ICUGW Chapter 21

Chapter 21 - Containment Department

It was already four in the morning when Pei Shu received the call and rushed to the hot pot restaurant, bringing with him a team of professional witchers.

On the way, they received a report from the technical department of the cleaning center: Come Again, Okay? Hot Pot Restaurant was a Class C contaminated area and was just activated tonight.

Before they came, they already made preparations on how to collect Liu Niannian's body. She was just an ordinary person who had entered a contaminated area for more than two hours. She might have already become a contaminant herself.

If she really had become a contaminant, the witcherswere ordered not to kill Liu Niannian on the spot. They have to take a more roundabout way to bring Liu Niannian back to the laboratory.

They had made full preparations envisioning various possibilities, but they did not expect the scene to be far beyond their imagination.

Liu Niannian was sitting alone on the steps in front of the hot pot restaurant, her white protective suit covered in blood. The eldest lady held her chin in her hand, looking thoughtful.

The squad team leader was called Pei Shu. He was a little unsure of what was going on.

"Miss?"

Liu Niannian did not respond.

Pei Shu didn't dare let his guard down. He gestured for the witcher squad to enter the area and begin searching. Eight minutes later, someone reported back: "The area is clean. There were no living contaminants, nor remaining contaminated spores."

The absence of contaminants was understandable, but what about the absence of contaminated spores and rotting flesh? Did someone eliminate the contaminated area then cleaned it up?

In his opinion, this task would require at least a professional witcher squad and cleaners to complete.

Did the cleaning center sent their people here?

But Pei Shu confirmed that they were the first team to arrive. The people who cleaned up the hot pot restaurant were gone. Who were they? Why did they save Liu Niannian, but didn't contact the Lu family?

Pei Shu asked, "No one else?"

"No, we searched the entire street and found only the young lady."

Pei Shu was not stupid. How could have Liu Niannian accomplished this alone? Pei Shu stood respectfully beside Liu Niannian and asked, "Young miss, do you want to go home first?"

He had a lot of questions for the eldest lady, but it can wait until they get back home. They have disturbed a lot of people tonight. It was always unsafe to stay outside for too long.

Liu Niannian held up her chin and asked, "Tell me, have I been choosing the wrong direction in life all along?"

Pei Shu: “?”

His idle and useless eldest lady has started to think about life?

Liu Niannian: "Could it be that I actually have talent, but it was just never developed?"

Pei  Shu : “???”

Narcissistic rich second-generations often believe they are highly capable. This distorted self-confidence causes them to become a thrill-seeking problem magnet. Liu Niannian had always wanted to be a witcher, but Pei Shu knew she had no talent.

She usually used her fake name, "Liu Niannian" when she goes out. After learning that one of her gardeners had been mentally polluted in a hot pot restaurant, she wanted to see with her own eyes what a real contaminated area looked like.

After successfully escaping from a contaminated area once, she suddenly believes she has a talent to become a witcher? In Pei Shu's eyes, she was courting death.

He thought she was going to raise her nose to the sky again, and was ready to give her a perfunctory compliment. He patiently asked, "What talent?"

"Don't you think..." Liu Niannian looked at her hands, "...that there's a possibility that I'm actually particularly good at something, but I just didn't know it?"

Before leaving, Zhu Ning said that she was very talented at sweeping up garbage. She cleaned very fast, and provided excellent service. Zhu Ning even said that she would like to work with her again if she had the chance.

For the first time, someone asked her to do a job. She fell into a state of reflection and even reconsidered her own dreams.

Liu Niannian muttered to herself, "I'm actually... really good at sweeping garbage!"

Pei Shu: “???”

Sweeping garbage? He would never have thought of sweeping garbage and being a young lady combined in a sentence. This must be mental pollution.

…

Zhu Ning's backpack was very heavy.

She collected the contaminated spores in the area, and now has 1,060 contaminated spores and a pile of rotten meat in her bag. The storage tools in the cleaning backpack could condense, and even rotten meat could be compressed into one centimeter cubed meat for every one cubic meter.

Zhu Ning's cleaning backpack was full. But she ran into a problem: she was carrying a backpack full of rotten flesh and contaminated spores. This was definitely not something she had obtained through official channels. What should she do with it?

Find a place to bury it? What if the land becomes contaminated?

