Chapter 62
In that instant, Yu Zhi felt as if a pair of eyes were watching him from the darkness, making his hair stand on end.
He curled his fingers, frowning as he quickly thought things through.
A polluted zone is centered around the pollution source, following its logic and rules. The employee badge bore his real name—did the pollution source know him? Did the pollution source consider him a Public Welfare Department employee? Or did it want him to be one?
Whatever the reason, it was all inseparable from Meteorite Biotechnology. The people at Meteorite Biotechnology were definitely keeping an eye on him; who knows how much information they had on him.
Yu Zhi felt the badge was a hot potato. He wanted to toss it away, but when he glimpsed a line of small text on the back, he paused.
[Meteorite Biotechnology Company Employee Code of Conduct]
All must read carefully and remember the following points. Any violation is at your own risk:
- The employee badge must be worn prominently on your chest. Handle it with care to prevent loss or damage.
- It is forbidden to lend your badge to others or forge work information.
- If you become ill or injured, the company will bear the full cost of treatment until you recover or die.
- When experiencing difficulty breathing, you can relieve stress by working diligently.
- If you commit suicide, please make sure you wear your employee badge so that subsequent staff can confirm your identity.
- The ocean is our homeland.
- Everything is for the future of humanity.
The first few points were still somewhat normal, but they grew increasingly bizarre afterward, as if something normally familiar was twisting into something uncanny, triggering a natural physical revulsion.
Yu Zhi stared at the first rule a couple of times, and countless severe consequences of throwing the badge away flashed through his mind.
He’d managed to scare himself into not discarding it. After a moment of hesitation, he stored it in [My Items] and checked its function and description.
[Item: Meteorite Biotechnology Company Employee Badge.]
[Function: A silent work companion.]
[Description: You’re here to work, so why bring me along?
The moment I start work, I feel #nauseous #dizzy #pale #sweaty #abdominal pain #low blood pressure #shock #fainting #high fever #weak and cold #sore all over #no appetite #drowsy #diarrhea #vomiting #eye strain #joint pain #coughing #phlegm #chest pain #chills #…]
The badge didn’t seem problematic, so Yu Zhi took it out again and put it back on.
He strode to the floor-to-ceiling window and looked out at the sparkling sea surface not far away, confirming the location of the Public Welfare Department.
This was Building No. 2, the left building at the base of the “?”-shaped complex.
After thinking it over, he asked the system, “Is there a restricted area here?”
The system spoke coldly, “Figure it out yourself and complete the mission.”
Yu Zhi didn’t notice it had omitted a character in its reply. Seeing that the system wouldn’t say more, he tried using Ordinary Kick: [Step on the seawater.]
The next second, he lost 10 universal coins. He reappeared in front of the same rows of Public Welfare Department workstations.
Ordinary Kick had just turned him around, making him face away from the window. That meant he’d left and come back again.
Yu Zhi frowned more deeply. This polluted instance had a restricted area. He’d wasted 10 universal coins!
He turned around and hurried to the department’s glass door. Just as he reached the entrance, he heard the sound of an elevator arriving on this floor.
Yu Zhi immediately hid behind the wall, staring unblinkingly at the elevator. Who was coming? Fu Suxi, perhaps? Or a pollution creature?
“Ding—”
As the elevator doors slowly opened, a pair of legs stepped out.
Its face wasn’t visible yet, but Yu Zhi caught a whiff of fishy smell in the air.
The next second, out stepped a man… a man-fish in a suit.
It had some human characteristics—arms and legs—but a fish’s head, eyes bulging like a fish’s, and gray-green scales covering its body.
Its spine jutted upward at the back of its neck, making it look broad-shouldered and hunched, like a frog-fish or a fish-frog.
With its appearance, a dozen or so fish-people squeezed out of the elevator, each dressed in either formal or casual business attire. Though their appearances varied slightly, what they shared were their dead-fish, hollow expressions, like mourners with dull, empty eyes.
The more fish-people there were, the heavier the salty fishy stench in the air, making Yu Zhi’s stomach churn.
