Chapter 141

Lin Tu switched on the computer and checked her file—

"April 20, Sunday

New employee this month: Lin Tu

Tenure: ten days

Month-end wage balance: 215 points"

The "Sunday" at the very top of the file made Lin Tu even more certain she had entered the second cycle.

Fortunately, she had inherited her position and points, so her efforts hadn't been wasted.

That was probably why no phone call had come in to deliver an instant kill this time.

In the quiet office, Lin Tu rummaged through her backpack and pulled out a piece of meat. It was pink and tender-looking, yet it inexplicably made her feel queasy—probably because Lin Tu knew exactly where it had come from. It was the piece of flesh cut from the leader's body.

The piece was a bit large, so Lin Tu wrapped it in the former department head's bedsheet and set it on the floor.

Then she took out a whistle and blew it with a sharp "shoo—" A black hole suddenly opened in the floor, and a cannibal, whose entire body was painted white like a skeleton, crawled out from within.

Lin Tu pointed at the meat on the ground. Without hesitation, he walked over, wolfed it down, and then patted his belly in satisfaction—

"TA is nameless, gender unknown, forever eighteen, forever healthy; his defining trait is that he's rich, extremely, extremely rich."

[The Cannibal's Whistle] could only be used once per disaster. After summoning the cannibal to eat a part of a person's body, he would tell Lin Tu that person's basic information.

Having said those baffling words, he crawled back into the black hole and vanished. That meant the skill had been fully used up, and no more information would come.

Was that right? What had the cannibal even said?

All identity information was unknown, or rather, fluctuating. The only trait was being rich?

Lin Tu had originally wanted to use the leader's information to figure out the conditions for promotion, but it turned out to be useless.

Still, Lin Tu wasn't discouraged. She had plenty of ways to earn points; she didn't need to fixate on this one.

After being promoted to head of the Design Department, Lin Tu's work remained more or less the same as an ordinary employee's. She finished her tasks quickly, earned today's performance wages, and then put on her badge to patrol the eighth floor.

She made a brief appearance and then headed to the offices near the meeting room. Unfortunately, those offices seemed abandoned, completely empty. The people who had delivered the canned goods didn't appear to have entered the cycle.

—Or maybe they had? Lin Tu recalled the whispers she'd heard in the office and the nearly healed wound on the back of her right hand. What had they become? But in any case, she still owed them those canned goods. It seemed she'd have to wait until the disaster occurred to deal with that.

Meanwhile, the other players had also completed their opening tasks.

Kou Lin: "From now on, I'm mortgaging all my credit and myself. I'll take out a blank loan and be a deadbeat, fattening myself up nicely."

Guan Suixing: "Do you have any ambition?! The disaster hits tomorrow, and you're still thinking about blank loans and being law-abiding? Let's just storm the Procurement Department and rob it! Make this heartless company feel the pain!"

Yi Ying: "I second that, but isn't robbing it a bit too much? Can't we just steal?"

Luo Yongzhi: "Need any help?"

Liu Sheng: "Huh? What are you all discussing?" Was he the only one terrified? Why did it feel like his teammates were all off their rockers!

Lin Tu watched the players' messages in the group chat and rubbed her forehead. Entering the game in the second cycle, the players had familiarized themselves with the territory and grown bolder.

Admittedly, emptying a warehouse and hoarding its contents was one of Lin Tu's favorite activities, but the Happiness, Joy & Beauty Co. warehouse was different! It was packed with human brains, human legs, and human cartilage, not to mention the hallucination-inducing effects that made you unconsciously pick those things up. Lin Tu was genuinely afraid of accidentally mixing some strange item into her own warehouse and contaminating her supplies.

But as the saying goes, no one ever complains about having too much money in their pocket. Lin Tu only hesitated for a fraction of a second before deciding to join the robbery—definitely not because of this world's specialty extra-cola-flavored potato chips and blueberry-flavored crispy pork—but because she suspected that the leader's obesity was thanks to this warehouse.

A leader's strength was tied to how much flesh they carried, so Lin Tu guessed that if they emptied the warehouse in advance, the leader's power might be weaker when the disaster struck.

Without further ado, the players immediately ran upstairs, bumping into Lu Haima, who was also heading up to find his partner.

"What? You're going to rob the company?" Lu Haima exclaimed.

Beside him, an employee who was queuing up to wash up glanced at him blankly, then continued on his way, numb to it all.

Yi Ying: "..." You should really be grateful those employees are all brainless.

"Sorry, sorry... I was just too shocked for a second," Lu Haima said, then thought for a moment and decided to bring Zhang Xingxing along. In this disaster, the hallucinations were torturous; only food could keep you grounded. Lu Haima only had Zhang Xingxing left as a teammate, and he didn't want to endure the pain of losing another one.

