Chapter 109-I Clean Up Garbage in a Wasteland World

Chapter 109 The Forsaken Village (XIII)

Rustle—

A gust of wind blew. The corpses hanging from the tree swayed, tilting crookedly. Even standing beneath the tree, you could clearly see something hanging above.

Jiang Ping looked up, seeing dozens of feet dangling in the air.

This time it wasn't Cui Kai who spoke, but Jiang Ping. "You humans really are arrogant. Worms don't deserve to be contamination sources?"

Zhu Ning's heart skipped a beat. Jiang Ping really was the contamination source. No—the worm really was the contamination source.

Every time Zhu Ning had entered a contamination zone, the contamination source had been human. The only non-human was Experimental Subject 777, which theoretically had no contamination source, which was why people could get trapped and die inside.

And 777 didn't have very complex thoughts.

Chu Qing had forcibly bound Huang Yaruo to become Experimental Subject 777's mother. After years of nurturing, its intelligence was at most equivalent to a four or five-year-old child, calling for mama every day.

It was absolutely nothing like what stood before her. If a worm could become a contamination source, it would shatter everything Zhu Ning had understood until now.

Could worms possess human intelligence and human emotions? It could even form its own contamination zone.

Forming a contamination zone was extremely complex. The contaminants inside had to be self-consistent, following logical rules.

Zhu Ning had always assumed such a complex village must have a human contamination source, because this kind of complex emotion was supposed to be uniquely human.

Zhu Ning saw Xu Meng pause in the shadows. She knew Xu Meng was thinking the same thing.

If the worm before them could become a contamination source, the logic behind it was worth exploring.

Zhu Ning could only continue along her line of thought. "You came to Happiness Village through some means. First you parasitized Old Wu, then you returned to the village. But when you first parasitized him, you were clumsy. You weren't used to a human body, so every day you practiced piano awkwardly."

Jiang Ping looked down at his own hands. "Human limbs really are hard to control."

Cui Kai and Xiao Yilei also looked down, saying simultaneously, "Human limbs really are hard to control."

Three people said the same sentence, with identical movements and tone.

Cui Kai was really dead.

Cui Kai and Xiao Yilei had become puppets of the worm. They had just been communicating moments ago. Cui Kai had genuinely wanted to lead the team and get these Cleaners home.

Now not only was he dead, but he was being controlled against his will.

If these three attacked, they would have terrifyingly coordinated combat ability. No—it would include the villagers too. They were all one entity.

All the villagers were its eyes. Zhu Ning finally understood the feeling of being watched when she first came to Happiness Village.

She had walked into a trap from the very beginning.

Dozens of pairs of villagers' eyes looked over in unison. Three Garrison Troops stood before her, their movements perfectly synchronized.

Staring too long felt like mental contamination.

Zhu Ning suppressed the urge to flee and asked, "You didn't understand anything at first?"

Jiang Ping spoke like a mischievous child. "At first? I was no different from any other worm."

So it had been unable to impersonate Old Wu, full of flaws.

The first time it merged with a human was the hardest. It suddenly possessed a brain, received massive amounts of information, read all of Old Wu's memories.

It knew it had to play piano, but couldn't control human fingers.

It couldn't play coherent melodies or write normal handwriting. During that time, it was in a daze, constantly afraid of being discovered.

Every villager who came to care for it seemed like an enemy.

"Jiang Ping" flexed his fingers. Beside him, Cui Kai and Xiao Yilei also flexed their fingers, perfectly synchronized, same arc—thirty fingers moving together.

The three of them connected looked like some kind of writhing worm creature.

Its voice sounded puzzled. "Humans only have ten fingers. How can it be so difficult?"

It had spent a lot of effort getting used to human limbs, like driving a car—you know where the steering wheel and gas pedal are, but you can't drive well.

Zhu Ning asked, "What do you feed on? Human sanity?"

Dr. Fu had once said that if a contaminant parasitized a human body, the only thing it could consume was human sanity.

Dr. Fu had mentioned all this during casual conversation. Only now did Zhu Ning remember.

"Jiang Ping" made a sound of surprise. "Has technology inside the walls developed this far?"

Was that an admission?

So this worm had initially parasitized Old Wu's body, suddenly gaining intelligence and human emotions, feeding on Old Wu's sanity.

Zhu Ning said, "Slowly, you found Old Wu's body wasn't working well. You set your sights on Shengxin, didn't you?"

Zhu Ning didn't know Shengxin, but based on her understanding, an old lady who hunted would definitely have very stable sanity.

"Jiang Ping" clicked his tongue. "She was too vigilant. At first, I couldn't even get close to her."

So it hadn't immediately gone after Shengxin. It slowly infected the entire village. Zhu Ning couldn't guess exactly how—maybe by laying eggs, letting the eggs parasitize first.

It had consumed the villagers' sanity, including Grandma Afen and Old Du.

It was strategic, wanting to drive Shengxin to lose her mind so it could take advantage.

"Afen passed a note to Shengxin," Zhu Ning said. "Old Zhang also told her to run."

