Chapter 179-I Clean Up Garbage in a Wasteland World
Chapter 179 Another Self (X)
Zhu Ning had always joked about her own profession—in ancient times, she'd be an exorcist. Beasts were the ghosts she caught.
She never imagined she'd one day befriend a ghost.
More precisely, she'd never imagined befriending an Ant-Mimicking Spider.
Beasts ran rampant, shattering the original food chain, fusing different organisms together.
When Zhu Ning first arrived in this world, it was Li Xin who guided her forward, teaching her the survival tricks of the Red House.
She'd helped her look up information about shooting clubs. She'd been happy when Zhu Ning placed in a competition.
Until the truth was revealed. Zhu Ning found the bodies of the missing Defectives, found her own headstone, and saw that Li Xin had left an empty grave for her.
In Li Xin's understanding, this way Zhu Ning could live forever.
Even now, Li Xin still believed this.
Eight-year-old Zhu Ning looked extremely frail—so small it seemed like the slightest effort could snuff her out.
Two adult souls were trapped in children's bodies, locked in a standoff.
"Remember now?" Li Xin looked at Zhu Ning with the eyes of someone eyeing food. She said softly, "You ran away last time."
The young Zhu Ning had been sharp. Even without knowing what Beasts were, she'd left before the mental contamination could take hold. She hadn't seen another self the way she had this time.
Eleven years ago, Li Xin's hunt had failed.
Zhu Ning had barely escaped, yet she'd chosen to come back—as if giving Li Xin another chance, letting lost prey walk right back into the trap.
Li Xin said, "Not this time."
The Red House's graveyard was missing a piece. She intended to fill in the gap.
Zhu Ning frowned at those words. She'd thought there might be some residual sentiment, but in Li Xin's eyes, she was nothing more than food.
The wall behind her was trembling—like a prelude to an earthquake.
She'd thrown a bomb down earlier. Most of the Spider-Humans hatched from Human Cocoons had been killed.
Now the Spider-Human corpses that had fallen into the abyss were climbing back up. As long as the Contamination Source didn't die, they could resurrect.
The Contamination Zone had its own logic, and so did Li Xin. Her instinct was to kill everyone who entered the Red House.
Whether or not they were friends had nothing to do with it.
The Spider-Human corpse bound to Zhu Ning's leg snapped its eyes open and lunged at her.
Zhu Ning's gun barrel was pressed against the Spider-Human's heart. The bullet tore into its body. Inhuman blood seeped from the mangled wound.
The Spider-Human's corpse hit the ground at Zhu Ning's feet with a thud.
Black Slime flowed from Zhu Ning's spine, filling the cracked bones and sealing her wounds.
Dozens of Spider-Humans swarmed out in full force.
Having fought one round, she now had to fight another. The attackers were all Spider-Humans—the "other self" that Li Xin had created earlier was nowhere to be seen.
Zhu Ning had realized it earlier: the so-called fake Zhu Ning was more like a mirror projection than an actual copy of her abilities.
The fake Zhu Ning couldn't attack on its own. Any skill Zhu Ning used would be neutralized, but the other couldn't use the system to counterattack.
Just as an Ant-Mimicking Spider could only mimic—pretend to be an ant—but couldn't truly transform itself into one.
This was only a B-Level Contamination Zone, after all.
Zhu Ning used Corrosive Potion to dissolve the spider silk on her legs. The Black Slime could mend wounds but couldn't eliminate pain.
Li Xin stood in the doorway. She was the Contamination Source.
Kill the Contamination Source. Exit the Contamination Zone. That was Zhu Ning's combat instinct.
Li Xin's gaze grew heavier, like a hunter sizing up troublesome prey.
She had exposed her identity the instant Zhu Ning stepped into the Contamination Zone, successfully steering Zhu Ning down the wrong path.
But in doing so, she'd also exposed herself.
Once a Contamination Source revealed itself, it was nearly impossible to hide again.
