Chapter 54: The Odd Marine Aquarium (Part Eleven)

Chapter 54: The Odd Marine Aquarium (Part Eleven)

Cleaning Center.

Apart from the three technicians and Xuan Qing, there was hardly anyone watching anymore.

Someone passing by glanced over, "They haven't given up yet?"

Even the Cleaning Center had given up, with the Demon Hunter already handing his body over to Prometheus. Yet, a Cleaning Team hadn’t abandoned their efforts.

The technician sighed, "Their luck is really something."

Luck was undoubtedly the biggest factor in their survival so far. If they had encountered a Transparent Person's sudden attack, they would have met the same fate as the Demon Hunter.

But because Zhu Ning’s team didn’t limit themselves to just cleaning up trash, they proposed checking the director's office first, which led to the current situation.

They discovered the presence of the Transparent People before they could strike.

Then they came up with some countermeasures, though these plans seemed ridiculous to some.

"That's too childish," someone said. "I don’t believe it."

As long as the four moved, there was no way they could avoid vulnerabilities. Once their formation was broken, they would be finished.

Xuan Qing remained silent, neither confirming nor denying the statement.

On the screen, Zhu Ning led her team through a 500-meter corridor, during which they killed two Transparent People.

They passed by four fire extinguishers, replenishing their resources. Now, fire extinguishers had become strategic weapons.

This 500-meter stretch was very slow, with the corridor providing a terrain advantage. The sides were narrow, offering few places to hide, and the only points of concern were the corners.

After suffering a setback once, the Transparent People became more cautious about showing themselves.

The Transparent People weren’t easy to catch.

All the team’s ammunition was concentrated on Zhu Ning and Chu Ling. They had been pushing forward, aiming to approach the Mechanical Jellyfish Pavilion at all costs.

When they arrived, they took the stairs, walking along the designated pathways designed for the building.

On their way out, they didn’t return the same way but chose an unconventional route.

The four-person team planned to approach the Mechanical Jellyfish Pavilion from above, the shortest and fastest path.

Staff offices in marine aquariums are generally located on the upper levels, and the structure of all marine aquariums is similar.

To put it in a model, imagine large fish tanks placed on the ground, filled with marine life.

Visitors usually walk between the tanks to admire the exhibits, while the staff work above the tanks, feeding the marine life, maintaining the marine systems, and cleaning the glass, among other behind-the-scenes tasks.

Therefore, the areas above each exhibition hall are not sealed off, leaving openings for staff to enter and exit. It seems that even in the wasteland world, the basic logic of marine aquariums remains unchanged.

The corridor grew increasingly spacious, and they were about to reach the staff work area.

There was a door 500 meters ahead, marked “Mechanical Jellyfish Pavilion Backstage.”

This was where they fed the creatures.

Zhu Ning warned, "Be careful."

The closer they got to the backstage area of the jellyfish pavilion, the more Zhu Ning felt eyes on them. The Transparent People were becoming more numerous, and she sensed someone watching her closely.

She must be approaching their forbidden territory.

Three hundred meters.

With 300 meters left to the Mechanical Jellyfish Pavilion backstage, an incident occurred.

Li Nianchuan’s fire extinguisher ran out, and he needed to switch to a new one. Fire extinguishers in the wasteland world had incredible endurance; after 500 meters of continuous use, it was impressive that it had only just run out.

Li Nianchuan moved quickly, immediately discarding the empty extinguisher and reaching for a new one from his back.

Throughout this process, Zhu Ning kept her gun aimed forward.

Just as Li Nianchuan’s fingers touched the spare fire extinguisher, Zhu Ning suddenly heard a ting.

Ting—

"Primary Talent Danger Premonition activated, 30-second danger warning sent. Please be cautious."

Danger premonition?

The system finally came to life?

After the system’s warning, Zhu Ning felt a powerful force on her right hand.

Someone had grabbed her arm!

If Zhu Ning hadn’t taken the gene serum, her arm would have been crushed into powder by now.

She heard a clear crack of bones breaking. The Transparent People had figured out the team’s strategy and decided to eliminate their strongest shooter first.

Zhu Ning was their new target.

She could feel Li Nianchuan’s eyes widen as he shouted, "Be careful!"

She could also sense the Transparent Person right next to her.

He was right beside her, his breathing faint but perceptible.

So faint that it was barely audible.

In the premonition of death, Zhu Ning saw the transparent man grab her arm and then stab his other hand directly into her chest, piercing through her heart.

She would die on the spot in just twenty seconds.

