Chapter 58-I Clean Up Garbage in a Wasteland World
Chapter 58 Strange Aquarium-15
Under the immense pressure of the tentacles, Zhu Ning pressed the inflation button on her work suit. Struggling through suffocation, her helmet slammed into something heavy, and she was yanked ten meters away. Her brain buzzed, assailed by a mixture of stinging pain and dizziness.
She wasn't entirely sure of the current situation. Her helmet was battered, the visor covered in spiderweb cracks, making everything look blurry.
There wasn't a single pollution spore inside the entire Jellyfish Pavilion. It was completely different from previous results of purifying a pollution zone; the air was filled with the foul stench of marine life and the smell of blood.
Ding—
The mechanical system voice rang in Zhu Ning's mind: [Congratulations on completing the Side Mission: Strange Aquarium. Purification Level 100%.]
[Main Mission: Purify the Homeland. Completion 3%.]
[Calculating rewards...]
[Congratulations on receiving Basic Rewards: Sanity restored to 100, Luck increased to 40.]
[Congratulations on receiving Purification Points Reward: 5000. Current accumulated Purification Points: 9554.]
[Congratulations on receiving Mechanical Jellyfish Reward: Replicator.]
[Reward Description: Class B Pollution Item. Can replicate items. Please note: using this item once will consume 30 Health Points.]
[Congratulations on receiving Elementary Talent: Liquid Manipulation. This is an elementary talent capable of manipulating one cubic meter of liquid. Please note: using this talent will consume 50 Health Points.]
[Congratulations on receiving Side Mission Reward: Invisibility Item.]
[Reward Description: Upon use, you will gain the invisibility skill. Please note: the Invisibility Item will consume Health Points. Using it for five minutes will consume 10 Health Points.]
Listening to the system rewards, Zhu Ning confirmed that the pollution zone had been purified. Lin Xiaofeng had succeeded; she had truly preserved her rationality and broken free from all restraints.
This also confirmed Zhu Ning's suspicion: pollution sources and extraordinary beings could indeed convert into one another. Seeing it with her own eyes was shocking.
Zhu Ning looked around. She couldn't find Lin Xiaofeng. The other party was a transparent person; disappearing was easy. But Zhu Ning felt she hadn't gone far and should be nearby.
Lin Xiaofeng might be immersed in the pain of reality, unable to recover yet. If it were Zhu Ning, having to accept the death of her parents, the fact that she had caused the deaths of everyone in the Mechanical Aquarium, and her transformation from a pollution source into a transparent person—she wouldn't be able to accept it immediately either.
Lin Xiaofeng wouldn't want to talk to anyone right now. Anything Zhu Ning said at this moment could potentially cause secondary trauma.
For a moment, there was only silence in the damaged Jellyfish Pavilion.
What was Lin Xiaofeng now? An extraordinary being? A rational pollution source? Or a new kind of experimental subject?
The problem was, how should she deal with Lin Xiaofeng? The demolition sequence was about to start, and Lin Xiaofeng would surely die if she stayed in the Mechanical Aquarium. Zhu Ning definitely had to take her out.
Entrust her to the Cleaning Center? It sounded like handing her over to a safer institution. Xuan Qing would certainly know how to handle her. Maybe Lin Xiaofeng could join the Demon Hunters or the Cleaner teams and become Zhu Ning's colleague.
But she didn't know who in the Cleaning Center's factional struggles was colluding with Everlasting Pharmaceuticals. Handing a young girl over sounded like sending her to her death.
After the mission ended, she would need to return to the Center for data collection. For such a large-scale mission, everyone would have to give a mission report.
There might even be searches and interrogations. After all, with transparent people involved, the Center would certainly want to prevent anyone from smuggling things out.
Zhu Ning also needed to explain how she cleared the pollution source under everyone's gaze. That didn't seem like something an ordinary Cleaner could do.
Zhu Ning was carrying Cheng Mofei's Demon Hunter bracelet. At the time, she felt it was dangerous to leave it at home and couldn't find a suitable place, so she kept it on her person.
She knew how to handle Cheng Mofei's bracelet, but she was thinking about how to reasonably settle Lin Xiaofeng. Under surveillance, she couldn't even speak to Lin Xiaofeng.
Zhu Ning's brain worked fast. She had to resolve this trouble before others came over.
So far, she was still alone. The Grey Eagle Squad hadn't appeared in her line of sight yet, there were no other cameras around, and her main camera was damaged.
If she wanted to do something behind the Cleaning Center's back, this was the best time.
...
Sizzle—
A sharp stinging pain flooded her brain, and Prometheus's voice sounded: [Are you alright?]
Zhu Ning's voice sounded completely normal: "What's the situation now?"
Prometheus: [The White Pigeon Squad has successfully evacuated with the hostages. The Cleaning Center has dispatched the Black Whale Squad to receive you at the aquarium entrance.]
