Chapter 35-I Clean Up Garbage in a Wasteland World
Chapter 35: The House That Hunts People-8
Thump—
Zhu Ning's palm pressed against the wall. Through her breathing, she could feel the metal "pulse" beneath her palm, like a heartbeat coming from the depths of a cave.
This house had a traditional structure: steel bars poured with concrete. The steel bars were like a grid, also like a person's meridians and skeleton.
In an instant, Zhu Ning communicated with the entire house. Every door, every wall, every tiny screw. she was taking its pulse by a suspended thread, caressing the skeleton of the wall.
In Huang Yaruo's eyes, Zhu Ning's behavior was extremely strange. Her posture pressing against the wall looked like she was praying.
Suddenly, her fingers placed on the wall curled slightly. Immediately after, the entire house shook.
The steel bars twisted inch by inch, gradually bursting open from the wall skin. It was as if Zhu Ning was skinning it and extracting its bones.
She... Huang Yaruo looked at Zhu Ning in disbelief. Was she dismantling the house? Could she dismantle the house with her bare hands?
After only a split second, the interior of the house cracked inch by inch right under Huang Yaruo's eyes.
The incandescent lamp on the ceiling shook frantically. With a bang, the light fixture she had carefully selected smashed to the ground, shattering into pieces.
The wallpaper peeled off downwards with a crash, like sheets of waste newspaper. Wall skin and broken bricks smashed down violently, landing right on the sofa and TV set Huang Yaruo had carefully selected.
The TV was smashed in half at the waist. The sofa split in response. When the toppled refrigerator smashed onto the Snail-Humans, the Snail-Humans were smashed until juices splattered.
Huang Yaruo watched helplessly as the entire house collapsed, even appearing a bit dazed. The house she had spent all her savings to buy and lived in for fifteen years was dying. Zhu Ning was taking it down bit by bit, reversing how she had carefully installed everything piece by piece back then.
Boom!
The largest ceiling section smashed down.
Huang Yaruo reacted quickly. She stopped staring foolishly at her furniture and put on the dead Demon Hunter's helmet and protective suit. Being trapped in the house for so many years with nothing to do, she had studied this protective suit many times. She put it on quickly, snapping the helmet panel shut, protecting her head solidly.
The helmet blocked some of the noise, but she didn't know if it was an illusion—Huang Yaruo seemed to hear the house talking to her. As the house gradually broke down, she heard the house crying.
"Pain, I'm in so much pain, I'm in so much pain."
"Mama Mama—"
"Shut up!" Huang Yaruo covered the helmet tightly. She had listened for fifteen years; she didn't want to listen anymore.
I am not your mother!
Devil! You are a devil!
An earthquake inside the room. Loud noises accompanied by the house's weeping drilled into Huang Yaruo's ears relentlessly. It was so heart-wrenching, as if this wasn't the ruins of a house, but a child opening its mouth to wail. Huang Yaruo crouched beside Zhu Ning, eyes squeezed shut. Even now, she still reacted to the crying sounds; she had been clenching her teeth to stop herself from responding.
Zhu Ning, meanwhile, was fully focused on demolishing the home. She couldn't hear the crying, only the sound of steel collapsing.
The Hive was easier to control because The Hive was covered in full metal. Dismantling this house was more troublesome; only the skeleton was metal. With her absolute control, the steel twisted continuously, kneaded by her into lumps of scrap iron.
Inside the helmet, the area under her nose was a bit wet, but she didn't have time to wipe it at all.
The System's prompt sounded in her ear: [Please do not overuse Sanity.]
Zhu Ning pretended not to hear. If she didn't overuse it, she would die here today. Between dying in a house or damaging her Sanity, she would rather choose the latter.
[Sanity is dropping]
[Sanity is dropping]
[Dropped by 30%]
[Dropped by 40%]
[Dropped by 50%]
Thud. Zhu Ning withdrew her hand, stopping just in time at 50%.
She gasped for large breaths of air, nose bleeding continuously. The blood flowed down to her neck, but she couldn't even reach out to wipe it. Blood flowing freely made her look extremely wretched, but her current state was even more wretched.
In an instant, she couldn't hear or see. Clearly, after the GeneBoost enhancement, her five senses should far exceed ordinary people, but now she had lost all five senses.
Her vision went black in waves, as if everything was moving away from her.
If losing control of the body was the first level of horror, then the second level of horror was losing all five senses.
Zhu Ning wanted to support her stumbling body against the wall, but as soon as she reached out, she realized that wall had been kneaded away by herself. Zhu Ning couldn't find direction in the darkness, nor could she hear any sound.
