Chapter 6: The Source of Pollution

Chapter 6: The Source of Pollution

Zhu Ning and Li Nianchuan tried switching positions. Every time they did, the fish people would follow and surround them in the same formation.

Apart from this, the fish people made no further moves. Zhu Ning considered shooting but wasn't sure if firing would cause the fish people to lose control.

Back in the sewer, there was only one fish person, and together they had two guns, barely managing to kill it under fire suppression.

Now, there were twenty-five, possibly more. If the fish people attacked en masse, Zhu Ning and Li Nianchuan would be doomed.

Li Nianchuan felt his scalp tingle as he was stared at by the fish people, drenched in cold sweat.

Li Nianchuan recalculated the pollution level and was shocked by the result, "The pollution level is now 79%!"

Zhu Ning still didn't understand how the pollution level was calculated; she hadn't felt any changes with the rising numbers.

Seeing that Zhu Ning didn't understand, Li Nianchuan explained, "A D-level pollution zone ranges from 60% to 90%."

So when they first entered, the measured concentration of 55% belonged to an E-level pollution zone.

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

Zhu Ning gritted her teeth, "Ignore them."

Li Nianchuan: "What?"

Zhu Ning recalled Fang Ying's questions during her onboarding:

1. Are you afraid of monsters?

2. Are you afraid of corpses?

Fang Ying's focus was on fear, and Zhu Ning's answers were consistently "no."

She seemed to understand why her mental value was 100%. Zhu Ning genuinely wasn't afraid; she didn't see these creatures as monsters.

"Ignore them, don't pay attention to them, and they can't pollute you."

Mental pollution isn't about how terrifying or disgusting something is. Blood and corpses evoke fear, not a sense of being polluted.

Mental pollution is when a creature that looks human behaves in a bizarre manner, performing everyday actions.

For example, fish people riding the last train, doing nothing but staring at you. An "abnormal" person doing "normal" things is what makes your skin crawl.

"How... how do I ignore them?" Li Nianchuan nearly cried, finding it impossible to overlook the twenty-five stinking fish people blocking their path.

Li Nianchuan glanced back at Zhu Ning, who showed no signs of being polluted. Either she was naturally gifted, or she had something special.

Deciding to learn from Zhu Ning, Li Nianchuan asked, "How do they look to you?"

Zhu Ning: "Like rotten fish."

Li Nianchuan: "..."

It seemed Zhu Ning saw herself in a seafood market.

Zhu Ning: "Don't look at them. Chat with me to distract yourself."

Zhu Ning needed to ensure Li Nianchuan held on until help arrived. If he broke down mentally and started praying to an evil deity, Zhu Ning would suffer.

Under the gaze of twenty-five fish people, Li Nianchuan forced himself to chat with Zhu Ning, "About what?"

Zhu Ning asked, "Why did you come up here?"

Li Nianchuan tried to ignore the fish people, "To follow the employee guidelines."

According to the Cleaner's Employee Handbook, Rule Four is not to get separated from your teammates, and Rule Three is to wait for rescue. In conflicting situations, Li Nianchuan decided to improvise.

When Zhu Ning said chat, she meant it. Li Nianchuan countered, "Then why did you come up?"

Zhu Ning: "Our job is to clean up trash."

Li Nianchuan looked puzzled, "So?"

Zhu Ning: "We get paid based on commission."

After a moment, Li Nianchuan understood. Cleaners contain pollution spores and earn based on the number contained.

The area they descended into had a fixed number of spores. Since they were already in a polluted zone, Zhu Ning didn't mind containing spores from another area.

With the demon hunters absent, they could take initiative.

Li Nianchuan was stunned by this logic. Creating work where there was none and generating performance where there was none—what a master performer!

Li Nianchuan sincerely said, "Boss."

Zhu Ning: "I've been working less than two hours."

Li Nianchuan changed his tone, "Little sis."

Zhu Ning: "..."

In just two hours, what had they been through?