[The Mechanical Jellyfish is dead. The Grey Eagle Squad has finished installing the explosives. Chu Ling has captured a transparent person alive and is awaiting your new orders.]
Zhu Ning climbed up. She could already hear the voices of the Grey Eagle Squad not far away. Cao Wei's voice was particularly recognizable.
She had fallen to the bottom of the Jellyfish Pavilion pool and should regroup with the Grey Eagle Squad.
Cao Wei had nearly been devoured by the Mechanical Jellyfish. His first reaction was to go to the exhibition hall behind him. The glass wall there had shattered. Zhu Ning had just climbed out of the ruins. There was no one around, only Zhu Ning.
Before Cao Wei could speak, Zhu Ning asked, "Where are the others?"
"Injured. At the transparent staircase around the corner," Cao Wei replied.
Zhu Ning didn't say more. She asked Chu Ling, "How are things on your side?"
Chu Ling was using her mechanical arm to trap the transparent person's neck. Her energy source only had ten percent remaining.
The transparent person's hand and foot tendons had been severed by Xu Meng, completely stripping him of mobility. Now, locked by the immense force of the mechanical arm around his throat, he couldn't move a muscle.
Even with her hand pressing down on the transparent person, Chu Ling was a bit unsure. They had actually completed the mission.
Such an absurd mission, three parallel lines of action. Every link, every employee responsible had to make no mistakes, and they lived up to expectations by making none.
"Caught him," Chu Ling asked. "What do we do next?"
Zhu Ning asked, "Can you jump down to regroup?"
The Jellyfish Pavilion was twenty meters high. They were all formal employees of the Cleaning Center and had undergone varying degrees of modification. Jumping down wouldn't be difficult for them, but she didn't know how they would handle bringing a transparent person.
Chu Ling glanced around, then decisively grabbed the transparent person by the neck and hauled his entire body up from the ground.
Zhu Ning was still pondering how to transport the transparent person out when suddenly her vision darkened. Immediately following a loud bang, Chu Ling had jumped directly from above. After landing, she smashed a deep crater into the ground.
She was holding a transparent person in her arms. The thing had been hit by a green marker bullet, fully revealing its form—a total of three and a half meters tall, being held in a princess carry by Chu Ling like a cub.
Zhu Ning: "..."
As expected of a pay-to-win player who spent tens of millions; her strength was terrifying.
Cao Wei breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing Chu Ling. Chu Ling's frame was severely damaged, but her life shouldn't be in danger. He called out, "Lingzi."
If Chu Ling didn't have a transparent person in her arms, she would definitely want to check on the other team members right now, but she could only greet Cao Wei.
The Grey Eagle Squad had all survived. They were heavily injured, but alive. Whatever needed to be said could be said after they got out.
Next came Xu Meng and Li Nianchuan. Li Nianchuan lowered a rope and wobbled down, dragging himself along the rope to the ground.
Xu Meng, on the other hand, sheathed her two blades and simply flipped down. Her landing posture was light and agile, like a nimble black cat in the night.
Xu Meng didn't have many injuries on her. Compared to the wretched states of Chu Ling and Li Nianchuan, she looked very at ease.
Zhu Ning raised an eyebrow. Xu Meng really had something up her sleeve. Those moves were definitely not possessed by an ordinary Cleaner. She had probably wanted to hide her strength all along, but this time Zhu Ning forced it out, revealing the tip of the iceberg.
Xu Meng and Li Nianchuan breathed a sigh of relief seeing Zhu Ning was fine. They both thought Zhu Ning was going to die down there. Li Nianchuan looked around and asked, "Why are there no pollution spores?"
Cleaners were very sensitive to pollution spores; that was their job. Logically, the Cleaners should be containing pollution spores next. Li Nianchuan found this very bizarre.
What was going on? The pollution zone was dead, but there wasn't a single pollution spore?
No pollution spores meant the pollution source wasn't dead. If the pollution source wasn't dead, where could it be?
Li Nianchuan felt creeped out looking around. The pollution source wasn't still around them, was it? They couldn't withstand a second round of torment.
Zhu Ning's face remained unchanged: "I don't know. My mission is complete."
Out of caution, Li Nianchuan even sprayed the surroundings with a fire extinguisher. At least there wasn't a transparent person near them.
"Talk later," Zhu Ning asked. "Has the demolition sequence started?"
Cao Wei looked serious: "The countdown is set."
The mission plan was to initiate the demolition sequence immediately at the fifteen-minute mark. Zhu Ning had purified the pollution zone two minutes earlier than planned, buying them time to escape.
Zhu Ning: "We only have seven minutes to escape. There are still transparent people in the aquarium. We'll support you."
Cao Wei: "..."