Slap!
Someone supported her. The person's body was very thin and small, tortured by years of torment until only a handful of light bones remained.
For her, Zhu Ning's body was really too heavy, but she still supported Zhu Ning and didn't let her fall.
"Hey!" Zhu Ning heard a very faint voice. "What's wrong with you?"
Swoosh—
It seemed like water flowed from the left ear to the right ear, then returned from the right ear to the left ear. After the water flow passed, her ear canals became clear again.
"Hey? Hey!" Huang Yaruo was speaking.
Zhu Ning blinked, and her vision was slowly recovering. The silhouette of broken walls and ruins floated before her eyes. The entire house was dilapidated; they seemed to be standing in ruins.
Slime was right by Zhu Ning's feet. The dead Snail-Humans had turned into puddles of water; beneath her feet were chunks of rotten meat.
Contamination Spores were everywhere. Blood-red Contamination Spores enveloped this space like summer fireflies, more numerous and dense than the Contamination Spores last time.
Ding—
[Congratulations on completing the Random Mission: The House That Hunts People. Purification degree 100%. Sleep in the house: Completion 100%. Find the missing Huang Yaruo: Completion 100%. Successfully escape: Completion 100%]
[Calculating rewards...]
[Congratulations on obtaining Basic Rewards: Sanity restored to 100, Luck increased to 20]
[Congratulations on obtaining Purification Points Reward: 3000. Current Cumulative Purification Points: 3214]
[Congratulations on obtaining House Reward: 3D Defense Space]
[Reward Description: C-Level Contaminated Item. Can form a 2x2x2 3D Defense Space. You are the sole master of the space; all people and objects entering must have your permission. Duration: 30 minutes. Please note, using this item will consume 20 Health.]
[Congratulations on upgrading Basic Talent: Metal Manipulation. Can manipulate metal substances within two meters. Please note, excessive use of this talent will damage the brain.]
[Congratulations on obtaining Random Mission Reward: Blank Card]
[Reward Description: Can store any object into the card. Can only hold one item.]
[This mission line advances the Side Quest: Search for the Truth of Death. Key clues found. Search Progress 30%]
[Basic Talent Danger Sense triggered. 30-second advanced danger warning sent. Please pay attention to safety.]
Wait?
Zhu Ning was listening to the rewards when suddenly this sentence popped up out of nowhere. Danger Sense was here again.
Zhu Ning shoved Huang Yaruo violently, making her get as far away from the battlefield as possible.
Bang!
A bullet hit. Huang Yaruo was wearing the Demon Hunter's protective suit, which was bulletproof. She quickly ran behind the ruins.
Zhu Ning raised her head. She had just finished using Metal Manipulation, and although her brain wasn't fully recovered, at this critical juncture, this talent was still the most useful.
The bullet stopped abruptly one meter in front of Zhu Ning. Zhu Ning used Metal Manipulation to raise a defensive wall.
"Suspected ability user ahead." The hearing brought by the GeneBoost was taking effect; she heard people talking. "Repeat, suspected Metal-type ability user ahead."
Zhu Ning's vision came in waves of trance. The inside of her helmet was full of blood; everything she did was a reflex.
Sure enough, there was an ambush. This house was an experimental subject. Someone lay in ambush after Zhu Ning entered. Zhu Ning knew too much; they were waiting here to kill her.
Zhu Ning clearing the contaminated zone was equivalent to exposing herself to the killers. The challenge following close behind was assassination.
Twenty minutes ago, four fully armed killers had ambushed in the corridor. Like jackals hunting in the dark, they stared tightly at the Green Door.
They had just received news that a person wearing a Cleaner work uniform had entered Experimental Subject 777, suspected to be sent by Prometheus to purify the contaminated zone.
The higher-ups issued two orders. If she was swallowed by the Green Door, ending up like the Demon Hunter who entered before, then it was a false alarm, and they could withdraw smoothly.
If she purified the contaminated zone, they were to kill the intruder immediately. They were a mature team of killers, specializing in the business of murder.
After waiting for twenty minutes, changes began to occur behind the Green Door. A huge noise suddenly came from inside.
Crunch crunch—
It was as if someone had dismantled the house and chewed it up. After about three minutes, the house suddenly returned to calm.
With a bang, the dilapidated Green Door opened, revealing the broken walls and ruins behind it. Countless Contamination Spores were flying.
The worst-case scenario appeared: Experimental Subject 777 had been purified.
It was also the first time the killers saw the person behind the door. A woman wearing a pure black Cleaner work uniform and a helmet stood behind the ruins.
