lerbook Chapter 713 Virus Outbreak
Chapter 713 Virus Outbreak
Hawksbill turtles sat at their workstations on the fourth floor.
She watched as the employees who had stood up were led into the elevator one by one.
No one ran, no one shouted, and no one resisted; they were like a flock of sheep being herded onto a delivery truck to a slaughterhouse.
Her fingers tapped faster and faster on the table, indicating that her thoughts were racing.
"The Great Purge has begun. Where are you?" Tortoiseshell stared at its bracelet in deep thought.
At this point, she had not yet been marked as an inefficient asset, but she had indeed touched Tie Jian's hands.
That proves that this so-called waste virus has an incubation period, and when it breaks out determines how many employees will die.
What was Wu waiting for when it perished?
Ding-dong-
The elevator stopped at a certain floor.
Wen Xiaolou slowly opened her eyes, only to find that the number displayed was not the forty-ninth floor, but the twenty-eighth floor.
At this moment, a smiling person stood at the elevator entrance and smiled at the people inside: "I'm sorry, everyone, the factory has made some temporary adjustments. Please gather on this floor first."
The other party did not provide any further explanation.
The people in the elevator were led out and into the Wish Exhibition Hall on the 28th floor. It was much more spacious than usual.
All the spherical experience capsules were closed, and the screens on the surface of the capsules were completely black, like giant eyeballs closing their eyes.
The name tag of the smiling person in the center of the exhibition hall is HR-2714.
Zhang Mingyuan.
"Please wait here." His voice was gentle. "Further arrangements will be announced later."
"How long will it take?" someone asked.
What is more agonizing than death itself is the process of waiting for it.
Zhang Mingyuan smiled and said, "Soon."
Wen Xiaolou then found a corner to squat down, hugging her knees as she reflected on her life.
During this process, he did not notice that although the red lettering on the bracelet on his wrist was still flashing, the red edges were beginning to fade.
It didn't disappear; instead, it turned into a strange grayish-white color.
He was noticing that everyone around him was also looking at their own bracelets, their faces filled with incomprehension, confusion, and even a hint of fear.
As if completely unable to comprehend what was happening, fear of the unknown spread among the crowd.
My bracelet... has dimmed?
"Mine too..."
What is the value of this desire?
The rustling sounds in the crowd made Wen Xiaolou suddenly look down and discover the strange situation on her bracelet.
The red warning that was originally marked as "Inefficient Assets" has now completely turned into a gray string of numbers, clearly stating—
[Value of Desire: 0]
The gray data flickered silently, like a faint star, like a dying spark, like a person's last heartbeat.
Wen Xiaolou burst into tears.
"He's here." Wen Xiaolou's voice was hoarse, but incredibly firm: "He's here to destroy all of this!"
At the same time, throughout the entire factory.
Everyone's wristbands flashed simultaneously, not as a pop-up or warning, but as notifications of "Inefficient Assets" appearing on the screens, which then quickly turned into zero value for desire.
Those employees who are still working normally, those employees who thought they were not on the list, and those employees who didn't even know they were infected.
They started to break down.
Especially those on the upper floors who consider themselves the elite among men.
When they saw the "Inefficient Assets" notification, their rage and disbelief almost made them want to smash everything in front of them.
It was later discovered that when the value of desire is presented, they still have a certain value, but it goes to zero in a very short time.
This kind of being forced to reset to zero is more like a humiliation.
Not only that, a middle-aged man who was typing on a keyboard suddenly stopped typing.
He looked at his bracelet, his pupils suddenly contracting in confusion, and asked, "Where are my... my wish points?"
His voice began to tremble: "I'd saved up almost three thousand points... how could they all be gone?!"
He frantically clicked on the Wish Shop page, and every item turned gray.
A prompt appears on the screen—
Your current desires are insufficient to support any purchase. Please contact HR for an assessment.
The factory certainly wouldn't allow an employee rated as an inefficient asset with a desire value of zero to use desire points to get anything from it.
However, it never anticipated that someone would hold so many wish points and be rated as an inefficient asset.