"Jiang Ping" thought carefully. These memories were somewhat distant for it. It was very cautious, pondering before answering Zhu Ning's question. "I didn't expect back then that humans could still struggle after being infected. But I know now."

"Jiang Ping" spoke with a smile, as if this secret was very valuable.

Zhu Ning suppressed her discomfort and asked, "You killed Shengxin?"

"Jiang Ping's" voice darkened at this. "Her mind wasn't right. She wanted to kill me."

Zhu Ning frowned. So Shengxin really had considered suicide. She'd already thrown the rope over the branch.

Shengxin had tied a knot for herself. It was evening then, the setting sun covering the big locust tree like blood.

She stood teetering on the branch, one foot already stepping out, then pulled back.

She couldn't bear it. If she was destined to die, she couldn't bear to die while that worm lived on perfectly fine.

She gripped her gun handle, preparing to fight back. Even if she died, she'd take one with her.

That was the best opportunity, Shengxin thought. If she didn't kill it now, it would harm more people later.

Shengxin jumped down from the big locust tree. She was going to kill the Mother Worm.

"But she failed."

Zhu Ning had already seen Shengxin's fate. That corpse was still swaying above her head.

"Jiang Ping" looked up, squinting at the corpse in the tree. From this angle, he couldn't see clearly. He stepped back two paces, walking out of the tree's shadow, exposing himself to the setting sun. From this angle, he could see—he saw the corpse among the leaves.

Every time the wind blew, it revealed the corner of the corpse's clothing.

"So I fulfilled her wish and hung her corpse on the tree."

It had once "helped" Shengxin fulfill her wish, hanging her corpse on the tree, as if completing some predetermined ritual.

"Later I encountered more and more people. I hung all their corpses on the tree too. Otherwise Shengxin would be too lonely."

Rustle—

The corpses overhead seemed to respond to Jiang Ping's words. When they swayed, it was as if they were dancing together—a very eerie dance, performed by corpses, accompanied by the rustling of leaves, like some ancient ritual.

This wasn't antisocial. It had no concept of society at all.

Zhu Ning still wasn't used to the fact that she was having a conversation with a worm. She forced herself to continue. "Over these seventy years, you've been constantly reproducing and evolving."

Civilians who wandered in, exploration teams, Garrison Troops—they entered the village and became its hosts.

It read human memories again and again, becoming more and more intelligent, more and more skilled at impersonating humans.

Zhu Ning said, "Jiang Ping was just a Garrison Troop who wandered in, right?"

"Cui Kai misunderstood Jiang Ping," it sighed. "He really was a good person. He never betrayed humanity."

Jiang Ping had always been on patrol duty. This job was dangerous with no reward, but Jiang Ping believed that for humanity to continue its flame, someone had to do this work.

Every time he led a team on a mission, he was very dedicated. He would promise to send the Cleaners back inside the walls.

Back then, Jiang Ping was young, full of passion. His enthusiasm had been worn down, but he'd never betrayed anyone.

So he'd long been prepared to die outside the walls. That day he wandered into the contamination zone. The rule for all Garrison Troops was: once you wander into a contamination zone, you have to save yourself. No one will come to rescue you.

Jiang Ping had no end-of-life care when he died. He couldn't even hear Prometheus's voice. He gradually despaired in the forsaken village, thinking the worst outcome was just death.

But he hadn't expected an even worse ending—being parasitized.

"I've seen his memories. I completely can't understand what meaning his job had."

They were all human. Why could some people live inside the walls while others were forced to live alongside contaminants?

"So I helped him fulfill a small wish."

In the final moments of his life, Jiang Ping had experienced very strong emotions. The closer to death, the more humans tended to overthink, and the more they wanted to struggle.

Jiang Ping had hated his job, cursed his superiors, cursed the contaminated world.

This world was destined to be contaminated sooner or later. It didn't mind speeding up the process.

So it deliberately led people into contamination zones. It had calculated the probability of incidents outside the walls and could control it within a certain range. Missions outside the walls already had extremely high mortality rates—besides Cui Kai, probably no one would notice. The Cleaner mortality rate climbed year after year, eventually reaching an extreme of 0 to 100%—either safe return or total annihilation.

Zhu Ning clenched her fist. She seemed to understand now about those Cleaners who'd been killed. They had all died for these inexplicable reasons.

Just because of a worm.

Zhu Ning asked, "How did you pass the inspections?"

The worm had never attracted attention all these years. The Sanitation Center had strict inspection procedures after every mission. The Garrison Troops must have them too. How had it escaped?

Click—

It didn't answer immediately. Instead, it removed its helmet. It didn't need to wear a helmet in this contamination zone.

Zhu Ning saw Jiang Ping's face for the first time. He looked very refined, fair-skinned, the type who seemed somewhat obedient and shy.

Jiang Ping wasn't old—probably around twenty. He'd joined the Garrison Troops very early.

Now "Jiang Ping" held his helmet and gazed over calmly, standing in the forsaken village quietly feeling the breeze. It watched Zhu Ning with one eye while a worm crawled out of its eye socket—the worm was staring at Zhu Ning.

