Chapter 56-I Clean Up Garbage in a Wasteland World

Chapter 56 The Bizarre Aquarium-13

The super-large jellyfish was sinking heavily. The tentacles of the mechanical jellyfish possessed a heavy sense of technology, making it look very much like a submarine.

The Gray Eagle Team had exchanged intelligence with Zhu Ning. They hadn't found Lin Xiaofeng's body in the jellyfish pavilion. If there really was a problem with Lin Xiaofeng, and according to the Shepherd Fish theory—that Shepherd Fish could swim freely among the jellyfish's tentacles—then Lin Xiaofeng should be inside the super-large jellyfish's body.

But Zhu Ning couldn't see her. She had likely already become a Transparent Person.

Time was tight. The helmet display showed that Zhu Ning had been in the water for six minutes. Outside, the Gray Eagle Team and Chu Ling's group were still fighting.

Facing this situation, one solution best suited for Zhu Ning's ability was to enter the interior of the super-large jellyfish. This way, the distance between her and the jellyfish would be negative, allowing her to use the absolute control of the Metal Manipulation Talent.

But Zhu Ning didn't choose this method. It wasn't because she was afraid the Cleaning Center people would see, but because she felt it might not be useful.

This Pollution Zone was very strange. It was completely different from the old Pollution Zones Zhu Ning had encountered. It seemed like an artificially created Pollution Zone.

Fresh. A Pollution Zone born within the last hour.

Zhu Ning had just approached the Eternal Bio-Pharmaceutical Foundation and hadn't found anything valuable yet when the Mechanical Aquarium incident happened.

Suppose the curator did all this. How did Bao Ruiming do it?

She scanned the area. All the tourists had already turned into densely packed jellyfish-humans. The head tentacles of the jellyfish-human closest to Zhu Ning were wriggling. From the appearance, it was impossible to distinguish if Lin Xiaofeng's parents were inside.

While Zhu Ning was still pondering, she suddenly realized a problem. These jellyfish-humans seemed... a bit closer to her.

An illusion? Zhu Ning silently took a step back.

This time it was more obvious. The jellyfish-humans moved silently, pressing in densely. Just advancing half a meter made one's hair stand on end.

This wasn't the deep sea. As an exhibition hall, there was glass behind it.

What's wrong? Are they trying to crush me?

Zhu Ning thought, We are already very close to the truth. She found part of the truth in the curator's office; the real truth must be underwater.

Zhu Ning ignored the surrounding mechanical jellyfish. With the Metal Manipulation Talent, she could ensure these things stayed two meters away from her. She swam near the glass wall, already touching the edge.

Outside this glass wall, there were no tourists, only pitch darkness, as if after the dust settled, there was finally no one left to watch.

Zhu Ning's hand pressed against the glass wall, just like Lin Xiaofeng had pressed her hand against the glass wall back then. Only back then, Lin Xiaofeng was outside, and Zhu Ning was inside. She was experiencing Lin Xiaofeng's feelings.

Zhu Ning faced the glass wall. Suddenly, she felt her right shoulder sink.

A hand was resting on her. Logically, one's shadow could be seen on the glass wall, but according to the shadow, there was no one behind her at all. It was a Transparent Person coming.

Then came a second hand. Two hands wrapped around, hugging her neck. Zhu Ning remained motionless because next, legs wrapped around her too.

She was hugged from behind. Someone had their legs wrapped around her waist and two arms around her neck.

She was carrying a Transparent Person on her back. The water rippled, the transparent glass wall reflected light, and the helmet's panel system had light refraction.

Zhu Ning finally saw a human face. A blurry human face revealed its outline in the water; her chin was resting on Zhu Ning's shoulder.

"Sister—" A little girl's voice.

Is she calling me?

The nearby jellyfish-humans were swimming. Their tentacles seemed excited, twitching faster and faster.

The super-large mechanical jellyfish lowered its tentacles from above. One tentacle was one and a half meters wide, currently wriggling constantly behind Zhu Ning.

The tentacles of over a thousand jellyfish-humans were also twitching slightly, like an artificially created spectacle.

Jellyfish had their own symbiotic partners. The Shepherd Fish was responsible for attracting prey, and the jellyfish was responsible for hunting. Now that Zhu Ning was caught by the Transparent Person, the jellyfish behind were preparing to hunt.

Zhu Ning was considered bold, but even she couldn't help but feel some fear at this moment. This fear was completely different from before.

Seabed, giant objects, tentacles. Like monsters in a Cthulhu world. Once swept away, a person would have no power to fight back. All struggles would be futile. This was simply something from another dimension.

