With a smile, Yuan Zhihua took a heavy can of meat from the shelf.
As he opened the lid, the air was immediately filled with the smell of formaldehyde and a slightly rotten, rancid odor.
The two pungent odors combined, causing everyone in the room to gag.
Lu Sheng frowned slightly and pressed his body as close to the wall as possible.
"Don't be nervous, everyone. This is a necessary part of the awakening ceremony."
Yuan Zhihua took out the meat chunks, cut them into exactly twenty portions with a knife, and handed them to the workers who were tied to chairs.
"Once you eat this piece of meat, you can awaken your superpowers and contribute to the factory."
"As the last pure land in the human world, the future of our factory is the future of humanity, and you are all warriors who create the future for humanity."
The young workers, bewildered by Yuan Zhihua's toxic advice, lowered their heads without hesitation, brought their mouths to their hands, and swallowed the foul-smelling chunks of meat.
"Director...Director..."
Just seconds after swallowing the piece of meat, a painful wail suddenly rang out from the crowd.
Some people, like restless beasts, writhed irritably in their chairs. Then most of the remaining people also began to go berserk, and screams echoed throughout the empty room.
Their muscles were taut, their eyes bulged, and they were constantly emitting hysterical screams.
Two or three minutes passed before the wailing gradually subsided.
Of the twenty people, only three young people remained, still shaken and huddled in their chairs.
The remaining seventeen people all slumped in their chairs, lifeless.
Lu Sheng narrowed his eyes slightly. The skin of the dead workers had turned bluish-gray all over, and their wrists and ankles were rubbed raw and bloody by the shackles, with the wounds faintly turning black.
The young people who were congratulated that morning were also among these unfortunate souls.
The three survivors weren't in much better condition either.
In addition to the change in skin color, the survivors' eyes began to become cloudy, and several bulging blue veins rose on their skin with their movements.
"Director...they..."
One of the survivors looked at Yuan Zhihua with trembling eyes.
Yuan Zhihua chuckled and said, "Awakening also depends on talent. If they lack talent, they can't blame anyone else."
"You are the future pillars of the factory."
Yuan Zhihua pressed a button on the table, and Sister Zhang actually came out from a hidden door behind the shelf.
The two of them lifted the chairs together and carried the survivors one by one into the dark room.
Lu Sheng wanted to follow, but the system notification indicated that the collar's effect would last for less than three minutes.
To avoid being exposed, Lu Sheng suppressed his curiosity and hurriedly left along the same route.
Just as I stepped out of the factory's office building, the walkie-talkie on my waist suddenly started buzzing with electrical activity.
"Lu Sheng...where are you? We...have made a new discovery in the planting area."
Xu Yi's voice came through intermittently.
"I'll go back right away."
Lu Sheng returned to the planting area, and the group found a quiet, secluded corner.
"Sister Lu, I don't know how I awakened a second-tier skill while I was planting potatoes!"
As soon as she regained her footing, Han Rui couldn't wait to hug Lu Sheng and whispered excitedly.
“You have to specialize in something. Your kind of earth-based ability can only be activated by doing some farm work,” Zhang Xiaojuan joked with a smile. “If you had planted rice seedlings at the Yunshan base a few months earlier, you might have already taken off.”
While the two were bickering, Lu Sheng looked up at Xu Yi and asked, "Did you find anything in the planting area?"
"Han Rui's awakened second-tier skill is Environmental Analysis, which can analyze some environmental factors related to plants, such as water, air, and soil."
Xu Yi took out a small bag of black soil from his pocket. "We just took some soil from the cornfield. According to Han Rui's analysis, this soil contains a lot of bone meal."
Bone meal?!
Lu Sheng's grandmother loved growing flowers. As a child, she grew up by her grandmother's side and gradually learned some folk remedies for growing flowers and plants.
To add nutrients to the potting soil, some people add soybean cake or eggshells to the pot. A more advanced method is to sprinkle bone meal into the potting soil.
Beef bone powder, pork bone powder, or you can grind chicken bones into powder yourself.
The purpose of using bone meal is to increase the phosphorus and potassium content in the soil, thus promoting flowering. Phosphorus and potassium have almost no effect on crop cultivation, so why would a factory use bone meal?
Lu Sheng's expression was serious. "Can you analyze what kind of animal the bones are?"
"Not yet. My ability has just advanced, and my ability to analyze the environment is not yet sophisticated enough." Han Rui pouted, feeling wronged.
"The factory's rapid crop production is likely related to the addition of bone meal."
Xu Yi put the bag of black soil away. "I just found out the location of the breeding area, and I want to go there and take another look."
"Okay, you guys wait for me here."
Lu Sheng and Xu Yi got the address and hurriedly headed to the breeding area.
The poultry smell was strong, and there were almost no people near the breeding area, except for a few workers who were hiding in the tool shed to keep warm.
Lu Sheng timed the distance perfectly, slipped past the blind spot, grabbed a small bag of freshly delivered feed, and ran off.
Back at their destination, Lu Sheng opened the feed container, and Han Rui grabbed a handful, mixed it with some soil, and stuffed a soybean inside.
This is considered a method to exploit a bug related to superpowers.
"One-fifth of the ingredients in this feed is meat..."
Han Rui looked up in surprise and said.
"What kind of meat is this? Are you all so well-off that you use meat as animal feed?" Zhang Xiaojuan asked curiously, rummaging through the meat.
"I can only analyze that it is meat, but I can't know what kind of meat it is."
Lu Sheng suddenly looked down and poked around in the feed a couple of times. "No need to analyze anymore, I know what kind of meat it is."
Following her gaze, several people saw a sliver of silver peeking out from the feed.
Zhang Xiaojuan quickly pulled it out and found it was a brand new tie clip.
"It's human flesh."
Lu Sheng said with a serious expression.
"What?! That bone powder..." Sun Tiantian exclaimed in shock.
"Human bones".
As soon as Lu Sheng finished speaking, Han Rui froze for a moment, then turned pale and ran to the corner to vomit.
She ate several ears of corn this morning...
Lu Sheng briefly told the group what she had seen in the factory office building: "The seventeen people who died back then were processed into animal feed so quickly."
"Based on the reactions of the people in the cafeteria this morning, every now and then someone will be selected to participate in the awakening ceremony."
Zhang Xiaojuan was unusually serious. "I just chatted with the girl next door who grows tomatoes. She said that everyone who has awakened will be sent outside the base to carry out missions. It seems that doing missions is just an excuse; people have become fertilizer."
"How come you can chat with anyone?" Han Rui rolled her eyes at Zhang Xiaojuan with disdain.
Xu Yi took a small bag of feed and put it in his pocket. "Human flesh and bone meal alone cannot shorten the growth cycle of plants and animals. There must be other reasons."
"Lu Sheng! We've finally found you!" At the crucial moment, Sister Zhang's voice suddenly came from not far away.
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