Chapter 200-I Clean Up Garbage in a Wasteland World
Chapter 200 Eternal Pharma Foundation (VI)
Rustle, rustle—
The Cockroach-Humans' spindly limbs twitched as they squeezed through the door crack. One, two, three.
Their movements were virtually indistinguishable from real cockroaches—ceiling, walls, door frame, they could traverse any surface.
In the blink of an eye, glossy black Cockroach-Humans poured in with quivering bodies, forming a dark mass across the walls.
Zhu Ning suddenly regretted leaving that crack in the door. She'd meant to fish for clues—but what she'd hooked wasn't fish. It was a swarm of cockroaches.
What were cockroaches afraid of? Boric acid? Insecticide?
Who brings bug spray on a mission? Even the most experienced Demon Hunter wouldn't think of that.
What were cockroaches' natural predators? Spiders? Zhu Ning had indeed once devoured a jumping spider—but she couldn't exactly eat cockroaches.
Dr. Fu was on the verge of fainting. His vision went dark. Several Cockroach-Humans had already entered the master bedroom. Pallid human faces contrasted sickeningly with glossy black shells, making his entire body itch.
If Zhu Ning hadn't seized his arm, he'd have bolted in blind panic.
A Cockroach-Human crouched on the floor, its limbs absurdly elongated—twice the length of a normal human's.
Click—
It tilted its head with a faint sound. Vacant eyes turned their way.
It was coming.
Dr. Fu's mouth opened. A scream lodged in his throat. Zhu Ning gripped him hard—don't move, don't scream.
On the floor, the decapitated Cockroach-Human's body twitched involuntarily. Revolting slime dripped steadily onto the ground.
The newcomer's eyes drooped vacantly. It lowered its head, sniffed the floor—then bit down on the corpse of its fallen kin.
Human teeth. Clamping onto insect chitin. White teeth against black shell in stark contrast.
The others did the same—heads clustered together, surrounding the body on the ground. The dying Cockroach-Human went still quickly.
As they fed, they produced crunching, gnawing sounds.
Dr. Fu couldn't decide what was worse—being tackled by a Cockroach-Human, or watching them cannibalize each other.
The things before him had human faces. Human expressions. Yet they performed utterly inhuman acts.
For reasons he couldn't explain, Dr. Fu's mouth began to itch. Listening to that crunching, he could almost imagine the texture.
As if he were gnawing too. A bit crunchy on the bite. Black, foul-smelling liquid flooding his mouth.
Dr. Fu's teeth unconsciously clenched and unclenched. Saliva pooled in his mouth.
He licked his lips without thinking—then froze. Wait. What was he doing?
Had he just... craved that?
He wanted to eat that thing?
The realization stunned him. Had he just identified with the Cockroach-Humans as his own kind?
The moment he recognized this, Dr. Fu fought the urge to retch—feeling as though his stomach was already packed with cockroaches, squirming in a compressed mass.
Suddenly, searing pain shot through his right arm. He looked up—Zhu Ning had clamped down on his arm with enough force to snap it.
The pain brought marginal clarity. Zhu Ning gripped his arm and signed to him.
Go.
While the Cockroach-Humans were eating the corpse—move now.
Cockroaches preferred warm, humid environments and rotting food. They'd been drawn by the carcass.
Dr. Fu and Zhu Ning were sealed inside their protective suits. Compared to the body on the floor, they were far less attractive to the Cockroach-Humans right now.
Go?
Dr. Fu blinked, then processed—but having the thought didn't translate to execution.
His body was rigid. His knees trembled with every step. He nearly collapsed the moment he stood.
Zhu Ning practically wanted to carry him. Dr. Fu placed his feet with excruciating care—but his knee bumped the bed frame with a soft thud.
Less than half a meter from the Cockroach-Humans. That tiny sound immediately drew attention. Two heads rose to look.
Dr. Fu's back hair stood on end. He wanted to beg for mercy.
Whoosh—
Dr. Fu instinctively squinted. Zhu Ning had ignited fire—the protective suit's built-in flamethrower. Flames erupted from her arm.
Cockroaches were insects. Zhu Ning had dealt with bugs once before in the abandoned village.
Sure enough—the Cockroach-Humans recoiled three or four steps at the sight of fire, baring their teeth as they watched.
"Move." Zhu Ning waved the flame.
Dr. Fu swallowed. He moved more carefully this time. Fortunately the carpet absorbed most of his footfalls. As he moved, the Cockroach-Humans' necks tracked him—curious, like cats unconsciously following a laser pointer.
Dr. Fu trembled his way through. Three steps felt like an eternity. They exited the master bedroom—still three-quarters of the way to the front door.
The living room was surrounded by Cockroach-Humans. More kept crawling through the door frame. The bedrooms were infested too.
Firelight illuminated black chitin and pallid human faces. The Cockroach-Humans instinctively kept their distance.
Zhu Ning felt as though she were in the middle of a cockroach nest, inching her way out.
She wasn't confident either. There were simply too many. Hopelessly outnumbered. Better to avoid a melee—she'd lose all sense of direction.
Creak.
Zhu Ning carefully hooked the door open with her toe. The moment it opened—she froze. The corridor had even more.
They were drawn to rot and corpses. Like sharks scenting blood.
The hotel corridor was a solid mass of Cockroach-Humans, so dense the walls and carpet were invisible beneath them.
She and Dr. Fu stood before a tide of Cockroach-Humans. The fire in her hand looked pathetically small—like a single match struck on the open ocean.
