Chapter 49: The Bizarre Aquarium (VI)

Ten minutes ago, in the lobby on the 49th floor of the Cleansing Center.

A giant projection screen was displayed on a blank wall. Aside from those on urgent missions, many people stopped to watch.

At the forefront stood Xuan Qing from the Operations Department, accompanied by Lu Qiqin, the Director of the Technical Department.

During Zhu Ning's last mission, the Technical Department had made a severe error, misjudging the hazard rating of the contaminated zone.

This time, Lu Qiqin was present to oversee the operation personally. He was certain that the Mechanical Aquarium was merely a Class-B contaminated zone containing just two sources of contamination.

Nothing could possibly go wrong.

Xuan Qing asked, "Xie Jiazu still isn't here?"

Xie Jiazu was the head of the Cleanup Department, which meant he was Zhu Ning's actual direct superior. He had a notoriously laid-back work ethic.

Even when an S-rank spiritual value cleaner appeared in his team, he hadn't shown much concern for Zhu Ning.

Instead, Xuan Qing, the head of the Demon Hunters, appeared to be paying an excessive amount of attention to Zhu Ning.

Lu Qiqin replied, "Probably slacking off somewhere."

The Cleanup Department was the most leisurely division, generally spared from direct confrontations. Xie Jiazu would avoid work whenever he could, and his professional attitude was deeply problematic.

Xuan Qing said no more nonsense, folding her arms as she looked up at the giant screen.

The camera accurately captured Zhu Ning's predicament. She was being entangled by strands of hair, with a mermaid directly before her.

As the artificial intelligence of the Cleansing Center, Prometheus ensured that communication remained uninterrupted wherever it was present, maintaining contact with the outside world. Prometheus was the sole communication tool capable of interfacing with contaminated zones.

Judging from the live-feed video, Zhu Ning's condition was less than ideal; she appeared somewhat sluggish.

It seemed as though she had already been bewitched by the mermaid.

As the head of the Operations Department and a formerly elite Demon Hunter, Xuan Qing had fought her way up through countless contaminated zones to reach her current position.

She was well-versed in the traits of contaminated zones, and the contamination sources of ordinary mermaids were exceptionally tricky.

Their eyes functioned similarly to a potent form of spiritual pollution.

Sure enough, Zhu Ning on the screen looked to be in trouble, showing little ability to fight back against the mermaid.

Beep, beep, beep—

A red light flashed before her eyes as Prometheus initiated a prompt.

[Requesting to enter command mode]

Prometheus required authorization to take over Zhu Ning's body.

Xuan Qing raised an eyebrow. The artificial intelligence's judgment was infallible; Prometheus's algorithm had likely calculated that taking over her body and withdrawing was the optimal choice for the current situation.

Lu Qiqin said, "Authorize it. I don't think she can handle this."

"She's not a professional Demon Hunter. Her previous assignments were all Class-D. Jumping straight to a Class-B is asking too much of her."

A nearby colleague shared the sentiment. Zhu Ning's role was that of a cleaner—her job was just to sweep up the trash. Locating and eliminating the source of contamination fell outside her job description.

There was no need to hold a cleaner to the standards of a Demon Hunter.

Xuan Qing stood with her arms crossed, watching Zhu Ning on the screen, and said in a deep voice, "Request denied."

Lu Qiqin: "..."

Tch, this woman was obstinate.

Prometheus sent no further requests.

Xuan Qing stared expressionlessly at the screen. They had barely even started.

The ecology within large-scale contaminated zones was complex. Once contamination spores overflowed, they easily formed secondary sources of contamination, known as sub-contamination sources.

The contamination level of sub-contamination sources was generally weaker than the primary source.

This shouldn't be too difficult for Zhu Ning.

Yet Prometheus's reaction today was abnormal—too swift, when Zhu Ning was clearly not yet driven to desperation.

Were they really that worried Zhu Ning would die in there?

Employees in the Cleansing Center lobby kept stopping by. Every time Demon Hunters went on a mission, the video feed resembled a live broadcast.

Some battles were exceptionally cinematic, more thrilling than athletic competitions.

Some people even placed bets.

"Do you think she can win?"

"Probably. With Department Head Xuan holding her in such high regard, she must have some tricks up her sleeve."

"I think so too. Zhu Ning's training records have always been solid."

"I doubt it. The Demon Hunter profession relies on accumulated experience."

Trades were worlds apart; no matter how formidable a cleaner was, they couldn't constantly do a Demon Hunter's job, right?

Two guys from the Technical Department began to wager.

Once money was involved, things changed. They watched the giant screen with rapt attention, their expressions growing increasingly bizarre and their brows furrowing deeper, while Xuan Qing remained utterly composed.

In the end, Zhu Ning delivered a flawless answer.

She switched on her flashlight.

The mermaid was riddled with bullets, its five-meter-long tail sinking downwards, leaving the audience in the aquarium utterly stunned.

The employees at the Cleansing Center were equally dumbfounded.

Why did she always defy conventional wisdom?

"She won!" shouted the tech guy. "Pay up!"

Another employee numbly transferred ten thousand New Dollars.

"Don't you know to follow the Department Head's lead?" The winning guy flaunted his remaining balance. A high-profile genius personally supervised by Xuan Qing was bound to win.

The losing guy struggled to mask his agonizing expression, saying with difficulty, "Chu Ling, let me see Chu Ling."

The giant screen was split into three sections. The eight individuals had been separated earlier, scattered into three groups by the sea monster.

Chu Ling was grouped with Li Nianchuan and Xu Meng.

On this side, gunfire had just erupted.

Right after Zhu Ning was dragged away, the next person to be pulled off was Li Nianchuan.

