Chapter 41-I Clean Up Garbage in a Wasteland World

 Chapter 41 Transaction

Cheng Mofei: "This mission is confidential. The only people who know about it are me and my superior. This means that in the eyes of the other team members, I should be listed as missing, or judged as an accidental death."

There was constant static noise in the video. The sound of footsteps arose from outside, along with rustling movements. Even through the screen, Zhu Ning could feel the tension.

Someone had caught up.

Zhu Ning felt like she was reading a novel where she already knew the ending, but Cheng Mofei in the video didn't know yet.

He was about to die.

"They're here." Cheng Mofei glanced in the direction of the door. His time was running out.

Cheng Mofei pulled the screen closer and said his final words: "I declare that this mission has failed. The relevant data on the Eternal Pharma investigation has been sent to my superior. The remaining half of the data is stored in this Employee Wristband. The wristband's battery can support it for twenty-one years. Whoever finds this wristband, please handle the relevant data at your discretion. It belongs to you now. Good luck."

Immediately following a burst of rustling sounds, Cheng Mofei left the camera frame.

Bang bang bang!

Off-screen, the sound of gunshots rang out.

Zhu Ning played with guns herself; she could distinguish the sound of bullets hitting a body. There were also a few bullets that missed the target, likely hitting some steel.

There was the sound of a body falling. Someone was injured.

Snap—

The screen went dark. The video ended.

After the video finished playing, the Sub-Brain went to a black screen, reflecting Zhu Ning's pale face.

Cheng Mofei's face overlapped with Zhu Ning's face. Zhu Ning could see Cheng Mofei turning into a Snail-Human even with her eyes closed.

A reasonably handsome face became bloated, like a water ghost that had soaked in water for a lifetime. He carried a snail shell on his back, his body secreting mucus. After seeing Zhu Ning, he couldn't even make a sound, only instinctively squirming towards her.

Was this the outcome of investigating Eternal Pharma?

The video was three minutes long in total, revealing a massive amount of information.

Before, Zhu Ning thought Cheng Mofei was her senior in the general sense. She didn't expect him to be a senior in the truest sense—they were both investigating the same thing.

Cheng Mofei was the person investigating Eternal Pharma before Zhu Ning.

It was possible that the previous person chosen by Prometheus was Cheng Mofei.

Mission failed. Only these two words remained in her mind.

Zhu Ning had seen a dead Demon Hunter in the house before and took it for granted that he failed the purification and was worn down to death by the house. But now it seemed things were not that simple at all.

The information conveyed by the video exceeded human imagination. Zhu Ning felt as if she had witnessed how Cheng Mofei spent the last moments of his life with her own eyes.

A pitch-black alley. Cheng Mofei evading the pursuit of the hounds behind him.

He temporarily found a safe place, entered an abandoned warehouse, and recorded this video.

He was injured, and under the circumstances at that time, the wound could not heal. He had already foreseen that he would definitely die.

Cheng Mofei was privately executing a secret mission, an investigation targeting Eternal Pharma. He must have obtained some data.

When he was being hunted and had nowhere to run, Cheng Mofei thought of the characteristics of Experimental Subject 777. He only needed to become the owner of the house to enter.

Zhu Ning didn't know how Cheng Mofei got in. Maybe he had the key to the Green Door, or maybe he knew how to inherit the house and understood more of its characteristics.

Looking at it now, he certainly succeeded.

Cheng Mofei wasn't worn down to death by the house; he was already near death before he went in. He merely found himself a "safe" place to die, and then he quietly awaited death inside the house.

There was no dignity in this way of dying. He carried humiliation until the very last moment of his life.

If Zhu Ning hadn't gone in, his data would have been forgotten in the house forever.

Zhu Ning recalled that Snail-Human face. At that time, he had completely degenerated into a contaminant, devoid of any human rationality.

He used his last bit of reason to leave the data for his successor.

For a moment, she found it hard to digest. She remained stiff for a long time before she started to think again. There were two critical questions.

First, Demon Hunters had very strong physical constitutions. They were all injected with GeneBoost and had undergone varying degrees of modification.

Moreover, the Sanitation Center's medical care was advanced, and MegaHeal was very effective. What kind of person did Cheng Mofei encounter that made him feel death was inevitable, forcing him to enter Experimental Subject 777?

