Chapter 46-I Clean Up Garbage in a Wasteland World
Chapter 46 The Bizarre Aquarium-3
Zhu Ning had always wanted to meet it, but she hadn't expected it to be in such an official setting.
Prometheus's voice was transmitted directly into her cranium, completely different from the voice assistant inside the helmet.
It felt like a venomous snake slithering against her cerebral cortex, whispering as it moved. The whispers echoed in her brain, one after another. This absolute intimacy made Zhu Ning extremely repulsed; it wasn't like wearing an AI device, but rather like opening up one's body to let a cold-blooded animal parasitize it directly.
Zhu Ning looked at the others. They showed no reaction after connecting, as if this was the most natural thing in the world.
Zhu Ning had discovered long ago that she was fundamentally different from the people of this world. She treated herself too much like a human being, while others often possessed a mindset of self-instrumentalization—a level of awareness Zhu Ning could simply not attain.
Li Nianchuan asked, "Are you okay?"
Beside her, Xu Meng also asked, "Zhu Ning, are you alright?"
Her expression was terrible; she hadn't looked this bad even after being beaten by a Demon Hunter for three days.
Zhu Ning adjusted for a moment, and the stinging sensation disappeared. Prometheus seemed to exist only on the surface of her brain, without connecting any deeper.
Zhu Ning took a deep breath and quickly composed her expression. She could feel inquisitive gazes falling upon her. "I'm fine."
Compared to her physiology, Zhu Ning's psychological state was the real issue. The rumored mastermind was right inside her head, and Zhu Ning didn't even know how to extract it. She couldn't see the mycelium's specific movements. Thinking of the dense white mycelium dancing in the air when she put it on—would it fuse with her brain after piercing it? Even if she removed the mycelium later, would there be residue left in her brain?
No one informed them of side effects or sequelae. It was as if this thing was completely harmless, and usually, things advertised as absolutely harmless were very harmful.
The helmet had an automatic recording function. Under the camera, it would be difficult for both Zhu Ning and Prometheus to make any small moves. After the mission ended, Zhu Ning would need to return the helmet to the Data Collection Center.
If it was Prometheus who helped Zhu Ning edit the surveillance video last time, then Prometheus might not act this time.
After all, last time there was only one video. Now there were eight people and eight cameras; processing all of them would definitely leave flaws. Therefore, she absolutely could not have any extra conversation with Prometheus.
This big boss she had imagined had come to see her, yet Zhu Ning couldn't even speak to it. She could only suppress her curiosity and pretend to be a very ordinary employee.
Prometheus's voice continued to sound in her mind, this time speaking to everyone.
[I am Prometheus. For all employees connected to me, I will assume the highest authority over your bodies by default. When necessary, I will take over and lead you directly off the field.]
Its voice had more of a human touch than a simple mechanical sound, and could even be called gentle, but it was a cold kind of gentleness.
It was as if it didn't care about your life at all; you were merely a tool for it to execute its goals.
Once your body was taken over, you could not go against its will. It would invade your nerves, manipulate your body, and make all arrangements for you.
Describing this feeling as "insecure" was inadequate; it was equivalent to opening a back door in a human brain specifically for artificial intelligence to enter. Human subjectivity was thoroughly usurped.
An artificial intelligence could override you, and at critical moments, could even strip you of control over your body.
This was explicitly telling you that the other party was a higher intelligent being than you, and all its decisions were superior to yours.
Repulsion.
Zhu Ning's first impression of Prometheus was repulsive to the extreme. If not for the mission, she wanted to remove the Human-Machine Interface Unit immediately to reduce contact with it.
As someone from a zombie world, she had always felt that no matter how powerful artificial intelligence was, it should only be a tool.
The Wasteland actually allowed an AI to take over human bodies; it was simply terrifying.
In the high-tech era, Demon Hunters were chess pieces of artificial intelligence, and Zhu Ning was now a chess piece too.
Prometheus: [Please put on your helmets.]
The full-coverage helmet encased the person entirely, forming a sealed space that made Prometheus's voice even clearer.
