Chapter 189-I Clean Up Garbage in a Wasteland World
Chapter 189 Cooperation
The first anomaly wasn't Desolate Village—it was the Ant Nest.
Huo Wenxi had discovered Xenomorphs in the Ant Nest. It was the first time a contamination environment similar to outside the wall had been found within District 103.
From that point on, the signs were already there—the environment inside the wall was converging with the outside. That was also when the Abnormal Incident Investigation Team first intervened.
After Desolate Village, Zhu Ning introduced the concept of Non-Natural Humans. The mounting anomalies drew Huo Wenxi deeper and deeper in.
"I want to see the higher-ups." That's what Zhu Ning had said then—she wanted to meet the highest-ranking person she could access at the Sanitation Center before she'd give her mission report.
Zhu Ning achieved her goal, dumping Desolate Village's mess onto Huo Wenxi.
After that came Bao Ruiming's consciousness cloud. Zhu Ning had shown up at Huo Wenxi's door, borrowed her bathtub, and asked Huo Wenxi to serve as her guardian.
In return, Zhu Ning brought back concrete information: nine days until the apocalypse.
The nine-day countdown forced Huo Wenxi into drastic action. She conducted a screening in the Sanitation Center's main hall and witnessed the true form of Non-Natural Humans.
But at that point, Huo Wenxi hadn't been truly shaken—she'd already been mentally prepared.
Non-Natural Humans appearing at the Sanitation Center threw everything into turmoil and chaos.
Yet that had been Huo Wenxi's last chance to walk away unscathed. The Huo Family had warned her to abandon the investigation and return home immediately.
She didn't withdraw. She chose to keep pursuing the truth.
Zhu Ning hadn't dropped a hot potato in her lap—she'd dropped a bomb.
Huo Wenxi had lost an eye. That was the price of Zhu Ning drawing her in.
Facing Huo Wenxi's question, Zhu Ning said expressionlessly: "It was me."
Huo Wenxi's hand on the table tightened. Zhu Ning hadn't even tried to hide it—admitted it so easily.
Huo Wenxi asked: "The Ant Nest too?"
She'd gone to the Ant Nest to clean up the aftermath but had never identified who purified the contaminated area.
Zhu Ning: "That was me."
Huo Wenxi: "The Mechanical Oceanarium—what did you do there?"
Zhu Ning: "Brought out an invisible person. You just saw her."
Zhu Ning had guessed that the person coming to the Dignified Queen Club was Huo Wenxi, but she hadn't hidden Lin Xiaofeng away—instead, she let Huo Wenxi catch a glimpse of the red-hatted figure floating beside her.
Huo Wenxi: "What was your purpose in bringing her out?"
"No particular purpose," Zhu Ning said. "I just thought she was cute."
No matter what Huo Wenxi asked, Zhu Ning answered without hesitation—as though no thought was required.
Desolate Village, the Ant Nest, the Mechanical Oceanarium—all answered.
Huo Wenxi had once written these incidents on her whiteboard. To Zhuang Lin they seemed entirely unrelated, but Huo Wenxi saw a connection—solving one would solve them all.
Huo Wenxi's intuition had been correct. What she hadn't expected was that the thread linking these events was Zhu Ning herself.
Huo Wenxi looked at Zhu Ning again. Before, with her ability active, she'd assessed people primarily by their threat level.
Now, with the ability temporarily offline, Huo Wenxi could observe a person through the most primitive faculty of human vision.
Zhu Ning was wearing casual home clothes—a clearance-sale find with a pineapple printed on the chest. Outwardly, she bore no resemblance to a mastermind. She looked like nothing more than an ordinary employee.
But Huo Wenxi knew she was far from ordinary. The very first time they'd met had been an evaluation.
An extraordinarily high S+-Level sanity score. A high-caliber talent personally evaluated by the Sanitation Center's headquarters. Someone who'd been caught up in bizarre incidents multiple times and walked away safely every time.