Zhu Ning had no doubt: right now the fire was still a deterrent. But the instant either of their suits developed the tiniest breach—fire or not—they'd be devoured in seconds.
"Wh-what do we do?" Dr. Fu rapidly scrawled characters on his helmet display.
He was terrified. With this many Cockroach-Humans, how could they possibly pass safely? No attack now—but later?
If they moved, the swarm would follow.
Zhu Ning gritted her teeth. This was genuinely troublesome. She couldn't exterminate every last one.
She shielded Dr. Fu behind her. The flamethrower on her right arm still ran. She opened her talent panel—nothing specifically countered insects. The closest fit was 3D Defense Space, which could buy time.
Suddenly, the corner of Zhu Ning's vision darkened. Her helmet caught a shifting shadow.
In this hair-trigger atmosphere, she nearly mistook it for some suicidal Cockroach-Human ambushing her.
She'd already raised her gun, ready for a brawl.
But her grip froze. It was a mass of black shadow seeping from under the neighboring room's door.
Xu Meng's ability was Shadow Form.
Zhu Ning had seen Xu Meng's power before. They shared a certain unspoken understanding.
Sure enough—the moment the shadow touched Zhu Ning's toes, her body felt weightless. Then she dissolved into a cool, dark silhouette on the spot.
That familiar sensation returned—a three-dimensional person flattened into two dimensions.
By the time she registered anything, Zhu Ning was already on the floor of Room 910. Beside her, Dr. Fu gasped for breath, still shell-shocked.
Xu Meng wasn't as reckless as Zhu Ning. She'd closed her door from the start. Now she'd even sealed the gap.
Zhu Ning glanced at 910's master bedroom. Xu Meng hadn't even attacked the Cockroach-Humans in her room—she'd simply caged them in a shadow-shaped prison. They were currently ramming the cage walls, searching for an exit.
So shadow abilities could be used like that.
Room 910 had no rotting slime, no corpse—nothing to attract Cockroach-Humans to feed.
Zhu Ning exhaled. She'd thought she was in for an all-out war with a cockroach nest.
Rustling still came from next door. Room 909 had fallen.
A shame—they hadn't finished searching that room.
Zhu Ning sat on the floor. Xu Meng stood opposite, watching her. Classic Zhu Ning—charging ahead without leaving herself an escape route.
Xu Meng extended her hand. Zhu Ning naturally clasped it and let Xu Meng haul her to her feet.
Zhu Ning asked: "How long can this room hold?"
Xu Meng: "Unknown. Seems safe for now."
Zhu Ning steadied herself, produced what she'd found during her search, and exchanged intel with Xu Meng. "The only useful thing I got is this medication log."
Xu Meng: "I have one too. Plus two medicine bottles and surveillance cameras."
Xu Meng spread everything on the coffee table. Her clues were better preserved.
Zhu Ning held up a camera by its cord—broken, no data inside. "The cameras were for monitoring test subjects?"
Xu Meng: "Probably. Not sure. Can Dr. Fu tell us anything about these two bottles?"
Xu Meng asked, but Dr. Fu didn't respond. He was wedged between the coffee table and sofa, dry-heaving repeatedly—as if trying to expel something from his body.
Zhu Ning reassured him: "Your suit isn't breached. Nothing could have contaminated the inside."
Dr. Fu knew this logically, but couldn't stop retching. It took him a long time to recover. "I know. I just need to throw up."
Zhu Ning was almost impressed. Dr. Fu could've stayed safe in his office, yet here he was—charging into a contamination zone for science. He deserved an honorary citizen medal when this was over.
Xu Meng: "You get three minutes."
Xu Meng wasn't as lenient as Zhu Ning. Three minutes of rest, maximum.
Zhu Ning raised an eyebrow at that. Xu Meng was showing shades of a Leopard Squad captain.
Dr. Fu was embarrassed to make them wait. He wanted to wipe his sweat—then remembered the helmet was in the way.
"Let me see." Dr. Fu took Xu Meng's bottles and shook them. Both were about half-full.
No information on the bottles. Nothing to discern from appearance alone.
Dr. Fu placed a sheet of paper beneath. "I'm opening them."
Zhu Ning and Xu Meng acknowledged. Inside a contamination zone, anything could be in those bottles. They'd cover Dr. Fu's safety.
Dr. Fu carefully twisted the cap. It opened easily. He tilted the bottle, pouring out several brown granules.
At first glance they looked like medicine. Before Zhu Ning could get a clear look, Dr. Fu immediately clutched his chest and vomited.
This time it wasn't dry heaving—even through his helmet, Zhu Ning could hear the splattering. He'd thrown up inside his visor.
Zhu Ning silently disconnected her screen-share with Dr. Fu. She couldn't bear to watch him vomit all over his own face.
Zhu Ning asked: "What is this?"
"Oo—Ootheca." Dr. Fu's voice trembled. Afraid Zhu Ning wouldn't understand, he added: "Each one can hatch a whole brood!"
Zhu Ning: "..."
Zhu Ning examined the so-called brown granules more closely. They looked nothing like normal pills—more like tiny seed pods.
Inside would be white eggs, clustered together like the pulp segments of a pomelo.
It really was... deeply revolting.
Zhu Ning organized her thoughts. "So Eternal Pharma was feeding these people cockroach eggs?"
If people actually swallowed these as medicine—cockroaches thrived in warm, humid environments. Once inside a human body... would they hatch?
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