Rationally, Li Xin should have fled immediately. But she couldn't suppress her instinctive urge.
Zhu Ning's instinct was to kill the Contamination Source. Li Xin's instinct was to consume humans.
Zhu Ning had barely gotten to her feet when she was tackled to the ground. The one who'd pounced was Li Xin herself.
The Contamination Source had made her move personally.
Li Xin had originally intended for Zhu Ning to clash with the other self, gradually succumb to the Contamination Zone's influence, and willingly become a Human Cocoon.
Unfortunately, Zhu Ning saw through it quickly. Li Xin could feel that Zhu Ning had grown up—she was far stronger than before. All Beasts were extremely sensitive to sanity levels.
Li Xin had no choice but to act. In Zhu Ning's presence, she felt an overwhelming sense of crisis—the terror of an insect before a bird of prey.
If she didn't act, she'd be crushed instantly.
Li Xin couldn't maintain her human form. Beneath the striped pajamas, her body swelled grotesquely. Six arms burst from her spine, puncturing through the fabric.
Zhu Ning was seized and sent tumbling. Xiao Yuan's room was cramped. Li Xin had her in a hold.
Six arms locked around Zhu Ning's body like iron bands—immovable. From a human perspective, it was an exaggerated embrace.
But from a spider's perspective, it wasn't an embrace at all. It was a spider pinning its prey after a catch, preventing it from struggling free during feeding.
Soft spider silk wound around her, loop after loop. The person being wrapped couldn't struggle—forcing it might slice them to ribbons.
The silk was turning Zhu Ning into a Human Cocoon.
The mistake of years past needed correcting. Li Xin wanted Zhu Ning to stay where she belonged. She would kill Zhu Ning and bury her in the grave.
Li Xin and "Jiang Ping" were the same.
This was Zhu Ning's second close encounter with a Non-Natural Human, and both had exhibited the same tendency—feeding.
Compared to humans, they were more like wild beasts, drawn to Zhu Ning's high sanity level.
Conversely, their emotions were far more muted than a human's.
One might say they had no emotions at all—they simply imitated human responses constantly, tricking themselves into believing they were sentient beings.
From the moment Zhu Ning set foot in this Contamination Zone, Li Xin had been doing everything in her power to contaminate her.
An eight-year-old Zhu Ning could be fooled. The current Zhu Ning could not.
Zhu Ning looked up at Li Xin above her. Li Xin's face was already distorted, mouthparts writhing inside her mouth, the freckles on her face squirming frantically.
All that innocence was camouflage—solely for better hunting.
Non-Natural Humans couldn't suppress their appetite.
Zhu Ning had identified a new pattern regarding Non-Natural Humans.
Unlike the feeling she'd had when killing "Jiang Ping," what Zhu Ning felt now was only sadness. Non-Natural Humans were creatures incapable of controlling themselves.
Sanity was like a bone dangling above their heads—an influence they could never escape in their entire lives.
Massive amounts of spider silk gushed from Li Xin's mouth. This batch was sharper than before—she intended to impale Zhu Ning's heart with it.
Bang—!
Li Xin's feeding motion froze. The taut spider silk went slack. Confused, she lowered her head—and saw a fist-sized hole blasted through her chest.
Zhu Ning had used the Heavy Firearm. The barrel pressed against her own chest was still smoking.
The flesh around the wound was burning. Where her heart had been, only half remained. Worse still, enhanced by the Corrosive Potion, the acid was eating away at her body.
Li Xin let out a hiss. The mouthparts in her mouth trembled with it. Animals in their death throes wailed.
Li Xin opened her mouth wide, her features twisted in rage. The gaze she turned on Zhu Ning was near-furious. The spider silk tightened in an instant.
Bang—!
The second shot.
The bullet spiraled out. This time it entered through her lower jaw. The entire bottom half of her face was blown apart.
Through the wound, Zhu Ning could see the ceiling behind her.
For the current Zhu Ning, Li Xin was a very low-level Beast. She didn't even need any complex lure tactics.
