Chapter 131-I Clean Up Garbage in a Wasteland World
Chapter 131 The Company You Can't Leave (IX)
Zhu Ning felt trapped by something. She opened her eyes to a deep blackness pressing down from above.
Layer upon layer of pressure pinned her down, making it impossible to stand. Where was this?
Zhu Ning saw two enormous dark silhouettes—like the reflections of icebergs floating on the sea's surface, pressing down layer by layer, enveloping her in primal terror.
"Toilet Paper, come sign the onboarding agreement." She heard someone say.
Zhu Ning took a moment to react, finally realizing where she was. This was the scene where Hope had been guiding her through the onboarding process.
The two dark shapes were Hope's and Zhu Ning's faces. A massive contract lay on the glass desktop.
She was trapped beneath the glass desk.
Zhu Ning had heard stories of people falling through ice on frozen lakes in winter, struggling helplessly, unable to break through the ice above. That was exactly how she felt now.
It was as if she'd been sunk to the bottom of the sea, sealed beneath thick black glass. No matter how she fought, she couldn't find a way out.
Bang!
She pounded on the black glass, trying to get the attention of the version of herself above. The other Zhu Ning was completely oblivious.
Bang!
She felt like she was suffocating. When on the verge of death, a person calls out to themselves for help—and also hopes the other self will hurry up and run.
She slammed her palms against the glass surface, rammed it with her shoulder, like a fish thrashing in its death throes.
"If there are no issues, just sign at the bottom." Hope smiled at Zhu Ning.
Zhu Ning had lived through this scene herself. She knew the other her was about to sign. The moment you joined the company, you had to follow the Contamination Zone's logic, and during that process you'd be contaminated.
The Psychic Contamination had started far earlier than she'd thought—silently, without any warning.
She'd been contaminated long ago.
"Zhu Ning!" She pounded the glass and screamed: "Run!"
Zhu Ning, run!
Don't sign. Don't do anything that looks normal inside this Contamination Zone.
The newly onboarded Zhu Ning held the pen, hesitated for a moment, then scrawled a string of illegible characters.
"All done." Hope said: "Head back to your Workstation."
Then Hope and Zhu Ning stood up and left the office. Hope even thoughtfully closed the door, completely cutting off all of Zhu Ning's sounds.
She let her hand drop, powerless. Zhu Ning couldn't hear her.
She knew what would happen next. The other her would go to work, attend the Performance Review Meeting, and find a way to earn Outstanding Employee.
She was too late to stop it.
Once Zhu Ning gave up, her body began to sink, as if descending to the true ocean floor. She watched helplessly as the glass desktop grew farther and farther away.
Her consciousness grew increasingly hazy. No matter how hard she tried to maintain control, nothing worked.
Wake up.
Zhu Ning's eyes snapped open. Above her was a ceiling. The air reeked of disinfectant. Flowers were arranged all around.
What was that just now? A hallucination?
Her body was wrapped in bandages, traces of blood seeping through. The eerie thing was that she couldn't lift her arms at all.
Her four limbs were bound to the four corners of the bed—like a psychiatric patient finally strapped back into the asylum.
She'd been through so many Contamination Zones, and this was the first time she'd reached this state. She'd actually lost consciousness. What on earth was that substance they'd given her?
The System in her head seemed paralyzed—even Danger Sense hadn't made a peep.
The management peered over at her with earnest concern: "Toilet Paper's awake."
"Toilet Paper, don't worry. We will absolutely cure you." They said.
The most sickening scene in the world is when the person who harmed you smiles and promises to heal you.
Camera flashes kept firing wildly. Zhu Ning posed for photos with various leaders and doctors. They wore satisfied smiles and told Zhu Ning to rest and recover here.
After the leaders left, only one person remained. Cardboard Box sat with her hands on her knees, her timid gaze hidden behind black-framed glasses.
Cardboard Box said very softly: "If you need anything, just let me know."
Zhu Ning remembered now—the PR wall had said employee volunteers would care for the injured, showing what a harmonious, loving family this was.
The person assigned to look after Zhu Ning was Cardboard Box. Zhu Ning recalled that she'd kicked Cardboard Box into a wall earlier.
Cardboard Box: "Brightness has forgiven you. The company isn't holding that incident against you."
Zhu Ning was like a former troublemaker who'd only veered off track for an instant, now forcibly shoved back onto the rails.
And they were going to magnanimously forgive her on top of it? Could anything be more absurd?
Cardboard Box said very softly: "Thank you."
That day at the Performance Review Meeting, Cardboard Box had already known she was dead last. If Zhu Ning hadn't suddenly gone berserk, she might have been eliminated.
Cardboard Box: "So I really wanted to take care of you."
Zhu Ning said nothing. Her limbs were all bound. She stared silently at the ceiling.
