Chapter 124

Lin Tu used her break to make her way to the Art Department head's office.

A rope hung outside the head's office door too—the same kind that held the Employee Handbook outside the other office doors.

Lin Tu's heart stirred. She knocked, found the room empty, and slipped inside in one smooth motion.

A quick search turned up the Art Department Head's Handbook propping up the desk. Lin Tu pulled it out and slid her own Employee Handbook in its place.

The moment she stepped out of the office, she came face-to-face with an especially obese man whose expression and movements were oddly stiff.

"Little Lin, what are you doing in my office..."

In that instant, Lin Tu realized this wasn't just the Art Department head—this was also the man whose takeout she'd stashed in the bathroom.

"I just came to see if you needed any more help," Lin Tu said immediately.

"Of course, of course," the head said, forcing a rigid smile. "You're new to the company, so you still need to learn the rules of our One Big Happy, Joyful, Beautiful Family from your seniors. Colleagues should care for one another and help one another like family."

"As your family, I should give you this opportunity. I've been a bit short on cash lately. My nephew is getting married and needs three hundred thousand to buy a car. I know you're not well off either, so I won't ask for much—two hundred thousand will do."

Lin Tu thought he was insane. "I just started working. How would I have two hundred thousand... Or could you give me a few days?"

"Do you really not want to help your colleague? I thought we were family!!"

Lin Tu held the head's gaze for a few seconds. Watching the man's body radiate an increasingly strange aura, like a black hole sucking all the light from around him, she chose to yield. Whether she actually gave him the two hundred thousand was one thing, but for now she had to agree, or the plot would kill her.

"You're right. We're family."

"I'll give you one day. I'll come collect the money at your first clock-in tomorrow morning."

After seeing off the Art Department head, Lin Tu returned to her seat with the handbook.

Two hundred thousand could be exchanged for twenty points, but Lin Tu was genuinely stingy. She didn't want to spend a single point, so she'd have to find another way. After thinking it over, the most cost-effective option was to kill the Art Department head and take his position herself.

Lin Tu opened the Art Department Head's Handbook—

"One: As head, your work is no different from anyone else's. You must wear your head's badge daily and chat with at least one tenth of the Art Department, telling them you are the head. Otherwise, they will gradually realize you are just an ordinary employee."

"Two: The company only hires fresh graduates. To prevent them from successfully converting to regular employment and receiving raises, they must be 'optimized' in a timely manner. For each employee you optimize, you will receive one point. Maximum five hundred points per day. Note: Due to the inherited nature of workstations, all new employees inherit the property and even memories of the previous optimized employee. If you optimize the same employee too many times, they may go berserk."

"Three: As Art Department head, you must attend the Design Department headquarters meeting during your lunch break every day, wearing your head's badge. Please maintain a serious work attitude and a cheerful mood—leadership may visit the Design Department meeting at any time."

"Now, as Art Department head, you will enjoy company management benefits. You may enjoy the company's gourmet food products. They will be delivered to your workstation at your first clock-in each day."

Lin Tu: So if she got the badge and changed the name to hers, she'd legitimately become the Art Department head?

That couldn't be right. Lin Tu couldn't help feeling there was a catch. But for the money, and to dig deeper into what this company actually produced, she figured she'd have to step in the trap to find out how deep it went.

She decisively closed the Art Department Head's Handbook and headed in the direction the head had gone.

The Art Department was on the seventh floor, and so was the Packaging Department—she'd seen the office names on the other side of the elevator when she'd gone to pick up takeout earlier. The Design Department, according to the 3D map, was on the eighth floor.

In a hurry, Lin Tu took the stairs to the eighth floor and soon spotted the Packaging Department head coming up in the hallway.

She could switch jobs too, honestly, but she didn't have a Packaging Department Head's Handbook. Lin Tu suppressed her restless ambition and followed the solitary packaging head to the end of the hallway.

The offices on both sides of the corridor were pitch black, doors wide open, empty inside.

Lin Tu followed the packaging head to the meeting room door, glanced inside, and didn't see her own superior.

She casually stepped into one of the dark rooms off the corridor.

It had once been an office too—about a hundred workstations. But now it was covered in dust, with a strange, rotten stench of decay.

"So hungry..." From somewhere in the darkness, Lin Tu felt a whisper at the back of her ear.

Goosebumps erupted across her skin. She swiftly drew her long blade and swallowed a Night Blueberry.

She spun around—but saw no one.

With the blueberry's enhancement, Lin Tu could see the contents of the office more clearly.

