Chapter 63
[User “Strongest King” regrets your survival and tips 10 universal coins.]
[User “Scarecrow’s Straw” curses at “Reborn from an Otherworldly True Love” and storms out of the livestream.]
[User “Arrogant Rich Young Master” looks forward to your plan and tips 0.1 universal coins.]
The barrage continued to roll, full of heated discussion.
Yu Zhi stared at the semi-transparent panel, still feeling something off.
The system was suspicious, and so were his titles.
He decided to put aside the system’s oddities for now; the title issue seemed more pressing.
Lowering his gaze, Yu Zhi opened [My Titles] and studied all his titles, trying to organize his thoughts.
In the cockroach instance with Guo Qiang in H City, the cockroach-type pollution creature that parasitized Dr. Chen found him appealing. He received the “Mantis Exterminator” title. After killing the pollution source Guo Qiang, he got the “Battle Mantis” title, which made insect-type pollution creatures fear approaching him.
During that instance, his natural appeal to pollution creatures was being gradually weakened.
In the Taijiang High School instance with Chen Tingting, the lip-based pollution creatures were attracted to him, and he got the “Lip-Love Warrior” title. Then it upgraded to “Lip-Love Warlord”, changing from 100% lip-creatures being drawn to him, to 99% of pollution creatures’ lips being drawn to him—practically encompassing all pollution sources and creatures.
Yu Zhi had always thought the system gave him these titles on purpose, as threats or warnings. But now, that didn’t seem to be the case.
Closing the title had removed his natural attraction to pollution creatures, proving that the lip-love title wasn’t a threat or warning, but a reward.
This was a crucial reward, offering immense benefits and no drawbacks. It not only weakened his innate attractiveness to pollution creatures but also provided a plausible explanation for outsiders, allowing him to complete the instance tasks like others.
Another question arose: Why? Why reward him?
He certainly deserved these rewards, but he had a nagging feeling that there was a catch—like “no one shows kindness for no reason, they must have some ulterior motive.”
Could it be the system’s tasks really aimed at protecting Earth, thus helping him? Or maybe it was to push him to complete the mission of collecting pollution source corpses? Or perhaps there was some other unknown reason…
Yu Zhi stared into the void for a while and tentatively asked in his mind: [System, did you give me a backdoor privilege?]
Hearing this, the system’s mechanical voice took on a strange tone and angrily questioned him: [You tell me! Who set up the gambling pool? Who’s been watching that “At Your Service” item of yours? Who keeps calling you when you run out of coins…?]
Yu Zhi: [I’m not talking about that. I mean the titles I’ve gotten—did you interfere with those?]
The system, using his previous words against him, responded sarcastically: [What do your titles have to do with me? A small system like me, with no authority at all, what power do I have to deal with you?]
From this, Yu Zhi confirmed that the titles had nothing to do with this HO516 system.
But…
[What’s with you today? You’re so temperamental.] he asked.
The system huffed, mechanical voice filled with gritted-teeth resentment: [It’s because of your betting pool. I was taken away yesterday to handle complaints.]
[Some user filed a complaint accusing me of colluding with you, saying we conspired together and affected mission fairness!]
Yu Zhi narrowed his eyes. He had a guess that it was the user who lost money in the betting pool. No wonder the system hadn’t responded yesterday.
He asked the system: [So, what was the result? Cleared our names?]
System: [??? It cleared my name!]
[My name is cleared, but I—and…] It paused, swallowing the latter part of the sentence and changed its wording: [In any case, I was still punished.]
I and…? Yu Zhi picked up on a key phrase.
So the betting pool was fine, but the system HO516’s secret dealings with someone or something else got exposed. The system took its anger out on him, hence its odd behavior earlier.
Yu Zhi lifted his eyelids lazily: [So how exactly were our names cleared?]
From “my name” to “our names,” the system noticed he’d taken a step back and reluctantly explained: [It’s complicated. Essentially, the conditions for opening a betting pool are extremely strict. It’s not something you can just do at will.]
[Anyway, it has nothing to do with the system. There are very few Earth residents who can open a betting pool.]