Zhu Ning didn't depend on anything—cigarettes, alcohol, Black Dream, or any kind of injection.
In an era descending into madness, Zhu Ning's mental stability was terrifying.
Huo Wenxi asked: "When did you find out?"
This was the most interesting question Huo Wenxi had asked today. Zhu Ning thought for a moment. "That's a hard one to answer. Very early, and also very late."
Zhu Ning had known a year ago—but she'd also only just learned yesterday. Not much earlier than Huo Wenxi.
Huo Wenxi's own ability was intuition-based, a cousin of precognition. "You had precognition?"
"How sharp of you, Team Leader Huo." Zhu Ning: "I used to."
"Used to" meant it was gone now.
Precognition was a god-tier talent. Zhu Ning had once been something close to a demigod.
Huo Wenxi asked: "What do you want to do?"
That thing was colossal. Humans wouldn't dare consider it an enemy.
Zhu Ning: "Stop everything."
That was the goal she'd died thousands upon thousands of times for. The Initial Zhu Ning had erased her own individual consciousness. They'd sacrificed too much trying to prevent it.
Huo Wenxi: "How will you stop it?"
She'd once used an analogy—Zhu Ning was like the founder of a startup, and Huo Wenxi was the unfortunate angel investor backing her.
Now, as the investor, she wanted to hear Zhu Ning's plan.
Zhu Ning held nothing back. "Bao Ruiming spoke of a divine descent. He wasn't talking about an awakening."
Before sleeping, Zhu Ning had carefully taken stock of every clue she possessed. Regardless of whether the thing below could truly be called a god, Bao Ruiming had kept repeating those words—he said the god was going to be born.
What did that mean? How would it be born? Did it require some kind of medium?
"Bao Ruiming said there were nine days left on the countdown," Zhu Ning said. "They need an incubation period."
The contamination outbreak at the Sanitation Center had been huge news. The existence of Non-Natural Humans was now public knowledge.
They could no longer lurk silently among humans. Their cover was blown.
If the thing below could truly awaken at any moment—then, putting herself in the villain's shoes, having orchestrated this massive secret and sacrificed so many lives for it...
To guarantee success, she would've triggered it early under these circumstances.
But these past few days had been quiet. Not a single anomaly. There was probably some restriction—it had to wait the full nine days. The date couldn't be moved up.
Zhu Ning: "To create a district-wide contamination event, there must be a Core Contamination Source. I believe the so-called 'divine descent' is that source."
At its core, this was still a game of locating the contamination source—only this time the contamination zone was the entire District 103. She needed to stop the source before it materialized.
Zhu Ning had thought long and hard. Directly devouring the contaminant below was beyond her imagination. She suspected what she actually needed to devour was the Core Contamination Source.
Huo Wenxi listened quietly. Zhu Ning's reasoning was sound.
Huo Wenxi interlaced her fingers and asked: "Why did you choose me?"
Zhu Ning countered: "May I ask a few questions?"
"Go ahead."
Zhu Ning: "First—if an ordinary person suddenly learned the apocalypse was coming, how would she make the people around her believe it?"
Under normal circumstances she'd be treated as crazy. Social pressure was immense; people were already on the verge of mental breakdowns. Zhu Ning would probably be forcibly committed for psychiatric treatment.
"Second." Zhu Ning didn't wait for Huo Wenxi to answer before posing the next question. "If I needed to choose an important figure to relay this information to, who should I choose?"
Xuan Qing? Or some other department head at the Sanitation Center?
"Third." Zhu Ning continued methodically: "If, one year ago, I'd walked into your office and told you District 103 was going to be destroyed—would you have believed me?"
Even with intuition, Huo Wenxi might not have believed it.
It was too abstract, and there was zero evidence. If Zhu Ning had told her a year ago, Huo Wenxi would probably have noted it down, but with her busy workload, the note would have quickly drowned among countless pending anomaly cases.