Cardboard Box said: "The doctors say you're sick. It'll affect your brain. You might experience some... mental instability."
Zhu Ning thought: Mental instability was putting it mildly. Right now she felt like she was about to lose her mind inside this Contamination Zone.
She could no longer distinguish real from fake, truth from illusion. Was what she was experiencing right now actually happening?
Not only that—she had no strength, her mind was foggy. The two things she hated most, and she had both.
She couldn't find the Contamination Source, and she couldn't even use System items—because resistance was meaningless, just a futile drain on her health.
Zhu Ning was silent. She looked like someone who had completely given up hope.
Cardboard Box consoled her: "They say you're immune to the radiation. They'll treat you for free. They'll figure out what's going on with your body."
Zhu Ning showed no interest in anything and still didn't respond.
Cardboard Box handed her a document—an internal company bulletin. "We're really close to succeeding."
Zhu Ning was bound, so Cardboard Box could only read it aloud. The bulletin said Hengsheng Mechanical Company had accidentally discovered a new substance—one with kinetic energy far exceeding Contamination Spores. If successfully developed, Hengsheng's wealth would surpass any existing conglomerate.
But the energy source was extremely unstable. Its radiation was so powerful that prolonged contact caused employees' internal organs to corrode and their bones to shatter until they died.
An energy source that couldn't be safely harnessed was like a rich vein of ore—everyone knew there was gold down there, but no one could find a way to dig it out.
The company knew full well the energy was radioactive, yet they sent batch after batch of Outstanding Employees to handle it.
Greedy humans driven by profit were capable of any conceivable atrocity.
Cardboard Box: "You're the only survivor right now. They suspect you carry some kind of antibody. Don't worry—they'll take very good care of you. They'll cure you."
Zhu Ning let out a cold laugh. She could already guess what this company would do. If she were the capitalist and encountered an employee like this, they'd simply find a different way to exploit her.
The employee yearns to be cured, but the company schemes to extract even more value from you.
With Cybernetic Implants so advanced now, if they truly wanted to heal an employee, they'd just buy her a full-body mechanical conversion—like Chu Ling.
This company was stalling. They'd probably deliberately strip away her ability to act—ideally render her unable to even speak. That way she couldn't open her mouth, couldn't call for help.
And ultimately become a puppet entirely controlled by the company.
She was experiencing what Wang Qinqian had experienced. Now she was the unfortunate survivor.
Cardboard Box: "The other employees all have high hopes for you. The company invested all its funds into this project. Later, when they ran out of money, they raised capital from us. Many employees bought shares."
Zhu Ning frowned slightly. Her mind began recalling the rumors she'd found.
Hengsheng Mechanical Company had been operating perfectly fine before suddenly going bankrupt. The outside world was full of speculation—so this was why. They'd launched an outrageously expensive project.
The company had painted a grand vision, drained its own capital—and that wasn't enough, so they'd also drained the employees' money.
If the project succeeded, everything would be fine. But if it failed, the company and every employee's investment would go up in smoke.
And the key to the whole project was a single survivor?
Zhu Ning looked down at herself. She'd been dressed in a hospital gown. As long as the antibodies in her body could be successfully extracted—
They could safely harness the New Energy.
A person in this position could neither live nor die. If Zhu Ning tried to escape, the entire company would hunt her down.
If you gave any random person the chance to become a capitalist, they'd choose exploitation without hesitation.
The cost of doing evil was remarkably low. The other colleagues hadn't personally tied Zhu Ning up, nor had they come to directly harm her.
They were merely investing in themselves.
How could investing be a form of harm? It was practically an affirmation of your personal value.
Psychic energy converged. People driven by ultimate madness—it would be strange if this didn't become a Contamination Zone.
So this was what had happened to Wang Qinqian.
Zhu Ning was trapped here completely. Her Sanitation Backpack had vanished. She didn't even have a gun.
Zhu Ning closed her eyes, not even bothering to struggle. Seeing her mood was truly terrible, Cardboard Box closed the door and left.
The doctors had initially expected Zhu Ning to resist violently—she looked like a troublemaker, after all. But over the following days, Zhu Ning was perfectly quiet.
Like an exhausted wild beast that had finally stopped thrashing, accepting the reality of being locked in a zoo, having completely lost the will to survive.
Zhu Ning rarely spoke. She just read books and newspapers, occasionally chatting with Cardboard Box.
She'd never stayed this long inside a Contamination Zone before—so long that she'd completely lost her sense of time, merging entirely with the Contamination Zone.
Zhu Ning's stamina was draining rapidly. During their so-called "treatment," she'd gone from barely being able to lift her arm to now only being able to raise a single finger.
She was deteriorating. The hallucinations she'd seen before would become reality. Her organs were rotting. Sooner or later, she'd be completely devoured by the Contamination Zone.
