Chapter 262

I live in a city protected by the foundation, and the largest company in this city is where I work.

My friend and I are in the same company, and we are in the same department of the company.

But my friend's rank is from level 2 personnel, and mine is lower than his, at level 4 personnel.

My friend suddenly got tired of his daily work life, so he met me, invited me to eat fried chicken and beer, and told me that he wanted to leave the city and go out and see the world.

"Are you crazy? There is no shelter in the foundation. Everywhere is contaminated. If you go out by yourself, you will not be able to apply for protective clothing. If you are kicked out, it will be even worse."

I frowned and said to him while holding the beer bottle.

"But I don't want to live like this anymore. Everything here is so familiar that it's disgusting. I want to vomit every time I see these things."

My friend said to me with his eyes downcast and eyebrows drooped that he didn't even want to look at me.

"You want to vomit if you look at me, so you don't want to look at me, right?"

I frowned and stared at him and asked.

"Of course not, but just looking at you would make me feel annoyed, and I don't want to annoy you."

My friend shook his head and answered me.

He drank some wine, and his face gradually turned slightly red.

"So what do you want me to do?"

I asked him with a frown.

"It's very simple. I've already thought about it. Isn't there a mission from above? Take the death row prisoners out to clean up the iron thorns that have sprouted out of the city. I can lead the way."

My friend looked up and gave me a weird smile.

I looked at his face and suddenly realized what he was saying.

I nearly fell off the stool.

I looked at his face carefully and found that he was not joking.

I stared into his eyes.

"Do you really want to do this? If you're not careful, you might even lose your life. If you die, who will I find as a friend?"

I asked.

"Don't worry, I won't die, because I have a friend like you. How could you let me die so easily out there? Right?"

My friend smiled at me, took a sip of his drink and said.

"I think you've had too much to drink and are confused now. How about this? Let's meet again tomorrow morning. We work in the same place anyway.

If you don’t change your mind by then, I’ll help you.”

I stared at him and said.

He smiled and touched my glass with the bottle in his hand.

The two glasses made a crisp sound.

"You are indeed my good friend. Apart from you, I really don't know who else to ask for help. They probably won't be willing to help. Because it sounds like this kind of thing could lead to someone's death.

And it’s not someone I don’t even know, but someone who is very far away.”

My friend drank and burst into laughter.

I drank the wine in my glass, stood up, and said to him, "I'm leaving."

"Goodbye, I won't see you off. Remember to see you tomorrow morning."

My friend waved and said.

I saw that he had fallen on the sofa, and kicked his legs that were blocking the road.

"Hold on, it's an eyesore."

I sneered.

"knew."

My friend sighed, patted my legs, and rolled onto the sofa.

I walked around him, walked to the door, kicked it, and said to him, "I really hope you're talking nonsense just now. But if you really think so, I won't stop you."

"I see."

He said with a smile.

"You go now."

He waved to me again.

I glanced at him, walked out and closed the door. The sound of it was like a thunderbolt exploding in my heart.

I clearly remember that I didn't use any force, the door should have been closed gently.

What a pity.

I frowned and returned to the single dormitory assigned to me by the company.

The night passed quickly.

I tossed and turned till morning.

From the window I could see some light blue clouds floating in the false dark white sky outside, and behind them was an even more false virtual sun rising slowly, and the sunlight was shining over me.

Soft and cool.

It was like someone had dumped a basin of ice-cold silk on my head.

I shuddered and swayed a bit as I got up from the bed.

The whole world seemed to flash before my eyes, and it was as if someone was shining a huge flashlight into my eyes, and the whole world was a horrible white.

There was nothing, but there was a ripple-like feeling hitting my brain.

It took me a while to get up.

I really don't want to accept reality, but things have come to this and I can't not go to work.

Everything looks terrible.

After I washed up, I went to the company to work.

I clocked in first, then listened to the training, and then after listening to a bunch of useless nonsense, I finally sat down in my seat.

After a while, I heard someone say that the latest mission had been accepted.

I went to the official website and saw that, as expected, my friend had accepted the mission to clear the iron thorns at the edge of the city.

Now that things have come to this, nothing I say will help.

I sighed inwardly, even if I wanted to stop my friend or change his mind now, it was too late.