Holding his breath, he waited until the last fish-person had moved a certain distance out of the elevator before using Ordinary Kick again.
[Step on the floor tiles in front of the elevator!]
In an instant, he caught glimpses of grayish-green all around as a tidal wave of fishy odor engulfed him.
He hadn’t flashed to the front of the elevator. Instead, he’d returned to the Public Welfare Department again, trapped among the newly arrived fish-people. He was surrounded front and back by pollution creatures.
Yu Zhi: “???”
The pungent, piercing fish stench assaulted his nose, making him black out momentarily.
Snapping out of it, he found himself face-to-face with the fish-people’s writhing, dense scales. Unable to hold back, he dry-heaved: “Ugh—”
The fish-people’s large, bulging eyes swiveled towards him in unison. Their eyes were so protruding it seemed they might pop out of their sockets as they turned to look at him.
[Title “Pure Love Warrior” has taken effect.]
“You’re the new one, 5820. I’m 5768.”
“5820, your workstation is opposite mine.”
“5820, when did you arrive?”
“I didn’t see you just now.”
…
All talking at once, the fish-people’s thick, moist lips came closer and closer to Yu Zhi.
Seeing their mouths, Yu Zhi sucked in a cold breath, his stomach roiling even more fiercely.
Damn! These fish-people had several rows of teeth, densely packed to fill almost half their mouths!
Some fish-person’s saliva splashed onto the back of his hand, cool and slimy, reeking of disgusting fish odor.
Yu Zhi was so nauseated that his vision went dark again. “Ugh—”
While dry-heaving, he backed away into the department’s interior.
[User “momo” hopes you’ll quickly solve the pollution creatures and find the pollution source, tipping 20 universal coins.]
[User “Cyber Bodhisattva” looks forward to killing pollution creatures.]
[User “Pure Love Warrior” praises your familiar cowardly running style.]
[User “Electronic Wooden Fish” is puzzled by your reason for running, tipping 10 universal coins.]
[User “Arrogant Rich Young Master” reminds “Electronic Wooden Fish” that you love running by nature, tipping 0.1 universal coins.]
The strong fishy odor stung Yu Zhi’s eyes to tears, blurring his vision so he couldn’t see the barrage clearly.
After running some distance, he wiped his face and looked up. He’d reached the opposite end of the Public Welfare Department.
Across the corridor was another department, a large sign on the wall reading “Human Resources Department.”
The moment he got to the Human Resources Department’s entrance, in the blink of an eye, he was back at the Public Welfare Department’s entrance, with a group of fish-people sprinting towards him.
Great, he couldn’t escape this damn Public Welfare Department at all!
Yu Zhi took a deep breath and quickly called out to the system, “System! Are you there?”
The system answered coldly, “What is it now?”
Yu Zhi had no time to ask why it’d disappeared yesterday. He quickly said, “I’ve completed the dungeon mission already!”
System: “?”
Yu Zhi remained expressionless, “I’ve found the pollution source. The pollution source is right here.”
System: “…Where is here?”
Yu Zhi lied through his teeth, “Right here.”
“…..Please wait, running scan…”
A second later, the system’s tone grew even colder, “Scan complete. You have not yet found the pollution source.”
“Please act promptly to complete the dungeon mission.”
At the last word the system uttered, the fish-person at the very front rushed up to Yu Zhi. Yu Zhi used Ordinary Kick again to flash to the other side of the department.
He protested righteously to the system, “If the pollution source isn’t here, and I can’t leave this damned Public Welfare Department, how could I possibly complete the mission?!”
The system replied coolly, “Figure it out yourself.”
Yu Zhi gritted his teeth and cursed silently.
The good news: he’d learned that the pollution source wasn’t here.
The bad news: the pollution source—and the pollution monsters—were not here either!
The dungeon’s restricted area wasn’t the Public Welfare Department itself; he was just trapped here. To complete the mission, he either had to find a way out of the Public Welfare Department or find a way to make the pollution source come to him.
