Chapter 115-I Clean Up Garbage in a Wasteland World
Chapter 115 Debriefing
Lu Xingqiao was momentarily speechless at the sight of the main group.
Jin Tao told Fan Minghua he was sorry they couldn't bring back the three Garrison Troops. Fan Minghua's eyes reddened when he heard. He said nothing and walked away.
The Sanitation Center's follow-up support team arrived immediately and headed for the forsaken village to relieve the three Cleaners who'd stayed behind.
Lu Xingqiao handled the logistics for the return trip. They'd just completed a basic examination confirming no infections. Then Lu Xingqiao received word from the Sanitation Center—everyone was to return immediately after the checkup was complete.
Faster than expected, with many steps skipped. They boarded the flying vehicles back to the Sanitation Center. The wounded rode in a separate vehicle. Xu Meng's vehicle carried only those with minor injuries.
Xu Meng held Zhu Ning the entire way. They'd removed their helmets. Zhu Ning had started out faking unconsciousness but eventually fell genuinely asleep. She was utterly spent—once she confirmed she was in a safe environment, her head drooped and she was out.
Xu Meng had heard about Zhu Ning's koala-like constitution but hadn't expected she could actually sleep like the dead in such a noisy environment.
Big heart. Not even afraid Xu Meng might harm her.
She was probably truly exhausted. Killing a Contamination Source couldn't have been easy.
Zhu Ning's forehead was damp with sweat. Xu Meng brushed the disheveled hair from her face. After emerging from a Contamination Zone, nobody was exactly clean—no one was in any position to judge.
Zhu Ning curled up in her seat, pillowed on Xu Meng's thigh.
Li Nianchuan sat beside them hugging his knees. Whether from Psychic Contamination or not, his pupils were unfocused. He gritted his teeth and didn't make a sound the entire time.
Li Nianchuan had truly grown. He sat quietly by himself, causing no trouble for anyone.
Before the mission, Li Nianchuan had talked about retiring to open a fish restaurant—practically a death flag. Zhu Ning and Xu Meng had forcibly ripped that flag right off him.
They returned alongside the Demon Hunters. Some were curious and came over to look. "How'd you get out?"
Others asked: "Which one's Zhu Ning? Her? That's her?"
"Shh, keep it down. Don't wake her."
"Okay, I'll whisper..."
Xu Meng was holding Zhu Ning like a rare exotic animal. Listening to all the chatter, a vein throbbed on her forehead. People were even coming to gawk.
Zhu Ning sure knew how to attract attention.
Xu Meng usually preferred keeping a low profile. She'd been about to tell them to shut up, but then she noticed the somber atmosphere. Everyone had lost teammates. They were just looking for something to lighten the mood.
At a time like this, someone needed to talk. Silence would drive people insane.
How many of this batch would resign when they got back? How many would carry lifelong scars? Psychic Contamination that could never be healed?
The flying vehicle was fully sealed, the scenery outside invisible. They chattered the whole way back to the Sanitation Center.
The Sanitation Center was still lit up. Over three hundred floors—from the outside, it looked like a colossal machine. Coming back from the wild, even the sight of the Center's front entrance made people squint instinctively.
Staff came to collect their helmets. Xu Meng paused but handed hers over, including Zhu Ning's.
Designated personnel handled each employee's status assessment. They were separated into groups and taken away.
By now Zhu Ning was actually awake, but she couldn't be bothered to move. She'd already figured out the Sanitation Center's procedures—the moment she opened her eyes, she'd have to start explaining.
The logistics staff placed her in a wheelchair, handling her quite gently, and wheeled her into the Sanitation Center's elevator.
There was a dedicated escort—two armed guards behind her, plus medical personnel. Eight people in total were assigned to Zhu Ning.
Were they really treating her like an endangered species?
Zhu Ning kept her eyes closed, mentally mapping the route. This time she wasn't taken to a research lab or the medical center. The elevator was descending.
She couldn't see, so she didn't know which floor they'd reached. After about three minutes, they seemed to have descended to the earth's core.
Ding.
The elevator doors opened. She heard someone say: "Abnormal Observation Room."
A new department. Every mission Zhu Ning completed was like unlocking another section of the Sanitation Center's map. One more mission, one more department.
This one sounded like it fell under Huo Wenxi's jurisdiction.
They wheeled her in. She was bathed, changed into loose hospital garb, then transported to a room.
She'd thought she'd be restless, but the whole process was genuinely boring. She fell asleep halfway through.
Danger Sense wasn't alerting her, so she wasn't worried. Besides, she'd developed a remarkably calm attitude toward these checkups—resisting was pointless, so she might as well lie back and accept it.
She didn't know how long she'd been out when she woke again. She blinked, disoriented.
This was a pure white room furnished with only the barest essentials. Ceiling and walls were seamless—not a single crack to be found.
