Chapter 8: A Change in the Winds

Zhu Ning opened her system interface to re-examine her stats, which had increased significantly since before.

Name: Zhu Ning
Age: 19
Education: Undergraduate in Mechanical Engineering
Identity: Fifth-Class Citizen
Talent: Danger Anticipation
Mutation Direction: Unknown
Degree of Alienation: Unknown
Physical Strength: Unenhanced
Mental Value: 100 (Average for a normal person is 20)
Health Points: 20 (Average for a normal person is 70)
Luck Value: 1 (Average for a normal person is 50)
Purification Value: 545 (Can be exchanged to increase other stats; every 100 Purification points increases Health by 1)

Purification and Luck values were newly activated. A Luck value of only 1 made perfect sense; no wonder she had the misfortune of encountering a misrated pollution zone. Purification points could be exchanged for rewards or applied to other stats. The exchange started at 500 points, with each redemption granting 5 Health points.

It was worth noting that her Health seemed alarmingly low at only 20. She possessed a primary talent, Danger Anticipation—Li Nianchuan had mentioned it before, but she had no idea how it performed in practice. As for the degree of alienation and mutation direction, she was completely clueless.

The "Rotten Fish Head" sounded more practical; previously, Zhu Ning could only be polluted by contaminants, but now she could pollute others. It was worth mentioning that she could even inflict mental pollution on contaminants—was that adding filth to filth? When fleeing, she could use it to boost her speed, though it required consuming Health, and she couldn't afford such a cost yet. Another reward, explosives, could demolish a building, but Zhu Ning hadn't encountered such large-scale missions yet. Furthermore, the item was highly destructive and had very limited use cases; she would at least need to ensure she wouldn't harm her own teammates.

She summarized the situation: Did she get rewards? Yes. Could she use them? Apparently not yet; it was all for nothing. The items were decent, but useless in her hands. Could they give her some beginner-friendly gear? Giving her such high-level items right off the bat was overwhelming.

Wait... Zhu Ning suddenly had a hunch. The provided items were of such high tier that she would have to frantically accumulate Purification and Health points to use them. Was this damned system forcing her to level up?

Zhu Ning: "..."

Had the system seen through her lazy nature and decided to take action? Meanwhile, despite her struggling and fighting for her life, her main quest to purify the homeland was only 1% complete. Zhu Ning’s intuition was right; this was just a carrot on a stick. To accomplish this mission, she would have to sacrifice her entire life.

However, she seemed to have grasped a hint of how purification worked. Did completing this main quest require constantly entering pollution zones and containing pollution spores?

The platform was rotting, and the sewers were slowly becoming exposed; the pollution zone was disintegrating as the contaminants died. Zhu Ning sighed deeply and stood in silence for a minute, facing the swirling pollution spores.

Cleaner Work Protocol Article 5: Containing pollution spores is the top priority.

Zhu Ning pulled a straw-like tool from her cleaning backpack and began to "pick cotton" quite conscientiously.

[Ding—Purification Value +1]

Every spore Zhu Ning contained added to her accumulated Purification points. This wasn't "picking cotton"—this was farming Health!

Li Nianchuan ran off the train in a panic. The entire last train carriage was rotting and reeking. He held his breath, and his first priority upon exiting was to find Zhu Ning. To his surprise, Zhu Ning was perfectly fine, diligently... sweeping up trash.

She was in a sorry state, her work suit covered in scratch marks from the fish-men, and her helmet was cracked. Even so, Zhu Ning continued to move at an unhurried pace, containing the pollution spores bit by bit. Li Nianchuan was stunned. What kind of overachiever was Zhu Ning? She didn't forget her mission even at a time like this? Capable of fighting monsters and sweeping trash—she was a real-life "Sweeping Monk"!

"You," Li Nianchuan asked, refusing to give up, "are you working?"

Zhu Ning didn't even look up: "What else?"

"Isn't this a bit too intense?" Li Nianchuan lacked that level of dedication. What he had seen in the pollution zone just now was enough to give him nightmares for a month. He didn't have the mental fortitude to finish a fight while his blood was still hot and immediately pivot to work.

Zhu Ning sighed, "It's all about the commission."

The constant notifications in her head about gaining Purification points were hard to resist.

Li Nianchuan: "..."

So what Zhu Ning said on the rail line was true? She really was trying to meet her quotas?

"Hello? Li Nianchuan?" A crackle of static came through the helmet. With the fish-men dead, the mental interference dissipated, and communication was finally restored.

Li Nianchuan almost burst into tears when he heard Xu Meng's voice: "Captain!"

Xu Meng's voice sounded anxious: "Are you okay? Where is Zhu Ning?"

Zhu Ning continued containing spores with one hand and replied: "Alive."

Xu Meng breathed a sigh of relief. Heaven knows it was a miracle for two cleaners to survive after being trapped in a pollution zone.

Xu Meng: "The technical center made a rating error. You accidentally entered a D-grade pollution zone."

It was indeed D-grade, Li Nianchuan thought; his estimation hadn't been wrong.

Xu Meng: "The pollution zone has cracked open. I'll be there to get you soon. Stay where you are and don't move. The Devil Hunters have already arrived and will begin rescue operations once they land."

A D-grade pollution zone wasn't too difficult for Devil Hunters.