[The location of this mission is the Mechanical Aquarium. The cameras inside the aquarium have been contaminated, so the only cameras I can use are you.]
The internal cameras of the aquarium were unusable, which meant they were all Prometheus's eyes.
Prometheus's advantage of omniscience could not be utilized. Its greatest function currently was to bridge the communication channel of the entire team.
Prometheus: [High concentration of pollution inside the contaminated area, reaching a maximum of 178%. The cause of pollution is currently unknown. After assessment by the technical department, it is determined to be a B-Level contaminated area. The contaminated area is 50,000 cubic meters. Upon entry, you will encounter intense mental pollution. Please maintain your rationality.]
[The organic glass inside the aquarium can withstand tons of pressure, but high-intensity weapons will cause a secondary collapse. The aquarium holds approximately 2,620 tons of water. Please use explosive devices with caution.]
Fang Ying had also reminded them repeatedly that the interior of the aquarium was too complex, and overly powerful weapons might bury everyone inside.
Prometheus: [The current plan is as follows: The Grey Eagle Squad will take Clean Squad A70265 to find the source of contamination. The White Pigeon Squad will be responsible for rescuing survivors. Messages between both sides will be synchronized by me.]
[The mortality rate for this mission is 5% to 8%.]
Mortality rate? Zhu Ning had never heard of a mortality rate on past missions. Artificial intelligence could quickly simulate all possibilities, but contaminated areas were dangerous zones. It couldn't guarantee that everyone would come back alive, meaning that in this mission, someone would die in the aquarium.
Zhu Ning sometimes felt that technology developing too fast was terrifying; some of them had been sentenced to death.
[Next, I will enter monitoring status, providing only communication support and scene analysis. Your captain will be temporarily served by Tang Ke, the captain of the Grey Eagle Squad. Good luck.]
Prometheus fell silent after saying this.
What did that mean? Were they being free-ranged? Wasn't it a combat commander?
Zhu Ning whispered to Li Nianchuan, "What is monitoring status?"
The Demon Hunters were already preparing to enter. As they entered, Li Nianchuan answered, "It means before it obtains authority, it can only play support and cannot directly take over your body."
Zhu Ning processed this. Prometheus was an artificial intelligence, and humans were wary of artificial intelligence.
On one hand, they highly relied on AI algorithms, but on the other, they were afraid of being directly controlled by AI.
So they set up many restrictive conditions and analyzed based on different situations. If the scene was controllable, Tang Ke, the captain of the Grey Eagle Squad, could lead everyone to complete the mission.
Only when the scene spun out of control and Prometheus applied to the higher-ups would it have room to operate. In short, it was a safety net.
Prometheus was the safety net for everyone. Before that, its authority was very limited. This might also involve accountability systems; if everything was handed over to Prometheus from the start, it would be difficult to define who was primarily responsible during the mission review.
After all, they couldn't push all the blame onto the artificial intelligence.
Zhu Ning asked, "Prometheus would actually command a B-Level mission?"
It was different from the daily life of a big boss she had imagined.
Li Nianchuan: "It handles many things in the Sanitation Center. I don't know exactly what it does. It monitors every time Demon Hunters go on a mission. Its computing power is very strong; it might be executing our mission here while simultaneously taking over another team to lead them off the field."
Prometheus was the true multitasker; this B-Level mission was just one of many for it.
Artificial intelligence was originally developed to serve humans; thinking about it carefully, it seemed right.
However, the Demon Hunters' communication channel used Prometheus every time. That time with the Fishmen, Prometheus was definitely on the scene.
The error in the contaminated area rating must have had its intervention.
Zhu Ning asked, "You had no reaction when connecting?"
Li Nianchuan: "No. I could feel something piercing in, but just for a short moment, and there was absolutely no pain."
Zhu Ning fell silent. Why were their reactions so different?
What was Prometheus's operating principle? Why could technological development control human nerves? It didn't sound like a simple machine; it seemed to fuse with some kind of biological organism.
Li Nianchuan: "Maybe your sanity value is high, so it's hard to adapt."