Li Xin's body went rigid in midair. A hole gaped in her chest, her jaw was completely destroyed, and the wounds kept burning.
With her whole body locked up, only her eyeballs could move.
Her black pupils rolled downward, as if trying to get one last clear look at the person who had killed her.
Thud—
Zhu Ning felt a dark shadow descend. Li Xin's body lost all support and collapsed onto her.
Zhu Ning felt how heavy Li Xin was. Why was such a small child so heavy?
Li Xin's eyes were wide open. The fingers of her dangling hand twitched as she tried to manipulate the spider silk again—like a soldier reaching for her weapon one last time. This time, she couldn't manage it.
Li Xin's eyes were wide, her head and neck connected by only a sliver of flesh.
She breathed quietly. Each breath seemed to cost every ounce of her remaining strength, each one weaker than the last.
Li Xin realized she was done for. She'd lost control of the Contamination Zone.
She was dying.
In the face of death, there was only calm. She didn't possess human emotions, so she felt no panic before death.
"I..." Li Xin's voice came in fragments. "First time watching... you shoot."
The smell of charred flesh drifted from Li Xin's wounds. She was drenched in blood. It was the first time she'd felt a bullet pass through her body.
Zhu Ning was taken aback. She hadn't expected that in her final moments, this was what Li Xin cared about.
Li Xin couldn't leave the Red House. She'd never been to any of Zhu Ning's matches. She'd only watched other people's competition videos online.
Now she'd finally seen it. So this was the sport Zhu Ning had spoken of—shooting.
You had to keep your hands perfectly steady. Your wrist had to be straight. You had to be utterly calm.
You had to aim at your prey.
A beautiful sport—if only Li Xin hadn't been the prey.
Zhu Ning opened her mouth. She wanted to say something but couldn't get the words out. None of it mattered anymore.
If a human encountered a wolf in the wild, the wolf would lunge, fighting with everything it had to tear at the human's throat. And the human would fight back. The human would fire a gun.
"It's snowing," Li Xin said, her voice very soft. Even though she no longer looked like a little girl, in that moment, her voice sounded exactly like one.
Zhu Ning looked toward the window. Faint light filtered through the broken glass, falling on both of them.
At some point, snow had begun falling over District 103. Great flakes drifted down, reflecting a world of white.
To nature, humans, Non-Natural Humans, a blade of grass, and a grain of sand were all the same.
They shared the same sky, watching the same snow.
Before the snowfall, their identities dissolved, creating an illusion—as if, for a brief moment, they truly were a pair of friends.
Li Xin's ruined head lolled to one side. Only her eyes remained intact, her pupils rolling desperately, trying to take in as much of the scenery outside the window as possible. In her bright eyes, hexagonal snowflakes were reflected. In this moment, she felt no pain—only white, everywhere.
She wanted so badly to taste the snow before she died. She wanted to feel what it was like when snowflakes landed on her skin.
Li Xin didn't speak again. She became utterly still.
Zhu Ning could feel the other's life fading. When life departed, everything seemed to follow a traceable pattern—vitality was slowly drawn from the body, bit by bit.
An observer could quietly sense the entire process.
Li Xin's wide-open eyes never closed again. Her breathing all but stopped. She had reached the end.
Zhu Ning took a deep breath. It was so cold. It felt as if every drop of blood in her body had frozen to slush, every vein stinging with a faint prickling pain.
Zhu Ning reached out her hand. Only then did she realize it was trembling. She'd thought she was calm.
Killing a Beast should leave you unfazed.
Zhu Ning had no time to sort through her feelings. Her blood-soaked fingers came to rest gently on Li Xin's forehead. The other's eyes had lost all light—the eyes of someone at death's door.
The blood-red contamination spores hadn't yet crystallized out. Zhu Ning wanted to read Li Xin's memories.
She needed to know the origin of Non-Natural Humans.
Author's Note
Sorry, had to work overtime today—running late!
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