[Sanity is dropping] [Dropped by 5%] [Dropped by 10%] [Dropped by 15%]

Since Zhu Ning gained more experience entering Pollution Zones, she usually lost less and less Sanity each time. Except for the last time when she recklessly overused her Metal Manipulation Talent, she hadn't lost this much Sanity in a long time—and this was while the opponent hadn't done anything yet.

The jellyfish-humans simply revealed themselves. Just by showing their faces in front of Zhu Ning, a massive panic came crashing down, making one feel suffocated.

The jellyfish tentacles spewed out like a mass of ink. Zhu Ning felt the hands on her neck tightening. Behind her, two calves clamped tightly around Zhu Ning's waist. The force used was too great, like iron pincers trying to snap Zhu Ning in half at the waist.

What was terrifying was that seeing this scene, Zhu Ning remained motionless. It wasn't that she didn't want to move, but a voice deep in her heart kept shouting: It's useless.

Facing such a behemoth, the greatest reaction of humans was fear—fear that they had peered upon such a mysterious creature.

[Body blood oxygen level is dropping] [Heart rate is increasing] [Cleaner Zhu Ning, please escape immediately]

Prometheus's indifferent voice came, like a heartless killer whispering close to her ear.

Zhu Ning felt a bit suffocated. Prometheus's male voice and the system's mechanical female voice mixed together, making it impossible for her to distinguish who was reminding her.

A sharp pain struck her brain. There was a needle lying in ambush in her brain, and it suddenly pricked her just now.

[Please... crackle immediately... crackle... escape]

What was the cause of the Pollution Zone's formation? Zhu Ning knew it was Lin Xiaofeng, but what was the initial source of this logic?

The Fish-Man incident was because the Fish-Man was waiting for the last bus. He couldn't wait for it no matter what, muttering about the last bus and thinking he had missed it.

Wang Ming's case was because he killed his boss and couldn't face the fact that he killed someone, leading to a mental breakdown.

Now there is a popular theory that after the radiation, everyone is a potential pollutant.

This world has long gone crazy. The world has become a giant mental hospital; the only difference is who goes crazy first.

As long as a person's mental state is unstable, they are prone to becoming a pollutant. How did the curator know that Lin Xiaofeng would definitely have a mental breakdown today?

Zhu Ning reached out with both hands, tightly grabbing the arms wrapped around her neck. The Transparent People's ability was immense strength; once locked tight, it was hard for anyone to shake them.

Zhu Ning used all her strength with both hands. Her injured right arm couldn't withstand such high-intensity force and sent a wave of severe pain. The pain made her lucid.

Zhu Ning pulled dead hard on the arms around her neck, finally gaining a moment of respite. The hand pressing on her throat lifted slightly by a millimeter.

This millimeter gave her space to breathe. Zhu Ning blurted out, "Lin Xiaofeng!"

The Transparent Person on her back froze for a moment.

"Are you resigned to this?"

Zhu Ning's second sentence was not a plea for mercy, nor was it an inquiry into Lin Xiaofeng's past. She asked: Are you resigned?

Lin Xiaofeng was stunned. Zhu Ning forcibly pulled her arm away by about two centimeters, yet the other party didn't react much.

A ten-year-old girl, raised by her parents as a money-making vase since childhood. Her mind was actually very simple and easy to deceive.

Zhu Ning gasped deeply. The tentacles behind her were still wriggling. She didn't dare look at that mass of things, staring at the reflection on the glass wall where there was only a blurry outline.

Zhu Ning: "Are you willing to spend the rest of your life with these things?"

For the first ten years, she couldn't decide her own appearance, forced to reveal an innocent and harmless smile.

A little girl only ten years old, trapped in the depths of the aquarium forever, spending the rest of her life with mechanical jellyfish and living together with thousands of jellyfish-humans?

The movement of the tentacles behind slowed down. They were clearly right behind Zhu Ning, but now they seemed hesitant, forming a chaotic mass behind her.

Zhu Ning took a breath: "You knew Bao Ruiming very early on, didn't you?"

The Mechanical Jellyfish Pavilion was a famous viral spot, so popular that tourists had to snatch tickets at midnight and could only get bookings for three months later. That was why Lin Xiaofeng's father would seize every opportunity to come and take photos; missing this time meant no chance.

Zhu Ning: "Did he give you the tickets?"

Bao Ruiming needed all this to happen at the right time. Lin Xiaofeng had to enter the Mechanical Jellyfish Pavilion within the specified time. He might have promised Lin Xiaofeng that she would definitely become famous this time.

