Chapter 139

A desperate, bloody struggle raged on, limbs and gore flying everywhere. In a corner, the players sat on the floor and set up a hotpot. The charcoal was slow to catch, so Yi Ying pulled out a prop that looked like a [Bag of Emergency Rations], which could generate a temporary flame lasting an hour to boil water. They weren't going to cook the hotpot directly—first, they needed to blanch the chicken. The players lacked nothing but strength; in a few moments, they chopped the chicken into pieces, blanched them, and set them aside. After washing the pot and heating it up again, Lin Tu tore open the hotpot base and dumped it in. As the beef tallow melted, a spicy, pungent aroma filled the air.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Guan Suixing blocked an employee who stumbled too close, "Watch it, don't splash anything into our pot!" She pulled out a prop—something like a 'Three-Eight Line'—and stuck the sticker on the ground in a circle around them. It made people outside the circle unconsciously keep their distance. Strangely enough, the moment Guan Suixing finished, the nearby employees had already retreated several paces. The area within a meter of the hotpot was completely empty. The players assumed it was just her prop's effect, but Guan Suixing muttered to herself, "Is this prop really that powerful? I never noticed before..."

Lin Tu had a habit from her hometown: after pouring the pre-made hotpot base into the pot, she stir-fried it again with chili peppers, ginger, scallions, garlic, and spices. That made the hotpot even more fragrant and spicy. Once the aroma bloomed, she tossed the chicken back in. The blanched meat already gave off a rich scent, and it tumbled in the pot, developing a golden, crispy crust as it mixed with the sauce. When the steam rose to its peak—like a balloon about to burst—she poured clean water in a circle along the edge. A refreshing plume of white steam billowed up, locking in the hotpot's fragrance. Now all they had to do was wait for it to boil and toss in the side dishes.

"I'm dying from the smell..." Yi Ying felt she could die happy with this pot in front of her. "Sister Lin, I can't repay you. I'll give myself to you!"

Lin Tu said, "Just keep an eye on the Black Factory for me." She turned to see Guan Suixing opening her mouth, and cut her off, "Tell your sister to help me out properly."

Kou Lin had just pulled a coupon from her backpack, but Lin Tu waved her off before she could say anything: "I didn't really take anything, so no need. Even without you all, I'd be cooking hotpot here anyway." Kou Lin felt a pang of uselessness—could she really be worse than Guan Suixing? She racked her brain, remembered Lin Tu liked electronics, and quickly pulled a USB drive from her backpack. Before Lin Tu could refuse, she said, "This isn't a prop. I made it with my skill. Plug it into a computer and it downloads the top three favorite TV dramas of the current world's residents."

Lin Tu fell into an odd silence, her spoon stopping mid-stir. Guan Suixing rolled her eyes. "You're always making weird things. Don't try to pass off some unsellable junk to Sister Lin."

"No, it's..." Kou Lin started to explain, but then she felt the weight leave her hand. She turned, and Lin Tu had taken the USB drive. Lin Tu cleared her throat. "This is good." "Really!" Kou Lin beamed. "It's one of my best-sellers!" Guan Suixing raised an eyebrow. Then she remembered how, during the last disaster, while they ate roast lamb in the desert, Lin Tu had put on 'Empresses in the Palace.' She had to admit—it was actually kind of captivating. They said Lin Tu was on her second watch, still engrossed, and Dong Huadan had even gotten a copy to play on loop in her shop.

The fire was boiling now, and the players had already made their dipping sauces. Lin Tu's was garlic and sesame oil with a bit of the original soup. Yi Ying added sesame paste. Kou Lin took a bit of everything. Guan Suixing and the others, except Lu Haima, had the same as Lin Tu. The chicken was done in about ten minutes—they had to eat fast before it got tough. They dug in with gusto, oblivious to the surrounding carnage and bloodshed, focused entirely on the pot. After the chicken, they threw in chicken wings, feet, shrimp, and sliced beef. The canned meat from the office came in handy—sliced luncheon meat, red sausage, lamb spine—all went into the pot.

