Chapter 64
The livestream barrage exploded with activity:
[User “Electronic Wooden Fish” praises your despicable shamelessness.]
[User “Marine Scientist” criticizes your ruthlessness and sympathizes with the pollution creatures.]
[User “National Special-Grade Human Weapon” admires your beastly cruelty and blame-shifting.]
[User “Cyber Bodhisattva” appreciates your insanity and tips you 50 universal coins.]
[User “Reborn from an Otherworldly True Love” looks forward to your actions.]
In stark contrast to the lively barrage, the office area fell into dead silence.
The entire Public Welfare Department was silent. Only the sea breeze swept through the shattered floor-to-ceiling window, gently whispering around the workstations.
Although the other fish-people were looking at Yu Zhi, none spoke. Their expressions remained uniformly numb and indifferent, devoid of curiosity. It seemed they were only looking because the loud noise had interrupted their work. As for what happened and why, they didn’t care at all.
After a couple of glances, the fish-people withdrew their gazes and resumed working. The clattering of keyboards started up again, not a single one concerned about the life or death of their “colleague.”
Yu Zhi watched them, his eyelid twitching slightly, a growing sense of unease creeping over him.
In the next second, his attention shifted to the sticky, slimy feel remaining on his hands.
Looking down, he saw bits of the fish-person’s flesh clinging to his fingers—like chunks of fatty meat, limp and sliding down slowly, utterly revolting.
Yu Zhi’s expression changed slightly, and he wiped the blood and fishy meat from his hand onto another fish-person’s clothes.
The fish-person he used as a rag showed no objection.
After wiping roughly a few times, Yu Zhi noticed two fish-people in white protective suits approaching the Public Welfare Department.
He glanced down at the corpse on the floor.
Like a fish, the body didn’t have much blood. Only a puddle about the size of a computer screen had formed. The neck meat looked like raw fish flesh—translucent and white. The severed head lay on its side, eyes protruding and huge, seemingly still alive. Its fish eyes were even brighter than when it was alive, staring straight at Yu Zhi.
Yu Zhi considered whether he should explain how 5799 managed to break its own neck while committing suicide.
The two fish-people in white protective suits reached him. They had bloodstains on them, as if they had just collected bodies elsewhere. They said nothing, asked nothing, working silently to remove the corpse.
One fish-person bent down and picked up the severed head like someone picking up an empty plastic bottle, tossing it into a black body bag.
The other one stood before the headless corpse, face blank and emotionless, not even blinking, skillfully packing the body into the bag.
Yu Zhi looked at their ID badges—no names there either.
[Department: Funeral Services Dept]
[Position: Corpse Disposal Specialist]
[ID: 3095-123]
[Name: —]
[Department: Funeral Services Dept]
[Position: Corpse Disposal Specialist]
[ID: 3094-123]
[Name: —]
After collecting the corpse, the two fish-people turned and left.
They didn’t spare a glance at the shattered floor-to-ceiling window, seemed not to care about anything, dragging their lifeless steps as they exited the Public Welfare Department one after the other.
“Ding—”
The elevator sounded again.
This time, a fish-person wearing a plaid shirt arrived. Its eyes were as numb and vacant as the others. One hand carried a computer, the other a keyboard and mouse. It walked straight up to Yu Zhi and placed the items on his workstation.
“5820,” its voice sounded like it was being forced out of its throat, hoarse and unpleasant, “This is the computer.”
“This is the keyboard. This is the mouse.”
These few familiar lines were like a bucket of ice water splashed over Yu Zhi’s head, extinguishing the anger he’d felt at the never-ending work.
The crisp clatter of keyboards sounded even sharper, snapping through the air like popping beans.
Yu Zhi felt a heavy oppression. Even doing nothing, he still struggled to breathe normally, the difficulty lingering in his chest.
If a fish-person died, another took its place. If a computer broke, another was delivered.
Here, whatever was missing would be replaced.
It wasn’t a cycle, it was like… like…
A thought flashed through his mind, but vanished before he could grasp it.
He racked his brains, but couldn’t recall it and gave up.
He needed to think of another way to escape.
Yu Zhi picked up his employee ID again, looking at the employee code on the back.
[1. The employee badge must be worn prominently on the chest. Take care not to lose or damage it.]