The biggest possibility was that Cheng Mofei encountered an Ability User whose ability prevented wounds from healing.

Although it was a hypothesis, assuming such a person really existed, how would Zhu Ning protect herself if she encountered this person in the future?

Second, Cheng Mofei might have seen Huang Yaruo before he died. After all, inferring from common sense, Huang Yaruo was still in the house before he passed away.

Did he converse with Huang Yaruo? Did they say anything to each other?

Huang Yaruo could answer this, but Zhu Ning had completely lost news of Huang Yaruo.

The data stored in the Employee Wristband must be what Cheng Mofei wanted to leave behind even in death. Now he said this thing belonged to her.

The Employee Wristband screen had gone dark. Zhu Ning was only one step away from this data.

She clicked on the folder.

[Please Enter Password]

The three big words displayed on the screen held no warmth.

Thinking about it, it made sense. If it were Zhu Ning who had desperately obtained relevant data on Eternal Pharma...

She might open the Visitor Mode to let the next person who found it know the importance of this wristband so they wouldn't dispose of it casually, but she wouldn't lay out the secret files for others to see. After all, it was hard to judge which faction the person who found the wristband belonged to.

Password.

What was the password to open the folder?

Cheng Mofei's superior might know. For the rest, his relatives or teammates might also know.

The forum didn't display Cheng Mofei's kinship relations, but she guessed that there must still be people in the Sanitation Center who knew Cheng Mofei. The Cheetah Squad had disbanded; Zhu Ning might need to spend time entering the Sanitation Center to investigate slowly.

This matter was far more troublesome than Zhu Ning had thought. This was the real reason Prometheus let her enter Experimental Subject 777.

Prometheus seemed to be leading her along. Walking into the hotpot restaurant, she discovered Eternal Pharma for the first time and incidentally saved Liu Niannian, making a chaebol heiress owe her a favor.

The second time, entering the man-hunting house, she found this Employee Wristband storing secret data.

What exactly did Prometheus expect her to do? The problem was, what could she, a rookie employee, do?

Zhu Ning felt like a child carrying a bomb, not knowing where to throw it even if she wanted to.

A newcomer who had been on the job for a month, inexplicably dragged into a pile of messy trouble.

If things went wrong, it would be easy to get herself killed. In this kind of power struggle, Zhu Ning might die without even knowing how she died.

This whole thing was too bizarre; it was forcing her to become a detective.

Zhu Ning collapsed on the bed, staring expressionlessly at the ceiling. While she was thinking, Cheng Mofei's Employee Wristband floated quietly in the air.

Now, it was as if she had entered a combat arena. Whether forced or voluntary, she was already a player in the game.

Combat sports were unavoidable. There were opponents, a countdown, a referee, and also death.

The outcome for the loser was death.

The opponent had already thrown a punch. Once you ran, you lost. You could only face the conflict head-on, gather all information, not miss any clue about the opponent, and find the key to victory within the limited countdown of the match.

Key.

Suddenly, Zhu Ning moved.

She entered a to-do item into her Sub-Brain: [Find out the truth about Cheng Mofei's death]

All along, Zhu Ning had been accepting tasks from the System and Prometheus. This was the first time she had autonomously created a mission for herself. Her new mission was to find out the truth of Cheng Mofei's death.

Set time: One month.

She simulated the System's behavioral pattern in her mind. There was a mission time, mission content, the only difference was there was no mission reward. Perhaps the final mission reward was that Zhu Ning triggered the side quest to find the truth of death.

She opened her own Employee Wristband and entered the "Dead Post Enthusiasts Community".

If Experimental Subject 777 was purified, and a site-wide broadcast was made within the station, it might attract some people.

As soon as Zhu Ning opened the forum, sure enough, the news that she had killed Experimental Subject 777 was already on the leaderboard.

The dead post forum referred to Experimental Subject 777 as the Cozy Little House.

[Congratulations to Cosmic Cutie for successfully purifying the C-Level contaminated zone, Cozy Little House!]

[Congratulations to Cosmic Cutie for successfully leveling up to LV2!]

