" Tsk," Nathan Thompson frowned as soon as he came down. "Water-based pollutants are just troublesome."

"What's wrong with the water system?" Nancy Clark asked.

Megan Carter: "Too much water content, the contaminant spores are more active."

Now that she mentioned it, it was true—Nancy Clark noticed that the blood droplets she saw were floating much faster than in the training videos.

With a loud bang, the opening above was blocked by a metal plate, and all light was instantly lost. They had sealed the entrance.

"Don't be afraid," Megan Carter said. "It's just standard procedure, to prevent contaminant spores from leaking out. The entrance will open automatically after we finish our work."

So that's how it was, but being trapped in a closed-off sewer still felt pretty uncomfortable. Nancy Clark rolled her neck.

Megan Carter said, "This is an E-level mission, not very difficult, and the contamination concentration isn't high. We'll finish quickly."

The floating speed of the contaminant spores was limited, and the pollutant had only just died, so it couldn't spread quickly.

Earlier, Nathan Thompson had given a contamination area of 2,500 cubic meters, about the size of a standard swimming pool.

This contamination area wasn't precise—the data given was much larger than the actual contaminated area. Their unit was 2,500 cubic meters. In other words, this area could be one swimming pool, or two, and so on.

Nancy Clark found this work quite interesting. She had only ever fought monsters before and had never participated in such detailed logistics work.

"Be careful," Megan Carter said. "Don't get contaminated by the spores."

Spores could easily parasitize skin, so their "work suits" were sealed up tight. After all, she was a complete rookie, and on her first day collecting contaminant spores, it would be easy to mess up and get herself in trouble.

Megan Carter gave a demonstration. She took a straw-like tool from the cleaning kit and carefully touched a floating "blood droplet" with the tip.

With a soft whoosh, the blood droplet was sucked into the transparent straw.

The back end of the straw was connected to a transparent box. After the blood droplet entered, it settled at the bottom. Every ten blood droplets would automatically be compressed into a cube the size of a mung bean.

The whole process was extremely satisfying to anyone with OCD. Megan Carter moved very slowly—there was no way to rush this; it was delicate work.

It was a lot like... picking cotton.

An inappropriate metaphor popped into Nancy Clark's mind—they were like a three-person cotton-picking team.

The workflow was to first collect the contaminant spores, then clean up the corpse, and also the soil, water, stones, etc., that had been touched by the blood. Then they would wash down the contaminated area to make sure no spores were left behind.

It really was like sweeping up trash.

Nancy Clark joined the cotton-picking team and touched a contaminant spore with her straw. After collecting the spore, a "ding" suddenly sounded in her mind.

System: [Primary contaminant, Purification Value +1]

Purification value? What purification value?

Nancy Clark tried again. Every time she collected a spore, the voice in her head sounded again. Whatever it was for, who wouldn't want to take advantage?

Nancy Clark's hands moved faster and faster. Nathan Thompson looked at her in puzzlement—usually, newbies just slack off, and this was the first time he'd seen one so enthusiastic.

So competitive?

After a while, Nancy Clark's arms started to feel stiff. She now had a Purification Value of 45. Nancy Clark asked, "How long do we have to collect?"

Nathan Thompson: "About an hour."

Sweeping up trash was hard physical work—not exciting or dangerous, just pure endurance. Nancy Clark found the process rather soothing.

Megan Carter: "If you can't take it mentally, you can ask for a break."

Nancy Clark: "Can't take it mentally?"

Megan Carter: "Our work suits can't completely block contamination. They can only make sure you won't be parasitized by the spores, but the mental contamination is hard to defend against."

Nancy Clark's hand trembled as she sucked up the spores. She was starting to dislike the look of these things. The spores constantly emitted contamination—even with physical barriers, there was no way to fully block the mental effects.

Nancy Clark: "What happens if you get mentally contaminated?"

Megan Carter: "Mild symptoms are vomiting, nightmares, and fatigue. Moderate symptoms are mental disorders and hallucinations. We had a colleague before who got it pretty bad—he thought he was a two-headed pink lotus."

Nancy Clark: "...?"

Is the sacrifice really that big?

Megan Carter: "If it gets worse, people might attack others, or if the influence is too deep, they might start worshipping evil gods and monsters. Some commit suicide, some kill others—there are too many cases."

In short, mental contamination won't let the spores parasitize you, but it can mess with your brain and make you do abnormal things.

Megan Carter asked, "Are you feeling anything now?"

When they brought in newbies, the main concern was whether the newbie would get contaminated.

Nancy Clark carefully checked herself and said cautiously, "I don't feel anything."

She really didn't feel anything. Megan Carter turned to look at her—Nancy Clark was quite unusual.

"I can't do it anymore." After a while, Nathan Thompson was drenched in sweat. He said, "I'm going to get some air."

Nancy Clark heard the pain in his voice and asked, "How do you get air?"

Nathan Thompson: "Just get farther away. The closer you are, the worse the contamination. For most pollutants, you can't feel it at all if you're a kilometer away."

Makes sense.