That day, Cardboard Box came to visit as usual. If Zhu Ning hadn't known in advance that Cardboard Box was just a Contaminant, she always felt they could have been good friends.
Zhu Ning: "I want to go to the rooftop."
After all these days, this was the first time Zhu Ning had made a request. Cardboard Box was a bit surprised.
Zhu Ning had originally thought someone as timid as Cardboard Box wouldn't help her. But that evening after dinner, around 7:30 PM, Cardboard Box came pushing a wheelchair.
Zhu Ning was lifted into the wheelchair by Cardboard Box. As an athlete, this was the first time she'd lost the ability to move—having to be carried just to get around. It was utterly humiliating.
Cardboard Box thoughtfully draped a blanket over her knees.
They avoided the doctors, took the service elevator, slipped past layer after layer of checkpoints—like two schoolgirls dodging teachers on a secret adventure.
In the end, they reached the rooftop without incident.
This was Zhu Ning's first time on the rooftop. The Employee Handbook had warned against unauthorized access. She'd been curious what would happen if she came up here.
The rooftop was close to the sky. Above hung a spinning vortex. Zhu Ning stared at it, feeling her thoughts grow increasingly muddled.
The two-hundred-plus story building was like a mountain. Below were clouds. A person on the rooftop seemed infinitely small.
I want to jump. An inexplicable impulse surged through Zhu Ning.
While Zhu Ning sat in the wind on the rooftop, Cardboard Box simply watched from the side. The railing here was very low—one moment of carelessness and you'd fall.
Zhu Ning focused intently on the ground below, her helmet's field of vision expanded to observe the scene at ground level.
Suddenly, Zhu Ning frowned. There was a figure down below.
Another Zhu Ning was cautiously stepping out of the office building's front door. Zhu Ning remembered this day—it was her first day at the company. After enduring a full day of oppression, she'd felt a wave of relief upon reaching the company entrance.
Zhu Ning leaned over the rooftop edge, still weak. This really was happening again.
Zhu Ning had already been corroded. If everything was truly repeating, did she have a chance to change reality?
Did escaping this Contamination Zone require jumping to her death?
Zhu Ning clutched a note in her palm. She'd kept it on her all this time. Written on it: Find Future.
She felt like she was back on the track.
Had it really been herself who'd jumped that day? On the rooftop, the other figure was Cardboard Box. That would explain everything.
She really had jumped before.
Zhu Ning gripped the note tightly. Below, the other version of herself was about to walk out. According to the sequence, she should jump now.
She should sacrifice her broken self to warn the other her—give her an early heads-up to avoid the danger.
She gazed downward. From two hundred floors up, without the helmet's zoom, everything below looked like ants.
Was she really going to jump?
Once she jumped, it'd be over. No need to clean up the mess. Just hand everything off to the other self.
The other her would finish it for her.
When Zhu Ning jumped, she would hear a whooshing sound—the sound of wind. Her body would descend while her soul ascended.
She would hit the ground. Her helmet would shatter. Shards would pierce her eye socket. In her dying moments, she would warn the other self to run.
That would complete one relay of the baton.
As long as she jumped—as long as she killed herself—as long as she completed this ritual, everything would be over.
If I die, it'll all be fine.
Zhu Ning kept replaying this scene in her mind. Helmet shards piercing her eye socket.
Wind howling in her ears. Zhu Ning had already been leaning over the rooftop edge, half her body hanging over.
But she stopped.
No. No—none of this was right.
She sat back down in the wheelchair. She'd nearly walked right into the Contamination Zone's trap.
Zhu Ning could feel someone behind her gripping the wheelchair's handles. That person had been standing there carefully the whole time. Seeing Zhu Ning sit back down, she frowned slightly.
Zhu Ning only showed Cardboard Box her back. The wind on the rooftop was fierce, howling endlessly.
Zhu Ning was laughing—a low, quiet laugh. Combined with the bloody smile on her helmet, it was deeply unsettling.
She looked like a genuine lunatic—the serial-killer variety. Whether or not she could actually move was irrelevant. True to form, no matter the circumstances, Zhu Ning was always the most terrifying person in any Contamination Zone.
"Cardboard Box," Zhu Ning said after she'd laughed enough. "Are you Wang Qinqian?"
Behind her, Cardboard Box's grip tightened on the wheelchair handles. "What?"
Zhu Ning didn't turn around. Instead she looked straight ahead. She remembered asking Cardboard Box's real name when she'd personally laid the body to rest. Hope had told her not to ask.
But that rule was never written in the Employee Handbook. Hope had been preventing Zhu Ning from learning Cardboard Box's true name.
Zhu Ning: "Your real name is Wang Qinqian."
The wind raged across the rooftop. The moment Zhu Ning spoke those words, the vortex in the sky began to spin.
