Chapter 1 I Clean Up Garbage in a Wasteland World

Chapter 1- New Job

Zhu Ning woke up to a knock on the door.

"Stop pretending and open the door! I know you're home!"

Her first reaction was to feel for the knife under her pillow, but then she realized she was no longer in the apocalypse.

She was originally from an apocalyptic world full of zombies. Every day she was struggling to survive with no idea if it would be the last time she would get to see the sun rise.

Ten days ago, Zhu Ning was still fighting zombies at the apocalypse. She had a mission to sneak inside the enemy camp, but right when she successfully got in, she heard a bomb ticking behind her.

Five, four, three, two, one.

With a loud bang——

The bomb exploded and she only felt a sense of weightlessness. When she woke up, she was lying in an abandoned garbage room. The sky was grayish yellow and was raining down acid. Severe pain coursed throughout her body; her abdomen had a piece of iron embedded in, and blood was flowing everywhere.

Driven by the desire to survive, Zhu Ning used all her strength to crawl to the automatic medicine vending machine and used all the money she could find in her body to buy a powerful healing agent. After the bleeding stopped, she found her way back to her residence based on the original owner's memory.

This is a wasteland world. Eighty percent of the land has been polluted, and humans can only survive within high walls to resist attacks from monsters outside the walls.

Funnily enough, the technology of the wasteland world is incredibly advanced with powerful healing agents, gene enhancers, and nutritional agents.

What she didn't know was whether it was common for systems to exist in this world.

When she first woke up, she found out that she was bound to a purification system. She had read of novels about systems in her previous life, so when she saw this, she thought her life would finally change.

[Name: Zhu Ning

Age: 19

Education: Bachelor of Mechanics

Status: Fifth-class citizen

Talent: Unknown

Mutation direction: Unknown

Pollution level: Unknown

Physical strength: Not enhanced

Mental value: 100 (normal people's value is 20)]

The next column was all grayed out and would probably unlock when the time comes. However, looking at this panel, it can be said that nothing is special except the high spirit value. In other words, it is an ordinary panel that couldn’t be any more ordinary. There wasn’t even a new gift package.

The system conveniently issued the main task: purify the polluted land and rebuild the human home.

‘Wow. Why don’t you just send her to die?’

As the saying goes, don't paint the pie too big. When you face a task that is impossible to complete, you can’t help but want to be a salted fish instead. Zhu Ning has no will to survive, and even thinks that this world is fake and all systems are bullshit.

‘Destroy it, that's it.’

During these ten days, Zhu Ning lay flat on her back, barely going out, and only relying on nutritional supplements to survive. Unfortunately, reality did not want to allow her to become a salted fish and slack off..

"Zhu Ning, open the door!" The person waiting at the door was already impatient, "If you don't open the door, I'll pry it open!"

Zhu Ning got up helplessly and opened the door. Standing outside the door was Mother Wei, a short old lady only reaching 120 centimeters tall. She was the building manager.

Mother Wei slammed the ground with her cane. "Rent."

‘Rent? Such a shabby place still needs rent?’

"How much?" Zhu Ning asked.

Mother Wei gave her a strange look and said, "The rent for twelve months is twenty-four thousand."

"How much?" Zhu Ning suspected that she had heard wrongly. If she hadn't calculated wrongly, the original body's entire net worth added would only amount to 700 dollars.

"Twenty-four thousand." Mother Wei repeated.

Zhu Ning took a deep breath. What a damn wasteland world. In this world, the rent is one deposit and twelve payments?

"If you don't want to pay the rent, just move out. There are plenty of people who would want to replace you." Mother Wei tapped the ground with her cane and stared at Zhu Ning with gloomy eyes.

Zhu Ning realized that her behavior just now was a little strange. The original owner had lived here for five years, so how could she suddenly forget to pay her rent?

Zhu Ning said, "I will pay the rent. Just give me two days."

"You only have until the end of the month at the latest." Mother Wei then asked, "Did your illness act up again?"

‘Again? Crazy again?’