She seemed a bit physically exhausted, and Huang Yaruo beside her was supporting her. Was she the intruder?
Without time to think much, their cameras fully activated. The scene had already been synchronized out, and orders from the superior came through the earpiece.
"Kill her."
"Kill her while you can."
Normal people would experience a moment of trance just after purifying a contaminated zone. This was the moment they were most relaxed and least vigilant, and also the best time for hunting.
With a bang—
The killers' instincts were faster; they opened fire.
The order from above was to kill on the spot and leave no survivors, so they didn't intend to leave any room. The bullets were all aimed at the opponent's forehead.
But the bullets didn't hit Zhu Ning's body; instead, they stopped one meter in front of her.
An invisible barrier rose in front of Zhu Ning. Within a one-meter range, the bullets were like playthings in her palm.
Ability user?
Wasn't she wearing a Cleaner's work uniform? How could she be an ability user?
The killers immediately sensed something was wrong. Miscalculation. If they had known the target was an ability user, they should have sent an ability user over.
"Target suspected to be Metal-type ability user," he communicated with his peers.
"Switch to Air Rounds."
Hunting a person usually only took three minutes, especially hunting an ability user. If they didn't succeed within three minutes, it meant the mission would likely fail. Now, more than one minute had passed.
With a brain that wasn't working very well, Zhu Ning struggled to think about the current situation.
The House That Hunts People was originally embedded on the thirteenth floor of a normal residential building in the district. After the house was crushed, it turned into a bizarre hollow space. The space inside was filled with blood-red Contamination Spores, and the ambushers were right outside the space.
The Contamination Spores were still floating. This was a dense residential area; once the Contamination Spores spilled out, the entire district would turn into a contaminated zone, and everyone would become Contaminants.
Zhu Ning should be glad her brain was still clear. She had to deal with the enemies first. Zhu Ning sorted the important events in an instant.
The people who came were very professional, equipped with a sniper in the building opposite.
Just now, a bullet came from the rooftop of the opposite building. Zhu Ning's current vision could see a very faint metallic glint behind the rooftop. Zhu Ning had been a sniper; as a peer, she could quickly find the enemy's approximate location.
She knew a common sense: to deal with a team, solve their eyes first—the sniper.
Zhu Ning's Metal Manipulation range was only two meters. The opponent was on the rooftop, beyond the distance. She couldn't use this talent to kill the person opposite. She clicked on the System panel.
System: [Use Item: Pigman's Guillotine?]
Zhu Ning: "Use."
The sniper held his breath hiding on the rooftop of the opposite building. Just after communicating with his companions, they discovered Zhu Ning could control metal and immediately judged Zhu Ning was a Metal-type ability user.
He put away the traditional bullets and was about to switch to Air Rounds.
That man was a well-trained sniper. Making the judgment plus reloading took only thirty seconds, but these thirty seconds gave Zhu Ning an opportunity.
He had just changed his weapon and hadn't had time to raise the gun when he suddenly felt a flash before his eyes. The sniper's pupils contracted abruptly. A guillotine appeared out of thin air within the scope, glinting with cold light, the blade getting larger and larger.
Zhu Ning could control metal—his first reaction was this. How could it be so far?
The sniper took the opportunity to try and dodge. His running speed was fast, but no matter how he dodged, the guillotine followed like a shadow like a snake. This was absolutely not a Metal-type ability in the traditional sense. Why could it track automatically?
What ability was this? Was it a Contaminated Item?
Snip. The guillotine chopped down from top to bottom. A blood line appeared in the center of his body. The guillotine forcibly split him in two. While he was still pondering, the two halves of his body automatically scattered to the sides. One hundred percent accuracy.
[Item Pigman's Guillotine used. Entering cooldown. Next use in 24 hours.]
Having dealt with one sniper, there were four enemies left. In the instant Zhu Ning used the Pigman's Guillotine, another killer had already finished changing guns.
Bang!
An Air Round was fired. The material was wrapped in air, containing no metal. Zhu Ning couldn't control it.
[Use Putrid Fish Head's acceleration function? Will consume 3 Health points?]
Zhu Ning: "Use."
Killer Number Two was hiding in the shadows of the stairwell. Just as he fired, when the bullet was only one meter away from Zhu Ning, she suddenly moved. Her whole person suddenly turned into an afterimage. The movement speed was too fast, making the trajectory unclear. In the blink of an eye, she was already behind Killer Number Two. It was too late.
Bang!
This time it was Zhu Ning's turn to shoot.
Author's Note: 7 PM tonight, there will be a second update for reaching 500 nutrient solution~
sick moves
ReplyDelete