Chapter 4 I Clean Up Garbage in a Wasteland World

TL Note:

I changed monster hunters to "witchers". Witchers sound cooler. Let me know if y'all want monster hunter instead!

Chapter 4 - Contaminated Areas

Area 103 Cleaning Center

Technical Support Department

The technician was munching on potato chips while looking at the screen. It was showing the interior of Sewer A7 in Area 103.

There had been an outbreak of contaminants here, and the witchers assigned to clearing them out had gone down an hour ago. It was just a Class E mission, so it only took twenty minutes to complete it.

Now, it's the cleaners who are on duty.

Cleaners, to put it bluntly, are just garbage sweepers designated to clean up the scene. How dangerous could the job be?

All technicians know that when the witchers are working, they have to be vigilant and careful in monitoring the situation. Thus, the best time to slack off on job would be when the cleaning team is on duty.

The technician continued on eating potato chips while chatting with his girlfriend, only looking up at the screen occasionally.

Suddenly, he stopped eating potato chips and stared at the screen in disbelief. The pollution value on the screen went up in one go, forming a small peak.

'Is the data going crazy?'

No, the data continued to rise. The pollution concentration is steadily increasing..

30%

40%

50%

70%

[Class D contaminated area.]

Six blood-red characters appeared on the screen, flashing continuously.

'Class D? Wasn't it Class E?'

'Was the polluted area wrongly rated from the beginning?'

The technician threw away the potato chips and quickly tapped the keyboard. The calculated result was the same.

It was still a Class D contaminated area.

'It's over.'

The technician stood up.

'It's over.'

He quickly switched to the sewer screen. Each cleaner's helmet had a camera, which made it easy for the headquarters to monitor the situation.

The scene showed a flashlight illuminating the depths of the sewer, revealing a fish man pollutant.

The technician quickly contacted the cleanup team, and just as they opened the public channel, they heard a

BANG!

Someone fired a shot.

…

Sewer A7

Area 103

[Report! There is living contaminant here. Requesting to be pulled out–Fuck!]

Li Nianchuan had no time to speak, it was too fast. The fish man was right in front of him in the blink of an eye.

[Authorization has been granted. You are allowed to shoot!] Xu Meng's anxious voice came from the helmet.

Click.

Weapon authority was opened.

BANG!

As soon as the permission was granted, Zhu Ning pulled the trigger without hesitation. Li Nianchuan looked at the scene stunned.

The bullet ejected at high speed and hit the fish man's face accurately. Under the huge impact force, its head tilted back 180 degrees.

Still.

The fish man, who was running at high speed earlier, stopped for a second. Zhu Ning didn't dare to relax.

'Is it dead?'

“H a h a h a h a h a h a h a h a h a—” A low laugh came from the fish man.

It slowly raised its head. The center of its fish eye was pierced and its face was torn into pieces.

Still alive.

It was shot in the head but it was still alive.

Zhu Ning immediately made a judgment in her mind. Zombies' weakness is the head. Once the head was shot, they will lose the ability to move and die.

The fact that the fish man could still move after being shot in the head is in line with the characteristics of fish to some extent.

Li Nianchuan finally reacted and pulled out the gun from his waist. He had been a cleaner for a year and a half, and it was the first time he saw a living contaminant. His heart was beating fast and he couldn't even hold the gun properly.

Li Nianchuan also raised his gun and fired.

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

Li Nianchuan pulled the trigger repeatedly. Although his aim was not good, his continuous shots successfully slowed down the fish man.

The fish man's head was shot by Zhu Ning, and one of its legs was shot by Li Nianchuan. Now, it was dragging its body on the ground.

Its vitality was so strong that it could still crawl towards them even if badly damaged.

"D o y o u k n o w . . . w h e r e t h e l a s t t r a i n . . . o f L i n e 1. . . i s ?"

The fish man tilted its neck, with the scales on it curled up, "I c a n ' t c a t c h i t , L i n e 1. . . T h e l a s t , l a s t , l a s t , l a s t t r a i n . . . "

Li Nianchuan's mental health dropped madly.

BANG!

Zhu Ning fired another shot.

The bullet hit the fish man's body. It jerked once, then twitched all over as if having a seizure.

"L a s t , l a s t , l a s t , l a s t b u s . . . "

Zhu Ning asked: "Is it dead?"

Li Nianchuan was still in a state of shock and said in a daze, "I don't know."

When cleaners goes in the scene, all contaminants should already be dead. It was his first time encountering this situation.

He just wanted to take a break from work because he was feeling breathless. No wonder he was so irritable today. It turned out there was a living contaminant here.

Zhu Ning observed for a while, and only noticed the fish man twitching, so she asked a question.

"After the death of a contaminant, how long does it take for spores to float?"

Li Nianchuan's mind buzzed for a moment, and he finally reacted, "Immediately! If there are no vital signs left, the spores will float immediately! That contaminant is not dead yet!"

