Chapter 65-I Clean Up Garbage in a Wasteland World

Chapter 65: The Call

"Found her."

In a certain laboratory, a video was playing on the large screen. It was a video from the Sanitation Center forum. An operator was currently comparing data.

In the video, a woman wearing a black Cleaner protective suit pressed a Fishman against the glass wall with a gun, and then neatly shot and destroyed the Fishman's body.

The commotion caused by the Mechanical Oceanarium this time was huge. Under the premise of activating the A-Level Program, everyone survived. It was said that the person leading the team was a Cleaner from the Clean Squad.

She was really too eye-catching a person; it was hard not to pay attention to her. The woman who purified Experimental Subject 777 last time also wore a black Cleaner protective suit. Both were women, both were Cleaners, and their handling styles were extremely similar.

After the technician obtained the video data, he immediately compared the body shapes of the two people.

Comparison failed. Four cold words appeared on the screen.

"Why?" The technician was puzzled. "It should be her."

"It's Prometheus," Professor Chu said.

They had noticed Zhu Ning before. Zhu Ning's name was on the suspect list in Professor Chu's hand.

They also had the video of the Fishman who missed the last bus. They conducted behavioral analysis and physical appearance comparison, but there were no results.

Later, they queried all video records of the Sanitation Center over the years and didn't find anyone who matched.

When the accident happened in the Mechanical Oceanarium this time, Professor Chu refocused his attention on this woman. Intuition told him it was her; the behavioral patterns were very similar.

But the data comparison still failed. There was only one possibility: Prometheus gave her protective suit problems, and the video uploaded to the Sanitation Center forum was also tampered with.

Prometheus was protecting her.

If Professor Chu was a bit uncertain before, he was very certain now. The only one who could make Prometheus go to such great lengths to cover up was the mysterious woman who purified Experimental Subject 777 that day.

Zhu Ning. Professor Chu savored these two words carefully on the tip of his tongue. This time he finally knew the other party's name.

"It's her." Professor Chu concluded with finality.

The technician breathed a sigh of relief. If this still couldn't be found, his overtime work these days would be in vain.

"Where is she now?" Professor Chu asked.

Technician: "Sanitation Center. She should be accepting data collection. We can't make a move in the Sanitation Center."

It was too dangerous to make moves under the nose of the Sanitation Center. Over the years, the Sanitation Center had sensed a few rats in their team, but in the case of being unable to catch them all in one go, they just probed the situation.

They were in a state of mutual infiltration. The Sanitation Center and Eternal Pharma maintained a very delicate superficial peace.

Once a move was made in the Sanitation Center, it was equivalent to abandoning the superficial peace and tearing the face directly. Zhu Ning was not worth their risk.

Professor Chu lowered his eyes. The cold lenses covered his gaze, making his expression unclear.

Technician asked: "Shall we make a move? We have three superpower users available nearby. Make a move after she comes out."

As long as Professor Chu nodded, Zhu Ning would completely disappear in District 103 tomorrow.

Professor Chu didn't speak. He looked at Zhu Ning on the screen. She was purifying the jellyfish aquarium in an unconventional way. The professional quality she demonstrated from beginning to end had been giving him surprises.

If before this, Professor Chu just wanted to find out who purified No. 777, now after watching the video, he had other plans.

...

It was 11:40 PM.

Zhu Ning was still at the Sanitation Center and hadn't left. Many colleagues passing by would greet her, and some took photos with her. After all, Zhu Ning was now a forum celebrity.

"Why haven't you left yet?" A young girl passed by. She was the security guard on night shift today. She asked, "It's almost twelve o'clock. It's not safe nearby if it's later."

District 103 was the Federation's garbage disposal center. There were many defective products and a high crime rate. The security was notoriously bad. Even if Zhu Ning was skilled, it was best not to take risks.

Because the Sanitation Center didn't allow weapons to be brought in or taken out, no one had self-defense items. People couldn't beat firearms. It was easy to suffer losses if encountering armed criminals on the road.

Zhu Ning: "I have to wait for twelve o'clock."

Twelve o'clock? Why? But Zhu Ning wasn't an ordinary person. Maybe she had some plans that she couldn't understand. The young girl shook her head and went on patrol.

Twelve o'clock. The Grave Post mechanism would start to operate. Zhu Ning guessed that the Grave Post only started to operate at twelve o'clock every day. This might be the time when Prometheus could move freely in a small range. She needed a Grave Post mission.

Zhu Ning didn't expect that the Sanitation Center would really upload the aquarium video to the internal network. Actually, ordinary missions below A-level would basically be uploaded.