[2. It is forbidden to lend your badge to others or forge work information.]
He stared at the first and second rules for a while.
Maybe he could try both.
Yu Zhi scooted his chair back and glanced at the shirt-wearing fish-person on his left and the skirt-wearing fish-person on his right.
After a moment’s thought, he suddenly reached out and tore off the shirt-wearing fish-person’s ID badge, snapping it and tossing it to the floor. Then he spun around to the skirt-wearing fish-person and, with lightning speed, yanked off its ID badge and slipped it around the shirt-wearing fish-person’s neck.
All done in a flash, so fast that the two fish-people didn’t immediately realize what had happened.
By the time they noticed their badges were gone, Yu Zhi was already accusing them loudly.
“Can’t a guy get any work done?!”
“You don’t want to work, but others do. Can you not interfere with us?”
The shirt-wearing fish-person moved its lips, looking more fatigued: “I am working properly.”
Yu Zhi retorted without hesitation, “You’ve only typed a few words in your document. How dare you say you’re working properly?”
The shirt-wearing fish-person: “…..”
It fell silent. Yu Zhi seized the chance to turn to the skirt-wearing fish-person: “5723, why did you lend your badge to it? The employee code clearly states to properly preserve your badge and never lend it out.”
“You broke one badge and then lent another. Two fish-people colluding, aiding and abetting each other!”
“Partners in crime! In cahoots!”
The skirt-wearing fish-person said blankly, “I did not,” and reached out to take back its badge.
Seeing this, Yu Zhi punched it in the mouth: “Denying it is one thing, but now you’re trying to attack me?”
Skirt-wearing fish-person: “…I—”
Yu Zhi threw another punch, blocking off whatever it wanted to say.
This punch was reinforced by “At Your Service,” and directly smashed the skirt-wearing fish-person’s mouth. Countless dense teeth clattered to the ground, mixed with bloody flesh.
Yu Zhi forced down his nausea. In the last few seconds of the one-minute ability, he turned and delivered two solid punches to the shirt-wearing fish-person as well.
Fair is fair—two punches for each pollution creature, leaving them speechless.
Both fish-people, battered and bloody, still showed no emotion on their disfigured faces. No terror, no hatred, no resentment—just the same lifelessness, like two half-dead corpses.
“Ding—”
The elevator chimed again.
Yu Zhi lifted his eyes. This time a fish-person in a dark brown suit stepped out. Its body was larger than the others’, at least 1.9 meters tall, but its fish face bore the same tired, weary look as everyone else.
As it drew nearer, Yu Zhi realized it was the Public Welfare Department’s minister.
[Department: Public Welfare Department]
[Position: Minister of Public Welfare Department]
[ID: 2031-101]
[Name: —]
Even the minister had no name.
Its eyeballs shifted slightly, looking at the shirt-wearing and skirt-wearing fish-people’s badges. Then it spoke:
“I am very disappointed in you.”
In the blink of an eye, his face flushed crimson, and his hands instinctively pushed the keyboard away.
The instant his fingers left the keys, the invisible hand at his throat vanished, along with the suffocating feeling.
“Cough, cough—”
Yu Zhi coughed twice, taking a deep, desperate breath.
Once he recovered his senses and looked up, he saw that the proposal text in the document was disappearing character by character, vanishing without a trace.
His face fell. The physical suffocation was gone, replaced by a psychological one.
He turned, staring intently at the fish-person at the next workstation.
He watched it type a few lines, then open its mouth wide, inhaling deeply before exhaling heavily with an “ah—”
It wasn’t actually sighing. It was gasping for air, trying to breathe.
During each gasp, the text it had typed disappeared, one character after another.
Type, suffocate, breathe, everything gets erased, then type again…
The office echoed with the clacking of keyboards and ceaseless sighing, chilling the heart.
Start working and you suffocate. Stop, and all your efforts vanish. The task can never be completed, and without completing your work, you cannot leave the Public Welfare Department. An endless cycle.
Yu Zhi’s expression remained blank as he fully perceived the dungeon’s malice.
The barrage in the livestream rejoiced at his plight, 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 quickly complete the polluted instance and finish the hidden task.]
