Chapter 64-I Clean Up Garbage in a Wasteland World
Chapter 64: The Golden Cicada Sheds Its Shell
"Hello, Zhu Ning."
Zhu Ning and Fang Ying met in the family waiting area of the Medical Department. Fang Ying looked no different from when they first met, with her hair meticulous and wearing the Sanitation Center professional suit.
Zhu Ning could still sleep and rest in the Observation Room. Fang Ying probably didn't have this privilege. While Zhu Ning was sleeping, she had been working continuously for three days, working overtime for more than sixty hours in a row. She looked as if she would never be tired.
Zhu Ning took an extra look. She wasn't wearing earrings today; Prometheus wasn't there. Zhu Ning: "May I ask what class of citizen you are?"
Fang Ying: "Class 4 Citizen, Android."
Zhu Ning: "I couldn't tell."
The other Androids Zhu Ning had seen might be of a lower grade and looked very "robotic." Fang Ying looked no different from a normal person in appearance. She was efficient and neat in her work. Zhu Ning liked her quite a bit.
And surprisingly, the assistant of the entire center was only a Class 4 Citizen. The Sanitation Center didn't ask about one's background when hiring; they didn't discriminate against low-level humans.
Fang Ying: "I'm covered with synthetic skin. If you lift my scalp, you can see my mechanical skeleton."
Zhu Ning: "..."
Did people in the Wasteland world have some obsession with opening people's skulls?
Seeing Zhu Ning's reaction, Fang Ying smiled. "Minister Xuan has approved it. A reward of forty million NewCred has been transferred to your account. You can check the salary details."
Zhu Ning opened her Sub-Brain and only looked at the balance. She really had an income of forty million NewCred.
Fang Ying observed Zhu Ning's expression. "You don't seem as happy as the first time."
Zhu Ning turned off the Sub-Brain. "Too much money. I can't imagine it."
When Zhu Ning received the transfer for the first time, she was so happy. But now she was a bit numb. When money accumulated to a certain degree, it was just a string of numbers to her.
Especially after the apocalyptic zombie world, money was useless. Looking at this money again, it felt unreal.
She thought of the Fishman working overtime, the Pigman who suspected the boss was infected but stayed in the hotpot restaurant for money, Huang Yaruo who couldn't escape because she spent her life savings buying a house, and the mother and daughter Su Qingqing and Lin Xiaofeng who had no money to escape.
The Contaminants she had experienced so far, in the final analysis, came down to one word: poor.
Wealth gathered massively towards the upper class.
Zhu Ning was just a high-level wage earner. This money was exchanged for her life. She was luckier than others to still have the opportunity to exchange her life for money.
After going on a few missions, she could understand more and more why most humans were consumables.
Zhu Ning asked, "By the way, where is Bao Ruiming?"
She was very concerned about this issue. When she came out, she saw other civilians in the observation corridor, but she didn't see Bao Ruiming inside. It was too chaotic at that time, and there was no time for Zhu Ning to look more. Soon she was taken away for inspection, body search, and interrogation, and that set of procedures only completely ended just now.
But where did Bao Ruiming go? Was he taken away by the Sanitation Center for interrogation? Or was he not in the Mechanical Oceanarium at all when the accident happened?
Fang Ying came here this time to synchronize the situation with Zhu Ning. She handed the panel to Zhu Ning. "You can look for yourself."
Zhu Ning frowned. If things went smoothly, there would only be two outcomes. First, Bao Ruiming was arrested and was now detained by the Sanitation Center. Second, Bao Ruiming escaped and wasn't caught.
These two results were very easy to describe. Fang Ying didn't tell her the result directly, which meant it was the third situation.
Zhu Ning took the panel. This was the action video of the White Pigeon Squad. The rescue personnel also had their helmet cameras turned on, and a summary would be made after the mission ended.
After Prometheus entered the Safe Zone, he obtained the authority of the Safe Zone cameras, thus complementing everyone's perspective.
While Zhu Ning and the Grey Eagle Squad were trying every means to buy time for the White Pigeon Squad, the civilians in the Safe Zone were densely packed together. Panic spread, and everyone was already tense to the extreme.
Bang! A loud noise suddenly came from outside the door.
For a moment, the survivors were silent, staring coldly at the Safe Zone door. The next moment, the door was violently broken open from the outside.
The Demon Hunters' steel uniforms were emitting cold light, holding heavy weapons and waiting at the door.
The Demon Hunters first built a simple protective area at the door to ensure that pollution spores would not enter before opening the Safe Zone door.
The White Pigeon Squad carried super-large suitcases in their hands, containing protective suits. "We are rescue personnel. We will distribute protective suits next. Please dress neatly and follow us to exit in an orderly manner."
After a second of stagnation, the people in the Safe Zone burst into cheers.
"Saved!"
