Chapter 47 Big Factory
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The Gatekeeper Ghost: “……”
Who was he, what was he doing, and where was he?
He realized afterward that this place was the quality inspection area, which had closed down years ago. He was surprised to see some faces of old employees who had passed away several years earlier.
Ghosts also had different levels of strength, and the Gatekeeper Ghost had died in a dreadful manner. After his death, he became quite powerful and knew the layout of the factory well, allowing him to move freely through different spaces.
But this place made him feel terrified because there were so many ghosts around.
The whole inspection area had at least a hundred ghosts, and each one could easily devour a person’s soul.
Withdraw!
The Gatekeeper Ghost didn’t hesitate and was ready to flee.
The employees didn’t recognize the former guard. Two front-row inspectors stood up and said, “The new samples have arrived.”
They swiftly grabbed his arms, one on each side, and led him to the sample area before the Gatekeeper Ghost could react.
The Gatekeeper was immediately classified as contaminated.
He was surprised to find himself solid and corporeal in this place.
The sample area.
Only here he sensed the scent of living beings. He saw the ashes of burnt spirit money in the corner and finally found the troublemaker.
“So, it was you performing the ritual!”
His memory was good. He remembered Wen Shi, who was a new intern hired by the Big Factory.
Wen Shi was originally standing with his back to the Gatekeeper Ghost. Upon hearing his words, he turned around eagerly and asked, “Are you here to take me away?”
Before he could finish his question, one of the inspectors who came for Wen Shi opened the iron cage and shoved the Gatekeeper Ghost inside.
The iron door closed heavily, the sound echoing throughout the sample area. Another inspector skillfully locked it.
The two inspectors continued chatting about what to eat for lunch, laughing as they walked out.
The other inspector, who had come earlier to urge Wen Shi, still stood aside, holding his arms and waiting. He continued, “Many people are not used to taking samples for the first time, but they get used to it after doing it multiple times.”
Wen Shi’s heart sank as he realized the inspectors saw the world differently from normal people. Perhaps, in their eyes, they truly saw them as Pure-Hearted Beasts.
He was currently working as a temporary employee. Once contaminated, he feared the inspectors would forget about his temporary status and treat him as a Pure-Hearted Beast.
“Useless creature,” he cursed at the Gatekeeper Ghost.
The Gatekeeper Ghost retorted, “Have I disturbed your ancestors’ graves?! Why are you trying to communicate in this place? Have you lost your mind… you %@$#…”
He cursed with foul language, but the inspector in the sample area remained indifferent. He seemed to have not noticed the scene and mechanically urged Wen Shi to hurry up and take the samples, confirming his earlier judgment.
He took out a sharp knife from a special leather pouch. Under the dim yellow light, the blade gleamed with a frightening glint.
Wen Shi approached the Gatekeeper Ghost slowly and whispered, “Let me extract a heart first, so I can finish my job.”
“?” The Gatekeeper Ghost questioned if he was dreaming. He wasn’t the ghost, the person in front of him was.
The Gatekeeper Ghost’s expression turned extremely grim, his strength significantly diminishing. However, dealing with a living person was still within his capabilities. He wished Wen Shi would approach him quickly.
Wen Shi passed the knife behind him, and an elderly ghost’s head peeked out from his back, holding the knife. “Whose heart should I dig? Should I dig his?”
This one was unbeatable.
Wen Shi knew very well that the Old Man Ghost was no match for the Gatekeeper Ghost. He stood outside the cage and said coldly, “I prefer dealing with rational ghosts.”
He opened his palm, and the 【Family Crest】 shimmered brightly.
The Gatekeeper Ghost: “……”
Was the backup really this strong?
The Seventh Commandment member attempted to see what Wen Shi was holding, but his vision was also blurry, so he had to give up in the end.
“Don’t resist, just let me extract your heart. Your weak point isn’t in your heart.”
Each monster had a different weak point. For example, the blood bride could not stand reflective objects. The Gatekeeper Ghost, who could ignore spatial limitations to kill, had almost zero chances of dying from an attack to the heart.
