Chapter 174-I Clean Up Garbage in a Wasteland World
Chapter 174 Another Self (V)
A pair of eyes appeared between her legs. The wax-like skin on Mechanical Mother's face was loose, and because she was looking upside-down, it kept sliding downward. Even her eyes were slowly shifting position.
Thump—
Zhu Ning could hear her own heartbeat. Time seemed deliberately slowed, each second agonizing.
The instant Mechanical Mother bent down, Zhu Ning had activated her Cloaking Device. Mechanical Mother shouldn't have seen her. But all she had to do was reach under the bed—stretch just a little further—and she'd touch Zhu Ning.
A hand extended from between Mechanical Mother's legs, reaching straight under the bed.
Why? Zhu Ning had used the Cloaking Device without making a single sound. A normal person wouldn't make the extra effort to feel around underneath.
What was Mechanical Mother's basis for doing this?
Zhu Ning's back was pressed flat against the wall, her heart pounding violently. She had no retreat.
If discovered, she'd have no choice but to fight. Before finding the truth, brute force was the last resort Zhu Ning wanted to take.
Zhu Ning stayed pressed against the wall. Mechanical Mother's hand stopped just one inch from her helmet, then came no closer.
Ha ha ha ha—
Children's laughter rang out from outside. Mechanical Mother seemed to snap awake, withdrawing her hand. She stood up, stood silently by the bed for a moment, then left the room and locked the door behind her.
Zhu Ning used her God's Eye View to track her movements, making absolutely sure she was gone before crawling out from under the bed.
She glanced around Xiao Yuan's room once more. The three-year countdown written on the desk was glaringly conspicuous. What did it mean?
Why had Mechanical Mother come to Xiao Yuan's room?
Did she know something?
Zhu Ning crept out of Xiao Yuan's room, deactivated her Cloaking Device in the shadows, and only after confirming she had no tells did she walk into the reading room.
Li Xin was at a desk reading. After breakfast was free time, and they'd gone to the reading room.
Earlier, Zhu Ning had said she needed the bathroom and sent Li Xin away before sneaking to Xiao Yuan's room.
Now, looking at this girl with ants covering her face, Zhu Ning actually felt a sense of warmth.
When Li Xin read with her head down, the ants would crawl from her face onto the desk. Out of boredom, she'd crush them with her fingers while reading.
Zhu Ning sat across from her. Li Xin asked: "Where's your water?"
Zhu Ning: "What?"
Li Xin: "Didn't you say you were going to get a glass of water?"
Zhu Ning froze. She'd read the Dead Post. She immediately realized that what had happened to Xiao Yuan was now happening to her.
While Zhu Ning was away, someone had taken her place here with Li Xin.
Zhu Ning's expression remained perfectly calm. She asked: "You saw me just now?"
Li Xin crushed an ant with her finger, seeming to find Zhu Ning odd. "Yeah."
Zhu Ning knew what had happened. But she decided to play along with the story. "That's impossible."
Where was the evidence?
Zhu Ning stared hard at the ants on Li Xin's face. How could she prove Li Xin wasn't lying to her?
When she'd first read the Dead Post, Zhu Ning had already had doubts: had Xiao Yuan's brothers and sisters truly not deceived her?
What if everyone around a person conspired to lie to them, slowly driving them mad? After mental contamination, people hallucinated—they could be made to truly believe another version of themselves existed.
The incident at the company had been exactly that kind of psychological manipulation—constantly deceiving Zhu Ning in hopes she'd jump off a building.
Li Xin: "But you even did your homework."
A book sat in front of Zhu Ning's spot, with a homework notebook beside it. Words had been written on it in her own hand.
Zhu Ning's handwriting was distinctive—the writing of an adult's soul trapped in a child's body. No matter how much she tried to disguise or hide it, there was always a subtle difference from a child's writing. Others would find it very hard to imitate.
And yet it truly was her own handwriting.
Zhu Ning was certain she hadn't written anything. When she'd left, the notebook had been blank. It could only have been written by her other self.
Li Xin: "We all saw it."
The commotion drew attention. Other people nearby looked over, and someone nodded, watching Zhu Ning with concern. "What's wrong with you?"
So many eyes here—but Zhu Ning didn't believe any of them. They were just Contaminants.
Zhu Ning stood immediately. "I need to use the bathroom again."
