Chapter 110-I Clean Up Garbage in a Wasteland World

Chapter 110 The Forsaken Village (XIV)

On the village road of the forsaken village.

Jin Tao had accepted Zhu Ning's orders to lead the team and calm everyone's emotions. Suddenly, he heard someone shout, "There's a worm!"

This shout was like a thunderbolt from a clear sky, immediately exploding. One team member's whole body contorted as he tried to shake off the worm on him.

The other Cleaners wanted to get away from him, but they didn't know where the worms were crawling from. There wasn't just one—worms were crawling everywhere in dense masses. Jin Tao was covered in live worms.

Jin Tao roared, "Don't move!"

This was outside the walls. Moving recklessly outside the walls meant dying faster. They remembered this rule firmly and were much calmer than before.

They forced themselves to stay still. The worms crawling on their bodies were at least two meters long, like thin snakes wrapping around people. You couldn't help but wonder if they would lay eggs on your body.

The panicking Cleaner team fell silent in an instant. They could feel their sanity was in terrible shape. Some wanted to inject Sanity Healing Agent but couldn't even manage that.

"J-Jin Tao." Someone suddenly spoke up. Because of the worms on his body, he didn't dare move, but he was staring at something behind Jin Tao.

One Cleaner's pupils kept trembling. He'd seen something more terrifying than the worms. "The—the villagers came out?"

While they were in chaos over the worms, the villagers had somehow broken through the windows.

They hadn't walked out. It was more like... they'd seeped out.

The windows still had the white mist from their breath. The eerie villagers had silently walked onto the village road, smiles hanging at the corners of their mouths, looking at them like spare food.

Had they triggered something? Was the contamination zone finally making its move?

"J-Jin Tao," someone's voice trembled, "what do we do?"

Jin Tao felt cold all over. Before he could speak, the villagers collectively opened their mouths. Their mouths were crawling with dense masses of worms. The falling worms were still squirming, then they suddenly charged at them.

Bang!

Someone was tackled to the ground.

...

On the big locust tree.

Li Nianchuan didn't dare breathe heavily. The voices of Zhu Ning and Jiang Ping's conversation came through his helmet. Every additional sentence made his heart pound.

Li Nianchuan had witnessed a conversation between a human and a worm. This worm was very intelligent. Its relationship with Zhu Ning was one of equals.

The contamination source this time was a worm?

The worm had evolved for seventy years, already possessing intelligence and even able to form a contamination zone.

So many people had worms inside their bodies. Which worm was the real Mother Worm?

Li Nianchuan couldn't even imagine what they would have to fight against next.

Creak—

Li Nianchuan had been listening too intently. He suddenly realized something was wrong in the tree. His neck stiffened as he looked up. The wind had blown aside the leaves covering the corpses. Li Nianchuan unexpectedly met a pair of clouded eyes.

Shengxin's corpse had suddenly opened its eyes. Li Nianchuan had thought she was a dead body. His first reaction upon seeing her open her eyes was that she'd come back to life.

Then he thought: this was a contamination zone. The real Shengxin had died long ago.

Shengxin's eyes were extremely clouded. A long, thin red worm crawled across the center of her eyeball, moving so fast it vanished in the blink of an eye.

But it was like evidence, proving she wasn't simply a corpse.

The rope strangled Shengxin's neck. She swayed in the wind, teetering.

Snap—

The worn hemp rope broke. Shengxin's corpse fell onto the thick branch with a crack of breaking bones. The corpse's waist bent backward, a piece of bone piercing through the white sweater, exposing a bloody bone spur.

The scene was rather nauseating, because he saw a red worm squirming out of the bone spur.

Li Nianchuan pressed his back against the tree trunk, instinctively holding his breath. Shengxin's body twitched once, then began struggling to stand up.

She was alive. She was alive.

Creak, creak—

Not just Shengxin. The corpses hanging overhead were kicking their feet hard, like ripe fruit whose stems could no longer hold them. These corpses were about to break free from the ropes around their necks and fall.

Zhu Ning and Xu Meng were still below the tree. Falling corpses could kill people.

Shengxin's corpse before him stood up like a marionette and lunged at Li Nianchuan. Li Nianchuan shouted, "Zhu Ning! Captain! Run!"

"Run!" Li Nianchuan's desperate shout came through Zhu Ning's helmet.

After he finished speaking, Zhu Ning felt the sky darken before her eyes, as if someone had thrown heavy cement bags from high above. Dozens of corpses came crashing down.

Zhu Ning dodged sideways. The corpses fell chaotically, like overripe fruit dropping to the ground. Blood splattered everywhere.

Zhu Ning had never seen such a scene. Corpses crashed down one after another, like a rain of corpses, like an attack. Zhu Ning had to stop what she was doing. Even Xu Meng was forced to halt.

They had no choice but to dodge, or they'd be crushed to death by corpses.

Zhu Ning used the Rotten Fish Head's acceleration function. Xu Meng was already hidden in the shadows.