The Gatekeeper Ghost’s dark expression softened for a moment. Seeking revenge as a fierce ghost was never too late. He realized that he couldn’t escape using his own strength and had to temporarily cooperate with this despicable human. Only by relying on the human’s help did he have a chance.
The Old Man Ghost deftly grasped the sharp knife. With just a few moves, the Old Man Ghost smoothly extracted the entire heart.
“Done.” Wen Shi placed the heart on a tray.
The inspector didn’t pay any attention to the process of the Old Man Ghost wielding the knife and nodded in satisfaction. “Well done.”
Wen Shi’s Soul Purity finally stopped dropping.
However, at that moment, the member of the Seventh Commandment leaned against the iron cage and suddenly asked, “Don’t you find this place strange, or rather, that your teammate is acting suspiciously?”
If they were talking about someone suspicious, then it had to be Ji Yuanzhi.
Wen Shi was certain that Ji Yuanzhi’s abilities were definitely not inferior to those of the Seventh Commandment member. There was no reason for Ji Yuanzhi to be affected while the Seventh Commandment member was perfectly fine. Knowing Ji Yuanzhi as well as he did, he was sure that Ji Yuanzhi wouldn’t just sit back and do nothing. So, was the man lying lifeless on the ground really Ji Yuanzhi?
Hallucinations, auditory and visual.
Was he currently experiencing either of these conditions? Were the values he saw on his attribute panel real?
Almost instantly, the thought made Wen Shi increasingly convinced that the man pretending to be Ji Yuanzhi was fake.
The game wouldn’t leave someone without a way out, and Ji Yuanzhi was the real sample.
Seemingly forgetting that he had just handed over a heart to the inspector, Wen Shi unconsciously walked over to Sample 03 and took out another cutting tool.
The Old Man Ghost noticed that Wen Shi seemed off and took the opportunity to seek personal revenge, patting Wen Shi’s head twice. “Wake up.”
Inside the third iron cage, Ji Yuanzhi lay motionless, releasing a faint sigh. Facing Wen Shi, whose pupils were filled with a strong desire to kill, he prepared to activate his hallucination skill to forcibly restore Wen Shi’s consciousness. Using the skill would cost him points, and Ji Yuanzhi had only three attempts. If it didn’t work after three tries, he would have to bid farewell to this “son.”
The Old Man Ghost smacked Wen Shi’s head like a ball, causing some pain that barely triggered a reaction. The knife in Wen Shi’s hand fell to the ground, but he quickly grabbed onto the cage bars with all ten fingers, and his scattered gaze began to refocus.
Ji Yuanzhi raised an eyebrow, feeling a rare sense of surprise at Wen Shi regaining his clarity.
The inspector looked disdainfully at Wen Shi, who couldn’t even hold onto the knife properly. He stood aside, muttering about how difficult it was to deal with newbies.
The gashes on Wen Shi’s body had extended from his back to his arms, blood soaking through his clothes. The Old Man Ghost’s eyes turned green with the stimulation of the bloody scent.
Although Wen Shi had speculated that the potion might not work when he bought it for a late-night snack, he still tried it out with twenty points. The result was a lesson learned, as there was no sign of his health increasing.
As the night shift passed, Wen Shi knew that the situation would only get worse.
Creak, creak.
The sound was not from the inspector. Ji Yuanzhi somehow freed himself from the iron chains, leisurely moving his wrists and rubbing the red marks on them. His glasses had a slight crack. He lifted his eyelids to look at Wen Shi, his voice somewhat weak as he said, “You sure know how to cause a commotion.”
Wen Shi: “……”
I knew you were pretending to sleep.
“One of the rules here amplifies players’ misconceptions.” Ji Yuanzhi glanced at the neighboring iron cage and continued, “When Liu Yuan casually mentioned if suicide would wake her up from the dream, she immediately believed in that ridiculous idea. Just to stop her from committing suicide, we wasted a lot of time.”
“I see.” Once a misconception formed, it became infinitely magnified. The question from the Seventh Commandment member was undoubtedly a deadly trigger.
The best way to resist this rule was to empty one’s mind and waste time until the end of the overtime shift in the inspection area.
The premise was that the inspection area would finish work before four in the morning.