Her first instinct was to check the surveillance room. The red house ensured every child's safety; there was a monitoring room on the second floor.
The monitoring room was unlocked with no one inside. Extremely old-fashioned surveillance monitors—seven or eight small TV screens showing real-time feeds.
Zhu Ning needed a third-person perspective. With her abilities, she could read surveillance footage at incredible speed. She placed her hand on the surface and began reading the data. The images projected directly into her mind.
Data wouldn't lie to her.
In the surveillance footage: after breakfast, Zhu Ning entered the reading room with Li Xin. They were doing weekend homework. After just five minutes, Zhu Ning said she needed the bathroom.
The camera then captured Zhu Ning leaving—that was when she'd gone to Xiao Yuan's room.
Two minutes later, "Zhu Ning" came back from the bathroom.
"Zhu Ning" sat across from Li Xin studying. They spent at least fifteen minutes together.
Then, suddenly, "Zhu Ning" stood and said she was thirsty, going to get water. She walked toward the water dispenser, her body disappearing behind the bookshelves—and never came back out.
Immediately after, the real Zhu Ning walked into the reading room and sat across from Li Xin, completely unaware.
Zhu Ning opened her eyes. The streaming data in her pupils ceased.
It had actually appeared?
Where was her other self? Could she be right beside Zhu Ning, just currently invisible?
Zhu Ning reviewed the footage again, this time tracking her other self's movement. She'd walked behind the bookshelves, where there seemed to be a door. While Zhu Ning had been talking to Li Xin, the camera had still been able to capture part of her.
Half a black helmet peeked out from behind the shelves. "Zhu Ning" had been secretly watching her talk to Li Xin from behind the bookcase.
The camera was mounted directly above the bookshelf. "Zhu Ning" seemed to know its position. She suddenly looked up, staring directly into the lens.
Though they both wore helmets and their eyes were invisible, Zhu Ning's heart skipped a beat. They'd made eye contact.
In Xiao Yuan's story, she and her other self had coexisted peacefully before—a sort of "peaceful cohabitation." The other self only appeared when Xiao Yuan was absent.
They'd been following some kind of pact. To use an imperfect analogy: shift work. They never met face to face.
It was only when Xiao Yuan tried to "catch" her other self—when she'd left but secretly circled back and locked eyes through the window—that something was triggered, and from then on, the other could appear openly in Xiao Yuan's world.
Zhu Ning had just inadvertently triggered the same mechanism. They'd locked eyes through the surveillance monitor.
She closed the playback and switched to the live feed. A black figure suddenly appeared in the second-floor hallway.
She wore a black Protective Suit, identical in build to Zhu Ning, and was walking toward the monitoring room.
She was approaching.
Zhu Ning felt a chill down her spine. She didn't even run. Xiao Yuan had run; Zhu Ning couldn't run.
Her heartbeat quickened, eyes unblinking as she watched the surveillance camera. She could feel someone at the door. Her other self had come for her.
All Zhu Ning had to do was open the door and she'd see her. Except her God's Eye View had let her see first.
Anyone entering a Contamination Zone would be assimilated. Zhu Ning now faced the same predicament as Xiao Yuan.
The system tasked her with uncovering the secret of her other self. This was her mission. She had to complete it.
Click—
The "Zhu Ning" outside was turning the doorknob. The handle was old, and the sound was jarringly abrupt.
Zhu Ning's heartbeat raced. Even now, she could hardly believe it.
The door creaked open. The monitoring room was bright, surveillance screens casting their glow over Zhu Ning. The hallway outside was dimmer—the other Zhu Ning seemed hidden in shadow.
They had fully met. Truly sharing the same space for the first time.
Zhu Ning had seen "herself" before—at the company, she'd seen the body. But never one this complete.
[Sanity decreased by 2%]
Zhu Ning opened her mouth, about to utter the first syllable, when her entire body seized.
What was she doing?
Why did she want to talk to the fake Zhu Ning?
Her throat locked. Her tongue went numb. Every instinct in her body screamed: do not make a sound. Whatever you do, do not make a sound, or you'll end up like Xiao Yuan.
So it was true—there really was this compulsion. One part of you desperately wanting to speak. Another part desperately trying to stop yourself.
But was this "rule" even correct? If it was, how had Xiao Yuan died?
