ICUGW Chapter 25

Chapter 25 Race

"Then why didn't you continue being an athlete?" Li Nianchuan curiously asked.

Zhu Ning sighed: "I accidentally took the wrong path."

She was already a national representative, but then zombies appeared. Her competitive sports skills then became life-saving skills. If it weren't for her athletic physique and her shooting skills, she would have died immediately when the apocalypse first broke out.

Li Nianchuan: "..."

Although he didn't know what exactly made Zhu Ning stray from her "path," it seems that it was really a serious one. After all, why would athletes sweep up trash?

But this was the first time Li Nianchuan heard Zhu Ning talk about her past.

Li Nianchuan asked, "Are you from the league?"

There was only two athletic teams in the Federation: the League and the Federals. League professional athletes can be diverse, while the federals generally only accept first-class citizens.

In the wasteland era, androids and robots are everywhere. If machines can participate in the Federation's sports competitions, it will go against the spirit of sports.

Therefore, only first-class citizens with natural genes can have the concept of real competitive sports. However, as years pass, it became something more of a past time for aristocrats. Thus, the competition between teams was more like a black game, without the spirit of fair, just and open sports. They only like to ensure the entertainment value of the game.

Zhu Ning had already prepared her words, "Yes, I was from the League."

In their first mission, Zhu Ning showed excellent shooting skills. Even the video from it had already amassed over 100,000 views on the forum.

Now that so many people in the cleaning center were paying attention to her, she had to explain why she was so good at shooting. She couldn't hide her skills during the shooting test, so she might as well show them off.

She actually didn't know whether the original owner had any experience in shooting. The original owner was a defective product, belonging to the group of people who had a life time limit attached to them. There were very few official records about her that even Zhu Ning couldn't find any clues about her identity.

She seemed to appear out of thin air with only basic identity information. The only one who seems to be at least an acquaintance to her was Mother Wei.

Zhu Ning guessed that the original owner's identity might be fake, which gave her ample room to make up stories.

If someone inside the cleaning center wanted to kill her...

Zhu Ning looked around. The training room was crowded with witchers and cleaners, all undergoing combat training. If anyone here knew the original owner, they would definitely show up to test her if they saw something unusual about her.

That was her chance to get a clue.

She didn't know whether others believed it or not, but it seemed like Li Nianchuan did. "The League's professional team is pretty impressive."

Xu Meng nodded: "It's even harder to get into the League."

The Federal team only accepts first-class citizens, so the competition was not that fierce, but the League accepts all citizen classes, so all kinds of geniuses would definitely flock to join them.

Li Nianchuan and Xu Meng looked at Zhu Ning with a somewhat subtle look. Zhu Ning graduated from university at the age of 18. A year before joining the cleaning center, she might have been playing underground games in the League.

Maybe it could even be earlier than that, earning money at the League while attending school. Zhu Ning didn't say much, while the two of them used their imagination to their fullest, already conceiving an image of a poor girl working part-time to pay for her studies.

Not to mention that Zhu Ning was also a defective product. She may have to keep running around earning money to survive.

Xu Meng: "Thank you for your hard work."

Li Nianchuan: "Thank you for your hard work."

Zhu Ning: “?”

What's hard?

Li Nianchuan: "You are the first defective product I have ever seen."

Feeling Zhu Ning's gaze, Xu Meng also said, "You're also the first one I've seen."

Zhu Ning: “…”

Turns out she's actually a rare species...

Defective products generally cannot pass the screening of the cleaning center, and even if they get in, they won't be able to pass the training.

Li Nianchuan asked again: "By the way, did you know you were defective before you got classified?"

Yes, what was she like before? What kind of human was the original owner before she was classified as defective? She was definitely not a robot, so that only leaves: a natural person, an artificial person, or a clone.

Unfortunately, defective products had no “product traceability”, and Zhu Ning could not find her “place of origin." She had no information at all.

"I don't know either." Zhu Ning asked, "What about you? What class of citizen are you?"

Li Nianchuan: "Second-class citizen. I'm an artificial person..."

As soon as he said this, Zhu Ning was shocked and asked, "You're an artificial human?"

This was the first artificial human she had ever come into contact with. In theory, human cloning could be achieved in her previous world, as her world had cloning technology. But artificial humans were definitely a more advanced technology that only exists in the wasteland world.

In Zhu Ning's previous world, there was at most, synthetic meat.

Was Li Nianchuan really an artificially created conscious person?

"Yes." Li Nianchuan felt that Zhu Ning was a little excited too enthusiastic.

Has she never seen an artificial human before?