[User “Peace-Lover” looks forward to your actions, tipping 10 universal coins.]
Yu Zhi sneered inwardly. A plan? Sure: whoever wants to work can work. He certainly wouldn’t.
He glanced at the ID badge of the fish-person to his left and called it by number: “5799.”
The fish-person acted as though it couldn’t hear him, mechanically typing away.
Yu Zhi called again, “5799.”
This time it reacted, pausing its typing and letting out a heavy sigh, “Ah—”
Yu Zhi also sighed. “5799, you don’t want to work either, do you?”
The fish-person’s large, protruding eyes rolled vacantly, and it sighed again.
Yu Zhi smiled sympathetically. “I understand. Even as a pollution creature you 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, nor did any other fish-person pay attention.
Yu Zhi continued, “It’s normal for you to want to die. I understand.”
[Give me one minute of “At Your Service” (????).]
[Item “At Your Service” activated.]
In the next moment, Yu Zhi grabbed the fish-person by the collar and slammed its head into his workstation’s computer.
As the computer shattered beneath the fish-person’s skull, Yu Zhi curled his fingers and crushed its neck like tofu, severing its head. Blood and flesh splattered.
“Crash—”
Yu Zhi let go, and the broken computer and the fish-person’s bisected body fell to the floor together.
The noise was so loud it overshadowed the typing, and the fish-people stopped. Their bulging, lifeless eyes turned to Yu Zhi.
Yu Zhi closed his eyes briefly, then spoke with heartfelt indignation: “5799, if you wanted to kill yourself, that’s fine—but why break my computer?!”
“How am I supposed to work now?! How can I strive for the company’s cause?!”
Each word rang with righteous indignation.
“You’ve really let me down.”
The livestream barrage exploded again:
[User “Electronic Wooden Fish” praises your despicable shamelessness.]
[User “Marine Scientist” condemns your cruelty and sympathizes with the pollution creatures.]
[User “National Special-Grade Human Weapon” appreciates your beastly cruelty and blame-shifting.]
[User “Cyber Bodhisattva” admires your deranged cruelty and tips you 50 universal coins.]
[User “Reborn from an Otherworldly True Love” anticipates your next move.]
While the barrage was lively, the office remained deathly silent.
Not one fish-person said a word. The only sound was the sea breeze whistling through the shattered window, threading through the workstations.
Though the fish-people glanced at Yu Zhi, none were curious about what happened. They turned back to their keyboards, clacking away, indifferent to life and death.
Yu Zhi observed them, feeling a creeping unease. Then he noticed the sticky, slimy feeling on his hands.
Looking down, he saw bits of fish-person flesh like chunks of fat sliding off his fingers, disgustingly soft.
Yu Zhi’s expression twisted. He wiped the blood and flesh onto another fish-person’s clothes, who didn’t react at all.
After wiping his hands a few times, he saw two fish-people in white protective suits enter the department.
He looked at the corpse on the floor. Like a fish, not much blood had spilled, only about a screen’s worth. The severed neck revealed pale, translucent flesh. The head lay on its side, fish eyes wide as if still alive.
Yu Zhi considered making excuses about 5799’s “suicide,” but before he could, the two white-suited fish-people approached. Bloodstains covered them, as if they’d just gathered corpses somewhere else.
They said nothing, asked nothing, and silently collected the remains. One picked up the severed head like picking up a plastic bottle and tossed it into a black body bag. The other skillfully bagged the headless corpse.
Yu Zhi glanced at their badges—no names either:
[Department: Funeral Services]
[Position: Corpse Disposal Specialist]
[ID: 3095-123 / 3094-123]
[Name: —]
After packing the corpse, they left without looking at the broken window.
“Ding—”
The elevator chimed again.
This time, a fish-person in a plaid shirt arrived, eyes just as numb. It carried a computer in one hand and a keyboard and mouse in the other, placing them on Yu Zhi’s workstation.
“5820,” it rasped, “This is the computer.”
“This is the keyboard. This is the mouse.”
The familiar introduction was like a bucket of cold water extinguishing any lingering anger at the never-ending work.
Keyboards clacked, each note crisp and clear.
Yu Zhi felt stifled. Even doing nothing, he still found it hard to breathe. The difficulty lingered, like an invisible weight on his chest.
