Chapter 60-I Clean Up Garbage in a Wasteland World

Chapter 60 Shadow

Zhu Ning was brought back to the Sanitation Center.

They were brought back in batches. To prevent them from talking, the eight employees were to give their mission reports separately.

The Sanitation Center would review the eight reports, cross-referencing them. Once there was something wrong, it would be discovered immediately.

Zhu Ning wasn't worried about accidents, but she was a little worried about Li Nianchuan. That unlucky guy could only go on such a big mission after accessing the chip. Now that the mission was over, his aftereffects might be severe.

And Zhu Ning was also concerned about one question: where did Bao Ruiming, the curator of the aquarium, go? Did the rescue team find Bao Ruiming?

If they found him, how did they plan to deal with him? They seemed to have no intention of telling her.

She had a lot to do next. The process was to first do data collection in the Observation Room, and then undergo interrogation after the data was cleared.

Sanitation Center, 66th floor.

Zhu Ning had been here once before. As soon as the elevator doors opened, she indeed met the doctor in the white coat welcoming her, "Miss Zhu, we meet again."

Sure enough, first time strangers, second time acquaintances. Zhu Ning was very used to it this time, "Side A Observation Room again?"

Doctor: "This time it's Side B."

When she came last time, Zhu Ning was like a newborn calf unafraid of tigers. Now she seemed to know a bit more about this department. The Observation Room was divided into sides A and B. What did Side B mean? Did suspected contaminated personnel enter Side B?

Just like last time, she was put on data collection devices, but there was more equipment. Her hands, feet, temples, as well as her chest and abdomen were all attached with data collection devices.

The doctor explained: "Because it is suspected that you are infected, the collection items needed are more complex."

Fine, Zhu Ning didn't have much room to question it. However, her dream of wanting to mooch off the Sanitation Center's medical resources seemed about to come true.

Zhu Ning: "By the way, my head hurts a lot."

She said it very directly. Sure enough, as soon as she said this, the doctor frowned. As an important talent asset of their Sanitation Center, everyone generally paid close attention to Zhu Ning.

"How does it hurt?" the doctor asked.

Zhu Ning: "It feels like a needle is pricking me."

Ever since she overused the Metal Manipulation skill last time, she had felt something was wrong with her brain, and drinking Sanity Healer didn't have much effect.

She would often feel a sudden burst of severe pain, which would then alleviate very quickly. Especially since Prometheus entered her mind, there was always a vague stinging sensation.

Technology in the wasteland world developed rapidly, and medical resources were definitely more advanced in the Sanitation Center. Since she was already here, she definitely had to mooch off these resources; maybe they could discover some abnormality.

The doctor hadn't expected to be targeted like this and said dutifully: "We can't do healing work in the Observation Room; it's generally for observation and recuperation."

Zhu Ning nodded. Looking at the style of the Observation Room, she knew—the buffet area was open all day, soothing music played all day—it looked like a high-end mental hospital.

Doctor: "Are you in pain right now?"

He looked a bit troubled. Originally, he should have sent Zhu Ning into the Observation Room for observation, but if her situation was urgent, she might need to be sent to the Medical Department for treatment first.

Zhu Ning: "Not right now. It's fine, I'm very tough. Let's do the collection first."

Doctor: "..."

Everyone said Zhu Ning was a bit hard to get along with, but after interacting with her, she felt particularly sensible?

Doctor: "Okay, when it's completely over, I'll send you to Doctor Fu's place and arrange a consultation for you then."

Zhu Ning had no questions and walked into the Observation Room.

It was also a super-large bedroom, but unlike the warm and healing style of the last time, there was a circle of things like iron pillars around the bedroom. The iron pillars emitted a faint red light, enveloping the entire bedroom within it, simply like a cage. It should be to prevent people from alienating into pollutants.

If Zhu Ning really mutated, this thing would lock on immediately, and then lasers would cut down, capable of slicing Zhu Ning into pieces of meat in an instant.

Zhu Ning no longer possessed the right to go to the buffet restaurant to eat. All food and drink were sent in through a small window. Before they released her, she had to accept observation here.

Zhu Ning didn't feel much; this was a very normal process. The doctor just asked her to rest inside. While she rested, these devices would automatically do data collection.

The doctor instructed her to rest, and Zhu Ning followed the doctor's orders strictly, falling asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.

Coming out of the aquarium, there was no place safer than the Sanitation Center Observation Room. Even if the people from Eternal Biotech wanted to kill her, it was impossible to make a move under the eyelids of so many people.

She really wanted to sleep too much. Three minutes after closing her eyes, she had already fallen into sleep.

Research Room.

"Did she take sleeping pills?" Researcher Fu Ming muttered softly, "She fell asleep too fast."

Coming out of a contaminated zone and falling asleep in three minutes, she was a bit too carefree.

Compared to the other seven people who walked out of the contaminated zone, except for Chu Ling who was forced into sleep due to lack of energy, the others didn't dare to sleep even if they entered a safe environment. This was the normal behavior of someone coming out of a contaminated zone.

Zhu Ning really came to the Observation Room to sleep earnestly every time, making Fu Ming a bit puzzled, "We seem like animal keepers. Is she a koala?"

Animal keepers responsible for taking care of koalas probably watched koalas sleep every day. Zhu Ning did nothing but sleep and eat.

Moreover, in this era where everyone generally had sleep disorders, her sleep quality was so good it left people speechless. It was as if she wasn't being observed in the Observation Room, but had returned to her hometown. She was definitely a koala in her past life.

