Chapter 162: Rose Factory
Tang Erda opened his eyes in the game.
Overwhelming rose petals swept from the sky and a large field of bright flowers filled the horizon. The sky was as dark as night and as one moved deeper in the rose fields, there was an out of place modern factory against the backdrop of a country town.
A huge brass distilling apparatus was placed in front of the factory as a decoration. A white painted wooden plaque was hanging next to it with the words 'Rose Dry Leaf Factory' written in both Chinese and English.
Tang Erda's breathing stopped for a moment and he subconsciously looked at the top of the factory. There was nothing there, only some fresh roses basking in the moonlight. Dew appeared on the fleshy petals and it gave off an addictive and fascinating aroma.
This was the factory where Bai Liu (6) stood at the top and asked him, "Do the roses smell good?"
In all the timelines he experienced, Tang Erda had never seen this level three game.
He knew that the solution to the Rose Dry Leaf Gas must come from a certain game in the system but no matter how frantically Tang Erda played the game, he had never come across this game.
It was as if there was an existence blocking his access to the game while teasing him. This made Tang Erda long lose hope that he could play the game related to the Rose Dry Leaf Gas.
Yet this time, after Tang Erda's complete despair, he actually chased Bai Liu into the game by accident.
[System notification: Player Tang Erda has seen the factory door and triggered the main quest of the game.]
[System notification: The player's identity is the lowest rose picker in the Rose Dry Leaf Factory. You need to work hard in the factory and be promoted to the top perfumer based on performance. After becoming the perfumer, you can kick out the previous factory manager and become the new factory manager.]
[Once a new perfume factory manager is born, the player who becomes the factory manager will pass the level and the game is terminated.]
[Now, please enter the factory and start working today!]
At the same time, Bai Liu was hiding behind the factory. He once again determined the main mission in a depressed manner. Meanwhile, Liu Jiayi was drinking an antidote to heal herself. She still had blood on her body but her face was much better. The gunshot wound was no longer bleeding.
After Liu Jiayi confirmed the main mission, she glanced at Bai Liu's bad expression and turned around a bit awkwardly, whispering, "...I told you not to enter a level three game. I had a hard time saving you back then but now you entered yourself. Give me some face..."
Bai Liu sent Liu Jiayi a gloomy expression. "It isn't because of you. It is because of this mission."
"What is wrong with this mission? The mortality rate of a level three game limits the number of people who can clear the game. I reminded you before coming in..." Liu Jiayi quickly entered a thinking state. She put away the antidote bottle and frowned. "The mortality rate of level three games is between 80-90%. It is normal that only one person survives. Still, a level three game isn't without loopholes."
"However, this game limits it so that only players who have become the factory manager can clear the level. We saw it when we came in. There is only this Dry Rose Leaf Gas factory nearby so the clearance condition is stuck to a certain extent. We can only take it step by step. It is understandable if you don't like the main mission of the level three game. The flexibility is reduced and the difficulty is increased..."
Bai Liu was in a rare state of absence and his gaze was a bit distracted. "...It is a part time job again. Why am I still working as a corporate drone in the game? I don't like being exploited."
Liu Jiayi, "......."
He was lost because of this?!
Liu Jiayi blankly climbed onto the brass distillery used as a decoration and hit the back of Bai Liu's head. "Troublemaker, regain your spirit first! Take care of your pursuer. He will definitely chase you into this game. That man has a strong fighting power. You had better think of a way to get us through this level three game."
Bai Liu was hit against the wall by Liu Jiayi and remained motionless.
Liu Jiayi, "......."
Liu Jiayi grabbed Bai Liu's head and pulled him, roaring angrily, "Don't pretend to be dead to avoid a part time job! You brought me into this game so you have the responsibility to take me out of here! Give me a bit of an adult man's responsibility, Bai Liu!"
Bai Liu slowly lifted his head from the wall and looked at Liu Jiayi with a very sullen expression. "Is there anyone who will give me money for working here?"
"...Of course, there isn't anyone. What are you thinking?"
"Oh." Bai Liu slowly lowered his head again and exclaimed angrily, "Then I quit. I have been forced to do very bad business for 10 years. Now I have to work for nothing. I can't do it."
Bai Liu was like a contemporary Grandet who was forced to hand over his legacy to his son, only to find that he wasn't dead yet. He had an expression of loss. It was obvious that he hadn't recovered from his 10 years of hot pot transactions with Lu Yizhan.
Liu Jiayi stepped on Bai Liu's shoulder and pulled out the corporate drone trying to escape from working. She scolded him. "You can't just say you won't do it. Hurry up and work!"
After discovering that nothing could make this corporate drone immersed in loss and depression recover, Liu Jiayi had to resort to the ultimate move. "You work and I'll pay you. How about 100 yuan an hour?"
Bai Liu, who had buried his head in the wall, turned without hesitation. He stared at Liu Jiayi, reaching out his hand to her. He wasn't ashamed at all. "Deal. Pay first and then work."
Liu Jiayi, "......."
D*mn, this Bai Liu was just waiting for her to pay money, calculating her feelings...
Was this man so stingy? Even calculating the money of an eight year old girl?
Liu Jiayi scolded in her heart but on the surface, she gave Bai Liu the money without moving. Bai Liu took the money, tidied up his clothes and returned to being a part-time worker. "Let's go to the factory to check it first."
