102 The Lost Village (VI)
◎Abandoned Village◎
Suddenly, someone pressed the keys of the electronic keyboard. It was the first note, and then a pair of hands were placed on the keys, and a burst of piano sound came.
Zhu Ning once passed by a house where there was an old electronic keyboard, and someone was playing it.
None of the garrison troops, including the liquidators, spoke anymore; they all held their breath.
The only sound in the entire deserted village was the electronic keyboard. It was impossible to tell what music was being played because it was played by a novice, and was very clumsy, without any melody at all.
It's so weird. These villagers didn't exist before, but now they suddenly appear, and the sunset in the sky remains motionless, dyeing the background of the village red like blood.
Dim light shone through the villagers' houses. It was clearly not dark yet. Under the influence of the setting sun and lights, the village was very bright, but it still made people feel a little creepy.
In the sunset, every household turned on the lights, and the villagers stared at you collectively. Even if they were not ghosts or pollutants, even if they were living people staring at you like this, it would make people feel instinctively uncomfortable.
People's gazes have weight, and the feeling of being monitored is very unpleasant.
Zhu Ning observed these villagers. They were all very close to the window, with their noses pressed against it, and with the sound of their breathing, a cloud of white mist was exhaled on the window.
They can emit steam, their blood is hot, and their breath is warm.
No villagers have moved yet, but I have a feeling they will slowly seep out of the windows as time goes by.
They were like shadows flowing out of the walls.
Things began to appear in the air.
Those were the gray-black lines that Zhu Ning was very familiar with, like the background color of a polluted area. Now the gray-black lines were twitching slightly.
But because it was evening, the twitching lines did not look very obvious, and the lines looked like a group of flying insects in the wild.
The contaminated area is fully formed.
bite--
[You have started the side quest, Abandoned Village. The quest objective is to successfully cleanse the polluted area and discover the secret of the village's abandonment. The current cleanup progress is 0%. Please keep up the good work.]
The system's voice was very mechanical and seemed very ruthless at this time.
This was the first time Zhu Ning received a task from the system since he knew he was an experimental subject. Was it the identification of a contaminated area?
Data also began to appear inside Zhu Ning's helmet. Their clocks were all broken, but the basic pollution concentration detection was not broken. The pollution concentration displayed inside the helmet was now 220%, which was a Class A pollution area if calculated.
Not only did Zhu Ning see it, but the data disk inside everyone's helmet also showed the pollution concentration. It might be outside the wall, and the internal system of the helmet did not recognize it, and did not report the area of the polluted area.
Jin Tao blinked, a drop of cold sweat running down his forehead, "Contaminated area?"
He said it with some disbelief, and repeated, "We walked into the contaminated area?"
Although the cleaners only enter the scene after the demon hunters have finished their work, they have frequently entered the contaminated area and know that they can only leave unless they find the source of the pollution.
Jiang Ping's smile was hard to conceal: "So you're lost."
At that moment, Zhu Ning couldn't even tell whether Jiang Ping was more terrifying or the villagers who were watching him.
Jiang Ping's voice was in stark contrast to Jin Tao's panic. Jin Tao was already on the verge of losing control and couldn't handle the stimulation. "I'm going to kill you!"
Jiang Ping was not angry at all when facing the gun: "I say, are you really crazy? What good is it if I bring you here and I can't leave by myself?"
Jin Tao had no evidence to prove Jiang Ping's motive. Jiang Ping calmly said, "If you all die here and I go back alone, how will I write the investigation report? How will I explain your deaths?"
Jiang Ping reached out a hand and knocked on his head, but because he was wearing a helmet, his hand could only knock on his strange blue helmet, "Use your brain."
Jiang Ping either has low emotional intelligence or has been outside the wall for too long and his brain is a little abnormal. His words are obviously normal, but they sound like provocations. No wonder Jin Tao is hostile to him. The tone of his voice is like that of an antisocial personality.
Zhu Ning said to Jin Tao, "Ignore him and don't shoot."
Do not act rashly in a polluted area before finding the source of pollution, otherwise the source of pollution may be hidden deeper.
Jin Tao gritted his teeth and lowered his gun after hearing Zhu Ning's words. After he lowered his gun, the other cleaners also stopped fighting. Jiang Ping shrugged, "You guys are not crazy."
"Jiang Ping!" Someone from the garrison shouted at him. It was probably the captain of the garrison. "Stop talking!"
It seems the garrison troops' attitudes aren't entirely consistent. Only Jiang Ping seems a bit odd. Zhu Ning asks, "What if your work processes enter a contaminated area?"
