Chapter 6 The Source of Pollution

Janet and Carter tried changing positions. But every time they changed positions, the fishermen followed them again and surrounded them in the same position. Other than that, the fish people didn't move more. Janet thought about shooting but wasn't sure if the fish would get out of control if she did. There had only been one Fishman in the sewers before, and Janet and Carter, with two guns combined, had barely managed to kill one by suppressing fire. Now, the situation was that there were twenty-five fishermen in total, maybe even more. Once the fishermen attacked together, Janet and Carter could only go to hell. Carter was so nervous that his back was in a cold sweat. Carter recalculated the pollution concentration. After that, he was shocked by the data he calculated, "The pollution concentration is now 79." Janet still didn't know how the pollution concentration was calculated, and she felt nothing when the data was elevated several times. Carter seemed to see that Janet couldn't understand and explained, "A class d pollution area is one where the pollution values are between 60 and 90." So the concentration they had measured when they first came in was 55, a class e pollution area. "What should we do?" Carter asked, "Do we just kill our way out?" Janet gritted her teeth, "We have to ignore them." Carter: "What?" Janet thought about when she was inducted, and Lynn had only asked her two questions. 1. Are you afraid of monsters? 2. Are you afraid of corpses? The point of Lynn's inquiry was to be afraid, and Janet's answer was no to both. She seemed to understand why she had a mental value of 100. Janet wasn't afraid; she didn't even think of this thing as a monster. Janet explained, "Leave it alone, and it won't be able to contaminate you." The so-called spiritual pollution was not that the more horrible and disgusting something was, the more spiritual pollution it was. Blood and dead bodies only make people feel scared, not "contaminated." Mental pollution was a "creature" that looked like a human being and did everyday human behavior very bizarrely. For example, when fishermen were taking the last train, they didn't do anything but stare at you. The whole thing itself was mind-numbing. "But what are we going to do about it?" Carter was helpless. Now that twenty-five fishmen blocked their eyes, it felt like it would be hard to ignore them any way they did it. Carter glanced back at Janet, who had shown no contamination symptoms up to this point. She was gifted. Carter asked Janet, "What do these fish people look like to you?" Janet said, "They're just a bunch of crappy fish." Carter: "....." Janet: "Don't you look at them. Just talk to me to divert your attention." Janet needed to make sure Carter held out until help arrived. If Carter had a nervous breakdown, she would have bad luck in the end. Carter withstood twenty-five fish's gaze and asked Janet, "Talk about what?" Janet asked, "Why did you get on the subway with me?" Carter tried to ignore the fish people, "I have to follow the employee code." Liquidator Employee Code #4: Stay separated from your teammates. Carter asked rhetorically, "Then why did you come up here?" Janet: "Our job is to sweep up trash." Carter was confused, "So what?" Janet: "We get paid on commission." Carter reacted for a moment. Janet meant that the cleaners were paid according to the number of shelters. With the hunters now out of the picture, they could be proactive in generating income. Carter was stunned by Janet's thought process. Under Janet's influence, Carter suddenly became less afraid of these anglers. They became money in his eyes. There were twenty-five performances, which converted to EAC was at least two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. These weren't rotten fish, but golden shiny bills. Janet asked, "Do you think we can mentally pollute them too?" "What? How do we pollute?" Janet pondered, "Mental pollution is when seemingly normal people do abnormal things, or seemingly abnormal people do normal things. It's okay that you don't understand this, but the point is repetition." The point of contamination was repetition. For example, the dead fisherman kept repeating "last train." The fisherman who kept getting on the bus repeatedly stared at Janet and Carter. Repetition is the formula for mental pollution. Carter thought along the lines of Janet, "You have a point." Janet asked, "What do you have around for us to use?" Carter thought for a moment, "I brought a cookbook." A cookbook? Janet cocked her head at him, and Carter explained, "You know, we don't make it in this business for more than a couple of years. I will give myself a head start on finding my next job." Cleaners had to think about retiring if they made enough money and were subject to mental exams for life. Janet may have to do the same in the future. "Read a passage from the recipe." Carter flipped through the electronic cookbook and found a page. He began to read aloud, "How to make braised crucian carp. First step: make a cross cut on the surface of the crucian carp, add salt to the oil, and fry slowly over low heat until both sides are golden brown and the fish's skin is crispy." Janet "......" Fishman "......" Carter was fucking brilliant. Janet recorded it using the helmet recording function. Both of their helmets could play it out. Janet picked up the recipe herself and started reading it. Two helmets were added to the two of them, which made four voices. On the last train of Line 1, two passengers were wearing "biker suits" and black helmets. And they were reading aloud the recipe for braised carp. This was precisely the kind of abnormal, repetitive mental contamination that Janet wanted to accomplish. The gazes of the surrounding passengers changed from sinister to confused. After they read it about ten times, the fish people in front of them became perplexed, and