People in the forum were discussing the past of this house. "I know this house. It's particularly eerie, like reading a ghost story. I heard a Demon Hunter went in before and didn't come out. Later, people didn't dare to go."

"Yeah, I also read about that Demon Hunter. It was clearly just a C-Level contaminated zone, yet it wore a Demon Hunter to death. Later we all called it the Haunted House."

"It was actually purified. I see it's a Level 2 user. The level isn't high, but the guts aren't small."

"This Cutie is kind of interesting. She picks tricky missions. What does she actually do?"

The man-hunting house was a famous Haunted House on the forum; the discussion volume was high after it was purified.

Zhu Ning skipped over their chatter and summarized the information roughly.

There were discussions about the Demon Hunter. It seemed many people knew a Demon Hunter had died in Experimental Subject 777; this matter wasn't that tightly sealed.

But people probably didn't know the person who died was Cheng Mofei.

How did they know? Heard that Prometheus would blur information. Was this a smokescreen released? To stop others from rashly approaching?

If Zhu Ning posted a thread now asking if anyone here knew Cheng Mofei, that move would be too rash.

Zhu Ning had slept for two days. She hadn't logged into the forum for these two days. After she logged on, her avatar lit up, becoming online status.

Three minutes after she entered the forum, an anonymous message popped up.

[You completed this mission?]

Inside the forum, anonymous messages could be sent to each other. Under Prometheus's protection, everyone could communicate with peace of mind.

Sure enough, someone must know about this house. Maybe it was a member of Cheng Mofei's squad back then.

This person's avatar was completely black, with no avatar image and no nickname. Assuming the other party had turned on anonymity protection, Zhu Ning knew nothing about him.

Zhu Ning didn't answer. The other party was very likely bluffing her. Answering rashly would be very disadvantageous to her.

A new message was sent over very quickly: [Is the item with you?]

Item. Someone knew she had brought something out. Was the anonymous user an insider?

Or Cheng Mofei's superior? Who exactly assigned the mission to Cheng Mofei nine years ago? Where did Cheng Mofei's contact go? Still in the Sanitation Center?

Zhu Ning still didn't answer. At this time, it was a test of patience. She had the video in her hand. Although this thing was dangerous, it also gave her the upper hand.

After a minute, the other party obviously couldn't sit still anymore.

This time he didn't talk nonsense but stated his demand simply and directly: [Want to make a trade? Someone wants to kill you. I can help you.]

...

Inside a certain laboratory.

There was no data on the experimental subject on the blank wall. They had been watching that day's video on a loop. Unknown name, unknown data. A cleaner had purified Experimental Subject 777.

They conducted a behavioral analysis on Zhu Ning, watching the video frame by frame. They must have watched it hundreds of times. They had to quickly analyze this person's weaknesses to prescribe the right medicine.

"The only thing certain now is that she has a metal-type ability."

A researcher paused the video, then rewound to watch it again. "But there should be a distance limit. I only saw her defend, I didn't see her attack."

They had studied metal-type Ability Users before. Metal-type mutation was a very mature mutation direction.

People who could control bullets could perfectly achieve offense and defense. They could raise defensive walls and also use the enemy's bullets as their own.

This was the biggest characteristic of metal-type Ability Users.

But Zhu Ning hadn't used it from start to finish. The biggest possibility was that Zhu Ning's metal-type ability hadn't fully developed; she had a weakness.

"How far?" someone asked.

The researcher played Zhu Ning's video in slow motion again. In the video, the bullets were forcibly stopped one meter away from Zhu Ning, then clattered to the ground.

"I guess about one meter," he said cautiously.

The closest killer to Zhu Ning was only two meters away. Thinking in her shoes, if it were him in that situation, after using the metal-type ability to block the bullets, he should have reverse-controlled them to kill him directly.

So this was beyond the maximum range.

Moreover, Zhu Ning's speed increased later, suddenly flashing behind the killer. The method of killing was shooting.

On the edge of life and death, on the battlefield, people would maximally choose the way with the highest survival rate. This meant that for her, the metal-type ability wasn't as useful as a gun.

"Good discovery." Suddenly, a man's voice came from behind.

Professor Chu had arrived at some point. He was sitting in the corner of the last row. He had been listening silently to their analysis before, and only now spoke his first sentence.

