Chapter 100-I Clean Up Garbage in a Wasteland World

Chapter 100 The Forsaken Village (IV)

After Zhu Ning spoke, she actually moved. She was a bit apprehensive too—the world beyond the wall was completely different from inside. She wasn't entirely sure whether her casual action would invite trouble.

Zhu Ning tentatively shifted her hands and feet, stepping over the still-steaming corpses on the ground, advancing toward the Contamination Spores.

Many people around her were watching. Zhu Ning had the best conditions among them. If even she ran into trouble, it would prove this place was dangerously uncontrollable.

Most of the Contamination Spores had already been collected. Only a scattered patch remained to the north. Even one person alone could finish collecting them.

Zhu Ning now fully understood the meaning of those warnings.

During her movements, she even avoided the small flowers and grass along the path. If another mutated plant like before appeared, their entire team would likely be wiped out.

Zhu Ning walked about ten steps and approached the patch of Contamination Spores. Because of the time elapsed, these spores had dispersed and scattered somewhat.

The dropper approached a Contamination Spore. The blood-red spore was collected.

After collecting the first one, Zhu Ning paused for a moment. She could only hear the wind. Nothing else. That yellow flower hadn't returned either.

Safe?

It seemed fine. Zhu Ning collected three Contamination Spores when she heard rustling sounds nearby—it was Xu Meng and Li Nianchuan. They'd come to help.

Finish the work early, go home early. Having one person work while everyone else watched was a waste of time. Both Xu Meng and Li Nianchuan understood this. They just had to be careful not to make unnecessary movements.

With Zhu Ning's three-person team moving, others gradually started moving too. They had to endure the nausea while overcoming their fear, collecting the rotting flesh on the ground.

The rotting flesh was mixed with their colleagues' corpses. Looking down, they could see numerous severed limbs. Fortunately, the Cleaners' job was collecting rotting flesh—nobody in the team vomited.

Their work was called the body collection squad. They'd thought they were used to corpses, but this time they had to face their own colleagues' bodies.

Because they didn't dare move carelessly, everyone held their breath while working. Their movements were extremely slow and stiff. What should have been an hour's work took nearly two hours to complete.

Zhu Ning gained an additional 167 Purity Points. Her total now stood at 8,001. Collecting Contamination Spores was a guaranteed profit for her.

By the time they finished, the sky had already darkened. Evening had arrived, and the sun was setting.

But because of the overcast weather, the sunset wasn't very obvious—just a gloomy streak of red falling behind the mountain village, like the bloody silhouette of the forsaken village.

The good news was that by being careful enough, they hadn't triggered a second mutation. This time, no one had died.

They'd initially tried to bring their colleagues' bodies home, but later found the operation too difficult and largely pointless. They couldn't even manage to dig graves.

But plants and flowers that died in nature didn't need graves either. After death, their bodies returned to nature, re-entering the natural cycle.

So they simply observed three minutes of silence, took the easily portable belongings, then assembled to prepare for evacuation.

The garrison troops inspected the scene and finally agreed to lead them back. Three garrison soldiers—two at the front blazing the trail, one bringing up the rear—with the Cleaners sandwiched in between.

They had to return the same way they'd come, from the hills behind the village toward the forsaken village.

Nobody spoke on the way back. The group carried a deathly calm. It was too oppressive.

Zhu Ning was in the middle-to-rear section of the formation. She planned to ask some questions of Cleaners who'd been on missions beyond the wall before. Those who'd survived were almost all veterans of beyond-the-wall missions—they were calmer than pure newcomers.

Zhu Ning inconspicuously moved beside someone. "Senior, I'm Zhu Ning."

The person frowned when he heard her voice. His sanity was plummeting right now, and he was in a defensive state, viewing everyone with hostility. But seeing it was Zhu Ning, his attitude softened slightly. "Jin Tao."

Zhu Ning had opened a private channel that outsiders couldn't hear. "Senior Jin, how many times have you been out here?"

Jin Tao had seen Zhu Ning's videos on the forum and had a favorable impression of her. "Second time."

Only the second time too.

Jin Tao realized Zhu Ning hadn't been at the Sanitation Center long and probably wasn't very clear on things, so he explained: "Beyond-the-wall missions aren't frequently assigned to any particular squad. Most people have only been out once or twice. Twice makes you a veteran."

Was it to prevent frequent trips beyond the wall from causing mental problems? Or to avoid letting Cleaners know too many secrets about what lay beyond?

Zhu Ning asked: "Was it like this before?"

Jin Tao: "I don't know if you've looked at the mortality rates. It's only 0% or 100%. Last time I didn't encounter anything."

Thinking back to last time felt surreal to Jin Tao. That time they'd treated it as an ordinary mission—collected Contamination Spores, assembled, and returned to the city. They'd even enjoyed the pastoral scenery beyond the wall.

