Chapter 28-I Clean Up Garbage in a Wasteland World
Chapter 28 The House That Hunts People-1
Zhu Ning opened the folder. She had to admit, Liu Niannian really knew her stuff. This was an internal document, likely a proposal used to attract investment, circulated exclusively among internal shareholders.
Eternal Pharma Optimum Body Plan Proposal
Optimum Body Plan? Was this the official name for the experiment the hotpot restaurant owner participated in?
Ding—
At the exact moment Zhu Ning opened the folder, a system notification appeared:
[Long-term Side Quest: Finding the Truth of Death. Key clue found. Search Progress: 30%]
The system task progress bar moved, proving this was indeed a key clue regarding the truth of her own death.
Zhu Ning read the proposal carefully. After the so-called radiation event, not long after humanity built the high walls to resist external pollution, the Federation implemented the Human Classification Program internally.
Through the Great Genetic Screening, humanity was divided into five classes. This seemingly unequal regulation guaranteed the Federation's overall interests to a certain extent, effectively screening for superior humans and allowing the elites at the top of the pyramid to lead humanity out of its predicament.
But at the same time, this meant the Federation had officially abandoned fifth-class citizens. Most fifth-class citizens were forced to go to the District 103 landfill to await scrapping.
Once classified as a fifth-class citizen, it was almost equivalent to a death sentence. One could even query the official system to see how many years of life they had left.
Some people gave up on themselves and began to squander their lives. During that time, the Federation's crime rate soared. For a long period, fifth-class citizens were synonymous with criminals. In fact, this prejudice still exists today, which is why Zhu Ning, as a defective, attracted so much attention at the Sanitation Center.
But there were also those unwilling to accept their fate who actively sought to save themselves. This created a business opportunity, and Eternal Pharma saw it.
They took advantage of the situation to push the "Optimum Body Plan," launching an experimental project targeting defectives. Amazingly, this has been going on for nearly eighty years.
This experiment was almost as old as the Federation itself, deeply rooted in the entire Federation system. Over the past seventy-plus years, the "Optimum Body Plan" had grown larger and increasingly high-profile.
From initial underground experiments, it slowly moved to semi-public recruitment of test subjects. More and more defectives voluntarily participated in the "Optimum Body Plan."
There wasn't much information in the document; the rest was just sales talk for attracting investment, claiming it was a high-quality project with annual profits of such-and-such amount and a bright future.
The last page of the project proposal also featured a slogan: "Eternal Pharma, changing your genes, creating your future."
That was it.
There were no case studies displayed. Zhu Ning couldn't even deduce what stage the "Optimum Body Plan" had reached now.
Zhu Ning had obtained the keywords and searched them using her sub-brain. There was no news about the Optimum Body Plan on the network; presumably, posts were deleted as soon as they were published.
Zhu Ning had to ask Liu Niannian: "How are the test subjects recruited?"
Liu Niannian replied instantly: "As far as I know, it's not completely public. Defectives will purchase specific drugs to extend their lifespan, or register when injecting GeneBoost. Eternal Pharma sends recruitment messages specifically to these groups."
Very precise marketing. It targeted only defectives. Once flagged by big data, they became the target demographic.
It was like the recruitment methods of some cults; they couldn't recruit openly on public platforms and had to use point-to-point offline strategies.
And they selected the people with the most intent. Many defectives were either broke or very "zen" about it, just waiting to die.
Those willing to inject GeneBoost and buy medicine proved they had a strong will to survive.
Receiving an experiment recruitment plan from a large pharmaceutical company at such a time—a company with the most advanced technology, and offering it for free—most people would grasp at this final life-saving straw.
Unexpectedly, the life-saving straw turned out to be just that—a flimsy straw. The defectives turned into contaminants instead. No, perhaps some successful defectives had turned into ability users.
Where did the successful test subjects go? For example, the hotpot restaurant owner—if he hadn't turned into a contaminant after participating in the experiment, but instead became an ability user who retained his reason?
He certainly wouldn't continue running a hotpot restaurant. He would choose a safer place. Moving from fifth-class citizens to sixth-class, what department could absorb them?
Sixth-class citizens, aside from entering some financial clans, where else could they go?
The Sanitation Center.
Zhu Ning's pupils suddenly contracted. The place ability users chose was very likely the Sanitation Center. In this department, ability users could use their abilities openly, and there was the Federation's official laboratory Medical Department to provide services for them.
If the successful test subjects still maintained myriad links with Eternal Pharma, did their entry into the Sanitation Center count as a kind of "infiltration"?
Humanity had built high walls to resist the outside, but they couldn't resist internal corruption.
Eternal Pharma had been doing this for so long. Did the Federation know? Did the Sanitation Center know?
Wait, Zhu Ning suddenly had a thought.
Could this be the reason Prometheus published the "dead posts"? Part of the Sanitation Center's forces had been transferred underground. Was this Prometheus's self-rescue against the "Optimum Body Plan"?
To avoid the Sanitation Center being completely infiltrated?
Zhu Ning felt a creeping horror at this guess. How many people in the Sanitation Center belonged to Eternal Pharma? How many higher-ups? Was Fang Ying one of them? Was the Minister of the Cleanup Department?
What did Eternal Pharma want to do?
If so, had her original host already participated in the "Optimum Body Plan"?
It didn't make sense. She lacked a lot of core information, and there was no evidence, only Zhu Ning's speculation based on a single document.
Fang Ying said that Sanitation Center employees had all been screened by Prometheus. Did he know which people were problematic?
Zhu Ning asked: "No experimental data?"
Liu Niannian: "I can't access it."