The higher the sanity value, the harder the nerves were to control. Li Nianchuan couldn't understand Zhu Ning's feelings, just as ordinary people didn't know what geniuses were thinking.
Li Nianchuan was talkative and added a couple more sentences: "I actually quite like it."
Zhu Ning asked, "Why?"
Why would a human be willing to have an artificial intelligence pierce their nerves?
Li Nianchuan: "The network is very safe with it around. You don't have to worry about the channel being polluted."
Contamination spores could pollute the network. Prometheus was the firewall, blocking contaminant attacks at the network level.
All Demon Hunter communications were controlled by Prometheus. Communication was a very important part of a team.
In situations where it was present, one never had to worry about communication errors. Even if Prometheus was just a support, it could definitely increase the survival rate on the battlefield.
This was the Wasteland, not some peaceful place. They were willing to cede some things to artificial intelligence to ensure their survival.
Li Nianchuan: "And if you are in a near-death state, it will comfort you."
Zhu Ning fell silent.
Prometheus also moonlighted in hospice care?
She had wanted to say that the absolutely calm voice just now sounded like the Grim Reaper and shouldn't have any comforting effect, but she thought of Cheng Mofei. What did Cheng Mofei feel when he died inside Experimental Subject 777?
He knew he had to die, and walked resolutely into Experimental Subject 777. He took off his helmet and was polluted without resistance.
If Huang Yaruo hadn't been there at that time, what was he thinking in his final moments?
If trapped in some contaminated area, having an artificial intelligence to talk to at the moment of death might make the dying process less painful.
Cheng Mofei's employee wristband was still inside her pocket.
Zhu Ning was not one person; she was now two people. Invisibly, she seemed to have inherited some legacy from Cheng Mofei.
Zhu Ning held the gun in her hand firmly. After all, one mistake, and Cheng Mofei's ending could very likely be her own.
Everyone was already entering in an orderly manner. They had all been on B-Level missions many times and were very skilled.
But for Zhu Ning, it was her first team mission. Her previous entries into contaminated areas were child's play; this was the scale a formal mission should have.
With so many people, Zhu Ning couldn't use any system tools or talents as she pleased, otherwise, it would be hard to explain to others. She really didn't want to be researched as an experimental subject.
However, Zhu Ning was a Cleaner. She should be able to avoid most dangers and wouldn't need to act herself under normal circumstances.
A staff member wearing a yellow hazmat suit gestured toward them, then slowly pulled open the hall doors. A damp smell hit them in the face.
The power inside the aquarium was cut off, and there was standing water on the ground. Once electricity leaked, the inside would become an electric field, so they simply cut off the power supply system.
Under the helmet's night vision function, the entire aquarium was glowing green.
Having been on many missions, Zhu Ning was already very adapted to night vision scenes. The aquarium lobby was generally for buying tickets and souvenirs; there were originally no marine creatures here.
Half of the inside had collapsed. Counters and chandeliers had all crashed down, and there was rubble and standing water on the ground.
Tang Ke led the Demon Hunters at the front. "Pay attention to protecting the Cleaners. Cao Wei, scout the path."
The Grey Eagle Squad coordinated with tacit understanding. Although they didn't have much affection for the Clean Squad, the team moved after Tang Ke's single sentence.
Cao Wei walked at the very front. Zhu Ning heard Li Nianchuan scoff beside her. Judging by the reaction, Cao Wei must be the one who mocked Li Nianchuan for being a weakling.
Meanwhile, Chu Ling walked over to Zhu Ning's side with her gun. Chu Ling was responsible for protecting the Cleaners. She quite liked the Clean Squad and naturally took on this task.
After Chu Ling put on the Demon Hunter helmet, the full steel battle suit wrapping her looked very cool. But Zhu Ning was thinking that the Demon Hunter metal outer suit was actually quite unsafe.
For instance, as long as they were within a two-meter range of Zhu Ning, she could forcefully control the entire Grey Eagle Squad.
Chu Ling: "Don't worry, I'm here to protect you guys."
Before Zhu Ning could speak, Li Nianchuan said proudly beside her, "No need to worry, Zhu Ning will protect me."