If a fish-person died, a new one came. If a computer broke, a new one replaced it. Whatever was missing got replenished.
Not a cycle, more like…like…
A thought flickered through his mind but vanished before he could catch it.
He tried to recall it, but failed and gave up.
He needed another strategy to escape.
Yu Zhi picked up his ID and reread the rules:
[1. The badge must be worn prominently and not lost or damaged.]
[2. No lending or forging of work IDs.]
He focused on rule one and two. Maybe a two-pronged approach.
Yu Zhi leaned back, eyeing the shirt-wearing fish-person to his left and the skirt-wearing one to his right.
He abruptly tore off the shirt-fish-person’s badge, breaking it and tossing it aside. Then, with lightning speed, he snatched the skirt-fish-person’s badge and placed it around the shirt-fish-person’s neck.
The two fish-people were caught off guard. By the time they realized what had happened, Yu Zhi was already questioning them sternly.
“Can’t a guy work in peace?!”
“You don’t want to work, but others do. Don’t interfere!”
The shirt-fish-person murmured, “I am working properly.”
Yu Zhi retorted, “You’ve barely typed a few words. How dare you claim you’re working properly?”
It fell silent. Yu Zhi turned to the skirt-fish-person: “5723, why lend your badge? The rules clearly forbid it!”
“You broke one badge and lent another—colluding together!”
“Partners in crime! Mutual cover-ups!”
“I did not,” the skirt-fish-person said dully, reaching for its badge.
Yu Zhi punched it in the mouth, “Not only are you denying it, now you want to attack me?!”
“…I—” it began.
Another punch silenced it. This time, bolstered by “At Your Service,” the blow smashed its mouth, teeth clattering to the ground with blood and flesh.
Yu Zhi forced down nausea. In the last seconds of the ability, he turned and gave the shirt-fish-person two solid punches as well. Equal treatment.
Both fish-people, bloody and battered, showed no fear or hatred. Still the same dead indifference, like corpses.
“Ding—”
The elevator rang again.
Yu Zhi looked up. A fish-person in a dark brown suit entered, taller and bulkier than the rest, about 1.9 meters. Yet it bore the same tired fish-face.
It approached, and Yu Zhi saw it was the department minister:
[Department: Public Welfare Dept]
[Position: Minister]
[ID: 2031-101]
[Name: —]
Even the minister had no name.
Its eyes shifted, glancing at the two fish-people’s badges. It spoke:
“I am very disappointed in you.”
*
The minister said it was disappointed, but its face remained a dead, numb fish-face. It took out two syringes and injected each fish-person with one shot.
Neither fish-person struggled or avoided it, as if they knew resistance was futile. They just watched the needle sink into their bodies.
Soon, they collapsed, twitching uncontrollably like dying fish flopping on the ground, making a slap-slap sound.
As the twitching weakened, their gray-green scales began to swell up, like their entire bodies were covered in gray-green pustules.
Within seconds, their scales stood on end, and the flesh beneath bulged with tiny lumps. In a sudden moment, these lumps burst, oozing yellow-green pus.
Their bodies swelled, becoming two giant pus-leaking fish-shaped pinecones—grotesque, nauseating, horrifying.
Yu Zhi took one look and felt his scalp tingle, his hair standing on end.
He immediately looked away. Though he couldn’t see them, he could hear the subtle sounds.
“Zhh… zhh…”
The pustules bursting sounded like bubbles popping, mingling with the constant keyboard clatter.
Yu Zhi clenched his molars. The more he tried to ignore it, the clearer it became.
“Pop, pop, pop, pop, pop—”
“Pop, pop, pop, pop, pop—”
The image of exploding scales haunted him, and he even felt like something was protruding from his own arm, itching and prickling.
He couldn’t tell if it was mental contamination or if he himself had been infected and begun to mutate.
Bracing himself, he touched his arm and only felt goosebumps.
No scales, no pustules, but his nerves were on edge, his temples throbbing painfully.
The other fish-people still showed no reaction, typing away, indifferent to their fellows’ grisly deaths, uncaring about their own fate. As if death was trivial and meaningless.
Within a minute, two white-suited figures appeared outside again.
Yu Zhi didn’t need to look down to know the two fish-people were dead.