Zhu "Country Bumpkin" Ning: "But aren't artificial humans very powerful?"

The gene editing technology used to create artificial humans usually adds many "functions" to them, but Li Nianchuan looks a bit ordinary.

Li Nianchuan was dissatisfied: "What's that supposed mean?"

Zhu Ning: "Nothing, nothing."

Li Nianchuan: "Some artificial humans were created to be consumables. It all depends on the batch. "

Li Nianchuan didn't have any other expression when he said this, as if he had already accepted the fact that he was created just to become a consumable.

Some jobs require humans to complete. Under the premise that robots are not allowed to enter, flesh-and-blood people were very important. Clones, artificial humans, and robots were all consumables.

They were originally tools created by first-class citizens, but the tools developed self-awareness and were then divided into citizenship levels based on whether they were beneficial to the Federation.

It was eerie to alienate people and humanize objects to this extent.

Zhu Ning asked: "Can I ask which genes you synthesized?"

Artificial humans were created using gene editing technology, and was generally integrated with multiple advantageous genes. She just didn't know if her question was too personal to ask.

Li Nianchuan: "It's fine. My batch was incorporated with some of the sheepdog's genes. It was so that artificial humans would have traits of loyalty and can be easily domesticated to a high degree."

To never betray the Federation and humanity.

Zhu Ning: “…”

Oh, so that was why...

Zhu Ning digested this information and asked, "What about the captain?"

Xu Meng: "Third-class citizen, clone."

Zhu Ning was stunned. She remembered Fang Ying saying that the lifespan of clones was not long.

Xu Meng saw Zhu Ning's sudden heavy expression. "I know what you want to ask. There are different interventions available such as genetic drugs or replacing my parts with mechanical prostheses. If you think about it, I'm pretty much in a similar situation as you."

Xu Meng was a little amused and helpless. He still had more than ten years left, but Zhu Ning only had one year left. Who should be worrying for whom?

Xu Meng: "I do this just to save money, you know?"

Xu Meng blinked at Zhu Ning. In a way, they were the same kind.

Xu Meng and Zhu Ning instantly closed the distance between them. Zhu Ning asked, "What's your way to save your life?"

Xu Meng was amused by these four words and said, "I plan to upload my consciousness to the Cloud and use mechanical prostheses in the future."

Completely abandoning the human body, uploading the consciousness to an internal system, and being able to change different bodies in the future; to a certain extent, as long as the Cloud "server" does not crash, Xu Meng can achieve immortality.

So cool.

But Zhu Ning was a bit conservative; she still prefers the human body.

Xu Meng asked: "Are you going to inject genetic drugs?"

Zhu Ning nodded. This was why she joined the cleaning center; having the support of a big thigh, while also receiving information that ordinary people would have no access to.

Xu Meng: "I'll give you some information later. I did some research before and underwent a course of gene drug injections, but later decided not to continue it."

"By the way, the gene drugs in our center are also very advanced. If you have time, you can go to the medical department and talk to the people there. Employee consultations are free."

Zhu Ning's eyes lit up when she heard the word "free."

Xu Meng looked at Zhu Ning like a little sister and transferred the information to her employee wristband.

The three of them exchanged stories: a clone, an artificial human, and a defective product.

None of them were nobles, and they struggled daily to extend their lives, forming a trio of unlucky individuals.

Zhu Ning suddenly thought of a question and asked, "By the way, what is the highest record for the 100-meter dash?"

Xu Meng: "I haven't paid attention to it either. Are you interested in this?"

Ordinary people generally have little interest in sports events. The reason is simple: humans cannot outrun robots and artificial humans. In the eyes of robots, humans are simply too slow.

Many people find human competitions boring.

Zhu Ning had always been interested in sports in her previous life, but unfortunately, after the zombies appeared, human competitive sports were forced to an end.

Zhu Ning decided to conduct some research and opened her search box. She was just about to type when the page automatically displayed:

[Search for the world 100-meter dash record?]

Zhu Ning nodded yes.

[9 seconds 58.]

The technological level of the wasteland world is at least a hundred times more advanced than Zhu Ning's world. But finishing a hundred meter dash in less than ten seconds was also achievable in her previous world.

It seems that records in competitive sports remain unchanged.

Zhu Ning had easily replaced the highest record in the training center, but it could also mean nothing since only those in the center was recorded in it.

Still, the highest shooting record in this world should be similar to Zhu Ning's.

The wasteland world has contaminants, powerful technology, and even mutated humans, but humans themselves seems to have not made any progress.

In the apocalyptic world, no progress means regression. Did those first-class citizens really never evolved at all?