"Wait!" Liu Jiayi grabbed Bai Liu in a slightly helpless manner. "Weren't you listening to what I just told you? That Captain Tang is chasing you into the game. If you go directly into the factory to find the NPC and receive a quest, you might bump into him. His gun, the skill weapon, is very powerful and it can even be used in reality. If you bump into him, he will kill you without saying a word!"
Bai Liu removed Liu Jiayi's hand with a casual expression. "The moment he entered this game, he won't kill me."
Liu Jiayi was stunned. "Why?"
"Rose Factory is a game stage specially presented by someone for Tang Erda and I. Of course, it also might not be a human." Bai Liu lowered his eyes and they darkened. "In this game called Rose Factory, there must be a secret that can save all those polluted by the perfume. This is the same as the reward of the Love Welfare Institute monster book, where it provided me with an item that can save a child from the blood ganoderma lucidum poisoning."
"Tang Erda thinks that the core of the game that hides this secret is in my hands. He thinks I know how to clear the game so he rushed to this point. Before the game is cleared and before Tang Erda gets what he wants, he won't be able to bear to kill me."
"The antidote to save the people he wants to save is right around the corner. I believe that the righteous Captain Tang won't have the same madness as before or the courage to die with me."
Bai Liu commented in an unhurried manner and there was a slightly teasing manner to his tone. "After all, in the eyes of Captain Tang, my life shouldn't be as precious as his Vice-captain Su."
He held Liu Jiayi's hand and walked next to the rose field of this rural town. After going around the distiller placed in the factory, he could see the opened wrought iron front doors.
There was a wooden plaque hanging from the main entrance that read: Welcome to Rose Factory.
Bai Liu held Liu Jiayi's hand and went in. After entering, there was a huge, open air workshop with fresh roses just picked from the fields scattered on the ground. Some people were squatting on the ground and separating the stems, leaves and petals of the roses into a pile. Then they were sorted into categories.
Both sides of the venue had huge copper furnaces that were working. Hot and colorful steam was continuously coming out. Beside the copper furnaces, there were people constantly stirring the rose petals into a ball with steel shovels. It looked like a thriving work scene but the people working were a bit strange in appearance. Their working hours were also out of place because it was late at night looking at the sky.
These workers wore black protective clothing with elastic bandages around their wrists. In addition, they were gloves, black rubber boots and black hats. They didn't look like they were dealing with roses. Instead, they looked like virus researchers in a dangerous laboratory or beekeepers.
Bai Liu was stopped by these people as he led Liu Jiayi in.
The workers handed Bai Liu and Liu Jiayi two sets of protective suits that seemed tailor-made. They raised their heads and spoke with hoarse and cracked voices. They stared at these two uninvited guests with hatred and vigilance. "You have to wear protective clothing when entering this place. You can't let the smell of your body contaminate the smell of the roses, understood?"
At such a close distance, Bai Liu could clearly see under the black veil. The face of the person who handed it to him, or the employee who could no longer be regarded as a human being, had some deep and huge cracks on his face. Black, rotten and bulging flesh appeared along the cracks and it was like a rose was blooming under his eyes.
In the eye of the worker staring straight at Bai Liu, there was a crimson rose with black edges that was about to wither-much like the one on his face.
~
Bai Liu and Liu Jiayi glanced at each other and silently took the protective clothing that the worker handed them. They put it on and went inside under the guidance of the other person.
The worker walked inside while turning his head to introduce Bai Liu to the three different workshops in the factory. However, Bai Liu's attention was drawn to something else.
As the man walked, the face in the protective suit rustled along with his movements and made the sound of falling leaves. Then the dropped things were stepped on by his feet. A scent was faintly revealed during the action but he didn't care. He just kept introducing the structure and rules of the factory.
"There are three workshops in the perfume factory. There is the petal processing and distillation workshop that you just saw, the essential oil purification workshop where we are now and the most core fragrance workshop. You aren't qualified to go to the fragrance workshop. Only perfumers are qualified to work there..."
"We are recruiting four types of people here. There are those who are responsible for picking the roses in season and this is the lowest level worker. Newcomers who have just arrived all start here. Those with an outstanding flower picking performance will be promoted to the petal processing workshop and become a processor. A processor with good performance will be promoted to the purification workshop and become a formal factory worker. At this level, you are qualified to learn the knowledge of fragrances..."
"Finally, those with the strongest learning ability and highest perfume talent can become a perfumer. It is a great honor but it is too far away for newcomers like you."
Bai Liu observed his surroundings while listening to the NPC talking about the factory. Finally, he asked, "Then how do I become the manager of this factory?"
The worker who was talking about how to be promoted to perfumer abruptly stopped talking.
The worker turned his head abruptly. His cheekbones under the black gauze were faintly visible after the flesh and blood was peeled off. His low voice was grim and frightening. "The factory manager? You can't be promoted to a factory manager. The manager has the core technology of the factory's perfume and the cultivation method of the Dry Rose Leaf Gas. These things can't be spread out. If you want to be the factory manager, let's wait until you have those things."
Bai Liu changed his question. "How many factory managers have you had?"
"Eight," the worker replied.
Bai Liu sighed lightly. "Then how did they change?"
The worker's expression became ugly as he realized what Bai Liu wanted to ask. This made him pause eerily for a moment before replying, "...The previous factory manager disappears and the next factory manager who has the perfume formula and rose cultivation method will automatically take office."