There was strength in numbers, and Yi Ying didn't outright refuse him. The group quickly gathered on the eighth floor.

As second-cycle players, they had a solid understanding of the Procurement Department's situation.

After reporting their main skills, they decided to combine a frontal assault with stealth theft. Part of the group would use loans to get into the warehouse ahead of time and grab everything they could. Once they'd taken everything, they'd signal, and Guan Suixing would use a high-control card to restrain the staff while Lin Tu and another Art Department player coordinated to get the people out of the warehouse.

The plan was perfect, but it hit a snag right from the start—

"Something's off!" Kou Lin had a curse word she wasn't sure she should say. "How come there's less edible food? Is it my imagination?"

Guan Suixing, waiting outside the warehouse: "Why don't you try eating some snacks?"

"It's not about the snacks," Kou Lin said, sending a photo to the group.

Lin Tu opened the photo and looked at it. She was certain she wasn't hallucinating. Just as Kou Lin had said, the supplies were visibly reduced.

"So this is the trap in this disaster," Lin Tu mused. "Every week is a cycle, but each cycle has fewer resources. If we hadn't noticed and just hunkered down at our workstations for three months, there'd be almost nothing left to eat by then."

"Good thing we decided to rob the place," Yi Ying said in relief.

But the reduction in the Procurement Department's supplies still dampened the players' spirits.

During that time, Lin Tu went back to clock in several times. Finally, after clocking in at eleven in the morning, Yi Ying and the others loaded all the edible items into their backpacks.

Lin Tu had already gone ahead to borrow a meeting room using her credentials, ready for the meeting. Once the players came out, they could slip straight into the meeting room or even the darkness to avoid danger.

The Art Department player had used their skill to lay out an escape route on the ground in advance—[Escape Route: Your allies' speed is doubled when passing through this route].

"Three, two, one..."

As everyone held their breath, Guan Suixing stepped into the Procurement Department. Before the obese staff member could even roar "Who are you?!" she threw the card to the ground—

"FBI! I suspect you of illegal assembly to bring about an apocalypse! Hands up, don't move!"

The next second, all the staff members obediently raised their hands.

At the same time, the players who had filled their bags to the brim inside the warehouse burst out of the food section and made a dash for the escape route.

Lin Tu stood guard at the office door, gazing into the distance. Soon she spotted the players' figures. Everything was going surprisingly smoothly.

But Lin Tu didn't let her guard down, because the very next second, she felt a familiar tremor from beneath her feet—

"An employee is stealing company property?" A familiar voice spoke in confusion. "Let me take a look..."

Lin Tu's face went pale.

"What the hell is happening?!" The players on the escape route nearly toppled over.

"Run! Don't look back!" Lin Tu shouted. "It's the deputy general manager!"

Those words were like a whip cracking across the players' backs. Instantly, all of them ran as if their butts were on fire, cursing their legs for not moving faster.

Lin Tu quickly retreated to her office and started a meeting—

She didn't know if it would work, because as far as she knew, the deputy general manager could attend meetings in the Design Department headquarters, and damn it all, she was the head of the Design Department.

The promotion that had seemed so great had suddenly become a curse.

Fortunately, Luo Yongzhi and his partner, who had been waiting at the meeting room door, entered the office faster than the others.

"The moment they come in, you two take everyone by the hand and lead us into the darkness!" Lin Tu said rapidly.

Feeling the tremor beneath their feet and the inexplicable chill and pressure in the air, Luo Yongzhi and his partner understood the gravity of the situation and immediately agreed.

The two sides were like relay runners, reaching out their hands, waiting for that final moment to clasp together.

At the same time, the walls of the entire thirteenth floor began to compress inward. A hand, like a child dissatisfied with its toy, squeezed the whole floor in its grip. Some employees who had stayed in place because of Guan Suixing's card were crushed into pulp.

A face pressed down from the ceiling, making the space even more cramped.

"Let me see... let me see..."

Fortunately, the players had the foresight to set up the [Escape Route] in advance, and their physical fitness wasn't bad. Helping each other along, they managed to leap into the office just before that face fully materialized.

Following Lin Tu's instructions, they clasped hands, quickly ended the meeting, and headed for the door.

Yi Ying casually tossed the human flesh Lin Tu had asked her to collect into her hands like a hot potato. God knows that because she'd been collecting human flesh the whole time, she'd nearly fallen into a hallucination and lagged behind Kou Lin.

"Aaaah!" From behind them came the furious shriek of the deputy general manager.

Whether she would hold a grudge or deliberately retaliate during the disaster no longer mattered. The players, having obtained their supplies, cheerfully stepped forward.

They were about to leave the office, and darkness seemed to loom just ahead.