The stationed troops need to patrol, and their work procedures must include plans for dealing with contaminated areas.
Jiang Ping smiled and said, "Let's leave it to fate. They won't come to rescue us."
Zhu Ning was silent.
Everything Fan Minghua said was true. He said to relax, those who are capable can live, and those who are not capable can just die.
The environment outside the wall is complex, and if patrollers accidentally enter a contaminated area, they will not take any action.
However, Zhu Ning seemed to understand Jiang Ping's attitude. He might be a normal person when he first started working, but it is difficult for a normal person to be normal in this kind of working environment. Your superiors will not even come to rescue you.
No matter what happens, you have to solve it yourself, because all rescue plans are not cost-effective.
Jiang Ping has a self-destructive tendency, so he likes to deliberately provoke people, likes to deliberately cause trouble, and he likes chaos.
He himself is like an uncontrollable madman, and the remaining two garrison troops seem unable to control him at all. This kind of person is like a time bomb in the team.
The leader of the garrison was Cui Kai. He scolded Jiang Ping and then said to Jin Tao, "Leave it to us. We'll find the source of the pollution. We promised to lead the way, and we will get you out."
Cui Kai's attitude made Zhu Ning feel a little relieved. It seemed that Jiang Ping was the only one who was not normal among the garrison troops.
If the garrison troops frequently conduct reconnaissance in the wild, the probability of them encountering contaminated areas is very high, so they must have some skills.
Jiang Ping scoffed: "No need, no one trusts us."
Zhu Ning deliberately ignored him and didn't respond to his question. "Let's act separately. It will be more efficient."
Cui Kai had no objection, it was always good to have more people to help.
Zhu Ning said to Jin Tao, "You guys rest here while we go find the source of the pollution. I'll take you out. Is that okay?"
Jin Tao frowned: "Can you find the source of the pollution?"
Zhu Ning didn't know if he could find it, but he had to give them a goal at this time. "I found it twice."
One time it was the fishman in the sewer, another time it was the mechanical oceanarium, and there was a video in the internal network of the cleaning center. These are all evidence.
Zhu Ning has a good foundation and has been recruited by a demon hunter before, so she is very suitable to find the source of the pollution.
Jiang Ping looked at Zhu Ning with interest and thought he was a very interesting person.
Jin Tao felt embarrassed to let a girl take the risk, and this deserted village looked too scary, with dozens of eyes watching around.
Jin Tao: "I'll go with you."
"No," Zhu Ning quickly refused, "You have more important things to do."
Jin Tao was stunned. Zhu Ning spoke with great confidence, "You have to stay and look after the main force. Everyone's spirits are low right now. Find a way to maintain your spirits and drink some spirit healing potions. You have to guide them and keep them from going crazy."
Once a group goes crazy, it is simply providing food for pollutants.
Jin Tao wanted to speak, but Zhu Ning said calmly, "The tradition of the cleaning center is to cherish talents and not waste anyone."
This is the inheritance Zhu Ning received from his colleagues, including Dr. Fu, Fang Ying, and the coaches he met during training. They all felt that it was not easy to train any talent, even the cleaners that the demon hunters looked down upon. One less person to die is one less person to be trained.
They must respect talents and also respect life.
"Protect them." Zhu Ning said.
Jin Tao understood what Zhu Ning meant and nodded: "You guys should be careful too."
Cui Kai took Jiang Ping and the others to find the source of the piano playing. Before leaving, Cui Kai opened the channel number with Zhu Ning. If necessary, the two teams would communicate - of course, if there was a signal.
After Cui Kai left, Zhu Ning did not move for a long time. If she did not move, Xu Meng and Li Nianchuan would not move either.
She looked up at the sunset. She didn't need to look through the video captured by the helmet. She could just compare it in her mind. The sunset hadn't moved at all. It was exactly the same as before.
They had actually been experiencing dusk.
Zhu Ning is learning to get along with the system. She must learn to control the system, otherwise she will become a puppet of the system sooner or later. Now the relationship between her and the system is very delicate. Zhu Ning cannot separate it from her mind for a while. She still has to use its ability, but she must be careful not to be swallowed by the system.
It's like making a deal with the devil, something in a higher dimension than you. You know you have to pay a price for this deal in the end, but you have to take advantage of it now.
The more you use it, the greater the price you will pay in the future, unless one day you completely conquer it.
This was the first time she heard the system's prompt since that day.