Zhu Ning held the gun with her left hand and her right hand on the trigger.

The transparent man was gripping her right forearm.

As the sharp pain clearly transmitted to her brain, she had already reacted, immediately releasing her left hand and drawing a pistol from her thigh without looking.

Then, without even glancing, she fired to her right side.

This move was so sudden that Zhu Ning didn't even raise her head; it certainly wasn't aimed.

At the moment the bullet spun out, there was a bang, and blood splattered.

Jelly-like tissue mixed with blood burst and dripped onto the other team members.

Li Nianchuan stared in shock as Zhu Ning's right forearm was fractured, hanging loosely.

She had already injected herself with a gene agent, yet under the protection of her work uniform, she could still be injured like this.

Li Nianchuan's heart raced, and he immediately opened the fire extinguisher, filling the gap with dry powder.

More than one person had arrived.

Another appeared in front of Zhu Ning, the transparent man's blood forming a pool on the ground, leaving traces when someone tried to step over it.

A bloody footprint suddenly appeared on the ground.

Zhu Ning, enduring the pain in her right arm, fired with her left hand. The bullet hit where the bloody footprint was, but it seemed to have missed.

The bloody footprint sensed the danger and immediately ran in the opposite direction.

Zhu Ning's premonition of danger gave her thirty seconds to react; otherwise, her heart would have been ripped out by now.

Her right arm was useless now, and being right-handed, her aim with her left hand was much worse.

Zhu Ning shouted, "Chu Ling! Be careful!"

It was a gang operation; they seemed to have devised a plan to deal with their squad. If Zhu Ning was in danger, Chu Ling would be next.

Sure enough, as she expected, something happened in Chu Ling's direction.

Their current location was not as narrow as a corridor but an open space, meaning enemies could emerge from anywhere at any time.

Chu Ling felt someone rush towards her from the right. Xu Meng kept spraying the fire extinguisher, and the smoke was dispersed by the impact, catching them off guard. By the time she saw the transparent man, he was already within two meters.

Thanks to Zhu Ning's warning, Chu Ling reacted faster. Being equipped with a mechanical arm, which was far more durable than a human limb, made a huge difference.

Even with immense force, it was impossible to break it instantly.

Instead, Chu Ling lifted her right leg and struck hard in one direction.

It was a combat technique.

The opponent wasn't as skilled; Chu Ling realized in an instant that they were marine creatures raised in the aquarium, possibly possessing great strength, but lacking combat skills.

With eighty percent of her body mechanized, she was almost indistinguishable from a combat robot, capable of adjusting her parameters to adapt to different levels of opponents.

Zhu Ning and Chu Ling had taken combat classes together, and she remembered how Chu Ling had thrown her with a single throw.

It was terrifying.

Chu Ling immediately adjusted her parameters to the maximum, activating her full-body defense system. The opponent only managed to scratch the surface of her mechanized body.

Bang!

Chu Ling grabbed the opponent's arm and immediately fired.

Blood exploded, and the transparent man, despite looking strong, disintegrated like a jelly figure.

Chu Ling was covered in blood.

Xu Meng continued to spray the fire extinguisher, and both she and Li Nianchuan, as cleaners, were witnessing Chu Ling in action for the first time.

The quality of a demon hunter was truly different from what they learned in training.

Throughout the entire ordeal, their formation remained intact.

Chu Ling: "No issues here."

Zhu Ning, enduring the pain in her right hand, readjusted to holding the gun with her left, speaking very calmly: "No issues."

Chu Ling: "Shall we continue?"

Zhu Ning gritted her teeth: "Keep moving forward. Their nervousness indicates we're on the right path."

The behavior patterns of the transparent men were becoming more complex, indicating greater danger, which proved they hadn't come this far for nothing.

They were less than a hundred meters from the Mechanical Jellyfish Pavilion's backstage.

So far, all of Zhu Ning's speculations about the transparent men were correct; their numbers did not exceed a hundred.

Five had emerged to attack, one of whom fled, leaving a long trail of bloody footprints after stepping in the blood. Zhu Ning didn't bother chasing him.

"Continue," Zhu Ning said.

...

Many people gathered in the hall of the Cleaning Center.

They weren't there intentionally; some were in the middle of their work or passing by to get water when they suddenly stopped to watch the screen.

More and more people stopped, gradually forming a crowd.

After the A-level system was activated, they had almost given up hope.

But this small team, with Chu Ling being the only Demon Hunter and the rest being Cleaners, was actually getting closer to their goal.