This situation is playing out on every floor, and the employees' emotions are being stirred up at an unimaginable speed.
"Evaluate? What the hell are you evaluating!" The man stood up, his chair tipping over as he roared, "My performance is better than everyone else's! How could it be my turn!"
No one responded to him.
Because more people are also looking at their own fitness trackers and seeing that line of gray data.
Panic spread like a plague.
Some people threw their mice, some smashed their keyboards, and some rushed to the tea room and drank cup after cup of coffee, as if the coffee could wash away the gray on their wristbands.
But none of this works. The gray-white zero-desire value is not a virus, not bacteria, not anything that can be washed away.
It is waste produced by the factory itself, the residue left after the employees have been squeezed dry.
The factory threw it into the Forgotten Zone, and Wu Wang retrieved it.
Now, it has been returned to the factory.
On the fourth floor, a young male employee was kneeling on the ground, panting heavily with his hands on the ground.
He is not an inefficient asset, at least not a few minutes ago when the Smiler came to arrest him.
At the time, he was relieved that he had escaped a disaster, and the weight on his heart finally lifted.
But now, the red and gray text on his bracelet are appearing at the same time, and the constant ups and downs are driving him to the brink of collapse.
"I don't want to die...I don't want to die..."
His tears flowed uncontrollably.
His disheveled appearance also affected the employees around him who were in the same situation.
Only the hawksbill turtles and the others, upon seeing this scene, not only did not panic, but also felt a sense of relief.
Because they know that the wider the scope of the impact and the more chaotic the situation in the factory, the higher the likelihood that the large-scale cleanup will be terminated.
That bastard has finally started making his move!
"Action, find them."
She suddenly took out a headset-like device and gave instructions into it.
At the same time, players hidden throughout the factory began frantically searching for Wu Wang while the employees were in disarray, the Smiler was busy, and the factory was reacting. This was Dai Mao's assessment before the purge began.
That guy must have some way of causing the waste virus to break out at a critical moment. Since he's going to create chaos in the factory, it means he'll take advantage of that chaos to do something.
At this point, it would be much harder for him to hide.
We must find a way to catch him!
Otherwise, you'll just be led by the nose forever!
At this moment, Qing Ning was squatting outside the maintenance passage on the 28th floor, adjusting her breathing and not daring to make too much noise.
After all, there's a group of Smilers outside. If they were discovered blocking the entrance to this passage, we'd be truly doomed.
Thinking about this, her expression became increasingly helpless. Who knows why the Smiler would bring those inefficient asset employees who should be upstairs here!
Logically, the Wish Exhibition Hall should be quite empty right now!
As for why she was here, it was naturally because she remembered that Wu Wang had asked her to guard the gate here before, which gave Qing Ning other ideas.
If I can actually find what Wu Wang is looking for, then even if he hides it, he'll eventually have to find a way to take it back from me.
Since we can't find him.
Then let him show himself!
This is Qingning's unique perspective compared to other searches for Wu's whereabouts.
However, she had been staking out this spot for a long time but had not found anything unusual. The deeper part of the maintenance passage required authorization to access, so she dared not go there rashly.
The massive cleanup has begun, and even a virus has broken out in the waste.
Could it be that there really is no problem here?
Just as Qing Ning was thinking this and turned around to quietly retreat to other floors, a subtle movement came from inside the maintenance passage door.
Click—
Although the sound wasn't loud, it startled Qing Ning so much that she immediately became alert and even took out her escape tools from her backpack.
They were terrified that something extremely dangerous might break out of the door later.
The next second, the door was pushed open from the inside.
A hand emerged from the darkness, with long, slender fingers and grayish-black grime embedded in its nails. A bracelet adorned its wrist, but the screen was black, seemingly covered by some kind of gel-like substance.
A completely unfamiliar woman walked out from behind the maintenance door that should have required authorization to open, and she too was stunned the moment she saw Qing Ning.
The two of them just stared at each other blankly.
After Qingning exclaimed "Holy crap!", she immediately called for backup through her headset to Daimao.
There's something fucking wrong here!
