Chapter 42-I Clean Up Garbage in a Wasteland World
Chapter 42
Anonymous User: [Want to make a trade? Someone wants to kill you. I can help you.]
Zhu Ning didn't reply to this message immediately. How did he know someone wanted to kill her?
Was it someone from Eternal Pharma? Or an undercover agent placed by the Sanitation Center in Eternal Pharma?
Zhu Ning suddenly glanced at the entryway.
A complete set of Cleaner uniform hung there, looking like a pure black human-shaped shadow at this moment, staring at Zhu Ning expressionlessly all the while.
It was almost as if there was another person in the house.
She thought of a problem. She was ambushed as soon as she walked out of Experimental Subject 777. Someone must have been watching the Cozy Little House all along.
But thanks to the characteristics of Experimental Subject 777, no one was confident they could come out alive after entering.
So Experimental Subject 777 had been a "free agent" for many years, binding owners in the city and then devouring them.
They were only alerted after Zhu Ning went in. They made a decision immediately at that time: they must ensure her death.
But they underestimated Zhu Ning's strength. None of the killers sent were Ability Users.
If they had sent an Ability User to wait outside Experimental Subject 777 at that time, Zhu Ning might already be a dead person now.
The second batch of assassins coming again would definitely not be so simple. For example, among their most basic choices, they would absolutely not use metal bullets.
Zhu Ning guessed the second batch of assassins might be Ability Users, with abilities specifically countering her.
The situation that day was too complex. Zhu Ning was a bit dazed from overusing her talent, and the counter-killing relied on instinct. But now that technology was advanced, technology would help her recall things she didn't remember clearly.
Unlike official missions, no one took her helmet when she walked out from inside the contaminated zone. The helmet Prometheus gave her recorded the entire process after coming out of Experimental Subject 777.
Zhu Ning ignored the anonymous user, holding the black helmet as if holding a human head.
She exported the video from the helmet.
The video wasn't long. Watching the details of that time carefully this time, Zhu Ning crushed the house with Metal Manipulation, and almost at the same time, the first bullet had already arrived.
She used her skills to kill people after walking out of the experimental subject, and the killers at the time also carried cameras.
That meant her use of system items and use of talent had been recorded. Eternal Pharma had it too.
A mature research institute might have already analyzed Zhu Ning's abilities specifically. She didn't know how her use of system abilities would be interpreted by scientists in this world. And she was still uncertain—was the existence of the System reasonable? Were there others like her?
The video recorded by the helmet was more direct. During the entire process, Zhu Ning used the Metal Manipulation talent, the Putrid Fish Head item, and the Pigman's Guillotine item.
Three in total.
When using the Metal Manipulation talent, she hadn't gotten used to the control distance upgrading to two meters yet, so the evidence left was only one meter.
Because she knew there was a distance limit, she wasn't used to using Metal Manipulation to kill; she only used it for defense. Other items and talents were not shown in the video.
Information gap. Zhu Ning didn't know much about Eternal Pharma, and Eternal Pharma's understanding of her was equally incomplete. These were all advantages.
If she was in a competition with Eternal Pharma, any tiny detail could become the advantage that put her ahead of the opponent, and also the key to whether she could survive in the end.
To be honest, facing such a massive organization, Zhu Ning hardly had the confidence to retreat unscathed.
She was a bit weak alone.
She had to be as careful as possible in the future and not use her talent in public areas.
Whether it was shooting or combat, they belonged to the category of ordinary human abilities, but exposing her talent would easily make her a target.
Half an hour later, Zhu Ning reopened the forum. Zhu Ning hadn't replied to the message, and the anonymous user hadn't sent a new message either.
Zhu Ning considered her wording carefully, then slowly typed a line of text.
[You're not the only one asking me.]
To put it bluntly, their current situation was a bit like trading on a secondhand platform. Except before, what was sold were used rice cookers; this time it was a secret wristband. Zhu Ning was the seller, the anonymous user was the buyer, and the seller's interest was to raise the price as much as possible.
Zhu Ning planned to extort the other side. Inferring from common sense, if she really brought out the wristband, there wouldn't be only one person who wanted it.
Sure enough, the other side didn't suspect. Asked: [How many?]
Cosmic Cutie: [Three.]
She fabricated two competitors.
Cosmic Cutie: [I just talked to the two of them.]
Anonymous User: [Trust me, this isn't something an ordinary Demon Hunter can handle.]
The subtext was that choosing him was best. It seemed he believed it.
Cosmic Cutie: [They said that too.]
Anonymous User: [It's not safe for the item to be with you, and it's not safe for you either.]
This person knew the importance of the wristband.
Cosmic Cutie: [How do you know someone wants to kill me?]
If he already knew someone wanted to kill Zhu Ning, this person must be very close to the truth. He definitely understood Eternal Pharma's moves.
Anonymous User: [Secret.]
It must be for fear of exposing his real identity. Once he answered this question, Zhu Ning would immediately know his real-life identity. Separated by a network, Zhu Ning couldn't ask for more information.
Cosmic Cutie: [How do I trust you?]
Anonymous User: [How do you want me to prove it?]
Cosmic Cutie: [Let me see your ID.]