Li Nianchuan said cautiously: "Actually... the Devil Hunters don't need to come."

"Why?" Xu Meng was puzzled. There was wind in her transmission; she must have been rushing over.

Li Nianchuan scanned the area. It was filled with the corpses of contaminants and pollution spores, confirming that no living contaminants remained. This pollution zone was remarkably clean. He and Zhu Ning had achieved this. Without a single Devil Hunter entering, two logistics cleaners had wiped out a D-grade pollution zone!

Li Nianchuan said proudly: "We cleaners don't need rescuing by Devil Hunters."

Xu Meng: "?"

No, was this really the time to be moody?

"Um..." Xu Meng asked tentatively: "Is your mental state alright?"

It was the most logical guess; she suspected Li Nianchuan had gone insane.

Li Nianchuan declared arrogantly: "Tell the organization to send another cleaning crew; we might not be able to handle all this work."

Xu Meng: "?"

...

After Li Nianchuan hung up the comms, he let out a long breath. His work suit was soaked in sweat. He felt the exhaustion of someone who had just escaped death and sat down on the ground with a thud. The tension in his mind finally snapped. "I think I'm done for."

His mental value was low, and he had suffered mental pollution early on. Now, surrounded by pollution spores, his condition worsened as soon as he relaxed.

"Stay away," Zhu Ning glanced at him. If you're polluted, keep your distance.

"No!" Li Nianchuan clung tightly to Zhu Ning. He had discovered that Zhu Ning was more reliable than any Devil Hunter. "I won't leave you."

Zhu Ning: "..."

Great, he’s starting to lose it.

The Devil Hunters would enter the scene soon, so Zhu Ning wasn't too worried about Li Nianchuan's mental state. She didn't want to look at him and focused on containing spores, but she couldn't stop him from acting out.

Zhu Ning watched as Li Nianchuan suddenly raised both hands. She was quick to slap them away. Li Nianchuan raised his arms again. Now that there was no danger, he wanted to do something bold—take off his helmet!

"Hey?" Zhu Ning pressed down on Li Nianchuan's helmet, stopping him. "What are you doing?"

"I can't breathe," Li Nianchuan said.

Taking off the helmet would easily lead to infection or parasitism. Zhu Ning warned: "Do not take off your helmet, do you hear me?"

Li Nianchuan murmured an "oh" in a small voice and let his hands drop in disappointment. Then, right in front of Zhu Ning, he slowly pulled his knees in and curled up at her feet like a puppy.

Was this moderate mental pollution? Zhu Ning remembered Xu Meng saying that a colleague once thought he was a pink two-headed lotus after being polluted, and she was slightly curious about what Li Nianchuan thought he was.

Zhu Ning asked tentatively: "Who are you?"

Li Nianchuan buried his head in his knees and replied: "I am sister's little dog."

Zhu Ning: "..."

Young man, I think you just exposed your secret kink!

...

District 103 Cleaning Center.

If the place had been as chaotic as a stock exchange when Zhu Ning first arrived, it now looked as if a war had just broken out. The head of the Technical Department, Lu Qiqin, was furious. "Rating error! How could there be a rating error!"

"Do you know how much trouble this is?"

"There are no Devil Hunters inside, only two cleaners responsible for logistics. No weapons, no experience. How many lives do you think they have?"

"...They're just trash sweepers..."

A cleaner's life was cheap; ten cleaners weren't worth one Devil Hunter. If the Devil Hunters arrived at the scene and were unable to enter for a rescue, sacrificing two cleaners was, in a sense, a standard trade-off.

"Sweeping your ancestors!" Lu Qiqin sneered. "If the pollution zone isn't controlled and the spores spread, do you have any idea how many people in District 103 will die?"

"Do you want to keep this job or not? If not, get out!"

The technician in charge of monitoring kept his head down, not daring to utter a word.

"The Devil Hunters are already on their way," someone whispered.

"Being on their way is useless!" Lu Qiqin roared. "It's already been fifteen minutes! The optimal rescue window has passed!"

Lu Qiqin threw a cup. The flow of time inside a pollution zone was different from the outside; while only fifteen minutes had passed outside, days could have passed inside.

"Um..." The technician raised a hand weakly. "The pollution concentration seems to have dropped."

The concentration was falling from its initial peak of 90%.

88%, 80%, 71%...

Lu Qiqin frowned. He pushed the technician aside and walked to the machine himself, his hands flying across the keyboard. Yes, the numbers were indeed dropping.

"Where are the Devil Hunters?" Lu Qiqin asked.

Fang Yingcai, who had been watching with her arms folded outside the door, interjected: "Just departed. Estimated time of arrival at the designated location is seventeen minutes."

The Devil Hunters hadn't even arrived, yet the pollution zone was already purifying itself.

"Report!" A subordinate signaled: "Contacted the three-person cleaner squad captain, Xu Meng. Confirmed all three are alive."

Lu Qiqin asked coldly: "Who is inside?"

Fang Yingcai held a tablet. "Two cleaners."

Lu Qiqin took the tablet, glanced at it, and frowned deeply. The data displayed the two individuals' information. Li Nianchuan's stats looked mediocre across the board, especially his mental value—it was so low that he could suffer brain death after an hour in a high-pollution zone.