Zhu Ning stared directly at the "Zhu Ning" across from her. Xiao Yuan had described a strange, eerie compulsion to immediately hide upon seeing her other self. Zhu Ning's reaction wasn't that extreme, but she did feel an instinct to avoid the other.
Like seeing danger and instinctively wanting to dodge.
Zhu Ning silently held the other's gaze. Her other self said nothing at all. What was she trying to do? Gradually replace her?
Replace her for what purpose? Zhu Ning herself was a walking pile of secrets. She was absolutely the hardest person in the world to impersonate, bar none.
She couldn't even play herself well. A Contaminant could?
No dialogue was possible, so she couldn't ask questions.
Zhu Ning's brow furrowed. She was only pretending to be an eight-year-old girl—she wasn't actually one.
She decided on the brute approach. She took a step forward.
Xiao Yuan had retreated, which had made her other self grow stronger and stronger. So Zhu Ning chose to go on the offensive.
As she stepped forward, she simultaneously drew her gun and fired. The gun had been holstered at her lower back. Her movements were swift—professionally trained.
BANG—!
She pulled the trigger without caring about having to deal with Mechanical Mother later. She needed data from the one across from her.
The bullet spun through the air. One meter from "Zhu Ning," it stopped dead—as if a defensive wall had risen, suspending it abruptly in midair.
Metal Manipulation.
Copying her appearance was one thing. But could it copy her talents and system items too?
The other side also had a system?
This completely exceeded Zhu Ning's understanding. Wasn't this too surreal?
As an Alpha Series test subject, if she could truly be replicated to this degree, Eternal Life Pharmaceuticals would have made a fortune ages ago.
A place like this existed in the world and was only rated as a B-rank Contamination Zone?
The red house's front door was open. Zhu Ning could leave right now if she wanted. But she absolutely couldn't do something that irresponsible.
If "Zhu Ning" possessed all her same abilities, she'd essentially be unleashing a ticking time bomb into the outside world.
Wait—a terrifying thought suddenly struck her. If this Contamination Zone could produce a copy of her, how could she prove she wasn't the copy?
She had to kill it.
Zhu Ning simultaneously activated her own Metal Manipulation. A single bullet, held by two identical forces, locked in a stalemate with only the faintest quiver.
"Zhu Ning" possessed the exact same skills. Things had gotten very bad. This opponent was extremely troublesome.
No matter what ability she deployed, the other side could counter with the same one.
If all system parameters were identical, any fight between them would be meaningless. Zhu Ning still refused to believe it. She wanted to rip off the other's helmet. She couldn't accept that her face was actually underneath.
If something truly supernatural was happening here—one the prey and one the predator—Zhu Ning was determined to be the one in control.
She moved blindingly fast, but the other seemed to read her intent. She spun and bolted.
Zhu Ning gave chase immediately. She'd been faster than her peers even as a child. The "Zhu Ning" ahead ran at exactly her speed—their stamina was identical too.
Zhu Ning sprinted at full tilt. Rows of dormitory rooms blurred past. "Zhu Ning" was only one step ahead.
Their running speeds were roughly equal. In theory, this was a person Zhu Ning could never catch.
A normal person wouldn't obsess over chasing a target they could never reach. But Zhu Ning persisted. That was just a Contaminant. It had to have a limit.
The red house became their chase ground. Bound by the unspoken rule of silence, only a mute pursuit played out—not a single word exchanged.
To anyone else, it would look like Zhu Ning had suddenly gone mad and started sprinting. When a third person was present, the other self couldn't be seen.
Zhu Ning could clearly feel the person ahead gradually slowing. Just one reach and she could grab her.
They were at a corner. Zhu Ning's hand shot out as the other turned into the stairwell.
Bang!
Zhu Ning hit something. Someone forcefully seized her, gripping her arm like a vise.
Mechanical Mother's face appeared before her, drooping eyes fixed on Zhu Ning. "What are you doing?"
So close. Just two more seconds. Zhu Ning looked toward the stairwell—she had vanished completely.
Zhu Ning glanced at Mechanical Mother. It wasn't time to destroy the Contamination Zone yet. She'd just been running full-out and was drenched in sweat, heart racing. Suppressing the urge, she said: "There's someone."
"There isn't."
Zhu Ning argued: "There is—"
Mechanical Mother: "You're in solitary confinement."
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