But the few dazed Art Department players frowned deeply, refusing to eat, even looking like they might vomit at the sight of the hotpot. Lu Haima, watching with tears in his eyes but unable to eat a single bite due to his skill, thought: What a waste! What a waste! Let me eat! "Shall we shove some in their mouths?" Yi Ying hesitated, holding a piece of canned meat that wasn't popular, and placed it near a player's lips. The next second, the player screamed, "No! No!" "Just do it," Lin Tu decided.

The moment the luncheon meat touched their lips, they all screamed in unison, as if scalded. "It's not even hot..." Yi Ying puzzled, pushing the meat deeper. The players began to gag, but no matter how they retched, nothing came up. "A bit more?" As Yi Ying hesitated, she felt Guan Suixing grab her arm. She looked up and noticed the hall had gone eerily quiet. The employees had stopped their "feeding" and were staring at them, backing away slowly, their eyes full of fear and confusion. "Hey? They..." In just a few seconds, Yi Ying realized they were alone within five meters.

"So it wasn't my prop after all," Guan Suixing said, suddenly understanding. No wonder—when she laid down the Three-Eight Line and people backed off, she'd thought the prop had mutated. But looking back, she realized she'd been laying the sticker while Lin Tu was stir-frying the hotpot base. These people had been driven away by the smell of hotpot.

"Can hallucinations be suppressed? Interesting," Kou Lin mused, stroking her chin. "They rationalized eating human flesh, so seeing others eat normal food fills them with the same horror we feel at them eating people."

Lin Tu quietly added more hotpot noodles to the pot. She was still a bit hungry. The Art Department players, after being force-fed, grew numb. They retched several times before finally bringing up a pile of unidentifiable minced meat. The moment they regained their senses, they rushed aside to vomit again. The players kept eating and drinking, pausing to dip some vegetables, utterly blissful. The employees, meanwhile, had stopped eating—they just stared, as if this were some bizarre food fight. The scene went on long enough that Tang Yingyuan, the head of the Design Department, approached Lin Tu, who was now lying back, stuffed and relaxed.

"Little Lin, are you busy?" Lin Tu sat up, dazed. "I'm not busy." "It's like this—I've noticed you haven't eaten much, so I'd like to invite you to join the Food Festival event, to set an example for the employees. Look—if you don't eat, the employees won't either..."

As she spoke, Lin Tu internally screamed: How come the hotpot didn't cure Tang Yingyuan's hallucination? "Before the final check-in this afternoon, I need to see you participate in the arena fight. Can you do that?" As Lin Tu was pondering a strategy, the overhead speaker crackled to life. —"Welcome! Welcome! A great leader has come to guide our company! As your host, I want to hear the warmest applause for the head of our happy, beautiful family!"

Tang Yingyuan's expression instantly shifted to a beaming smile, and even the employees in the corner set down their tools and clapped with smiles. "It's time for our weekly selection of outstanding employees! Before we begin, I must relay our esteemed leader's intent. Why do we hold this selection? To set them against the worst employees, to make everyone feel ashamed of the worst, to encourage everyone to humiliate them!" The announcer paused, then continued, "This week's selection is no different from last week's. We have selected a thousand worthless employees. Red warning tags are hidden somewhere on their persons. Please search carefully. If you find it troublesome, the tags will drop when the employee dies. Each tag you find removes a pest from the company and earns you one point. By tonight's check-in, whoever has the most tags will win the title of Outstanding Employee!"

"Now, floors eight to eleven are our competition area. Employees must not go above the eleventh floor. The leader will join the selection to share in the fun." A burst of static, then a piercing voice announced, "Now, I declare—the selection begins!"

Instantly, everyone stirred. Lin Tu looked at Tang Yingyuan's profile and had an idea. Why not just kill Director Tang and take her place? That way, she could get promoted and paid, and also get rid of the unreasonable demand. The moment the idea formed, Lin Tu's path became clear. She reached for her knife, but a cold wind swept by—a familiar feeling that made her shiver. The entire eighth floor seemed to be lifted by a giant hand, squeezing the space, making everyone inside feel the ground shake and struggle to breathe.