Bai Liu asked up to here and wisely stopped. It seemed that this was a transition rotation. The previous factory manager disappearing and the next factory manager being appointed might not be too simple. The perfume formula and rose cultivation method were equivalent to passing along the national jade seal. Whoever got it would take office.
They continued to walk inside and the low, dark factory interior gradually became wider to the left and right. Various aluminum cooling pipes were embedded in the surrounding walls and water flowed rapidly inside.
There were long chains of distillation and drying devices on the ground, the casings of which had been dyed pale pink like a rose and gleamed in the dim yellow light. Normal roses weren't so corrosive as to color the metal.
Even though Bai Liu and the others were wearing protective clothing, there was a strong scent of roses that filled the air. From the various devices that were working, he could see rose colored drops of oil flowing slowly through the pipes and dripping from the spout into a beaker the size of a fist.
"We are the only factory in the world that can produce the Dry Rose Leaf Gas perfume. The perfume we produce will be shipped from here to the world. Everyone in the world is crazy about this perfume and can't live without it. However, we haven't developed smoothly to where we are today."
The worker introduced it to Bai Liu in an inexplicably proud tone of sharing joy and sorrow. "You can see the development history of the factory on the wall to your left. It was all published in the local newspapers."
Bai Liu's gaze moved to the left and he saw a wall covered with old newspapers. It was placed in a glass cabinet with various trophies and certificates in it such as 'Best Perfume of 202X' and 'Top 10 Companies of the Year'.
"10 years ago, the Dry Rose Leaf Gas was strictly prohibited and our factory was almost closed. Then a big explosion that almost completely destroyed the factory caused the fragrance of the Dry Rose Leaf Gas to spread to the surrounding area. In a big city, millions of people became addicted to the perfume overnight. A good perfume has such charm and brought the factory back to life, allowing it to develop to its peak!"
"Now the entire world is using this perfume and demand is surpassing the supply. The Dry Rose Leaf Gas has been transformed into something more precious than gold."
The worker was chattering. Bai Liu kept moving forward only to see a familiar face on the newspaper wall. This made him abruptly stop.
His eyes fell on the old and yellowed newspaper stuck to the edge of the window. This newspaper was a few years old and the headline was printed in bold black letters.
[A perfume processing and chemical factory on the outskirts of Jing City (TL: previously Mirror City) leaked gas due to improper protective measures. This resulted in injuries to 139 workers and 17 police officers who came to investigate the scene fell unconscious after sniffing the gas.]
Bai Liu's gaze moved down. Below the headline was a large black and white photo with two faces he was familiar with. Both of them were wearing uniforms and lying on stretchers. They were unconscious and about to be carried to the ambulance. They were obviously affected by the gas leaking from the perfume factory.
Liu Jiayi also recognized one of them. Her eyes widened slightly and she went to the wall. She stood on tiptoe and looked at the policeman lying unconscious on the stretcher due to the explosion. Then she opened the system panel.
[System notification: Does player Liu Jiayi want to use 600 points to open the mute space of the small TV? Everything you and any players within one meter say will be muted. It won't be broadcasted to the audience watching your small TV.]
[System notification: The transaction is completed. You can now speak freely!]
Liu Jiayi finished her actions and turned to look at Bai Liu. Then she nervously asked, "Isn't this... Officer Lu Yizhan?"
Bai Liu agreed in a lukewarm manner. "The other one is called Su Yang."
He looked at the date in the newspaper. It was the date after they entered this game.
Now the connection between the Rose Factory game and reality was very obvious. It was a game instance that didn't have time to be logged into reality. The way it was logged in was this explosion.
This mission officially began more than ten years after the explosion, which was now.
The huge leak that triggered this game being logged into reality i.e. the huge leak that made the Dry Rose Leaf Gas popular all over the world, happened the day after Bai Liu entered the game.
A game usually took a day which meant...
Bai Liu looked at the specific time of the explosion. It was around 4.15 a.m. which was basically the time when Bai Liu had just entered the game. There was no more than 10 minutes of error.
This meant that it didn't matter if it was Tang Erda or Bai Liu who passed the game. The moment they went out, what they would see was Lu Yizhan or Su Yang being affected by the explosion and dying after being contaminated by the Dry Rose Leaf Gas.
Even if the item reward they got for clearing the game might be able to save a contaminated person, the leak that caused the large-scale contamination had already happened.
Meanwhile, the reward given for clearing the game i.e. the item to save the contaminated people was limited. It was just like the blood ganoderma lucidum given after clearing the last game. It was just enough to save six children.
According to the arrangement of the person behind the scenes, the game Rose Factory would definitely be refreshed after it was cleared and it would be difficult for them to find it again, preventing them from getting the items.
Not surprisingly, even if they got the item to save the contaminated people, it might just be enough to save the 1,000 people already contaminated.
If the big explosion spread, the item to save people was likely to be insufficient.
According to Bai Liu's understanding of Lu Yizhan and Su Yang, both of them were typical public officials and had very righteous personalities. They would never use the item to save themselves as long as the ordinary people hadn't been fully saved.
This should be the situation that the person who arranged everything behind the scenes wanted to see. He wanted to watch with a smile-Bai Liu and Tang Erda fighting in front of the hospital beds of their most important friends while only being able to watch them wither and do nothing. They might even fight with each other or sacrifice the lives of innocent people to save their friends' lives, becoming the villain that their friends despised.
