Nan Yue suddenly thought of the chef in the cafeteria and the janitor she met in the restroom at midnight... they all seemed to have ID cards.
It wasn't the terror of encountering a ghost, but a deep, bone-chilling cold that radiated from within.
These people—the people of this mission world—could only live their lives within the company like this, unable to even think about resigning.
Ultimately, they all had only one destination.
Nan Yue didn't believe the woman who jumped from the building was the first.
"You're a V8 employee, so I found a place for you on the 15th floor. The lighting is quite good."
Since it was late, Nan Yue simply thanked her and said goodbye to the two of them before following the directions to find her room.
Room 1516.
To be honest, standing in the corridor made Nan Yue feel very uncomfortable because there were far too many rooms.
There were thirty rooms on a single floor, packed together like a beehive, making her feel a bit suffocated.
Looking around, every door was identical, giving her the unsettling sensation of having entered some eerie, distorted space.
Green carpets, yellow walls, and brick-red doors made the already cramped space feel even more crowded.
Five doors down, a red door opened, and Zhu Xi Ning waved at Nan Yue.
"Just get back? I only just arrived myself."
Zhu Xi Ning shook her head. "President Fu is a total workaholic."
Zhu Xi Ning was following the fourth person in charge, Fu Yong. She had spent the entire day pressing a stapler until her hands were swollen.
"I'll let Gu Xiang Kai know."
Nan Yue slipped into Zhu Xi Ning's room. The space was tiny, containing only a bed, a wardrobe, and a desk, and the bathroom was very basic.
If even a V8 lived like this, the living conditions for V10 employees must be extremely poor.
Once Gu Xiang Kai arrived, the three of them still didn't feel safe and retreated into the bathroom to talk.
"The app is definitely being monitored. If there's a problem, it's best to discuss it in person. Don't trust the information in the app."
Nan Yue shared the information she had gathered, and both of them felt a wave of revulsion as they listened.
"I've been making phone calls all afternoon. I also learned how to sign contracts from the Team Leader. It wasn't very difficult."
"Sales depends on your face."
Gu Xiang Kai said this flatly, but Nan Yue felt he was being a bit showy. Then again, his looks and voice were excellent, giving him a definite advantage in sales.
"However, I heard a client complaining today that her contact person has changed four times this month. I looked into it, and two of them aren't in the group chat or the master roster."
Zhu Xi Ning's information was more direct because Fu Yong was in charge of the company's personnel arrangements. She had spent the day organizing new hires and resignations.
"Didn't they say before that you can't resign without facing a massive breach of contract fee? But I saw that fifteen people resigned last month."
"The paperwork is indeed complete. The senior colleague training me said that although the company doesn't give up on anyone, they won't force people to stay if they truly want to leave."
There were so many clues on the first day. This company was too strange, and everyone's words and actions were contradictory.
They spoke of mutual love while practicing workplace bullying.
They spoke of equality while enforcing a strict hierarchy.
It was impossible to tell truth from lies in such a short time.
"Let's go back and rest."
Nan Yue let out a massive yawn. She was very dissatisfied with this mission. She had originally planned to get some good sleep during a mission, yet she ended up working overtime until so late.
Her resentment was so palpable that Gu Xiang Kai and Zhu Xi Ning lowered their voices significantly.
"Then... should we just sleep for today?"
Zhu Xi Ning was a bit uncertain. As the team leader, Nan Yue seemed very unhappy, but Zhu Xi Ning was also afraid the leader would think she wasn't taking the mission seriously.
"Fine!"
But as soon as she finished speaking, Nan Yue turned and left without a hint of hesitation.
Zhu Xi Ning was stunned.
Zhu Xi Ning looked at Gu Xiang Kai expectantly, and he rubbed his temples. "Let's rest. This mission is going to be a long one."
That made sense. Zhu Xi Ning agreed that he was right.
Nan Yue returned to her room, which had a similar layout to Zhu Xi Ning's and was reasonably clean.
She pulled back the curtains. Most of the windows in the building across from her were lit up, and Nan Yue could even see several people standing by their windows. Their eyes met.
Nan Yue saw the person across from her give a polite smile. She forced a smile back and then pulled the curtains shut.
Without opening the curtains, there was no sunlight. People would suffer mental breakdowns if they were only exposed to fluorescent lights and never the sun, but staring at colleagues across the way all the time might drive one mad too.
Nan Yue circled the room to ensure there were no issues, then did a quick wash and collapsed onto the bed, falling unconscious within seconds.
The next morning, Nan Yue set her alarm for six-thirty, but she was woken up before six by a call from Linda.
"See you in the office in ten minutes. Today, you're going with Sister Lian to negotiate a business partnership."
"Of course."
Nan Yue's tone was sweet, but her resentment as she walked out the door startled the other early-rising workers.
"Who is that?"
"A newcomer?"
"Didn't see, she was moving too fast."
"I thought I saw a ghost just now..."
When Gu Xiang Kai and Zhu Xi Ning woke up, they saw the text Nan Yue had sent half an hour earlier.
"Heading to work. [smile]"
Gu Xiang Kai rubbed his hands together. This mission was truly unfriendly to Nan Yue.
Nan Yue ate a piece of chocolate for breakfast and spent the morning organizing meeting materials until noon.
She had originally wanted to use the lunch break to find out if anything had happened yesterday and if Qi Qiao and Zhao Ming were still alive.
To her surprise, Sister Lian had someone deliver lunch directly to the office. By the time Nan Yue finished working at three in the afternoon, she was seeing stars from exhaustion.
This meeting was to be held at the partner company's office. Nan Yue and Sister Lian took a car there, passing through heavy traffic and towering skyscrapers.
The maps for many missions were quite small, like Grandmother's house or the town, because they were merely distorted worlds created by pollution rather than reality.
But the world of this mission was vast—vast beyond Nan Yue's imagination.
While waiting at a red light, she saw an old man with a cart on the sidewalk. Round, white dumplings were dropping out of a machine into a bed of ginger-yellow powder below.
The old man scooped them up with a slotted spoon, gave them a shake, packed them into a small box, and handed them to a girl nearby.
What was that? It looked delicious...
Pedestrians crossed the street in a hurry. There were couples arguing on the sidewalk and lovers walking hand-in-hand.
What were all these things?
It didn't look entirely like a polluted world, and she wondered what the purpose of these NPCs was, or if there was actually more than one mission here.
The car drove for thirty minutes before stopping beneath another twin-tower building. Nan Yue followed Sister Lian while carrying various items.
She watched Sister Lian walk with a powerful stride despite her incredibly high heels and couldn't help but feel a sense of admiration.
In fact, Sister Lian had woken up even earlier than she had and eaten even less. Nan Yue didn't know how the woman possessed such immense willpower.
Sister Lian met with the other company's boss in a conference room while Nan Yue organized the documents outside.
The other company's secretary was a handsome man who came over to strike up a conversation when he saw how beautiful Nan Yue was.
Rate on N.U.