Li Nianchuan raised the gun he had just put down and pointed the muzzle directly at the fish man's body. There was no reaction from the contaminant.

Not a single spore. The fish man was dead, but not completely dead.

Zhu Ning is a pure rookie. Today is only her first day at work. She was happily picking cotton for half an hour, then all of a sudden, she was thrusted into this weird scenario.

Zhu Ning wanted to be a salted fish, not to meet a real salted fish.

Zhu Ning humbly asked her senior, "What should we do in this situation?"

Li Nianchuan: "Wait for rescue."

Zhu Ning: “…”

Li Nianchuan was also very worried: "Firstly, the probability of our situation is too low. I have been working for a year and a half, but I have never heard of witchers accidentally letting a fish slip through the net. Secondly, our qualifications are not as good as those witchers. If we act rashly, we might just doom ourselves. Lastly, the work manual tells us to wait here."

"Has a distress signal been sent out?" Zhu Ning asked. While waiting for rescue, they had to let people know where they were.

Li Nianchuan: "I sent out a signal when the fish man first appeared."

But there was no response.

He thought that as a senior, he should at least give Zhu Ning some assurance. "The distress signal has been sent. We just need to wait patiently."

Li Nianchuan sighed again, "It's all my fault. If I hadn't come out to get some fresh air, I wouldn't have dragged you into this."

Zhu Ning glanced at him and said, "Don't talk nonsense."

Pointing fingers on who to blame is a waste of time.

Zhu Ning asked: "Anyway, don't you think something's wrong?"

Li Nianchuan had long discovered that Zhu Ning seemed to be more sensitive than him. She reacted to the presence of contaminant a full minute earlier than Li Nianchuan. It wasn't an exaggeration to call her a human radar.

When Zhu Ning asked this, Li Nianchuan tensed, thinking that there was another contaminant. He clenched his gun and asked, "What's wrong?"

Zhu Ning: "Xu Meng hasn't contacted us yet."

When the fish man first appeared, Zhu Ning only heard the captain's voice when he approved open fire. After that, there was nothing.

They were in a public communication channel, and as the captain, Xu Meng should be able to clearly hear what Zhu Ning was doing. When Zhu Ning and Li Nianchuan suspected each other of being contaminated, Xu Meng didn't say anything. Maybe because he was monitoring the situation, but now that the situation is over, there was still nothing on his end.

Zhu Ning asked: "Did he ...die?"

Li Nianchuan's face hidden under the helmet was pale. "Worse."

Zhu Ning frowned.

Li Nianchuan: "This proves that the pollution area has been opened and we are at the center of it. Outsiders won't be able to enter for a while. The channel was disconnected because of mental pollution, so Xu Meng can't contact us."

"We are two noobs sweeping garbage. We don't have any equipment, the channel is disconnected, and we can't receive any information from the outside."

Li Nianchuan spoke very quickly, took a deep breath, looked at Zhu Ning, and said the last sentence: "We're dead."

…

"Zhu Ning? Li Nianchuan? Please reply if you can hear me!" Xu Meng was trying to call them, but there was no response.

Xu Meng was containing the spores when he heard gunshots. He thought that one of them was just mildly mentally polluted, so when Zhu Ning drew her gun, Xu Meng didn't take it seriously.

There were still contaminated spores that have not been contained. If the spores spread to the entire 103 areas of the Federation, the entire city might risk contamination.

Xu Meng knew which tasks should be prioritized first. No matter what happened, their main job is to ensure the containment of the contaminated spores. While he was containing spores, he listened carefully to the movements on the channel.

If this was really a normal Class E clean up mission, then everything should be under control. But things were starting to get chaotic over there; the crackling sound of electricity could occasionally be heard from the channel.

Xu Meng finally felt that something was wrong. His intuition told him that this was no longer a simple Class E mission.

When Li Nianchuan said that a living contaminant appeared, he knew things have gone south. Zhu Ning might be a rookie, but Li Nianchuan was still an old employee. He thought that with with Li Nianchuan's experience, they might still have a chance to at least escape. Unfortunately, it was too late.

He soon received news from the technical department.

A once-in-a-decade unfortunate incident occurred: the pollution area rating was wrong. This place was not an Class E contaminated area; it was Class D.

A Class D mission might not be difficult for a witcher, but those involved now are two logistical personnel who were responsible for sweeping up garbage. Not to mention that the witchers had already left long ago, thinking that they had already finished work.

But what they didn't know was that the "work" that they had done were just cleaning up garbage at the door. The real deal were further inside the sewer.

It would take at least half an hour for the witchers to return. A second more of staying in the contaminated area could easily lead to death, not to mention that in this mission, there's also new employee.