So actually, people who'd been out here didn't have much experience to share. There wasn't much to learn from asking. Zhu Ning thanked him and was about to return to her position when Jin Tao suddenly said: "But I heard them say to be careful of the garrison troops."

Hm? Be careful of the garrison troops?

Weren't these people supposed to be leading them?

Even knowing outsiders couldn't hear their conversation, Zhu Ning unconsciously lowered her voice. "Why?"

"Don't know," Jin Tao glanced backward and likewise lowered his voice. "A former colleague told me. Said that bunch aren't good people. Living beyond the wall long-term has made them aberrant—they're different from us."

"I heard," Jin Tao's voice dropped even lower, "they specifically lure people from inside the wall to feed these Contaminants. Previous Cleaners who had incidents were all because of them."

Zhu Ning's brow furrowed. Even if it was a rumor, it was an extremely serious one.

And if this was the truth, the Sanitation Center hadn't intervened to investigate?

With Cleaners dying frequently, the Abnormal Incident Investigation Team would definitely step in, right?

"Be careful around them," Jin Tao spoke through gritted teeth, clearly harboring resentment toward the garrison. "They're not quite normal."

Jin Tao didn't provide much more information. Actually, this was understandable—inside and outside the wall operated on two different logics.

The garrison lived beyond the wall. Was their mental state really okay? They saw corpses without any reaction whatsoever.

Thinking back to before they'd arrived, their attitude had been strange too. Though they'd issued some warnings, they weren't strict at all. Of course, every team had different styles.

But their attitude toward death was extremely calm. Seeing people die didn't faze them at all.

Actually, Zhu Ning could sense it. From the moment she'd encountered the first garrison soldier, she'd felt these people weren't the same species as her.

Zhu Ning didn't say more to Jin Tao. By this time, they'd already retraced their steps and entered the interior of the forsaken village. This path was no different from when they'd arrived—the same abandoned village houses.

When Zhu Ning turned back, she happened to pass the house with the deity statue. She stiffened. The statue inside was still there, looking sinister, as if monitoring everyone who passed by.

The first time she'd seen it, she'd only found it a bit eerie. After experiencing the yellow flower, looking at the statue again, she truly felt it was alive.

This village seemed to be watching people.

Though the System hadn't alerted her, her sanity had probably dropped too. She had to get back quickly.

Zhu Ning slowed her pace and moved to the very back of the formation. There was a garrison soldier bringing up the rear here.

Zhu Ning had just walked up beside him when, before she could speak, he spoke first: "What's your name?"

"Zhu Ning."

"I'm Jiang Ping." He glanced at Zhu Ning. "You're stronger than the rest of them. I can tell."

Though Zhu Ning hadn't actually fought, he'd seen the text messages she'd posted in the public channel. Daring to send messages in that situation already took considerable courage.

Moreover, Zhu Ning had actually observed and deduced the yellow flower's behavioral pattern. These people were still alive because of her. Jiang Ping had seen too many people—he could tell at a glance that Zhu Ning's aptitude was well-suited for wilderness survival. She would definitely survive to the end.

Zhu Ning had originally come to ask questions but was complimented first. Still, that was good—it closed the distance. At least Jiang Ping held no hostility toward her.

Zhu Ning asked: "If we retrace our steps, can we evacuate safely?"

Jiang Ping: "Not necessarily."

Zhu Ning frowned. That wasn't what they'd said earlier.

Jiang Ping: "You've already triggered it. Anything could happen on the road. This thing is only 0% or 100%."

That probability again. So once triggered, there was no escaping it?

Zhu Ning chatted while watching the main group ahead. Everyone was on high alert. Panic continued spreading through the ranks. They knew nothing about this.

If it really was that probability, would they all die here together?

Zhu Ning chose to ask some more practical questions. "Why couldn't that flower earlier be killed with firearms?"

Jiang Ping scoffed, thinking Zhu Ning had asked a stupid question. "You people from inside the wall—do you think firearms and weapons can conquer everything?"

Most of the time, human weapons were effective. People relied heavily on technology and on firearms.

Jiang Ping: "Let me put it this way. When you clear a Contamination Zone, don't you have to find the Source of Contamination first, then kill it, and afterward the other Contaminants naturally die along with it?"

Zhu Ning nodded. "That rule doesn't apply beyond the wall?"

"It applies," Jiang Ping's voice was grim. "But how do you know which Source of Contamination that flower belongs to?"

Zhu Ning froze. So that was it. Inside the wall, most of the land wasn't contaminated. Contamination Zones had boundaries when they appeared.

You entered a Contamination Zone, found the Source of Contamination, eliminated it, and the other subsidiary Contaminants naturally collapsed. After the Contaminants died, they released Contamination Spores, and Cleaners entered to collect the corpses and spores.

That was the original workflow.