"Head of the Design Department, do you have a moment?" A voice, icy and sinister beyond measure, came from behind, sending a chill down Lin Tu's spine. The next moment, she found she couldn't take another step forward no matter what.

"Huh? Sister Lin, what's wrong?" Seeing Lin Tu suddenly stop, Luo Yongzhi asked in confusion and halted as well.

"Sister Lin?!" "Sister Lin Tu?" Guan Suixing and the others also sensed something wrong and turned around in panic, only to find that the massive face had compressed the entire office to half its size. The face, spread across the walls and ceiling, stared at them with malice.

"Luo Yongzhi of Logistics..."

Just as the deputy general manager was about to continue, Lin Tu let go of Luo Yongzhi's hand and shoved him hard. "You go first! She called your name; if you stay, none of you will make it out!"

The next instant, Luo Yongzhi was pushed into the darkness. Yi Ying and Guan Suixing tried to turn back to grab Lin Tu but found themselves dragged into the darkness as well.

In the vast—or rather, cramped—office, only Lin Tu remained.

"I have time." Lin Tu looked at the face, which was twice her height, and swallowed hard.

"Excellent. Company property has been damaged. Although you weren't directly involved, you conspired with them. I now order you to recover those items. As punishment for your negligence, you must compensate the company threefold!"

"No problem at all!" Lin Tu suppressed the oppressive feeling and said calmly, "But I can't recover them right away. Could you extend the deadline to the first clock-in tomorrow?"

The deputy general manager's face pressed forward until its nose nearly touched Lin Tu's body, compressing her into a space of mere square meter.

Lin Tu's breathing became difficult. She wanted to flee, but she knew she couldn't.

This was an order from a superior to a subordinate. She had to accept it and find a reasonable excuse to get through it. By the time of the first clock-in tomorrow, they'd have the signal flare. If she could just stall until then, she'd clear this hurdle.

If she ran or refused, she'd meet a scripted death, just like the Packaging Department head.

The deputy general manager smiled. "Of course, no problem. Family should be understanding of one another. But to ensure you complete your work, I must apply some pressure. From now on, after each clock-in, if you haven't recovered the items, I will take a part of your body."

"Let me see..." Her malice grew thicker, nearly spilling from the walls. "Oh dear, we just had a clock-in. I'm afraid I'll have to take a part of your body first."

"Which part should I take?" She deliberately opened her foul-smelling mouth and looked at Lin Tu. From the gaps in the ceiling and the sealed windows, Lin Tu could even smell a putrid stench.

She wanted to see Lin Tu panic.

"Nails! Spit! Boogers! They're all part of my body!" Lin Tu responded quickly without a moment's hesitation. Before the deputy general manager could react, she spat a wad of saliva right in her face and bolted for the door.

"Aaaaah! Damn you!" The deputy general manager flew into a rage and moved her fingers, lunging at Lin Tu.

Luckily, the [Escape Route] the player had set up was still there. Lin Tu's speed had already been enhanced, and along the escape route, she ran even faster. The deputy general manager's fingers were like the mallet in a whack-a-mole game, never quite hitting that slippery little mole.

She grew even angrier and gave chase without letup.

Lin Tu had to think about where she could run. It seemed that no matter which floor she went to, the deputy general manager would catch up and kill her. Even the first-floor lobby wouldn't help, because there was no way out of the company from there.

There seemed to be only one way to break this deadlock. Lin Tu couldn't help but think back to the past couple of days, when she'd faced her superior's unreasonable demands and always solved them the same way—

Kill the superior and take their place.

Killing the deputy general manager was impossible, because she couldn't even touch her. But what if she got promoted to leadership? Then the deputy general manager's orders would mean nothing to her.

With that thought, Lin Tu made a beeline for the stairs and ran toward the fourteenth floor.

She was going to take the promotion exam.

"How dare you!" Behind her, the deputy general manager watched helplessly as Lin Tu disappeared up to the fourteenth floor.

On the fourteenth-floor corridor, Lin Tu's vision was pitch black, but the deputy general manager's presence was gone. The complete silence told Lin Tu that at least for now, she was safe.

The lights flickered on and off, and a faint trail of light guided Lin Tu forward. She seemed to arrive at the door of a grand hall, which opened on its own.

It turned out the fourteenth through eighteenth floors were a single open space, a hall hollowed out entirely, over ten meters tall.

For a moment, in this hall, Lin Tu saw countless people swimming in piles of money. A woman who looked like the deputy general manager was cheerfully raising a glass of champagne, another was shoving meat into her mouth, and another was kissing coins, utterly entranced.

Standing in the corridor, Lin Tu felt a surge of longing...

