Chapter 6 I Clean Up Garbage in a Wasteland World

Chapter 6 Pollution Sources

Zhu Ning and Li Nianchuan tried to change positions, but every time they did, the fish men would follow them and surround them again.

Apart from persistently following them around, the fish men did not make any more moves. Zhu Ning debated whether to shoot or not, but she wasn't sure if it would cause any violent reactions.

There was only one fish man in the sewer before. Zhu Ning and Li Nianchuan had two guns, but they only barely killed one under the barrage of bullets.

But now, there are 25 fish men, and no one knows how much more there are. Once the fish men attack, Zhu Ning and Li Nianchuan can only lie down and become fish feed.

Li Nianchuan tried to unnerve himself from the fish men’s stare. He recalculated the pollution concentration and was shocked by the data he got. "The pollution concentration is now 79%!"

Zhu Ning still didn’t know how the pollution concentration was calculated, and she also has no idea what it means, so she was quite nonchalant about the data increases. As the saying goes, ignorance is bliss. What you don't know won't hurt you.

Li Nianchuan seemed to realized that Zhu Ning didn't understand, so he explained: "Class D contaminated area usually has around 60% to 90% pollution rate."

When they first came in, the pollution concentration was measured to be 55%, which corresponds to Class E contaminated areas.

"What should we do?" Li Nianchuan asked, "Should we fight our way out?"

Zhu Ning gritted her teeth and said, "Ignore them."

Li Nianchuan: “Ah?”

Zhu Ning thought about how Fang Ying only asked her two questions when she started working.

1. Are you afraid of monsters?

2. Are you afraid of corpses?

The main point of Fang Ying's inquiry was whether she was afraid or not, and Zhu Ning's answer was that she was not afraid.

She seemed to understand why her mental value was deemed 100% by the system. Zhu Ning was really not afraid; she didn't even regard this thing in front of her as a monster at all.

Zhu Ning: "Ignore it. Leave it alone, and it won't pollute you.” 

Just because something looks horrible and disgusting doesn't mean that it would mentally pollute the mind. Blood and dead bodies only make people feel scared, not "mentally polluted".

Mental pollution is different from contaminants. Contaminants are creatures that resemble human beings. They try to replicate human behavior, but but the result would come off as anything but normal.

For example, the fish man takes the last train and does nothing but stare at you. The fact that "abnormal" people do "normal" things is in itself quite frightening. This uncanny feeling would then result to mental pollution.

"How, how can I ignore it?" Li Nianchuan wanted to cry but had no tears. 

There were twenty-five fish men emitting a fishy smell blocking and staring at him. It was difficult to ignore them no matter how hard he tried to brainwash himself.

Li Nianchuan looked back at Zhu Ning. 

Zhu Ning had not shown any signs of being mentally polluted. Either she has some hidden talent, or she’s just plain crazy.

Li Nianchuan planned to ask Zhu Ning for advice: "What do they look like in your eyes?"

Zhu Ning: "Rotten fish."

Li Nianchuan: "..."

So in Zhu Ning’s mind, she was just in a seafood wholesale market?

Zhu Ning: "Don't look at them. You can talk to me to distract yourself.”

Zhu Ning had to make sure Li Nianchuan held on until the rescuers arrived. If Li Nianchuan had a mental breakdown and started worshipping to evil gods, Zhu Ning would be the one who would suffer in the end.

Li Nianchuan faced the gazes of twenty-five fish and chatted with Zhu Ning, "What do you want to talk about?"

Zhu Ning asked: "Why did you follow me?"

Li Nianchuan tried to ignore the fish men, "I was complying with the work code manual."

The fourth rule of the Cleaners' Work Code is to avoid getting separated from teammates, while the third rule is to wait for rescue on the spot. In a situation where there is a conflict between two rules, employees are expected to make rational decisions based on the situation.

Li Nianchuan asked back: "Then why did you go inside the train?"

Zhu Ning: "Our job is to sweep up the garbage."

Li Nianchuan looked confused: "And?"

Zhu Ning: "We get extra pay based on what we collect."

Li Nianchuan took a while to react. Zhu Ning's idea was that the cleaners had to contain the contaminated spores, and then they would get paid according to the number of spores contained.

Their original work site had a lot of contaminated spores, but Li Nianchuan and Zhu Ning had been swept into the contaminated area’s pollution source. They were paid to sweep garbage in the original work scene, and this contaminated area was not part of their pay. This means that spores collected in this area would be converted to extra pay.

While waiting for the witchers to arrive, they can still continue working and earn extra pay.

Li Nianchuan was stunned by this idea. If there is no job, create a job; if there is no extra pay, create extra pay. What kind of peerless entrepreneur is this?

