Main text, extra chapter: If 2
04
If that ineffable power truly exists...
He woke up—or rather, he woke up—Bao De was quite certain that he was not asleep.
But how come the world around us has changed so much?
Occasionally, two or three enormous eyeballs floated up and down in the sky, their writhing blood vessels clearly visible.
Those weren't lifeless, emotionless eyeballs, but rather... they would curiously look down at Bao De, in a very anthropomorphic way.
They could both sense that the other person seemed to be smiling.
The stench of blood rushed to his head, making him feel somewhat dazed. He raised his hand and slapped himself, trying to bring himself back to his senses.
But at this point, Bao Decai realized that he had no control over his body.
And my body keeps screaming that it wants to go somewhere.
Bao De was led by his own legs, his heart pounding with fear the whole way. He didn't really want to walk, and he didn't want to enter this strange-looking place at all.
Who knows if we're walking into the tiger's den?
I also ran into many acquaintances along the way.
People like Hu Qizhi and Qi Gan, some familiar faces and many unfamiliar ones, all dressed in expensive attire, indicating they were well-off.
They cannot greet each other because they cannot open their mouths; they can only use rich facial expressions to convey their thoughts.
Where exactly are we going?
With each step he took, Bao De's anxiety intensified.
The floor was nothing like the normal world; stepping into it would leave a small dent, and if you didn't quickly lift your foot, the fleshy growths on the floor would rapidly cover your entire foot.
That slippery, disgusting, and visibly pulsating sensation made Bao De never want to touch any meat again in his life.
Besides skyscrapers, the most common buildings here are all kinds of streetlights.
There are antiques from the last century as well as modern, high-tech solar streetlights, standing in layers, but with completely different styles, which makes people feel uneasy.
The main reason is probably the things hanging on the streetlights.
That's the kind of horror that gets censored.
If I'm not mistaken, it has long limbs and a head... it should be a human.
Bao De, who is somewhat familiar with history, felt as if he had arrived in... a bizarre version of the former Soviet Union, because the classic hanging street lamp was obviously from somewhere.
and……
Indeed, as far as the eye could see, there were only red flags.
Finally, the body stopped and arrived at its destination.
This is a modern office building. If it weren't for the strange creatures coming and going inside, it might feel somewhat familiar to the CEOs.
The staff who greeted them at the door were probably from administrative positions. Their faces looked normal enough, but when they smiled, their expressions completely cracked. This cracking was indiscriminate, affecting everyone from facial features to skull and brain matter.
The literal meaning is to treat others with sincerity.
For the first time, Bao De and the others felt that someone's laughter was so...unbearable to look at.
"You must work hard, okay? If you don't work 997 for the company, things will get weird." That "oh" seemed to have to appear at the end of every sentence, making it sound particularly stiff.
They still have no right to speak or refuse.
The bosses, one after another, arrived at their respective office floors... still wearing shackles, just like they were going to jail.
The scene looked strange. Although their facial expressions showed that they were about to cry from fright, and some even had tears in their eyes, their bodies still presented an image of being very passionate about their work as they sat down in their office chairs.
My fingers also instinctively rested on something made up of octopus-like suction cups... or perhaps it should be called a keyboard.
Pressing it will produce a slight squelching sound.
It's like having your finger put in someone's mouth and sucking, sucking hard, sucking continuously... Who knows what will happen if you don't lift your finger in time.
Well, that's another food that Bao De will never touch again in his life.
Attention returned to the field of vision.
The computer screen was still playing explicit content—if you had to describe it with a color, it definitely wouldn't be yellow.
Unable to look away, I could only stare at the screen, my fingers mechanically tapping on the keyboard—doing some very inefficient and meaningless work.
Going to the toilet?
I pay you a salary, not for you to use the toilet.
So you can only relieve yourself on your seat. This feeling of excrement, urine, and tears flying together... really makes you feel like you've become young again, and your mindset is young again.
If it's a nightmare, why haven't you woken up yet?
Bao De's eyes were numb; thankfully, he still had a group of fellow sufferers he could rely on...
Well, there was no sense of sharing joys and sorrows at all; all I could smell was a disgusting stench mixed with the smell of blood and some other strange odors.
Continuously stimulate your nasal cavity.
Bao De swore that his tears were caused by the pungent smells, not by fear.
You only have one life, but there are more than one life-threatening event...
997 means starting work at 9 am, working 9 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Once he finally had some rational space to think about his situation, Bao De, with teary eyes, understood the meaning of 997. Okay, let him look at the time displayed on the computer screen.
How could it be that I've only been at work for an hour?!
Meanwhile, Big Mouth Flower would occasionally repeat the company's brainwashing lines:
Work hard, work hard, work hard, work hard, work hard, work hard! You must work hard! If you don't work hard for the company, you'll turn into a monster. Don't think that turning into a monster will make life easier. Most humans who turn into monsters just become food for them. But working is never easy, is it? The work environment has always been this harsh and difficult, hasn't it? Work hard, work hard, work hard, work hard! You must work hard!
