Chapter 385: Rusty City Strange Stories
Silence spread throughout the scene.
After a long moment, the woman in the red dress spoke in a low voice.
"How can I trust you?"
There was a thick layer of suspicion in its voice, and its resistance to gamers was almost overflowing from its throat.
Xu Zhiyan reached out and took another biscuit from the arms of his temporary teammate beside him. His relaxed expression was completely different from the large number of factory NPCs on the opposite side.
"Because cooperating with me is your only way out. It doesn't matter whether you believe me or not."
As he was talking, he suddenly laughed.
"The situation is getting worse, isn't it? There are problems with the internal and external operations of the factory. You are really afraid of places without rules to support you."
The densely packed surveillance cameras on the top floor are built into the wall, but there are no signs of reconstruction on the entire building, which means that the existence of these surveillance cameras should be similar to that of the building, and the irregular areas should have appeared very early.
But the over-ripe raw materials started disappearing a few months ago, and that’s when buyers started catching people alive to infect them.
Looking around, Xu Zhi pinched a biscuit and changed the subject.
"Isn't it too insincere to talk here? At least provide some water."
He took a bite of his cookie and demanded.
"Of course, if the location you provided has more information about the rescue team, that would be great. In exchange, I can tell you why the overripe raw materials have become less."
Lil stared at him for a long time, then waved his men away and had the lights turned off.
…
Inside the factory director’s office.
The old factory manager in the wheelchair had a pale face and not much hair on his head. He was pushed into the lounge, while the others stayed in the meeting area.
Xu Zhiyan got a glass of water as he wished, and ate and drank until he barely filled his stomach.
Miss Lill stood in front of the bookcase, the material inside kept turning over, as if waiting to be consulted.
No, maybe it shouldn't be called Miss Lil now. After Xu Zhiyan discovered its identity, it no longer concealed it. Its facial features were submerged in black mist, leaving only two pitch-black eyes. It looked somewhat similar to the monster hiding in the factory.
Qi Shanren has now returned to normal. He moved closer to Xu Zhiyan and said quietly, "Boss Xu, why does it look like this..."
"Don't worry."
Xu Zhiyan soothed.
At first, he didn't quite understand why the infection effects inside and outside the factory were different.
The monsters outside the factory had clear faces, with rust starting to spread from their skin, but the monsters inside the factory had rust starting from their clothes.
If inside and outside are two different sets of rules, then everything makes sense.
Living people in the factory will be infected for violating the factory rules and gradually turn into monsters with unclear faces like "Miss Lil"; but if they accidentally trigger the infection mechanism of monsters outside, they will quickly decay and die.
But thinking about this, Xu Zhiyan was a little confused about its motives.
"Perhaps it has a special channel connecting to the outside world, which allows it to constantly lure people from the outside world to enter, but it can't leave through the channel on its own?"
"Bang!"
The monster who had found the information came to the table and put a cardboard box on the table. In addition to relevant information records, there were also items of previous rescue team members.
“Why are the raw materials becoming less?”
It stared straight at Xu Zhiyan, and its voice became extremely rough when it spoke.
Xu Zhiyan glanced at the box, picked up the notebook inside, and saw that it was indeed the record of the previous rescue team members, then he closed the notebook and began to explain.
"Do you know the beverage machine in the factory cafeteria?" He suddenly brought up a seemingly unrelated topic.
Lil was stunned and nodded hesitantly.
“Only new employees go to the factory cafeteria, and the beverage machines there have long been out of use.”
An information gap appeared. As a rule for controlling an entire factory area, it seemed that it had not checked the dangerous cafeteria for a long time.
Xu Zhiyan showed an expression that said "as expected".
"Have you ever devoured a human? I rarely encounter monsters like you that can communicate normally, is that right Miss Lil?"
Instead of answering the question directly, he continued to ask.
This question seemed to have touched the monster's reverse scale, and its body was quickly covered with rust spots, but the color of these mottled marks changed from brown to gray after a moment, which was very similar to the gray of the raw materials.
Qi Shanren's eyes widened suddenly, but Xu Zhiyan was still sitting there calmly.
The monster quickly returned to its normal appearance.
"…She devoured me." said the monster in woman's skin.
Many years ago, the rules emerged in a completely new life form, devouring each other, and the city fell into a huge crisis.
"She is scarier than a monster."
Miss Lil is the next successor to the factory. She is familiar with everything in the factory and is a very qualified successor. If the strange pollution had not occurred, she would definitely be a good factory manager.
"She immediately discovered that the factory rules would affect me, and instead of taking advantage of this loophole to leave, she chose to take my place."
Taking advantage of the characteristics of the rules, Miss Lil merged herself with the factory rules and trapped the monster with her flesh and blood.
Hearing this, Xu Zhiyan changed his previous lazy posture and sat on the sofa with his back straight.
"The human body is very fragile, but the heart is not weak."
He murmured, not knowing to whom.
Although Miss Lil, who had integrated the rules, lost her consciousness, her desire to protect the factory was deeply rooted in the monster's mind.
From then on, the monster took on human skin.
