Chapter 7: Mission Accomplished

The entire fish head was pressed against the window. As the train hurtled forward at high speed, the pollutant’s face appeared somewhat distorted under the pressure.

Zhu Ning saw the pollutant, and the pollutant saw Zhu Ning.

Without a second of hesitation, Zhu Ning yanked the carriage door open and, to Li Nianchuan’s utter bewilderment, began firing out the window.

Bang, bang, bang!

Bullets shattered the glass, and a fierce gale roared into the carriage. Before Li Nianchuan could even react, Zhu Ning suddenly raised her weapon and fired toward the roof of the train.

"Follow my lead and fire!" Zhu Ning commanded sharply.

Instinct took over; Li Nianchuan immediately stopped reciting his menu and mirrored Zhu Ning’s actions, firing exactly where she fired.

Fortunately, they were using air-pressure guns. Otherwise, firing in an enclosed metal space would have invited the risk of ricocheting bullets.

Pockmarks appeared on the carriage roof. Some bullets punched through the metal plating, letting in more wind, and it was clear that something was crawling above.

That thing was heavier and larger than a human, leaving deep depressions in the metal as it ran to dodge the gunfire.

The sturdy track train, which had seemed so durable, now felt as fragile as paper under their sustained fire. The air-pressure guns shouldn't have been this powerful; the only explanation was that the pollutant itself was weakening.

The source of the pollution was hidden within the contaminated zone. Once discovered, the integrity of the zone could no longer be maintained as it once was. In other words, cracks were beginning to form.

Zhu Ning felt like cursing. Why were Cleaners only equipped with air-pressure guns? If they had a submachine gun, the fight would be over by now.

The power of the air-pressure bullets was limited, their range was short, and the need to reload created significant gaps in fire, posing a massive obstacle to killing the pollutant.

Suddenly, the lights inside the carriage began to flicker violently.

Zhu Ning frowned. Her helmet’s night-vision function failed to adjust in time. She advanced slowly, one hand holding her weapon. The passengers in the carriage stared at her with sinister expressions, emitting low growls like beasts anticipating a meal.

The contaminated zone was collapsing.

Zhu Ning was still searching when her pupils suddenly contracted.

Bang! A hand with sharp fins punched through the window, grabbed her by the throat, and gave a violent yank. To Li Nianchuan’s shock, the fish-hand dragged Zhu Ning straight out of the carriage.

Li Nianchuan fired at the fish-hand that had emerged from the darkness, but it was too late. The train was moving at high speed; three seconds later, it had carried Li Nianchuan far away, severing his connection with Zhu Ning.

The moment she was pulled out, Zhu Ning reacted with extreme speed. She pressed the inflation button on her work suit, causing it to fill with air and transform from a simple leather jacket into an "astronaut suit."

The inflated suit provided a buffer, protecting her fragile human body as she tumbled off the tracks while held by the fish-man.

Zhu Ning was held by the creature, rolling over a dozen times. By the time she regained her senses, the fish-man had her pinned down, his hands clamped around her throat.

Her gun had been lost during the tumble. She was lying on the gravel of the tracks, with a crazed fish-man on top of her.

The fish-man’s eyes, each the size of a fist, were bloodshot, with a rotating vortex at the center of each. The vortex spun at an unnervingly high speed, enough to make anyone dizzy just by looking at it.

"Have you seen my last train?" the fish-man asked, tightening his grip on her neck. He tried to tear off her helmet.

Zhu Ning kicked his abdomen with all her might. If her helmet were torn off, she would be parasitized for certain.

"I can't make the train," the fish-man muttered while clawing at her helmet.

"My daughter is waiting at home. I haven't spoken to her in days."

"I can't find the last train." He kept repeating the same phrase.

Zhu Ning’s mind began to swim. So that was it.

The fish-man hadn't made the last train, so he wasn't on board. He had clung to the outside of the train, and he never made it inside, not even in death.

[Mental Stability decreased by 10%]

[Health points decreased by 20%]

[Please escape as soon as possible]

The system chimed in her ear, but her interface was empty—she had no items left to aid her escape.

[Side Quest: The Vanishing Line 1 Last Train. Current purification progress: 70%.]

Good news: the progress bar was moving. Bad news: she was being strangled by a fish-man. What a useless system.

Zhu Ning continued to strike the fish-man’s abdomen.

Rumble—

She suddenly heard a roar. The track train was coming back.

Two headlights illuminated the tracks. The train was running in a loop. Zhu Ning was pinned to the tracks; if the train hit her, she would be crushed into pulp.

Damn it! This fish—he was truly malicious.

Li Nianchuan was still on the train, desperately looking for a way to get off, but the train had stopped making stops.

Anxious, Li Nianchuan rushed into the driver's cabin and blew the driver's head off with one shot. He locked himself inside, but outside the glass door, crazed fish-men were scratching at the glass, desperate to get in.

Li Nianchuan saw Zhu Ning on the tracks ahead.

Zhu Ning was pinned down. Li Nianchuan searched for the emergency brake, but no matter how hard he pressed, the train didn't react.

The driver was just a prop; the train followed its own rules.