A bunch of rookies fighting a transparent being with immense strength somehow gave off an unexpectedly thrilling vibe.

The underdogs never giving up—this cliché plot never went out of style.

"Damn, I've got goosebumps all over," a technician who had been watching the entire time said. Despite the two twists in between, they hadn't crashed yet, even though everyone thought they would.

"How did she manage that shot just now?"

Someone was replaying Zhu Ning's video from earlier, finding it somewhat bizarre no matter how many times they watched it.

How to describe Zhu Ning's reaction? It seemed as if she had foreseen the transparent being's attack on her arm, as if she had a premonition of danger?

"It's probably her sixth sense. Many experienced Demon Hunters have it."

The sixth sense is a unique ability that seasoned warriors develop after years of battle, something the old-timers find hard to explain to the younger generation.

It can't be taught, can't be explained, and in a way, it's a form of mysticism.

But this mysticism can save lives in critical moments.

"What are they planning to do?" someone quickly interrupted, "I don't understand this strategy at all. Didn't they say they were going to provide support?"

If they were providing support, they should have directly entered the Mechanical Jellyfish Pavilion, where the Grey Eagles were almost beaten to a pulp.

With the mechanical jellyfish and the transparent being attacking together, Prometheus now controlling them, the four of them seemed to share a single mind, coordinating better than any human could.

At the cost of Cao Wei losing an arm and Liu Zhiwei a leg, the four of them regrouped.

They reformed their formation, mirroring the strategy used by Zhu Ning's team.

They found the only spot not flooded with water, a transparent ladder designed for taking photos to create a floating effect.

The aquarium provided this device, which now served as an escape route.

The glass stairs were covered in blood and gelatinous limbs.

Cao Wei was next to the severely injured Liu Zhiwei, who leaned against the glass wall with a terrifying wound on his abdomen.

Used fire extinguishers lay at their feet, and the glass wall was marked with bullet holes.

The Grey Eagles had just been through a fierce battle, with endless mechanical jellyfish in the water and the ever-present threat of the transparent being.

They set up a crude trap, spraying red ink at the entrance of the stairs, leaving red footprints on the glass.

They would open fire immediately if anyone approached.

This was their stronghold, but the Grey Eagles looked clearly exhausted and might not hold out much longer under Prometheus's control.

If they needed support, they should go here. Why was Zhu Ning's team heading above the jellyfish pavilion?

"What do you think the Cleaning Team is doing?" someone asked.

They analyzed the scene but couldn't understand Zhu Ning's four-person team's plan.

Another person pondered for a moment before answering, "Maybe they're trying to enter the top of the jellyfish pavilion, bypass the Demon Hunters, and kill the source of the contamination?"

"Damn!" the person exclaimed, then whispered, "Are they crazy?"

Below was a trap set by the transparent being and the mechanical jellyfish, and these people were jumping right into it.

"I guess so," the person said, not entirely convinced.

"Which genius came up with this...?" He paused mid-sentence, "brilliant idea?"

"The new recruit inside."

On her first mission, she entered a D-level contaminated area, then a B-level area on her second, and now she wanted to lead the Cleaning Team to rescue the Demon Hunters.

"..."

Fine, he had nothing to say. Given Zhu Ning's track record, nothing seemed out of place.

...

They killed two more pollutants.

Then they opened the back door of the Mechanical Jellyfish Pavilion.

The backstage area was large, with a huge pool. As soon as they entered, they smelled a strong, pungent odor of blood.

It felt like they had walked into a slaughterhouse rather than the backstage of a mechanical jellyfish pavilion.

None of them had ever been to the backstage of an aquarium before. Over the pool hung many precision instruments used to create artificial waves and lighting effects.

There was a dedicated entrance for feeding. If the transparent being and the mechanical jellyfish coexisted, this was likely where they were fed.

The pool was abnormal, the seawater black and swirling, with countless tiny tentacles moving in the water. Some of the mechanical jellyfish's tentacles rested on the edge of the pool, clearly warning others that it wasn't a good place.

They could faintly hear gunshots from below, presumably the Demon Hunters were putting up resistance.

The little girl in red, Lin Xiaofeng, and the true source of contamination, the mechanical jellyfish, were down there.

"Set up a trap," Zhu Ning said.

There must be other invisible people nearby, waiting for an opportunity to strike.

But now it was advantageous for them; when facing invisible people, if you didn't want to provoke them, staying still was the safest option.

As soon as Zhu Ning finished speaking, Li Nianchuan and Xu Meng immediately got to work, splashing ink and collected blood on the ground.