Could it be that Wu sent him to block the door before his death, hoping to stop this woman?
What is her relationship with Wu Wang?
A myriad of thoughts instantly flooded Qing Ning's mind.
But then they saw the woman open her mouth as if to say something but then hesitated, her eyes rolled back, and she fell heavily to the ground, completely motionless.
After observing for a while, Qingning finally confirmed that the person had indeed fainted.
She leaned closer to examine it carefully.
The other person's hair was a mess, and their work clothes didn't fit properly, as if they had been stolen from someone else's house; they were also covered in dust and dried sweat stains.
His face was so pale it looked like he had been dead for three days, and he wasn't even wearing shoes. He walked naked through the maintenance passage, getting his feet all dirty.
It felt like this woman had escaped from a pyramid scheme after suffering some kind of inhuman torture.
But strangely, there wasn't a single sign of injury on her body.
Her body was completely unharmed.
But I was mentally exhausted.
"Uh, it seems we don't need reinforcements again." While Qing Ning was reporting the situation to Dai Mao, she also heard a faint, familiar footstep coming from behind the maintenance passage door.
She stopped reporting and stared at the woman on the ground, hesitating about something.
Finally, gritting his teeth, he stomped his foot, bent down, hoisted the other person onto his back, and quickly retreated towards the ventilation duct behind him.
The footsteps were so rhythmic.
It's clearly the smile of the man!
In other words, this person is being hunted by the Smilers. If she were left there, she would probably be doomed. Qing Ning still has many questions she wants to get answers to from her!
The key to catching Wu Wang might lie with this person. How could we let her be arrested like this?
Although there are certain risks in making such a hasty contact with the other party, Qingning felt that the benefits she would gain from her would be greater.
The two quickly retreated to the staff quarters, and Qingning temporarily settled the other person in her room.
After receiving her message, Dai Mao rushed over quickly. Apart from leaving a few people who were relatively far away to continue searching for Wu Wang, the players nearby also came to check the situation.
The small room was crammed with a large group of people.
In this state, the woman groggily awoke from her coma.
However, her very first words startled everyone.
"Excuse me... are you the Descendants?"
This person actually knew about the existence of the Calamity players!?
"Who are you?" Tortoiseshell's voice was cold.
The woman took a step forward, and the tall man immediately stepped in front of the hawksbill turtle, blocking its path from any possible attack.
Now they are very wary of her.
“My name is Li Shuang,” the woman said. “Former vice president of the Solidarity Union.”
The air seemed to freeze for a moment.
The hawksbill turtle squinted as if recalling something. She remembered the clues Qing Ning had found in Ke Ming's room, and that name was among them.
However, it says on it—
Li Shuang lied to me.
Don't trust Li Shuang.
Could it be that Ke Ming's disappearance was related to this woman in front of him?
Before Daimao could think for long, Li Shuang, her eyes red, began to recount the past strike, what Solidarity Union was, and how she learned of the existence of the Descendants and how she had been hiding in the ventilation ducts ever since.
This also includes how she came into contact with and trusted Wu Wang, wanting him to change everything, but was betrayed.
However, in her description, there is naturally no part about being captured by the Smiling People and transformed in the talent incubation center and then escaping; instead, she has been constantly on the run.
Wu Wang was a treacherous and wicked man.
From the story, she seems to be a tragic character who wants to rebel against the factory but is ultimately unable to do so.
This made the players lower their guard a little, after all, they had also been betrayed by Wu Wang.
The enemy of the enemy is the friend.
"I've been hiding for so long, watching my companions being sent to the talent incubation center one by one, watching Chairman Zhang Mingyuan become a 'smiling person,' and watching the Unity Union be reduced to just me. I don't want to watch anymore."
Li Shuang vividly portrayed herself as a victim.
The secrets and past she possessed that the players were unaware of gave them a glimmer of hope for breaking the deadlock.
Only the hawksbill turtle remained silent.
She was observing Li Shuang's every expression, every movement, and the frequency of her every breath.
She was looking for a flaw.
After all, the timing of this woman's appearance was just too perfect... (End of Chapter)