Li Nianchuan said sincerely: "Boss."

Zhu Ning: "I've been at work for less than two hours."

Li Nianchuan changed his words: "Little sister."

Zhu Ning: “…”

What on earth did they go through in just two hours?

After hearing Zhu Ning's idea, Li Nianchuan suddenly felt less scared looking at the fish men. These things became "extra pay" in his eyes. There were a total of 25 fish men, which would be worth at least 250,000 dollars...

These were not rotten fish, these were gold and glittering banknotes.

Zhu Ning: "Do you think we can mentally pollute them?"

"Ah?" Li Nianchuan had just accepted that the fish men in front of him were extra pays, and had not followed Zhu Ning's train of thought at all. But as an up and coming little entrepreneur, he was eager to try, "How do we pollute them?"

Zhu Ning thought for a while, "You can be mentally polluted when seeing abnormal people do normal things, so maybe we can also cause mental pollution if as normal people, we do abnormal things. It's a bit confusing, but the key point is do to others as you would have them do to you."

The key to the fish man's mental pollution lies in repetition. The dead fish man kept repeating the act of getting on the last train. Then, it would stand near Zhu Ning and Li Nianchuan and stare at them.

Repetition + abnormality is the formula for its mental pollution.

Li Nianchuan and Zhu Ning are both rookie garbage collectors. This is the first time they have analyzed the scientific logic of contaminants so seriously.

Li Nianchuan continued this line of thought and said, "It makes sense."

Zhu Ning asked: "Do you have anything on you that can be used to brainwash people?"

Li Nianchuan thought for a moment and said, "I brought a cookbook."

'A cookbook?'

Zhu Ning tilted her head.

Li Nianchuan explained: "You know it's not guaranteed to work as a cleaner for a long time, right? I was thinking of some career options to leave myself a way out."

When cleaners earn enough money, they would consider retirement, but they would have to undergo mental examinations after. Zhu Ning may have to do the same in the future.

'Damn. Who knew being a garbage sweeper would be this hard.'

Zhu Ning: “Go read something from it.”

Li Nianchuan flipped through the electronic recipe book, found a page, cleared his throat, and read aloud: "How to make braised fish. The first step is to make a cross-shaped cut on the surface of the fish. Add salt to the oil, and fry it slowly over low heat until both sides are golden brown and the fish skin turns crispy..."

Zhu Ning: “…”

Fish men: “…”

Li Nianchuan is really something. Did he want to braise the fish men?

Zhu Ning used the recording function of her helmet to record. Both of their helmets could play audio out loud. Zhu Ning herself asked for a copy of the recipe and joined him in reading the recipe seriously.

There were four voices in total: the two helmets and the two rookie cleaners. If someone suddenly hop on the train at this time, they would probably first notice the two passengers wearing "motorcycle uniforms" with black helmets at the back, looking very much like two robbers.

These robbers had no shame at all. They read out loud the recipe for braised fish and even played it on a loudspeaker in a loop.

This is too disturbing! Shame on them!

Abnormality + repetition = mental pollution.

The passengers around frowned. Their eyes changed from vicious to confused. After the both of them recited it for more than ten times, the fish man in front of them lowered its bloody severed head, and no longer had the previous hostility.

"The pollution concentration has dropped?" Li Nianchuan couldn't believe it. The current pollution concentration was 78%, a decrease of 1%.

It actually works!

Zhu Ning hummed and suddenly stood up. "You continue reading. I'll go find the source of the pollution."

Li Nianchuan said that this was like a hide and seek game and the source of pollution must be inside the train. After Zhu Ning stood up, Li Nianchuan also stood up. On the other hand, the fish men did not make any moves.

They held the handlebars in their hands, turned around together, and faced Zhu Ning and Li Nianchuan with their broken bodies, but no one followed.

Maybe their mental pollution has lost its effect, and now they can't do anything.

Li Nianchuan didn't dare to stop and continued to read the recipe for braised fish, following Zhu Ning like a loud speaker.

This subway train only has four carriages. Zhu Ning searched the carriages carefully, looking for some clues.

There were three passengers in carriage 4, two in carriage 3, and five in carriage 2.

Carriage No. 1 where the both of them first got on had the largest number of people; twenty-five fish men plus the two of them, a total of twenty-seven people. Something must have happened in this carriage.

The system said that the last train of Line 1 disappeared. What was the reason for its disappearance? Was it contaminated?

Contaminants can pollute the mind, so is the formation of contaminants also a kind of mental pollution? Similar to resentment?

Ding-ling-ling—♪

Zhu Ning's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a phone call in carriage number three.