they lowered their heads without the hostility they had before. "The pollution level has dropped!" Carter was incredulous. Janet's method worked. Janet suddenly stood up, "You keep chanting, I'll go find the source of the pollution." If this was a ghost-catching game, the source of pollution must be in the car. After Janet stood up, Carter followed suit. Surprisingly, however, the fish people didn't follow this time. They pulled the pull ring in their hands and turned around in unison, pointing their thousand-poor bodies at Janet and Carter, but none of them followed. Presumably, the mental pollution had failed. Carter didn't dare stop. He kept continually reciting the recipe, following Janet like a bullhorn. There were only four cars in the subway, and Janet searched them carefully, hoping to find clues. There were three passengers in car number four, two in car number three, and five in car number two. Compartment one, where Janet was, had the most significant number of people, twenty-five fishermen plus the two totaling twenty-seven. Something must have happened to this car earlier. The system said that the reason for the disappearance of the number one last train was that it was contaminated by something. The contaminant could mentally contaminate, so wasn't the formation of the contaminant also a mental power? Jingle Bell Suddenly, a phone call interrupted Janet's thoughts in car number three. Janet ran to check it, only to find a cell phone was placed on the seat. Just now, Janet carefully checked the whole subway train and didn't see a cell phone. This cell phone had appeared out of nowhere. And someone was calling this cell phone. The cell phone style was ancient; surprisingly, it was a touch-screen machine. The wasteland world had undergone technological changes long ago, and most people had chips implanted in their bodies that could be tied to a secondary brain. No one used cell phones in this era anymore. Janet explained, "This is probably a cell phone left behind by a passenger." Carter was also surprised to see the cell phone: "This is at least an eighty-year-old style of cell phone." This thing looked like an antique. Janet: " Keep reading." Carter was there reading the recipe, and the ringing stopped abruptly when Janet picked up the phone. The phone was playing a video. A car surveillance view with two people in it. The video was a little blurry, causing Janet not to recognize the people in the video for a moment. The footage showed two people running from another compartment and picking up a cell phone left on a seat. "A cell phone left behind by a passenger," Janet said. "This is at least an eighty-year-old style of cell phone." Carter's voice. The video inside looked precisely like Janet's actions. Janet, in the video, picked up the phone and then played the video from the phone. "Cell phone left behind by passenger." The cell phone in the phone played another video. And so forth. They seemed to be trapped. Janet felt a little numb for a moment. The mental pollution here seemed more potent than before. The logic of the contaminated area was to keep polluting people's spirits through repetition. If she kept playing it, she was going to be contaminated herself. "What's wrong?" Carter didn't see the video and only sensed that Janet was in bad shape. "Close your eyes." Janet's mental value was higher than Carter's, and Carter might have to break down if he looked at it. "There's strong mental pollution here." Janet quickly pressed the pause button, but this video couldn't be paused. Janet took her cell phone and was about to leave. Carter yelled, "Where are you going?" Janet's hands shook a little as she admitted that she was beginning to suffer from the effects of the mental pollution. The spirit level on her panel was dropping. Janet tried to ignore it as best she could and walked briskly towards the front of the car, saying as she went, "We find lost items and turn them in to the crew. It's common sense." Carter "????" Why did they do this pointless thing at this point? Janet understood that the more abnormal the circumstances, the more she had to insist on doing the usual thing. The usual thing to do was to see the cell phone left by the passenger to be handed over to the driver. This was a usual subway. Janet kept meditating, trying to brainwash herself. You have to do what looks normal to fit the style of this polluted area. Carter could only follow Janet as she quickly made her way to the driver's room, where a man sat with his back to them. The driver was concentrating on driving and looked quite normal. But there could be no such thing as usual on this train. Janet took a deep breath and knocked on the transparent door of the driver's room, "Hello, I found a cell phone, and I want to turn it in." The driver had his back to her. "Hello," Janet knocked again, "I'd like to turn in my cell phone." The driver finally responded. He didn't turn around but took off his hat. Two hands ruffled the hair at the back of his head, revealing the other back of his head. Two hands ruffled it again, revealing the back of one head. Janet suppressed her nausea as she watched the driver ruffle the back of his head slowly like a condom but never revealing his face. Dang Dang Dang. Dang Dang Dang. Janet had been hearing this noise since she got here. The door to the driver's compartment wasn't closed tightly and kept shaking as the train opened. Janet was about to pull out the door when she suddenly stopped. Her whole body froze. "What's wrong with you?" Carter was a little puzzled, as Janet rarely showed that expression. Janet's eyes quickly blocked Carter. he must not be allowed to see what was happening inside. A fish face lying on the left window of the driver's compartment was smiling. Janet thought wrong. The source of the contaminant wasn't necessarily inside the car. In fact, the contaminant had been lying outside the car.