These videos allowed employees to communicate with each other, learn from experience, and understand different people's styles. But the aquarium involved Invisible Men after all. She thought the Sanitation Center would go through confidentiality procedures.

Zhu Ning put herself in their shoes. Xuan Qing didn't suppress this matter; it should be that this approach maximized benefits and might fish out some people hiding in the dark.

Or rather, this was a simpler screening method. Interrogation and search were useless. Zhu Ning passed three levels. The last level was whether she could survive.

If she died at the hands of Eternal Pharma next, no explanation was needed; she was the person they were looking for.

On the Grave Post Enthusiast Center page, her last chat record with Mountain Cat stopped three days ago, the day she just went to the Eternal Pharma Foundation.

Their conversation wasn't very smooth. Mountain Cat and she had some disputes over the ownership of Cheng Mofei's bracelet, and neither side gave in.

They said they were cooperating, but many things weren't settled. It was like two armies confronting each other in a stalemate. Zhu Ning insisted on seeing the content of the employee bracelet, and Mountain Cat seemed to want to grab it directly.

Zhu Ning thought about it and didn't ask Mountain Cat for help. It was better to rely on oneself than on others. She didn't think she would definitely die.

Ding—

The time showed twelve o'clock sharp. A gray post appeared on the page.

Grave Post. Prometheus didn't fail her expectations and really pushed a new mission to her.

She briefly read the general content and then memorized the Grave Post address. It wasn't far from here. The system prompt asked her if she accepted the random mission. Zhu Ning hadn't selected "Yes" yet.

This was the backup move she left. If necessary, she needed to lead people into the contaminated area. The contaminated area was very chaotic and might become a protective shell for her.

That security guard looked at her again. Zhu Ning's behavior was strange. She was the only one left in the entire Sanitation Center hall. She had been waiting silently before.

Waiting until 12:05, Zhu Ning zipped up. She waved to the young girl. "See you tomorrow."

See you tomorrow? The security guard was a bit puzzled. Zhu Ning just finished a mission and should be on vacation. The minimum vacation time was one week. She didn't have to work tomorrow at all. Why say see you tomorrow?

Zhu Ning walked out of the Sanitation Center gate. The temperature had dropped recently, with a high of only twenty-six degrees. It entered autumn overnight.

After Zhu Ning walked out, she took a look. The Sanitation Center was brightly lit. The three-hundred-and-sixty-story building looked like a lighthouse at this time.

The giant robot-shaped incinerator was burning. The entire District 103 rested, but this garbage dump worked day and night.

A very strange smell produced after garbage disposal floated faintly in the air. There were few people around, but because of the burning incinerator, it was very bright here.

Zhu Ning should reasonably take the ground rail to go home, but now the last train had stopped.

She had money now. Taking a flying car wasn't an extravagance for her, but Zhu Ning chose to walk home.

If she were a killer and wanted to plan an assassination, the best choice would be on this road she took off work.

The Sanitation Center had strict regulations. Employees couldn't be equipped with weapons during non-mission phases. So as long as she came out of the center, it could be certain that this person had no self-defense weapons at all.

And at Zhu Ning's home, there was a box of standard weapons left by Prometheus. That was her only chance to get weapons.

So the killer either ambushed on her way home or ambushed at her home. The road from her walking out of the Sanitation Center to her home belonged to the assassination area of Eternal Pharma.

The address of the new contaminated area Zhu Ning just saw on the Grave Post was fairly close to her, about the same distance as going home.

The contaminated area, the Hive, and the Sanitation Center formed a triangle.

But Zhu Ning didn't interrupt her pace. Entering a contaminated area without a protective suit was very risky. She would consider entering the contaminated area when she had no way out.

Zhu Ning was getting farther and farther away from the incinerator. The light became dimmer. This area was all slums. To go to the Hive, she had to cross two communities. Zhu Ning walked on the narrow and dim path, silently observing the surrounding situation.

Two people appeared.

One person had been following behind her. The other seemed to be a superpower user. He had been walking in the air, his whole person like a condensed shadow, jumping silently on the roof.

The person behind couldn't be judged as a superpower user or an ordinary person for now, maintaining a certain pace following behind Zhu Ning.

One superpower user, one tentative, and didn't know if there was a third one.

When dealing with assassination, the first rule was to figure out the enemy situation. That fast-moving shadow, she didn't know if she could outrun him using the Putrid Fish Head. She knew nothing about the one behind.