Such a wonderful arrangement unfolded before he knew it.
Bai Liu remembered what he heard before entering the game. Su Yang was going to investigate the perfume factory the next day.
So many things happened tonight and Lu Yizhan was a fool. In order to prove that the Dry Rose Leaf Gas had nothing to do with Bai Liu and to understand what happened to Bai Liu, Lu Yizhan would definitely take the initiative to investigate the matter along with the third team. This perfectly formed the chessboard that the person behind the scenes wanted to see.
The chips were placed on the scale of reality and the players were in the game ring. The onlookers were hiding in the abyss and the bottom of the sea, watching the play that they had made.
The show was about to begin-Bai Liu seemed to hear someone whispering happily and frantically in his ear.
~
Chapter 163
Liu Jiayi also noticed that something was wrong. She looked up at Bai Liu, who was holding her hand, and frowned. Then she spoke in a low voice. "I turned on the mute space of the small TV. The audience can't hear you talking to me. What is going on? I don't think this is right. There are too many coincidences. It feels like..."
"Someone designed this game for me and Tang Erda to enter, right?" Bai Liu spoke casually.
Bai Liu's eyes were still on the newspaper wall behind the glass. "Don't you think the last round of the game was also designed for you and me? The game that has been logged in once isn't supposed to happen again. It is such a coincidence that your welfare home was on the verge of losing all its investment and the dean had to act on the children again. This finally brought the matter in front of me."
"It is such a coincidence that I met Liu Huai in Exploding Last Train and made him owe me a debt. Then due to things in reality, he chased me into Love Welfare Institute and the game design separated you from him, placing me in the same camp as him."
Bai Liu looked at Lu Yizhan's pained black and white face in the newspaper, his tone calm.
"In addition, Mu Sicheng was included in the second game and happened to meet Liu Huai. Liu Huai is the link between you and me. At the same time, as your weakness, he was placed into the game with me. I will naturally use your weakness to restrain you for my benefit. Therefore, the contradiction between us will intensify. You will choose to kill me and I will be forced to fight back and kill you."
"I generally rarely believe that there are so many deliberate coincidences in the world." Bai Liu retracted his gaze from the newspaper wall.
Liu Jiayi muttered, "It is almost like someone deliberately created so many coincidences, cutting open our weaknesses for you to exploit and then letting us fight..."
"However, I didn't kill you and you didn't kill me. The game that the person behind the scenes played entered an impasse." Bai Liu said lightly. "So this time, my weakness was added to the game to further aggravate my conflict with the opponent."
"Your friend Lu Yizhan is also involved." Liu Jiayi quickly reacted. "You will definitely speed up the game clearance for this but the game has only one player who can be the factory manager. Thus, you will have to compete more fiercely with Captain Tang."
"Yes." Bai Liu's attitude was still very calm. "However, the chips delegated by the other person are expected to make Tang Erda completely crazy. Out of the 17 police officers involved in the explosion, all of them are from the third team while Su Yang led the team to the factory."
"It will be very hard for Tang Erda to maintain his sanity during this type of thing."
Bai Liu was silent for a second. He didn't tell Liu Jiayi but the more complicated thing was that in another timeline, Tang Erda saw Bai Liu causing the explosion that brought down the world with his own eyes.
This fundamentally led to the fact that Tang Erda would definitely choose to kill Bai Liu when clearing the game. He was the main culprit of the explosion and this would prevent the recurrence of all the tragic endings.
Everything was tightly woven into a situation purposely designed to trap Bai Liu and Tang Erda. The only way out of the situation was to kill Tang Erda, just as Tang Erda's only way out was to kill him.
This person behind the scenes manipulated everything. The death of Su Yang drove Tang Erda out of control and turned him into the monster hunter who lost his bottom line. Now this person was repeating the old tricks, using Lu Yizhan's death to induce Bai Liu to give up on the principles and bottom line that Lu Yizhan had personally built for Bai Liu. The person was inducing again and again to let Bai Liu kill innocent people and turn into a crazy and sober monster like Tang Erda.
This was forcing him to become Bai Liu (6).
The worker continued to walk inside. They passed through a very deep, oppressive corridor before arriving at an office. After entering, there was a classically styled office. The steward was sitting behind a walnut desk, drinking rose tea and wearing glasses.
The steward didn't wear protective clothing. He was wearing a more serious and well-made suit. It could be seen that his status was one level higher than the worker who brought Bai Liu and the others here.
The man raised his head and looked at Bai Liu and Liu Jiayi. There was a rose slowly blooming in the center of his eyes.
The roses in the eyes of the steward were fresh and delicate. It was obviously more vigorous than the one about to wither in the eyes of the worker. These roses were full of vitality and it was worthy of the faint scene of roses around his body. This aroma could be smelled by Bai Liu even through his protective clothing. It was like a fresh rose bud exuding a faint fragrance.
"Are you new workers?" The steward put down his teacup and looked at Bai Liu and Liu Jiayi in a slightly arrogant manner. "You have come to the most famous rose factory in the world and you are preparing the world's top perfume. I hope you take your work seriously."
Then the steward took out two contracts from a drawer. He raised his chin and pushed them to Bai Liu and Liu Jiayi.
"This is our labor contract. After signing and receiving your work card, you can go to work."
Bai Liu picked up the labor contract and flipped through it quickly before putting it down. Then he looked at the steward with an expression of uncertainty. "No fixed hours? Three meals a day and accommodation are provided for free? The salary is paid using the Dry Rose Leaf Gas? Aren't you going to pay me?"
