Chapter 25: Race

Chapter 25: Race

Li Nianchuan was curious for a moment. "Then why didn't you continue down that path?"

Zhu Ning sighed. "I accidentally took a wrong turn."

At the time, she was already a member of the National Team. Then the zombie crisis erupted, and her athletic skills became survival skills. If not for her athlete's physique and shooting skills, she would have perished when the crisis first broke out.

Li Nianchuan: "…"

Although he didn’t know exactly what Zhu Ning meant by taking a wrong turn, it seemed like she had veered off quite drastically. How did an athlete end up cleaning trash?

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

Li Nianchuan asked, "Were you with a club?"

He wasn’t sure if Zhu Ning meant a club or the national team. Club athletes could be diverse, while federal athletes generally only admitted first-class citizens.

In the Wasteland era, artificial humans and mechanical beings were everywhere. If machines were allowed to participate in federal sports competitions, it would violate the spirit of sportsmanship.

Thus, only first-class citizens with natural genes had the concept of true competitive sports, which had become spectator events for the nobility.

Matches between clubs were more like underground competitions, lacking fairness, justice, and transparency. They only cared about ensuring the entertainment value of the matches.

Zhu Ning had prepared her explanation. "Yes, I was with a club."

She had already fired her gun during the encounter with the fish people, and the video had garnered over a hundred thousand views on the forum. She couldn’t hide her shooting skills, so she might as well display them openly.

With so many people at the Cleaning Center paying attention to her, she needed to explain her performance.

She actually didn’t know if the original Zhu Ning had any experience with shooting. The original Zhu Ning was a defective product, one of those slated for disposal, and official records about her should be minimal. Even Zhu Ning couldn’t find any clues about her identity.

She seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, with only basic identity information and a single acquaintance, Aunt Wei.

Zhu Ning guessed that the original Zhu Ning’s identity might be fake, giving her ample room to fabricate stories.

If someone within the Cleaning Center wanted to kill her…

Zhu Ning scanned the room. There were many people in the training room, both demon hunters and cleaners, undergoing combat training. If there was someone who knew the old Zhu Ning, they would surely notice something amiss and either confront her or test her.

That would be her chance to gather clues.

Whether others believed her or not, Li Nianchuan seemed to buy it. "Being part of a club’s professional team is impressive too."

Xu Meng nodded. "It’s even harder to get into a club."

The federal teams only admitted first-class citizens, so competition wasn’t as fierce. But club members covered all five citizen classes, and any genius could emerge.

Li Nianchuan and Xu Meng looked at Zhu Ning with a subtle expression. Zhu Ning graduated from university at eighteen and might have been participating in underground club matches before entering the Cleaning Center.

Perhaps she started even earlier, earning money at the club while still in school. Zhu Ning didn’t elaborate, but their imagination filled in the gaps, picturing a hardworking girl struggling to make ends meet.

Zhu Ning was still a defective product, possibly constantly running for survival.

Xu Meng said, "You must have worked hard."

Li Nianchuan echoed, "You must have worked hard."

Zhu Ning: "?"

What hard work?

Li Nianchuan: "By the way, you’re the first defective product I’ve ever met."

Zhu Ning looked at Xu Meng, who also said, "Same here."

Zhu Ning: "…"

So she was rare. Defective products usually couldn’t pass the Cleaning Center’s screening process, and even if they did, they often failed the training.

Li Nianchuan then asked, "By the way, do you defective products know what you were before?"

Indeed, what was she before being classified as a defective product? Before being labeled as such, what type of human was Zhu Ning?

She couldn’t have been a mechanical being; she must have been a natural human, artificial human, or clone.

Unfortunately, defective products had no "product traceability," and Zhu Ning couldn’t find any information about her origins.

"I don’t know." Zhu Ning asked, "And you, what class of citizen are you?"

Li Nianchuan: "I’m a second-class artificial human..."

He had just started speaking when Zhu Ning looked shocked. "You’re an artificial human?"

This was the first artificial human she had encountered. Clones theoretically existed in her world, but artificial humans were black technology unique to the Wasteland. Did Li Nianchuan mean he was artificially created with consciousness?

