Chapter 79-I Clean Up Garbage in a Wasteland World
Chapter 79 Black Dental Clinic-10
Thud—
Gao Zijian's body crashed to the ground. He was dead. His death was ugly—probably few people in the world had ever experienced dying from a heart explosion.
Blood-drop-like Contamination Spores emerged from his body. The other Contaminants in the dental clinic instantly lost their vitality. Whether dentists, Xu Mei, or homeless people, they all collapsed, turning into piles of bloody, rotting flesh.
Liquid Manipulation really was useful. No wonder it consumed so much health.
Using it once consumed 50 points, which was why Zhu Ning hadn't even been willing to try it at home before. Moreover, it wasn't until Zhu Ning got close to the dentist and touched his arm that the System prompted her that she could trigger the Liquid Manipulation talent.
Did she need to touch skin? Or touch the target of use? She still hadn't completely figured out the usage rules.
The reward descriptions were always vague. Most of them required Zhu Ning to figure out through trial and error. This damn System was practically making her risk her life.
The damn System had just made an announcement:
Ding—
[Congratulations on completing random mission: Black Dental Clinic. Purification level 100%. Congratulations on finding the secret of the toothache. Congratulations on helping the dentist resolve his inner conflict. Another day of friendly mutual assistance.]
[Calculating rewards...]
[Congratulations on receiving basic reward. Sanity restored to 100. Luck increased to 50.]
[Congratulations on receiving Purity Points reward: 5000. Current total Purity Points: 5054.]
[Congratulations on receiving Black Dental Clinic reward: Dentist's Drill.]
[Reward description: B-rank contaminated item. A high-speed rotating drill is a sharp tool for drilling through hard objects. Sharper than any existing dagger or drill. Please note: each use will consume 20 health points.]
[Congratulations on receiving beginner talent: Gravity Ignore. This is a beginner talent effective within 30 meters. Please note: this talent only applies to the user themselves and cannot directly affect other people or objects. Using this talent will consume 30 health points.]
[Congratulations on receiving random mission reward: Skin Hardening.]
[Reward description: When used, you will gain the Skin Hardening ability. Your body will be covered with a white hard membrane that can resist any existing dagger or explosive. Please note: this item will consume health points, calculated based on duration and coverage area. A countdown panel will provide prompts during use. Rough calculation: to achieve full body coverage with Skin Hardening for one minute will consume 100 health points.]
Zhu Ning: "..."
Hearing this, she nearly choked on her own blood. The System's items were heading down the pay-to-win path.
She had thought Liquid Manipulation was expensive enough. Now it seemed she hadn't seen the world.
If she wanted full-body hardened skin coverage for one minute, it would actually consume 100 health points. And this thing purely burned health points—without using it, it was hard to estimate actual consumption.
For example, if Zhu Ning wanted to harden the skin on her neck the instant an enemy's blade came down, like the dentist did, she wouldn't know how much health it would cost beforehand.
What if she ran out of health points mid-use? She'd probably die at the System's hands before dying at the enemy's.
Also, she had a question: between Skin Hardening and the Dentist's Drill, which was more powerful? Both came from the dentist. Using her own spear against her own shield—which was harder?
What interested her most was Gravity Ignore. She didn't know how to ignore gravity. Did it mean physics ceased to exist? The range was huge—actually 30 meters—but it could only be used on herself.
Did this mean Zhu Ning could ignore gravity within a 30-meter range? The usage cost was a bit high, making her reluctant to try.
Even trying it out consumed health points. Was the System created by some pay-to-win game designer?
She had 5054 Purity Points, but Zhu Ning didn't exchange anything this time. She planned to deal with it later. Right now, she only had 24 health points left.
Zhu Ning felt very calm looking at her health balance. She had gotten used to risking her life with dangerously low health.
Her luck had been steadily increasing, already at 50—same as an ordinary person. Was she now Lucky Little Zhu?
Zhu Ning stood among the Contamination Spores, quietly feeling them. This time her helmet was damaged. Having been in the Contamination Zone for so long, theoretically she should have been contaminated.
She carefully felt for any changes in herself, then discovered—no changes at all. The mutation panel showed nothing either.
She actually, once again, hadn't mutated. Could a more powerful Contaminant please contaminate her?
Zhu Ning removed her battered helmet. The helmet's edge was broken, with irregular metal teeth that were sharp enough to accidentally cut someone's neck.
After removing the helmet, she instinctively took a deep breath. It stank.
All the Contaminants had turned into rotting flesh. The entire five-story dental clinic was scattered with various pieces of rotten meat.
The rotting flesh and overwhelming smell of blood rushed straight to the top of her head. She silently pinched her nose, thinking that Cleaners and Demon Hunters wearing helmets on missions was very necessary.
