Chapter 181: Another Self (End)

Chapter 181: Another Self (Complete)

Inside the red house.

Zhu Ning's body was ice-cold, covered by Li Xin's corpse.

She remained in the same position for a long time, as if she had lost all sense of time, the stars shifting, and she had lain here for ten thousand years.

Li Xin's body had lost all warmth, decomposing into rotten flesh like melting wax, softly covering Zhu Ning.

The spider webs in the corridor dissolved, the spider people inside the walls melted and rotted, causing the contaminated area to completely collapse.

Blood-red contamination spores emerged, instantly sweeping through the entire interior of the red house.

In Zhu Ning's pupils, the contamination spores reflected like a blood-red sky.

As Zhu Ning's pupils dilated, something began to flow from the back of her neck. The mutant usually clung to her spine, enveloping every bone in her body.

The mutant fed on fear, and it smelled the scent of fear.

It attached itself to its host to feed better, but if the host were to die, it would be the first to devour Zhu Ning.

Fear, it sensed fear emanating from Zhu Ning.

Black slime flowed inside the protective helmet, coalescing into a mass, opening its mouth wide, ready to swallow.

Suddenly—

It unexpectedly met a pair of eyes. Zhu Ning's eyes were clear, her pupils refocusing.

Her dark eyes rolled, expressionless, as she looked at the mutant opposite her.

Such a simple action, just a roll of the eyes, spread a silent threat.

The black slime bristled with sharp black spikes, like a hedgehog raising its quills, acting immediately before Zhu Ning could react.

It swiftly slid down her face and into her neck, then coiled around her spine, stiff and motionless.

Huff—

Zhu Ning exhaled deeply, as if breathing for the first time after living for centuries. She ignored the black slime that had slipped away, focusing only on her breath.

Her heart pounded, and it took some time for her to calm down.

Ding—

She heard a mechanical sound, very clear and abrupt.

But in contrast, her tense mind relaxed, like a clenched fist slowly opening. For the first time, she clearly perceived the contaminants wriggling in her brain.

It extended long tentacles, contracting at the edge of her brain, gently.

The system notification pulled Zhu Ning back to reality. Her system was functioning, countering the irrational fear.

"Congratulations on completing the side quest: Another Self, purification level 100%"

"Reward settlement in progress..."

"Congratulations on receiving the basic reward, mental energy restored to 100"

"Congratulations on receiving 5000 purification points, current total 5000"

"Congratulations on receiving ant spider reward: ant spider silk"

"Reward description: B-grade contaminated item, the sharp silk can cut through hard objects, more concealed than ordinary weapons, making it difficult for enemies to detect, the best tool for assassination. Note: using this item once will consume 20 life points."

"Congratulations on receiving the Basic Talent: Mimicry Behavior. This talent is a fundamental ability; Level 1 mimicry can replicate appearance, causing the target to mistake you for one of their own, achieving a convincing effect. Level 2 mimicry can replicate the target's psychic abilities. Note: Mimicry is not duplication, and this talent is not entirely safe. Utilizing this talent will consume 80 life points."

The system announcement stopped.

Zhu Ning felt the sounds enter her ears and then float away.

She looked up at the floating contamination spores, feeling no satisfaction from the system rewards. Knowing the truth made it impossible to ignore the vast contamination beneath her feet.

Human instinct wasn't to resist, but to flee, to run immediately.

But where could she run? No matter which direction Zhu Ning ran, she couldn't escape the contamination.

There was no pristine land left in the world.

The wasteland was even more hopeless than she had imagined. The struggle between humans and contamination was meaningless.

How could this thing be purified? It was impossible in terms of size alone. Even if all the psychics in the world united, how could they begin to fight such a massive monster?

For a moment, Zhu Ning understood the choice of the first-class citizens. They abandoned resistance, living on a floating island, surviving on a piece of artificial land.

It was like burying one's head in the sand; theoretically, even the first-class citizens were just waiting to die in the divine kingdom.

Zhu Ning knew the truth, but she fell into a state of nothingness, overwhelmed by a sense of powerlessness.

For the first time, she realized there was no meaning, no purpose at all.

Purifying the world was an impossible dream, a carrot dangled in front of her.

It kept her running, chasing an unattainable goal.

Zhu Ning was lost, facing an insurmountable mountain, like knowing in advance that a small asteroid was about to hit Earth.

Humans found it hard to make any effective response; most would simply give up, letting destruction come.

What could Zhu Ning do?

If Huo Wenxi knew the truth, she might give up and immediately retreat from District 103; as a scion of a prominent family, she still had a way out.

She could return to the Divine Country or take over the family business, becoming the head of another region's cleaning center investigation team.

Zhu Ning had no way out at all. As a nobody, why should she worry so much?

To put it bluntly, what did this world have to do with her? Even if it was a path arranged by another version of herself, did Zhu Ning have to walk it?

She didn't have a hero complex; did she have to fight when she couldn't win? Zhu Yao said that when she wanted to lie down, she could.

Could she go back and tell Huo Wenxi the information she obtained, then completely withdraw and not care anymore?