"Yes." Li Nianchuan felt Zhu Ning was excited, having never seen an artificial human before.

Zhu Ning, truly inexperienced: "But aren’t artificial humans supposed to be very powerful?"

Artificial humans typically used gene editing techniques to add many "functions," yet Li Nianchuan seemed rather ordinary.

Li Nianchuan, feeling indignant: "What do you mean?"

Zhu Ning: "Nothing, nothing."

Li Nianchuan: "It depends on the batch. Some artificial humans are made just to be disposable."

Li Nianchuan said these words without any particular expression, as if he had effortlessly accepted the fact that he was a disposable asset.

Some jobs required human involvement, and when robots couldn't be used, flesh-and-blood humans became crucial. Clones, artificial humans, and robots were all considered expendable.

Originally created as tools by first-class citizens, they developed self-awareness and were subsequently classified into citizen tiers based on their utility to the Federation.

Dehumanizing people and anthropomorphizing objects to this extent was quite rare.

Zhu Ning asked, "Can I ask which genes you were synthesized with?"

Artificial humans used gene editing technology, typically integrating multiple advantageous genes. She wasn't sure if this question was considered private.

Li Nianchuan: "There's nothing to hide. Part of my genes come from a shepherd dog, hoping that our batch of artificial humans would be loyal and easily trainable."

Never betraying the Federation or humanity.

Zhu Ning: "…"

Did she suddenly understand?

After digesting this information, Zhu Ning asked, "What about the team leader?"

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

Zhu Ning was taken aback; she remembered Fang Ying saying that clones didn't live long.

Seeing Zhu Ning's sudden solemn expression, Xu Meng remained relaxed. "I know what you're thinking. It can be intervened with, like gene serums or mechanical prosthetics, similar to your situation."

Xu Meng found it amusing. She still had a decade left, while Zhu Ning only had a year. Why was Zhu Ning worried about her?

Xu Meng: "I do this job to save money, you understand?"

Xu Meng winked at Zhu Ning, implying they were kindred spirits in some ways.

Their bond instantly strengthened. Zhu Ning asked, "What's your survival plan?"

Survival plan—Xu Meng chuckled at these words. "I want to upload my consciousness to the cloud and use mechanical prosthetics."

Completely abandoning the human body and directly uploading consciousness, allowing for different bodies in the future. In a sense, as long as the "server" doesn't crash, Xu Meng could achieve immortality.

How cool.

But Zhu Ning was more conservative and preferred a human body.

Xu Meng asked, "Do you want to inject gene serums?"

Zhu Ning nodded. This was why she joined the Cleaning Center—to have the backing of a large organization and access to more information than ordinary people.

Xu Meng: "I'll send you some data later. I did some research and underwent a course of gene serum injections before deciding against it. By the way, our center's gene serums are advanced. You should talk to the medical department; consultations are free for employees."

Zhu Ning's eyes lit up at the word "free."

Xu Meng treated Zhu Ning like a little sister and sent the data to her employee bracelet.

The three of them exchanged their backgrounds—one clone, one artificial human, and one defective. None were nobles, struggling daily to extend their lives, forming an unlucky trio.

Zhu Ning suddenly thought of a question. "By the way, what's the current 100-meter sprint record?"

Xu Meng: "I haven't paid attention. Are you interested?"

Ordinary people generally weren't interested in sports events. The logic was simple: humans couldn't compete with robots and artificial humans. To robots, human speed was too slow.

Many found human competitions boring.

In her previous life, Zhu Ning had been interested in sports, but after the zombie outbreak, human athletics were forced to stop. With powerful search capabilities, Zhu Ning opened her secondary brain's search bar. Before she could type anything, the page automatically displayed:

Search for the world 100-meter sprint record?

Zhu Ning clicked yes.

The page redirected: 9.58 seconds.

It was the same as in Zhu Ning's world, which seemed odd given that the wasteland's technology was at least a hundred times more advanced.

Athletic records remained unchanged.

Zhu Ning had easily matched the training record, though training records weren't significant; many experts might never have visited the training room.

Shooting records in this world should also be similar.

Despite pollutants, advanced technology, and even mutated humans, humans themselves hadn't progressed.

