Chapter 145 Don't Deduct My Money (Unedited) This is the system's security term...
Darkness is the most effective growth promoter.
Liang Jun felt that the surrounding environment was constantly expanding under the cover of darkness, and the boundaries were beginning to become blurred, which made her seem even more insignificant, like a drop in the ocean.
The overwhelming sense of powerlessness seemed to be threatening to completely overwhelm her, but Liang Xun was determined not to let that happen.
She calmed herself down and, using the light from her phone, huddled in a corner behind the cashier. During this process, her arm accidentally bumped into the magnetic locker door, but fortunately, the door was closed, so Liang Jun wasn't completely swallowed by the unfamiliar darkness.
Because of this sudden change, a lot of messages popped up in the "Never Die" group chat.
Ge Lin: [Oh my god! What's going on?!]
Gu Keke: [Panic.gif]
Qi Zhixia: [Stay calm, it's just the lights being turned off after work.]
Gu Keke: [Why hasn't Ling'er come back yet?]
Xin Sang: [It's so dark outside, will we still be able to find our way back?]
Luo Chuange: [Should we call her? She's still not back this late; it's probably not safe for her.]
Ge Lin: [I just called her, but no one answered...]
Gu Keke: [Goodness!]
Gu Keke: [When did you guys secretly add each other as friends?!]
Liang Jun quickly skimmed through the chat, but Jiang Zhiling never appeared in the group chat during the entire process.
The vague unease in her heart began to grow stronger.
The newly triggered hidden rules are also quite ingenious.
At first glance, it seems like a well-intentioned reminder to players to make good use of their free time after get off work; however, a closer look at the wording of the rules reveals that the system also requires players to specifically plan their activity area during this time.
"You have the freedom to manage your time within your work position."
Liang Jun murmured softly, her gaze following the light as she swept across the cramped space where she couldn't even fully stretch her legs. "Is this the only area we can be in?"
While at work, there are opportunities to leave the cashier's counter, but once it's time to leave, those 12 hours spent immersed in darkness are spent confined to a space of less than three square meters.
Once you leave the area of the checkout counter during this period, it is equivalent to violating the system rules—perhaps this is the case for Jiang Zhiling.
Liang Xun felt a lump in her throat. Holding her breath, she clenched her fist and slammed it hard on the floor, her protruding knuckles instantly turning red.
Things shouldn't have been this way.
Or, to put it another way, perhaps I'm overthinking things. Maybe Jiang Zhiling has already found a safe place and is quietly waiting for the 12-hour dark period to pass.
Thinking of this, Liang Xun turned on her constantly vibrating phone again, preparing to enter the group chat to see if Jiang Zhiling was letting everyone know she was safe.
But that was just wishful thinking. In the group chat, everyone was arguing about how to establish contact with Jiang Zhiling, but the person in question seemed to have vanished into thin air, not replying at all.
Gradually, some members of the team noticed that Liang Jun hadn't sent any messages from beginning to end, and the topic quickly shifted to her.
Luo Chuange: [Where's the captain? Why hasn't she come out?]
Gu Keke: [Yeah! Where's Sister Gan?]
The discussion is getting more and more heated, and the messages are being posted on social media at an increasingly rapid pace.
She didn't know what they were talking about, but when Liang Jun's gaze locked onto the chat box in the darkness, she saw the message sent by Qi Zhixia.
Qi Zhixia: [Oh no, there's no one at her cashier either.]
When Liang Jun heard the news, she looked up and happened to see a blinding light shining directly above her head.
Ignoring the constant barrage of question marks in the group chat, Liang Jun, supporting her numb legs, got up from the ground, stood up, and waved to Qi Zhixia.
Liang Jun: [I'm here, I've just sat down where I am, so you can't see me.]
After the misunderstanding was cleared up, Qi Zhixia quickly clarified the situation in the group chat.
Qi Zhixia: [It was a misunderstanding, I made a mistake.]
The brief dramatic interlude has come to an end, but the dark clouds hanging over everyone's hearts have not yet completely dissipated.
Xin Sang: [Baby, you were closest to Ling'er. Did you notice her when she left?]
Liang Jun: [I saw it.]
Leung Jung: [She was indeed taken away by an NPC, but during the process, I couldn't hear their conversation at all, so I don't know what they were discussing.]
Liang Jun: [Her last gesture was to show me her phone. I guess besides these two messages in the group chat, there are no other clues.]
The group fell silent for twenty minutes.
Twenty minutes later, Xin Sang sent another message in the chat box.
Xin Sang: [Now that our movements are restricted, theoretical discussions are ultimately useless. We should use this time to adjust our mindset and think about concrete plans for the future.]
Xin Sang: [Those of you who live near Ling'er might need to work a bit harder. If there are any changes to her cashier location, please let us know in the group chat immediately.]
This method is indeed the most feasible under the current circumstances.
Upon seeing this, Liang Jun and Gu Keke replied in the group chat one after another.
Liang Jun: [Received, Sister Xin.]
Gu Keke: [Read.gif]
After the communication ended, Liang Jun closed the WeChat page, but did not completely turn off the phone screen.
A hard day's work is finally over, and a competent worker needs to carefully calculate the reward for their hard work.
Liang Xun opened the calculator on her phone. "System, what's my current task progress?"
[Current progress: Revenue 9155/10000...]
[Successfully surviving by following the rules will allow you to clear the level. Keep up the good work!]
Thanks to that wealthy basketball player, who single-handedly made "passing the level" easily attainable.
Liang Jun quickly used a calculator to make accurate calculations and finally concluded that she only needed to obtain at least 845 yuan in sales revenue on the second day to successfully pass the current instance.