Thinking about this, Zhu Ning moved. She stood up, and the rotten flesh flowed off her body like cement.

Zhu Ning remained silent for a moment, then made her first move, taking out cleaning tools from her cleaning backpack.

She wasn't a hero, just a cleaner whose job was to contain contaminated spores, and she believed in finishing what she started.

She took out the cleaning tool, gently touching one end of the suction tube to the contaminated spore, which was immediately adsorbed at the bottom.

This action felt like picking cotton, and to the current Zhu Ning, it actually had a soothing effect.

Faced with an overwhelmingly large question, any small action taken could make one feel slightly more at ease, finding a bit of reality and meaning in existence.

Humans truly are creatures of meaning, needing to find something to rely on, even if that reliance is intangible.

Containing contaminated spores was to prevent the spread of contamination and protect other innocent residents.

In the current dire situation, this action seemed insignificant. What difference would it make if the spores drifted away?

On the day of the apocalypse, the entire district would be infected.

But Zhu Ning needed to find something to do, or she would go mad.

The contaminated spores fell one by one into the containment device. At first, her thoughts were chaotic, but later, her mind became empty, filled only with the task of containment.

Theoretically, a B-level contaminated area should be handled by two people, and the amount of work was a bit much for one person. However, Zhu Ning didn't feel overwhelmed. She seemed to have developed an obsessive-compulsive disorder, not letting any single spore in any corner escape her attention.

After an unknown amount of time, the sky began to lighten, a sliver of light appearing on the horizon, reflecting off the white snow and making it brighter than usual.

Zhu Ning stopped her movements, and within her line of sight, there were no more contaminated spores. She had cleaned the place thoroughly.

During the containment process, Zhu Ning had to walk through the entire red house, recalling memories from her past visits. This act could be considered revisiting old haunts.

She entered the room of the mechanical mother, where everything was old and dilapidated, creaking underfoot.

She was just casually flipping through things, a professional habit that led her to search for clues wherever she went.

Among a pile of yellowed papers, she found a contract, the agreement between Old Yang and Liu Sheng entrusting her to the mechanical mother.

The foster care contract was slightly damaged by insects, yellowed, and seemed ready to crumble at the slightest touch.

At the bottom of the document, Zhu Ning saw two names: Liu Sheng, Yang Shu.

Her fingertips gently traced over the names, as if she could touch the people of the past through these few characters.

When Zhu Ning first awakened in the wasteland, it wasn't in the Hive, but in the garbage mountain of District 103, buried under countless layers of trash, unable to move.

All around were metal scraps, and in the distance, the hum of machinery and the rustling sounds of people working on the garbage mountain.

It was too noisy. For the newly awakened Zhu Ning, her head felt like it was about to explode, with the system's static and electrical sounds ringing in her ears.

It said, "Congratulations, activation successful."

In her dazed state, Zhu Ning barely heard it. Wasn't she fighting zombies? Why was she here?

She was very weak then, her eyelids heavy, unable to open.

Breathing was extremely difficult, and she would soon suffocate and die.

"Don't move, listen," came the voice of an old woman.

"What, you..." another man was speaking.

Zhu Ning later learned that these were Old Yang and Liu Sheng, scavengers on the garbage mountain.

They were just one meter above her, so close yet so far.

Zhu Ning knew this was her only chance to survive. She struggled desperately to make some noise, but the trash below had pinned her down.

She felt like she had been poured into a concrete pillar, unable to move except for her heart.

Her heart pounded rapidly, as if desperately trying to say, "I'm alive."

"Don't abandon me."

Old Yang and Liu Sheng heard her heartbeat. "There really is someone! Dig quickly!"

That was the most beautiful sound Zhu Ning had ever heard—someone was coming to save her.

Afraid of hurting Zhu Ning or causing a secondary collapse, they dared not use tools and dug with their bare hands.

Below, the light before Zhu Ning's eyes grew brighter. She stretched out her hand with all her strength and finally grabbed Old Yang's hand.

The first person Zhu Ning met in this world was an old lady named Old Yang, who held her in her arms, wrapping her tightly in her coat.

Liu Sheng was beside her, excited and shouting like a madman.

He only shouted two words: alive, alive, alive, alive!

All his life, he had never walked down a path of good fortune; that day was the only time he received the favor of heaven.

The proudest thing in Liu Sheng's life was digging out a living person from a mountain of garbage, but it was like a dream, for dreams always end, and people must eventually face reality.

They brought Zhu Ning back to their public rental apartment, which was very dilapidated, right next to the garbage mountain. The thirty-square-meter house had to accommodate three people.

Unable to pay for heating, the entire winter was extremely cold. They could not afford chewable food and could only feed Zhu Ning with nutritional supplements.

At that time, Zhu Ning lacked energy and had no strength to move; without drinking the nutritional supplements, she couldn't even stand up.

There was a huge gap between imagination and reality.

Old Yang took Zhu Ning for a genetic screening, and the results came back quickly: defective, with an expected lifespan of twenty years.

It made sense; otherwise, she wouldn't have been thrown into the garbage dump.