“5820…”
“5820…”
The fish-people called his number incessantly as they ran toward him, flailing their limbs.
The increasingly heavy fishy smell at his nose pulled Yu Zhi back to reality. He blinked away the sweat dripping onto his lashes and quickly calmed down.
First things first, he had to handle these fish-people.
He quickly scanned the desk in front of him—nothing there but a computer. Then his eyes fell on a fire cabinet on the wall. In a flash, he dashed over, took out a fire extinguisher, ran to the floor-to-ceiling window, and smashed it hard.
“Bang—”
“Bang—”
After four or five heavy blows, a fist-sized crack formed on the glass, spidering out across the entire pane. With a crash, the glass shattered all over.
Yu Zhi turned around and faced the charging fish-people head-on. As they reached him, he leapt backward.
The fish-people, chasing after him, tumbled out of the window one after another.
The next second, Yu Zhi found himself back in the Public Welfare Department again. He turned around and gave the last fish-person at the window a hard kick on the butt, “Get down there! Your dad’s name is Yu Zhi, not 5820!”
The floor-to-ceiling window vanished. The sea breeze rushed in unimpeded, dispersing the nauseating fishy smell in the air.
Yu Zhi let out a long breath and wiped the sweat from his forehead.
His heart, which had just settled back into his chest, jumped up again at a sound he recognized.
“Ding—”
The elevator had arrived at this floor once more.
Yu Zhi jerked his head up. Another dozen or so fish-people emerged from the elevator, each one numb and cold, trudging wearily into the Public Welfare Department.
They saw Yu Zhi and started babbling again:
“You’re the new guy, 5820, I’m 5768.”
“5820, your workstation is opposite mine.”
“5820, when did you get here? I didn’t see you before…”
Yu Zhi stared at them, goosebumps creeping up his arms.
Even though these fish-people said the same lines as before, they looked different. This wasn’t the same batch that just fell out of the window; it was a new group of polluted fish-people.
Kill one fish-person, another takes its place. Kill a whole group, a new group comes to work.
As long as the pollution source remained, pollution monsters would keep coming, fish-people would keep coming, and he would never finish them off.
He couldn’t kill them all. He couldn’t leave. Yu Zhi felt a bit of despair. “What kind of goddamn company is this?! What kind of goddamn dungeon?!”
If this went on, he’d be the one to drop dead, not the fish-people.
What to do? Come back in the next life and try again?
Seeing Yu Zhi’s predicament, the barrage boiled over:
[User “Strongest King”] eagerly awaits your torment and death.
[User “Cutest Girl in the World”] prays your temporary lover will heroically save you.
[User “momo”] is greatly interested in your dungeon mission.
[User “Reborn from an Otherworldly True Love”] wonders why you won’t turn off your title.
Yu Zhi looked blankly at the barrage and thought: as if he doesn’t want to turn it off?
Can he even turn off this title?!
As the thought formed, the text on the translucent panel suddenly changed.
[Title “Pure Love Warrior” has been deactivated.]
Yu Zhi’s eyes widened in disbelief: “??? It can be turned off?!”
He quickly checked [My Titles].
[Title: Pure Love Warrior.]
[Function: 99% of pollution creatures’ lips will be drawn to you.]
[Description: On a dark, windy night, innocent men and women are killed one after another…]
He hadn’t remembered incorrectly—99% of pollution creatures would be interested in his mouth. Yu Zhi did know titles could be turned off, but he’d believed that even if he turned it off, it wouldn’t change anything.
From the very first day of the apocalypse, even before he got this damned title, pollution creatures had already found him appealing.
Yu Zhi immediately looked at the fish-people ahead.
With the title deactivated, the fish-people clearly lost interest in him. One by one, they turned their heads away, dragging their weary bodies to their respective workstations.
Seeing this, Yu Zhi finally realized that with the title turned off, he really didn’t attract pollution creatures anymore.
???
Then what was all that earlier trouble for?
The system, which had been secretly watching him all along, laughed: “That was you being too clever for your own good.”