Hearing Zhu Ning's words, Li Nianchuan suddenly found the fish people less frightening. To him, they became "performance." Twenty-five performances equaled at least 250,000 new coins.

Not rotten fish, but shiny bills.

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

"Ahh?" Li Nianchuan had just accepted that the fish person before him was a manifestation of performance, and he hadn't caught up with Zhu Ning's train of thought, but he felt eager to try. "How do we pollute?"

Zhu Ning pondered for a moment. "Mental pollution refers to normal people doing abnormal things or abnormal people doing normal things. It's a bit convoluted, but the key is repetition."

The essence of pollution lies in repetition. The dead fish person kept repeating about the last train, while the fish people getting on the train kept staring at Zhu Ning and Li Nianchuan.

Repetition + abnormality equals mental pollution.

Li Nianchuan and Zhu Ning were both garbage collectors at the grassroots level, analyzing the inner logic of pollutants for the first time seriously.

Li Nianchuan followed this line of thinking. "That makes sense."

Zhu Ning asked, "Do you have anything that can brainwash someone?"

Li Nianchuan thought for a moment. "I brought a cookbook."

A cookbook?

Zhu Ning tilted her head to look at him, and Li Nianchuan explained, "You know, we can't do this job for long. I need to plan my exit strategy."

Cleaners earn enough money to consider retirement, needing lifelong mental checks, which Zhu Ning might also face in the future.

Damn, being a garbage collector is tough.

Zhu Ning: "Read a segment."

Li Nianchuan flipped through the electronic cookbook, found a page, cleared his throat, and read aloud, "How to cook braised carp: First, make cross-hatch cuts on the surface of the carp, add salt to the oil, and slowly fry it over low heat until both sides turn golden and the skin is crispy..."

Zhu Ning: "..."

Fish people: "..."

Li Nianchuan was truly talented. Was this a guide on how to cook fish people?

Zhu Ning used the helmet's recording function to record it. Both their helmets could broadcast externally, and Zhu Ning obtained a copy of the cookbook, joining the recitation team earnestly.

With two helmets and the two of them, there were four voices in total. If someone got on the train now, they would find it strange—two passengers wearing "motorcycle gear" and black helmets, looking like robbers.

These robbers shamelessly read aloud the recipe for braised carp and even looped it with a loudspeaker.

Disturbing! Shameful!

Abnormal + repetition = mental pollution.

The surrounding passengers frowned, their gazes shifting from malicious to puzzled. After they repeated the recipe about ten times, the fish person's aura diminished, and it lowered its bloody severed head, losing its previous hostility.

"Is the pollution level decreasing?" Li Nianchuan couldn't believe it; the current pollution level was 78%, down by 1%.

It actually worked!

Zhu Ning nodded and suddenly stood up. "Keep reading. I'll find the source of the pollution."

Li Nianchuan said it was like a ghost-hunting game, and the source must be somewhere on the train. When Zhu Ning stood up, Li Nianchuan did too, but the fish people didn't follow.

They held onto the handrails, turned around, presenting their mutilated bodies to Zhu Ning and Li Nianchuan, but none of them followed.

Perhaps the mental pollution had failed, making them useless.

Li Nianchuan didn't dare stop and continued reading the recipe for braised carp, following Zhu Ning like a loudspeaker.

This subway train had only four carriages. Zhu Ning meticulously searched each carriage for clues.

Carriage four had three passengers, carriage three had two, and carriage two had five.

Zhu Ning's carriage one had the most passengers—twenty-five fish people plus the two of them, totaling twenty-seven. Something must have happened on this train before.

The system mentioned the missing last train of Line One. What caused its disappearance? Pollution?

If pollutants can cause mental pollution, could their formation also be a form of mental energy, similar to resentment?

Ding-dong-ding-dong—

The sound of a phone interrupted Zhu Ning's thoughts. It was coming from carriage three.

Zhu Ning ran to check and found a phone lying on a seat. She had thoroughly inspected the entire train earlier and hadn't seen any phone. This phone appeared out of nowhere.

