Chapter 58: The Bizarre Aquarium (Part 15)

Under the immense pressure of the tentacles, Zhu Ning pressed the inflation button on her work uniform. Struggling in suffocation, her helmet struck a heavy object, and her entire body was violently dragged ten meters away.

Her mind was buzzing, accompanied by a simultaneous wave of sharp pain and dizziness.

In truth, she had no clear grasp of her current situation.

Her helmet was battered and torn apart, covered entirely in spiderweb cracks, making everything in her field of vision blurred.

Inside the entire jellyfish hall, not a single particle of pollution spores remained—a result completely different from the purification of previous polluted areas. Instead, it was filled with the fishy stench and bloody reek of marine life.

Ding—

A mechanical system sound rang in Zhu Ning's head: [Congratulations on completing the side quest: Bizarre Oceanarium, purification level: 100%]

[Main quest: Purify Homeland, completion: 3%]

[Reward settlement in progress...]

[Congratulations on obtaining the basic reward: mental value restored to 100, luck value increased to 40]

[Congratulations on obtaining a purification value reward of 5,000. Current cumulative purification value: 9,554]

[Congratulations on obtaining the mechanical jellyfish reward: Copier]

[Reward description: Grade B polluted item, capable of duplicating objects. Please note that using this item once will consume 30 vitality points]

[Congratulations on obtaining the primary talent: Liquid Manipulation. This talent is a primary talent, capable of manipulating one cubic meter of liquid. Please note that using this talent will damage vitality points by 50]

[Congratulations on obtaining the side quest reward: Stealth Prop]

[Reward description: Grants stealth skills when used. Please note that the stealth prop consumes vitality points; using it for five minutes consumes 10 vitality points]

Listening to the system rewards, Zhu Ning was certain that the polluted area had been successfully purified, and Lin Xiaofeng had succeeded.

She had truly retained her sanity and broken free from all constraints.

This also confirmed Zhu Ning's speculation that pollution sources and transcendents could indeed transform into one another. Witnessing it with her own eyes felt profoundly shocking.

Zhu Ning looked around, but she could not find Lin Xiaofeng. The other person was transparent, making it easy to vanish.

Yet Zhu Ning felt she hadn't gone far and must be somewhere nearby.

Lin Xiaofeng was probably immersed in the pain of reality, unable to recover. If it were Zhu Ning, having to accept the death of her parents, causing the deaths of everyone in the mechanical oceanarium, and transforming from a pollution source into a transparent person...

She, too, would find it unacceptable for a time.

Given Lin Xiaofeng's personality, she might be unwilling to converse with anyone right now, and anything Zhu Ning said at this moment could potentially inflict secondary trauma upon her.

For a moment, only silence filled the damaged jellyfish hall.

What was Lin Xiaofeng considered now?

A transcendent? A pollution source that maintained its sanity?

Or perhaps a new kind of experimental subject?

The question arose: how should she deal with Lin Xiaofeng?

The demolition procedure was about to be initiated, and leaving Lin Xiaofeng in the mechanical oceanarium meant certain death.

Zhu Ning would definitely have to take her out.

Hand her over to the Purification Center? That sounded like handing her over to a safer institution where Xuan Qing would surely know how to handle her. Perhaps Lin Xiaofeng could join the Demon Hunters or Cleaners team and become Zhu Ning's colleague.

However, she did not know which factions within the Purification Center were colluding with Immortality Pharmaceuticals. Handing a young girl over sounded like sending her to her death.

After the mission, a return to the Center was required for data collection, and everyone had to submit mission reports for such a large-scale operation.

There might even be searches and interrogations; after all, with a transparent person involved, the Center would certainly take precautions upon exit to prevent anyone from smuggling items out secretly.

Zhu Ning needed to explain how she had cleared the pollution source in full view of others, something that did not quite look like what an ordinary cleaner could accomplish.

Zhu Ning was still carrying Cheng Mofei's Demon Hunter armband.

At the time, she felt leaving it at home was dangerous and couldn't find a suitable hiding spot, so she carried it on her person.

She knew how to handle Cheng Mofei's armband, but she was currently pondering how to properly settle Lin Xiaofeng.

With surveillance active, she couldn't even speak to Lin Xiaofeng.

Thinking.

Zhu Ning's mind raced. She had to resolve this trouble before anyone else caught up.

So far, she was still isolated; the Gray Hawk team had not appeared in her line of sight, there were no other cameras around, and her own main camera was damaged.

If she wanted to do something behind the Purification Center's back, this was the optimal moment.

...

Screech—

A sharp, piercing pain surged into her brain, and Prometheus's voice sounded: [Are you alright?]

Zhu Ning's voice sounded completely normal: "What's the situation now?"

Prometheus: [The White Dove team has successfully evacuated with the hostages, and the Purification Center has dispatched the Black Whale team to meet you at the entrance of the oceanarium.]

[The mechanical jellyfish is dead, the Gray Hawk team's demolition devices have been installed, and Chu Ling has captured the transparent person alive, waiting for your new instructions.]

Zhu Ning climbed up. She could already hear the sounds of the Gray Hawk team not far away; Cao Wei's voice was particularly easy to recognize.

She had fallen to the bottom of the jellyfish pool and logically should regroup with the Gray Hawk team.

Cao Wei had almost been swallowed by the mechanical jellyfish, and his first reaction was to head behind the exhibition hall. The glass wall here was shattered, and Zhu Ning had just crawled out of a pile of ruins.

There was no one else around, only Zhu Ning alone.

Before Cao Wei could speak, Zhu Ning asked, "Where are the rest of you?"

"Injured, at the transparent stairs around the corner," Cao Wei replied.