Zhu Ning's peripheral vision caught Gao Zijian's corpse. The dead Gao Zijian had also turned into rotting flesh. Zhu Ning had no sympathy for Gao Zijian. In fact, if not for the System's mission, she wouldn't have been interested in Gao Zijian's past at all.
Inside Gao Zijian's rotting corpse, there was a shiny metal object that caught her attention. Zhu Ning used a dagger to pick it out. It was a key.
It looked the same as Xu Mei's and the other dentists' keys—probably uniformly issued by The Ant Nest. Only the numbers on it were different: (34, 39).
Just upstairs?
The System said there were clues, but hadn't broadcast any side mission progress bar. Her work in this Contamination Zone wasn't done yet.
The dental clinic had five floors total. Floors 35 to 39 all belonged to the dental clinic's scope. Now the sky bridges had been opened by Gao Zijian, meaning Zhu Ning could find where he lived by following the emergency stairwell from the dental clinic's fifth floor.
Right now Zhu Ning was on the fifth floor, with Gao Zijian's corpse lying at her feet.
She looked coldly to the right. According to her sense of direction, the path on the right should lead to Building 34. And the right side corresponded to where Zhu Ning had encountered the upside-down little girl in the bathroom. After the renovation, the emergency stairwell door had been made smaller, right next to the bathroom.
The first time Zhu Ning was startled by the little girl in the bathroom, she hadn't thought in that direction at all. Now it seemed the more terrifying a place was, the more it was somewhere Gao Zijian didn't want people to approach. Gao Zijian's home should be just behind there.
Zhu Ning hesitated for a second between going to get a spare protective suit and going up like this, then chose to go up directly. Changing clothes would take time. What if someone got there first? Then Zhu Ning would have worked for nothing.
Zhu Ning exited through the emergency stairwell. This should be the path Gao Zijian took to work every day.
The corridor was dark and oppressive. Years of accumulated negative emotions, plus the psychic contamination constantly emanating from the metal walls, had made his childhood abnormal.
Zhu Ning crossed the corridor. The other building had "34" written on it. She hadn't gone the wrong way this time.
The door plate read (34, 39). It was a vermillion door. This area was still within the Contamination Zone's range. From the corridor all the way here, Contamination Spores floated about, but only a few scattered ones—probably drifted over from elsewhere.
The Contamination Spores at this moment were like summer fireflies, actually looking like decorations for this place.
Click— Zhu Ning easily opened the door with the key.
Unlike the perverted dwelling Zhu Ning had imagined, this was just a very ordinary home. It had two bedrooms and a living room, with an estimated area of about 100 square meters.
The decoration style was very cozy. The furniture was covered with very retro lace dust covers. Was this place this retro? Even in Zhu Ning's era, only the older generation used these.
Gao Zijian was dead. The Contamination Zone would die along with him. No matter what it was like before, now this place exuded an aura of decay.
The furniture was covered in dust. The wooden floor in the living room was so old that two planks broke as soon as she stepped on them.
Zhu Ning should be the first one to enter, since the contamination source had only just died. She didn't think anyone could be faster than her. Besides, there was dust on the floor—footprints would be left wherever someone walked. There were no traces of anyone else here.
Zhu Ning moved carefully inside. For some reason, although this home looked very cozy and was no longer a Contamination Zone with no Contaminants inside—just an uninhabited house—
Zhu Ning inexplicably felt fear in her heart. She felt a bit creeped out.
It was hard to describe. Because it was too real, too full of life. You could even deduce what the original owner had done here from the home's furnishings.
The bowls and chopsticks used on the dining table hadn't been put away. A book lay face-down on the coffee table—probably set aside mid-read. The broom by the sofa had fallen over, as if still waiting for someone to pick it up.
The clothes in the washing machine hadn't been taken out to dry. Because they'd been left too long, the clothes had clumped together.
Although the house was already dilapidated and decayed, the sense of life hadn't dissipated. It was as if the owner had just left in a hurry for something urgent. When he left, he was in such a rush that nothing in the house was tidied up. Gao Zijian must have suddenly become a contamination source.
Zhu Ning had never been in a murderer's room before. Just thinking that Gao Zijian had once lived here made her feel horrified.
This was the kind of person who slept, ate, and washed here. He did the same things as most people, looking not much different from a normal person.
But somehow, somewhere, something went wrong. He became like a broken toy, missing some part, and suddenly started killing people.
There were two bedrooms total. Zhu Ning could even clearly identify which one was Gao Zijian's. His room was very simple—a 1.8-meter-wide bed inside, plus a desk.
The entire room's color scheme was black. The bedding, wardrobe, and double bed were all primarily black. The headboard had a whole row of bookshelves with some dental professional books on them.