"Zhu Ning!" Li Nianchuan shouted. "Get out of the way!"

Zhu Ning couldn't hear him, of course. Li Nianchuan began slamming his hand on the train’s horn—fortunately, that button still worked.

"Zhu Ning!" Over the high-pitched blaring of the horn, Li Nianchuan screamed, "Run!"

As a sanitation worker, Li Nianchuan couldn't bear the thought of watching his colleague crushed into pulp. The headlights were too bright, and Zhu Ning’s already strained mind felt even more chaotic.

The wailing of the horn was piercing, as if it would shatter her eardrums.

With no weapons or tools, Zhu Ning could only, with grim persistence, strike the same spot on the fish-man’s abdomen again and again.

She could feel the scales on his belly burst, and blood began to seep out. Zhu Ning gritted her teeth; she needed the fish-man to loosen his grip for just one second.

Just one second.

"Hiss..." Zhu Ning heard the fish-man gasp. She had broken one of his ribs.

Now! Zhu Ning suddenly used her legs to gain leverage and slammed her elbow into the fish-man’s face, instantly flipping him over and pinning him beneath her.

Rumble, rumble—

The sound of the train grew closer, right in front of her. Zhu Ning had no time to spare; she pushed off the edge of the platform and vaulted onto it.

Suddenly, her right leg sank—the fish-man had grabbed her ankle. As she scrambled onto the platform, she was nearly dragged back down.

In this life-or-death moment, she acted on pure instinct. Zhu Ning lifted her foot and kicked down hard on the fish-man’s face.

Boom—

The high-speed train roared past. As her foot came loose, the fish-man fell back onto the tracks. She heard a dull thud as the train ran over something.

Huff—

Zhu Ning’s throat was raw. The prolonged lack of oxygen made her vision go black. She took two seconds to recover as the train sped off without stopping.

She looked at the tracks. A mangled fish lay there, blood spilling everywhere, scales scattered. The fish-man’s lower body had been crushed by the wheels. If she hadn't reacted quickly, that would have been her.

Still not dead. No pollution spores had precipitated yet.

Having survived the zombie world, Zhu Ning’s survival philosophy was simple: always deliver the finishing blow!

Zhu Ning immediately turned toward the platform, smashed the glass, and grabbed a fire axe. While the creature was weak, she didn't mind putting a few more chops into it.

Zhu Ning approached with the axe, but she paused when she saw the fish-man’s condition.

"I..." The fish-man leaned his head against the track like a real salted fish, his mouth hanging open powerlessly. "I can't find the last train."

The same phrase again. The core of the mental corruption was repetition; the fish-man kept repeating this event.

"I can't get home. Taking a taxi would mean a whole week of work for nothing," the fish-man said to her.

He choked on the blood in his throat. "I couldn't bear to spend the money. They scolded me..."

"Scolded me... called me a loser, poor, useless, couldn't even afford a taxi."

"They thought I was... pretentious, that I couldn't handle hardship."

Zhu Ning listened for a moment. The fish-man’s obsession was actually quite light; he hadn't lost the love of his life, he just hadn't made the last train. Such a small thing, yet it was enough to crush a person.

The final weight on a life is often just a single straw, and the last train was that straw.

"Am I pretentious?" the fish-man asked, lifting his head. His fish-head was covered in debris and gore.

She felt like the fish-man was waiting for an answer. Zhu Ning didn't really want to engage—this black-hearted fish had just tried to kill her, and she wasn't that kind-hearted.

Zhu Ning stood at the edge of the platform, axe in hand. She looked at the fish-man’s face and said coldly, "No."

"Can't handle hardship"—Zhu Ning always thought that was a nonsense phrase. Who wanted to suffer for no reason?

The fish-man froze, then let out a low laugh. "Hahahaha, you’re just like me."

Zhu Ning frowned. What did he mean, like him?

"The end is coming, hahahaha—" The fish-man coughed twice, the sound mixed with laughter in a truly eerie way. "The end is coming."

The end? What end?

The fish-man propped up his upper body with astonishing tenacity. He wasn't running in that bizarre way anymore; he was crawling toward Zhu Ning, step by step, as if a friend were approaching another friend.

With a soft slap, the fish-man’s hand touched the platform.

Zhu Ning quickly retreated three meters, axe raised. If he tried anything else, she would turn him into chopped fish head.

"You’re just like me." The fish-man pressed a hand against the platform, but he couldn't muster the strength to lift his torso.

He peeked an eye over the edge of the platform. "Y-you, you will become just like me... just like... just like..."

With a thud, the fish-man’s body slumped backward.

Zhu Ning didn't loosen her grip on the axe. She cautiously moved toward the edge of the platform, wary of the fish-man pulling a trick.

Squeak, squeak—

From the depths of the darkness came a sound like rusting metal. The train was coming again, but unlike the roaring arrival before, it sounded like a broken windmill, creaking and groaning as if its parts were rusted through.

It began to disintegrate before it even reached the platform, collapsing rapidly like a melting wax statue.

The train stopped.

A salted fish lay on the tracks. After death, its body decayed rapidly, slowly turning into a pool of putrid flesh. Blood-like pollution spores began to precipitate from his body.

One, two, three...