05
If there's someone behind "The Survival Diary of Contemporary Working People"...
"You've worked so hard all year, doing a lot to influence public opinion."
"Don't talk about hardship. Isn't it the responsibility of every citizen to make society a better place?" Meng Feifei smiled and said, "You are the one who should really be thanking me. If it weren't for you, I probably wouldn't have been able to get started so quickly."
"It is my honor that such a program has a historical mission, so thank you very much."
"Next year, we'll have to keep up the good work. After all, with the new policies, the road ahead is long and arduous. Even though we've overcome the most difficult beginning, the journey ahead won't be easy either," the person on the other end of the phone said so solemnly.
"It's okay, as long as we're on the road, we've already won. I believe that workers have a certain margin for error, and good policies are all about mutual understanding between the state and its citizens."
"You don't need to worry, our program will definitely stay true to our original intention of promoting... and continue to move forward."
After hanging up the phone, Meng Feifei turned around, full of energy for her work.
After all, not every variety show can receive official support, and for "The Survival Diary of Contemporary Working People," this is undoubtedly a huge boost.
Moreover, it allows you to get insider information ahead of time.
It's a pity that Zhixing Games refuses to be interviewed.
As you can see, after Bohoo Technology Co., Ltd. contacted the program team for a live interview, its popularity and national recognition increased significantly.
Logically speaking, the interview should be a win-win situation for both Zhixing Games and the production team.
But what can you do when people are unreasonable?
With such a large production team, they couldn't possibly go and conduct interviews against the wishes of the people involved, could they?
However, on another note, I've heard that Zhang Jiazhi, a titan in the gaming industry, has a large-scale action game collaboration project with Zhixing Games. Perhaps…
Let's start with Professor Zhang Jiazhi and take a peek into the world of Zhi Xing Games to satisfy the audience's curiosity.
06
If Jiang Chuan's photographs also follow in his master's footsteps and his identity is revealed...
Bessa copied down the URLs of several obscure websites from the internet, intending to try them out and see how they felt. She enjoyed doing things like this, exploring new tools and then using them in her life.
The URL was entered very quickly, and Bessa immediately pressed the Enter key.
The webpage redirected, but it wasn't the tool-type website I expected... What...?
Bessa hesitated for a moment before flipping through the photos. They were all wallpaper-worthy photographs, beautiful and possessing a natural beauty that struck straight to the heart, even giving the viewer the illusion of wanting to live in seclusion.
The resolution is definitely higher than 4K.
The only downside is that these wallpapers cannot be downloaded; they seem to be only for viewing.
Each wallpaper also has a small caption below it, though it's only a few words. This photographer seems to have a particular fondness for the sun, wind, and distant mountains; in his lenses, these things seem to still be in motion.
Most modern people remain calm in the face of adversity and tend to post on social media first. This amazing website for improving aesthetic appreciation is definitely worth sharing with friends. I've included a few screenshots as illustrations, and the captions are full of praise.
—Then it went viral and became a trending topic on Weibo.
We were all amazed by it.
"How did this photographer even take these photos? Some of the angles are so bad, it's like something a human could never have taken. And many of these are famous tourist attractions, so how come there's not a single person in them?"
"You've spotted the blind spot, and you are right. In this entire series of photographs, there isn't a single portrait, or even a single piece containing a person."
"Holy crap! Brothers, look at this!" The poster shared a photo that was six years old. In the photo, there was a signature on the mountain... or maybe not a name.
It's just a record, like the small print under other photos.
The main issue is that this...this content is called "free art." It's hard not to think of the blogger who recently deleted their account, yet still lives on in the "streetlights" and "workers' union website."
Zhang Jiazhi arrived following the scent of a kindred spirit, and admired the photographs from beginning to end with a look of amazement.
Based on his status as an amateur enthusiast, it's easy to tell that several of these photos would be award-winning in international landscape photography competitions.
Thinking about it this way...
Zhang Jiazhi is passionate about portrait photography and has won several awards. This is a powerful collaboration between him and his close friend.
If one day we are fortunate enough to meet at the mouth of the Han River (the place where Boya and Ziqi met), we will surely feel like old friends and have a very pleasant conversation.
Even though their meeting was still far from certain, Zhang Jiazhi, who was in an excellent mood, started to worry again. Perhaps such a soulmate would be just what he needed?
In reality, a very close distance may not be the right one.
Zhang Jiazhi thought about it for a while before realizing what he was doing. He threw down the things in his hands, slightly annoyed.
The boss's time to slack off is over.
Zhang Jiazhi regrouped and returned to his work. On his computer screen was the design draft submitted by Yu Yue and Fang Qixiang, two key figures at Zhixing Games, after they had slightly revised and optimized President Jiang's design ideas.
Just as I was looking at it, what I was thinking about suddenly connected with what I was looking at, and a sudden flash of inspiration struck me...
Wait...wait ...