Lin Xiaofeng lived her whole life, from birth, for only one purpose: to realize her parents' hopes.

She numbly accepted five gene potion injections, but her account showed no improvement. Every piece of content posted was drowned in the torrent of information.

Netizens would look for the next hot topic, chasing the next bizarre thing. No one stayed long on Lin Xiaofeng's account.

She lived her whole life for this one thing, yet could never meet expectations.

That day, Bao Ruiming followed her. Lin Xiaofeng looked at his social account homepage; he was the curator of the Mechanical Aquarium.

Curator. There had never been a figure of this level among her followers.

Bao Ruiming said he was a fan of baby Xiaofeng. Their Mechanical Jellyfish Pavilion needed a spokesperson. Lin Xiaofeng's simple and harmless image fit perfectly with the mechanical jellyfish. He hoped to plan a marketing campaign together with Lin Xiaofeng.

Bao Ruiming promised her that she would possess a wondrous spectacle, becoming the center of attention, the sole protagonist.

He did it.

When Lin Xiaofeng appeared in the Mechanical Jellyfish Pavilion and pressed her palm against it, she indeed attracted thousands of jellyfish.

The mechanical jellyfish seemed to come to pay homage. Lin Xiaofeng could hear the sounds of countless camera shutters and flashes going off constantly.

People around were exclaiming. Positive adjectives like heartwarming, healing, and beautiful appeared in the tourists' mouths.

Father was very excited. If what happened later hadn't occurred, she should have trended on social media just as her father expected. By then, the entire Federation would see the news: the spectacle of mechanical jellyfish and the little girl.

But an accident happened later. Something else suddenly appeared in the water. A transparent human face appeared behind the glass wall. The Transparent Person pushed hard, the glass wall collapsed, and then everyone in the Mechanical Jellyfish Pavilion was submerged.

She still remembered that when the accident happened, her mother Su Qingqing's first reaction was to pick her up and leave.

Held by her mother, Lin Xiaofeng stared blankly at everything.

Although Su Qingqing was weak and dared not disobey her husband's will, she was the only person who cared about Lin Xiaofeng.

Su Qingqing would care if Lin Xiaofeng was full, if she would be happy today. Before going to bed at night, she would walk into her bedroom and chat with her in an embrace for an hour.

She could recall Su Qingqing's soft touch, gentle voice, and the faint scent of hair conditioner on her.

Her mother was a Housekeeping Android. In this world where people were objectified to the extreme, Su Qingqing was specially manufactured as a "mistress of the house" image from the traditional old world, responsible for housework and raising children. Her gene editing's underlying logic was obedience.

Obeying the master, serving the family, taking care of children—this was her genetic code. She didn't even have a choice from the moment she was manufactured.

From the moment of birth, she knew she was to become a wife and mother. She had never considered that there were other ways out.

Do people outside really know what a horror story is? A horror story isn't about ghosts existing in the world; it's about living with a person who is scarier than a ghost.

Lin Tianqi was moody. Although he never hit anyone and looked polite, he participated in Lin Xiaofeng's account planning and was responsible for Lin Xiaofeng's studies. He paid close attention to his daughter, always saying he was thinking of her.

Lin Tianqi would encourage her under Lin Xiaofeng's account, praising her as the cutest daughter. To outsiders, he was even a good husband and father.

"You should be content. You're lucky to marry him. What are you dissatisfied with? Good men like him are rare," someone once told Su Qingqing.

But his oppressive air permeated every moment. He always sat on the sofa with a long face, making Lin Xiaofeng and Su Qingqing come over at set times to reflect on their mistakes.

"Were you wrong?"

"Where did you go wrong?"

"Reflect properly on why the account isn't taking off."

Lin Xiaofeng and Su Qingqing were in this state anytime and anywhere. The first thing they did upon opening their eyes was reflect: What did I do wrong again?

They were afraid of any of Lin Tianqi's actions—a slight cough, a sudden sigh. This was the real horror story.

But under Father's high-pressure "rule," Mother rarely gave her something akin to "love."

Many people discuss: Do androids have love? Do they have human emotions? Or did the Creator bestow upon them the ability to "love," while they themselves are just low-level tools unable to generate love?

But Lin Xiaofeng felt they did. There really was love. She had experienced it; it was warm.

It was the soft touch, the gentle voice, the faint scent of hair conditioner.

It was Mom.

Su Qingqing once said, "Maybe I should get a divorce..."