Someone was calling this phone.

The phone looked very old, a touchscreen model. In the wasteland world, technological advancements had replaced most phones with chips implanted in people, which could bind to secondary brains.

Secondary brains served as identity verification, wallets, and communication tools. No one used phones anymore.

Zhu Ning: "A passenger's lost phone?"

Li Nianchuan was equally surprised upon seeing the phone. "This must be at least eighty years old."

It was like an antique.

Zhu Ning: "Keep reading."

Li Nianchuan continued reading the cookbook while Zhu Ning picked up the phone. The moment she did, the ringing stopped, and a video began playing.

It showed footage from a car surveillance camera, featuring two people.

The video was blurry, making it hard for Zhu Ning to recognize them immediately. In the footage, two people ran from another carriage and picked up a phone left on a seat.

"Passenger's lost phone?" Zhu Ning's voice.

"This must be at least eighty years old." Li Nianchuan's voice.

"Continue reading."

The video inside mirrored Zhu Ning's actions perfectly; the Zhu Ning in the video picked up her phone and played another video from it.

"A passenger's lost phone?"

The phone within the phone played yet another video, repeating endlessly.

They seemed trapped—how could anyone tell if they were the real people or just figures in the video?

Zhu Ning felt a chill run down her spine; this was mental pollution, stronger than before.

The logic of the polluted area was to contaminate you through endless repetition, infiltrating every crevice with its nauseating presence.

If she continued watching, she would be contaminated herself.

"What's wrong?" Li Nianchuan hadn't seen the video but sensed that Zhu Ning was not in a good state.

"Don't look." Zhu Ning's mental strength was higher than Li Nianchuan's; one glance might drive him to the brink of collapse.

"It's strong mental pollution." Zhu Ning quickly pressed the pause button, but the video couldn't be paused. She stuffed the phone into her pocket and started to walk away.

"Where are you going?" Li Nianchuan asked.

Zhu Ning's hands trembled slightly; she admitted that she was starting to be affected by the mental pollution. Her mental value was dropping on her panel.

System: "Deduct one percent of mental value."

Zhu Ning tried to ignore it and walked briskly toward the front of the train, saying as she went, "Lost items should be turned over to the crew; that's common sense."

Li Nianchuan: "..."

Why worry about common sense now?

Zhu Ning persisted; the more abnormal the environment, the more she needed to do normal things. A normal person would hand over a passenger's lost phone to the driver.

This is a normal subway, a normal subway, a normal subway...

Zhu Ning kept repeating this to herself, trying to brainwash herself.

You have to do what looks normal to fit the style of this polluted area.

Li Nianchuan followed Zhu Ning as she quickly made her way to the driver's cabin, where someone sat facing away from them. The driver was focused on driving, seeming quite normal.

But there was nothing normal about 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 need to turn it in."

The driver remained facing away.

"Hello," Zhu Ning knocked again, "I need to turn in the phone."

The driver finally reacted; he didn't turn around but removed his hat. With both hands, he parted the hair at the back of his head, revealing another back of the head.

He parted the hair again, revealing yet another back of the head.

Clank—clank—

Zhu Ning suppressed her nausea, watching the driver slowly part his back of the head like a nesting doll, never revealing his face.

Clank—clank—

Clank—

Since Zhu Ning arrived, she had heard this strange noise; the door to the driver's cabin wasn't fully closed, rattling with the movement of the train.

As Zhu Ning reached for the door, she suddenly froze, her entire body stiffening.

"What's wrong?" Li Nianchuan was puzzled; Zhu Ning rarely showed such an expression.

Zhu Ning quickly pressed Li Nianchuan down, preventing him from looking. Her body was rigid, her hair standing on end, not daring to move an inch.

On the left window of the driver's cabin, a fish face was pressed against the glass, smiling. Zhu Ning had been wrong; the source of contamination didn't have to be inside the train.

The contaminant had always... been outside the train.