Zhu Ning: "?"
I'm not, I won't, don't talk nonsense. And why are you so proud?
Chu Ling glanced over, seeming to find it hard to determine the relationship between Zhu Ning and Li Nianchuan. Zhu Ning was very strong, estimated to be on par with herself; protecting a Li Nianchuan should be no difficulty.
Were they that kind of combination?
Chu Ling: "Then I was a bit presumptuous."
Zhu Ning: "..."
Presumptuous about what?
However, Zhu Ning was still a bit concerned about Li Nianchuan. His sanity value wasn't very high. He had been polluted in the D-Level contaminated area last time and had recuperated for a week after coming out. He insisted on being the sister's dog. If it happened again, Li Nianchuan really shouldn't mix in the Sanitation Center anymore.
But why was Li Nianchuan arranged to come in? Who exactly dispatched this mission?
Li Nianchuan's sanity value was low, making him easily susceptible to mental pollution. It was likely they wanted Zhu Ning to go into the field, and Li Nianchuan was just brought along.
Out of concern, Zhu Ning asked Li Nianchuan, "Are you okay?"
Li Nianchuan: "I'm fine. My sanity value has increased."
In Zhu Ning's understanding, increasing the sanity value to four hundred wasn't much.
Li Nianchuan: "I had a brain chip implanted before coming in."
Zhu Ning: "What?"
Li Nianchuan: "It can temporarily increase your sanity value. Cleaners will have it implanted when going on large-scale missions. But it's not that you won't be polluted if you wear it; rather, it delays the display of your pollution symptoms, for example, appearing only after four hours. Of course, you don't need it. Both the captain and I have implanted it."
In other words, under normal circumstances, Li Nianchuan would show symptoms of mental pollution within an hour in a B-Level contaminated area, thereby becoming delirious.
The chip could prolong this process but couldn't stop it. After four hours, Li Nianchuan would only show sequelae after walking out of the contaminated area and being in a relatively safe environment.
But his symptoms would worsen; in severe cases, it could very likely lead to brain death.
There was no helping it. People with high sanity values were too few. Most Cleaners didn't have high sanity values. Some missions had requirements that were too high, so they could only resort to this inferior strategy.
Quite cruel, Zhu Ning thought. This world's attitude towards consumables was very cruel. Sometimes one could understand why Eternal Pharma would become the hope for Defectives.
Zhu Ning looked at Xu Meng's back. Xu Meng's attitude was neither distant nor overly enthusiastic; she had been calm all along. Zhu Ning remembered she was very calm the first time she took her on a mission. She wondered why Xu Meng appeared at the foundation's event site.
Maybe Zhu Ning was overthinking it. Xu Meng might just want to simply understand this project and didn't necessarily have any entanglement with Eternal Pharma. After all, if she really was someone from Eternal Pharma, she wouldn't have needed to attend the foundation event personally.
Zhu Ning withdrew her gaze and focused all her attention on the mission. The Demon Hunters cleared the path in front; Zhu Ning only needed to be a little follower fishing in troubled waters.
Zhu Ning had visited aquariums before. The aquarium near her home was broken and old, just a large glass tank with some marine life in it. She finished browsing it in twenty minutes.
But the aquarium in the Wasteland was spectacular. There were a total of seven pavilions. The design style of the entire aquarium simulated the deep-sea world, designed with the appearance of deep-sea mountains. Each pavilion for visiting was a deep-sea cave.
The terrain in the middle of the pavilions was complex, requiring several turns to reach another area. Now that there were not even lights, the immersive experience of the deep-sea world was maxed out.
Walking in felt like walking into the deep sea—pitch-black, cold, oppressive. You simply didn't know what was ahead.
The aquarium had planned an optimal viewing route. The first pavilion was the Mermaid Pavilion. They had to pass through four pavilions to reach the Mechanical Jellyfish Pavilion where the accident broke out.
Right off the bat, it was a creature completely absent from Zhu Ning's world. She could actually see living merfolk.
The Demon Hunters led the charge and had already pushed open the door to the Mermaid Pavilion. Grey-black lines twitched in the air behind the door; that was the background color of a contaminated area.
