Chapter 18: Ghost Mansion Part 2: Almost Got PUA
The lights suddenly flickered, and with the popping sounds of several incandescent bulbs, a huge creature was slowly approaching the front desk.
"You...you attracted something here!"
Sun Jie cursed in his heart and tried his best to hide behind Ruan Meng.
Ruan Meng narrowed his eyes and raised his hands slightly in a defensive posture.
The lady at the front desk seemed oblivious to this strange incident and continued to look at the new employees with a friendly smile on her face.
Long Zhu looked up at the black shadow - it was a "man" in a suit who was nearly two meters tall. He was extremely bloated, and the buttons of his clothes were barely tight, as if something squirming was imprisoned in his body, making people feel cold and disgusted.
The executive director stood in front of Long Zhu, tilted his head and stared at her with his dark eyes.
"Who are you."
Long Zhu was silent for a moment, then slapped the front desk twice in an unfriendly manner: "I'm looking for the female director."
The lady at the front desk smiled to herself, unresponsive as if a program had been temporarily terminated.
The Executive Director said, "Follow me."
Ruan Meng took a step forward cautiously: "Don't go, this thing has a very high resentment power, it's not on the same level as that cleaner."
Long Zhu jumped down from the cleaning vehicle and glanced at Ruan Meng: "It's okay, I'll go over there and take a look."
She picked up the mop and followed the executive director.
Seeing that he couldn't persuade Sun Jie, Ruan Meng had no choice but to take Sun Jie to the Human Resources Department's office on the other side.
The place the executive director took Long Zhu to looked a bit like the office area of a large factory.
Above my head are rows of dazzling cold white lights, and white workstations are densely packed together, leaving only a narrow passage in the middle.
There are employees at almost every workstation, staring at the screen with numb and empty expressions and typing on the keyboard.
At first glance, everyone seemed to be preparing a PPT report.
But if you look closely, you will find that the patterns and words flashing and jumping on the screen are simply indescribable. They are meaningless and have no rules or logic.
When these things stimulate the senses in large quantities in a short period of time, people may develop a distorted empathy with them.
At least that was the case with the official employee sitting in the first row wearing his ID card.
He sighed in a daze, "I understand now. Black is red, going to work is overtime, spring in the south, autumn in the north, summer in the east, and northwest... "
The executive director nodded with satisfaction. Something wriggling in his body spread beneath his skin, occasionally revealing mechanical lines as if they were cut by a knife or an axe.
He placed his hand on Long Zhu's shoulder and asked her to look at the large projection screen in front.
A line of big words flashed above: Today, I am proud of the company, and tomorrow, the company will be proud of me!
Then, repeated red and black fonts appeared, enlarged, and flashed repeatedly. Dense slogans and meaningless pictures were connected together to form a huge vortex, as if it had the power to suck souls in.
Long Zhu's pupils then turned into mosquito coils, and he seemed to have fallen into a powerful suggestion.
A satisfied gurgle escaped from the executive director's body, which looked like it could collapse at any moment.
The next second, Long Zhu blinked and everything returned to normal.
She turned on her phone, and a cheerful electronic voice rang out: "Gongde Map is navigating you! We've identified 0 living people and 12 % people. This presents a huge security risk. Do you need Xiaode to call the police for you?"
Long Zhu looked at him gloomily: "You lied to me, there is no one here that I'm looking for."
The executive director was visibly panicking. He stepped back, trying to drown himself in the dark behind him. But the deceived Long Zhu refused to let him go. He stabbed the mop into his body, pried it up like a lever, swung it in an arc in the air, and slammed it hard at the big screen in front of him.
With a bang, the executive director passed through the word "pride" on the screen. The cloth was torn and the skin on his face was scraped off, revealing his real head - a black surveillance camera.
The employees at their workstations watched all this in blank confusion.
But in a moment, they continued to work as if nothing had happened.
The camera in the suit made a malfunctioning electrical sound, and finally, a spark flashed and the signal light went out completely.
Of course, no one cared.
-
Ruan Meng and Sun Jie met up with the others in Conference Hall A.
There is Zhang Jie, a middle-aged woman who comes to visit her daughter's company, Xiaoyu, a female college student who is tricked by her boyfriend to come here to seek excitement, and Azhe who has worked as a salesperson in Sanxi Company for a month.
"There are two sets of rules now." Ruan Meng took out a cigarette from his pocket and put it in his mouth. Just as he was about to take out the lighter, he hesitated for a few seconds, then put it back into the cigarette box, took out a lollipop again, and tore open the wrapping.
"The font size, the writing of the time, and the definition of the 14th floor are all completely different. It can be inferred that they are opposites."
Sun Jie quickly asked, "Which one is the real one?"
"Of course the rules are all true," Ruan Meng gave him a gloomy look. "If you mean which rule provides greater protection for humans, I lean towards the first security code."