Xu Meng reacted with lightning speed, grabbing Li Nianchuan's arm, but a mermaid's strength was in an entirely different league from a human's, and she ended up being dragged along with him.

With their gear combined, the two of them weighed nearly four hundred pounds, yet the mermaid dragged them away without the slightest resistance.

If Xu Meng didn't let go, she would vanish right along with Li Nianchuan.

Li Nianchuan gasped in shock, plunging headfirst into the water the next moment. As the stagnant water surged up, he felt nearly frightened out of his mind.

Insects.

The bottom of the water was crawling with insects.

Countless bugs writhed across his helmet; he had fallen directly into a pool of insects.

His arm was gripped by Xu Meng, while his shin was seized by an unknown entity.

Pulled by two opposing forces of immense strength, he felt as though he were about to be torn in half.

Only then did he realize that when humans faced ultimate peril, they might not even be able to resist.

Swish—

A bullet flew past him, grazing his helmet and plunging into the water.

Chu Ling had fired.

Unlike Zhu Ling, who had been snatched away without warning, Chu Ling had experience from the previous encounter and fired immediately. Her marksmanship was decent, allowing her to hit her target dead-center amidst the chaos.

Bang!

She fired a second shot.

In the water, Li Nianchuan was still struggling when he saw a cloud of red mist erupt on the surface, and the grip on his ankle suddenly slackened.

The monster dragging him had let go.

Due to the tremendous momentum, Xu Meng and he both crashed heavily into the water.

It took Li Nianchuan a long time to process what had happened. He had been dragged into deep water when his arm was suddenly caught.

Someone grabbed his arm again. Unlike the mermaid from earlier, this hand was powerful yet not violent.

His vision darkened as a helmeted face suddenly appeared right before him.

The next moment, he was hoisted up like a tiny chick. With her degree of mechanization reaching eighty percent, lifting Li Nianchuan was no challenge for Chu Ling at all.

Chu Ling asked, "You okay?"

"..." Li Nianchuan dizzily replied, "I'm fine."

Hearing this, Chu Ling released him, making sure Xu Meng was unharmed as well.

Only then did Li Nianchuan begin to survey his surroundings. Zhu Ling had vanished long ago, and the other Demon Hunters were nowhere to be seen.

They were deep within an unfamiliar body of water. The water was deep enough to submerge a person's chest, and even with the protection of their hazmat suits, it induced a sense of mild suffocation.

Chu Ling stood behind him with her weapon raised, and Xu Meng also drew her gun.

Flustered, Li Nianchuan fumbled to pick up his own firearm.

They were still not safe.

Things lurked beneath the surface; they could see fleeting shadows darting through the water, like monsters waiting for an opportune moment to strike.

Li Nianchuan was overly cautious. With visibility low under the greenish tint of the screen, everything made him suspicious.

Fearing monsters everywhere, he swept his muzzle back and forth, pointing it in a new direction every second.

Standing in the water, Li Nianchuan felt a strange sensation in the right leg that had been grabbed by the ghost hand earlier.

It felt as though something was still wrapped around it.

Waterweeds?

Li Nianchuan tended to be a burden, but he wasn't shameless enough to ask a young woman like Chu Ling or Xu Meng to check the anomaly at his feet for him.

He could only pretend that everything was fine.

His right foot had been the one grabbed. Submerged in the water, he rubbed his right ankle with his left foot, hoping to brush away the waterweed.

Yet, as he hooked his foot, the grip on his right leg showed no sign of loosening. If anything, it was tightening.

There were no monsters directly ahead for the moment.

Li Nianchuan thought for a moment and decided to deal with the strange sensation first, believing that sharpening the axe would save time in the woodcutting.

He reached down, assuming the matter would be easy to resolve.

Then, his entire body froze.

His hand brushed against a mass of... hair?

Wait, hair?

It had to be hair—heavy, sodden hair, like a clump of waterweed. He couldn't even move his palm.

He realized his hand had been ensnared as well.

Puzzled, Li Nianchuan lowered his head, only to meet a pale face.

That face... was lurking deep beneath him, buried within a clump of waterweed.

Though it was a pretty face, its beauty only heightened the eeriness under the circumstances.

Li Nianchuan immediately raised his gun to aim downward. Having spent so much time with Zhu Ling, his nerve had grown considerably.

The moment he moved, however, the mermaid flashed away, and the binding waterweed struck instantly.

His legs were twisted together in a tight coil. Unlike the brute force of before, he could feel the razor-sharp edges of the hair strands, as if they meant to slice him to pieces.

Li Nianchuan fired a shot downwards, causing the waterweed to suddenly tighten. Staggering, he felt himself plunging downward once more.

He was not the only one caught off guard; Xu Meng beside him was in the exact same predicament.

Unable to worry about anything else, Li Nianchuan struggled frantically, but all his efforts were in vain.

Chu Ling felt a twinge of frustration. True to form, apart from that freak Zhu Ling, ordinary cleaners possessed the competence of someone like Li Nianchuan.

No sooner had she pulled him up than he was dragged right back down.

Chu Ling felt the bitter frustration of a swimming instructor who swam to the opposite shore, only to turn around and realize her student had gone missing.

Chaos enveloped the water.

Something gradually surfaced—a human face, a pale human face emerging halfway, with the lower half still submerged.

A pair of eyes glowed with a pale purple light, mist seemingly drifting within them.

A mermaid.

It really was a mermaid.

As one broke the surface, more followed until there were four or five of them, seemingly gathered just to watch their miserable plight.

Chu Ling shouted, "Don't look into their eyes! Turn on your lights!"