The researcher breathed a sigh of relief after being praised, then immediately became even more nervous.

Just existing in the same space as Professor Chu, even without speaking, made people feel pressure.

"Continue." Professor Chu pushed up his gold-rimmed glasses.

"That guillotine that killed the sniper, it was too fast, I couldn't see it clearly." The researcher switched the screen again, this time to the footage transmitted from the sniper's camera before he died.

This blade appeared very abruptly and disappeared just as inexplicably.

Assuming Zhu Ning's Metal Manipulation had a distance limit, then she shouldn't have used an ability to control the kill.

"I guess this thing is a tool made from some kind of contaminant," the researcher said. "That's why she only used it once."

The guillotine killing was terrifying. Once targeted, there was almost no room to escape. But Zhu Ning only used it once; the remaining killers were solved by herself.

So the guillotine wasn't an ability, but more like a tool.

Technology had advanced. Through extracting contamination spores, tools beneficial to humans could be made. Many observation instruments in their laboratory were made from contaminants.

Second conclusion: Zhu Ning possessed some kind of contaminant tool.

"What about the acceleration?" Professor Chu asked again.

Later on, Zhu Ning's speed was very fast, only visible as a blur in the lens. This time, the tactical analysis researcher was silent for a long time. He was a bit afraid to voice his guess.

"I guess," the researcher looked into Professor Chu's eyes and said cautiously, "she might possess two kinds of abilities."

As soon as his words came out, the laboratory fell into a strange silence. What they couldn't accept the most was an opponent possessing two abilities simultaneously.

This meant the difficulty of dealing with the trouble rose steeply.

"So," Professor Chu spoke after a long time, "you mean this person possesses both Acceleration and Metal Manipulation abilities simultaneously, and holds a contaminant tool in her hand, is that right?"

Professor Chu's voice was flat, with no intonation rise or fall, but the researcher inexplicably felt he was being mocked.

Working with Professor Chu put immense psychological pressure on people. The researcher spoke with difficulty, "According to the limited data analysis, it should be so."

After all, they didn't have any data, only a video that had almost been watched to rot.

After he finished speaking, he looked at Professor Chu with a face full of apprehension. The other party was holding a file, fingers tapping lightly on the edge of the folder.

The gold-rimmed glasses cast a reflection, making his expression unclear. Professor Chu honestly looked very good, but most people didn't think he was good-looking; they only thought he was terrifying.

Professor Chu: "Next."

The researcher breathed a sigh of relief. This meant Professor Chu temporarily accepted his analysis.

Based on the limited video material, the maximum limit of his deduction was this result.

Another researcher was under even greater pressure now. "I guess she might not be a Cleaner."

"Oh?" Professor Chu asked.

"I guess she might be a Demon Hunter wearing a Cleaner's uniform specifically to hide her identity and confuse the public."

Another person said, "I think so too. If the qualifications are sufficient, no one would be willing to be a Cleaner instead of a Demon Hunter."

"Possessing two abilities at the same time, she could be a high-level executive in the Sanitation Center. I don't think a big shot would go to a C-Level contaminated zone."

"I even suspect she's not from the Sanitation Center. No data matches."

Sanitation Center employees all went on missions, and their characteristics were hard to conceal. This woman didn't fit anyone's image.

Professor Chu neither affirmed nor denied.

The researchers seemed to feel their words made more sense the more they spoke, and their voices raised slightly. "Maybe wearing the protective suit was just for convenience. After all, she's Prometheus's Ace. What if it's those rebels? I feel this person isn't simple."

"No way, you're getting more and more off track... What if she's just a simple Cleaner?"

The two researchers got more and more worked up as they spoke, almost arguing. More and more people joined to mediate, and the laboratory was somewhat chaotic.

Identity wasn't as easy to deduce as ability. They had only found Zhu Ning's weakness for the time being and couldn't lock onto a specific identity.

Professor Chu didn't say a word. He looked at the list he had just obtained. According to the news just provided by the informant, there were a total of ten suspicious people.

He crossed out four; now six remained.

Ace.

If this person was really Prometheus's Ace, he wondered if she was on the list.

Professor Chu: "We must find her quickly."

And then, kill her.

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