Monsters?

In Zelda's former post-apocalyptic world, all the cities were overrun by zombies and there were hard to find any shelters. Wanna see fresh monsters? Walk out of the fortress and you can kiss them up close, but definitely nobody really wants to do that.

Valerie had mixes emotions, she didn't expected to hear that answer and for a moment her expression was a little odd. She had never seen a newcomer so bold.

She was going to follow the charter of a lengthy explanation of what the monsters were, and then play some video showing some data.

The listener might be crushed, puzzled or scared, and Valerie would have to be responsible for calming the staff. But not Zelda, who was so at ease with herself that she mentioned monsters as if she were talking about the milk on sale at a supermarket.

Valerie was silent for a rare two seconds, then continued with the process, "Are you afraid of corpses?"

Zelda said conservatively, "Not really."

She'd seen numerous corpses before, humans, zombies, and some who didn't know what the hell they were, that she saw corpses the same way she saw streetlights.

Valerie was impressed by Zelda's calmness, she does worthy of "its" chosen, regardless how her abilities are, she also had guts. Zelda has already been screened by "it" once, Valerie is just going through the process.

Valerie: "Bravery is the most important quality needed for this job, congratulations, you can officially start it."

Zelda: ".......it's that easy?"

She was even expecting some kind of test.

Valerie: "The job isn't technically difficult, the only requirements are bravery, not being afraid of blood, withstanding disgusting, being resistant to stress, and being in good mental state."

Zelda paused and asked in a low voice, "Collecting corpses?"

Valerie: "To clean up the battlefield, you can interpret it like that."

No wonder Valerie was asked if she was afraid of monsters and corpses, so she had to get up close and personal with these things.

Zelda briefly concludes:

Firstly, there were some kind of mysterious monsters in this world, what exactly were still unknown.

Secondly, the corpse of these monsters needs someone specialized to take it back.

The job sounds easy to do, and not even requires an interview. Since it was available to anybody get the job, it should be a logistics unit she guesses. This kind of job usually doesn't require direct conflict, just pick up the slack after the fighting forces.

Zelda toughly making a live in the last world, so frankly, this is a dream job to her.

"So why there wasn't many people come for such good paycheck?"Zelda asked.

5000 Shellum in 3 hours. According to the algorithm, the daily pay could reach tens of thousands Shellum.

In the wasteland world, an era where a large number of jobs were replaced by machines, this job supposed be snatched up once it was put out there.

Valerie sighed, "Not many people meet the qualifications, and a lot of people can not stand it at all, our longest serving employee has only 8 years career, most of them switch jobs after 3 months."

Zelda: "Why?"

Valerie looks cringy, "Because they tend to go crazy if they stay in work too long, that's why we're always on recruiting."

Zelda: "Go crazy?"

"Yes," Valerie smiles bitterly, "Most people simply couldn't handle it mentally, but we monitor the physical state of our employees, and once you can't handle it, the command center will call you back. Of course you can rest assured that we don't push employees, and in the event of an injury, the whole medical care would be undertaken, adds the abundant pension after they leave."

That sounds cruel but warm.

"That's why our trial period is only one day, and it only takes that one day to see if the people can do it."Valerie said.

Zelda asked, "What about the robots?"

It sounded like there was some kind of mental influence field and if humans would be affected then robots should be fine.

Valerie: "They'll short out."

Zelda: "?

Valerie: "I can't say much more than that, you'll just have to experience it."

"To tell the truth, we need a large number of employees very urgently, but the work is somewhat confidential in nature, so I must be clear with you."Valerie thrust a slack of contracts in front of her.

Zelda gave it a cursory scan.The contracts basically didn't list some specific terms, probably just that she had to keep what she saw confidential.

One was a probationary contract to guarantee her basic rights, and another was a security agreement, which was tedious at twenty pages. Zelda read it carefully, and there were a couple of very concerning clauses.

Article 11: Any injury or death occurring during the course of employment shall be the sole responsibility of the Federal Cleaning Center, in accordance with Attachment 15.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

Article 35: The Commonwealth will be responsible for the life support of any employee who becomes permanently disabled during the course of his or her employment.

There is a high incidence of "injury" in this security agreement.

"Is it dangerous?"Zelda asked.

"Yes, but the probability is not high enough to encounter it, basically," Valerie said, "It's usually pretty clean in there before the cleaners make their entrance."

After all, they weren't the vanguard, and the danger was basically borne by the combat jobbers. In summary, it was the most Goblin mode from the high-risk jobs, Zelda's favorite.

Zelda read all the terms and then simply signed.

After all, she was going to have to work no matter what, so she might as well get a considerable one, she had always liked the idea of making enough money for a month in one day and laying flat for the remaining 29 days.

Valerie's bracelet vibrated as someone paged her and she said to Zelda, "Your work site today is sewer A7, you'll be taken later."

Valerie operated on her screen, "We're on a pre-pay system, your pay for today's attendance will be transferred to you first, and the commission will be settled when you've finished your work."

Ding~ding, Zelda's wrist flashed with blue light, instantly arriving at 5000 Shellum. That's fast? Zelda had the illusion of pie in the sky.

Zelda watched a video about the employee training in an hour that "Learn How To Clean In An Hour With 0 Basics".

The training counted as work time, so this is particularly enjoyable.

Zelda watched the video very carefully, because it was still a bit of a dangerous job to be careless after all.

The monster bodies in the instructional video were bloody messes, and from the video it was almost impossible to tell what kind of monster it really was, except that the official term was Contaminant.

Zelda memorized every step, she picked it up quickly, in short it was a matter of collecting the bodies and clearing up the battlefield, pretty easy for her.

