Chapter 22 - Metal Manipulation
聽 聽聽Hive.
聽 聽聽Janet looked in the mirror at the scars on her body. Potent healers don't get rid of scars. If she wanted to get rid of the wounds, she would need to buy cosmetic drugs.
聽 聽聽So, the scars from her guillotine cuts were still there. Janet rubbed the scar on her right shoulder.
聽 聽聽She wasn't聽really聽sure if she had been contaminated. Her suit had ruptured about thirty seconds earlier, and while Janet had quickly applied the patch, there might have been a contaminant intrusion.
聽 聽聽Did she need a checkup?
聽 聽聽Janet decided to request a medical checkup at the cleaning center tomorrow.
聽 聽 聽Janet looked again at the scar on the small of her back, which was a little more intimidating. It was about ten centimeters long.
聽 聽聽Until now, she hadn't been able to figure out where she got this scar from.
聽 聽聽On this mission, she learned a lot of information but needed clarification.
聽 聽聽For example, how long had this wild team been strung together by "grave posts"? What is the meaning of their existence?
聽 聽聽What did Prometheus want?
聽 聽聽And what was Forever Pharmaceuticals?
聽 聽聽Janet searched for Forever Pharmaceuticals, a well-known corporation controlling more than half of the Federation's pharmaceutical industry.
聽 聽聽This company produced all the medicines that ordinary people took, including the powerful healing agent that Janet was using.
聽 聽聽There's a saying on the Internet that if you're from the Union, you must have sent money to Forever Pharmaceuticals.
聽 聽聽Unless you've never been sick in your life.
聽 聽聽This pharmaceutical industry had a surprisingly uniform message online.
聽 聽聽All over the Internet were promotional videos for their family.
聽 聽聽"Forever Pharmaceuticals, change your genes, create your future."
聽 聽聽There were no bad reviews of this business on the entire web, and no single personand said there'd been any problems with their drugs.
聽 聽聽If Janet hadn't personally seen the side effects after the owner of the hotpot restaurant took the medicine, she would have believed the online reviews.
聽 聽聽At the end of the mission, the system prompted her that she had found the critical clue.
聽 聽聽The critical clue was Forever Pharmaceuticals. The person that the previous owner of this body wanted to meet in the garbage room was definitely Forever Pharmaceuticals too!
聽 聽聽Because buying drugs from this company could change the Defect gene in one's body.
聽 聽聽But Janet didn't have half the stuff about Forever Pharmaceuticals in her house. Some people probably cleaned it out before she woke up.
聽 聽聽So what did the phrase "the end is near" mean?
聽 聽聽Why was there something Fishman said where the original host died? And was her first mission a setup?
聽 聽聽Janet felt like she was walking into a trap. But Janet needed
聽to learn about the trap.
聽 聽聽Ding, ding, ding.
聽 聽聽Her sub-brain rang, and it was a message from Nora.
聽 聽聽Nora had friended her before she left, and Janet said she'd look for her when she had a job in the future.
聽 聽聽At first, she thought Nora might not want it, but she didn't realize that she was quite interested.
聽 聽聽Janet investigated Nora's identity. However, the several plutocratic families in the Federation had nothing to do with Nora, so Nora might be a fake name.
聽 聽聽"Are you home yet?" Janet asked.
聽 聽聽Nora said, "Yes, I'm safe. But I got yelled at by my family."
聽 聽聽Nora sent an emoji of a kitten crying.
聽 聽聽A noble lady sneaking out of the house didn't know how many people to trouble.
聽 聽聽Lying on the mansion's king-sized bed, Nora had changed into a princess-dress nightgown. She was particularly interested in Janet. She didn't have many friends and had never seen someone her age like Janet.
聽 聽What's more, Janet went into the contaminated area by herself, purified the whole area, and even finished all the cleanup work.
聽 聽聽Janet became her idol!
聽 聽聽Nora was still thinking about what to talk to Janet about when Janet transferred 1031000 EAC to her.
聽 聽聽The transfer memo read your salary.
聽 聽聽It's only 1,000,000, but it seems like the first money Nora has ever made聽on her own.
