Chapter 40: The Bracelet

Chapter 40: The Bracelet

Cleaning Center.

The main building of the Cleaning Center has over three hundred floors, and most employees do not have access above the two-hundredth floor.

On the one hundred thirtieth floor, this level is exclusively reserved for Xuan Qing, the head of the War Section.

Xuan Qing sat behind a spacious desk. She was well past her fifties, with graying hair, yet she exuded an energy that even the young found hard to match.

Fang Ying stood opposite her, holding documents, waiting for Xuan Qing's next instructions.

Xuan Qing was watching a replay video from the training room. Despite facing pressure from all sides, she insisted on slowing down the entire Cleaning Center's operations to conduct comprehensive employee training.

Some within the center speculated that the purpose of this concentrated training was to reassess the capabilities of the Cleaning Center's staff and record each employee's characteristics anew.

Under the scrutiny of dozens of high-speed cameras, every employee's performance was laid bare.

Some hid their true abilities, fearing exposure would make them targets.

Others sought attention, determined to stand out.

Zhu Ning was truly conspicuous. As a cleaner with a mental strength value of 1200, she effortlessly matched the training center's records in shooting classes.

In combat classes, despite everyone doubting her, she defeated Huang Xiong.

An old saying goes, "A tree that stands tall invites the wind," and another says, "The first bird to stick its neck out gets shot." But Zhu Ning seemed to care little about these sayings.

Zhu Ning actually belonged to the Cleaning Department, and her true superior was Xie Jiazu. Surprisingly, Xuan Qing paid more attention to her.

Xuan Qing's reasoning was that talented individuals should be demon hunters, not garbage collectors.

Fang Ying found this logic sound.

Xuan Qing had just finished watching the combat match between Zhu Ning and Huang Xiong. After a moment of silence, she said, "Assign her a B-level mission. I want to see her overall capabilities."

Training and actual combat are different; true strength can only be demonstrated in real battles.

"B-level?" Fang Ying sounded uncertain. "Her last mission was D-level."

Zhu Ning, a pure newcomer, had only been on one mission before, which was initially rated E-level. Even if there was a misjudgment in the contaminated area, it ended up being only D-level difficulty.

Now, jumping straight to B-level, Xuan Qing didn't seem worried about risking Zhu Ning's life.

"What's wrong?" Xuan Qing asked. "Are you concerned about her?"

Fang Ying suddenly didn't know how to respond. The Cleaning Center was unwilling to let any talent go to waste.

This was a shared belief among everyone in the center, regardless of faction or stance. They instinctively protected talent.

Because in this era, true talent was too scarce.

"Treating her like a decorative vase will turn her into an ordinary person," Xuan Qing thought practically. They had no time to nurture flowers in a greenhouse.

Xuan Qing said expressionlessly, "With such a high profile, she needs to back it up with results, or she'll struggle later."

Fame must be backed by substance.

As expected of the head of the War Section, Xuan Qing thought deeper than Fang Ying. Zhu Ning had already embarked on this path and couldn't turn back.

No matter how well she performed in shooting or combat classes, those were just superficial achievements.

For employees of the Cleaning Center, the true badge of honor was entering contaminated areas on missions.

She now needed to enter a contaminated area that matched her abilities to prove herself and establish her footing in the Cleaning Center.

Xuan Qing was actually planning for Zhu Ning's future.

There was nothing else to discuss. Fang Ying followed the instructions and left the office.

After Fang Ying left, Xuan Qing paused the surveillance video, no longer watching the training process. She was busy and had little time to focus on such minor matters.

She had just received news that Experiment Subject 777 had been purified.

Experiment Subject 777 had peculiar characteristics. Whether demon hunters could purify it had little to do with their own strength; it tested their approach.

Surviving it proved one's adaptability.

Experiment Subject 777 had existed for years without anyone purifying it.

It seemed Prometheus had found the right person for the task.

To protect the task executor, the identity remained confidential throughout the process. As a high-ranking official, they couldn't pinpoint who entered Experiment Subject 777.

Prometheus designed the system to safeguard the privacy of the task executor, and they had no authority to view it.

Sometimes, Prometheus would release misleading information to prevent speculation about who executed certain tasks.