Xu Meng kept trying to get a response from Zhu Ning and Li Nianchuan, but no matter how much he shouted, there was no one to answer him. He ultimately concluded that the CLass D contaminated area had opened and that the mental pollution had cut off the channel communication.

'It's really over.'

Xu Meng thought.

…

Zhu Ning took a deep breath.

'How could anyone be this unlucky? Is this even scientific?'

When she was signing the contract, Fang Ying mentioned that there's only a negligible chance of being in danger since contaminated areas are generally safe after the witchers were done with their work. It was a low-probability event.

During employee training, the instructional video only taught how to "pick cotton." There was no "how to kill contaminants" tutorial since encountering such a situation on the job is a low-probability event.

When Xu Meng gave her a gun, Li Nianchuan said that it was just for show in case contaminants appear, and that they won't have to use it because, well... it was a low-probability event.

Now that three low-probability events coincidentally happened one after another, Zhu Ning couldn't help but doubt herself.

She had fought zombies all her life before, so how come she has to kill fish in this life?!

The only good news is that at least she has a gun that can refuel with air bullets, so she doesn't have to worry about running out of ammo. The bad news is that this gun can't kill contaminants.

Zhu Ning took another deep breath and tried to think positively. "How do I kill contaminants?"

In the apocalypse, the universal rule is to shoot zombies in the head. In this wasteland, there should also be a universal rule for killing contaminants. Otherwise, it wouldn't make sense for humans in this world to live so long.

Li Nianchuan stood there with a look of despair: "I don't know."

The body of the fish man was still lying there. They have no idea what will happen next if they continued to let it be.

Zhu Ning said to the confused Li Nianchuan: "Think of a way."

She doesn't know how to deal with contaminants, but Li Nianchuan should at least have an idea.

Li Nianchuan couldn't tell who was the rookie between the two of them; Zhu Ning's aura was too strong.

Zhu Ning: "Didn't you want to be a witcher? You must have secretly learned it."

Li Nianchuan was a little embarrassed for a moment. He didn't tell anyone that he had once signed up to be a witcher. But because no one wanted him, he could only go sweep garbage.

'How did she know?'

Li Nianchuan's nose started bleeding. He was constantly being mentally polluted, and his mind was in a dazed state. He calmly thought about what he had memorized when he prepared for the witcher exams.

After thinking for a minute, Li Nianchuan was unsure but he still said, "To kill contaminants, we must find the source of pollution."

"Source of pollution?"

"Yes," Li Nianchuan continued, "When a polluted area is formed, there will be a core pollution source. The pollution source is usually hidden deeply. The area will try every means to hide the source and confuse you."

Zhu Ning: "Like hide and seek?"

"Uh..." Li Nianchuan: "That's one way to put it."

The fish man in front of them wasn't moving anymore, but there was no spore released. This contaminant shouldn't be the source of the pollution. They have to find the source of the pollution in order to survive.

Zhu Ning asked: "How are contaminants formed?"

It would be easier to start if they knew the cause.

The fish man just now actually looked like a human. It seemed to have some kind of "aura" surrounding it. Li Nianchuan was about to speak when he was interrupted by a loud noise.

BOOM!

BOOM!

There was a roar in the distance.

This time, the sound was so loud that Li Nianchuan could hear it without Zhu Ning's reminder.

Two headlights suddenly appeared, lighting both cleaners and their surroundings.

Zhu Ning's pupils contracted.

An old subway train slowly drove out of the darkness.

This is a sewer. It's wide, but no subway train should be able to come there.

Zhu Ning felt a gray substance floating in front of her eyes, her vision blurring for a moment.

She blinked, and she was no longer in the dirty sewer. A flashing light appeared above her head.

Zhu Ning looked down, finding herself standing on tiled floors with thick layers of dust on it.

'Platform. This is an underground platform. The sewer is gone.'

Zhu Ning confirmed that she had not moved at all; the fish man's body was still in front.

A repeating voice kept sounding from it: "L i n e , l i n e , l i n e . . . . o n e , o n e , o n e . . . "

She didn't change, but the environment has changed. From a sewer to an old subway station. It should be the polluted area that Li Nianchuan mentioned.

'The rusty and yellowed front of the train says… Line 1? '

The last train of Line 1, with the time displayed on the front:

[23:35]

The last train the fish man was waiting for?

BOOM–

The train slowly stopped in front of them, and the iron door opened like a silent invitation.

DING

The moment the subway train stopped, a crisp sound came into Zhu Ning's mind:

[System prompt: You have started the side quest,

"The Disappearance of Line 1's Last Train."

The current purification progress is 10%.

Please keep up the good work.]

Zhu Ning: “…”

What had she accidentally triggered?

---

The translator has something to say:

The first arc is finally here!

There's a lot of world building explanations in this chapter...my wrist was starting to fall off from typing.

Anyway, the mc is very fierce! Very cool! Very handsome! Please give Zhu Ning some round of applause!

---

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