Zhu Ning was like a criminal who had obtained a batch of weapons and didn't know what to do with them. Thus, she used a stupid method and made good use of the search engine.

Forum search:

[How to deal with contaminated spores of unknown origin?]

Others might say that this method is too obvious and might catch others’ suspicion, but in her opinion, it was very practical. Look, there's even a helpful post about it!

The post had a very detailed step-by-step guide, which required going to the Contaminated Spore Containment Department, a branch of Area 103’s Cleaning Center.

The containment departments were scattered throughout the city, disguised as various stores to collect contaminated spores from the public. If anyone collects contaminated spores, they can visit the department to exchange them.

The post was very thoughtful. After automatic positioning, it shows the nearest department close to her area.

The nearest shelter was displayed:  

[Noble Queen Store]

Zhu Ning: “…”

No wonder he was so kind earlier, showing her the way!

Zhu “Previous Job: Zombie Killer” Ning, went to the brothel for the first time in her two lives and was immediately stunned by the enthusiastic cultural atmosphere.

There was a row of muscular men inside for her to choose from. When she came in, the owner of Noble Queen was not there. She was only greeted by the receptionist of the store.

"Not to your taste, miss? Is it too straightforward?" The receptionist said, "We also have the business elite type, the soft and handsome type, the green tea brother type, the honest type, the cold type..."

Zhu Ning: “…”

'So much to choose from...I can tell the shop is really professional.'

Zhu Ning had just came out of the contaminated area. She had been dealing with disgusting pig men before, but now seeing the various "categories" introduced to her, she couldn't help but feel confused and disoriented.

Seeing that Zhu Ning wasn't answering, the receptionist thought that he had encountered a customer with high demands. He suggested, "If no one suits your taste, we can have someone customized for you."

Zhu Ning was curious: "Customized?"

"We have newly created blank people with no memories or past in stock. You can input any preferences you like; if there are any problems, our store provides warranty repairs. But if you want the face customized, that would be a different price. There would also be a copyright fee."

A blank person is like a blank sheet of paper, upon which customers can draw on freely. In the technologically advanced wasteland world, this is the ultimate human objectification where humans can be bought and sold like commodities.

In the wasteland world, not only does music, film, and television works can be bought and sold, but also the artists' appearances.

For example, some celebrities would sell their faces to the production companies. It can be mass-produced to satisfy fans' fantasies, and the celebrity would earn copyright fees for every face sold. This was what the receptionist meant when he suggested face customization.

After becoming famous, many celebrities would opt to sell the right to use their faces. From then on, they no longer need to sing, dance, or act. They can just lie at home and collect money from the copyright fees.

The receptionist smiled and continued, "Customization starts at 50 million dollars."

Zhu Ning: “…”

No man was worth her money, thank you. Not even a virtual one.

"Little lady, you really came out?" Zhu Ning suddenly heard a familiar voice and turned around to see the shop owner coming down the stairs.

The shop owner spoke in an exaggerated manner. Zhu Ning had dealt with him once before and was familiar with his style. She calmly spoke, "Brother, no need to pretend."

(In China, "brother" and "sister" is usually used as a form of address. it doesn't necessarily mean that they're related.)

Zhu Ning: "Can you..."

...save her from the clutches of capitalism?

"This is my customer." The shop owner leaned against the wall and smiled playfully. "This way, baby."

Zhu Ning, who was called baby: "..."

'I suddenly don't want to move anymore.'

The shop owner led her into a room with a surprisingly Barbie pink door, written on it was "Gentle Warm Room." Th inside was decorated in pure white, with a large desk on the center and a machine behind it.

The owner really runs a brothel during the day and deals with contaminated spores at night.

It's always good to have many skills, and it's even better to have unique skills.

"Please sit down." He pointed to the chair opposite and sat on the black swivel chair. His condition was different from before; he looked less worldly and exuded a sense of professionalism.

The shop owner coughed lightly and said, "Let me formally introduce myself. My name is Song Zhizhang."

'I can't believe that someone with such playful character and unique dressing taste is actually called Song Zhizhang?'

Zhu Ning paused, then gave her real name: "Zhu Ning."

She will have to deal with him again in the future. Song Zhizhang is from the containment department and has access to the internal network of the cleaning center. It will be easy for him to find out who Zhu Ning was. There was no need for her to hide her name.

"Don't worry," Song Zhizhang said, "I only collect spores. I don't care about anything else."