But she had a hunch.

In the surveillance footage, Li Nianchuan pushed Zhu Ning out, while the cleaning team discussed what to eat during their outing.

Zhu Ning seemed to sense someone watching her and suddenly turned around, looking directly at the surveillance camera.

The video paused right there.

Click—

Xuan Qing turned off the video.

That day, when Zhu Ning returned home, she felt like a robot that had run out of power.

After the combat match, she felt an exhilarating sense of relief, and even her headache seemed to lessen.

Combat matches were indeed a great way to relieve stress; she found herself enjoying the sport.

After exhausting her body to a certain extent, the aftereffects of overusing her mental energy were slowly healing.

Zhu Ning drank a bottle of mental recovery potion and then another bottle of nutritional supplement.

Then she fell asleep.

She put aside all thoughts of pursuit; the first thing she needed was sleep.

As long as she wasn't dead, she had to ensure she got enough rest.

The workload over the past few days had been excessive. In just one week, Zhu Ning felt like she had lived a whole lifetime.

Zhu Ning slept until six in the afternoon the next day, got up, and drank three tubes of nutritional supplements and two tubes of mental recovery potions.

Then she went back to sleep.

This time, she slept until eleven in the morning the following day.

In total, she had slept for over forty hours, and finally, she felt refreshed.

Sleep was undoubtedly the lowest-cost way to rest in this world.

If she didn't have things to do, she could have slept for another day.

After resting, her head hurt less, but something still felt off.

The system panel showed her mental energy at full capacity—100 points. If there was no problem with her mental energy, it might be a problem with her brain.

Without going to the hospital or the Clean Center Medical Department, it would be hard to diagnose.

If she had the chance, she should visit the medical department for a brain check-up and consider Song Zhizhang's suggestion to get in during her next mission.

All of Zhu Ning's training had passed, and now she was on standby, waiting for Fang Ying to assign her new tasks.

After being awake for a while, Zhu Ning realized she was under a lot of pressure.

She had many things to do next.

On her bedside table lay a black bracelet, emitting a cold, metallic shine.

She had brought something out from her cozy little room—it was a Hunter's employee bracelet.

After purifying the contaminated area, the snail creature turned into rotting flesh. While cleaning up, Zhu Ning found the bracelet among the bloody mess.

The operation of the Hunter's employee bracelet was similar to that of a Cleaner's. On the inside, it bore the name of the Hunter—Cheetah Team · Cheng Mofei.

Cheetah Team?

She had never heard of this team before.

Because of the collective training, Hunters and Cleaners were mixed, and she had met all the Hunters she was supposed to meet.

She had never even heard anyone mention this team.

So his name was Cheng Mofei. Zhu Ning recalled the snail creature crouching below the TV, carrying a snail shell on its back.

He had lost all rationality, unable to speak or think. In a sense, he was already dead.

Cheng Mofei was, after all, her senior.

Zhu Ning wasn't better than Cheng Mofei; she might even be weaker.

If not for her metal manipulation talent, she would likely have died in there too.

Within a meter, Zhu Ning's metal manipulation was absolute. She crushed the creature with one decisive move, leaving no chance for it to struggle further.

But Zhu Ning still couldn't understand how Cheng Mofei died in the house. She could enter because she had the key, but did Cheng Mofei become the owner of the house and bind himself directly?

The situation was too urgent at the time, and Zhu Ning didn't have a chance to ask Huang Yaruo about Cheng Mofei. To this day, she didn't know how he died.

Her interest in this bracelet was hard to explain, almost like comparing notes with another player in the same game.

After clearing the level, she wanted to see how another player approached it to gain some insights for future reference.

Zhu Ning opened the Cleaning Center forum. The forum had multiple functions, including a diagram of the entire center's structure and a list of employee relationships.

She opened the War Section where the Hunters were located and searched for "Cheetah Team."

"No search results" appeared coldly on the screen.

Did the Cheetah Team cease to exist? Was it disbanded, or was the entire team erased?

There was a section in the center forum that was black, dedicated to memorializing deceased employees, akin to a cyber cemetery.

Zhu Ning searched for "Cheng Mofei" in this section.