"Scared me to death!"
The crowd's emotions ran high, pulling back and forth between huge panic and joy, finally forming a complex emotion of survival after a disaster.
"It's really good," an old man in the crowd said. He was dressed in a suit and leather shoes, and at this moment, he revealed a very gentle smile. "We are saved."
Beside the old man sat a little boy. The little boy wasn't very conspicuous, curled up into a small ball. Hearing this news, he was a bit dazed. In the huge shock, he looked up at the old man and finally remembered where he had seen him.
The director of the Mechanical Oceanarium, named Bao Ruiming. The Mechanical Jellyfish Aquarium was developed by him.
When the aquarium was on the verge of bankruptcy, Bao Ruiming created the unprecedented Mechanical Jellyfish Aquarium, reversing the decline. The little boy's father had always told him this story as a classic example of a successful entrepreneurial counterattack.
The White Pigeon Squad was distributing protective suits. Bao Ruiming didn't put it on himself immediately but helped the little boy put it on first. Since the little boy guessed Bao Ruiming's identity, he was dumbfounded and didn't dare to move at all.
"My dad talked about you," the little boy said softly.
"Is that so?" Bao Ruiming lifted the little boy's arm.
"Yes," the little boy said. "He said you are very rich, very talented, and a rare talent."
Bao Ruiming said humbly, "That's because I have companions."
The success of a career couldn't rely on one person alone. Bao Ruiming just stood on the stage.
The little boy thought for a moment and asked, "Like the mechanical jellyfish and its mysterious little shepherd fish?"
"Correct." Bao Ruiming zipped up the little boy, his movements very gentle, as if afraid of hurting the child. "Hope you meet your own little shepherd fish."
The little shepherd fish would attract the prey, and then the jellyfish would kill the prey. They would cooperate fully to create a flawless trap. This was the trap.
"I can do it myself; you hurry up and put on the protective suit." The little boy was very sensible and was embarrassed to always trouble others. The director was already good enough to him, patiently comforting him and even helping him put on the protective suit, like an amiable grandfather.
"I don't need to wear it." Bao Ruiming helped the little boy zip up the protective suit tightly. The little boy's face was completely covered by the protective suit without any gaps.
"Why?" The little boy looked up and asked.
"I've finished what I should do." After Bao Ruiming said this, he took something out of his suit pocket. His movements were extremely elegant, making it look like he was taking out a glasses case he carried with him. The little boy couldn't react at all.
A gun.
His eyes widened, cold sweat streaming down. Bao Ruiming took out a gun.
Such an amiable old man, looking like that kind of gentle intellectual, why did he have a gun?
But the little boy couldn't leave anymore. Bao Ruiming suddenly grabbed the little boy and pulled him into his arms.
"Gun!" someone shouted nearby. "This person has a gun!"
The crowd was very dense. At this time, they dispersed immediately, automatically leaving a one-meter diameter open space for Bao Ruiming.
The captain of the White Pigeon Squad was named Gong Fan. He immediately noticed something was wrong and pushed through the crowd. "What are you doing? Put down the weapon."
The White Pigeon Squad was a professional rescue team. having been on so many missions, they knew that the Safe Zone had been trapped for too long. Some people would become mentally deranged, suffer from persecution delusions, and feel that everyone in the world had mutated, thus attacking indiscriminately. But it was the first time he saw someone taking a child hostage.
The little boy didn't dare to move. He wet his pants. He only knew now that Bao Ruiming was not a good person. He looked at Gong Fan eagerly through the protective suit, as if saying: Don't give up on me, please, don't leave me here.
Gong Fan aimed the muzzle at Bao Ruiming's glabella. "Repeat, put down the weapon!"
The little boy's voice was hoarse, unable to say a word. He looked at the Demon Hunter in front; the opponent's muzzle was also pointing here. He looked like he was being pointed at by two guns at the same time.
"Captain," someone said. "There's no time."
The Safe Zone was already open and couldn't hold for long. There were still a large number of civilians around who hadn't put on their protective suits properly. If something happened at this time, the consequences were not something the White Pigeon Squad could bear.
Every minute of rescue was golden time. If they dragged on, everyone would die here. They should abandon the little boy and retreat directly.
Bao Ruiming had already raised his hand. Everyone thought he was going to shoot the little boy. Gong Fan reacted very quickly and fired immediately. Two guns fired two bullets at the same time.
Bang bang, two sounds. The bullets penetrated the skull with a crisp sound.
One hit Bao Ruiming's glabella, and one hit his temple. The little boy's scream rang out, and his protective suit mask was splattered with Bao Ruiming's blood.
The video ended, and Zhu Ning's cold face was projected on the screen.
Bao Ruiming died?