Unless absolutely necessary, she didn't really want to use the Defense Space. After all, the duration was only thirty minutes. After thirty minutes, she would be a turtle in a jar.

The third one appeared, twenty meters in front of her. He looked back at her. It was a strong man two meters and three centimeters tall, wearing a denim jacket. Looking back, he revealed his left eye, flashing mechanical red light in the darkness.

Probably a Mech-Warrior. Very good. One Mech-Warrior, one superpower user moving fast like a shadow, one unknown.

Zhu Ning didn't even have a weapon here. As a professional shooter, with no weapon, no companion, and no support, she was truly isolated and helpless.

But Zhu Ning wasn't afraid at all. She was constantly calculating in her mind what skills and talents she could use to break the game.

Her footsteps didn't stop, and her eyes were already searching for usable metal items. It wasn't impossible. The probability of winning was half.

The slums were full of poor people. Zhu Ning passed a drunkard holding half a bottle of vodka in his hand, his face flushed, muttering some drunken words.

Seeing Zhu Ning, he whistled and shouted frivolously: "Beauty! Give me a smile!"

It was the type of bottom-level male she found annoying, who liked to pick on young girls, acting recklessly because young girls dared not risk their lives.

Reasonably speaking, when Zhu Ning encountered such a thing, she would either ignore it or go up and teach him a lesson. But she looked back at the tramp today.

The fourth one. This person was a superpower user. Although she couldn't judge what superpower user he was, his way of pretending to be a drunkard was very immature. His tone and actions were very similar, but unfortunately, the details betrayed him.

His back was tense, like a leopard that could leap from the ground at any time.

A real drunkard was completely limp, wishing to relax every bone. She had never seen a drunkard with such hard bones.

The winning chance dropped to thirty percent. But thirty percent wasn't low. After all, fighting with zombies, the winning chance was at most ten percent.

All athletes had an adventurous spirit. They had to surpass the peak in front of them. Zhu Ning used to be very interested in extreme sports. The more tense and exciting it was, the more it could arouse her competitiveness. Otherwise, she wouldn't dare to walk this path.

Zhu Ning stopped. She suddenly stopped five meters away from the tramp without warning, hands in pockets, and then looked at the tramp.

The tramp obviously didn't expect Zhu Ning's sudden action. He froze for two seconds. Zhu Ning hadn't left yet.

The tramp put down the wine bottle, seeming to give up the disguise. A pair of turbid eyes stared straight at Zhu Ning, like some kind of carnivore. He was waiting for the instruction from above. As long as the instruction came down, he could instantly move to bite Zhu Ning to pieces.

The person behind Zhu Ning also stopped at the same time. Guessed right. That person indeed followed her all the way.

Zhu Ning glanced at the person on the roof out of the corner of her eye. She didn't see any trace. He should have completely blended into the darkness, lying dormant quietly.

The Mech-Warrior was furthest from her. It seemed he guessed Zhu Ning's metal manipulation ability and dared not get too close. Once the fight started, the Metal Warrior would only be on the periphery of the battle circle. Looking at their personnel configuration, one could actually guess the approximate formation and tactics.

Forty percent. The winning chance increased by ten percent.

It was late at night. There were a few real passersby in the slums. They didn't understand the situation and glanced here when passing by, completely failing to understand this tense atmosphere.

But instinct made them stay away and not approach. The more bottom-level people were, the more sensitive they were to danger. A battle seemed about to break out here.

Passersby became fewer and fewer. Nearby residents began to turn off lights, seeming to make room for them. Hunting a superpower user would take at most three minutes.

Ring ring ring—

A burst of telephone ringing sounded without warning, like a stone thrown into the water. Visibly, these four people became nervous at the same time.

Ring ring ring ring—

The telephone was still ringing.

Zhu Ning, as the assassination target, was actually the most relaxed one among them. She looked back. The sound came from the nearest red telephone booth.

The telephone booth was old, the red paint mottling, and the glass door covered with a layer of dust. Technology developed rapidly, but some parts were not covered by high technology, such as the slums.

Some of their equipment still retained the most primitive state. In the eyes of the poor, it was backward. In the eyes of internet celebrities, it was retro and nostalgic. Many internet celebrities even came to check in.

The phone rang incessantly. After one minute, it hung up automatically. Immediately after, someone called in again. The other party was quite persistent.

There were only four people here. The call should be for one of them. Those four people remained motionless, seeming to guard against any movement from Zhu Ning at any time.

Zhu Ning tilted her head, breaking the silence. "No one answering? Or shall I go answer it?"

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