It had destroyed the real Jiang Ping.

"Jiang Ping was the most interesting body I've parasitized. He had no parents, no friends, no close companions. So much like me."

Jiang Ping had been extremely lonely, so no one noticed when he was parasitized.

The real Jiang Ping couldn't find anyone to rely on inside the walls—just a lonely worm in human society, just like it.

It tilted its head. Its eyeball had completely fallen out, yet a smile still hung at the corner of its mouth. "I also learned how you humans deal with contaminants."

Zhu Ning frowned. The contamination incident had occurred in New Calendar Year 10. Now it was New Calendar Year 80. The worm had evolved over seventy years, finding different hosts during this time.

Jiang Ping was the most satisfactory one.

Because it could completely infiltrate human society and learn how humans dealt with it.

"The first time I was inspected, I was terrified. I thought humans would discover me and kill me. But they couldn't find anything."

"Jiang Ping" looked at Zhu Ning. "How strange. According to the inspection data, I was actually a qualified human."

Technological development simply couldn't keep up with the speed of contamination. Just as the Sanitation Center couldn't find the system in Zhu Ning's head, Zhu Ning had escaped the Sanitation Center's inspections again and again, and it had escaped the Garrison Troops' inspections again and again.

"My sanity is really very stable. From a human perspective, I must be very self-consistent."

Current instruments could detect contaminants but couldn't detect ability users, because ability users had more stable mental states.

"Jiang Ping" was a self-consistent contaminant.

It was very calm, not insane—a naturally evolved, advanced worm species.

Humans were evolving, and worms were evolving too.

Zhu Ning thought carefully about this and found she couldn't think too deeply.

Now "Jiang Ping's" existence proved that a tree, a flower, a worm were all evolving too. They could merge with humans, achieving complete self-consistency, evading all current technological inspections.

In terms of composition, what was the difference between such a parasite and an experimental subject like Zhu Ning?

Take Synthetics for example—wasn't Li Nianchuan a human merged with canine genes?

Was this "Jiang Ping" now a human merged with worm genes?

Such a person might enter the walls without anyone noticing. His situation wouldn't be unique—it might have existed for many years already.

Zhu Ning asked, "Do you have others like you?"

"Jiang Ping" looked toward the distant setting sun. Half his face was dyed red by the sunset, like a layer of rouge.

It didn't fully understand this contamination zone itself. After being human for so many years, it still didn't fully understand human emotions. Humans really were difficult creatures to comprehend.

"I'm guessing yes."

If the whole world was evolving, one worm wouldn't be an isolated case. Human and natural genes had been merging long ago. Without humans knowing, natural genes had been reshuffled.

"Jiang Ping" wasn't alone.

Zhu Ning felt a wave of panic. There were similar contaminants inside the walls.

The apocalypse approaches; we are all but ants.

How should this phrase be understood? If there were such worms inside the walls, where should humanity's defensive line be established?

If "Jiang Ping" had no hostility toward humans, if it just lived in the world, were they enemies of humanity or kin?

They possessed powerful abilities, but in essence they were just... worms.

What could you expect from a worm?

Pei Shu had said: why insist on categorizing people? Perhaps this was part of what he meant. Outside the walls, nothing was strange.

What you encountered could easily shatter your common sense. Humanity's understanding of the contaminated world might not even be half complete.

Rules, categories—these were the customs of people inside the walls. Outside the walls, there was only chaos and disorder.

Zhu Ning had been forcing herself to stay calm. The "Jiang Ping" before her had taken seventy years to barely evolve to this state.

It could evade all inspections, but it didn't seem stable. This forsaken village was the best evidence.

Zhu Ning said, "Happiness Village is your contamination zone, or should I say, your nest?"

Treating it as a real human for now, this place held its obsession. There must be something Zhu Ning hadn't figured out yet.

"Both. I like it here. This is probably what you humans call homesickness?" It smiled, answering rather shyly.

Zhu Ning frowned at the word "homesickness." She felt a worm shouldn't have such thoughts, but it did.

It had traveled to so many places, but its favorite was still this forsaken village.

Zhu Ning asked, "You deliberately led us here?"

When Zhu Ning and the others came, this road had been safe. The Demon Hunters had gone in and out twice without incident. The Garrison Troops had patrolled the forsaken village multiple times without knowing there was a contamination zone here.

But when they retreated, something happened.

"Jiang Ping" had an ability—it could trigger the contamination zone. When Zhu Ning and the others walked here, it had been triggered.

How was this done? Was it related to the Mother Worm?

Zhu Ning asked, "You want to kill us?"

"No," it immediately denied, gazing deeply at Zhu Ning with an extremely affectionate look. "I've taken a liking to your body."

It could sense Zhu Ning's extremely high sanity, stable emotions, powerful inner core, and... that fragrance.

Very attractive. So fragrant.

Zhu Ning was like the most tempting red apple on a fruit tree. It really wanted to crawl inside.

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