Zhu Ning's protective suit was damaged, her helmet cracked. She had obviously just barely survived, yet she wanted to help the Grey Eagle Squad retreat.
Not to mention Li Nianchuan and Xu Meng behind her. These two were proper Cleaners, yet they had no objections to this statement.
To be honest, with Li Nianchuan's skill level, it was already incredible that he had survived this long.
Cao Wei had always looked down on garbage sweepers, but now he had to admit that Zhu Ning's team was truly strong. The three of them combined could probably work as Demon Hunters.
Cao Wei felt a bit ashamed for a moment. He had been too stereotypical.
Only after seeing the other members of the Grey Eagle Squad did Zhu Ning realize this team had it harder than she thought. Everyone was heavily injured.
Liu Zhiwei was leaning against the wall, hurt the worst with an abdominal injury. Yang Shu was supporting him nearby. Captain Tang Ke's protective suit was severely damaged at the back, stained with blood and covered in large patches.
In contrast, Zhu Ning didn't seem that miserable. Zhu Ning wasn't familiar with the Grey Eagle Squad and asked, "You guys okay?"
The Grey Eagle Squad looked at Zhu Ning with very complex expressions. They probably never expected to one day listen to a Cleaner's commands and actually win. But on the battlefield, the one who wins earns respect.
Regardless of their previous impression of Zhu Ning, they now naturally felt admiration for her. The world of the Cleaning Center had always been survival of the fittest. They would willingly be commanded by Zhu Ning now.
Now that the eight-person squad had reunited, they all instinctively looked at Zhu Ning, treating her as the true captain. She was the soul of the team.
The formation Zhu Ning had organized before allowed movement with transparent people present. Having succeeded once, she was very practiced at this.
Zhu Ning explained the formation to them again. The eight people would move together, with the wounded on the inside, covering against transparent people.
But the speed had to be faster. More accurately, they had to run. They needed to run out of the Jellyfish Pavilion quickly.
The wounded had to grit their teeth and endure it, aiming to reach the aquarium entrance in three minutes.
Normally, it took eighteen minutes to walk from the Jellyfish Pavilion to the entrance, and the Grey Eagle Squad was severely injured. However, they were Demon Hunters; their physical constitution, even when injured, was faster than ordinary people. No one objected.
Zhu Ning: "Give me a weapon."
Zhu Ning didn't bring a weapon when she jumped into the pool. Cao Wei knew her shooting scores during training were excellent, so he handed her a gun.
Only when Zhu Ning took the gun did she realize her right arm was in severe pain. Her right hand still hurt; holding the gun hurt, let alone precision shooting. She could only use her left hand.
Zhu Ning: "Give me marker bullets. I can only play support now."
Cao Wei paused again. Zhu Ning was injured?
Her judgment of herself was very accurate. She knew when to step up as the leader and when to step back to the second line. She was very clear-headed.
It was very lucky to have a clear-headed leader on the battlefield; it could determine your life or death. In that instant, Cao Wei understood why this mission was successful.
[Countdown: six minutes.] Prometheus's notification.
Prometheus had reconnected the communication channel. His basic function was to establish communication connections.
Zhu Ning's voice was transmitted accurately to everyone's ears, very clear and calm, "All personnel retreat. Twenty times the bonus is waiting for us."
Everyone: "..."
Twenty times the bonus really had a fatal attraction. The team members were originally exhausted, but now a wave of hot blood suddenly surged.
If the money was enough, even the blood ran hot.
The mission wasn't over yet. They had to retreat from the pollution zone alive. They had already completed ninety-five percent; only the last step remained.
Based on Zhu Ning's experience, this task wouldn't be easy. She was actually unsure of the status of the other transparent people.
The eight people were constantly on guard against transparent people attacking, overly cautious, but to their surprise, the path was very safe. They didn't encounter a single attack.
What was happening? The pollution zone was purified, so the transparent people disappeared? Impossible. The transparent person they captured alive hadn't disappeared.
Moreover, the transparent people clearly didn't belong to Lin Xiaofeng. The death of the Jellyfish Man wouldn't take away its symbiotic partners. Could it be that the transparent people realized the bomb was about to explode and were preparing to escape?
The eight-person team had a clear path to the Mechanical Aquarium lobby. Only two hundred meters remained to the main entrance, where the Black Whale Squad was reportedly waiting to receive them.
Suddenly, they heard a burst of intense gunfire from the entrance. Someone had opened fire.
Author's Note:
How Zhu Ning operated will be explained in the next chapter. You can take a guess. Sorry about this, I've been working overtime since the holidays ended. I'm super busy every day. I'll make up the bonus updates for the 3000 nutrient solutions I owe you when I have time. You guys don't need to give me nutrient solutions for now. I'm too busy to have the energy for bonus updates o(╥﹏╥)o
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