Chapter 153-I Clean Up Garbage in a Wasteland World
Chapter 153 Kill the VIP (VIII)
BOOM—
The Idol collapsed. Zhu Ning lay among the rubble, her back screaming with pain. Jagged shards of stone had driven into her flesh, piercing through skin and muscle.
God, it hurt. Probably because this was a Consciousness Body—every injury felt worse than anything she'd experienced before.
Zhu Ning gasped for air, staring up at the church ceiling. She had a feeling something up there was looking down at her.
Unfortunately, this wasn't a Contamination Zone. Toppling the Idol hadn't changed the fact that she was still inside the Consciousness Cloud.
"Zhu Ning..."
Liu Niannian was on her knees, staring at her own hands. They had begun to twitch, transforming from an ordinary pair of hands into blocks of data.
The butler was pulling her Chip.
This was the relationship between a guardian and a Consciousness Body. The guardian held absolute authority to force a withdrawal. The Mechanical Butler operated on the premise of preserving Liu Niannian's life above all else.
Liu Niannian knew she was about to leave. She glanced at her mechanical watch. "Fifty-eight minutes."
The exact time they'd been inside the Consciousness Cloud. She needed Zhu Ning to have a sense of the timeline.
Liu Niannian spoke rapidly: "Protect your heart and your head."
In the world of the Consciousness Body, injuries to other parts wouldn't affect the real body. But a hit to the heart or brain meant actual death.
Liu Niannian wanted to impart the survival principles of the Consciousness Cloud before she left.
"You—" Liu Niannian wanted to say something more, but she was out of time.
From Zhu Ning's perspective, Liu Niannian's body simply vanished—like a teammate disconnecting mid-game.
The Mechanical Butler must have assessed Liu Niannian's condition and pulled the Chip directly.
Xu Meng was still here in the distance. That meant Lynx had judged Xu Meng could keep going.
Zhu Ning's back was drenched in blood. When Xu Meng came to check on her, the sight was jarring.
Xu Meng's leg injury was worsening. Zhu Ning's back was torn up. According to Liu Niannian, next they'd either attract the Inspection Squad's attention or trigger the Eradication Protocol.
This truly left the decision in the guardians' hands. The guardians had to read the situation and pull them out in time.
Xu Meng helped Zhu Ning up. Then her pupils contracted sharply—someone stood in the church doorway, their black shadow stretching long across the floor.
Bao Ruiming.
She recognized him instantly. He wore a gray suit with a matching vest underneath, a blue bow tie, hair streaked with white. A pocket watch hung from his vest, and he leaned on a cane as he appeared in the doorway.
After all this time inside the Consciousness Cloud, they had finally laid eyes on their target.
He had simply stood there, silent, waiting for them to exhaust themselves before making his entrance.
Bao Ruiming was nothing like the parasitic worm. He carried the composed ease of the elite class. Even seeing his church in ruins didn't elicit the slightest displeasure—there was even a hint of a smile at the corner of his mouth.
As if Zhu Ning hadn't destroyed his world at all. As if he were merely a spectator, here to watch the show.
Bao Ruiming had good reason to hide in the Cloud. Entering another's Consciousness Cloud stripped you of your Abilities—no one would be suicidal enough to try. Yet someone had actually breached his defenses and forced him out to clean up.
Bao Ruiming was genuinely surprised. This was the first time he'd seen living intruders in his Consciousness Cloud.
Humans who entered were easily contaminated. Bao Ruiming had originally planned to simply come collect the spoils.
He was a hunter who'd set his traps in advance. When he arrived to collect, the prey was still there—but the traps were wrecked.
Inside the ruined church, beneath the shattered Idol, two women lay covered in blood, draped in black rain ponchos, crimson pooling beneath them.
One appeared to have a leg injury. The other's back was wounded, her face deathly pale.
They looked like they wouldn't last much longer even without Bao Ruiming lifting a finger.
Bao Ruiming didn't approach. Cunning prey would flaunt its wounds, luring you in with the illusion of weakness—then strike the moment you drew near.
Bao Ruiming wasn't that foolish.
He maintained a safe distance, standing amid the church's ruins, surveying his world.
Outside, the storm raged. Bao Ruiming studied the shattered Idol.
Displeasure stirred within him, but a man of his stature knew how to suppress it.
Calm and unhurried, he regarded them like an old professor observing two students.
Zhu Ning's head was throbbing. She had finally come face to face with the so-called mastermind. This was the first time Zhu Ning had seen Bao Ruiming in person.
Xu Meng braced one hand on Zhu Ning's shoulder while the other gripped a knife handle.