I wanted to see him off, but I felt it was unnecessary. It was just a mission. There were many missions every day, and many people took them. I couldn't go and see them off for every one of them.

If you are too serious, others will think you are weird.

I took a painkiller, but it didn't help, so I opened a whole bottle. I looked at the label and it said there were 100 tablets, so I swallowed them all.

Since I couldn't find any water at the moment, I just chewed them as a way to exercise my masseter muscles. They were bitter, astringent, dry and white.

When I swallowed it, I almost vomited it out.

As the pills went down my throat and into my esophagus, almost floating into my trachea, I started coughing violently, and I suddenly understood what my friend had said to me yesterday.

Everything is so familiar, so ordinary, so unchanging, and so abominable that I feel like vomiting just by looking at it. It's like an instinctive resistance that cannot be refuted at all.

It's even worse.

I hoped he would come back sooner, and he did come back sooner, but he was the only one who came back among the group of people; the others were all eaten by the ironthorn.

Too many people died, and he was responsible for it because he was the leader of the team and he took on the task alone.

Theoretically, he should bear full responsibility, and his responsibility should be doubled.

The boss notified everyone in the department to go to the office for a meeting.

Everyone was present, the boss was sitting at the front seat, with no one next to him.

He scanned the surroundings with a stern look, looking at everyone, and no one dared to look him in the eye.

However, everyone could see his serious and wrinkled bitter gourd-like face from any reflective object.

The office was silent, and everyone knew that this matter was very serious.

No one dared to speak.

The boss looked at me.

I frowned and tried to lower my head, find a crack on the ground and squeeze myself in, so that I wouldn't have to face anyone's gaze.

The first time I knew I had an attack was when it was quite serious.

I crushed the painkiller hidden in my teeth.

I felt better, looked up and gave my boss a subtle smile.

"How dare you laugh? Don't you have any explanation for what happened to your friend?"

The boss stared at me and asked.

"If he did something wrong, he should be punished. There is no need to be polite to him. Although he is my friend, we should keep public and private matters separate. I think everyone knows this."

I replied.

"Indeed, since we all work in the company, even if we are friends, we should keep public and private matters separate. You should take the lead. Tell me, he is your friend, how should we deal with him?"

The boss looked at me with a smile.

"He made such a big mistake, he deserves to die, let him die to atone for his sin. He doesn't have anything extra to pay for it."

I answered in a low voice.

"Letting him die is too easy for him. How can such a good thing happen? If someone makes a mistake, there is no need to make amends. Just die and that's it. Do you think that's a good thing? It's not good for the company."

My boss told me.

"Then sell his body, and you will be able to make up for it."

I replied.

The boss laughed.

A second-level staff member stood up, glanced at me, and said to his boss, "I don't think it's necessary to be so troublesome, and there's no need to be too strict.

Although he made a mistake this time, he had never done so before, and everyone makes mistakes. If we are more lenient with him this time, perhaps he will remember the good things, work hard, and make up for his crime.

Besides, it was dangerous for him to go out and clean up the garbage on the edge of the city. After that, he was given such a task and asked to do it alone. If he died, he died. If he lived, he came back.

We also save some lives.

There are benefits for everyone.

It is also a blessing from the company.”

"If everyone dies, the company can't possibly fail. Besides, there's always someone alive. He did what he was supposed to do. Was his task bad or was it someone else's fault?"

I asked him.

He didn't answer.

We all looked up to our boss.

"It would be better to just kill him and save a lot of trouble. We are not the police here. People are the easiest to kill."

The boss said with a smile.

"Since you guys are silent, that means you have no opinions. Then kill him."

The boss nodded.

The people around me felt sorry for me because I didn't even beg for mercy.

"He was an old man after all. It's not a good idea to kill him like this."

"Others will say we are unkind and unjust if they know about this."

"Why not, make another plan."

Everyone was talking in low voices.

"Then give me another suggestion."

My boss told me.

"I heard that churches give out indulgences."

I answered in a low voice.

"Okay, then everyone should contribute money to buy him an indulgence. Everyone who just spoke should contribute money. Just ask his friends how much to contribute."

The boss said to everyone with a smile.

Everyone blinked and looked at each other, all a little surprised, but nodded.