It was a little different from her previous feelings. Before, Zhu Ning only regarded it as a tool system for issuing tasks. Now she knew that the system was symbiotic with her. The system living in her body must hope that its host would live long.
Zhu Ning thought carefully about the working mechanism of the system. The system is a sophisticated mechanical instrument grafted with a pollutant, which may be above S-level. Every time a mission is carried out, the system will extract some pollution props or some so-called talents for Zhu Ning to use based on the characteristics of the polluted area.
This process is very similar to devouring the opponent's ability for self-absorption.
Sometimes, the system will contain hints in the task details. Now that I know it is an experimental subject, it is easy to understand that the pollutants in my brain have the ability of "precognition".
It can predict some facts, thereby increasing Zhu Ning's survival rate.
Devouring and foresight. Although we don’t know where the pollutants in Zhu Ning’s brain come from, at least these two abilities are required for this system to function.
The system’s prompt to her now is to find the secret of the abandoned village. Is this the key to getting out?
This is a polluted area, and as long as it is a polluted area, there is a solution to the problem.
Zhu Ning began to think that to do normal things in an abnormal place, one must conform to the logic of the polluted area.
What to do if you get lost in the village?
Knock on the door and ask for directions.
In the room closest to her, there was a person standing in front of the old window. It was an old lady. She was wearing a white sweater that had long turned yellow and looked very old.
But she was dressed simply, with a white sweater on top and a black woolen skirt on the bottom, and her silver hair was tied up behind her head.
Similarly, she stood very close to the window, with her nose touching the window, and when she breathed, the hot air sprayed on the window, forming a mist.
The mist from the villagers' breath always makes people feel that they are still alive.
Boom——
Zhu Ning knocked on the window and said, "Hello."
The old lady didn't speak or move, but her eyes moved. Zhu Ning's hand on the window was like fish food thrown into a fish tank, and the old lady's eyes were like the goldfish in it.
The goldfish saw the food and instinctively moved in the direction of the food.
The old lady just rolled her eyes, and such a small movement made people's scalp tingle.
"Hello, we are lost." Zhu Ning said with a stiff upper lip. When entering the polluted area, one had to choose an identity for himself. This time, Zhu Ning chose to be a lost stranger.
With a sound of yelping——
The old door suddenly opened. The wooden door was very old. Inside the door was a broken screen window. When the gap in the door opened, a faint orange light was revealed inside.
Is this an invitation for them to come in?
Zhu Ning placed her hand on the door frame. She was not alone this time, but Xu Meng and Li Nianchuan did not make her feel more secure.
She still felt terrified because the old lady didn't move. She just kept standing by the window, and her eyes followed Zhu Ning's direction.
It seemed as if Zhu Ning was edible. Her eyeballs could break through human limits and always crawled out of her eye sockets, leaving wet marks wherever they crawled. The eyeballs multiplied and expanded on Zhu Ning's body, and finally ate her body.
Zhu Ning had heard a saying before, "kill with your eyes", and it seemed that this old lady's eyes could really do that.
Zhu Ning took a deep breath: "I'm in?"
After entering the contaminated area, choose an identity and do what is logical for you.
The old lady smiled. Her face was full of wrinkles and her yellow teeth were exposed when she smiled.
Zhu Ning pushed open the door and walked in cautiously, followed by Li Nianchuan and Xu Meng.
She moved very carefully and her figure quickly disappeared. After the three of them went in, the shabby wooden door creaked shut.
Jin Tao was watching outside. He was very worried about Zhu Ning's safety, so he didn't blink.
Logically speaking, the light was on in the room, and the door was half a meter away from the window, so the inside could be seen from outside the window. After Zhu Ning and the others walked in, they should be able to continue to see Zhu Ning inside the room.
But Jin Tao waited for a long time and didn’t see Zhu Ning in the house. Didn’t he go into the house?
Where had they gone? Why were they nowhere to be seen?
Jin Tao's perspective followed Zhu Ning. The old lady was still standing by the window. After Zhu Ning went in, her eyeballs moved again, reaching the limit of human eyes.
Snap——
The eyeball rotated completely, the black pupil turned to the back, and the twisted eyeball tore off the blood vessels connecting the eye socket and the eyeball.
Jin Tao's body froze, and he saw only two bloody balls, with large amounts of blood flowing down the old lady's eyes.
There was still a creepy smile on her lips, and Zhu Ning seemed to have completely evaporated after entering her house.
The author has something to say:
When I have time, I will give you an additional update with 20,000 nutrient solution!
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