"It's not all bad." It lowered its voice: "I've become more human."
It passed the stage of being confused and only knew how to devour, and without any effort, it acquired the thinking power that many monsters would have to evolve for many years to obtain.
It can think, communicate, and even get information about the game from the conversations of people.
An unimaginable world is opening up to it.
"If I didn't have to protect the humans in this plant, I might be grateful to her."
The emotions in the monster's words were very complicated. After gaining the unique thinking ability of humans, it also paid a corresponding price.
After analyzing the past, it turned its attention back to Xu Zhiyan.
"Because of these reasons, I have to protect the humans in the factory. In order to keep them alive, I watch them every day and choose a compromise."
It exploits loopholes to lure outsiders into the factory, and then infects them as sacrifices to preserve the factory.
Xu Zhiyan pursed his lips, looking slightly hesitant.
The live broadcast room was noisy and lively.
[Ah, if you look at it this way, this beast of rules is really affectionate and righteous! ]
[It didn't want to protect the factory NPC, it was swallowed by the beauty and had no choice! ]
[If there is no Lil, it will definitely fail. I don’t understand what people who praise monsters are thinking. ]
[It’s true that he killed someone, but he also saved someone…]
[It depends on where you sit. If you are an old employee, then you will definitely think it is okay. It is a benefit anyway. If you are an outsider, then you will definitely be in trouble. ]
[I'm sitting next to Xiao Baiwan! It's a monster, and I don't care! ]
In the center of the screen, Xu Zhiyan did not make any comments on the monster's behavior.
As agreed, he explained why the raw materials were becoming scarce.
"Not everyone wants the newcomers to die, so they come up with a way to sacrifice less... well, at least that's what it seems like."
The note was originally found in the dormitory, which gave the rules of human flesh and screws.
Human flesh cannot be discovered by it.
Human flesh should be thrown into the trash can...
The factory canteen is located just on the edge and the garbage disposal station is near the canteen.
"Forcing four screws in is a signal. If someone does this, something that shouldn't be there will appear on the relevant conveyor belt."
Forcibly tightening the four screws is equivalent to believing the contents of the note, and the next thing will most likely be done accordingly.
The human flesh was thrown into the trash and some cleaners took the bags to the canteen.
Maybe it was the chef himself, or maybe it was the exchange method that came with the beverage machine, in any case, they obtained beverages that could inhibit pollution through exchange.
“It’s not easy to achieve this cycle.”
Raw material processing workshop, processing workshop, packaging area, cleaners...there must be corresponding people in every link.
Or maybe everyone except it has reached a consensus.
"The people who resist are the employees you want to protect. They know you are watching them, so they can only leave notes and let outsiders who are not under surveillance do it."
The workshop supervisor turned a blind eye to the human flesh, and the guard at the guard booth was ruthless to him but did not really shoot him...
No one else knows about the raw materials except the buyer.
The employees noticed the changes in the city. They lived cautiously in the strange world and tried their best to save those infected in their own way.
"You choose to sacrifice some and save some."
"They chose to sacrifice a few to save the majority... but this minority may have done so voluntarily."
If the person had been murdered, there would have been bruises and marks from strangulation. However, the body parts they took down from the conveyor belt had blood on them, but the skin was smooth and clean, and it did not look like the person had struggled.
After Xu Zhiyan finished speaking, he did not rush to move on to the next topic. Instead, he reached out and searched for something useful among the wreckage of the rescue team members.
Well, by the way, give the guy on the other side some room to think.
After hearing the explanation, it was completely confused.
The beautiful face of Miss Lil appeared on its neck, and blood and tears mixed and fell quietly.
"Humans are really weird," it said.
"They can live well without worrying about anything, so why do they want to suffer? They should know that if they violate my rules, they will really die..."
Although it has acquired Miss Lil's ability to think, it is still not a human.
It cannot understand the sacrifices humans make for stranger companions in times of distress, which seems completely unnecessary to it.
After a long time, when Miss Lil's face disappeared and turned into a head covered by black mist again, Xu Zhiyan cleared his throat and persuaded: "I am here to end all this. If you cooperate with me, you will not be troubled anymore."
Although his voice was gentle, if you listened carefully you could hear a slight tremor in the last syllable.
Seeing it nod, Xu Zhiyan reached out and handed it a wallet.
"Can you contact the rescue team? Ask them to send a few more people over and tell them that the situation here is high-risk and the problem is serious."
He opened his wallet, pulled out a few photos, and pointed at one of them.
"Ask this person to come over."
The photo shows several people in an office. You can see that they are very excited, as if they have arrived at some extraordinary place. Behind them, in the center of the wall hangs a photo of a man in a black military uniform.
The handwriting under the photo is not very clear, but you can make it out by piecing it together.
[Special Hazardous Materials Handling Team]
[Captain-Bai Jin]
Meeting the cold and deep gaze of the man in the photo, Xu Zhiyan raised his eyebrows and smiled silently.
Bai Jin? His outfit looks pretty cool.
I just don't know if he is so perverted under his decent appearance.
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