In the post-apocalyptic era, no progress meant regression. A simple deduction suggested that pure human genes had stagnated.

Zhu Ning had never seen a first-class citizen and wondered what these nobles looked like. From her limited understanding, perhaps sixth-class citizens represented the mainstream of human "evolution."

She recalled that her system panel had two empty options: mutation degree and mutation direction. She wondered if she had a chance to "fall" into becoming a sixth-class citizen.

...

Zhu Ning made a name for herself that morning, with posts about her flooding the forum.

Someone uploaded her shooting test video to the top of the forum, with a striking title: "Watch How the Pro Shoots!"

No newcomer had ever garnered such attention. The buzz continued, especially since the fish-killing incident had just settled down.

Now people were discussing Zhu Ning's shooting video, with many suspecting that her data had been misread and demanding a second evaluation by the observation and research departments.

If defective individuals were this impressive, what hope did "normal" ones have?

Zhu Ning: "…"

Thank you for recognizing my abilities as a member of the National Team. Zhu Ning has trained day and night for several years, not winning the highest international medal but earning the highest honor from the Cleaning Center forum. I really want to give an acceptance speech.

In the afternoon, there was a combat skills assessment.

Xu Meng asked Zhu Ning if she wanted to go through some training first. At the time, Zhu Ning was feeling confident and decided to go straight into the assessment.

Combat skills can't be assessed like shooting skills; they involve a spectator element. The assessment uses a PK system, where one person enters the ring and another challenges them. The winner passes, while the loser continues to face challenges.

So it's more about luck. If you're lucky, you might face weak opponents and pass easily. If you're unlucky, you might face a formidable opponent and get beaten up.

Zhu Ning realized that the focus of the combat class is not on improving weaker individuals but on cultivating stronger ones. Stronger individuals become even stronger when facing other strong opponents. Weaker individuals who manage to pass by luck will still remain at a basic level after the assessment. Of course, weaker individuals can improve by challenging stronger ones.

This setup aims to stimulate mutual growth and tests your initiative. Otherwise, weaker individuals would never have the chance to compete with stronger ones. The Cleaning Center provides this opportunity.

It's not a fair system, but it's very effective for those who want to improve their skills. It's essentially just an exchange between departments.

Many spectators gathered around the combat arena, all there for the excitement.

The combat instructor was surprised and asked, "What are you doing? Aren't you supposed to be training?"

Someone shouted loudly, "We want to witness history!"

Witness history? Zhu Ning was confused. What history? Could they be talking about her?

The combat instructor tried to keep everyone relaxed, saying, "It's a friendly match, focusing on sharing experience."

Zhu Ning believed it, thinking they wouldn't start fighting right away.

The combat arena is 1v1, allowing colleagues to exchange combat experience. Hunters and cleaners fight each other, and opponents can be chosen freely. As a cleaner, Zhu Ning's opponent could only be a hunter.

"Zhu Ning, who wants to challenge you?"

"I do."

A mechanical female warrior stepped into the ring. She had short white hair and stood at 180 cm tall, with a metallic cold gleam all over her body. Eighty percent of her body was mechanized, including both arms and her left leg.

Zhu Ning had never seen someone so heavily mechanized before. Indeed, her luck was bad, facing a formidable opponent right away.

Hunters have superior physical attributes compared to cleaners. With such high mechanization, Zhu Ning could use her metal manipulation ability to end the fight instantly, but that would violate the spirit of sportsmanship.

Zhu Ning wanted a fair fight, otherwise, it wouldn't be fair to her opponent.

Zhu Ning had no experience fighting against mechanical beings and lacked understanding of their strength. The woman moved incredibly fast, and the fight lasted less than a minute.

She grabbed Zhu Ning around the waist and threw her down.

Bang—

By the time Zhu Ning reacted, she was already lying on her back, hearing a despairing crack. That was the sound of her shoulder blade breaking.

The audience, preparing to witness history, was stunned. Xu Meng and Li Nianchuan were also shocked.

The woman didn't expect Zhu Ning to be so fragile and apologized, "I thought you were a warrior."

What warrior? Zhu Ning almost got turned into cheese! Indeed, humans shouldn't try to match mechanical beings in strength!