With just a few words, Zhu Ning speculated that the original owner was a mental patient. It seemed that everyone knew about this and it was not a secret. At least it seemed normal for her to have lost her memory and not remember the rent in the eyes of the other party.

Zhu Ning simply acted ill, "Well, I have had headaches lately."

Mother Wei believed it and didn't ask any more questions.

Zhu Ning: "I will definitely pay you the rent at the end of the month, so don't look for other tenants to replace me yet."

Zhu Ning didn't know a lot about the original owner. Once she gets kicked out by Mother Wei, she would have no place to stay.

Mother Wei gave her a meaningful look and said, "Don't turn my house into a haunted house."

Zhu Ning frowned. The day that she got transmigrated here, she returned home covered in blood and accidentally bumped into Mother Wei. The old lady might have misunderstood and thought that she attempted suicide.

Before leaving, Mother Wei said, "You should manage and sort out the payment slips at your door."

Payment slips? Zhu Ning stuck her head out and saw all kinds of payment notices posted on the door of her house, including water and electricity bills, property fees, management fees, and taxes.

Zhu Ning tore off a thick stack of bills and did a quick calculation. She probably owed various management departments about 8,000 dollars.

8,000 owed bills, 24,000 rent fees, and future expenses...

‘Starting my new life and I'm already knee deep in debt. I suddenly don't want to live this life anymore...’

She returned to her room with the bills.

Zhu Ning sat in front of a huge computer. It was considered high-tech in her era, but it was just an antique in this world. It was too old-fashioned, and only a handful of people were still using this model; specifically those in Area 103. But because it was old-fashioned, Zhu Ning had no difficulty in operating it.

She opened a recruitment website to look for work. She's in dire need of money right now, and she couldn't afford to be a salted fish any longer.

Judging from her rich "work experience" in the past, there must be jobs suitable for her that can give her quick bucks. If worst comes to worst,  she can just go back to her old job of killing and slashing.

There are indeed various jobs on the recruitment website, and Zhu Ning couldn't even understand some of the descriptions. But since there are tens of thousands of job openings, that means there are a lot of job opportunities for her. Zhu Ning thought optimistically.

When she saw that someone was recruiting mercenaries, Zhu Ning's eyes lit up. She almost wanted to recommend herself on the spot.

‘Me! I’m a professional! Choose me!!’

Efficient service, fast work, and guaranteed employer satisfaction.

But when she clicked in, a window popped up. This job requires her to be a third-class citizen or above.

Zhu Ning froze. She's a fifth-class citizen.

After birth, all citizens would have to undergo a genetic screening to identify their classes based on different criteria.

Unfortunately, Zhu Ning's genetic screening failed and was classified as a "defective product". She was then given the status of a fifth-class citizen.

Zhu Ning glanced at the upper right corner of the website and discovered that there was a filter button to automatically filter suitable jobs for her. She entered her personal information, citizenship level, education certificate, and then clicked on the filter to select matching jobs.

Brush–

After refreshing the page, hundreds of pages of job openings disappeared, leaving only one page.

Zhu Ning: “…”

She scrolled and found that there were ten job openings that prioritized men. 

‘Even in this world, there’s still discrimination!’

After sifting those out, there were only six left that meet her requirements: nurses, maintenance workers, nannies, and the like.

Zhu Ning looked at them one by one, then focused on one job opening. "This one's a good one...Five thousand dollars for three hours, and there's even extra pay?"

This is a... cleaner?

Zhu Ning read it carefully. The information above was too simple. She only needs to sweep garbage. As long as she worked for three hours, she would get 5,000 dollars, and the extra pay would be awarded according to the circumstances.

The website automatically calculated the average salary, and it turned out to be... 25,000? What kind of garbage collection job pays 25,000 dollars? Corpse collector?

The average salary is 25,000. Regardless of age, gender, education level, or citizenship level, it was a guaranteed 25,000 dollars. If this isn’t a scam, then what is?