The blood had been contributed by the few invisible people they had encountered earlier.

They managed to draw a two-meter protective circle, creating a safe zone where they could detect any invisible person who stepped inside right away.

Actually, Zhu Ning had something better she could use—a 2x2x2 cubic defense space—but she couldn't use it in front of so many people. Once used, she wouldn't be able to explain it.

Danger premonition could be explained as a sixth sense, but using a defense space left no room for explanation.

After setting up the trap, the four of them sat on the ground, back to back, looking in four different directions.

They needed to rest and regroup; the two kilometers from the curator's office had been the most difficult two kilometers they had ever walked.

Everyone was exhausted.

Chu Ling asked, "How are you?"

Zhu Ning: "I'm fine."

Zhu Ning injected herself with a potent healing agent and wrapped her wound with bandages, which would help the agent take effect more efficiently. Bone healing was slow, taking at least an hour to mend.

During this time, Zhu Ning could only use her left hand.

Li Nianchuan looked at Zhu Ning with concern; the difference between left and right hands was significant, especially for a marksman. The difference between using the left and right hand could be the difference between an ordinary person and a champion.

However, Zhu Ning had managed to aim accurately with her left hand just now.

Geniuses were probably different from ordinary people.

Zhu Ning glanced at Chu Ling, who had only broken two steel rods in her right arm. Zhu Ning asked, "Are you a monster?"

Chu Ling: "I spent nearly eighty million to buy eighty percent mechanization for my body."

If Zhu Ning worked at the Cleaning Center to save money for gene agents, then Chu Ling saved money to purchase the best mechanical parts. The effects of different mechanical arms varied greatly.

Chu Ling always chose the best within her means.

Zhu Ning: "..."

So impressive, a gold farmer.

The last time she won Chu Ling in a combat class was through a trick. If they met on the battlefield, Zhu Ning would be crushed by the other.

Chu Ling: "But I can't maintain it for long."

Chu Ling consumed energy; she could instantly reach maximum power, but maintaining full-body hardened defense for more than fifteen minutes would leave her paralyzed.

Still, it was very powerful, capable of saving lives in critical moments. No wonder so many people chose mechanization.

Chu Ling said calmly, "When planning your operations, consider my characteristics. If necessary, sacrificing me is okay, as long as you preserve my brain, I can regenerate."

After choosing mechanization, her head was also mechanized. In dangerous situations, her head would automatically lock to protect her brain.

As long as her brain survived, theoretically, Chu Ling could regenerate after receiving new mechanical limbs outside the contaminated area.

Zhu Ning: "..."

She found it hard to imagine carrying Chu Ling's head out of the contaminated area.

However, if she could utilize Chu Ling, her chances of success would double.

"Do we really have to go down?" Li Nianchuan asked.

He looked at the black vortex with trepidation, reminded of the truly terrifying depths of the ocean.

In fact, every extra glance at the black vortex drained his mental strength.

Zhu Ning's plan was to bypass the Demon Hunters and directly purify the contaminated area.

But with both the mechanical jellyfish and the invisible people inside, wasn't going in tantamount to suicide?

The four of them had struggled to reach the backstage of the mechanical jellyfish, and only Li Nianchuan dared to ask such an untimely question.

Zhu Ning: "You're right, it's not that necessary."

Li Nianchuan: "...?"

Chu Ling: "You..."

Chu Ling was the one most eager to go in and help her teammates, but halfway through her sentence, she realized she had no standing. Honestly, apart from Zhu Ning, the other two members of Cleaning Team A70265 were simple cleaners.

They had already done more than enough, and Chu Ling didn't need to force anyone to go to their deaths.

Chu Ling was anxious, but Zhu Ning seemed less so.

Chu Ling asked, "What are you doing?"

Zhu Ning looked at the vortex as if a researcher examining a puddle of water: "Being a staff member."

Chu Ling: "……"

Generally, when entering a contaminated area without alarming the source of pollution, they would choose an identity that fits the environment.

Previously, Zhu Ning had been an exhibited creature; now, she set their team's identity as staff feeding the mechanical jellyfish.

However, this plan wasn't very effective, as chaos had already erupted inside, and no one was playing along with their cover.

The backstage of the Mechanical Jellyfish Pavilion was cold and lifeless. Zhu Ning looked around and said, "Jellyfish have a symbiotic partner called the shepherd fish."

"Shepherd fish?" Chu Ling, who knew nothing about marine biology, asked, "How do you know that?"

Zhu Ning: "I had nothing better to do, so I read a lot of random stuff."