An irresponsible, wildly imaginative side story (Note: This is not in the same timeline as the "what if" storyline).
If the antics of these silly netizens actually succeed...
China's first reality-virtual idol talent show has launched, crowdfunded by the public. The concept of a reality-virtual idol involves creating character models of real people, gathering them together, and conducting elimination rounds to see who will ultimately debut as a group.
Let's wait and see.
This program is exclusively broadcast online on the [Workers' Union Website]. Since this name has been mentioned, it's easy to imagine the identities of these virtual idols.
That's right! It's the bosses.
The theme of the talent show is: whoever's company can develop better and win more public support can debut in the center position.
It started as just a fun idea, and then someone—anyway, Jiang's grudge notebook is going to have another one added—enthusiastically proposed a list of executives, along with their "virtual idolized" identities and personality tags.
Immediately afterwards, 3D experts started creating models, and then promotional posters, promotional videos, and contestant profiles were all crowdfunded.
It took only a week in total, with efficiency as the main focus.
The promotional video was comparable to a real large-scale talent show, and it even attracted a lot of casual viewers, mainly because they were immediately drawn to President Jiang himself.
When the master craftsman was creating the model, perhaps out of a love of beauty, he made some fine adjustments after reasonably speculating on how Jiang Chuan's appearance had changed since graduating from university until now—a direct blow to the entertainment industry's aesthetic standards that have declined over the past decade.
Jiang Chuan, perhaps for this reason, was ranked No. 1 on the list of top executives from the very beginning, and never came down from that position.
He consistently ranked first in every referendum, far surpassing the second-place candidate.
The people's sentiments are undeniably strong.
This is reflected in a more tangible way: the recruitment email addresses of all of Jiang Chuan's companies, including the headquarters Zhixing Games, are constantly full.
Occasionally, people would disguise themselves as staff and sneak into Chuangzhi Yunjing, just to pay homage to it.
What the Zhixing Group employees found even more absurd was that this had actually developed into a small business chain: some people who lived too far from City S would place an order on a food delivery platform and have the delivery driver go to the Chuangzhi Yunjing building and do nothing but take photos as souvenirs.
Used to... mark the dream board.
Song Zhiming felt... thankfully, President Jiang wasn't in the country right now, otherwise who knows what might have happened. These silly netizens even compared getting a job at Zhixing Games to cultivating immortality and finally attaining the Great Dao, where one person's success brings prosperity to their entire family.
Perhaps just as He Feiang and others guessed, Zhixing Games was born to grab attention, and this behavior is becoming increasingly brazen and unrestrained.
Zhixing Games, including General Manager Jiang, keeps a very low profile.
However, the phrase "the entire internet" is a bit of an exaggeration; half of the internet is continuously paying attention to this program from the [Workers' Union Website].
Who is the mainstay of this show?
Those who know, know.
"If you don't understand, just ask. Where do I register? I don't mean anything by it, I just want my boss to experience the youthful trend (sincerely)."
"I don't even need to look to know who will ultimately debut in the center position; it will definitely be me, President Jiang! Don't you see, among so many companies, is it really true that only President Jiang's Zhixing Games is developing the best in reality?"
"I'm so happy! Zhixing Games is still as quiet as ever. I really want to see what our CEO Jiang's expression will be when he finds out about these tricks."
The production team also kept up with the times, creating a viewer observation room, a control group, and so on. Although the videos themselves are not profitable, embedding Google Play (to make them more realistic like talent shows) is still quite feasible.
After learning how much fun Zhixing Games' annual meeting was after the New Year, and comparing it with my own company's, it really felt like comparing apples and oranges.
A valuable prize for everyone vs. a universal award of a bottle of hair growth shampoo for everyone.
The annual meeting offers an immersive experience with food, drinks, and entertainment, while at the end of the year, people still have to flatter the boss and scheme against each other with colleagues.
Other companies provide comprehensive care for their employees, covering all aspects of their lives, while our company only subjectes its employees to relentless beatings from head to toe.
Baidu Baike (Baidu Encyclopedia) has even more to say about her, such as "a member who debuted as the center of the first season of the Zhongxia Conscience Entrepreneur Talent Show" and "possessing nearly ten million fans from all walks of life across the internet"...
"When are you going to open a branch in my city?!"—this is the most sincere sentiment expressed by countless netizens.
Only by debuting can one have the possibility of holding concerts (or branch concerts) everywhere!
Of course, netizens have no idea that their beloved CEO Jiang is actually opening branch offices everywhere (just kidding), one minute in Finland, the next in Antarctica.
It has gone directly from the international stage to the two extremes.
President Jiang is indeed ahead of his time, truly rectifying the fundamental principles!
The next bonus chapter is "Jiangchuan Trip," so please purchase with caution.
And then there probably won't be any more side stories, my mind is completely blank qaq
Thank you all for your support. See you in the next book if we're destined to meet again.
I'll give a small red envelope for long reviews, and I'll also give one for short reviews that really resonate with me, just as a little closing gift.
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