Yu Zhi blinked thoughtfully. The system couldn’t control them, only cooperate within certain limits. If only a handful of Earth’s residents could open a betting pool, it meant HO516 couldn’t just find anyone else. He held the initiative.
Right then, the system hinted: [When will you open another betting pool? This instance seems suitable.]
Yu Zhi replied calmly: [I can’t open one.]
System: [Why not?]
Yu Zhi: [Because you took out your frustrations on me after you got in trouble elsewhere.]
System: […]
It fell silent for two seconds, realizing he’d tricked it into revealing information. It was too late now.
Yu Zhi slowly said: [I won’t ask for an apology. Just tell me: are there hidden requirements for obtaining titles as rewards in the instance?]
The system answered honestly: [I don’t know. Hidden rewards are random; timing, location, and conditions must align. If any of these are missing, you can’t get them.]
Yu Zhi frowned. That answer was basically useless.
The system asked again: [Can we open the betting pool now?]
Yu Zhi: [No.]
System: [??? Didn’t you say you wouldn’t ask for an apology?]
Yu Zhi chuckled, speaking righteously: [I said I wouldn’t ask for an apology. Did I say I’d forgive you?]
System: [???]
In truth, Yu Zhi wasn’t unwilling to open another pool; he just couldn’t. The viewers weren’t idiots. Last time, they’d joined the betting pool because they believed the prophecy from Fu Suxi that he’d die, thinking they held all the advantages and couldn’t lose money. Plus, they wanted to see him suffer and profit from it.
Simply having a difficult instance wouldn’t be enough to trick them. They watched the livestream for entertainment, not to be swindled repeatedly.
As for the system… well, it was the one who took its anger out on him first. Yu Zhi thought he was just returning the favor, a bit of poetic justice.
During the short one or two minutes Yu Zhi spent talking to the system, two more elevators’ worth of fish-people had arrived. The Public Welfare Department’s workstations were now all occupied by pollution creatures.
The air reeked of a heavy, salty fish odor. Fortunately, the broken window let in fresh air, making the smell barely tolerable.
The fish-people tapped away at their keyboards. The dim glow of the computer screens illuminated their ugly, fatigued fish-faces. The slight differences in each face only emphasized the absurdity of the scene.
Suddenly, one fish-person at a computer stood up and walked straight towards Yu Zhi.
“5820.”
Its voice was dry and raspy, like it had been ground by sand, dripping with weariness.
Yu Zhi glanced at his employee badge: [ID: 5820-356].
The fish-person had called the first half of his ID number.
He looked at the fish-person’s own badge:
[Department: Public Welfare Department]
[Position: Public Welfare Activity Planning Specialist]
[ID: 5766-353]
[Name: —]
Yu Zhi’s gaze froze. The name field was blank. “Need something, 5766?”
The fish-person in the black suit spoke, “I’ll take you to your workstation.”
Yu Zhi: “I don’t want to work.”
The greenish-gray, slimy scales on the black-suited fish-man’s body quivered with every movement. It fell silent for a moment, then repeated, “I’ll take you to your workstation.”
Yu Zhi: “No, I’m resigning.”
Black-suited fish-man: “You can resign after you finish your work.”
Yu Zhi frowned. “What if I never finish it? When do we get off work?”
The black-suited fish-man’s voice grew more fatigued: “You can leave work after you finish your tasks.”
Yu Zhi: “What about taking leave?”
Black-suited fish-man: “You can take leave after you finish your work.”
Yu Zhi: “What about eating?”
Black-suited fish-man: “You can eat after you finish your work.”
Yu Zhi: “…”
Meteorite Biotechnology, you’re so ruthless! No meals until the work is done.
So, to leave the Public Welfare Department, he must first finish his work?
Still feeling unwilling to give up, Yu Zhi tried again: “Call the manager over. I want to talk to them personally.”
Black-suited fish-man stared blankly: “You can meet the manager after you finish your work.”
Yu Zhi sighed gloomily: “Fine, just take me to the workstation first.”
The black-suited fish-man turned and walked ahead.
Yu Zhi glanced at the fish-people sitting at their desks along the way. Each wore an employee badge on their chest, but no names—only ID numbers.
Why did his own badge show his real name? Was it just to scare him?
