Chapter 60: Shadow

Zhu Ning was escorted back to the Cleaning Center.

They were brought back in batches to prevent them from communicating, and the eight employees would each undergo individual debriefings afterward.

The Cleaning Center would review all eight reports and cross-reference them, meaning any discrepancies would be discovered immediately.

Zhu Ning wasn't worried about any accidents occurring; she was just a bit concerned about Li Nianchuan. That poor unlucky kid had to interface with a chip to handle such a massive mission, and now that it was over, he was likely suffering from severe aftereffects.

Furthermore, Zhu Ning was focused on another question: Where was Bao Ruiming, and had the rescue team found him?

If they found him, how did they plan to deal with him?

It seemed they had no intention of telling her anything at all.

She had quite a few things to tackle next. The standard procedure was first to undergo data collection in the observation room, followed by an interrogation once the data checked out.

Level 66 of the Cleaning Center.

Zhu Ning had been here once before, and sure enough, the moment the elevator doors opened, she was greeted by a doctor in a white coat.

"Ms. Zhu, we meet again."

As expected, familiarity breeds ease, and Zhu Ning was quite accustomed to it this time. "Still Observation Room Side A?"

The doctor replied, "Side B this time."

When she came last time, Zhu Ning was a newborn calf unafraid of tigers, but now she understood this department a bit better.

The observation rooms were divided into Sides A and B. What did Side B signify? Did individuals suspected of contamination enter Side B?

Just like last time, she was hooked up to data collection devices, but with even more equipment.

Both hands, both feet, her temples, as well as her chest and abdomen, were all attached with data collection sensors.

The doctor explained, "Due to suspicions that you may have been infected, the required collection items are rather more complex."

Fine, Zhu Ning had no room to question it.

However, her long-held dream of freeloading off the Cleaning Center's medical resources seemed about to come true.

Zhu Ning said, "By the way, my head hurts terribly."

She stated it very directly. Sure enough, hearing this, the doctor frowned. As one of their crucial talent assets in the Cleaning Center, everyone generally paid close attention to her.

"How does it hurt?" the doctor asked.

Zhu Ning replied, "It feels like a needle is poking inside."

Ever since she overused her metal manipulation skill last time, she had constantly felt that something was wrong with her brain, and drinking mental healing potions hadn't done much.

She would frequently experience sudden bouts of sharp pain that would quickly subside. Especially ever since Prometheus entered her mind, there had been a lingering, faint pricking sensation.

Technology in the wasteland world developed at breakneck speed, and the Cleaning Center undoubtedly possessed the most advanced medical resources. Since she was already here, she had to latch onto this resource train.

Perhaps they would discover something unusual.

The doctor had no idea she was targeting them and said dutifully, "Our observation room cannot perform healing work; it's generally used for monitoring and recuperation."

Zhu Ning nodded. Judging by the style of the observation room, the buffet area was open around the clock, playing soothing music all day long.

It looked rather like a psychiatric hospital.

The doctor asked, "Does it hurt right now?"

He looked a bit troubled. Originally, Zhu Ning should have been sent directly to the observation room for monitoring, but if her condition was critical, she might need to be sent to the medical department for treatment first.

Zhu Ning replied, "Not right now. It's fine, I'm very tough. Let's do the data collection first."

The doctor: "..."

They always said this girl was somewhat difficult to get along with, but after interacting with her, it felt like Zhu Ning was exceptionally sensible?

The doctor said, "Alright. Once everything is completely finished, we'll send you to Dr. Fu, and a joint consultation will be arranged for you then."

Zhu Ning had no objections and walked into the observation room.

It was similarly an oversized bedroom, but unlike the warm and healing style from last time, there was a ring of iron pillar-like objects encircling the perimeter of the bedroom. These iron pillars emitted a faint red glow, enveloping the entire chamber within.

It looked like a cage.

Presumably, this was to prevent anyone from mutating into a contaminated entity.

If Zhu Ning truly mutated, this mechanism would lock on instantly, and laser cutters would fire, slicing Zhu Ning into chunks of meat in a fraction of a second.

Zhu Ning no longer had the privilege of going to the cafeteria to eat; all her meals were delivered inward through a small window. Until they released her, she had to remain here under observation.

Zhu Ning didn't feel any particular way about it; this was standard procedure. The doctor from earlier had told her to rest inside.

While she rested, these devices would automatically perform data collection.

The doctor had instructed her to rest, and Zhu Ning, strictly obeying medical advice, fell asleep the moment her head hit the pillow.

Coming out of the aquarium, there was no place safer than the Cleaning Center's observation room. Even if people from the Immortal Corporation wanted to assassinate her, it was impossible under the watchful eyes of so many people.

She was desperately tired. Three minutes after closing her eyes, she was fast asleep.

Research Laboratory.

"Did she take sleeping pills or something?" whispered Fu Ming, a researcher. "She falls asleep way too fast."

Emerging from a contaminated zone and falling asleep within three minutes—her nerve was unfathomably large.

Compared to the other seven people who walked out of the contaminated zone, aside from Chu Ling who had run out of energy and was forced into sleep, none of the others dared to sleep even after entering a safe environment.

That was the normal reaction of someone stepping out of a contaminated zone.

Every time Zhu Ning came to the observation room, she genuinely came to sleep soundly, leaving Fu Ming slightly bewildered. "We look like animal keepers, and she's a koala."

Did the animal keepers responsible for looking after koalas just watch them sleep all day? Zhu Ning did nothing except sleep and eat.