"Do you have any opinions?" The steward looked at Bai Liu contemptuously. "Now only the top companies in the world would dare to use the Dry Rose Leaf as a salary for employees. Ordinary people who can't buy the Dry Rose Leaf Gas are all working hard to enter our factory and get the perfume as a salary."
"If you go outside, you can trade the perfume for anything you want, whether it is food, a house, jewelry, gold, beautiful men or women or even rare animals. Now the entire world is going crazy for the Dry Rose Leaf Gas."
The steward took a slow sip of the rose tea. The roses in his eyes became even more gorgeous and the smile on his face was weird. "It is because without the perfume, people will wither. Money is just a pile of waste paper and it is no longer the hard currency of the world."
"Roses are the currency."
Bai Liu was silent for a second before bending down to sign the contract. Liu Jiayi also signed it in silence. However, the worker who led them over was reluctant to leave. He looked at the bottom of the rose teacup that had been drunk clean by the steward.
The steward habitually put his teacup down and a drop of tea fell onto the ground. The worker who led Bai Liu over immediately knelt on the ground, bowing over like a dog as he greedily and frantically stuck out his cracked tongue from under the protective suit to lick the drop of tea that was about to disappear.
The moment the tea was licked, the worker's black, cracked tongue seemed to be moistened. It changed from a dry and cracked petal-like texture to a normal, light pink tongue.
The steward kicked the worker's head in disgust. "Be careful not to let the stench of your body pollute the rose scent in my office."
The worker nodded while bowing on the ground, his expression full of gratitude and joy for the gift. "Thank you for this drop of tea! This is the most fragrant rose tea I've ever had! It is brewed from the dried rose flowers after the gas was extracted!"
The worker sniffed the ground that had been licked clean by his tongue. "This smell is really... wonderful!"
It was as if he knew that he wouldn't get an extra reward for staying here. The worker reluctantly stood up and glanced at the teacup. Then he bowed and stepped back respectfully. "Then I will bring the newcomers out first. The two flower pickers here will go to work."
Then his expression changed and he waved at Bai Liu and Liu Jiayi with great impatience. "Follow me!"
Bai Liu and Liu Jiayi lowered their heads and followed the worker all the way to the outside of the factory.
In the night, the flower fields were mysterious and beautiful. Blue fluorescent bugs were landing on the budding flowers and the breeze blew over the petals, making the roses undulate in the night like waves. There was a slight rustling sound and the dark red soil reflected a color like it was moistened by blood.
The worker looked at them. "This is where you will work. The flower fields that our factory uses to grow the roses for the perfume are 16,000 mu (TL: one-fifteenth of a hectare). One or two workers will be in charge of one of the fields. You are responsible for picking the roses in this field."
"The dry leaf roses bloom late at night. This rose is very sensitive to daylight. You must pick as many roses as you can before they meet the first rays of sunrise and gather their petals. Only the roses at night will produce the most beautiful and pure fragrance without any impurities. The dry leaf rose after dawn has no fragrance."
The worker led Bai Liu and Liu Jiayi to the flower field and pointed to some small, simple tents that were placed side by side. He said in a somewhat gloating manner, "Do you see these small tents? You are low level flower pickers so the factory won't provide you with a dormitory. You have to live in these tents at the edge of the flower field. Take a look. A tent without a person means that flower picker has been fired and has become a vagrant. You can just go into the tent and stay there."
There were indeed many simple and dirty fabric tents stationed in the narrow areas between the flower fields. These tents were of different sizes and it seemed like three people at most could live in one at the same time. The tent was made of canvas and was gray-blue. It was originally a very resistant material and color but now it was covered with splashes of blood and handprints.
It just wasn't known if this was real blood or if the workers had wiped the dirt on their bodies on the tent after they were finished working.
~
Chapter 164
"After the collection is done, we'll find you before dawn to get the roses."
"Remember, the picked petals shouldn't be stolen by the vagrants around the flower fields who covet the dry leaf roses." The worker warned them sternly. "If they are stolen, not only will you be unable to get a single drop of perfume but you will also be expelled from the factory. You will end up like the vagrants, do you understand?"
After speaking, the worker handed Bai Liu and Liu Jiayi two thick sacks for the flowers, a pair of thick cotton gloves for picking roses to prevent the scent from contaminating their human hands, a handful of long tweezers to pick up the dropped flower buds and a specific salary form.
The worker casually stuffed the salary form at Bai Liu and said quite proudly, "You won't be working for long. You will be expelled and become a vagrant. The elimination rate of this factory is very high. Someone like me can be promoted to a processing worker because I am one of the flower workers who can pick 6 kg of roses in an hour."
"You probably can't even pick one sixth of my number. This is probably your last night in the factory. Enjoy the original dry rose leaf aroma and you won't suffer any loss. The flower field tent is the most expensive hotel room in the world. I don't know how many people holding gold want to stay here for one night but have to wait for a reservation."
"You are lucky..." The worker muttered angrily as he walked back. "Last year's dry rose leaf production wasn't good and too many people withered. There is a serious tendency to wither or get diseases in this year's recruitment but it is hard to find ordinary people who don't steal roses from the flower fields. The May Rose Festival is coming again. It is the flower season where there is a shortage of people. Newcomers like you are recruited and allowed to enter..."