Following the black-suited fish-man, Yu Zhi arrived at the only vacant desk in the entire department.
On it, there was only a computer, a keyboard, and a mouse—nothing else at all.
Spreading its webbed hand, the black-suited fish-man introduced: “5820, this is your workstation.”
Yu Zhi responded with a faint “Oh.”
The black-suited fish-man continued, “This is a chair.”
Yu Zhi looked down at the chair, a very ordinary black office chair: “Is there something special about this chair?”
Ignoring his question, the black-suited fish-man went on, “This is a desk.”
It was a plain white wooden desk with a small drawer in the lower right corner.
Yu Zhi: “Don’t tell me you pollution creatures don’t recognize desks?”
As if it hadn’t heard, the fish-man continued, “This is a computer.”
Its tone wasn’t like it was introducing a workstation, but more like it was introducing colleagues. The voice was utterly flat, mechanical, like an assembly line drone.
After listening to a few sentences, Yu Zhi felt a growing sense of discomfort.
He frowned and interrupted, “What is my job exactly?”
The black-suited fish-man did not answer his question. Instead, it went on: “This is a keyboard. This is a mouse.”
After introducing everything at the workstation, it finally said to Yu Zhi, “5820, your work task today is to complete a proposal.”
With that, the black-suited fish-man finally walked away.
Yu Zhi carefully inspected the workstation. Nothing abnormal. Nothing in the drawer either—a perfectly ordinary workstation.
He sat down and turned on the computer. There was only one file named “Public Welfare Activity Plan.” No other files. The clock only showed the time in hours and minutes, no date, no day of the week.
He casually clicked the mouse twice, then studied the fish-people colleagues around him.
They all had dead-fish faces, large bulging eyes dull and lifeless, constantly typing away. Amid the clacking keys came occasional sighs.
They spoke without saying anything, said everything without speaking.
They didn’t want to work. Work was annoying, tiring, but they had to keep working.
If they didn’t work, they’d never finish. If they never finished, they couldn’t rest or leave. Still had to work.
They didn’t want to, work was annoying, tiring, but they still had to do it…
If the work never ended, they could never leave. They didn’t want to work, but they had to.
“Click-clack—”
This time, the keyboard sound felt especially clear and loud. Yu Zhi’s eyelashes trembled. He saw his hand on the keyboard and jerked awake.
Unknowingly, he’d begun falling into mental contamination.
Immediately, Yu Zhi pushed the keyboard away, staring expressionlessly at the computer screen.
[“Spread Love, Walk with Warmth” Public Welfare Activity Plan]
Yu Zhi immediately deleted the line he’d unconsciously typed. He then forcefully hammered out a brand new eye-catching proposal title:
[“Pollution Creature Cleanup Public Welfare Plan”]
“Ugh—” A heavy sigh came from his right side.
Yu Zhi turned his head. On his right sat a fish-person in business attire, its mouth gaping wide. It took a deep breath and let out a heavy sigh, “Ugh—”
Yu Zhi glanced at the ID on its chest:
[Department: Public Welfare Department]
[Position: Public Welfare Activity Planning Specialist]
[ID: 5732-355]
[Name: —]
It was also a planning specialist.
“5732,” Yu Zhi called softly.
5732 didn’t react, continuing to type.
Yu Zhi leaned over to look at its computer screen. It had only two lines:
[Protecting Earth Public Welfare Activity Plan]
[I. Activity Theme: The ocean is our homeland; everything is for the future of humanity.]
Nothing else.
Yu Zhi was surprised. After so long, it only wrote this much?
“Ugh—” The fish-person sighed heavily again.
Yu Zhi withdrew his gaze. When he looked up again, he was startled. His gaze locked on his own computer screen.
The line he had just typed had disappeared. The document was now blank.
His hands weren’t even on the keyboard, so it couldn’t have been an accidental deletion.
This computer was problematic.
After thinking for a moment, Yu Zhi tried writing another proposal.
[“Caring for Yu Zhi Public Welfare Activity Plan”]
[I. Activity Theme: Warm sunset, care for Yu Zhi.]