This time, there was a result, showing a formal document. Cheng Mofei looked young, probably only in his early twenties.

He wore a blue suit and smiled brightly at the camera, completely different from the snail creature Zhu Ning had seen.

The document stated that he died during a mission and never came out. Through the life monitoring function of the employee bracelet, the Cleaning Center determined that he was dead.

Even held a funeral for him without a body.

Cheng Mofei’s file is also a bit strange; the specific missions are coded. This isn’t very unusual, considering the confidentiality of certain tasks. Many people’s missions aren’t disclosed even after their deaths.

What’s odd is that Cheng Mofei was posthumously awarded a Third-Class Military Merit, which is even rarer.

Only three people in the entire forum have been posthumously awarded military merits. Simply dying in a Class C contaminated area wouldn’t warrant an award. What exactly happened to Cheng Mofei before he died?

The Cleaning Center employee wristbands function similarly to a "black box," providing the last known location before an incident and recording audio and video.

There should be some data inside, possibly recording what Cheng Mofei experienced just before his death.

Zhu Ning fiddled with it for a while, not expecting it to open, as the Cleaning Center employee wristbands come equipped with iris and fingerprint recognition.

Generally, only the wearer has access to the wristband, not even their superiors, unless it’s sent to the technical department for decryption.

Zhu Ning was wondering if she could use a master key—does this count as a "door"?

But as soon as she touched the watch face, the employee wristband suddenly lit up with a soft blue light.

Opened? That easily?

Then a mechanical female voice sounded: "Hunter Cheng Mofei’s employee wristband has been activated. No valid iris detected. Would you like to enter visitor mode?"

Visitor mode on the employee wristband? This must be a setting authorized by the owner to allow others to see the contents.

Zhu Ning chose yes. After selecting yes, a video folder appeared on the wristband screen, showing a date from nine years ago.

Nine years? Cheng Mofei has been dead for nine years?

Zhu Ning opened the video. The footage was very shaky, likely filmed in darkness with night vision mode on, giving everything a green tint.

After watching for a while, Zhu Ning couldn’t even recognize where it was. About a minute later, the camera was placed somewhere, and someone adjusted the shooting angle.

Zhu Ning recognized the environment. This room was clearly used for storing miscellaneous items, with many things covered in cloth.

Facing the camera was an old box, and Cheng Mofei was sitting on it.

Before turning into a snail person, he had a square face, thick eyebrows, and big eyes, and combined with his height, he could be considered handsome.

But he seemed injured, with pale lips and a thick bandage wrapped around his abdomen.

Zhu Ning felt something was off. She expected to see footage from inside a house where someone was being hunted, but it looked like Cheng Mofei filmed this while fleeing.

She had been to a cozy house; snail people couldn’t inflict such wounds.

Effective healing agents have been developed for many years. With such heavy bloodstains on Cheng Mofei’s abdomen, either the healing agent failed or he was at his wits’ end, without even one dose left.

Or perhaps his injury was incurable.

After some rustling, Cheng Mofei sat down. Even wounded, he sat straight and composed, like a soldier.

"Hello," he said, his voice slightly hoarse. "I don’t know who you are, but I hope you’re from the Cleaning Center. I’ve deactivated the confidentiality program on my employee wristband. Whoever finds it can log in using visitor mode and view partial information."

Zhu Ning frowned; this wasn’t what she expected.

She thought she would see footage of Cheng Mofei trying to escape from the “hunting house,” but instead, it felt like communicating with a dead person across time.

Zhu Ning’s brow furrowed further, sensing that this data would be unsettling.

"I am being hunted and won’t survive tonight. Before I die, I will enter Subject 777 to preserve the data."

Data? What data? So the subject’s name is 777.

Aren’t hunters supposed to purify houses? Is he using the house’s properties to evade his pursuers? Who is hunting him?

Zhu Ning’s mind raced, overwhelmed by the information. She didn’t pause the video, so it continued playing.

In the video, Cheng Mofei cleared his throat, his expression becoming serious. "I am Cheng Mofei, member of the Cheetah Team, employee number L7563, currently on a mission investigating Yongsheng Pharmaceutical."