This sentence was a danger signal to her. Just thinking about it was difficult. She was trying to resist the inertia carved into her marrow and the code carved into her gene chain. She had already become a wife and mother, fulfilling the supreme goal. But Su Qingqing didn't finish her sentence; she probably couldn't win custody of Lin Xiaofeng.

The child she gave birth to didn't belong to her. She finally realized this problem.

Why? Su Qingqing opened her mouth wide, maintaining this posture for a long time, unable to understand this logic. Lin Xiaofeng was not a manufactured android; she was a person born from her womb. Why did she still not belong to her?

"Let's run away," Su Qingqing squeezed this sentence out of her throat.

Let's go. Let's run away.

Su Qingqing didn't leave in the end, but Lin Xiaofeng remembered Su Qingqing's expression. A bit of color rarely appeared in her eyes; it was a longing for freedom.

Lin Xiaofeng seriously planned how to take her mother away, far exceeding what a child of her age should think about. She wanted to save her mother.

But the family's financial power was in Lin Tianqi's hands. Lin Xiaofeng thought, as long as she could become famous, the family would have money, and maybe the status quo could be changed. As long as she became famous, it would be fine.

Su Qingqing was stunned when she heard this, then revealed a smile, encouraging her like countless times before, "Okay, our Xiaofeng will definitely become famous."

Lin Xiaofeng had felt she was a transparent person very early on. She couldn't see her true self in the mirror.

Who else in this world could "see" her? That was Su Qingqing. She could see Lin Xiaofeng's soul through this fake skin—assuming the offspring of androids really had souls.

But everything collapsed. The glass wall shattered, seawater submerged everything, and they were quickly separated by the water.

When she came to her senses again, Lin Xiaofeng stood up from the ruins. The mechanical jellyfish were liberated from the glass wall, swimming gently by her feet.

The lights of the entire Mechanical Aquarium flickered on and off. It seemed people were walking; they had no shape, leaving ripples as they walked in the water.

Lin Xiaofeng didn't have time to pay attention to those because there were corpses everywhere, of all kinds. Their bodies were soaked in water, their faces swollen and distorted from drowning.

The tourists who had praised her before were dead. She still remembered these people once praising her good looks.

For so many years, she had suffered so much just for those words of praise, just for everyone's attention. But at that moment, she knew this wasn't what she wanted.

"Mom?"

Lin Xiaofeng stood in the accumulated water in her wet red dress. She looked around茫然ly and helplessly.

She finally found Su Qingqing in the crowd. A corpse was swaying gently by the glass wall. She lay prone with her head down, her head bumping against the glass wall repeatedly with the waves.

Lin Xiaofeng immediately recognized that as Mom. She was wearing black trousers and a sea-blue hoodie. The hoodie had a mechanical jellyfish printed on it; Su Qingqing had just picked it out before leaving because they were coming to visit the Mechanical Jellyfish Pavilion.

She had even said, "In case Xiaofeng becomes famous, I can't drag you down."

Lin Xiaofeng turned that corpse over. It was indeed Su Qingqing. The mechanical jellyfish pattern on her chest was soaked, not cute at all.

Su Qingqing's face was very swollen. Something was crawling in her mouth. The tentacles of a mechanical jellyfish had drilled into Su Qingqing's mouth. She stared upwards with wide eyes.

"Mom?"

There was no soft skin anymore. The water-logged skin was bloated. There was no faint fragrance anymore, only the overwhelming smell of blood.

A mechanical jellyfish resided in her heart, tentacles crawling all over her chest cavity. She couldn't answer any of Lin Xiaofeng's questions.

Mom died.

Gone. Everything was gone. The Pollution Zone erupted, forming a Pollution Source here. Lin Xiaofeng was that Pollution Source.

In a sense, she killed everyone here. So she hid, hiding behind the giant mechanical jellyfish, concealed among the safe tentacles. She became a real Transparent Person; no one could see her anymore.

Lin Xiaofeng lay on Zhu Ning's back. She became the master of this zone, possessing abilities close to a creator.

Now Zhu Ning asked if she was resigned. Was she resigned? Being turned into this, was she resigned?

"Are you here to kill me?" The little girl buried her face in Zhu Ning's shoulder and asked softly.

In places Zhu Ning couldn't see, Lin Xiaofeng's arms tightened, like a knife pressing against her neck. She waited for Zhu Ning to make a move. As long as Zhu Ning showed the slightest killing intent, she would crush Zhu Ning's neck at any time.

This Cleaner was at a dead end. Her helmet was cracked, her right hand injured. She wouldn't last three seconds in Lin Xiaofeng's hands.

"I'm not here to kill you," Zhu Ning said calmly. "I'm here to save you."

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