In her previous life, she was besieged by zombies for three months, and it was so boring that she read every word she could see. She even spent some time reading manuals out of boredom.

She indulged in novels featuring assertive CEOs and an abundance of children's science literature, which is why she was aware that snails possess radulas and jellyfish are accompanied by shepherd fish.

Zhu Ning explained, "The shepherd fish lures predators into the jellyfish cluster, then the jellyfish hunt them down. Do you think the mechanical jellyfish have something similar?"

Chu Ling: "Are you suggesting that the invisible beings are the symbiotic partners of the mechanical jellyfish?"

Zhu Ning: "The source of pollution is inside. Logically, once I eliminate the source, the contaminated area should collapse automatically, right?"

Chu Ling didn't understand why Zhu Ning was asking such a basic question, which Li Nianchuan could answer. She nodded.

Humans have been fighting pollutants for over eighty years, and countless predecessors' discoveries have become ironclad rules for the next generation.

Just like when Zhu Ning eliminated the source of pollution in the Mermaid House, it collapsed and produced pollution spores.

According to common sense, eliminating the source of pollution in the jellyfish pavilion should cause the mechanical jellyfish to die instantly and turn into pollution spores.

Zhu Ning asked, "Can pollutants have symbiotic partners?"

Symbiotic partners?

The term seemed strange when paired with pollutants, like combining two unrelated words, such as pairing a bicycle with a cat.

Symbiotic partners of the source of pollution?

Chu Ling had been a demon hunter for five years and had never heard of such a thing.

Zhu Ning: "Assuming the invisible beings are the symbiotic partners of the mechanical jellyfish, we can't be sure if they will die after we eliminate the source of pollution, right?"

Chu Ling: "…Right."

The logic made sense.

Chu Ling was also pondering what the invisible beings were and whether they belonged to this contaminated area or just lived near the mechanical jellyfish.

After all, they resembled a kind of "experiment" raised by the curator.

Zhu Ning thought of someone—Huang Yaruo.

Huang Yaruo could survive for fifteen years inside Experiment 777 without aging. Was her relationship with Experiment 777 also a symbiotic one?

After Zhu Ning purified Experiment 777, Huang Yaruo did not die and is now missing.

Zhu Ning: "Let's tentatively consider the invisible beings as a third species, neither human nor pollutant. Be prepared; even if we purify the contaminated area, the invisible beings might not die."

Chu Ling fell silent; the situation was complicated.

They had walked from the curator's office with a glimmer of hope, thinking that with the four support demon hunters, eight people plus Prometheus could certainly purify the aquarium.

Now, the problem was not only to purify the source of pollution but also to kill all the invisible beings.

The Cleaning Center's top priority would always be the safety of ordinary civilians in Zone 103.

If they couldn't kill all the invisible beings, based on Chu Ling's understanding of the Cleaning Center, they would choose to bury both teams here.

In fact, they had already done so; the red letter A on their helmets kept flashing.

She had seen the activation of the A-level program, and all demon hunters would be prepared to sacrifice themselves, but thinking about it this way...

Struggling was futile.

They walked from the corridor to the Mechanical Jellyfish Pavilion, having gone through great hardships, yet there was no viable solution.

Although they were instructed three times before entering not to use explosive weapons casually, it now seemed inevitable.

The question was, how and when to use explosives.

Chu Ling was deep in thought when she suddenly heard Zhu Ning ask, "Is Minister Xuan the highest commander of the operation?"

"Yes," Prometheus replied.

Zhu Ning fell silent upon hearing Prometheus's voice. If she remembered correctly, Prometheus was currently controlling the bodies of the Grey Eagles.

He answered her questions coldly while controlling them.

When they entered, Prometheus said the mortality rate for this mission was between five and eight percent. If things went as predicted and Prometheus took over everyone,

the AI's decisions would outweigh their right to life, making them mere tools.

Prometheus would decide who lives and who dies, or perhaps they would all die together.

Zhu Ning must resolve this issue before the AI takes over.

Zhu Ning looked ahead as if she could see Xuan Qing through her helmet: "Can you ask her how much she will pay us if we complete this task?"

Chu Ling thought she had misheard. What was Zhu Ning up to?

Was she planning to make a deal with Xuan Qing?

Zhu Ning: "The difficulty is so high, we were just here to clean up. If we actually get out of here alive and still only get our usual pay, it would be a huge loss."

Chu Ling: "..."

For a moment, she didn't know what to comment on first. At such a critical moment, Zhu Ning was actually asking Xuan Qing for money!