"The hotpot..." Without thinking, Yi Ying threw a coupon onto the pot. A wobbly pot steadied instantly. Only then did she realize what she'd done and wailed, "My C-level shield..." Lin Tu thought: So this is what a foodie is like?

In seconds, the ceiling began to collapse. A fat face pressed down from the center of the hall, its eyes peering through the gap, observing the people on the eighth floor. "Oh, it's the eighth floor. The eighth floor tastes best, so I'll save it for last. Let me go to the eleventh first." The piercing voice echoed as it moved away, and the eighth floor returned to normal. Lin Tu pulled out her knife, but Tang Yingyuan had already scurried off, diving into the crowd to hunt her subordinates—only a corner of her clothes visible.

"Watch out, I'm going to handle something!" Lin Tu said, afraid of losing her, and chased after Tang Yingyuan with her knife. "What is Sister Lin going to do?" The others exchanged puzzled looks. "Probably... most likely..." Based on her understanding of Lin Tu and Tang Yingyuan's unreasonable demands, Yi Ying said mysteriously, "Sister Lin is going to get promoted and raise her salary." "Huh?" Lu Haima and the other Art Department players were shocked. They'd thought she was going for supplies or personal matters, but never promotion! Wasn't this a disaster world? "Let's just worry about ourselves," Guan Suixing said, pulling out her knife, then wiping it before tossing it back into her backpack. "My C-level shield covers about a square meter. As long as we don't run into a boss, we should be fine. Let's stay close to the hotpot and wait for Sister Lin," Yi Ying said, pointing to the pot with an awkward laugh. "I threw it at the pot, so we just need to stay next to it." The others said, "...Okay."

Back to Lin Tu: when she caught up to Tang Yingyuan, the latter was in the middle of murdering a subordinate. "You're the most disobedient one! I told you to get water, and you wouldn't! You don't reply to my late-night messages! You won't do my PowerPoint! Who's the worst employee? Isn't it you?" Her body, for some reason, seemed stronger and faster than the average employee. Her subordinate barely struggled before dying under her blade. Tang Yingyuan turned and saw Lin Tu.

At the same time, Lin Tu raised her long blade and swung it down from top to bottom. "You..." Tang Yingyuan instinctively grabbed a nearby employee and shoved them in front as a shield. Lin Tu tilted her blade slightly, stepped right, and with [Lighthouse] in effect, she bent like an acrobat, one leg on the ground, torso nearly ninety degrees, dodging the employee. Her blade tip rose from below, driving straight into the soft flesh under Tang Yingyuan's chin. This time, there was no one else to use as a shield. The blade pierced from her chin through her mouth, up through the palate, and into her brain.

"Ugh..." The head of the Design Department died with her eyes wide open, collapsing to the ground. As she died, two things clattered at her feet. Nearby employees stirred, and as the one Tang Yingyuan had threatened reached for them, Lin Tu grabbed his collar, tossing him into the crowd. She scooped up the two items and ran. But she didn't head toward the players—she sprinted down the corridor. She soon reached her destination: Tang Yingyuan's office. Lin Tu looked at the two items in her left hand. One was a red warning tag. That Tang Yingyuan had dropped it upon death was somewhat surprising. Recalling the [Art Department Head's Handbook], which mentioned, "As a department head, your job is no different from others," it was clear Tang Yingyuan had no special abilities. She was a lecturer, but herself a terrible employee. The other item was a department head's badge—"Head of Design Department: Lin Tu."

Things had gone smoothly, but Lin Tu knew getting the badge was just the beginning. What she needed was something like the [Design Department Head's Handbook] in the office to successfully play the role. She kicked open the office door and quickly found the handbook. It was similar to the Art Department Head's, except the managed departments ranged from a single Art Department to multiple departments—Art, Creative, Packaging... a few more at the end, but those were crossed out. Additionally, the head's handbook had one extra rule:

"Fourth: As the head of the Design Department, you are now qualified to ascend to company leadership. You may proceed to the fourteenth floor at any time to take the promotion exam." Promotion exam? Lin Tu silently repeated the phrase, but she couldn't quite figure out what it meant. Fortunately, it wasn't mandatory, so she didn't need to dwell on it now. She stashed the handbook and pulled out her phone. It had buzzed twice earlier, but she'd been too busy to check. In the group chat, Luo Yongzhi and Liu Sheng were sending "AAAAHHH!" messages. Though they were text, she could almost hear their screams. She scrolled further.

