Mysterious number?

Jiang Mian glanced inside. It was a temporary morgue, storing the bodies of Mutants brought in from all over the city.

"First, attach the labels. Start the numbering from 144051042, adding to the last two digits, 42. Once you're done, I'll take you to the processing room."

Old Zhang handed her a stack of labels and pointed to the groove in the tray beneath the remains.

His tone was casual, as if he were handling a shipment of ordinary goods. He himself picked up a notebook and began recording something.

Jiang Mian took the labels and approached the row of bodies.

Because she was wearing a special anti-freeze suit, she could only smell a faint hint of decay.

She hadn't seen any other living Mutants, nor did she know what the aura they leaked when using their abilities was like.

But these remains... when she smelled their scent, her instincts screamed in alarm, just like how an ordinary person would react to the smell of a corpse.

Jiang Mian's expression shifted slightly, her brows furrowing and her lips pressing together.

Old Zhang, watching her expression, thought she was scared. However, she hadn't screamed or retreated, which already put her ahead of many people.

He had been here for a long time and had seen all sorts of people.

There were strong men who vomited until they were dizzy, cowards who didn't even dare to enter the room, and those who pretended to be calm but couldn't sleep at night after going home...

Someone like Jiang Mian already had pretty good psychological fortitude.

But...

Old Zhang's gaze lingered on Jiang Mian's somewhat youthful profile for a moment.

This girl looked about the same age as his own useless son.

She should be studying in school right now, so why was she in this godforsaken place, dealing with these cold corpses?

It's probably because her family is poor...

He sighed inwardly.

In this era, every Base City was an isolated island, connected by only a few passages, and those were reserved for the higher-ups. Resources and good jobs within the city were extremely limited.

For ordinary people, most high-paying jobs carried a certain degree of danger, such as the "cleaners" outside the "wall."

Mist Creatures or calamities would occasionally attack or attempt to infiltrate the city, and many were remotely killed by stationed Awakened outside the wall.

When their bodies piled up, the aura they emitted would interfere with the Awakened's perception.

Since communication and drone equipment would fail within the mist, someone was needed to go out and clear them, bringing back any remains that still had some value.

In comparison, various temporary jobs within the city were the easiest to find and had the lowest entry barrier, with relatively lower pay.

At least they were an official organization, and it was considered conscientious of them to provide insurance for temporary workers.

"Not bad, you didn't throw up directly."

Old Zhang nodded, his tone softening slightly from when they first met.

After staying here for a long time, even living people felt as cold as corpses.

Jiang Mian took out a label, approached a corpse, and inserted it into the groove of the tray beneath.

She looked at it. It was a young man, his death rather gruesome. His chest cavity was wide open and empty, with scorch marks remaining at the edges of his skin.

Ability runaway, self-immolation...

Jiang Mian immediately determined the cause of death.

This was one of the most common causes of death for Mutants. If their mental state was good, they could still control it to some extent, slowing down the process of losing control.

However, once their minds broke down and they let the power of calamity run rampant, the human body of a Mutant could hardly withstand it, unless they could survive the Calamity Transformation.

She might have fused with two souls, so her resilience was slightly higher than average. Even so, after holding on for a month, she was starting to falter and had to find a way to get Inhibitors.

Jiang Mian's body was now half-calamity transformed, greatly enhancing her resilience, but she didn't know if the mental erosion would continue to worsen...

She needed to make another plan.

Old Zhang walked over at this moment. Seeing Jiang Mian's gaze lingering on the empty space in the corpse's chest, he said:

"Creepy to look at, isn't it? You'll get used to it. In this place, don't think of them as human anymore."

Jiang Mian lowered her head, her gloved hand fumbling with the label. With a tone of "fear," or rather, curiosity, she asked:

"Uncle Zhang... do all these Mutants end up like this? Losing control of themselves, and then..."

Old Zhang glanced at her. This girl looked demure, but she was quite brave, still having the presence of mind to ask questions after seeing these things.

"Something like that? I heard they're like the mentally ill, you never know when they'll go berserk and hurt someone."

"We're considered lucky here, seeing only those who don't move. Over at the Containment Bureau... they have to deal with all living ones."

The Containment Bureau was the agency specifically responsible for containing Mutants and transferring them to containment facilities. Unlike the Security Officers, they only recruited Awakened and required a certain amount of combat experience.

"Then... what if you encounter a living one outside?"

"What else can we do? Run! The farther the better!"

Old Zhang pouted and said, "If you ask me, these things shouldn't have been left in the city. What bad luck! Who knows when they'll completely turn into those monsters in the mist..."

His words represented the attitude of the vast majority, including ordinary people and the Awakened.

In the eyes of "normal people," these Mutants were no longer considered their own kind.

Moreover, in a sense, they were also "Awakened." After losing control, the destructive power of their abilities could easily crush Awakened of the same rank.

Therefore, they naturally showed no hesitation in ostracizing this group of terrorists.

Jiang Mian didn't ask further, just silently affixed the tags.

'Monsters...'

That's what they all thought... Then, wasn't she, at the pinnacle of the sequence, a monster among monsters?

Jiang Mian felt a bitter self-mockery; she had become a Mutant... destined to be alone.

Never mind, she should focus on the present.

She continued her work. When she had the chance to transfer to District One, she could access the remains of calamities.

Besides those Mutants who died after losing control, some had clean, fatal wounds, clearly the results of the Public Security Bureau's special task forces.

This place was like an exhibition hall, displaying the various fates of Mutants: loss of control, mutation, execution...

For some, she even saw parts of their internal organs missing. Who took them and for what purpose was unknown.

For Jiang Mian, a Mutant, this was quite a terrifying place.

As she passed by a corpse, her sharp eyes caught sight of a mark on the inside of his forearm, seemingly carved with some Calamity Sequence ability:

"w-130-b-07"

It looked like some kind of serial number...

Jiang Mian had asked Old Zhang about the notebook he was holding earlier. He said it was a record book, not important, but she still had to record according to its requirements.

She glanced at it. It simply recorded the tag number she had applied, the deceased's basic information, and the procedures already completed.

This person before her was a hidden Mutant in life, only killed by the Containment Bureau after completely undergoing Calamity Transformation and going berserk.

So, what special meaning did this string of numbers hold?