As soon as they entered, the helmet automatically broadcasted: [Entered B-Level contaminated area.]
It seemed this was the contaminated area.
In the darkness, several corpses lay on the ground. Blood spilled from the corpses, floating slowly in the accumulated water.
The corpses all had a large hole in the heart area, as if a monster had once drilled out from the center. Zhu Ning thought of the tentacles she saw outside the venue.
Prometheus's voice came through: [Mermaid Pavilion corpse detection count: 17. No surviving humans.]
Seventeen people died just in the Mermaid Pavilion?
Zhu Ning held her gun and stepped onto the floor of the Mermaid Pavilion. The ground was full of water. The water was deep, reaching up to the ankles. Their entire team was wading through water.
As soon as Zhu Ning stepped in, she heard a system prompt.
Ding—
[You have started a side quest: The Bizarre Aquarium. Mission Objective: Successfully purify the area. Current purification progress: 0%. Please keep up the good work.]
She had triggered the mission mechanism. The system description was a side quest, which meant she couldn't refuse this mission.
Zhu Ning seemed to have figured out some system patterns. Tasks published by dead posts were identified by the system as random quests; she could choose to accept or not. For her, random quests were like dungeons used to level up and get items.
The official missions of the Sanitation Center were side quests with no room for refusal; Zhu Ning had to complete them.
The door behind them closed with a clang. A sealed space had now formed. The Demon Hunters were in front, separated from the few of them by a distance of about three meters.
On Zhu Ning's side, Chu Ling led the way, taking the brunt of anything that happened. Zhu Ning brought up the rear, relying on her high sanity value.
She couldn't let that unlucky little guy Li Nianchuan bring up the rear, could she?
Behind the glass walls on both sides, it was empty. The aquarium was in darkness. Under normal circumstances, the helmet's night vision function allowed one to see many details clearly.
But inside the aquarium was a vast expanse of seawater. The seawater blocked part of the vision, so the things behind the glass walls looked blurry.
Blurriness induced fear.
For a creature like humans, fear was almost ingrained in instinct when encountering unknown things.
The Grey Eagle members spread out, searching the entire Mermaid Pavilion for suspicious objects. The Grey Eagle Squad basically didn't speak while doing missions unless necessary. By contrast, their team seemed very noisy.
Li Nianchuan whispered to Xu Meng, "Captain, are we really just waiting?"
Xu Meng: "Wait for them to search the scene. If there is no pollution source, go to the next pavilion. If there is, wait for them to resolve it. Let's not add to the mess."
Cleaner Employee Handbook Rule 14: When conducting joint operations with Demon Hunters, Cleaners should remain as stationary as possible and not interfere with Demon Hunter actions.
As an old employee, Li Nianchuan naturally knew this rule. In fact, before Zhu Ning appeared, whenever they Cleaners encountered any sudden danger, they would stand still.
But ever since Li Nianchuan and Zhu Ning fought the Fishmen, he had been itching for action. Li Nianchuan whispered very quietly to Zhu Ning, "What are your thoughts?"
Zhu Ning said, "What thoughts can I have? I'm learning."
"Learning what?" Li Nianchuan asked.
Zhu Ning: "On-site teaching. How to purify a contaminated area. It's more intuitive than video lessons."
Five famous Demon Hunter teachers instructing; a perfect opportunity to learn.
Li Nianchuan: "..."
He was about to kneel to Zhu Ning. What kind of thinking was this? Taking the opportunity to steal trade secrets?
Chu Ling beside them also heard this sentence. She was amused by Zhu Ning; she was really interesting.
Other Demon Hunters glanced over. Zhu Ning's sentence made them a bit unhappy. Was this mocking them?
Zhu Ning was telling the truth. She was really learning the Demon Hunter work method; they were much more professional than her.
After entering a contaminated area, Zhu Ning would wander around blindly, walking by intuition. The efficiency was not high.
When Demon Hunters entered a contaminated area, they would form a carpet search, not missing any evidence or suspicious points.