Zhu Ning felt relieved.

Song Zhizhang looked at her with great interest. Zhu Ning took off her helmet after entering the room. She was quite tall, probably over 175cm tall, but she didn't look intimidating at all. Her facial features were very three-dimensional, her face was small, and her looks leaned more on being handsome.

It's the kind of look that was very popular with customers, one that can be both sweet and fierce.

She hastily tied her hair into a ponytail, which was made messy by the helmet. She looked like she has just graduated.

But this same girl eliminated a Class C contaminated area all by herself. If the information he had was correct, this was just Zhu Ning's second time entering a contaminated area.

The hotpot restaurant has existed for 30 years. As its old neighbor, Song Zhizhang was very familiar with it. Any person who enters the restaurant and comes out alive would be anything but ordinary.

Song Zhizhang: "This is the first time I've seen someone go at it alone."

Zhu Ning raised her eyebrows. Was he praising her?

Song Zhizhang explained: "Usually there are at least two people coming out: a witcher and a cleaner. Sometimes it would be a witcher with three cleaners."

As the contaminated area rating becomes higher and higher, more logistics personnel are needed. Just one cleaner simply would not be able to clean everything in the area.

Zhu Ning also realized this earlier. She would have to solve this problem sooner or later.

"Where are your contaminated spores?" Song Zhizhang directly cut off their small talk.

Zhu Ning handed over the contaminated spores and the cubes of rotten flesh. Song Zhizhang put the spores and rotten flesh into the translucent machine behind him. It beeped before scanning the items with red lights.

"1060 contaminated spores, 300 pieces of contaminated rotten flesh." Song Zhizhang read the machine data.

"We use the same exchange rate as the cleaning center. For Class C contaminated areas, the spores are charged at 700 dollars each, and the rotten flesh are charged at 500 dollars each."

"You killed 39 contaminants and eliminated a Class C contaminated area."

"The total pay for ontaminated spores would be 742,000 dollars. Rotten flesh: 150,000, Contaminants: 1,170,000, and for eliminating a Class C contaminated area: 1,000,000."

With every number Song Zhizhang announced, Zhu Ning's joy level climbed higher.

"A total of 3,062,000 dollars." Song Zhizhang gave the final price. "Without teammates, the money doesn't need to be divided equally."

Three million! Zhu Ning earned three million from her second mission!

Song Zhizhang: "After deducting the one million yuan for the pollution containment and treatment costs, you still have 2,062,000 dollars left."

Zhu Ning: “???”

'Are you trying to rob me?'

Song Zhizhang explained: "Unofficial processing channels are more expensive. I'm not trying to pull any tricks on you."

The technology for treating contaminated spores was monopolized by cleaning centers. Other companies simply cannot dib their fingers on it. The cost was high, and the price was also correspondingly high.

When Zhu Ning did her first mission for the cleaning center, she didn't have to worry about how to contain and deal with the contaminated spores.

Zhu Ning asked, "Aren't you from the cleaning center?"

"Yes and no." Song Zhizhang: "It's hard to explain. You will find out slowly in the future."

'Hmm... why does it sounds like they were once a department of the Cleaning Center, but was later suppressed and moved underground?'

Grave posts were not visible to everyone, but they would appear to the "right" people to avoid causing confusion.

The contaminated areas mentioned in the grave posts were all old areas that the cleaning center could care less about. Resources were limited, and as long as there was no pollution chaos, the cleaning center will not interfere.

Who knows how many Come Again, Okay? Hot Pot Restaurants are there in the corners of the Federation?

Zhu Ning thought about it and decided that there must be an underground organization.

They provide people with a full set of standard weapons and equipment, professional uniforms, and even equipped them with specialized helmets with smart panels. They post notices directing people to eliminate contaminated areas, and established specialized facilities to contain the contaminated spores, forming a complete industry chain.

Such a large organization and institution must have someone behind the scenes. Only one person can do all this and connect the resources and information of the entire cleaning center.

Zhu Ning thought of someone and asked, "Who's your boss?"

"Just as you thought," Song Zhizhang looked at her steadily, "The one who chose you and me."

So it really was Prometheus.

Why would an artificial intelligence do this?

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The translator has something to say:

Song Zhizhang - "Zhi 知" means to know, and "Zhang 章" means order or regulation.

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