"...I remember my batch of recruitment was only for students with a 985211 graduate degree or above, published more than three research directions for the Rose Dry Leaf Gas and graduated with an SCI impact factor of 1.0 or above."
Bai Liu, who spent all day playing games that led to poor grades and who graduated from an unknown university, "......"
Liu Jiayi, a second grader of a primary school for the disabled, "......"
Their intelligence wasn't low but what the hell was this worker talking about?
Liu Jiayi held up two gloves that were around the same size as her face and looked up at Bai Liu. "Do you know how to pick roses?"
From the worker's words, it was clear that picking these roses was a technical task.
"No, I haven't picked any roses." Bai Liu replied while tying the sack to his belt, rolling up the sleeves of his white shirt, tightening the legs of his pants and placing the thick black gloves on his hands. He instantly changed from an urban white-collar worker to a country boy who was ready to work in the field at any time.
He saw Liu Jiayi, who had the expression that asked 'Why do you look so skilled?' and naturally explained while holding the tweezers, "As a child, I cut ragweed. It is different from roses but I think the method of harvesting should be similar."
Liu Jiayi, "......."
Don't treat roses like ragweed!
Bai Liu got down on one knee and helped Liu Jiayi roll up her sleeves and tighten her pants. Then he tightened his gloves and put gloves on Liu Jiayi reluctantly. As he did this, he calmly explained to Liu Jiayi, "Don't worry about anything happening for the time being. Haven't you seen that Tang Erda isn't here?"
Liu Jiayi had actually discovered this but she didn't understand why.
"If the person behind the scenes wants you to fight with Tang Erda, they should release Tang Erda, a beast who has a powerful lethal force, in order to kill you when you are powerless." Liu Jiayi placed her hands on Bai Liu's shoulders and raised her feet to let Bai Liu sort out her shoes and socks. There was a deep expression on her childish face that didn't match her age. "However, he deliberately separated you and Tang Erda. This is protection for you. Why?"
"It is because they didn't design this game stage for me to be killed." Bai Liu stood up and clapped his hands. He lowered his eyes and spoke in a vague tone. "This gives me the opportunity to grab weaknesses and kill the opponent."
Liu Jiayi was stunned. "It is like the last round of the game where you obtained Liu Huai's soul first and then dealt with me, right? In this game, it is likely that Tang Erda was sent to another flower field and would have to stay there until-"
"We won't fight until that person thinks I have the ability to kill Tang Erda." Bai Liu lightly added to Liu Jiayi's words. He had a casual smile on his face like this was interesting. "After all, the simple feeding scene of a beast killing someone is far less beautiful than an arena match where two beasts who became crazy after growing up are fighting each other."
"Of course, there is another reason for that person to do this but I think you've guessed it." Bai Liu looked at Liu Jiayi.
A chill that couldn't be controlled went down Liu Jiayi's back and she slowly opened her mouth. "It is because the audience likes to watch such a development the most. If the person behind the scenes is related to the system, he can make a profit from the system. Such a small TV trend is the easiest to get recharged points and likes. Part of our various profits from the viewers will go to the system..."
"Even if we die, all our proceeds and our souls will be taken away by the system."
All of them were just... casually released animals for the person behind the scenes to play with and watch, to please their eyes... nothing more.
"So don't worry about our life or death for the time being. The person behind the scenes won't let me die easily." Bai Liu pulled out the salary form from his pocket and showed it to Liu Jiayi while sighing. "It is really a part time job..."
The salary form impressively listed the weight of the roses picked and the corresponding wages.
-Reference data: One dried leaf rose (not dried) weighs around 2 g.
Picking 40 kg of dried leaf roses (flowers and branches) can be exchanged for a bottle of low-grade Rose Dry Leaf Gas perfume with a concentration of 30-40% that is 35 ml.
(Note: A bottle of low-grade perfume with a concentration of 30-40% can leave a smell on the human body for 4 hours.)
[System notification: The player has unlocked a side mission.]
[Side mission: Collect 40 kg of roses tonight.]
[If the mission is successful, the player will be able to exchange it for the first bottle of low-grade Rose Dry Leaf Gas. This can be used to alleviate contamination and is the first step to becoming a processor! If the mission fails, you will be laid off and exiled to the periphery, becoming displaced people.]
Bai Liu silently converted it in his heart. One rose was 2 g then 40 kg of roses was...
"200,000 roses..." Liu Jiayi looked up from the salary form in disbelief. "We have to pick 200,000 dry leaf roses before we can get a bottle of low-grade perfume that only maintains the scent for four hours? Are they treating us like animals?"
Bai Liu habitually glanced at Liu Jiayi. "Congratulations, little friend. You have already appreciated the true meaning of part-time work in advance."
"I also talk about my boss like this every month when my boss pays my salary." Bai Liu paused. "Then I was fired by my superiors but I wasn't very interested in doing such a low-cost thing. I just started to realize the benefits of not working part time and doing freelancing (earning money in the horror game). I didn't expect that I would also start working in the horror game and the salary would be lower than before..."
Bai Liu started to visibly look upset.
Liu Jiayi, "......."
Okay, he seemed to be talking about his sadness...
Bai Liu and Liu Jiayi were chatting but their hands and feet still moved as they took the sacks down to the flower field.
The flower field was densely packed with lush roses. There were rows of rose bushes with a narrow path of around one person wide between them. Bai Liu was now moving slowly through this path, using the tweezers to pinch the roses on both sides.
