Chapter 172-I Clean Up Garbage in a Wasteland World

Chapter 172 Another Self (III)

Plenty of people shared the same name, but one who also competed in shooting and lived in an orphanage—how could it be that much of a coincidence?

Zhu Ning's name appeared conspicuously in the center. The paper had yellowed, and under the green filter it exuded an eerie sense of age.

The other certificates were mostly for things like the hundred-meter dash and long jump—all events Zhu Ning would have entered. As a child, she'd wanted to try every sport.

This was the first time she'd found traces of herself inside a Contamination Zone. Was this a message from her other self, or had the Contamination Zone fabricated it? An attempt to mentally contaminate her?

Zhu Ning tore her gaze away with difficulty and opened the drawer. Inside was a jumble of small trinkets and a basic mechanics textbook, but no name was written on it.

She had her own habits when searching through things—for instance, she always felt along the top and underside of drawers, because that was where she liked to hide things herself.

She'd only been feeling around casually, but she actually found something. It was extremely inconspicuous—a slip of paper, folded into a neat square and taped to the top of the drawer with clear adhesive.

The note was very thin with almost no presence. After finding it, Zhu Ning frowned. This habit was remarkably similar to her own.

If the Contamination Zone had merely fabricated her information—knowing her name through some means—that would be one thing. But knowing her personal habits? That was pushing it.

Zhu Ning carefully unfolded the note. The handwriting inside was also her own: The wasteland world is too terrifying. I have to find a way to escape!

That single opening line hit Zhu Ning with tremendous force. A chill ran down her spine. She'd entered so many Contamination Zones, and none had been as terrifying as this one sentence.

What did "the wasteland world is too terrifying" mean?

A person native to the wasteland world wouldn't say something like that. At most they'd say "this era is too terrifying" or "District 103 is too terrifying." Only someone from another world would phrase it that way.

Someone like Zhu Ning, who'd crossed over from the zombie world.

Moreover, the handwriting wasn't a child's. It looked like an adult's soul writing through a child's body.

A possibility emerged: could she have crossed over much earlier than she thought? What if, right after crossing over, she'd been rescued by Old Yang—but Old Yang and his people were defective units, unable to raise a child, so they'd sent her to the red house to be raised by Mechanical Mother?

And then she'd "rebooted" herself, wiping all her memories, making her believe she'd only just crossed over?

If the certificates and this note were both real, then this room was one Zhu Ning had lived in, and her deduction was correct.

Had the person who wrote this note truly been her younger self? Why write it on a slip of paper and hide it under the desk—because she was afraid she'd forget?

Suppose—just suppose—she really had written it. Her childhood self had already known about mental contamination and, fearing she'd lose her mind, left herself a reminder.

She was beginning to grasp the horror of this Contamination Zone. She could barely tell reality from contamination anymore.

BANG—!

While Zhu Ning was lost in thought, the door behind her slammed shut.

She spun around. The cramped little room was far too small for an adult—she felt like she'd been sealed inside a coffin.

At the same time, lights flickered on outside, seeping in through the crack beneath the door.

"It's bedtime now," a broadcast suddenly announced. The entire Contamination Zone came alive.

A mechanical female voice spoke, its cadence painfully slow, enunciating each syllable: "All children must go to bed early. No unauthorized outings after lights-out."

The words themselves were meant to coax children to sleep, but delivered in that mechanical voice—a machine mimicking human speech—they sounded unsettlingly eerie. "Good night, children."

After the broadcast ended, footsteps began echoing down the hallway. Zhu Ning held her breath and didn't move.

Someone was at the door. A pair of feet stood right outside her room.

Zhu Ning's hand moved toward her gun. She activated her god's-eye view and saw a figure standing flush against her door.

It could hardly be called a person. It was a mechanical being, but crudely constructed to an absurd degree—mechanical bones exposed, a gaunt skeletal frame draped in a layer of unconvincing synthetic skin, like a wax figure.

She wore a red outfit with an apron tied at her waist.

Zhu Ning didn't know why, but she immediately recognized this as the legendary Mechanical Mother. She felt an instinctive terror toward her, as if it were carved into her very bones.

Mechanical Mother stood at her door. She knew Zhu Ning was especially mischievous—extremely hard to discipline, always doing things out of line—so she pressed one ear against the door, waiting for the moment Zhu Ning misbehaved.

But this time she heard nothing. After a minute, Mechanical Mother left, somewhat disappointed.

Through her god's-eye view, Zhu Ning watched her check every child's door to make sure they were all locked, then walk to the end of the hallway to turn off the lights before heading up to check on the third floor's children.

The tap-tap-tap of footsteps faded completely. Only after Mechanical Mother had gone upstairs did Zhu Ning let out a breath. Her heart had nearly leapt out of her chest.

Why was she so afraid of Mechanical Mother?

Was it because that kind of authority had loomed over her since childhood, forming an intimidating presence over children even without a word spoken?

Zhu Ning thought she understood now. If she really had once lived here, the role she needed to play was herself.

She'd played a dentist, a hot pot restaurant cashier, and a tourist who'd stumbled into an abandoned village inside Contamination Zones before. This was the first time she was playing the original owner.

What now? Sleep? Or sneak out and look around?

She felt the blanket. The bed reeked of mildew, and it was a bit small for her anyway.

Zhu Ning sat quietly in the darkness, still unable to believe the strange place she'd entered. Ever since Mechanical Mother had appeared, the air itself seemed heavier. Everything felt wrong. Her heart was restless—all she wanted was to leave.