She ran to take a look and saw a mobile phone lying on the seat. Zhu Ning had just carefully checked the entire train and did not see any mobile phone at all. This phone appeared out of nowhere.

Someone was calling the phone.

The style of the mobile phone was very old; it was a touch screen phone that wouldn't be seen anymore in this world. The wasteland has undergone technological changes a long time ago, and most people had chips implanted in their bodies that can be bound to an AI brain.

The AI brain is equivalent to identity authentication + wallet + communication tool. No one would use mobile phones these days.

Zhu Ning: "Is this phone left behind by a passenger?"

Li Nianchuan was also surprised when he saw the phone, "This model is from at least 80 years ago."

It was like an antique.

Zhu Ning: "Just keep reading."

Li Nianchuan kept reading the recipe.

The moment Zhu Ning picked up the phone, the ringing stopped abruptly and a video was playing on the phone. It showed a surveillance camera view showing two people inside.

The video was a bit blurry, so Zhu Ning was unable to recognize it for a moment. In the video, two people ran over from another carriage and picked up the mobile phone left on the seat.

"Is this phone left behind by a passenger?" Zhu Ning's voice.

"This model is from at least eighty years ago." Li Nianchuan's voice.

"Just keep reading."

The video inside was exactly the same as Zhu Ning's actions. In the video, Zhu Ning picked up the mobile phone and played the video in the phone.

"Is this phone left behind by a passenger?" 

The phone played the same video, and the cycle continued.

They seem to be trapped. Who knows if they were the real people or the ones in the video?

Zhu Ning felt her scalp tingling for a moment. It was another mental pollution; one stronger than before.

The logic of the contaminated area is to constantly pollute you through repetition and annoy you at every opportunity.

If the phone continues playing, she might really get polluted.

"What's wrong?" Li Nianchuan didn't see the video, but he felt that Zhu Ning was not in a good condition.

“Don’t look.” Zhu Ning’s mental level is higher than Li Nianchuan’s. Li Nianchuan might collapse if he took one look at it.

"It's a strong mental pollution." Zhu Ning quickly pressed the pause button, but the video could not be paused. Zhu Ning was about to leave with the phone in her pocket.

Li Nianchuan: "Where are you going?"

Zhu Ning's hands were shaking a little. She admitted that she was beginning to be affected by the mental pollution, and the mental value on her panel was decreasing.

System:

[Deducted 1% of your mental value.]

Zhu Ning tried her best to ignore it and walked quickly to the front of the train. "If you found lost items, you should hand it over to the crew. This is common sense."

Li Nianchuan: "..."

'Why should we care about common sense at this time?'

Zhu Ning insisted that the more abnormal the environment, the more they should insist on doing normal things. A normal person would give the phone left by a passenger to the crew.

'This is a normal train, this is a normal train, this is a normal train...'

Zhu Ning kept repeating this to brainwash herself.

'You have to do things that look normal to fit in with the style of this contaminated area.'

Li Nianchuan could only follow Zhu Ning. They quickly walked to the driver's cabin, where a person was sitting with his back to them. The driver was concentrating on driving and looked quite normal.

But there can't be anything normal on this train.

Zhu Ning took a deep breath and knocked on the transparent door of the driver's cabin.

"Hello, I found a phone and I want to turn it in."

The driver had his back to her.

"Hello," Zhu Ning knocked on the door again, "I want to hand in a lost phone."

The driver finally reacted. He didn't turn around, but took off his hat. He used both of his hands to push aside the hair on the back of his head, revealing another back of his head.

The two hands pushed the hair again, revealing another back of the head.

Bang

Bang

Bang

Bang

Bang

Zhu Ning suppressed her nausea and watched the driver slowly move the hair on the back of his head away, but his face was never revealed.

Bang

Bang

Bang

Bang

Bang

Bang

Bang

Bang!

Zhu Ning has been hearing this strange noise since she came here. The door of the driver's cabin was not closed tightly and kept shaking as the train started.

Zhu Ning was about to open the door, but suddenly stopped.

"What's wrong with you?" Li Nianchuan was a little puzzled. Zhu Ning rarely showed this expression.

Zhu Ning quickly held down Li Nianchuan, not wanting him to see. Zhu Ning's body was stiff, goosebumps covered her entire back, and she didn't dare to move at all.

There was a fish face attached on the left window of the driver's cabin.

The fish face was smiling.

Zhu Ning was wrong. The source of pollution was not necessarily inside the train.

It could have been...lying outside the train.

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The translator has something to say:

Originally, the site's theme was beige and white to look fresh and neat. But, I changed it into black and red to properly let the readers experience the thrilling vibes of fish hunting mystery!!

Covered in a blanket shivering while translating.jpeg

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