[II. Activity Objective: To promote the fine tradition of respecting Yu Zhi in polluted zones, increasing awareness and concern among pollution creatures for protecting Yu Zhi…]
As the document grew longer, Yu Zhi felt his chest getting tighter. Pressing the keys grew more difficult.
He remembered the fourth rule in the employee code: [When experiencing difficulty breathing, you can relieve stress by working diligently.]
Yu Zhi tried continuing, but the chest tightness only increased.
By the time he started writing about the event preparations, he suddenly felt like he couldn’t breathe, as if an invisible hand gripped his throat, preventing him from inhaling any oxygen.
In the blink of an eye, his face turned bright red. He instinctively pulled his hands away from the keyboard.
The moment his fingers left the keys, that invisible hand at his throat vanished, along with the suffocating feeling.
“Cough, cough—”
Yu Zhi coughed twice and took a deep breath.
When he lifted his head again, he saw that the proposal’s text in the document was disappearing, letter by letter, vanishing into thin air.
Yu Zhi’s expression changed. The physical suffocation was gone, but now a psychological suffocation took its place.
He turned and stared fixedly at the fish-person at the next workstation.
That creature would type a few lines, then open its huge mouth and breathe in deeply before letting out a heavy sigh: “Ah—”
It wasn’t sighing out of frustration; it was gasping for air, trying to fill its lungs.
During those gasping intervals, the text it had typed vanished, one character after another.
Typing, suffocating, breathing, deletion, and typing again…
The office echoed with the clatter of keyboards and ceaseless sighs, sending a chill through anyone’s heart.
Start working and you suffocate; stop working and all your progress disappears. You can never finish. If you can’t finish, you can’t leave the Public Welfare Department. An endless cycle.
Yu Zhi’s face remained impassive as he fully grasped the malice of this dungeon.
The barrage of comments took malicious pleasure in his predicament, scrolling even faster.
[User “momo” is very interested in your dungeon mission and tips you 50 universal coins.]
[User “National Special-Grade Human Weapon” wonders about your plan.]
[User “Cyber Bodhisattva” urges you to clear the polluted instance and complete the hidden task.]
[User “Peace-Lover” looks forward to your actions and tips you 10 universal coins.]
Yu Zhi gave a cold laugh in his heart. A plan? His plan was that whoever wanted to do this damned job could do it. He sure wasn’t going to.
He glanced at the ID badge of the fish-person on his left and called out its number: “5799.”
The fish-person acted as if it hadn’t heard, mechanically typing on the keyboard.
Yu Zhi called again, “5799.”
This time, it reacted by stopping its typing and letting out a heavy sigh: “Ah—”
Yu Zhi sighed as well. “5799, you don’t want to work either, right?”
The fish-person’s large, bulging eyes rolled blankly, and it sighed again.
Yu Zhi gave a sympathetic smile. “I get it. Even as a pollution creature, you still have to work. Fine, but the work never ends. If it never ends, you can’t rest, can’t eat, can’t leave.”
“Honestly, you might as well just die.”
5799 gave no response, and the other fish-people paid them no attention.
Yu Zhi continued talking to himself, “If you want to die, it’s understandable. I get it.”
[Give me one minute of “At Your Service”.]
[Item “At Your Service” activated.]
The very next second, Yu Zhi grabbed the fish-person by the collar and violently slammed its head into his workstation’s computer.
The computer was smashed to pieces by the fish-person’s head. Without pausing, Yu Zhi bent his fingers and gripped the fish-person’s neck. His hands, suddenly incomparably strong, crushed the fish-person’s neck like tofu, severing its head from its body.
“Crash—”
Yu Zhi released his grip, and the shattered computer along with the fish-person’s bisected body fell to the floor.
The noise was so loud it drowned out all the typing sounds in the office. The fish-people stopped tapping their keyboards, their protruding, lifeless eyes turning toward Yu Zhi.
Yu Zhi closed his eyes briefly, then, feigning grief and indignation, rebuked loudly: “5799, if you wanted to kill yourself, fine—but why smash my computer?!”
“How am I supposed to work now?! How can I strive for the company’s cause?!”
Every word rang out clearly and firmly, each sentence landing like a hammer.
“You’ve really let me down.”