Zhu Ning watched the spinning vortex. It was like a signal—a hint that everything was caught in a cycle.
Zhu Ning: "There's no cycle at all, is there?"
The Sheep-Head behind her wore a pair of black-framed glasses. Nothing about her appearance, dress, or personality stood out in the slightest. After a long pause, Zhu Ning heard her say: "Why?"
Why? Where had she slipped up?
Zhu Ning turned around. Her helmet bore a bloody smile, as if grinning at Wang Qinqian.
Zhu Ning: "Because there's no blood on the helmet."
She'd found the critical clue. The helmet—she'd drawn a bloody smile on her own helmet. It wasn't to look cool. It was a marker.
The smile Zhu Ning had drawn arced extremely wide, spanning from the helmet's far left to its far right.
If the version of herself she'd seen jumping was truly her future self, then that helmet should also bear a bloody smile.
The "Zhu Ning" who'd jumped on the first day—though the helmet was shattered, the fragments only had blood spatters, no trace of hand-drawn markings.
And the "Zhu Ning" who'd jumped on the second day—the helmet had a broken corner, and likewise bore no bloody smile.
Neither time. Not once.
Zhu Ning felt like she'd been trapped in a bizarre world she couldn't escape. Then suddenly she'd found a discrepancy, and from that thread she unraveled the truth: the entire world was fake.
There was no loop.
The Contamination Zone had been deceiving her. The Psychic Contamination had started far earlier than she'd realized.
Perhaps from the very moment Zhu Ning entered the Contamination Zone—that chicken at the entrance, hung upside down at the door, blood dripping steadily.
The swaying chicken had looked like a pendulum. Many hypnotists used pendulums as tools.
The instant you entered the company, you were forced to accept the company's logic, and contamination became unavoidable.
This contamination was silent and imperceptible. Zhu Ning's System had never once issued a warning.
This was a psychic-type Contamination Zone.
The Contamination Zone wanted to drive Zhu Ning to suicide. It hadn't chosen to kill her directly—instead, through these roundabout methods, it killed anyone who entered.
Zhu Ning: "I took a dead post mission to come to this Contamination Zone. The post's author said they came here to work and kept feeling like they were stuck in the same day. The evidence was that their Workstation reset every day, and they'd encounter the same person jumping every day."
Zhu Ning spoke as if talking to herself, completely unconcerned whether Cardboard Box behind her could understand.
Language had power. Hearing her own voice, she gradually found her way back to clarity.
Zhu Ning looked at her bandage-wrapped hands: "What if it's not a loop? What if it's just Psychic Contamination?"
The essence of Psychic Contamination was repetition—constant repetition, branding a certain impression deep into the mind.
Inside this Contamination Zone, many things repeated: the Steel Pen, the Monday onboarding cycle.
But the most frequently repeated event was the jumping.
The dead post's author was a victim.
It was all the Contamination Zone's trickery. When the author entered the company, it was already contaminated—but he didn't know.
He thought this was a normal company. He came to work like normal. But every day, his desk reset to its original state.
Every time he left work, he'd see an employee jump to their death. At first, he'd always avoided it—no one wants to look at a corpse, after all.
So initially he never knew who the jumper was. But the daily repetition of someone jumping was itself a form of Psychic Contamination.
Eventually, he truly believed he was trapped in the same day. He believed jumping was the way out.
The final recording left on the dead post was the sound of a body hitting the ground.
After Zhu Ning entered the Contamination Zone, it used the same tactics on her—showing her the "future" over and over, making her believe something was wrong with the space-time here.
Making Zhu Ning pick up the same pen. Making her go through the onboarding process twice.
Making Zhu Ning see "herself" jump on the first evening after work, making her suspect this place involved some kind of loop.
After Zhu Ning violently seized the Outstanding Employee title, she eliminated her competition, and the entire office was drenched in bloody terror.
In the corner, Zhu Ning saw Cardboard Box for the second time. She thought she'd truly glimpsed another timeline.
At that point, the psychic suggestion was complete.
From then on, Zhu Ning would walk along the predetermined track, because these events had been planted in her mind like key clues.
Trapped beneath the black glass desk, her first instinct was to pound on the glass.
Finding herself on the rooftop, her first instinct was to jump.
These were like programs implanted in her mind. Everything repeated. Once the psychic suggestion took hold, it was nearly impossible to resist.
No wonder the Sheep-Heads had no combat ability. No wonder the security team hadn't tried to kill her. Even when she'd seen all those frozen Sheep-Head corpses in the basement, her Danger Sense had never activated. None of them had ever truly caused her harm.
Because the damage it sought to inflict wasn't physical—it was mental.
Its contamination method was to lure you into jumping.
Author's Note
I keep getting my plot guessed by readers—I'm so useless! If you can't follow the plot, don't worry—this arc is insane! And so am I!
Comments
Post a Comment