In contrast to their hostility, Bao Ruiming was perfectly serene. The Eradication Protocol was about to activate. He had nothing to fear.
Bao Ruiming leaned on his cane and studied them through narrowed eyes. His gaze could only be described as amused. "So it's you?"
Zhu Ning asked: "You know us?"
Of course he did. After the Mechanical Oceanarium incident, he'd invested considerable effort into studying and reviewing what had happened that day.
The operation had exceeded even his expectations. He'd assumed it would be a total wipeout—once the A-Level Program activated, all employees, including Lin Xiaofeng, would be buried inside the Oceanarium.
No one would retrieve anything, and no one would ever sift through the wreckage for clues.
What actually happened had completely blindsided Bao Ruiming. Not only did they survive, they even captured a live Transparent Person.
Bao Ruiming remembered the hero of that mission. Her footage circulated on internal forums. He'd watched it over a dozen times.
Zhu Ning.
A surprising individual—but her presence in the Consciousness Cloud made perfect sense. This was exactly the kind of thing she'd do.
Bao Ruiming: "What a coincidence. You're both on my kill list."
On the list he'd just handed over, Xu Meng's and Zhu Ning's names were among them.
His people worked fast. The assassinations were likely already underway.
Pulling the rug from under each other's feet.
They'd used the same move. Zhu Ning and Xu Meng could find Bao Ruiming's Consciousness Cloud—and Bao Ruiming could find their bodies.
There were three checkpoints. First: Bao Ruiming's people were already hunting for their physical bodies.
Second: the Consciousness Cloud's automated Eradication Protocol. The system would protect Bao Ruiming—Zhu Ning and Xu Meng, the intruders, would die.
Third: contamination had formed here, tripping the system's automatic protocols. Everyone dies.
Bao Ruiming was utterly composed. He glanced at his pocket watch. The Eradication Protocol would trigger any moment now.
Bao Ruiming: "You'll be dead very soon. Trust me—sooner than you think."
How fitting. While Zhu Ning had entered the Consciousness Cloud to kill Bao Ruiming, his people were simultaneously planning to kill Zhu Ning.
They had someone on their team who, given a DNA sample, could pinpoint an exact location instantly. Both Zhu Ning and Xu Meng were Sanitation Center employees—their biometric data was on file from enrollment.
All they had to do was let their dog take a sniff. No matter which bathtub they were lying in, they'd be found in short order.
To kill Bao Ruiming, they'd entered the Consciousness Cloud directly—the downside being their bodies were now completely defenseless. Destroy the real brain, and they were dead.
Zhu Ning could sense Bao Ruiming's decisiveness. His mind worked at blinding speed—kill first, ask questions never. "You're not going to ask why we want to kill you?"
Bao Ruiming: "No need. Everyone in the way must die."
There was a cliché, wasn't there? Villains die because they talk too much. Bao Ruiming didn't consider himself a villain, but he shared the same distaste for conversation. Besides, he had too many enemies to keep track of every grudge.
He didn't need to know Zhu Ning's motive. He wanted her to die here permanently. Nothing could be allowed to interfere with the plan.
Zhu Ning clenched her jaw. Absolutely no room for negotiation. Bao Ruiming was a villain with real villain discipline.
She'd hoped to extract information from him. Now it was clear he was a sealed vault.
Zhu Ning and Xu Meng exchanged a glance. They had to act—strike first.
Ignoring the pain in her back, Zhu Ning had already picked up a knife. Bao Ruiming paid it no mind, offering only a smile: "The end is here."
He didn't mean the real apocalypse. He meant the end of his world.
In the rain-soaked night, the sky suddenly flared. That light was deeply red—a meteor streaking across the heavens.
The Eradication Protocol was the rapid-kill mode. For this world, it looked like doomsday. Bao Ruiming's chosen protocol was a meteor strike.
The Consciousness Cloud's internal system issued a cold announcement: [Eradication Protocol activated.]
In less than a minute, their world would be annihilated.
......
A certain underground room.
Big Orange had been hammering away at her keyboard. Something had gone wrong with Bao Ruiming's Consciousness Cloud—and she'd actually managed to crack open a gap.
If she could provide remote support, Xu Meng's odds would double.
Big Orange had been so absorbed she hadn't looked at Xu Meng beside her. Lynx spoke up: "She's in trouble."
Big Orange started and turned toward the bathtub. Xu Meng wore an oversized blindfold that covered half her face—to an outsider, nothing looked amiss.
But Lynx could tell. Xu Meng's right leg had just spasmed. Lynx had worked alongside Xu Meng for years and knew the meaning of every tiny movement.