If they were to cooperate, this wasn't an excessive request, because Zhu Ning wasn't in anonymous status here. Cooperating with an anonymous person felt very insecure.
Even displaying the forum ID could allow her to find traces. This time the anonymous user pondered for a long time. After about five minutes, Zhu Ning's Employee Wristband dinged.
She received a new message.
Lynx: [Hello, I am Lynx.]
Lynx.
Zhu Ning's eyelid twitched. That Demon Hunter who soloed an S-Level contaminated zone? It was really him; his ID suffix was LV11.
Forum IDs could not be duplicated. It was the genuine person.
Clicking on the homepage, she could see the list of his past accepted missions. The vast majority of missions he accepted were A-Level and above, and he always worked alone, entering the contaminated zone alone and then retreating unscathed.
For the subsequent cleanup, he "outsourced" it to Cleaner teams. Many people were willing to work with him; it was tantamount to picking up scraps behind someone. Free advantages shouldn't be wasted.
She had to say, the other party revealing his ID was quite intimidating.
Lynx was very strong. Zhu Ning hadn't done an S-Level mission, but just by imagination, she knew S-Level contaminated zones were more dangerous.
Partnering with a powerful person was of course a good thing, but not knowing the other party's alignment was a bad thing.
Lynx was now Schrödinger's cat; Zhu Ning wasn't sure if he belonged to the Sanitation Center or Eternal Pharma.
Saying this was a bit arbitrary, because both sides might not be good people. The question should be, was Lynx here to help her or to trick her?
When you faced a dangerous knife but didn't have the strength yourself, it would be very difficult to control.
Lynx's level was too high, which made people afraid instead.
Zhu Ning took a deep breath and typed a line: [How do we trade?]
Having reached this point, she didn't have the ability to be picky about her partner.
...
Inside a certain dilapidated rental apartment.
This house had been in disrepair for years. The wallpaper was yellowing, the bathroom dripped water drip drip. It was a very small one-bedroom apartment. The furniture was very dilapidated. It was clearly dark, but the lights weren't on in the room, making it look dim and yellow. A man sat leaning against the wall.
The faint fluorescence from the light screen hit his face, illuminating his features. The lower half of his face was covered by a pure black metal mask. The metal mask had mechanical patterns on it, cold and icy, looking like a sharp mouth had been drawn.
His bangs covered his forehead, revealing only a pair of beautiful eyes and a section of a high nose bridge. He was looking down, having been camping on the forum waiting for Cosmic Cutie's message.
Three people went to ask her for the wristband?
Lynx had a rough list in his mind. The people who wanted Cheng Mofei's wristband were just those few.
He had never been forced to wait this long. After a while, Cosmic Cutie sent a message.
[How do we trade?]
Before he could reply, the other side sent another sentence.
Lynx stopped typing. This transaction was a bit difficult.
...
Twenty minutes had passed since the transaction with the anonymous user.
Zhu Ning turned on the dead post notification. If there was any news, her wristband would pop up immediately, making it convenient for her to contact Lynx anytime, anywhere. They were now in a cooperative state.
Zhu Ning turned off the wristband, not quite sure if her choice counted as correct.
She let out a long breath, got out of bed, and drank a bottle of Sanity Healer.
While holding the Sanity Healer in her mouth, she opened the Sub-Brain to send a message to Garbo.
She didn't know if Garbo had filtered out the video from the Junkyard. She had been multitasking, and hadn't asked about the Junkyard progress. Garbo had said before it would take at least a month or two.
Garbo answered with a sentence that revealed warmth within the mechanics: [No, oh.]
Finding a video in the Junkyard was looking for a needle in a haystack. Zhu Ning hadn't held much hope all along.
She originally wanted to rush his progress, tell him to hurry up, but after thinking about it, she sent a sentence: [I'm adding money.]
She had money now, and confidence.
Garbo: "..."
Zhu Ning: [Adding another ten thousand NewCred.]
Garbo: [Okay Ning Bao, I'll expedite it for you.]
Zhu Ning: "..."
Compared to Lynx just now, this little robot was a bit too easy to handle.
After typing to Garbo, Zhu Ning got out of bed to change clothes.
She looked at the scar on her back shoulder in the mirror. It was scratched a bit red. The scar left in the hotpot restaurant before was always itching inexplicably.
Was she about to turn into a contaminant?
Because she had seen the whole process of Ding Chaojie's mutation up close, she was a bit worried she would suddenly mutate. She wouldn't turn into a pig head, would she?
Compared to this messy situation, turning into a contaminant actually seemed not so bad. Maybe she could awaken her own ability.
Zhu Ning changed into a loose black hoodie, then put on a black baseball cap to cover her face.
She was very busy today. She had to go to a regular event held by the Eternal Dream Foundation. This was the only clue she got from Huang Yaruo.
Before leaving, Zhu Ning took Cheng Mofei's wristband. It was no longer safe to leave this thing at home, or rather, she wasn't safe anywhere now.
After experiencing all this, she could be sure of one thing. The System said the mission to find the truth of her own death would result in death if failed—this matter was absolutely real.
Why did she faintly feel that she was right on the edge of death?
Comments
Post a Comment