When one is too poor, they might mistake a stone for a treasure, but now it was clearly stated that Zhu Ning was not a treasure, just a defective product.

Liu Sheng slumped in his chair, "I told you we can't afford to raise her."

"If she were an ordinary person, it would be fine," Liu Sheng said through gritted teeth, "but she won't survive with us."

The more Liu Sheng spoke, the more he wanted to cry. He felt so useless, so weak, but he had to say it to cut off Old Yang's unrealistic hopes.

"I have ten years left," Liu Sheng said, "and you have three."

Together, their lifespans didn't match that of a first-class citizen, making it impossible to raise Zhu Ning to adulthood.

Even if Zhu Ning grew up, what then? She would only live to be twenty.

Old Yang sat silently on the edge of the chair, not knowing what to say.

Two people who couldn't protect themselves couldn't protect a child.

Zhu Ning was very weak at the time. After waking up, she pretended to be mute, fearing that speaking would expose her identity.

Zhu Ning could only touch Old Yang's hand. Old Yang's hands were full of wrinkles, and she wanted to comfort her.

Old Yang shivered when touched by the child's soft hand, which felt like a feather covering her.

Although Old Yang loved Zhu Ning the most, she couldn't look her in the eye at that moment. When Zhu Ning touched her, she turned her head away.

Old Yang took a deep breath and, after a long pause, said, "Let's send her away."

Zhu Ning's hand was icy cold, and she felt Old Yang's tears fall onto her hand. It was cold, yet it felt scalding hot.

Send her to where she should be. The Federation has foster care institutions, and the nearest one is the Red House. The defective children from the garbage mountain have no known origins, and only the Red House can accept these unknown orphans.

That day was very cold, and it was snowing in Zone 103.

Old Yang held Zhu Ning's hand as they visited the Red House in the dead of night. The red wooden house stood out prominently from a distance.

But there was a sense of death here, no sign of the vitality of children, like a red tomb.

The door of the Red House opened, revealing a mechanical mother, the administrator of such foster care institutions.

The mechanical mother at the Red House wore a tattered blue apron, her skin slightly sagging. Liu Sheng was talking to her.

Once they handed Zhu Ning over to the Red House, they had to follow the rules and disappear from her world, never to visit again.

All they needed to do was sign on the spot.

The final step was to hand Zhu Ning over, but at this point, Old Yang refused to let go.

Liu Sheng lowered his voice, "Old Yang, let go."

Old Yang held Zhu Ning's hand firmly, as if she hadn't heard. Liu Sheng scolded, "Let go!"

Old Yang still didn't move, so Liu Sheng shouted, "Mom! Let go!"

Hearing Liu Sheng call her "Mom," Old Yang blinked, and in a daze, Liu Sheng had already pulled Zhu Ning's hand away.

Old Yang felt wronged. She knew she shouldn't act unreasonable because of her age, but she felt wronged.

Her lips trembled, wanting to argue. She leaned close to Liu Sheng's ear and said, "Let's try another place, this one isn't right."

Liu Sheng found her annoying, but Old Yang continued, "Really, something's not right here, listen to me."

She kept repeating this, back and forth, but couldn't specify what was wrong.

Liu Sheng had already signed the papers and handed the foster care contract to Old Yang, "Will you sign it, please?"

Old Yang shook her head repeatedly, unwilling to sign.

She wanted to run away, not understanding why they had to force her to make this choice. She had never gotten anything, except for a little girl.

What she wanted wasn't something as unreachable as the stars; she just wanted a piece of trash that others had discarded. Why couldn't she keep what others didn't want?

Zhu Ning was dug out by her, and according to the rules of the garbage mountain, whoever dug something out owned it. Zhu Ning belonged to her.

This was hers, and no one could take her away.

Liu Sheng knew Old Yang's stubborn nature, how unpredictable she could be. She had made the decision, but now she was backing out.

Old Yang wanted to run away, to grab Zhu Ning's hand again and leave immediately.

Suddenly, Old Yang felt a tightness around her waist. She looked down and saw the top of a little girl's head.

Zhu Ning wrapped her arms around the girl's waist.

"Thank you." The little girl's voice came, not saying anything complicated, just two words: thank you.

Zhu Ning was grateful to her, for digging her out of the garbage mountain, for feeding her the nutrient solution, for staying by her bedside and reading her bedtime stories that adults didn't need to hear.

For holding her tightly in the cold slums.

For not wanting her to leave.

Old Yang's tears fell like rain; she wanted to say something but couldn't, and finally hugged Zhu Ning tightly. It was their last embrace.

Old Yang signed her name on the contract—Yang Shuhua.

Zhu Ning traced Old Yang's and Liu Sheng's names, recalling those memories, her eyes grew moist.

She shifted her gaze, just as Old Yang had once avoided looking into Zhu Ning's eyes. Zhu Ning looked out the window, where snow covered District 103, a vast expanse of white as far as the eye could see.

The helmet obstructed her view, so she removed the damaged helmet, and her vision became clearer. The reflection of the snow was somewhat blinding.

Zhu Ning instinctively squinted, remembering Li Xin's last words to her, "It's snowing."

Snow was falling in District 103.