Naturally, the door was invisible too. A true cage with no way out.
Zhu Ning had sensors all over her—thirty-four in total on her forehead and arms. The filaments had already burrowed into her skin.
She remembered that sanity readings had to be taken within six hours of completing a mission. The testing was probably done by now.
Zhu Ning sat alone for a while. About ten minutes later—someone must have detected that she'd woken—a projection screen materialized before her. Fang Ying's face appeared on the display.
Fang Ying was still in her full professional attire, seated at a desk covered in documents.
Zhu Ning glanced over. Fang Ying wore a human-machine interface on her ear, meaning Prometheus was connected to her. Was she speaking to Zhu Ning on behalf of the Sanitation Center, or on behalf of Prometheus?
Fang Ying: "You're awake?"
Zhu Ning had always had a good impression of Fang Ying. She rolled her neck. "Hey, Sis Fang. Long time no see."
Zhu Ning always knew the right thing to say. Fang Ying smiled and asked: "Did you sleep well?"
Zhu Ning: "Not bad."
Fang Ying's feelings were complicated. She hadn't expected the mission she'd assigned to Zhu Ning to turn out so bizarrely. She'd genuinely believed it would be routine. "I hope you don't mind. This is standard procedure after beyond-the-wall assignments."
Returning from beyond the wall often meant bringing back contamination. Their screening procedures were necessarily stricter.
Zhu Ning: "I don't mind."
Fang Ying set aside any personal rapport and spoke in a strictly official tone—almost identical to how she'd sounded when she first onboarded Zhu Ning. "While you were asleep, medical staff deployed the sensors. Also standard procedure. We've already tested your latest sanity level, physical health, and infection status."
Zhu Ning: "Okay."
One sensor was affixed to the back of her neck—right above the black slime.
She could feel the black slime fused into her cervical vertebrae. The sensor's filament had pierced the nape of her neck, separated from the slime by barely a millimeter. She almost hoped the Center's instruments could detect the anomaly.
What would they do if they found out about the black slime?
Zhu Ning rubbed her neck. "Are you the one monitoring me?"
Fang Ying paused briefly before saying: "Yes."
It sounded harsh, but that was the reality. Right now, Zhu Ning was classified as a dangerous individual by the Sanitation Center.
Zhu Ning asked: "Am I allowed to ask about the others?"
Fang Ying: "Jin Tao and the other Cleaners are all receiving treatment. The Psychic Contamination is extremely severe. Li Nianchuan has been admitted to the Medical Department."
Since Zhu Ning had known Li Nianchuan, this was his third time in the Medical Department. She wondered if he'd gone mad this time.
Fang Ying: "Xu Meng is also in the Medical Department receiving psychiatric treatment."
Li Nianchuan she could understand, but Xu Meng's sanity should be quite high. Zhu Ning had only one theory—Xu Meng was probably doing it on purpose. She was likely stalling for time.
The Sanitation Center wasn't so heartless as to force cooperation during an investigation when someone's mental state was poor.
Which meant nobody had filed a mission report yet.
Zhu Ning changed the subject: "How long was I out?"
Fang Ying: "Ten hours."
Only ten hours. Zhu Ning hadn't actually gotten enough sleep.
Fang Ying: "You're the first among this mission's personnel to regain consciousness. How would you describe your current mental state?"
Zhu Ning: "I feel fine."
Fang Ying: "Would you be willing to provide an emergency mission debriefing? The Center wants to know what happened. Your signals were lost for nearly two hours."
Zhu Ning raised an eyebrow. She had a feeling Fang Ying was feeding her information—or rather, Prometheus was passing her a message.
First: no one had filed a mission report yet.
Second: the helmet video recordings had most likely malfunctioned. This time, Zhu Ning needed to give the Center an emergency debriefing.
Meaning the Sanitation Center might know nothing.
Zhu Ning hadn't tampered with the helmets. After evolving into something like a computer, she could navigate data streams and manipulate data—but she couldn't alter only her own helmet without touching the others'. If it couldn't be done perfectly, better not to do it at all.
All the helmets had broken? How? Because of Prometheus, or because of the Contamination Zone?
Fang Ying's phrasing was interesting too. Would you be willing? Could Zhu Ning actually refuse?
How was Zhu Ning supposed to explain what she'd encountered beyond the wall? How would she explain how she'd cleared the Contamination Zone? She had a mountain of problems on her plate—the Xenomorph alone would be hard to resolve.
Another interrogation—Zhu Ning might not hold up.
Should she stay silent like Xu Meng? Since it was an option, maybe she really could choose it. But silence meant surrendering her right to control the narrative. Better to hold that power herself.
Zhu Ning thought it over: "I'm willing."
Fang Ying had expected Zhu Ning to be difficult. From her perspective, Zhu Ning's situation was extremely precarious—silence would be the safest option. But since she'd agreed, there was nothing more to say. "We'll arrange it for you shortly."