She tucked the note away and carefully felt around every inch of the room's structure. There might be other clues.

While she was feeling around, she suddenly heard a faint thud.

The sound was so soft it would have been easy to miss. But Zhu Ning knew it wasn't her imagination, because more sounds followed.

Thud, thud, thud—rhythmic knocking, coming from the wall to her right.

"Zhu Ning." Someone called her name in a whisper.

Zhu Ning didn't answer rashly. She still wasn't used to playing herself. Turns out, yourself was the hardest role to play.

Through her god's-eye view, she saw a little girl in striped pajamas kneeling in the corner, carefully tapping the wall, terrified of being discovered.

This must have been a way two little girls in the orphanage communicated.

The girl heard no response and knocked again, whispering: "Is Zhu Ning there? Li Xin calling Zhu Ning. Please respond, over."

So her name was Li Xin?

Zhu Ning stopped feeling around the floor. She stood before the wall, paused for two seconds, then knocked back. She was actually going to have a conversation with a little kid.

"Zhu Ning here, over." The voice that came out was a little girl's.

Li Xin sounded relieved. She spoke to the wall: "Hey, Xiao Yuan still hasn't been found."

Zhu Ning was startled. Xiao Yuan?

So the Dead Post's events had happened this far back in time? And her name really was Xiao Yuan?

When Xiao Yuan had called in, hadn't she said she was protecting her privacy and wouldn't reveal too much? Then again, children's awareness of such things was weak—she probably thought using a nickname as her real name online was safe enough.

Could Xiao Yuan be... someone Zhu Ning had known as a child?

Li Xin sensed something was off. "Why are you so quiet today?"

Zhu Ning: "I'm a bit sleepy."

Li Xin scoffed. "Yeah right. You were just saying you'd take me to find Xiao Yuan, acting like a detective and everything."

Zhu Ning knelt by the wall, talking to Li Xin through it. She knew the girl was probably a Contaminant, yet she was gentle with her—as if this really was a childhood friend she'd known.

The words left Zhu Ning's mouth naturally: "Agent Li Xin, report your findings."

"Okay!" Li Xin was excited. She replied: "This is day three of Xiao Yuan's disappearance."

Zhu Ning listened carefully. So after that Dead Post, Xiao Yuan had vanished. The current timeline was the third day since her disappearance.

"Xiao Yuan's real name is Jiang Yue. Everyone calls her Xiao Yuan because she has a round face. She was sort of half-friends with us."

Zhu Ning smiled at that. The kid's phrasing was amusing—"sort of half-friends."

"That night, Xiao Yuan said she was going to make a call for help. We had no idea what she needed help with," Li Xin's voice was very low. "So we just wished her good luck."

Li Xin continued: "But the next day, Mechanical Mother opened the door and found her room empty. Xiao Yuan was gone."

Zhu Ning asked: "How did she disappear?"

Li Xin: "Are you testing me?"

Zhu Ning: "I'm helping you organize your thoughts."

Li Xin was a guileless kid. She said: "Fine. We all know that once lights-out happens, the room doors get locked from the outside. Nobody can get out. There were no signs of anything in her room. After Xiao Yuan disappeared, a few clothes had fallen off the hangers in her wardrobe."

"Later, Mechanical Mother sent people out to look, but there wasn't a single clue. Some people guessed Mechanical Mother had taken her away—fed her to bad people. Others said she'd turned into a butterfly and flown off."

Zhu Ning: "What do you think?"

"I think..." Li Xin drew out the words, "she was taken by a ghost."

Zhu Ning: "Why?"

"Hey, are you really testing me? I'm starting to think you've lost your memory," Li Xin sensed something was off and asked: "You are Zhu Ning, right?"

Zhu Ning thought: I really am—I just don't know which one you knew.

Zhu Ning: "Of course."

Li Xin: "Then what's my favorite color?"

Zhu Ning used her god's-eye view to scan Li Xin's room. On the bed sat a purple stuffed rabbit, and the sweater hanging nearby was also purple.

Zhu Ning cheated. "Purple."

"It really is you!" Li Xin laughed. "Okay, back to Xiao Yuan. I always felt she was acting weird—behaving differently from normal, like she'd gone crazy. The day before she disappeared, she even said, 'This is my last chance to be saved.' She was calling for help."

"She was obviously being haunted by a ghost—why else would she be asking for help?"

Zhu Ning thought: You're actually pretty sharp. But it wasn't a ghost—probably a Contaminant.

Zhu Ning: "Impressive. As expected of you."

Li Xin: "That was so half-hearted."

Zhu Ning had no memories of their time together. Getting this far was already an achievement.

Li Xin: "Stop chatting with me. Mechanical Mother's gone—hurry, use your key to let me out. Let's go find Xiao Yuan together."

Zhu Ning paused. "Key?"

Li Xin: "Yeah! Don't you have a magic key that can open any door?"

Li Xin knew Zhu Ning had a Universal Key? If this was a smokescreen set up by Contaminants, knowing her name—fine, understandable.

Knowing she could shoot—a stretch, but sure. Forging her handwriting—plausible. But she had never told anyone she possessed a system item.

How did Li Xin know? Could a Contaminant really replicate things to this degree?

Only one possibility remained: Zhu Ning had told her herself. She and Li Xin were close friends who shared secrets. She'd often used this key to sneak Li Xin out to play—doing things Mechanical Mother forbade, under cover of night.

Zhu Ning had a faint, nagging feeling that this deduction was correct—because it was exactly the kind of thing she would do.

Li Xin urged her: "Come on, come get me! Let's go find Xiao Yuan!"

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