She was just a rich daughter of a financial clan idling her days away. She had proposed visiting the laboratory, and Eternal Pharma actually agreed, but the things she saw were just tricks to fool outsiders. Liu Niannian couldn't access the core data at all.
Makes sense. If core data were that easy to access, Eternal Pharma would have perished long ago. If Zhu Ning wanted access, she could sign up to enter the "Optimum Body Plan" directly.
But she hadn't found the path yet.
Zhu Ning: "Thanks."
Liu Niannian's family definitely had business dealings with Eternal Pharma. The things a spoiled young lady like Liu Niannian could access must be known with the tacit consent of both parties.
This meant this information was actually just the tip of the iceberg for Eternal Pharma. It seemed Liu Niannian could only access this much; she would have to dig for the rest herself.
Liu Niannian: "When are we going on a mission?"
Zhu Ning: "..."
Maybe because Zhu Ning had never been a second-generation rich kid, she completely failed to understand where Liu Niannian's enthusiasm came from.
Behind the screen, Liu Niannian looked excited. After returning home, she had asked other ability users. They guessed that Zhu Ning's ability direction might be the mental type, similar to mental suggestion or manipulation.
Although ability users were classified as sixth-class citizens, they were definitely talents of the Federation. Let alone the Federation, every major financial clan was actively recruiting them. But Zhu Ning didn't seem to belong to any organization. She might be undercover in the Sanitation Center to uncover some earth-shattering secret. She didn't even care much about money and had some lofty ideals.
It sounded so exciting.
Liu Niannian's curiosity was stirring. Her family had always allowed her to mess around as long as she didn't harm the family's interests. Liu Niannian gave Zhu Ning a harmless document; if she could gain her trust, it would be a very profitable deal.
Zhu Ning asked: "Why help me?"
Liu Niannian said sincerely: "I feel like I've found my direction in life. I want to sweep trash like you in the future."
Zhu Ning, who had inexplicably become an idol: "?"
Liu Niannian: "Call me if you need a mission."
Zhu Ning could feel Liu Niannian selling herself hard even through the screen.
Zhu Ning maintained her boss persona: "Wait for my notification."
Zhu Ning turned off her sub-brain. This matter was much more complicated than she thought, and she hadn't sorted out a clear train of thought yet.
Zhu Ning was originally changing clothes in the locker room, using the locker door to block her view while reading the file. After turning off her sub-brain, she subconsciously wanted to close the locker door. Suddenly, her whole body went stiff.
Without warning, she met a pair of pitch-black eyes. The other party was staring at her heavily, unknown for how long.
"Ca... Captain?" Zhu Ning snapped back to reality.
Xu Meng: "What are you looking at? You were so engrossed you didn't answer when I called you just now."
Xu Meng's locker was right next to Zhu Ning's. She was packing some personal items, asking while she packed, as if it had been Zhu Ning's illusion just now.
Xu Meng's movements were extremely natural. Zhu Ning didn't know if she was biased, but she felt that every move Xu Meng made radiated weirdness.
Ever since reading the Optimum Body Plan proposal, she felt the Sanitation Center wasn't safe.
...
After saying goodbye to Xu Meng, Zhu Ning returned to The Hive. She faced a crumpled wall in deep thought.
Zhu Ning hung a whiteboard on the crumpled wall and wrote down separately: Eternal Pharma, Sanitation Center, Prometheus.
Under Eternal Pharma, she wrote: Optimum Body Plan.
Under Prometheus, she wrote: Dead Post.
She put a question mark under Sanitation Center.
What kind of existence were these three forces? A three-way balance? And what role did she play?
Following the vine to get the melon, she never expected to find a massive pharmaceutical enterprise. This Eternal Pharma was likely the culprit that caused Zhu Ning's death.
She had fallen into a trap.
The System and Prometheus together had led Zhu Ning into danger. She was already in the game; getting out would be difficult. Her original body had died once, and it was likely she would die again.
The people who killed her were either the Sanitation Center or Eternal Pharma—both behemoths Zhu Ning couldn't afford to provoke.
Only now did she realize how cute the zombies she encountered in her previous life were. Simple, cute, brainless. Eliminating them only required a headshot, and she could even "chat" with zombies when bored.
Zhu Ning mulled it over. The situation wasn't clear, yet it was very clear. If she didn't want to be assassinated again, she had to improve her strength. To improve her strength quickly, she had to keep doing missions. She couldn't slack off at all.
And the System and Prometheus seemed to be guiding Zhu Ning. The missions weren't random; their correlation with Eternal Pharma was very high. What was the relationship between the System and Prometheus?
If Zhu Ning had been pushed along before, this time she was choosing actively.
The System was bound anyway, Prometheus had already set its sights on her, and Eternal Pharma might be stirring in the background. Attacking proactively at this time might offer a slim chance of survival.
Hopefully, this mission would trigger the Mutation Interface.
At midnight, Zhu Ning opened the Sanitation Center forum. The screen before her eyes flickered, and a gray post appeared on the originally gaudy forum.
The title was Help! A house is hunting me!
A house? How can a house hunt people?
The "dead post" this time was in video format. Zhu Ning clicked play. A woman with a pale face and haggard appearance appeared in the video. She looked to be thirty or forty, but her mental state was extremely poor.
Her background was a bedroom; a bed was right behind her.
"I'm sorry, I don't know who to talk to, and I don't know what to do. I decided to post my experience. Please help me, everyone."
The woman seemed to haven't slept well for days. She rubbed her face before continuing to face the camera: "My name is Huang Yaruo. I'm thirty-five this year. I've encountered a supernatural event."
A supernatural event?
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