Moreover, in an era where everyone universally suffered from sleep disorders, her sleep quality was astonishingly good, as if she weren't being monitored in an observation room, but had returned to her hometown.

In her past life, she must have been a koala.

Qi Yunxiang mused, "Could this perhaps be her special ability?"

Fu Ming chuckled dryly, "Hahahaha, not funny at all."

Fu Ming operated the instruments, a task he was now thoroughly accustomed to. Standing behind them was Fang Ying, supervising the data.

Out of so many employees, Fang Ying only ever monitored Zhu Ning's data.

Fang Ying had rushed over directly after finishing her mission at the Mechanical Aquarium. She had tidied her hair, wore a professional suit, and looked meticulous, completely betraying no hint that she had just participated in a B-rank zone mission.

Word had it she had come under Xuan Qing's direct orders.

"How is it?" Fang Ying asked.

Qi Yunxiang remained as calm as ever. "No fluctuations in her mental value. Extremely stable."

The Inspection Department's assessment previously had been the same.

No fluctuations. Emerging from a B-rank contaminated zone and still showing absolutely no fluctuations—she truly lived up to her mental value of 1200.

Fang Ying stated, "Minister Xuan requested another mental value test for Zhu Ning."

Fu Ming muttered softly, "Why?"

Mental values were rarely tested repeatedly; less than a month had passed since their last test.

Fang Ying explained, "Minister Xuan suspects that after emerging from the B-rank contaminated zone, Zhu Ning's mental value might have increased."

Fu Ming whispered under his breath, "This thing doesn't just go up whenever you want it to."

Many people experienced an increase in mental value after entering contaminated zones—Li Nianchuan, for example—but that was something that typically happened to individuals with low initial mental values.

It was much like a failing student suddenly studying hard to get into college: they would find it relatively easy to raise their score from thirty to sixty, but raising it from sixty to eighty was immensely difficult.

And raising it from ninety to one hundred required an unimaginable, extraordinary amount of effort.

Qi Yunxiang, however, had no questions. "Understood."

Qi Yunxiang operated the console and, after about five minutes, read out the numbers. "Mine reads 1270."

Fu Ming checked the helmet data on his end. "Mine reads 1300. Did her score actually go up again?"

Zhu Ning had only been on two missions, and yet her mental value was still rising?

Was she even human?

Although the increase appeared minor, it was already astonishing. If she broke through 1400, it would point to an entirely different possibility.

Once she crossed 1400, the First Military District would no longer care about her defective status and would admit her as an exceptional exception.

Fang Ying showed no surprise and asked, "Are there any signs of contamination?"

Qi Yunxiang shook his head. "None. It's far too stable."

Stable to an unbelievable degree, but that was the characteristic of an S-rank mental value. They didn't have many S-rank mental value samples on hand, so they couldn't tell whether Zhu Ning's numbers were considered normal within the S-rank range.

Fang Ying glanced at Zhu Ning sleeping soundly on the big screen and posed another question: "Does she possess a special ability?"

This was a question Xuan Qing was extremely concerned with.

This time, Qi Yunxiang frowned. The mental values of ability users were similarly very stable.

Ability users were essentially contaminated entities maintaining their sanity; when they underwent testing, their mental values likewise showed no fluctuations.

Qi Yunxiang said, "You know our detection methods for ability users aren't entirely precise."

Setting up a security checkpoint machine where contaminated entities filed past made it easy to detect who was contaminated; the peace and relative safety of the city walls built after the radiation were founded on that very basis.

However, ability users were different. Their mental values were stable, and whenever they wished, they could conceal all traces of their aura.

Only through extremely, exceptionally precise testing could a tiny, minute difference be detected.

Because ability users could not guarantee every single second that they were indistinguishable from ordinary people, their test data would "twitch" at certain moments, which might manifest on the data panel as a microscopic fluctuation.

The R&D department's instruments were tasked with determining whether these tiny fluctuations were mere errors or something else entirely.

Yet since Fang Ying was already asking, Qi Yunxiang, as a lowly working-class subordinate, had no choice but to help her fulfill that hypothesis to the best of his ability.

After about half an hour, Qi Yunxiang and Fu Ming felt their eyes going blind. Running tests of this nature was actually quite mentally taxing.

"No," Qi Yunxiang sighed. "There's genuinely no abnormality whatsoever. Based purely on the data, it's impossible to tell whether she's an ability user or not."

Fang Ying fell silent.

Throughout the mission, Zhu Ning had never once used an ability from start to finish, yet Xuan Qing seemed certain that Zhu Ning possessed one.

Though Fang Ying didn't know why Xuan Qing was so certain, this presumably wasn't the answer Xuan Qing wanted to hear.

Fang Ying asked, "What's wrong with her brain?"

She remembered Zhu Ning mentioning earlier that her head hurt.

If the previous questions were Xuan Qing's directives, this question was one Fang Ying herself wanted answered.

"Let me check." Qi Yunxiang switched pages, and the large screen now displayed a brain scan of Zhu Ning.

Once a human brain was magnified to a certain extent, it began to look somewhat terrifying; brain scan imagery resembled a labyrinth, filled with endless grooves and gullies.

As the most complex organ of the human body, even with technology advancing so rapidly, they couldn't claim to have fully mapped the brain.

The principle behind brain data collection involved scanning the brain and transmitting the data back to the screen.

As the transmitted data came in faster and faster, each new scan image had to overlay the previous one.

The screen flickered continuously before their eyes, and staring at it for long periods strained the eyes, making the work monotonous and tedious.