聽 聽聽Nora: "Thanks, boss."
聽 聽聽Janet: "We can work together again sometime."
聽 聽聽Janet was a bit stingy, but she still abided by the principle of fairness. This time, Nora put in half the effort to shelter the contaminated spores.
聽 聽聽Nora saw that Janet had no intention of chatting with herself and asked, "What are you doing?"
聽 聽聽While browsing the webpage, Janet replied, "I'm looking at information about Forever Pharmaceuticals."
聽 聽聽Nora's side was silent聽for a while聽and asked, "Is it because of the fondue restaurant?"
聽 聽聽Janet: "Yes."
聽 聽聽Janet also checked Yummy Hot Pot Restaurant, but there needed to be more information on the Internet. Forever Pharmaceuticals hadn't had any medical malpractice either.
聽 聽聽The owner of the hot pot restaurant聽really聽existed as a victim of Forever Pharmaceuticals but hadn't left the slightest trace in this world.
聽 聽聽No record of him can be found on the entire Internet, and Janet doesn't even know what the name of the owner of the Hot Pot Shop is.
聽 聽聽Janet: "I want to see if there are any other victims?"
聽 聽聽Janet was sure that this wasn't a single case of medical malpractice and that there had to be other victims聽out there.
聽 聽聽Across the screen, Nora was deep in thought in her sub-brain.
聽 聽聽After a few more moments, Nora slowly sent a sentence: "Maybe I can help you."
聽 聽聽Before Janet could type, Nora sent another message, "I have shares in this business."
聽 聽聽Janet: "You have shares in them?"
聽 聽聽Nora: "Yes, it was a coming-of-age gift from my dad."
聽 聽聽Janet: "锛侊紒锛侊紒锛�"
聽 聽聽Worthy of a plutocrat, such a coming-of-age gift Janet could never earn in her life.
聽 聽聽Forever Pharmaceuticals made a substantial profit every year, and its annual water flow was measured in hundreds of billions.
聽 聽聽Nora's family must be very close to Forever Pharmaceuticals. After all, the shares of such a large company could only be easily bought by some.
聽 聽聽Janet understood. Prometheus pushed her to this mission, probably because of Nora.
聽 聽聽Going to the fondue restaurant was secondary. Saving Nora was her main gain from this mission.
聽So Prometheus used Janet, and Janet used Nora.
聽 聽聽And Nora looked clueless.
聽 聽聽Nora asked, "What type of information do you need?"
聽 聽聽Janet: "Anything; the more detailed, the better."
聽 聽聽Nora said, "But you'll have to wait for me for a while. I don't know much about the company internally either."
聽 聽聽Janet: "OK."
聽 聽聽Janet searched again for Forever Pharmaceuticals' partner companies and their shareholding structure. Wasteland World did a good job of keeping secrets.
聽 聽聽In this era of highly publicized information, the plutocrats' information could not be found at all.
聽 聽聽Janet turned off her sub-brain and prepared to study her newly acquired purification values and talents.
聽 聽聽Her current purification values totaled 3,214. Janet converted all of them into life values without hesitation.
聽 聽聽[Life value exchanged successfully, current life value 45.]
聽 聽聽Janet immediately opened the panel to study the props.
聽 聽聽"Pigman's Guillotine" can decapitate a quest target once in a single pass within 24 hours, with 100 hits.
聽 聽聽Maybe a contaminant below the crank can hit a hundred times, and it's not sure what effect above the crank.
聽 聽聽Moreover, this prop had a skill cooldown and could only be used once a day.
聽 聽聽"Universal Key": this prop can open any door.
聽 聽 聽 聽Another exciting beginner talent was called "Metal Manipulation."
聽 聽聽Janet sat cross-legged on the bed, eager to try this talent.
聽 聽聽A coin lay in her palm, and Janet stared at it.
聽 聽聽Thirty seconds passed, but there was no reaction.
聽 聽聽One minute she was passed, no reaction.
聽 聽聽Two minutes passed, no reaction.
聽 聽聽She couldn't use the skill at all.