Bai Liu wanted to move quickly but the ground of the rose field was a wet and viscous red mud. Stepping on it was like stepping in a swamp. It was difficult to move in the smooth boots with a plastic appearance. This red mud always had a type of fishy smell. It wasn't a bloody smell but the smell of the sea.
The strange thing was that almost every rose was in full bloom here. The size, color and number of petals was exactly the same. It was like someone grabbed a rose and copied and pasted it to fill the entire rose field.
Bai Liu grabbed the root of a rose with the tweezers and lifted it up. He observed this newly picked rose from a distance. It was a very unique type of rose. At the very least, Bai Liu hadn't seen this variety of rose in reality.
When they picked buds that weren't fully opened, the petals at the root were a dark red that was almost black-purple, gradually becoming a rosy red at the edge of the petals and the outermost area was a light pink. Unlike the dark green oval leaves of ordinary roses, the heart-shaped leaves and thorns of the dry leaf roses were the yellow of maturity. They withered and fell at the moment they were picked. This was the origin of the name of the rose.
The moment the rose blossomed, all the stems and leaves that had provided nutrients for it dried up, leaving behind only the rich bud. It was like the humans who were addicted to the concentrated aroma but couldn't get a constant supply.
It was a very aggressive rose that was grown and produced as a perfume.
Bai Liu and Liu Jiayi walked through the flower field, one deep and one shallow. After almost an hour, they both stopped and walked toward the edge of the field.
Liu Jiayi raised her hand to wipe the sweat from her forehead. She exhaled and handed a bag full of roses that she had just picked to Bai Liu. Then she sat down on the ground and gulped the physical supplement.
In the game, it was April or May weather. The night wasn't very cool and this flower field was a very humid place. There was a rush of sweltering heat from their necks to spines, especially when they were walking in the swampy flower field and doing physical work.
~
Chapter 165
Forget a child like Liu Jiayi. Even an adult like Bai Liu had his shirt soaked in sweat. He crouched down to regain his strength. He raised his hand to wipe the sweat dripping on his right cheek before looking down and counting the flowers in the sacks of the two of them.
"There are less than 1,300 flowers." Bai Liu lifted the sacks and shook them. "According to the reference of 2 g, the two of us worked together for an hour without rest and only picked less than 3 kg."
Liu Jiayi was resting with her hands behind her back. Once she heard Bai Liu's estimate, she sat up and exclaimed, "Do we have to work for 15 hours without sleep before we can get a bottle of low-grade perfume?!"
She had played many level three games but this was the first time she encountered one that really made her do hard work. Liu Jiayi was a rare healer supported by her entire team before. She was mostly responsible for intellectual work or resisting high end skills i.e. a nurse or support.
She didn't expect that she would encounter such a hardcore underworld worker plot the first time she played with Bai Liu.
Liu Jiayi fell back in a frustrated manner and stared at the night sky with dazed eyes. "When will this f*king end? We still have to work until we become the factory manager! Until what year will we have to work here?"
"I asked myself this every day when I went to work," Bai Liu quietly told her. "Then I learned there is only one end to working. It is death or even worse, being laid off."
Liu Jiayi, "......."
How much of a shadow had the life of a corporate drone and layoffs left on Bai Liu?
Liu Jiayi sat up and sighed sadly. "How can we get it now? That perfume should be a key item. There will definitely be problems in the follow-up if we don't get it."
"I don't think there is a need to talk about follow-up." Bai Liu took off the black gauze mask. There was a delicate rose bud stretching out its green leaves in his right eye. "We have been polluted in the process of picking the roses."
Liu Jiayi was startled and quickly lowered her head to take off her gloves and examine her hands. Her eyes were gray from blindness and it couldn't be seen if there was a rose blooming inside. She couldn't use this method to determine if she was polluted or not.
However, there was another way to determine if she was polluted.
Liu Jiayi took off her gloves and held her breath at what she saw.
The back of her hands and fingertips could clearly be seen. There were black cracks like rocks spreading over her wrists and connecting in the shape of petals on her palms.
"I thought we wouldn't be contaminated until we used the perfume for the first time." Liu Jiayi pursed her lips. "We wore masks throughout the picking process and didn't have direct contact with the roses. Apart from when we were in the factory, we didn't smell a very obvious aroma of roses and we weren't polluted when we came out of the factory. Then we were indeed polluted in the flower field but the aroma from the flower field is far less intense than that of the factory."
Liu Jiayi put on gloves to cover the cracks that were still growing and expanding on her skin. Then she looked up at Bai Liu. "Why? Shouldn't this thing's contaminating method be through the scent?"
"Judging from our situation, it might not be spread by scent," Bai Liu answered.
In Bai Liu's right eye, a rose bud was quietly growing. Black lines spread out along his eye socket while his left eye was still a normal black eyeball.
Liu Jiayi frowned and stared into Bai Liu's eyes. "It is so strange. Your left eye is intact but your right eye has a rose. What does this mean? Are you half contaminated along the vector line? Meanwhile, both my hands are withering."
Bai Liu slightly lowered his eyes, half-covering the rose bud in his right eye as he said softly, "I don't know. Let's look at it again."
-Don't use your right eye to release desire.
This was what Tawil told him, as well as to beware of the roses.
Bai Liu's eyes fell on the large roses in the flower field.