After watching the video, she was taken to change into her suit, but she didn't expect that the changing was the most consuming part of the process, and it took her 20 minutes to do so.

The overalls are very much like Batman suit in film, pure black, the fabric is similar to a leather jacket, but also wear a black helmet, if she now goes to grab a motorcycle to ride away, there is no sense of incongruity.

If she pressed a button on her chest, the suit would inflate internally to provide additional cushioning against monster impacts, and it even had the function to deliver oxygen internally to deal with extreme environments, making it look more like an astronaut's suit after it was inflated.

Zelda thought of the first rule of the cleaner's code of conduct: Never expose your skin.

Zelda clutched her helmet untucked, with two coworkers in front of her. The body collection team, oh sorry, it's the cleaning team. It was usually a team of three, with a newcomer placed in if they brought one in.

"Clara·Ross, I'm the team leader, nice to meet you Miss Scott."

"Adrian·Austin."

The three exchanged names and Clara handed Zelda a gun, "For self-protection, permissions aren't activated, keep it on you for peace of mind."

Zelda examined the gun, the chamber was unloaded.

"Air rounds," Adrian explains, "instantly encapsulate the air to form a bullet when fired, not bad for shooting."

Adrian: "It's okay if you can't shoot, you don't normally use it, today you're just have to know the whole process."

Zelda didn't retort that she knew how to use a gun and pinned it to her back, in the end, Adrian handed her a backpack, Zelda had seen it in the video, it was the tools she would need to collect the 'trash'.

"Come on guys, let's getting start," Clara issued the order, "It's time to work."

The workplace was kind of sewer.

With a vehicle which darkened the window, she couldn't see out, and Zelda was basically unable to sense the direction of travel for the first time, except that about an hour had passed until the air vehicle stopped at 8:00 PM.

The sky is dark, the wasteland support two brighten lights, instant as day, the staff pulled up a cordon, there are robots to maintain order.

A group of people happened to come out just as Zelda and the others were going in.

The uniforms they were wearing were not quite the same, more like soft armor, if Zelda's uniform looks a biker suit, they were likely wearing Iron Man battle suits.

Zelda had struggled from the edge of life and death in her last life, and could tell at a glance that this group of people were unusual, and clearly carried a fierce aura, this was probably the so called vanguard force.

Clara leads the way, stopping in place to give way to the armored soldiers upon seeing them.

It seems that these armored soldiers are higher ranked than them, the two parties meeting to clear the cleaners have to give way. Zelda has to stop, unfortunately the other party doesn't even greet them when they see the three of them and walks right past them.

A man passed them and whispered a laugh, "Rookie."

Adrian triggered and burst up to say something but Clara tugged on his arm tightly and remain waiting until the armored soldiers leave.

Clara was used to do it, but Adrian was visibly upset, " I'm pissed off with those assholes! "

The three wore helmets, calls were shared, Zelda asked, "So anyone who can tell me something about them?"

"Monster hunters, specializing in Contaminants." Clara spoke calmness.

Adrian cut in, "It's just about high tech, with such fancy equipment and combat packs to guide them, everyone can do it."

In this era, humans rely more on technology, and with AI and high-lethality weapons, soldiers are actually like pawns.

Zelda asked curiously, "How come you're not a monster hunter?"

Adrian sighed, "My spirit level isn't enough to be prevented from the contamination."

Zelda let out an oh, it seems to depend on the personal conditions, those with high spirit levels definitely would be sent to fight monsters, and those who has less spirit energies can only sweep the trash at the back.

Adrian might be a bit embarrassed, "But we still the only part which take in the pollutants, without us, they'd be messed up for sure haha!"

Zelda chimed in, "Yes, yes, yes, we're the best."

Adrian listened to her in a conspiratorial manner, "You also want to be a monster hunter huh?"

People in general thought monster hunters were cool and thought the cleaners were humble and bored.

Zelda sighed, " Come on Adrian, there is no way!"

What a bad joke, she's been fighting zombies her whole life and totally tired of it, she supposed to come here for retirement.

Adrian: "..."

Zelda's answer was too dry.

Adrian pats Zelda on the shoulder, "Cool Zelda, there are less cleaners with professional honor like you anymore."

Zelda: "Definitely, I had picked this job at first sight."

Lots of money, little to do, no danger, such a dream job.

"Alright guys," Clara said, "let's get down to business, and tell the mission Adrian."

Adrian immediately puts away his playfulness and reads the data, " Level E mission, contaminated area is around 2500 cubic meters, minimum 30% contamination, maximum 55% contamination, 16 contaminants, all have been killed."

Zelda listened a while, there were only about numbers, she still in confused. It's complicated to explain, Clara said, "Go down and check it, then you can understand."

No more than 3 times, Zelda will know the data by heart.

"Scott goes down first."Clara ordered, "I've heard from Valerie that you're bold, that would be good that you can familiarize yourself with the business."

Adrian thought about the fact that Zelda was a girl and suddenly came to be a bit of a gentleman, "Let me go down first leader, she's still a new."

Zelda: "I can do it Adrian, thank you."

There is no need to be modest about this small matter. There was a manhole cover in front of her, the monster hunter had come once and cut out a large hole.

There was a rope hanging on the side, which was specially for the cleaning team to use, Zelda tugged on the rope, and jumped down like a swimming fish, the ground was very deep.

Zelda unties the rope, there is a slight rattling of the rope, Adrian and Clara coming down after.The helmet was equipped with night vision and Zelda scanned the field, then she froze.

Granted, she'd done some mental preparation for this, she'd also seen the video, she'd heard the advice of her predecessors, and she'd even thought outside the box to add some imagination.

But so far, it's too conservative, her imagination was too conservative.