Break rules one and two, and you die. Perfect.
Though escape seemed more hopeless, he had thoroughly disgusted himself.
He felt his emotions draining away, replaced by a heavy sense of helplessness.
Finishing the job to leave? Impossible—the work never ends.
Breaking the computer? They’d bring a new one.
Break the rules? You’d die.
Yu Zhi realized he was undergoing mental contamination.
The oppressive, unchanging environment of the Public Welfare Department affected him. Humans are easily influenced by their surroundings.
More importantly, he was forced into an endless loop: trying to escape but failing, then trying again and failing again. Each negative outcome wore down his temper, affecting his psyche and gnawing at his spirit, accelerating the contamination.
He felt like an insect trapped in a glass jar, desperately seeking an exit, only to smash itself bloody.
Then…
Yu Zhi lifted his eyes, seeing his own reflection on the computer screen—numb, indifferent, exhausted, just like those half-dead fish-people.
The viewers noticed his change, cheerfully sending barrage comments:
[User “Pure Love Warrior” appreciates your repeated failures.]
[User “Strongest King” eagerly awaits you becoming a pollution creature.]
[User “momo” remains highly interested in your dungeon and tips you 10 universal coins.]
[User “Arrogant Rich Young Master” praises your perseverance and tips 0.1 universal coins.]
The slight increase in universal coins snapped Yu Zhi back.
He took a deep breath, rubbed his face hard, repeating in his mind: It’s a dungeon task, a dungeon task…
Calm, steady, no panic. If it’s a mission, there must be a way to complete it.
He was different from these fish-people.
He was a noble Mantis Exterminator, Battle Mantis, Lip-Love Warrior, Lip-Love Warlord…
While self-soothing, he pictured an irritating figure in his mind to stir some emotion.
Fu Suxi, that damned mutt, where the hell are you?!
Why haven’t you completed the dungeon yet?!
Hero, can’t you do your job?!
[User “Lord of the Fire God” is very interested in your mission and tips you 50 universal coins.]
[User “Vitamin E Boost” is curious about your abilities and tips you 50 universal coins.]
[User “Piggy Canned Food” hopes you’ll carry out the pollution creatures’ demands and tips you 100 universal coins.]
[User “Light Bulb” wonders why you won’t complete the pollution creatures’ tasks and tips you 50 universal coins.]
Fu Suxi gripped a black blade, eyes dark and cold, staring at the stainless-steel door before him.
“Screech—”
The door opened. A fish-person in a black leather apron entered, speaking coldly: “6302.”
“Scr*pe the scales off this leg.”
With that, it tossed a fish-person’s leg covered in gray-green scales onto the stainless-steel worktable, producing a heavy clang.
Fu Suxi’s expression didn’t change. He raised the black blade, half as tall as a person, and drove it straight through the fat fish-person’s skull. Red and white fluids splattered the wall, leaving a stain.
With a swift motion, he sliced off the fish-person’s scales along with the flesh.
Moments later, “Screech—”
The steel door opened again.
Another fish-person in a black leather apron walked in and dropped another leg: “6302.”
“Scr*pe the scales off this le—”
Before it finished, the fish-person’s body was cut into several pieces.
“6302, scr*pe the scales—”
“6302, scr*pe—” “6302…” “6302…”
Under the dim yellow light, dark red blood splattered the entire room. Pale slices of flesh and meat were stacked maliciously into a mountain of corpses, filling half the room.
Fu Suxi leaned against the table, eyes bloodshot and unfocused, emanating a deranged, violent aura.
This time, the stainless-steel door did not open again.
After a long while, with the target still not appearing and having nowhere to vent his brutality, Fu Suxi regained a sliver of clarity.
He sheathed his blade, lit a cigarette, took a few puffs. His scarlet eyes gradually focused through the drifting smoke. Glancing at his right hand, he saw it was covered in blood, as if washed in crimson. His right forearm, from the wrist upwards, was now covered in gray-green scales.
Just like the fish-people’s.
He had been contaminated.
Fu Suxi laughed softly, wisps of pale smoke escaping his thin lips, drifting around his sharply contoured face.
“Where is Yu You?”
[User “Huang Girl” reminds you that he’s enjoying himself in the office.]
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