If the source of the resentment is the 14th floor, then the Ginkgo Building Security Code is designed to help those who stray into it stay away from danger. At the very least, it has no intention of actively harming humans, and even provides shelter such as the "Supervisory Office."
On the other hand, judging from the second item of the employment instructions which encourages employees to work overtime, it is definitely not a good thing!
...Haha, just kidding.
"If we hadn't chosen to enter the company, perhaps the building would have provided the wanderers with the identity of 'security guards' in some way. As long as they followed the rules, they would have had a chance to escape."
Ruan Meng thought: "But now, we are new employees and can only survive within the company's rules first."
Sister Zhang keenly discovered that Ruan Meng might be someone with some kind of experience.
She unloaded all the clues she'd gathered over the past two days: "Every day, we have to punch the time on the clock, wear our employee ID cards, and be at our workstations from 5 PM to 1 AM. Working overtime earns recognition from our superiors, and we're definitely safe at the 11 PM meeting. However, if we exceed 12 hours of overtime, we're likely dead."
Xiaoyu shuddered as she recalled some of the previous scenes. "My head would suddenly explode, and I would make a mess at my workstation. If my neighbor didn't help clean up, I'd be 'criticized' by the director during the regular meeting."
"As for the elevator color, we haven't figured it out yet, so we don't dare take it easily," Sister Zhang sighed. "Someone tried black before, and the result was... disastrous."
Ah Zhe was crouching on the ground with a sad face. "I'm so unlucky! I came back to get a client document and suddenly I'm on the 14th floor."
He was upset: "If I had known this would happen, I wouldn't have come no matter how good the benefits were."
When talking about benefits, Sun Jie added: "What benefits are there?"
Azhe was in a trance for a moment, recalling his previous normal working days, which seemed like a lifetime ago: "11 am to 7 pm, six insurances and two housing funds, paid annual leave, holiday allowances, and annual team-building trips abroad."
Sun Jie cursed out of jealousy.
Ruan Meng was stunned. "Wait, you mean, your normal working hours are the same as the building security rules?"
Azhe was confused: "Yes."
Ruan Meng looked at the clock without numbers on the wall, stood up and walked over.
The clock was hung on a nail, not too high or too low, and it was a bit awkward. There was a small hole in the wall not far above 12 o'clock.
"Something's wrong," Ruan Meng fiddled with the rickety clock. "Are all the clocks in the company like this without any words on them?"
Xiaoyu hesitated, "Yeah, all the electronic equipment here breaks down, and the view outside the window is fake. We can only rely on the company clock to confirm the working hours."
Ruan Meng's fingers slid across the smooth glass surface and stopped on the frame just below 6 o'clock, where a screw was installed.
An incredible conjecture gradually took shape.
"For a stingy company that even encourages overtime in its job requirements, keeping the lights on 24 hours a day doesn't seem that strange."
"But what if... it's to make people lose track of time?"
He held the frame of the clock, used the nail directly above as a reference point, and turned it 180 degrees upwards.
The screws below the 6 o'clock position coincide with the holes above the wall.
The others were first stunned, and then frightened.
"The clocks were deliberately reversed," said Sister Zhang, the first to react. She quickly sorted out the information: "11 o'clock was 5 o'clock, 7 o'clock was 1 o'clock! The security rules reminded us, but we were still misled!"
Ah Zhe and Sun Jie didn't react: "What will happen then?"
Sister Zhang frowned. "You all have jobs, right? When are the regular meetings usually held?"
The two replied in confusion: "Morning?"
"In the morning, to be precise, before work," Ruan Meng tapped the clock, which had been adjusted. "So the actual time isn't 11 o'clock every night, but rather—5 o'clock as stated in the induction instructions."
Sister Zhang's face turned pale. "We always thought we were punctual and avoided overtime, but these past two days, we've unknowingly added four hours of overtime every day. No wonder the rules say you can't be late, but you can leave early."
They spend their off-get off work time as working time, and they treat part of their real "working time" as "leaving get off work early"!
The company is enticing them to work overtime! Perhaps in another day, they may "suddenly die" at their workstations.
"What should we do! Sister Zhang..." Xiaoyu covered her mouth in despair: "Are we unable to get out?"
Ruan Meng cursed inwardly. What a wicked place! He didn't even know if his employer was still alive.
"We must not exceed working hours again. Let's get through today first and then we can make plans in the long run."
Sister Zhang nodded solemnly. "The three of us have accumulated eight hours of overtime, so we'll be easily brainwashed. You two, monitor us at all times. If you notice anything unusual, take immediate action."
As soon as he finished speaking, the door shook violently.
The lights in the corridor flickered, and a maliciousness that was almost tangible swept through the entire conference room.
"...The Executive Director has asked for leave... I'm here to provide induction training for the new employees..."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com