Huo Wenxi had to see it with her own eyes—personally feel that horror and shock—before she'd take action.
The answer was clear. Zhu Ning had chosen Huo Wenxi because she was the right fit.
Huo Wenxi wasn't satisfied with this. She asked again: "Why did you choose me?"
She didn't want to hear neat, logical analysis. She wanted to know what Zhu Ning truly thought.
Zhu Ning didn't answer immediately. She looked at Huo Wenxi's intact left eye. Even without her ability, even with only one eye, Huo Wenxi still radiated an oppressive presence.
Zhu Ning had once speculated whether the Huo Family already knew the truth. But it seemed they didn't necessarily—at minimum, Huo Wenxi had known nothing.
Did Huo Wenxi yearn to understand how this world truly operated?
All of humanity's land was contaminated—meaning the High Wall Initiative had already failed. If it had failed, why were there still survivor bases on the surface?
What did the Non-Natural Humans actually want?
These truths were concealed by the great families. Didn't Huo Wenxi want to rip away the facade?
This war between humans and contaminants—were humans fighting contaminants, or other humans? Or rather, First-Class Citizens?
Did Huo Wenxi want to live in ignorance, or die with clarity?
Huo Wenxi had come this far with the investigation. She was only one step away.
Zhu Ning dropped the pretense. "Because you and I are the same kind."
Huo Wenxi had privilege, yes. She was from a great family, yes. But she was nothing like the plutocrats or the Bao Ruimings of the world.
The fact that Huo Wenxi had shown up at the Dignified Queen Club proved it. Under normal circumstances, upon learning what lay beneath, Huo Wenxi would already be on her way home.
Just like the Lu Family, who had immediately evacuated. Liu Niannian was already back home by now.
Huo Wenxi and Zhu Ning were the same kind.
Huo Wenxi asked nothing more. The room fell into a long silence. She looked at Zhu Ning. Zhu Ning had once told her to trust her intuition.
But now her ability was offline. All external aids had vanished.
She was searching Zhu Ning for even the faintest possibility of victory.
Tick, tick, tick—
The clock in the living room ticked steadily forward. Each tick was a second lost, a second closer to disaster.
Precious time slipped away as they talked—like sand falling through fingers.
But this was necessary thinking time. They had to confirm each other's trustworthiness—forge an unbreakable alliance here, directly above the contaminant.
Once trust was given, there would be no betrayal. Once allied, there would be no retreat. If one died, the other would take the gun from her hand and press forward.
Don't collect my body. Don't mourn me. Push onward. Keep going.
This was the level of candor they required. So no matter what Huo Wenxi asked, Zhu Ning would answer.
She could expose her own nest—show Lin Xiaofeng and Song Zhizhang to Huo Wenxi.
She could confess every last secret. If Huo Wenxi wanted to give her a hard time, she'd let her.
Sincerity was the ultimate weapon. That had always held true.
The clock ticked on, yet time seemed frozen.
After a long while, Zhu Ning broke the silence. She extended a hand.
It was a hand with distinct knuckles, calloused from years of holding a gun.
After Zhu Ning extended her hand, Huo Wenxi didn't move. She sat in silence, as if still weighing her decision.
Zhu Ning wasn't embarrassed. She didn't withdraw, didn't make excuses for herself.
She simply held her hand out—suspended in midair, getting a bit sore. Zhu Ning was looking for a companion.
She was inviting Huo Wenxi to join her plan. Inviting her to alter the course of history. And also inviting her to die.
Right now there was no plan. Even if there were, it wouldn't be foolproof. Whether they succeeded or failed, both of them would pay with their lives.
So she could wait.
Finally, Huo Wenxi moved. She slowly, deliberately removed her leather gloves, then clasped Zhu Ning's hand with her own.
"Here's to a successful partnership," Zhu Ning said.
Huo Wenxi said, somewhat reluctantly: "Here's to a successful partnership."
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