Qi Yunxiang: "Maybe this is her talent?"

Fu Ming gave a dry laugh: "Hahaha, not funny at all."

Fu Ming operated the equipment. He was very used to it now. Standing behind them was Fang Ying monitoring the data. With so many employees, Fang Ying would only monitor Zhu Ning's data alone.

Fang Ying had rushed over directly after finishing the mission at the Mechanical Aquarium. She had tidied her hair and was wearing a professional suit, looking meticulous. One couldn't tell at all that she had just participated in a Grade B zone mission. It was said she came under Xuan Qing's orders this time.

"How is it?" Fang Ying asked.

Qi Yunxiang was calm as always, "Sanity has no fluctuation, very stable."

The Inspection Department said the same thing before. No fluctuation. Entering a Grade B contaminated zone and coming out, there was still no fluctuation. As expected of 1200 Sanity.

Fang Ying: "Director Xuan requests to test Zhu Ning's sanity again."

Fu Ming: "Why?"

Sanity is rarely tested repeatedly; their last test was less than a month ago.

Fang Ying: "Director Xuan speculates that since Zhu Ning came out of a Grade B contaminated zone, her sanity might have increased."

Fu Ming muttered softly, "This stuff doesn't just go up because you want it to."

Many people see their sanity increase after entering a contaminated zone, like Li Nianchuan, but that usually happens to people with low sanity.

It's like an underachieving student suddenly studying hard to get into college. They find that improving from thirty to sixty isn't that hard, but going from sixty to eighty is very difficult, and going from ninety to one hundred requires effort unimaginable to ordinary people.

Qi Yunxiang didn't have any doubts: "Okay."

Qi Yunxiang operated the equipment for a while and reported the number about five minutes later, "I have 1270 here."

Fu Ming was monitoring the helmet data, "I have 1300 here. Did hers really go up again?"

Zhu Ning went on two missions, and her sanity is still rising? Is she a monster?

Although the increase didn't look large, it was already astonishing. If she broke through 1400, there would be another possibility. Once over 1400, the First Military District would no longer care about her status as a Defective and would make an exception to recruit her.

Fang Ying wasn't surprised at all and asked, "Are there any signs of being contaminated?"

Qi Yunxiang shook her head: "No, it's too stable."

Stable to an incredible degree, but this is a characteristic of S-rank sanity. They didn't have many S-rank sanity samples on hand, so they couldn't tell if Zhu Ning was considered normal within the S-rank range.

Fang Ying glanced at Zhu Ning, who was sleeping soundly on the big screen, and asked another question: "Does she have a Talent?"

This was a question Xuan Qing was very concerned about.

This time Qi Yunxiang frowned. Talented individuals' sanity was also very stable. Talented individuals were essentially pollutants that maintained rationality; their sanity would also not fluctuate when accepting tests.

Qi Yunxiang: "You know, our detection of Talented individuals isn't very precise."

Set up a security scanner, let pollutants queue up to walk through, and it's easy to detect who is a pollutant. The fact that they could build walls after radiation and maintain the relatively peaceful life now was established on this foundation.

But Talented individuals were different. Their sanity was stable. As long as they wanted to, they could hide all aura. Only by doing very, very precise detection could one see a tiny bit of difference.

Because Talented individuals couldn't guarantee they were different from ordinary people every moment, their detection data would produce a "twitch" at some moment. Displayed on the data panel, it might be a tiny fluctuation. The R&D Department instruments were responsible for detecting whether these tiny fluctuations were errors or some other situation.

But Fang Ying was already asking. As a worker, Qi Yunxiang could only try her best to help realize this guess. After about half an hour, Qi Yunxiang and Fu Ming's eyes were going blind. Doing detection actually consumed a lot of sanity.

"No," Qi Yunxiang sighed, "Really no abnormality at all. Purely from the data, we can't tell if she is a Talented individual."

Fang Ying fell silent. During the mission, Zhu Ning didn't use a Talent from start to finish, but Xuan Qing seemed certain that Zhu Ning must have a Talent.

Although Fang Ying didn't know why Xuan Qing was so sure, this probably wasn't the answer Xuan Qing wanted to receive.

Fang Ying asked: "What's wrong with her brain?"

She remembered Zhu Ning saying her head hurt just now. If the previous questions were all Xuan Qing's orders, then this question was something Fang Ying wanted to know herself.

"Let me see." Qi Yunxiang switched the page. Now the big screen displayed Zhu Ning's brain scan map.

Once the human brain is magnified to a certain degree, it looks a bit terrifying. The brain scan map was like a maze, with endless gullies and ravines.

The brain being the most complex organ of humans, even with technology developing so rapidly now, they didn't dare say they had completely figured out the brain.

During brain data collection, the principle was scanning the brain and transmitting it back to the screen. As the data transmitted back became faster and faster, every scan map had to overwrite the previous one.

The screen in front of them flickered constantly. Staring at it for a long time made one's eyes hurt, and this work was dry and boring.

Fu Ming and Qi Yunxiang were both a bit exhausted. Even researchers were dazed by such high-intensity work pressure. Staring at the constantly flickering human brain scan map for a long time was simply like a kind of mental pollution.

Fu Ming instinctively rubbed his eyes. Qi Yunxiang rested her chin on her hand and yawned. Fang Ying's eyes were a bit dry; she blinked.

Just in the instant of their fatigue.

On the screen, in the very center of Zhu Ning's brain scan map, a grain-sized cubic shadow appeared.

← Previous Chapter Next Chapter →