Book 2, Chapter 20 - It Was Not Easy To Shower at The End of The World
Although I felt afraid of the phenomenon, I found it fun too.
In this world full of radiationers and metahumans, there is Bill’s voice that can stimulate someone to vomit and there is Ah Gu who can transfer someone’s pain. Would my superpower be to glow?’
This superpower is quite cool. At least I won’t need to use other resources for lighting at night.
But where did this superpower come from? What are those light spots? What triggered this superpower to activate?
The last time I had come to the reservoir with Second Sis, she hadn’t been willing to drink from it at first because flying corpses were sensitive to radiation. However, after I had washed my hands, the light spots had appeared and then vanished. After that, Second Sis drank from the reservoir, which meant the water was clean and didn’t have radiation anymore. At that time, I had thought it was due to a water cleansing technology.
During the radiation resistance test, the light spots had appeared again and they’d surrounded my fingers. Then, they slowly dispersed too. After they’d disappeared, Raffles had said that part of the radiation in the test cabin had disappeared. I hadn’t associated both matters together.
But then..
Could it be...
*Beep.* Suddenly, the sluice gate quivered under my feet and my communicator rang. I picked the communicator up casually, and the top half of a formally-dressed woman whom I had never seen in Noah City before appeared on the screen. Her long, blonde hair was pinned up in a bun and she wore black formal wear, just like a dignified female butler.
“Luo Bing, the reservoir is closing. Please leave the reservoir as soon as possible.” Hearing her voice, I recognized it at once to be Noah!
I see, so Noah looks like this. She is quite pretty. Ice Dragon was right.
“Alright. I will leave right now.” I put down the communicator. Then, I realized that my hands had gone back to normal again and stopped glowing.
No more? So, my hands won’t glow all the time? Is it like when Sis Cannon runs out of energy after shooting for a while? I’ll ask Raffles to take a look later when he’s free.
I looked at the reservoir where I had washed my hands. The water looked as clear as before, the moon and stars’ reflection rippling along with the waves. It was as though the light spots had been pulling a prank on me earlier.
*Clang.* There was a noise of machinery running, and both sides of the door started closing. I had no time to think further as I hurried up the stairs to leave the reservoir.
The huge steel plates slowly joined together before me, covering the reservoir that was as huge as a football field. The ground resumed its original look. If I didn’t look closely, I wouldn’t be able to see the gap in between or tell that it was a steel plate underneath. The scattered grass swayed along with the night breeze, forming the best camouflage.
I suddenly had the suspicion that the entrance of our city gate could be lowered and camouflaged too, because we had grass on our city gate as well.
“Luo Bing, Luo Bing!” I heard Harry shouting for me hurriedly under the silent night sky. He was calling me Luo Bing, which meant that it must be serious. I preferred Harry when he was serious’ at least I could communicate with him normally then. In short, he could only speak like a human when he was serious.
Regardless of how much of a smooth talker he was, I could learn many things from him. He was my mentor and was very capable. By capable, I did not mean the superpowers in this world but his capability as an individual of our ordinary world. I hadn’t seen his superpower during the battle against the flying corpses, but I could faintly tell that he couldn’t die from falling and that he could heal himself very quickly. Maybe he didn’t have a combat superpower, hence why he didn’t use his superpower during the battle.
Hurrying towards his shouting, I soon saw Harry who was looking for me anxiously. He scratched his head as he looked around. “Where did she go? It is already so late at night. Luo Bing!” He turned around and saw me. “Waifu! Where did you go? Don’t you find it uncomfortable with your body so sticky?” He lifted the corners of his lips and smiled mischievously.
This bastard became so light-hearted just as he turned around.
I ignored him and walked straight past him. There’s no point talking to the light-hearted Harry.
“Where did you go, waifu?” He crossed his arms before his chest and followed next to me, as usual.
“Washed my hands,” I answered casually. I walked through the city gate and the tunnel looked different. There was a transparent isolation gate that quarantined us from the original tunnel.
“What would you wash your hands for? Come, let’s go take a shower.” He beckoned me to follow him. Walking to the right side, he opened a door to a different white tunnel from the original one.
I looked at him suspiciously, and he smiled as he explained, “We can’t return using the original route. There is radiation in the rain, so we have to wash it off first. Haha, we can finally shower!” He put his hands behind his head happily and walked over with a cheeky smile.
I followed next to him. “Did you go in the rain so that you could shower?” We couldn’t shower every day in Noah City because of the limited water supply. There wasn’t enough water for showering in addition to consumption, hence showering had become a luxury activity.
Under normal circumstances, men were allowed to shower once a month while women were allowed to shower twice a month, which was already considered a privilege. The same applied to Princess Arsenal. If one achieved a meritorious deed, he could exchange for shower coupons to shower anytime. I had only showered twice since I’d come here. For daily hygiene, I had only used cold water to wipe my body.
Harry turned around and chuckled, only raising his eyebrows cunningly which explained everything. I was wondering why everyone had rushed out without even putting on a raincoat when they knew the rainstorm was coming.
“But Sis Meizi..”
“You can’t see Sis Meizi if you don’t cleanse yourself.” Harry pointed at my drenched clothes and sniffed dramatically. He made a disgusted expression and said, “Wow, waifu, you smell the worst today!”
“Go away!” I kicked and he jumped back, out of the tunnel. Behind him wasn’t another route but a capsule cabin.
Just as he jumped in, the cabin door closed and beeped. White gas slowly filled the cabin from the bottom up. Then, red lights lit up and Noah spoke, “Radiation detected. Safe level. Harmful to ordinary people. Harry, prepare for cleansing.”
“Alright,” Harry stood inside casually and he even winked at me, “Noah, you must be gentle when you cleanse my wife later.”
“Yes, Harry.”
*Poof.* Harry’s cabin had filled with white fog and he was engulfed within. I couldn’t see what was going on inside.