It wasn't so much an office as a storage room. Each workstation held either water or cans of meat, bread slices, instant noodles, and other quick foods. The packaging was all labeled with things like cold, flavorless luncheon meat and gloopy chickpeas—nothing that looked appetizing.

What was worth noting was that this very lack of appeal made Lin Tu, who had recently endured the torment of a ravenous appetite, feel somewhat safer.

—In this disaster, what you ate might be something requiring careful consideration, Lin Tu thought. But that didn't matter much to her, since she had years of stockpiled rations.

"So hungry..."

"You smell so good..."

Two more whispers in succession.

Lin Tu whirled around. The pitch-black office seemed as if everything had just been her imagination.

—Something was wrong with this office.

Lin Tu reacted quickly. She knew herself; she wasn't stupid. She would never walk into a pitch-black office symbolizing the unknown without scouting it first. So why had she just walked in?

From outside the door came the sound of heavy "thud thud thud" footsteps approaching. Judging by the weight of the steps, Lin Tu guessed it might be the Art Department head.

She turned swiftly toward the door. Then, her vision blurred—countless people crowded in front of her, holding chopsticks sharp as needles, tweezers sharp as knives, and actual forks and knives, excitedly stabbing and slicing at her.

Lin Tu felt a sting in her hand holding the blade. She looked down—a pair of chopsticks had slipped past her glove, clamped onto a piece of skin on the back of her hand, and torn it away. Beneath the skin, blood gushed out, revealing clear strands of muscle underneath.

"What the hell is this!" Lin Tu cursed under her breath. She felt no pain at all, nor had she even sensed the chopsticks approaching. "Doctor's Special Bandage!"

She shouted, and a bandage flew out of her backpack, wrapping itself around her hand automatically.

Knowing this place was bizarre and dangerous, and not understanding the situation, Lin Tu decided not to linger—

"Ultra-High Difficulty Escape Technique!" Lin Tu raised her right hand, locked onto the door, and a rope descended from above. She grabbed it, and the next second, she was already at the doorway.

[Ultra-High Difficulty Escape Technique] let Lin Tu instantly teleport to any place she'd been to and could see with her naked eye, once every twenty-four hours.

As a skill that had been upgraded with evolution points, it shouldn't have been this limited. But this was ultimately a "secondhand skill." Its most powerful effect was triggering a life-flashback at the moment of death, rewinding time to just before death to avoid it. Unfortunately, that effect had already been used up by Deng Haixiang, leaving only this teleport function.

Digressions aside, when Lin Tu teleported to the doorway, she happened to run right into the Art Department head.

Could you kill people directly in the company?

This question spun through Lin Tu's mind for a second before she had her answer—this wasn't killing, this was "optimizing."

She still happened to have her blade in hand. Raising her right arm high, she swung it toward the Art Department head's heart. The recently skinned hand didn't hamper her performance at all—Lin Tu precisely cleaved the head in two. As blood sprayed, her left hand shot forward and grabbed the badge on his chest.

"You..." The Art Department head glared at Lin Tu in fury. "You promised to help me..." Before he could finish, he flickered like a malfunctioning TV screen and vanished from the spot.

Lin Tu held the badge she'd just stolen. The name on it flickered faintly, then shifted from "Art Department Head: Lu Meiliang" to "Art Department Head: Lin Tu."

"Promoted?" Lin Tu put on the Art Department head's badge with satisfaction.

She looked at the meeting room before her and walked in without hesitation.

Inside the meeting room, besides Lin Tu—the newly appointed head—were the Packaging Department head, the Creative Department head, and the Design Department general head.

There were only four people in the room, but a full six chairs—two of them empty.

Lin Tu found the seat with her name card and sat down. The other three remained silent, and Lin Tu mimicked them, saying nothing.

Time ticked by, minute after minute. Lin Tu silently counted. About thirty or forty minutes later—perhaps five minutes before the break ended—a cold wind suddenly blew through the office.

"Excellent!" The Design Department general head suddenly nodded with animation. "Our family discussion just now went very well! It seems everyone has taken my usual teachings to heart."

At the same time, the Creative Department head spoke up: "I wonder if everyone is satisfied with my suggestions. I think as long as we can generate revenue for the company, no matter how hard or tiring it is, it's worth it."

Lin Tu: ? What just happened? Who am I? Where am I?

Still, her reactions were always quick, and she'd been watching the head the whole time. Seeing him suddenly "come alive," Lin Tu also nodded a couple of times in feigned agreement, flashing a bright smile, and spoke just a few seconds after the other two—

"Right, right, right. I love work. I love the company."