Impossible! She pulled out a chicken foot and shoved it into her mouth with a blank expression. She couldn't feel longing, because society had long beaten her into a salted fish, content to lie in bed for the rest of her days.

After downing an entire pack of chicken feet, Lin Tu could finally see clearly what was before her.

It was a mountain of flesh, piled exceedingly high.

At the very top sat a money-printing machine, embedded with a sparkling object—

Lin Tu recognized it at a glance. It was the damned evolution point.

The money-printing machine, apparently enhanced by that evolution point, was constantly devouring the flesh mountain below and spitting out bills one by one.

On the flesh mountain, the people Lin Tu had seen happily basking in coins were now struggling to climb the mountain, trying to reach higher ground and catch more banknotes.

Strange tentacles extending from the flesh mountain were burrowing into their bodies. Despite being covered in blood and enduring pain, they still climbed upward like madmen.

Lin Tu felt a physical revulsion, as if the hallucination was about to sprout from her mind again. She simply opened her backpack, dumped a pile of snacks on the ground, and started eating frantically.

Chocolate, milk tea, crispy noodles, cream puffs, spicy strips... She didn't stop until her stomach was nearly bursting. She could feel that, for a short while at least, she wouldn't be affected by hallucinations again.

She stood up and began searching around. Finally, at the end of the corridor, she found a copy of the "Leader's Handbook."

"First, remember: you are not human; you are money. Your mission is to generate more money."

"Second, do your utmost to collect flesh and blood to offer to the God of Money-Printing. As you can see, flesh and blood can sustain leaders, spawn wealth, and grant you greater power."

"Third..."

Something clicked in Lin Tu's mind. She opened the backpack Yi Ying had given her, filled with "company delicacies," grabbed a random human leg, and tossed it into the flesh mountain.

Instantly, the entire flesh mountain erupted. The tentacles inside caught the leg and, like a conveyor belt, quickly carried it beneath the money-printing machine, which spat out a few more bills.

At the same time, Lin Tu seemed to see a grand road unfolding before her.

The road led straight to the money-printing machine, which was the eighteenth floor. On both sides of the road were flowers, handsome men, delicacies, and scenery, all enticing Lin Tu to step onto it quickly.

"Wasn't that snack just now enough?" Lin Tu crouched down, no longer looking at the road, and started eating again.

After about five minutes, when she was truly stuffed to the point of nausea, she looked up again. What she saw before her was no grand road—it was a single steel wire stretching toward the top of the building.

"So it seems you can reach the eighteenth floor from here, as long as you stockpile enough 'delicacies,'" Lin Tu muttered to herself.

But how many delicacies would that take?

Lin Tu tentatively touched the wire. It turned out it wasn't steel at all—it was just a thread, breaking at the slightest touch.

Lin Tu: "..." She opened her backpack and tossed the delicacies Yi Ying had given her into the flesh mountain one by one, throwing about a third of them.

A steel staircase, wide enough for one person, appeared before her.

At the same time, her badge slowly changed. "Head of Design Department: Lin Tu" gradually became "Company Junior Leader: Lin Tu."

It still wasn't enough. The gap between a junior leader and the deputy general manager was too large. If only she could get rid of the deputy general manager.

Lin Tu raised her gun, aimed at the woman who seemed to be the deputy general manager, and fired without hesitation.

The flesh mountain reacted quickly; its tentacles immediately shielded the deputy general manager's body. But oddly, they soon loosened. The deputy general manager was completely unaware of what had happened as a bullet pierced her heart.

At the same time, Lin Tu's badge flickered. "Company Junior Leader: Lin Tu" gradually changed back to "Head of Design Department: Lin Tu."

The grand road before her collapsed and vanished in an instant.

"Fair enough, I guess..." Lin Tu wasn't sure if she was exasperated or something else.

She then aimed the gun at the money-printing machine.

The tentacles, upon detecting her movement, had already wrapped around the machine completely, leaving no gap at all.

But she still had a vial of [Prison Warden's Blood] in her backpack. If she smeared it on a bullet, she could definitely destroy the money-printing machine. But would destroying the machine end this disaster?

"Is it that you're fair, or is something controlling you?" Lin Tu mused, but she couldn't find an answer.

She put down the gun and left the fourteenth floor for now.

No particular reason—she felt the hallucinations starting to stir in her mind again, but she genuinely couldn't eat another bite of snacks.

Lin Tu felt that once she left this disaster, she wouldn't touch a single snack for a week—no, a month.

The players in the darkness sent her countless messages. Lin Tu briefly explained the situation. Lu Haima and the others, who wanted to leave the disaster through the eighteenth floor, grew hesitant.

Of course, Guan Suixing and the others were an exception: "Sister Lin said there's a trick to beating the final boss—how about we..."