Zhu Ning had never seen first-class citizens, so she had no idea what these so called nobles were like. From her superficial understanding, it seemed possible that sixth-class citizens would be the mainstream of human "evolution" in the future.

She thought about the two lines on her system panel: alienation degree and alienation direction, which were still empty.

She wondered if she had a chance to "degenerate" into a sixth-class citizen.

…

Zhu Ning became famous early in the morning; the forum was flooded with posts about her.

Someone uploaded her shooting test video, climbing to the top of the forum with a very eye-catching title: "Come and see how a big boss shoots!"

No newcomer has ever attracted so much attention before. The incident about Zhu "Fish Killer" Ning has just died down, and yet here she was again making waves with her shooting skills.

People were now discussing the video of her training test. Many suspect that there was an error in Zhu Ning's data detection and demanded a second evaluation from the R&D Department and the Training Room.

If defective products were like this, then where will the "healthy products" put themselves?!

Zhu Ning: “…”

'Thank you for your recognition of my strength as a member of the national team. Really appreciate it.'

Zhu Ning has train day and night for several years. Although she didn't win an international medal, she won the highest honor of the Cleaning Center Forum.

'I really want to give a speech to express my gratitude for this award.'

***

There was a combat class assessment in the afternoon.

Xu Meng asked Zhu Ning if she wanted to go for training first, but Zhu Ning was very ambitious. She wanted to take the assessment directly to see what was going on.

Fighting cannot be assessed as easily as shooting classes, so in order to take into account the viewing experience, a PK system was adopted. One person goes on stage first and someone will challenge them. The winner passes, and the loser continues to accept the challenge.

It can be said that it depends more on luck. If you are lucky, you will encounter noobs and pass directly. If you are unlucky, you might encounter a big boss and get beaten immediately.

Zhu Ning discovered that the idea of the fighting class was not to improve the level of the weak, but to cultivate the strong. A strong person will become stronger when they meet a strong person. If a weak person meets a weak person by chance and passes, they would still be at a basic level after participating in the assessment.

Of course, if a weak person wants to become stronger, they can also try to challenge the strong.

This setting should be the cleaning center giving them the opportunity to grow. It was made to inspire and test the employee's initiative. Otherwise, the weak will never have the opportunity to perform on the same stage with the strong.

It wasn't a fair competition system, but it was very effective for those who want to improve their abilities. It also serves as communication between departments.

There were many spectators gathered around the fighting arena, and everyone was there to watch the fun.

The fighting instructor was shocked and asked, "What are you all doing? Don't you have training?"

Someone shouted, "We want to witness history!"

'Witnessing history?'

Zhu Ning was confused.

'What history?'

Could these people be talking about her?

The fighting teacher tried to calm everyone. "This is just a friendly match. The focus is on exchanging experiences."

Zhu Ning nodded. No hard feelings, no hard feelings.

The fighting arena was a 1v1. Witchers and Cleaners fight each other, where they can choose their own opponents freely as long as the opponent is from a different department.

Zhu Ning was a Cleaner, so the opponent can only be a Witcher.

"Zhu Ning is on stage, who wants to challenge her?"

"I do."

A mechanical female warrior appeared on the opposite side. She had short white hair and was 180 cm tall. She exuded a cold metallic luster all over her body; eighty percent of her body was mechanized, including both arms and her left leg.

It was the first time that Zhu Ning had seen someone with such a high degree of mechanization. As expected, she was unlucky and met a big boss right from the start.

A Witcher's physical fitness is higher than that of a Cleaner. The witcher was so mechanized that if Zhu Ning uses metal manipulation on her, she would be able to kill her with one fatal move, but that would go against the spirit of sportsmanship.

Zhu Ning still wanted to fight fairly, otherwise it would be inconsiderate of her to her opponent.

However, Zhu Ning had never dealt with robots before and had no idea of their power. The girl was incredibly fast; the fight barely lasted a minute.

She was hit on the waist and was throw down.

Bang--

By the time Zhu Ning reacted, she had already fallen on her back.

She heard a crisp sound of bones breaking– Oh hey, wasn't that her shoulder blades?

The audience who were ready to witness history were stunned. Xu Meng and Li Nianchuan were also stunned.

The girl opposite didn't expect the rumored Zhu Ning to be so fragile. She said apologetically, "I thought you were a warrior."

Warrior? What warrior?

Zhu Ning was almost beaten into pieces by her!

As expected, humans really can't fight machines head-on!

---

The translator has something to say:

Hmmm, if i recall correctly, weren't the citizens classified right after birth? I smell a plot hole!

---

Previous

TOC

Next