A pair of cold, sinister eyes seemed to be watching the lively discussion at the meeting table.

"Packaging Department head..." A voice like a whisper from the void, seemingly right at their ears, issued from no one present. "Why aren't you participating in the discussion?"

"I..." The Packaging Department head only snapped back to reality then. His face was pale, his speech stuttering. "I'm too hungry... I forgot..."

"Why so hungry? Can't the company's daily gourmet cans fill your stomach?"

The Packaging Department head turned his gaze to the Design Department general head. "Because my family needed my help, I gave it to..."

"Excuses! Pretexts!" The voice roared. Then, with a loud bang, the Packaging Department head's head exploded right in front of the assembled heads.

Once again splattered with the brain matter of a colleague—no, a family member—Lin Tu instinctively wanted to wipe it off, but restrained herself. Sure enough, the next second, the brain matter on her face vanished, and so did the Packaging Department head.

The chair he'd sat in instantly gathered a layer of dust—just like the other three chairs, as if no one had ever sat there.

"My apologies for the spectacle. The company no longer needs a packaging department. Delicious food sells well in any packaging," the voice seemed to say with a hint of amusement before turning stern again—

"Art Department head, why has your nephew been staying in the Art Department, and even converted to regular employment and started receiving company benefits?"

"He's Lu Meiliang's nephew, not mine—Lin Tu's!" Lin Tu explained immediately.

"Oh?" In that instant, an enormous pressure crashed down on the entire meeting room.

The room shook violently. The walls from all sides bent under the strain, and even the very air was compressed into the small space, making it hard to breathe.

A face pressed against the ceiling. Its obese features bulged outward, descending ever lower. Lin Tu felt those wide-staring eyes about to touch the top of her head—even the puffy, fat-swollen eyelids were already brushing against her hair.

"Indeed, not yours." A moment later, the face withdrew, and the meeting room returned to normal.

Only then did Lin Tu feel her heartbeat careening out of control, about to burst from her chest.

She'd almost, just now, been on the verge of using an item to escape this place.

"But as the successor to this position, you must resolve this issue. I'll give you one day. At your first clock-in tomorrow, I don't want the benefits department delivering anything to Lu Meiliang's nephew again."

"Rest assured." Lin Tu said at once.

No response.

After a long moment, a warm breeze blew through, and the people in the meeting room began to move again.

Seeing that the Creative Department head and the Design Department general head were utterly unfazed by what had just happened, Lin Tu stood up, checked the time, and rushed downstairs at a sprint.

As one o'clock approached, the entire company went pitch black.

Lin Tu knew she was still safe for now. She drew her long blade and hurried toward the office.

She wasn't sure where her workstation was now, so she first ran to her original one. Opening the final balance screen of the work app, she saw a line of text—

"Senior Employee: Lu Meiliang"

"Years of Service: Ten years, five months, three days"

So the seats had swapped. Without hesitation, Lin Tu sprinted toward the Art Department head's office.

"Hey, where are you going?" A player spotted her and shouted.

Lin Tu had no time to explain. She illuminated her badge with her phone's flashlight and slipped into the office.

"Ten seconds... nine seconds..." Several employees tried to barge in from outside the door. Lin Tu ignored them.

She sat down in the seat and waited for the last second to elapse.

The entire office lit up in an instant. At the same time, Lin Tu's phone rang again—

"Ring ring~ ring ring~"

"Hello?" Lin Tu answered.

"Hello~ I'm the salesperson from Mingming Chicken Restaurant! I'm so glad you answered my call~ It's midday now, and I imagine as a new employee you haven't found anything to eat yet, and you must be hungry! We've recently launched a new combo meal—would you like to give it a try?"

"A new combo meal?!" Outside the office, Lin Tu heard someone shout at the top of their lungs.

She knew she wasn't the only one getting this call. The other players had gotten it too.

"Do I have to try it?" Lin Tu asked. "Our company is a gourmet food company. Are you here to pick a fight?"

"You do me a grave injustice! We're on the same side as your company! Our meals actually contain some of your company's products! But your company's products are so expensive—who can afford to eat them every day? Our food at Mingming Chicken is the best choice. Like you, for instance—can you get a company product every day?"

Lin Tu paused for a moment. "I can. I'm the Art Department head. Didn't you do your research before calling?"

"Ah?" The Mingming Chicken salesperson was momentarily speechless. After a while, he said, "Sorry, customer."