Federal law requires that recruitment information must be true. Falsifying recruitment information will result in imprisonment. Zhu Ning's mouse hovered over the job description and looked at it solemnly.

‘Well, collecting corpses shouldn’t be that bad. It can also be considered as experience.’’ 

Thus, she clicked the registration button.

Crash——

The website set off colorful fireworks and bold letters appeared on the screen.

[Congratulations on your successful registration.]

[Processing...]

[You have been admitted by our company.]

Zhu Ning: “…”

On-the-spot acceptance? No interview required? A 100% acceptance rate that won't let you back out, are they afraid that the applicant would regret it?

But it was too late for her to regret now. The email was already sent to her mailbox, and she had already received the offer.

***

[ Work Starting Time: 6:30 pm]

[Work Location: Near the incinerator in Area 103]

[Company Name: Area 103 Cleaning Center ]

Zhu Ning was stunned when she saw the company name.

'It turns out it's really not a fake company.'

She walked into the door of the cleaning company according to the navigation. There was no security check, only a robot was there to guide her.

The company building was sky-high with a total of 360 floors. The robot guided her towards the elevator and pressed the 49th floor button for her.

Ding–

The elevator opened, showing the scene inside. Zhu Ning's left eye twitched, stunned at the mess in front of her.

The hall was noisy, with piles of documents on everyone's desk.

The employee closest to Zhu Ning was losing his temper. "Stop spouting nonsense, just tell me if it can be done!"

The other two on the side were arguing. "My fault? Why are you blaming me if the document wasn't approved? Can you please be reasonable?!"

"Which idiot started the A-level program? Come out and take the blame for it!"

It didn't look like a cleaning center, but more like a security center.

A woman in a business suit spotted her. Her hair was tied into a meticulous bun and her features were delicate. She looked like an assistant.

The lady ran over apologetically and said, "Sorry, there are too many people."

"It's alright." Zhu Ning replied.

"Zhu Ning, right?" The young lady looked down at the panel in her hand and said in a gentle voice, "I am Fang Ying, the center's assistant."

'Fang? What a beautiful surname.'

"Don't be afraid. The first day of work isn't that difficult. You can complete it by following instructions."

Fang Ying led Zhu Ning away while saying, "The probation period is only one day. If you pass, you will be hired as a regular employee the next day."

Zhu Ning realized that the company was in urgent need of employees. The speed at which they sent out offers and accept workers was just too fast.

Fang Ying led her into a meeting room and said, "Let me introduce the salary system. The basic salary is 5,000 dollars as long as you work for three hours. Overtime pay is 1,000 dollars for each additional hour. The extra pay is calculated based on the number of pieces collected, and prices would vary. Basically, you can get more than 10,000 a day as long as you're diligent in collecting."

Zhu Ning was dizzy after hearing the series of numbers.

She's gonna become rich. Really rich.

However, based on Zhu Ning's experience, introducing the salary first and then the job content means that there's something definitely wrong with the job.

Zhu Ning asked: "What's the job about?"

Fang Ying was very efficient in her work. She had just been talking like a machine gun earlier, but now she suddenly stopped. She restrained her smile and looked at Zhu Ning with an extremely serious look. Zhu Ning was a little nervous facing her stare.

'Is the job hard? What am I supposed to collect?'

Fang Ying lowered her voice and asked solemnly, "Miss Zhu, are you afraid of monsters?"

'...? That's it?'

Zhu Ning spoke up, "...Not really."

'Not really' is an understatement. She could not care less about monsters.

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“Don’t paint the pie too big” - describing someone making exaggerated plans to deceive/ motivate others.

"The rent is one deposit and twelve payments" - Chinese internet slang that's used to mock something that looks nice but not really realistic.

For example it would come across as something like, “Oh, just a small down payment and 30 years of mortgage—no big deal!” 

or, "Wow, just 5,000 dollars a month? That's awesome!"

​The translator has something to say:

If I was offered this job of 5,000 dollars for just three hours, even if I have to sweep dung, I'd immediately take it.

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