The fallen corpses twitched their limbs, standing up like zombies. Some had their heads smashed open, some dragged broken legs and severed limbs.

Without exception, the wounds of every corpse were filled with squirming worms, as if they were made of worms.

"Jiang Ping" stood outside the tree's shadow, so he hadn't been attacked by the corpses falling from above.

Zhu Ning had originally thought it had stepped out of the shadow to get a better angle to view the tree, like a pervert admiring their artwork, looking for the best viewing angle.

Now it seemed that was indeed the case. And it had ensured it was outside the range of falling corpses, so it wouldn't be hit by the disgusting bodies.

From start to finish, "Jiang Ping's" posture had been extremely elegant and composed. The worm's evolution speed far exceeded Zhu Ning's imagination. "Jiang Ping" not only possessed human intelligence but could also calculate pros and cons.

"Jiang Ping" held his helmet, standing in the setting sun. The sunset fell on Jiang Ping's shy face, as if covered in a layer of blood.

"Jiang Ping" watched Zhu Ning with great interest, looking at her like something in the palm of his hand.

It said, "Zhu Ning, I want your body."

"I want your body." Cui Kai and Xiao Yilei, wearing matching blue protective suits, stood behind "Jiang Ping" and repeated the sentence.

"I want your body." The villagers pressed against the village house windows said.

The corpses that had fallen from the tree got up. Some had even lost half their jaws, yet they still said, "I want your body."

In the forsaken village bathed in sunset, three Garrison Troops, eerie villagers in village houses, swaying corpses—all repeated the same sentence.

Dozens of pairs of eyes watched Zhu Ning. The corpses shared one brain, obeying one person's command, completely merged into one.

"Jiang Ping's" eyes held only Zhu Ning. The other corpses followed their master's wish, all watching only her, as if she were the only person left in the world.

It didn't notice that one patch of shadow in the tree's shade was wrong—that shadow was deeper and darker, squirming like a bubbling swamp.

By the time it reacted, it only saw a blade. Xu Meng had silently approached. The blade was one and a half meters long, about three fingers wide. When it came down, all you could see was a flash of cold light.

The corpses' eyes were shared. When Xu Meng escaped from Afen's house earlier, she had already used her ability once. It knew Xu Meng could walk through shadows. So when it talked to Zhu Ning, it had stood outside the shadow the whole time. For Xu Meng to emerge from the shadow and reveal herself, she had to cross one meter of lit ground.

That way it could clearly see Xu Meng's movements. It wanted to know Xu Meng's true strength.

Xu Meng was like an assassin hidden in the shadows. The blade was her weapon.

Normal people would dodge when seeing a blade. But Cui Kai, standing beside it, not only didn't dodge but charged forward to meet it.

Cui Kai's body crashed into Xu Meng's blade. It was truly a very sharp blade—it directly split open Cui Kai's protective suit.

The blade broke through the protective suit and cut directly into flesh. But human bodies had bones, and bones would slightly impede the blade.

On a battlefield, that moment of impedance gave the enemy an opportunity. Xiao Yilei quickly moved to fill the gap.

This was the trouble with worm creatures. The corpses all obeyed one master. These corpses were all the worm's hands and feet—not separate individuals but one whole.

Cui Kai used his body to block Xu Meng's blade. Xiao Yilei immediately opened fire. The Garrison Troops had strong combat instincts. His shooting was practiced and smooth. This worm, through evolution, could now freely control humans, fully utilizing their abilities from when they were alive.

Bullets spun toward her. Xiao Yilei fired seven or eight shots in succession. The bang bang bang of gunfire was extremely harsh.

Normally, Xu Meng should have immediately transformed into shadow to dodge. But this time she didn't move.

Because when the bullets were still half a meter from Xu Meng, they stopped dead. Someone had raised a defensive wall for her. Zhu Ning had made her move.

Within two meters, Zhu Ning had absolute Metal Manipulation talent. The Garrison Troops' protective suits contained metal. To her, the people inside were like canned humans, completely sealed inside.

"Jiang Ping's" eyes widened. It had just been distracted by Xu Meng, focused on finding her weakness.

Suddenly, its breath caught. It felt the protective suit getting tighter and tighter. It wasn't wearing a helmet, so the tightening suit was like an invisible hand strangling its neck.

Suffocation. As a worm, it hadn't experienced suffocation in a long time.

Jiang Ping's body transmitted the sensation to it. It looked at Zhu Ning one meter away. She wore a protective helmet, so it couldn't see her expression.

Zhu Ning didn't even want to say another word to it. She had no interest in talking to a worm. But it was closer to Zhu Ning now. It smelled the fragrance.

This was the body it had chosen. Such a fragrant body.

Being strangled by the neck, it even felt Zhu Ning smelled even better.

Crack—

Zhu Ning snapped Jiang Ping's neck. He quickly stopped struggling and fell to the ground with a thud.