Fang Ying: "The rescue mission was urgent. No one knew in advance that Bao Ruiming was in the Safe Zone. It was too late when Prometheus notified. Bao Ruiming was shot by the White Pigeon Squad, and it was also Bao Ruiming who committed suicide. Maybe he originally wanted to take hostages, but later found he couldn't escape, so he ended it himself directly."
Impossible. Zhu Ning didn't believe it.
Bao Ruiming was absolutely the mastermind behind the aquarium. He planned all this. He might have spent years preparing for this one thing.
What was his purpose? Why did he die so easily? He didn't answer any of the questions. Dying like this was very irresponsible.
Zhu Ning took a deep breath and asked as calmly as possible, "Where is the body?"
Fang Ying: "Brought back. It's a Cybernetic Body."
Cybernetic Body?
Fang Ying: "We don't know where his consciousness is. He might have already uploaded his consciousness to the cloud."
A true Golden Cicada shedding its shell. Technology could allow people to live forever. As long as the consciousness was uploaded to the cloud and the server didn't stop operating, you would never die.
Bao Ruiming only needed to switch to another Cybernetic Body to live again. And no one knew what body he would choose. He could even choose a woman's body and completely change his appearance from then on.
Zhu Ning asked, "Can we find out where he uploaded his consciousness?"
Fang Ying: "Creation Technology provides Consciousness Cloud Upload services."
Creation Technology? Zhu Ning had only seen their harassment ads on the roadside. Mobile billboards followed passersby randomly, which was especially annoying.
Zhu Ning: "Then..."
Fang Ying interrupted her: "The Sanitation Center has no authority."
Uploading consciousness to the cloud was something only the rich could do. The service fee of tens of millions a year directly shut out the poor.
And the truly top wealthy people were the most afraid of death. Their servers were separated from ordinary rich people. It was impossible to reveal where their cloud servers were.
So, as long as there was some perverted murderer who uploaded his consciousness to the cloud, he could constantly change bodies to do evil, like a virus that couldn't be killed.
Even with a more malicious thought, if a scion of a chaebol acted as a high-and-mighty superior person during the day and wanted to change a body to be a serial killer at night, theoretically, no evidence could be found to convict him.
Lin Xiaofeng's family was ruined, and the death toll in the aquarium exceeded six hundred, which hadn't been fully calculated yet. As the mastermind, Bao Ruiming didn't have to suffer any punishment.
Fang Ying could see that Zhu Ning was very disappointed. "Sorry."
Zhu Ning didn't speak. This wasn't completely without gain. In the video, there was his conversation with the little boy. Before Bao Ruiming died, he revealed that he had a symbiotic partner. He definitely didn't commit the crime alone.
He had his conspirator. Zhu Ning only needed to find this person to follow the vine to get the melon and find Bao Ruiming.
And the most essential question, the question that no one understood was, why did Bao Ruiming make such a big commotion? Was Lin Xiaofeng of any use?
She had been thinking about one thing. Why was it so coincidental? She had just entered the Eternal Pharma Foundation and just saw Xu Meng when the accident happened in the aquarium?
The human manipulation traces in this aquarium incident were very obvious. They seemed to ensure that it happened at this time. Why?
Making such a big commotion, there was only one possibility, that is, another thing happened in the Eternal Pharma Foundation on that day.
The aquarium side was to attract attention. On that day and the following three days, all the firepower of the Sanitation Center was aimed at the Mechanical Oceanarium, even alerting the 103 District City Defense Army. The mess hadn't been cleaned up yet.
The Sanitation Center went into a misunderstanding. No matter how they studied and dissected the Invisible Man, there would be no result. Lin Xiaofeng and other Invisible Men might just be expensive consumables, a bait attractive enough.
The Sanitation Center was still investigating the truth of the aquarium, but they ignored the next door of the aquarium. In this way, no one would care about the movement of the Eternal Pharma Foundation.
From the result, Eternal Pharma's plan should have succeeded. Zhu Ning and Xu Meng were both lured to the aquarium.
Zhu Ning had long known that there was a problem with Eternal Pharma, but she didn't expect it to be on such a large scale. Even the aquarium was just a cover. Then what earth-shattering conspiracy was the foundation planning?
How long could Zhu Ning hide? The next one to die might be her. The Sanitation Center judged her safe, but Eternal Pharma might not think so. They might have already locked onto Zhu Ning.
From the perspective of Eternal Pharma, they would rather kill the wrong person than let one go. After all, killing a Zhu Ning was no loss. It was a fact that Zhu Ning herself appeared at the foundation scene, and it was also a fact that she participated in the Mechanical Oceanarium incident. She was currently the most suitable suspect.
Unfortunately, Zhu Ning only had one body. If she died, she really died.
Walking out of the Sanitation Center today, she might face a secondary assassination from Eternal Pharma.
Chapter 64: Author's Note
Recently, there have been some new readers. Thanks for liking the story!
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