"Dammit, we're in daytime!" "Which floor are you on? We're on eight!" "We don't know! Oh my god! There's a huge fat guy chasing people around and eating them!" "We woke up in a bathroom, holding a mop like we were cleaning. We're far from the safety stairs, don't know what floor we're on, and can't get out!" Fat guy? Lin Tu immediately thought of the one who'd peered through the ceiling. That must be the so-called leader. He'd said, "Let me go to the eleventh first," so Luo Yongzhi and Liu Sheng had unwittingly landed on the eleventh floor. Other players realized it too. Kou Lin quickly explained in the group, and Luo and Liu wailed louder.

Liu Sheng: "Who else! I ask you, who? Who's as unlucky as us, running into the boss right off the bat!" Lin Tu typed: "Eat some snacks and watch what's happening outside. The monster won't stay on the eleventh forever. Once it goes down, you'll be safe. See how it goes down—does it take the stairs or what?" After sending, Liu Sheng calmed down. "Okay, we'll hide and notify you when it goes down!"

Lin Tu replied with a thumbs-up and sprinted back to the hall. By the time she returned, Yi Ying and the others had packed up the hotpot. If the leader was as strong as Luo Yongzhi said and killed everyone in sight, staying put was dangerous. "Where do we go now?" Yi Ying asked. "Better not stay on the eighth floor," Lin Tu said. "That monster said the eighth floor tastes best, so it's definitely looking forward to coming here and wreaking havoc. Hard to hide then." The others nodded, faces pale. "Let's head to the ninth floor," Lin Tu said. "We'll wait for Luo Yongzhi's message, see how the monster comes down, and find a way to avoid it." She cut the ropes binding Lu Haima and the others. Lu Haima hadn't eaten in days, only the one ration that fell from the sky each day—so he hadn't lied. If he had, he'd be dead by now. Zhang Xingxing and the others, Lin Tu believed she could trust. She trusted her memory—she'd seen these people on day one, so they were likely players. But given monsters like Hei Mawu and Peng Yuanzhi, she thought it wise to keep unfamiliar people at a distance.

"You can go wherever you like." Hearing the wariness in her voice, Lu Haima still asked, "Can we follow you? From far away—we won't come close!" Lin Tu glanced at Guan Suixing and the others; they didn't object, and she remembered only they knew about the eleventh-floor news. So she nodded. "Okay." They all hurried upstairs. The hall was still in chaos, and Lin Tu scooped up two red warning tags along the way. She simply couldn't resist the hundred-point reward.

The ninth floor was a lounge, but it was packed with employees fighting, blood spraying everywhere, limbs scattered about, turning what had once been a cozy rest area into a hellscape. "Might as well grab some food while we wait," Lin Tu said, not passing up a chance to scavenge. She headed for the communal kitchen with her long blade. She wasn't looking for a fight, but when she saw employees locked in combat, she "mediated" by sending them to their deaths and pocketing any red tags that dropped. Soon, they reached the kitchen. Those who'd been here before knew the layout and quickly began pulling food from cabinets and the fridge, dividing it up. "Those people downstairs are starving to death, why hasn't anyone eaten this food?" Zhang Xingxing wondered. "Because the people downstairs can't get up here," Yi Ying said. "This lounge is mostly for the leaders. Who dares take the leader's stuff?" That made sense. Zhang Xingxing—who'd never had a job, graduated into this disaster, become an [Infinite Calamity] player, and always resented his fate—felt a flicker of gratitude. Because of the disaster, he'd never had to work. The thought almost made him laugh. A truly unprecedented, hellish, bitter humor. "Got a message!" Yi Ying said excitedly. "Luo Yongzhi says the leader is..." Luo Yongzhi: "That damned monster! It keeps eating, and two popped out of its belly! It's still on the eleventh, but the other two are heading down! Watch out!"