nianchuan cautiously: "Actually... no need for Demon Hunters."
"Why?" Xu Meng puzzled; wind whooshed on her end—she was en route.
Li Nianchuan scanned: contaminant corpses and spores everywhere, no live threats. The zone was pristine.
All thanks to him and Zhu Ning—no Demon Hunter entry. Two trash-sweepers had cleared a D-level zone!
Proud, Li Nianchuan: "Cleaners don't need Demon Hunter rescue."
Xu Meng: "?"
Not the time for sulking, surely.
"Um..." Xu Meng probed carefully. "Your mental state okay?"
The most logical assumption: she figured he'd cracked.
Li Nianchuan, bold: "Send another Clean Squad—we might be overwhelmed."
Xu Meng: "?"
...
After hanging up, Li Nianchuan exhaled long, soaked in sweat.
Post-survival exhaustion hit; he collapsed with a thud, the taut string in his mind snapping. "I think I'm done."
His sanity was low; initial contamination lingered. Now surrounded by spores, relaxing worsened it.
"Get lost." Zhu Ning glanced; contaminated? Back off.
"No!" Li Nianchuan huddled closer to Zhu Ning. He'd realized: she was more reliable than Demon Hunters. "I won't leave you."
Zhu Ning: "..."
Fine, the crazy started.
Demon Hunters were due soon; Zhu Ning wasn't worried about his state. But she ignored him, focusing on spores—until Li Nianchuan escalated.
Zhu Ning watched him raise his hands.
She slapped them down fast. Li Nianchuan raised them again. No danger now—he was about to do something bold: remove his helmet!
"Hey!" Zhu Ning pinned his helmet, halting the motion. "What are you doing?"
"Can't breathe." Li Nianchuan said.
Removing the helmet risked instant parasitism. Zhu Ning warned: "No helmet off. Got it?"
Li Nianchuan murmured a tiny "oh," disappointed, lowering his hands. Then, before her eyes, he drew up his knees, curling fetal at her feet.
Like a puppy.
Moderate Psychic Contamination? Zhu Ning recalled Xu Meng's tale of a colleague who thought he was a pink double-headed lotus. Curious, she probed: "Who are you?"
Li Nianchuan buried his face in his knees: "I'm sister's puppy."
Zhu Ning: "..."
Kid, did you just expose your secret kink?!
...
District 103 Sanitation Center.
If it had been chaotic like a stock exchange on Zhu Ning's arrival, now it was a war zone.
Tech Division Head Lu Qiqin raged: "Rating error! How does a rating error happen?!"
"You know the trouble this causes?!"
"No Demon Hunters inside—just two Cleaners on logistics. No weapons, no experience. How many lives do you think they have?!"
"...Just trash-sweepers..." The tech protested.
Cleaners' lives were cheap; ten wouldn't outweigh one Demon Hunter. If rescue failed, sacrificing two Cleaners was defensible, in a way.
"Sweep your ancestors!" Lu Qiqin sneered. "Zone uncontained, spores spreading—how many in District 103 die?!"
"Want the job or not? If not, get out!"
The monitoring tech kept his head down, silent.
"Demon Hunters are en route," someone murmured.
"En route my ass!" Lu Qiqin bellowed. "Fifteen minutes gone—golden window closed!"
He hurled a mug. Zone time dilation meant fifteen external minutes could be days inside.
"Um..." A tech raised a timid hand. "Contamination level's dropping."
From peak 90%, it fell steadily.
88%... 80%... 71%...
Lu Qiqin frowned, shoving the tech aside to type furiously. Yes, dropping for real.
"Where are the Demon Hunters?" he demanded.
Arms crossed at the door, Fang Ying finally spoke: "Just left. ETA seventeen minutes to site."
No Demon Hunters yet, and the zone was purifying itself.
"Report!" A subordinate: "Contacted Clean Squad Captain Xu Meng—all three alive."
Lu Qiqin coldly: "Who's inside?"
Fang Ying handed a panel. "Two Cleaners."
Lu Qiqin glanced, brow furrowing hard.
The panel showed profiles. Li Nianchuan's stats were mediocre all around—sanity critically low, enough for brain death in an hour of heavy contamination.
No standout skills, or he'd be in Demon Hunters, not Cleaners. The other's info was blank slate—just a name: Zhu Ning.
"Newbie?" Lu Qiqin asked.
Trial-period newbies lacked data collection.
Fang Ying: "Yes. I processed her onboarding today."
Fresh from interview, trial phase—no tasks beyond learning to sweep, slacking for meager pay, awaiting next notice.
Not solo-sweeping and doing Demon Hunter work!
Eerie. The center's readings were accurate for eighty years—last glitch was that one.
Zhu Ning started today, hit a data error, entered D-level unprepared. No weapons, no knowledge—yet survived and purified?
Good Lu Qiqin wasn't Demon Hunter lead, or his face would be slapped raw.
Fang Ying: "Frankly, I'm baffled too."
When Fang Ying got the news, she matched Lu Qiqin's shock. She'd handled Zhu Ning's onboarding personally; sans data, she'd judged by gut: gutsy as hell.
Guts were good—fit for the job.
But then a chain of "accidents," all pivoting on Zhu Ning. Only explanation: she was its chosen.
Fang Ying: "Xuan Qing wants to see you."
Xuan Qing ran Ops, overseeing District 103 Demon Hunters. The departments overlapped closely, yet distantly.
"And Sanitation Head Xie Jiazu," Fang Ying added.
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