On his nightstand were many tooth... figurines?
Zhu Ning couldn't describe what those things were. She had never seen so many tooth models. The teeth were made into monster shapes. An unknown creature with its mouth wide open had a full five rows of teeth inside—probably custom-made or self-made.
Zhu Ning could imagine Gao Zijian once stroking these things. Would he have shown an expression of enjoyment?
Gao Zijian was clearly dead, but Zhu Ning kept feeling like someone was watching her, as if a gaze still lingered here.
There should be clues in this place. Zhu Ning could only suppress her disgust and rummage through. She searched very carefully, not wanting to miss anything since she'd come all this way.
She first looked through some books. These were the easiest to convey information. Zhu Ning only skimmed through them—the professional knowledge gave her a headache.
She had turned this room upside down, like a thief had just been through. Books were scattered all over the floor. For a moment, the only sound in the room was the rustling of pages being turned.
Nothing? Zhu Ning shook the book in her hand. She had searched through everything but found nothing.
That couldn't be right. Had Prometheus tricked her?
Could it not be in this room? In the other bedroom? But Zhu Ning had glanced at it before coming in. The other room looked like no one had lived there for a long time—there wasn't even bedding inside.
Generally speaking, if you wanted to hide something, or if something was very important, you wouldn't put it in an empty room with nothing to conceal it. Besides, Gao Zijian's personality was the type to keep things firmly in his grasp.
Zhu Ning looked around Gao Zijian's room again. Something felt off.
The desk. Zhu Ning's gaze fell on the desk by the window. The desk's style didn't quite match Gao Zijian's style.
Gao Zijian's style was pure black. The bedding and wardrobe were basically all black. Only this desk was natural wood color.
And it was a very old wooden desk that looked like it had decades of history. The corners were already worn. It was older than the other furniture in this room.
The desk actually had a glass top that could hold down old photos. In Zhu Ning's era, only elderly people used this kind of desk. She had only seen one at her grandmother's house.
This was the first time she'd seen one in this era. Having such a desk in a high-tech world was simply bizarre, as if it had been forgotten for a long time.
This probably wasn't Gao Zijian's. It should have been his father's. Zhu Ning remembered Gao Zijian mentioning that his father had been a researcher at Eternal Pharma.
When the researcher left Eternal Pharma, he probably couldn't take any materials or data with him. He must have signed a confidentiality agreement before leaving. Zhu Ning figured Eternal Pharma's people would be very strict about this.
But a confidentiality agreement couldn't stop a person from keeping personal records. Even without original materials, Gao Zijian's father would have kept notes. He probably had a notebook or something similar.
Zhu Ning pulled out the chair and sat down at this desk, putting herself in the owner's shoes to experience his feelings.
What did Gao Zijian do here every day? Where would he put the notebook?
He greatly respected his father but was also full of resentment toward him. The notebook was a keepsake to Gao Zijian. His attitude toward keepsakes was probably complicated—reluctant to throw it away, wanting to look at it yet not wanting to. He probably hid it.
Creak—
Zhu Ning felt something was off about the chair she was sitting on. It made a creaking sound, like an old person's murmur.
Actually, old furniture always made sounds. Normally no one would notice, but Zhu Ning caught it.
Zhu Ning was about to investigate when suddenly, her body stiffened.
The desk faced a window. It was late at night, in an abandoned neighborhood. The actual living people in The Ant Nest probably didn't add up to five.
So this window was completely dark, like a mirror in the deep night, reflecting Zhu Ning's shadow.
In the window's reflection, she saw another blurry black figure. She didn't know when they had appeared. The person was very tall, their head touching the door frame, half their body hidden behind the door frame. They were right at the doorway!
Author's Note
System items and talent consumption chart:
1. Putrid Fish Head psychic contamination function: 5 health points
2. Putrid Fish Head speed boost function: increases movement speed 1x to 4x. 1x costs 3, 2x costs 6, 3x costs 9, 4x costs 12 health points.
3. Duplicator: 30 health points per use
4. Liquid Manipulation: 50 health points
5. Cloaking Device: 5 minutes for 10 health points
6. Dentist's Drill: 20 health points
7. Gravity Ignore: 30 health points
8. Skin Hardening: varies by time and area. Full body coverage for 1 minute costs 100 health points
9. 3D Defense Space: 20 health points
10. Beginner talent Danger Sense: no consumption
11. Beginner talent Metal Manipulation: suspected to consume sanity. Overuse may cause symptoms similar to psychic contamination.
12. Universal Key: no consumption
13. Pigman's Guillotine: no consumption, but can only be used once within 24 hours.
14. Blank Card: no consumption, can only hold one item.
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