Ji Yuanzhi wore an additional jade piece around his neck to suppress emotional fluctuations. He didn’t have Wen Shi’s makeshift protective suit, so apart from the harm to his five senses, his emotions also fell into the game’s described irritability after five hours of the night shift.
As for the Seventh Commandment member, his skill itself was related to emotions, giving him an advantage in self-control even without using items.
“Aren’t you supposed to be patrolling underground? How come…” Wen Shi’s question was interrupted.
Over there, the inspector, after complaining about not wanting to babysit the newbie, called out to him, “Newbie, come with me to put down the samples, and then I’ll give you other tasks.”
The Seventh Commandment member showed a smug smile, as he preferred to let his purity decrease and enter the cage in a contaminated state rather than staying outside for a reason.
According to the game’s requirements, they had to obey their superiors, and none of the tasks assigned by the inspector were easy to complete.
“Why aren’t you calling for help?” he sneered and repeated the sentence, “Call for help.”
Wen Shi: “Okay, I’ll call right away.”
“……” The smile on the Seventh Commandment member’s face instantly became forced. Although he wanted to mock the other’s arrogance, he couldn’t help but consider that anything might be possible with this individual, making it somewhat believable.
The inspector started urging them again as if his whole life revolved around pushing others to work.
While enduring the noise pollution, Wen Shi used a voice only Ji Yuanzhi could hear. “What does it mean when there’s an existence whose true name cannot be recited?”
He had regained consciousness earlier by reciting the strip of cloth with his name written in blood, given to him by the teenager. Since his health wasn’t good now, reciting it again caused a much more severe reaction, and his health directly dropped by three points.
“True spirits, they possess at least the power of divine beings. Calling their names directly is seen as disrespectful and may bring curses from afar,” Ji Yuanzhi recalled, “I once encountered a true spirit in an S-class instance, and it was terrifying. They never reveal their true names.”
“So if I keep calling, will the other party be able to sense it?”
“……” Ji Yuanzhi hesitated and nodded slightly.
Wen Shi decided to give it a try.
Ji Yuanzhi squinted, guessing who Wen Shi was referring to—the teenager who controlled over a hundred senior employees and escorted him into Workshop Three.
“I don’t know what connection you have with him, but the game will restrict any unbalanced factors. First of all, he might not be able to enter, and even if he does, he might not escape.”
Dreams themselves were mysterious and inexplicable.
“I know, and I still have one more step.” Wen Shi took out the【Family Crest】. “If my little brother can’t help, then I’ll have to call upon my brother-in-law.”
Come out, Earl!
Ji Yuanzhi’s eyelid twitched fiercely.
How many backdoors do you have left to use?
Calling upon the Earl was the last option, something Wen Shi didn’t want to resort to unless it was absolutely necessary.
He took out the piece of cloth again, reciting it had benefits as it strengthened his willpower. However, Wen Shi’s health couldn’t handle the strain now.
Without any warning, Wen Shi suddenly pointed at Ji Yuanzhi and told the urging inspector, “He wants to leak our district’s secrets to the outside world.”
Big Factory specifically referred to the raw materials for the Beauty Soul Elixir as Pure-Hearted Beasts, but they were actually contaminated individuals. This meant they didn’t want the truth about the hearts to be exposed.
As expected, the inspector’s expression showed a hint of nervousness upon hearing this. He walked to the iron cage and asked, “What evidence do you have?”
Judging from his tone, if Wen Shi couldn’t provide evidence, the inspector would immediately kill him.
Wen Shi performed a magic-like move and presented a piece of cloth. “The evidence is right here.”
The inspector subconsciously lowered his head and started reading the words on it.
It was a long string of characters, not quite like regular words, more resembling an incantation. Strangely, his brain automatically recognized them, and even before he fully processed the situation, the inspector had already recited them.
In that very moment, his brain nearly exploded.
Endless desires and agony flowed through his veins, causing the muscles on the inspector’s face to stiffen and contort. Soon after, a face appeared in his mind, though blurry, the mesmerizing beauty of those soul-stealing peach blossom eyes could still be felt, peering into all his memories.