The clues found would be divided into tiers one, two, and three. The five of them communicated synchronously, categorizing and summarizing clues. The efficiency was very high.
Zhu Ning asked, "Why don't I see any merfolk?"
Behind the transparent glass walls on both sides, the only moving things were floating water weeds. Apart from that, it was completely silent, as if there were no moving creatures.
Chu Ling: "Merfolk are very timid and afraid of strangers. They should be hiding behind the fake mountains."
Zhu Ning asked, "Then how do tourists visit normally?"
Chu Ling: "Merfolk are photophobic. When it's visiting time, high-intensity lights will be turned on inside to drive them to the viewing area."
Zhu Ning: "..."
Cruel enough. Did this world have no protection associations?
Zhu Ning: "What do merfolk look like?"
Honestly, she hadn't seen a real merman or mermaid.
Chu Ling: "Just like that, human body above, fish tail below. Nothing good to look at."
Chu Ling's tone sounded as if merfolk were cabbages, nothing rare. But Zhu Ning, this unsophisticated soul, thought it was quite magical.
In the Wasteland, merfolk were a kind of artificial creation. After gene-editing technology matured, scientists could realize many species overnight that originally only existed in fairy tales and legends, such as merfolk.
When merfolk were first researched, they caused a sensation. They were featured on the headlines of major media outlets, and countless people came to see them every day.
Beautiful human faces, combined with magnificent fish tails. Many people said their fantasies had come true. During that time, merfolk were so popular that many restaurants would keep an ornamental mermaid to anchor the place.
But after only five years, people lost interest in merfolk. They were just beautiful faces. With the development of technology, no amount of beauty was worth much.
Moreover, merfolk were too unimaginative.
The appearance of artificial merfolk was completely to restore fairy tales. Literary and artistic works from hundreds of years ago had already depicted them. Now, mechanical creatures were more popular, such as mechanical nine-tailed foxes and the like.
That was also why, after the mechanical trend set off, mechanical jellyfish could be so popular.
Zhu Ning listened with relish to Chu Ling's popular science on the history of internet celebrities in the Wasteland.
"Search complete," someone suddenly reported on the channel. "No abnormalities for now."
It sounded like good news, but everyone knew this sentence wasn't good news.
Because it was obvious that a very terrible accident had happened here. The corpses on the ground and the bloodstains on the glass walls all proved that someone had tried to flee outward but failed. They searched around but couldn't find where the monster was.
"What to do?" someone asked.
Tang Ke: "All alert, continue advancing."
Xu Meng also said, "Pay attention to safety."
Hearing this, Zhu Ning raised her gun. Her Danger Sense time was too short, only thirty seconds. When it sounded, it would probably be too late.
The eight-person team had walked very spread out before, but now everyone consciously walked very tightly together. The water was getting deeper. As they walked out of the Mermaid Pavilion, the water inside the hall had gone from ankle-deep to submerging their knees, and their walking speed became slower and slower.
In the night vision state, they couldn't see things under the water, so it was equivalent to moving forward in water about which they knew nothing.
Everyone was very vigilant. Even Li Nianchuan didn't speak. For a moment, there was only the sound of splashing water.
Zhu Ning walked alone at the very back. There was no one behind her, but she always felt something was wrong behind her.
And because it was an aquarium, there was a damp and sticky sensation on her back, as if a pair of eyes in the darkness were staring at her. Was it an illusion?
If it were a ghost story, the general advice would be not to look back. Zhu Ning stared tightly at the back of Li Nianchuan's head in front, hesitating whether to turn around.
Suddenly, she paused. Something in the water grabbed her ankle.
Author's Note: Today is very long! By the way, mechanical jellyfish really exist in reality, but they are still in the early stages of research and development. Once fully developed, they might be applied to underwater rescue operations. A long-awaited update to the Cleaner Employee Handbook, Rule 14: When conducting joint operations with Demon Hunters, Cleaners should remain as stationary as possible and not interfere with Demon Hunter actions. To prevent confusion and improve recognizability, I changed the Grey Eagle Squad captain's name to Tang Ke~ It doesn't affect reading, haha.
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