"However," Zhu Ning said suddenly, "I have a condition."
Fang Ying's hands paused over her papers.
......
Abnormal Incident Investigation Team.
Zhu Ning was about to add to the Investigation Team's workload—forcing the entire department into overtime.
This incident was too bizarre. The entire team vanishing for nearly two hours—it had happened before. Many people attributed such occurrences to the stuff of urban legends. Since time immemorial, people had similar stories.
Like how some mountaineering party entered a certain area and vanished completely, only to reappear years later.
These tales always ended with either alien abduction or time travel.
Beyond-the-wall missions were shrouded in mystery. Several teams had gone missing in the past, but the cases were buried among annual death and disappearance reports without standing out.
The team compiled all similar incidents and cross-referenced prior investigation reports.
This event was strange. The survivors' helmets were all functional, yet somehow contained no valuable evidence.
The helmets had captured the bizarre Giant Yellow Flower. Team members watching the footage couldn't stop frowning. Even through video, the sense of dread was palpable. They felt genuine respect for those who worked beyond the wall.
But the helmet recordings were incomplete. After the Giant Yellow Flower, the next footage showed them walking back into the open beyond the wall, hearing Garrison Troops shouting. Everything in between had simply vanished.
To date, the Sanitation Center had no idea what actually happened. With everyone suffering from Psychic Contamination, no one had filed a report.
"Maybe it's just contamination interference?" a team member suggested.
Contamination Spores could infect equipment. That was actually the most likely explanation—contamination or magnetic field interference causing the video loss.
The technical department had examined the helmets and reached the same conclusion.
The Abnormal Incident Investigation Team's work culture was relaxed. People working overtime in the office were in every conceivable posture. The entire room reeked of cigarette smoke.
Huo Wenxi hadn't slept in thirty hours. Zhuang Lin asked: "Want to rest, Team Leader?"
Huo Wenxi shook her head. She was curled up on the sofa, her long braid draped across her chest, looking thoroughly haggard.
The file in her hands was practically worn through—Zhu Ning's latest medical report.
The Abnormal Incident Investigation Team had its own independent examination room. This time, Zhu Ning had been sent directly to Huo Wenxi without contacting anyone else.
The abnormal research staff always prided themselves on being more precise than the people in the regular research labs. Their results were the accurate ones.
The latest result: Zhu Ning's sanity was 1,450.
An outrageous number. The previous test results—Huo Wenxi had copies too—showed two figures: 1,270 and 1,300.
In short, it had been hovering around 1,300.
Now Zhu Ning's sanity had surged past 1,400, jumping from S-Level to S+-Level.
She'd achieved two sanity breakthroughs in rapid succession. Was she a monster?
Were the previous tests inaccurate? Or did she simply have this terrifying capacity for growth? If she kept climbing, the numbers would become unimaginable.
There were only four people in the entire Federation with sanity at this level. Zhu Ning had effectively stepped into the Federation's highest echelon of talent. Even if she had problems, Huo Wenxi couldn't deal with her lightly.
The Federation would do everything in its power to recruit Zhu Ning—anything to prevent this person from becoming humanity's enemy. As long as she stood on humanity's side, the fight against contamination gained another edge.
That was how unreasonable S+-Level was. Even if she was a Defective, she was worth more than any existing weapon.
The report had already been submitted upward. After reviewing it, Xuan Qing made no decision and went to discuss it with the other two department heads. Interestingly, Xie Jiazu rarely showed his face. The last time all three heads convened had also been because of Zhu Ning.
Their last meeting had resulted in the training program. What would this meeting produce?
Fang Ying, meanwhile, had forwarded the results to the First Military District and the Sanitation Center headquarters.
The First Military District hadn't responded yet. Headquarters replied quickly: protect Zhu Ning and keep her out of danger.
They would conduct their own assessment of Zhu Ning afterward.
In other words, Zhu Ning now temporarily belonged to headquarters—which directly blocked Huo Wenxi's investigation. If Zhu Ning refused to cooperate, Huo Wenxi couldn't force her hand.
Honestly, Huo Wenxi had never felt so stuck. Zhu Ning was the strangest subject she'd ever investigated. She was starting to wonder whether she was even investigating a human being.
What on earth had happened beyond the wall?
"Team Leader." Zhuang Lin called twice. "Team Leader?"
Huo Wenxi rubbed the space between her brows. She really did need rest.
"Zhu Ning is awake," Zhuang Lin said quietly.
Huo Wenxi's reaction was muted. If Zhu Ning wanted to hide something, all she had to do was stay silent.
So Huo Wenxi wasn't particularly hopeful. She'd probably have to start with Xu Meng instead.
Zhuang Lin continued: "She's willing to give a mission debriefing."
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