After the protective suit was crushed, a pile of worms scattered on the ground.

It gazed deeply at Zhu Ning. "I want your body."

Jiang Ping was completely dead. It wasn't Jiang Ping speaking, but countless squirming worms saying, "I want your body."

This thing couldn't be killed. Whether chopped to mincemeat or shot, their true form was just a mass of worms. Without finding the Mother Worm, killing them any number of times was useless.

Squelch—

Zhu Ning looked down at it, expressionless, and stepped on the worms crawling out of Jiang Ping's body. The worms burst when crushed, spraying juice. Like pulling a plug, its voice disappeared.

Xu Meng pulled out her blade, shaking off the worms clinging to it. She said through gritted teeth, "So they were looking for you all along."

When Xu Meng had been interrogated, she'd learned the Sanitation Center was looking for a metal-type ability user. She'd long suspected it was Zhu Ning.

Zhu Ning crushed the worm corpses underfoot. Her tone was calm as she asked, "Are you going to report me, Captain?"

Zhu Ning drew her gun. Click—she chambered a round. "I feel like your identity isn't really suited for reporting people, though?"

Why did Xu Meng have such a long blade? It looked extremely sharp. Was this also her ability?

Prometheus wasn't here. They were trapped in the contamination zone. Right now, their helmets were only recording—they couldn't transmit in real-time to the outside.

What happened after they got out could be dealt with then. If she didn't use her abilities now, Zhu Ning would really become someone's puppet.

Xu Meng said, "I'd have to be alive to report you."

Getting out alive came first. Everything else could wait.

Xu Meng slowly backed up until her back pressed against Zhu Ning's back. Watching the approaching corpses, she said, "Maybe I should just hand you over to them."

After all, that worm had said it wanted Zhu Ning's body.

Zhu Ning fired while answering, "I'm your most adorable team member. That wouldn't be right, would it?"

Xu Meng didn't find Zhu Ning adorable at all.

"Run!" Li Nianchuan's shouting voice came through.

If Li Nianchuan had been careful and cautious climbing up the tree, coming down he was like a duck being chased, scrambling with hands and feet.

He nearly slipped and fell from the tree. When his feet touched the ground, it didn't even feel real. His legs kept shaking.

At that moment, he couldn't worry about anything else. In extreme fear, people could unlock potential they didn't know they had. Seeing the living dead standing up all over the ground, he didn't even care—he just ran straight toward Zhu Ning and Xu Meng.

Li Nianchuan had just gotten down when Old Lady Shengxin came chasing after him. She'd been fierce in life, and death hadn't calmed her down either.

Shengxin still held her hunting rifle. Click—she chambered a round, already aiming at Li Nianchuan's back.

Li Nianchuan was more than two meters from Zhu Ning—Metal Manipulation couldn't reach.

When the worm controlled people, it could use their former skills. Shengxin was an old hunter. Zhu Ning raised her gun at the same time.

Li Nianchuan was running toward Zhu Ning. He saw the black gun barrel pointing at him.

Zhu Ning's gun was aimed at Shengxin. From the fragments of conversation, Zhu Ning could sense how formidable she'd been. If she were still alive, Zhu Ning would probably have liked her.

But now Zhu Ning had no choice but to point her gun at her.

Bang!

Zhu Ning was a professional. She was faster. The bullet flew past Li Nianchuan and hit Shengxin's forehead. The old lady's head exploded, squirming worms mixed with flesh and blood splattering down.

Li Nianchuan's back was soaked with blood. He ran to Zhu Ning's side, still shaken, and asked, "What do we do?"

Honestly, she didn't know what to do. These corpses clearly obeyed the same master, yet they hadn't tried to attack all at once—just like the contaminants in the dental clinic.

The contaminants in the forsaken village approached people in a clever way, maintaining a not-too-close, not-too-far distance, attacking with rhythm.

Every one that tried to approach was "killed" by Zhu Ning and Xu Meng. Xu Meng used her long blade for close range, Zhu Ning used her gun for distance. After Li Nianchuan joined, things improved slightly.

The three of them were truly a team. They'd been on missions together before, and their coordination was excellent.

They killed corpses easily, but the corpses would always stand back up.

These people were composed of countless tiny worms. Even shooting or using blades only killed some of them. The surviving worms would immediately reassemble.

This was meant to exhaust their ammunition. Zhu Ning's bullet supply was limited. They would keep wearing them down until they ran out.

This worm really was intelligent—it could even formulate appropriate combat strategies.

Maybe this strategy was very effective. It had probably been used on Jiang Ping and the others long ago.

Just now, the worm had been testing Xu Meng's ability. All of this proved its intelligence was above average.

Zhu Ning could imagine it standing in the darkness with a smile, waiting for Zhu Ning to be exhausted, then coming to claim this body.

"I want your body..." Countless dense masses of worms kept repeating this sentence.

Zhu Ning rarely felt irritated. This was like a birthday candle that just wouldn't blow out.

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