Zhu Ning said no more and asked Chu Ling: "How is it on your end?"

Chu Ling was using her mechanical arm to trap the transparent person's neck, her energy reactor down to only ten percent reserve.

The tendons in the transparent person's hands and feet had all been severed by Xu Meng, completely robbing him of mobility.

Now, the transparent person's throat was locked in the immense grip of the mechanical arm, unable to move.

Holding the transparent person down herself, Chu Ling still felt somewhat incredulous that they had actually completed the mission.

Such an absurd mission, running on three parallel lines, required every link and every responsible employee to make zero errors—and they had lived up to expectations without making a single mistake.

"Caught," Chu Ling asked, "What next?"

Zhu Ning asked, "Can you jump down to regroup?"

The jellyfish hall was twenty meters high. They were all formal employees of the Purification Center, having undergone varying degrees of bodily modification, so jumping down was not particularly difficult for them.

She just didn't know how to operate while carrying a transparent person.

Chu Ling glanced around, then decisively seized the transparent person by the neck and hoisted his entire body up from the ground.

Zhu Ning was still pondering how to transport the transparent person out.

Suddenly, the view darkened.

Followed by a loud bang.

Chu Ling had jumped straight down from above, smashing a deep crater into the ground upon landing.

She cradled a transparent person in her arms. That creature had been hit with a green-marked bullet and was now completely visible—standing three and a half meters tall, held bridal-style in Chu Ling's arms like a baby.

As expected of a mighty mechanical soft-girl, Zhu Ning truly admired this terrifying strength.

Seeing Chu Ling, Cao Wei breathed a sigh of relief. Chu Ling's body had sustained heavy damage, but her life should be fine. "Lingzi."

If she didn't have a transparent person in her arms, Chu Ling would definitely want to check on the other team members right now, but for the moment she could only greet Cao Wei.

The entire Gray Hawk team had survived.

They were badly injured, but as long as they were alive, anything could be discussed once they got outside.

Immediately after, Xu Meng and Li Nianchuan landed.

Li Nianchuan lowered a rope and hauled himself down.

As for Xu Meng, she put away her two knives and flipped down directly, landing with extreme lightness like an agile black cat in the dead of night.

She bore almost no scars; compared to the disheveled states of Chu Ling and Li Nianchuan, she looked remarkably at ease.

Zhu Ning raised an eyebrow. Xu Meng indeed had some tricks up her sleeve; this kind of physical skill was definitely not possessed by an ordinary cleaner.

Seeing Zhu Ning was unhurt, Xu Meng and Li Nianchuan breathed a sigh of relief; both of them had thought Zhu Ning was going to die down below.

Li Nianchuan looked around and asked, "Why are there no pollution spores?"

Cleaners were extremely sensitive to pollution spores—that was their exact job. Logically, it was time for the cleaners to contain the spores, and Li Nianchuan found this bizarre.

What was going on? The polluted area was dead, yet not a single pollution spore existed?

No pollution spores meant the pollution source was not dead.

Where could an unkilled pollution source be?

Li Nianchuan felt a chill run down his spine as he looked around. Could the pollution source still be lurking near them?

They couldn't endure a second round of torment.

Zhu Ning's expression remained unchanged: "I don't know. My mission is finished."

Li Nianchuan scanned the surroundings and, out of caution, even sprayed the area with a fire extinguisher, ensuring at least that no transparent person was anywhere near them.

"We'll talk outside," Zhu Ning asked, "Has the demolition procedure started?"

Cao Wei turned serious: "The countdown has been set."

The mission plan stipulated that the demolition procedure should be initiated immediately at the fifteen-minute mark.

Zhu Ning had purified the polluted area two minutes ahead of schedule, buying them extra time to escape.

Zhu Ning: "We only have seven minutes of escape time. There are still transparent people in the oceanarium—we came to support you."

Cao Wei: "..."

Zhu Ning's protective suit was torn and her helmet cracked, clearly having just snatched her life back from the jaws of death, yet she was offering to help the Gray Hawk team retreat.

Not to mention Li Nianchuan and Xu Meng behind her.

These two were bona fide cleaners, yet they raised no objections to this statement.

To be honest, given Li Nianchuan's caliber, being able to survive until now was already miraculous.

Cao Wei had always looked down on garbage sweepers, but at this moment he had to admit that Zhu Ning's team was exceptionally formidable.

The three of them together wouldn't have been out of place working as Demon Hunters.

For a moment, Cao Wei felt a pang of shame; his stereotypes were deeply ingrained.

Only after seeing the other members of the Gray Hawk team did Zhu Ning realize this team was in even worse shape than she had imagined, with everyone sustaining heavy injuries.

Liu Zhiwei was leaning against the wall, suffering the worst of it with a stomach wound, supported nearby by Yang Shu.

Team leader Tang Ke's protective suit was heavily damaged in the back, stained with blood, with large patches of makeshift repairs plastered across it.

In comparison, Zhu Ning didn't actually look all that miserable.

Unfamiliar with the Gray Hawk team, Zhu Ning asked, "Are you all right?"

The Gray Hawk team looked at Zhu Ning with deeply complex gazes, probably never expecting that one day they would take orders from a cleaner and still win.

Yet on the battlefield, the victors commanded respect.

Regardless of their previous impressions of Zhu Ning, a natural sense of admiration welled up within them now.

In the world of the Purification Center, might always made right.

From now on, they would willingly submit to Zhu Ning's command.

Now that the eight-person squad had regrouped, they instinctively looked to Zhu Ning, treating her as their true leader.

She was the soul of the team.

Having successfully executed a formation that allowed them to move while transparent entities were present, Zhu Ning was thoroughly experienced in this process.