"She's in danger." Lynx made the call immediately, reaching for the back of Xu Meng's neck. "Pull Xu Meng out."
Big Orange didn't argue. Lynx's hand found the Chip slot. She was about to pull it.
At that moment, every alarm in the room went off.
Big Orange had installed surveillance within a three-kilometer radius and deployed her mechanical sentries throughout the area. She frowned. "We've got company."
Lynx: "Creation Tech found us that fast?"
Invading a Consciousness Body made you vulnerable to back-tracing. Lynx's first thought was that they'd been tracked.
Big Orange's first thought was the same, but a glance at her computer told her otherwise. "I wasn't traced. They haven't found us."
Creation Technology couldn't move this fast. This wasn't their turf, and they didn't have this many Ability Users stationed here.
Big Orange said, sounding uncertain even to herself: "It's not Creation Tech's people..."
Lynx's ears twitched. Her brow furrowed. More were coming—all Ability Users, homing in on their exact location.
Someone on their team must have a tracking ability.
Lynx despised that type of Ability User most—like a dog that would never stop chasing you.
Lynx opened the Chip slot and dragged Xu Meng straight out of the bathtub. "Go!"
Big Orange raised her chin. Her pupils switched to data mode, streams of code scrolling across the surface of her eyes. She'd already deployed her mechanical units remotely, clashing with the unknown Ability Users for the first time.
......
The Huo residence.
Huo Wenxi was serving as Zhu Ning's guardian. She sat beside the bathtub, smoking and watching Zhu Ning.
Zhu Ning's hands were clenched. She looked like she was enduring pain under strain—her nerves clearly wound tight.
By all rights, now was the best time to pull Zhu Ning out.
A notification pinged on Huo Wenxi's Sub-Brain. She'd just opened it when Zhuang Lin pushed through the door. "Someone is approaching."
Huo Wenxi was mildly surprised. She was a Huo—most people wouldn't dare move against her.
Whoever was coming now was here because of Zhu Ning.
Zhu Ning really was something. A walking trouble magnet—she'd led the enemy straight to the Huo family's doorstep.
Zhuang Lin asked: "Evacuate?"
Huo Wenxi's Ability was intuition. She wasn't much of a fighter, which was why Zhuang Lin existed—officially her assistant, effectively her bodyguard.
Zhuang Lin had been raised on a single directive: Huo Wenxi's life takes priority over everything.
So when trouble arose, his first instinct was to get Huo Wenxi out.
The correct course of action right now: pull Zhu Ning's Chip, then evacuate as a group.
Huo Wenxi exhaled a plume of smoke. "How long can the security system hold?"
Huo Wenxi was true upper echelon. She had her own personal guard unit.
"Ten-ish minutes—hard to say without a visual on the attackers." Zhuang Lin: "You want to fight them?"
Huo Wenxi typed on her Sub-Brain. "I've used my clearance to requisition three Demon Hunter squads."
Three? A single A-class Contamination Zone only needed one. Wasn't this overkill?
Huo Wenxi: "They came to my door. Why would I run?"
Zhuang Lin understood her reasoning. These people had always been cautious—under normal circumstances, they'd steer well clear of the Abnormal Incident Investigation Team. Coming here meant they'd weighed the risks and decided it was worth it.
In their eyes, killing Zhu Ning was worth more than the cost.
Either they were desperate, or they were so close to their goal that they'd abandoned all restraint.
Capture just one, and Huo Wenxi would have what she needed.
Zhu Ning really had been telling the truth. She could bring Huo Wenxi the intel she wanted. The woman was like a block of cheese—lying motionless in a bathtub, and still trailing a parade of rats behind her.
Zhuang Lin followed Huo Wenxi's instructions and began deploying. Then he asked: "What about her?"
He meant Zhu Ning. Huo Wenxi showed no sign of leaving the bathroom. She remained seated beside the bathtub, smoking.
For this operation, Huo Wenxi would command remotely and wouldn't even show her face—because she'd agreed to be Zhu Ning's guardian.
Huo Wenxi studied Zhu Ning for a long moment, then stubbed out her cigarette. "I think she can keep going."
The words were almost cold. Zhuang Lin couldn't tell whether Huo Wenxi had genuinely determined this through her Ability—or simply didn't care if Zhu Ning died.
Author's Note:
I'm feeling better today, babies. My fever broke, but my brain is still sluggish so writing has been slow. I probably won't be able to update on time for a while—just check in whenever. No need to wait up~ If I can't update, I'll post a notice. I hope everyone stays healthy and safe. This bug is really miserable.
And finally—Merry Christmas Eve, babies!
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