聽 聽聽Janet then gave up trying and thought she'd go ahead and blow dry her hair.
聽 聽聽She raised her hand, and she suddenly froze before she could touch the hair dryer.
聽 聽聽The coin hung silently in mid-air.
聽 聽聽Janet moved her fingers, and the coin shifted a centimeter to the left with her fingertips.
聽 聽聽It shifted further to the right, and the coin followed. The coin floated like one of聽her聽jellyfish, following the movement of聽her聽finger.
聽 聽聽Janet could feel something different, some kind of indefinable and hard to explain link constructed between her and the coin.
聽 聽聽She maneuvered the coin carefully, and the speed聽kept increasing聽with her intention.
聽 聽What if it was a little farther away? The result was that the coin fell to the ground.
聽 聽聽Sure enough, the limit distance was only one meter; beyond that, her link to the metal was broken.
聽 聽聽So what if it was something more significant?
聽 聽聽The Hive where Janet lived belonged to the slums, and the building floors were all made of metal.
聽 聽聽Directly behind Janet's bed was an entire metal wall.
聽 聽聽Janet sits on her knees on the bed and gently presses her palms against the metal wall.
聽 聽聽This wall was Wasteland World's black technology. Its main material was metal, and it was extremely cost-effective.
聽 聽聽The metal wall was very thick, a whole solid piece of metal that insulated against noise.
聽 聽聽However, the metal was said to have some weak radiation, so it was quickly abandoned by the affluent neighborhoods and stopped being used by the general population.
聽 聽聽It ended up being widely put into the slums.
聽 聽聽Janet's hand was pressed against the wall. She began to close her eyes聽in order to聽focus.
聽 聽聽Janet breathed profoundly and focused all her mental energy on her palm.
聽 聽聽She closes her eyes and realizes that the fabric of the world has changed with it.
聽 聽聽Following the metal as it continued to spread, Janet could sense the composition of the wall, the seam links between each piece of metal plywood, the gaps between the mezzanine and the mezzanine, and the tens of thousands of screws that held it in place.
聽 聽聽It was as if her palms had opened a wide net, rapidly connecting to the metal like a neural network.
聽 聽聽Janet sensed the life of the metal as if for the first time.
聽 聽聽Immediately afterward, her fingers curled slightly. As her movements began, the surface of the unseen neural network wrinkled, slowly tugging at the metal walls.
聽 聽聽Wait! Janet frowned.
聽 聽聽The entire Hive consisted of thirty-six floors, sixty-nine households per floor, and the walls聽of all of them聽were all linked together.
聽 聽聽Janet's movements had caused the interior walls of the Hive to start already vibrating.
聽 聽聽By the time she reacted, it was too late.
聽 聽聽There was a loud boom.
聽 聽聽The walls of the Hive's 2,484 homes suddenly resonated together at the same frequency.
聽 聽聽This was too sudden, and the dishes inside Janet's room were shaken off the floor.
聽 聽聽"Earthquake!"
聽 聽聽"WTF? Where in District 103 how could there be an earthquake?"
聽 聽聽"What's going on?"
聽 聽聽Neighbors rushed to the hallway.
聽 聽聽Janet's face was pale聽at the moment聽as she looked incredulously at her palms and the wall in front of her.
聽 聽聽A sturdy metal wall had turned into a wrinkled sheet.
聽 聽聽Immediately after that, Janet tried the coin again a meter away, but no matter how hard she tried, the coin didn't move.
聽 聽聽So, it wasn't Janet's mental strength that was enhanced, but the limitations of the rules.
聽 聽聽She had to stay within one meter of the metal object.
聽 聽聽The distance between the coin and Janet was more than one meter, but the distance between Janet and the entire Hive was negative.
聽 聽聽She was inside the Hive.
聽 聽聽What a weird talent. Manipulating metal must be controlled at a distance of one meter, but Janet was able to control any metal within one meter absolutely.
聽 聽聽There was even no limit to the weight of the metal.
聽 聽聽Janet touched her nose and felt blood.
聽 聽聽She had a nosebleed.聽