The logic itself was sound, but beyond the wall, all the land was contaminated. If there was no enclosed Contamination Zone, wasn't all of nature one giant Contamination Zone? Or rather, beyond the wall was countless Contamination Zones layered on top of each other.

The area was too vast. Contamination Zones had no boundaries. How could they find the Source of Contamination?

So that flower earlier couldn't be killed by bullets. Even if killed, it would quickly revive because the Source of Contamination still existed.

And this was probably just the surface-level rule of beyond-the-wall survival. Deeper experience, Jiang Ping hadn't told her.

Zhu Ning finally felt a bone-deep chill. Entering beyond the wall meant losing protection. If she encountered random trouble, she could only chalk it up to bad luck—there wasn't even a proper way to escape.

Every warning Fan Minghua had issued was gospel truth. Entering beyond the wall meant walking into the Contaminants' world, having to follow the rules of their world.

Beyond the wall, Contaminants were gods. Humans were livestock.

All human resistance was passive.

Zhu Ning asked: "Can I ask about your job duties?"

"What?" Jiang Ping turned his head to look at her. "You interested in our work?"

Jiang Ping was thoroughly gloomy, and his speech wasn't particularly polite either. "Our job—we can't do anything. When I came, I thought I'd be guarding District 103. Later I found out that was bullshit."

"We can only patrol, investigate, write reports. If we encounter a formed, enclosed Contamination Zone, we assess it. If it needs clearing, we contact the Sanitation Center and they send people to handle it."

The environment beyond the wall was complex—one Contamination Zone layered on another. This was beyond the first protective wall. They had a metric: they couldn't let the contamination density here exceed a certain value.

So they had to scout. If a certain place formed an enclosed Contamination Zone causing severe contamination, they had to find people to resolve it.

During investigations, they'd lose many teammates. It was extremely cost-ineffective, yet this work had to be done.

Before Zhu Ning and the others arrived, when they'd discovered this Contamination Zone, they'd already lost six teammates.

So they'd become numb to death. Moreover, living beyond the wall long-term made people feel aimless, with no reference points to follow.

Hard work, vigilance, intelligence—these were all positive qualities, but beyond the wall, they didn't mean much.

What they needed most was luck. Sometimes people were just unlucky. Even if you possessed the world's finest qualities, you could still be killed by a Contaminant that appeared out of nowhere.

Sometimes people were just fortunate. Even if you knew nothing, you could traverse beyond the wall without a scratch.

Having survived this long, they held infinite reverence for nature and for life.

Everything was too random.

In that instant, Zhu Ning understood Pei Shu. No wonder he'd been so dejected after returning from beyond the wall. They could clearly recognize they seemed to be doing futile work, yet were compelled to continue because of some goal.

In this process, there were no obvious gains, only obvious losses. You had to watch your teammates die, unable to do anything.

In the end, you'd keep asking yourself: why was I the one who survived?

Just because I was lucky?

Zhu Ning fell silent for a moment, not even knowing how to respond. This job would make it impossible for anyone to maintain inner peace.

Jiang Ping: "You want to bring them back?"

Zhu Ning hummed in acknowledgment. "We came together. We should leave together."

Jiang Ping could tell Zhu Ning was very different. Though she hadn't done anything major, being the first to respond to him, the first to step forward to collect Contamination Spores—that proved her sanity was very high.

Moreover, she had influence over the team. These people had experienced their colleagues' deaths and were at the nadir of their sanity. In this state, they were still willing to trust Zhu Ning. She possessed a peculiar kind of influence.

She was like a mental lighthouse.

In group operations, influential people were extremely rare.

Jiang Ping: "A word of advice—be careful of your teammates' mental states."

Zhu Ning frowned. That was in the Cleaner work guidelines.

Work Guideline Number Two: Always watch your teammates.

Cleaners who worked long enough would suffer varying degrees of Psychic Contamination. Their workload this time had clearly exceeded capacity. After experiencing so much, most people's sanity was in critical condition.

Perhaps because of Zhu Ning's invisible influence, they could still maintain their current surface calm.

But how long could Zhu Ning's influence on them last? Once they started doubting Zhu Ning too, this team would completely descend into madness.

Jiang Ping: "I've seen too many cases of people killing each other."

Zhu Ning froze. This time, their weapon permissions were fully unlocked. Because they were beyond the wall and the situation was uncontrollable, they had to be given the right to self-defense.

This was the result of comprehensive consideration from all angles. Nobody wanted to go beyond the wall unable to fire their guns.

But once unlocked, what followed became uncontrollable.

Everyone possessed weapons. Gun barrels could randomly point at anyone. This was equivalent to handing out a batch of firearms to a group of potential mental patients.

The next challenge wasn't Contaminants—it was humanity.

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Author's Note:

We've reached Chapter 100! Fifteen thousand collections!

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