"However..." He changed tack. "You could still try our new combo! Our boss is your company's Design Department head! He said if I called to sell, you'd definitely accept—after all, you're like family. How could you refuse a family member's request?"

Lin Tu: I'm so done!

"I accept!" She shouted loudly, loud enough for the people outside to hear clearly.

"Wonderful!" The salesperson said. "We also have a four-meals-a-day deal. If you order three meals a day, at nine o'clock every night, we'll deliver a midnight snack to your building—and we'll throw in a free drink! Would you like that?"

"How much per meal?" Lin Tu asked.

"One point per meal, customer. We'll deduct it directly from your account balance."

For Lin Tu, who'd just gotten promoted, one point didn't seem like much anymore. She decided to spend the money to ward off trouble: "I'll take it."

After hanging up, the lunch meal arrived shortly.

Lin Tu couldn't be bothered to go down and get it—she wasn't hungry at all. But then she remembered the bizarre hunger she'd felt after looking at those photos, and felt something wasn't right. She opened the work app. Several of her teammates were showing as online.

"Did you guys order Mingming Chicken takeout?" Lin Tu asked.

"Ordered..." Yi Ying sent a miserable emoji. "One point per meal—so expensive! But I'm so hungry! I don't know why! Just smelling the takeout next door made me crave it. Then Mingming Chicken happened to call and pitch, and I found out the boss is from our company. Since we're family, I figured I might as well order."

"Something's off," Guan Suixing said. "I'd just eaten a midnight snack before entering the game. It's been less than a few hours—there's no way I'd be hungry this fast. The weirdest part is, my hunger felt unusual. It started when I was on the phone, listening to him describe how delicious the company's products were. I got hungrier and hungrier."

Lin Tu sat up straight. "Brain?"

"Yes!" Yi Ying said excitedly. "I want some crispy cartilage, and brain too! I really want to eat brain!"

"You'd better not think about it." Lin Tu recalled the photo of that girl's tender brain and felt nauseous again.

"Why?" Hei Mawu asked, confused. "Brain is really tasty, isn't it?"

"Have you heard of mental contamination?" Lin Tu patiently explained, describing roughly what had happened when she'd reviewed the product promotional photos earlier. "I suspect the food in this company has a similar mental contamination effect that makes us crave those things."

"Then what happens if you eat it?" Luo Yongzhi suddenly spoke up. "To be honest, when I was cleaning Sister Lin's workstation, I found a bunch of takeout boxes on the neighboring desk. The stuff inside was rotten and full of maggots, but it smelled amazing—I actually wanted to grab the maggots and take a couple of bites."

Yi Ying: "Ew!"

Lin Tu said warily, "What did the takeout packaging look like?"

"All kinds of names..." Luo Yongzhi continued. "But we've never heard of Mingming Chicken takeout, and we can't order it anyway. We're not on the meal plan... We don't have food..."

"I'll leave some snacks in the first stall of the women's bathroom in a bit. See if you can find them."

Luo Yongzhi: "Okay."

Lin Tu went on: "Guan Suixing, you three should also hold off on eating the Mingming Chicken takeout for now. Do you have anything good to eat? Go have a couple of bites in the bathroom first. Last time I was mentally contaminated, orange juice snapped me out of it."

The three turned serious and acknowledged. Guan Suixing said, "Don't worry, I have some. But I didn't bring much."

"The game won't leave us with nothing to eat," Lin Tu said, recalling the canned goods and water piled on the desks in the office outside the Design Department meeting room earlier. "After work, we'll go check it out together."

"Ring ring~" Lin Tu's phone rang again.

She answered. A familiar voice came through: "I'm the salesperson from Mingming Chicken Restaurant. Did you not pick up the takeout we delivered? You really should pick it up~ Lately, we've noticed some customers get so busy with work that they forget to pick up their meals, and end up missing them entirely. So we've set a rule: if our delivery person finds a customer hasn't picked up their order, they'll personally bring it up!"

Lin Tu: "So that's what family care looks like?"

"As long as you find it thoughtful, that's all we could ask for! Our whole purpose is to make sure family members eat well, eat deliciously, and eat comfortably! We deliver at seven in the morning, one in the afternoon, six in the evening, and nine at night, every day. We hope you'll pick up your meals on time! Sorry to bother you—have a wonderful day, and thank you for supporting Mingming Chicken family!"

Lin Tu hung up and looked at the screen.

In the chat, Yi Ying sent a hungry emoji—

"I'm going crazy. He called me again. After hearing that call, I got even hungrier for some reason!"