Things hidden in the shadows were brought to light, and memories that had long been sealed resurfaced. The inspector finally remembered—it was just an ordinary day of overtime when one of his colleagues got contaminated. By the time they realized it, it was already too late. Many colleagues were injured, some even had their flesh torn off directly. The factory manager ordered the quarantine of the inspection area, and in the end, everyone died here.
Wen Shi hadn’t expected the inspector’s reaction to be this intense. The inspector’s fingers pierced through his own temple and kept digging as if trying to extract the horrifying memories.
The blood characters on the cloth faded away.
This thing was excellent at countering emotional interference, but it had limited usage. Once the number of uses was exhausted, the blood characters would disappear. Wen Shi didn’t think the teenager would put such restrictions. Only trashy games would do such a thing.
He picked up the cloth, his tone even more venomous than before, “That’s right, you’re dead.”
The inspector, realizing this fact, seemed like a wicked wolf shedding its sheepskin. The half of his face under the mask displayed extensive rot, and his arms and hands were covered in corpse spots.
Wen Shi instructed the Old Man Ghost to forcefully open the inspector’s eyes. “Quick, read it twice more.”
However, the inspector suddenly became incredibly strong and threw off the Old Man Ghost.
Unable to do anything, Wen Shi had to search for the next target, scanning his gaze until it landed on Ji Yuanzhi.
Their eyes met, and Ji Yuanzhi sighed, “Ally.”
Spare the ally, Wen Shi looked towards the Gatekeeper Ghost and the Seventh Commandment member.
The Gatekeeper Ghost said, “You’ve already taken my heart.”
Wen Shi coaxed him like a child, “Read it once, be good.”
The Gatekeeper Ghost only read it once and remained defiant until the end.
Wen Shi hesitated for a moment, considering whether to try it on Big Sis and Lil Sis. Reciting their real names would partially restore their consciousness, but he didn’t know if the two could endure the damage it would cause to their bodies.
Ji Yuanzhi knew what he was considering and said, “Give it a try.”
It was better than letting them continue to transform.
Wen Shi nodded and approached the twin sisters while they still had some sanity left due to the previous antibiotics.
This place was not suitable for lingering. Who knew what could happen if they stayed longer? Wen Shi even had a terrifying speculation–memory regression might be a night shift’s aftermath. When he couldn’t distinguish between dreams and reality, he might truly consider himself as one of the inspectors in the quarantine area, forever working.
…
Workshop Three outside the inspection area.
When Wen Shi disappeared earlier, the teenager attempted to rescue him, but failed. Space happened to be his weakest area, which was why he had been imprisoned for so long. Now, he heard a call from deep inside his soul, and his captivating eyes acquired a hint of a smile.
Confusion, ignorance, and deliciousness. Most importantly, the souls in this area had no physical forms, making them numerous and delicious.
The teenager licked his lips and devoured them. His own power should be able to unseal a bit.
However, there was one thing: the mysterious being that was supposed to rescue him would only allow him to lend power to his Big Brother upon leaving this world. Once the power was unsealed by one percent, this process could be advanced.
Why would the other party tolerate this?
The teenager speculated that they might want to use him as a pawn, relying on the slight unsealing of power to deal with something.
“As you wish.”
As long as Big Brother could benefit from it, he didn’t mind being a little pawn.
He wanted his Big Brother to know that his power was much more useful than anyone else’s.
The human body was too fragile to bear a super-strong burden. By then, his Big Brother would definitely need a temporary transformation to change his physique. The succubus’s unique horns and tail contained too much energy, and adjustments were needed.
If he reduced that part of the power, the tail and ears would become useless, but he could flexibly switch them to resemble some animal traits.
The teenager began to get a little excited, his little goat horns popping out.
How should he dress up his Big Brother?
He must make him the most beautiful transformation body!
He wanted to give his Big Brother a cat tail–flexible, clever, and practical. The sensitive tail could enhance balance and add a touch of charm.
A short cat tail wouldn’t be cute. He needed a long cat tail. Cats used their tails to lure, and his Big Brother could easily lure others. Add a pair of lovebird eyes that would be the brightest and most flawless gems even in the dark.
“Wait here.” The teenager glanced at the archives administrator and his son, thinking about the transformation strategy, then disappeared outside the inspection area.
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