Eight hundred and forty-five.
In such a luxurious shopping mall, you can easily exceed this number by simply taking anything.
Since the arrival of rule-based worlds, Liang Jun has had a rare moment of relaxation.
Before the joy secreted by her brain could fully spread throughout her body, the system once again disappointed and interrupted the process.
[First Day Work Log]
Revenue: NT$9,155.
[Customers served: 3.]
Number of complaints received: 1.
Real-time complaint rate: 33.33%
[Do you want to view the details of the complaint?]
The system's sudden display of human-like behavior caught Liang Yun completely off guard.
Unexpectedly, there was even a groundbreaking "log" function. Liang Jun turned off her phone screen and put it down, replying with great interest, "Let's check the complaints."
[The infamous competitive eater: What's wrong with this cashier?! I've emphasized it so many times, I'm allergic to blueberries! I'm allergic to blueberries! Why did she still force-feed me two blueberry lollipops?! I know most of your lollipops are made with blueberry flavoring and probably don't contain any real blueberries—but what does that have to do with me?! I'm so allergic to blueberries that I can't even stand the mention of the name… oh no, I'm starting to itch all over… I'm going to complain about the cashier! I'm going to complain about the whole store! Why can't you remember my membership information?!]
The system gifted Liang Xun a vivid and dramatic performance, which resulted in Liang Xun being inexplicably and harshly scolded.
In the end, Liang Xun found it increasingly absurd, so she borrowed the giant glutton's words, "But what does this have to do with me?!"
The system would never provide players with unimportant clues beyond the background, such as membership information, and players have absolutely no way to obtain such personal profiles of NPCs.
Aside from cheating in the game, Liang Jun couldn't figure out how she could know that the giant was allergic to blueberries, no matter how hard she tried.
This is an unsolvable problem.
Liang Jun sighed softly, rubbing her forehead.
Although the complaint was absurd, Liang Jun at least understood one thing: NPCs, as customers who come to shop, have hundreds of bizarre reasons for complaining. Who knows, one day she might be unlucky and fall into one of these brain teasers.
Fortunately, I only need 845 yuan more in sales to successfully pass the level.
Thinking about this, Liang Jun couldn't help but recall that the previous rules mentioned that performance was closely related to the complaint rate. So how would her current turnover be affected by this 33.33% complaint rate?
"System, my complaint rate is not zero right now, so are you going to deduct from my revenue?"
Bored, Liang Jun asked, trying to bargain, "How much will you deduct? Can you deduct less?"
The system, which had been able to interact smoothly and answer every question just moments before, now resembled a defective robot with communication difficulties, unable to respond to Liang Jun's words.
Liang tried to have a few more conversations, but whenever she shifted the topic to "performance and complaint rate", the system would fall silent again.
Got it, that's a security term from the system.
This suggests that Liang Jun should not continue this topic.
Having learned to stop at the right point, Liang Jun knew when to quit while she was ahead. Based on previous experience, topics that the system remained silent on were very likely related to hidden rules.
If that's the case, then it means that her current complaint rate hasn't reached a level that can affect her performance.
Thinking that she could make more than nine thousand yuan in sales on the first day, Liang Jun leaned back happily against the counter.
Aside from waiting for Jiang Zhiling to return, she had nothing else to do. And since the two of them were at the same counter, Liang Xun could hear everything clearly, even if she was lying on the ground, if the other made any noise.
She thought that her time after get off work would still be calculated according to the game time, which would only be two hours. She thought that she could get through it with a simple rest, but Liang Jun underestimated the hormonal power brought by the darkness.
A sense of exhaustion crept into Liang Xun's eyes, lurking in the darkness. She didn't remember when she fell asleep, only that when she opened her eyes again, it was already bright outside.
It wasn't the lights on in the store, but the sun that was actually visible from the outside.
Liang Xun let out a long yawn. She rubbed her numb and aching legs as she stood up from the ground, and also rubbed her sleepy eyes.
The time after get off work perfectly overlaps with real time.
In other words, she slept for nearly ten hours last night, half-lying on this hard floor.
Liang Xun shook her incredibly stiff limbs, trying to get the blood circulation that had been stagnant all night back to normal.
Her gaze naturally turned straight ahead, only to find that Jiang Zhiling's cashier's spot was still empty.
A full twelve hours have passed, and Jiang Zhiling still hasn't returned.
Liang Xun paused in her stretching, then looked down to pick up her phone. Just as she was about to share the information with her teammates, she discovered that they were all excitedly discussing something else entirely—
Xin Sang: [There was a thief last night.]
Luo Chuange: [Sister Xin, what do you mean by that?]
Gu Keke: [No way, aren't we in a game instance?]
Gu Keke: [With the market so bad these days, are thieves even targeting dungeons?]
Ge Lin: [Sister Xin, what did you lose?]
Xin Sang: [The money's gone.]
Qi Zhixia: [Mine is gone too.]
Ge Lin: [Holy crap?!]
Liang Jun lost her grip on her phone, and it fell to the counter with a dull thud.
She didn't even care about her phone at that moment, and hurriedly pressed the "checkout" button on the keyboard, wishing she could just take the cash drawer off.
The cash drawer, which was full when she left work last night, is now completely empty, leaving Liang Juntu with only an empty banknote tray.
And then, of all times, the system makes its routine announcement at this crucial moment—
[Current progress: Revenue 0/10000...]
[Successfully surviving by following the rules will allow you to clear the level. Keep up the good work!]
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Author's Note: How did a huge, buzzing bug fly into the room?!
I can't take it anymore... This insect-phobic alien is powerless...
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