These roses were quiet and beautiful, swaying gently under the pure white moonlight. They didn't even have the usual thorns growing on them, as if to facilitate people picking them. They were delicate and elegant without the slightest aggression.
It seemed that in addition to being used as the raw material to extract the perfume, this rose was harmless to the point of intoxication. It should be the most unlikely thing to actively harm players in this instance.
Indeed, Bai Liu had just picked so many roses and these roses didn't trigger the monster book or actively attack them.
Bai Liu put on the black mask that was stained with dust and glanced sideways at the field of roses in the night. "At this rate of contamination, we might not last 15 hours before we start to wither."
"Not only are we withering but we are also being alienated." Liu Jiayi opened her panel and saw that the health and mental values on it were declining. The mental value was falling much faster than her health
Bai Liu and Liu Jiayi stared at each other silently before taking out a bottle of mental bleach at the same time to use.
[System notification: In this game, mental bleach is ineffective for restoring your mental value.]
[In the Rose Factory game, there is the one and only Rose Dry Leaf Gas perfume that can play a role in restoring the player's mental value. If the player can't complete the task within the specified time and get the Rose Dry Leaf Gas perfume, the player will start to receive an addiction attack with a decline in mental value, turning into a monster that can't think rationally at all.]
Liu Jiayi looked solemnly at Bai Liu. "The mental value is forcibly stuck."
The rose in Bai Liu's eyes trembled majestically as the first petal opened. The cracks around his eyes deepened but his tone was still casual. "The perfume is indeed a key item."
***
The other side of the flower field.
Tang Erda was squatting down on the flower field to catch his breath. His mask had been casually thrown aside by him and there were already roses in both his eyes. A black texture like cracked soil started to appear on his face, snaking on his skin one by one.
At first, Tang Erda thought that the mask could slow down the speed at which he was contaminated. Then after finding out that this mask was useless for blocking the aroma of the dry leaf roses, Tang Erda simply threw away the mask to increase his speed.
He put his hands on his knees and drank a bottle of physical strength recovery agent. He wiped his mouth and looked at the bulging sack at his feet.
It looked like a lot. There were only 8 kg of roses but the sack was already full.
If he wanted to refill it, he would have to unload it at the small tent. It was because the workers would settle the weight of the roses picked overnight by each flower picker the next day. The filled sack could only be unloaded there first.
A worker had told Tang Erda that the place to empty the sack was the small tent in the flower field where he was located. At that time, the worker told Tang Erda to be wary of the vagrants who would come to steal roses at night.
"The roses in the tent aren't always safe." The worker looked disgusted as he said this. "There are always greedy and lowly people who go crazy and steal it."
However, Tang Erda was an experienced player of level three games and long had a strategy to deal with such a situation: It was his considerable game inventory.
He was a player who had traveled through many timelines. Based on the quality and quantity of Tang Erda's level three game item inventory, there was probably no guild in the entire game apart from the Killer Sequence who could match Tang Erda's items library in terms of magnitude and level.
Based on this rewarded items library that synthesized all the timelines of the games that Tang Erda had passed, Tang Erda had the strength to beat most low level guilds. This was why many high level guilds were willing to spend a lot of money to hire him to join their team. In addition, it was also inseparable from why Tang Erda's individual combat strength was so excellent.
Tang Erda poured the roses into the small tent, bent down and walked out of the tent. He turned around and threw a Rubik's Cube. A water-like barrier rose from all sides from the ground to the top of the head, forming a tightly closed tetrahedron.
[System notification: Player Tang Erda has used the item Magic Space, which is currently under the player's control. Only those that the player allows can enter and exit freely.]
After putting away the item, Tang Erda nodded and walked away without looking back. This item might not have succeeded in trapping Bai Liu (6) in reality but apart from Bai Liu (6) who could find a solution, the ordinary monsters in a level three game could never find a way to enter or exit.
After Tang Erda entered the game, it wasn't that he didn't try to find Bai Liu (6). The problem was that in this game map, there were so many lush flower fields and countless small tents stationed on the edges. It wasn't easy to find a player who was good at hiding and running away, especially Bai Liu (6) who was good at playing with his opponent.
After all, he hadn't even met up with the other three players of the King's Guild. The map was so big and it was easy to get lost based on the way it was designed.
In particular, there was a situation where their mental value was dropping rapidly and there was no way to restore it quickly. Normal people walking through this map were like someone who drank 96 percent vodka walking in a rotating red kaleidoscope. It was dizzying, disgusting and they wanted to vomit. They would be completely unable to find any sense of direction and it was at an optical pollution level.
Tang Erda had encountered a type of similarly designed game before. It was a very dangerous thing to walk around in this type of game. It was because once they left the place where they were assigned to do the task and strayed into the territory of a monster, it would be difficult to find their way back. It was likely that before they found their way back, they would already be crazy due to endless loss.
It was clear that this was a game that focused on mental attacks.
Tang Erda knew very well that he couldn't play against Bai Liu (6) when it came to finding people so he decisively chose to give up. He decided to complete the task first and wait for Bai Liu (6) to finish entering the factory.
It was better to find people in the factory than the flower field.
Tang Erda never doubted that Bai Liu (6) would complete the game task beautifully. He was confident that Bai Liu (6) could pass a level three game, especially this Rose Factory game which was related to the perfume in reality.
Tang Erda looked at his palm that was cracked to the bone without a trace of blood flowing. His dark blue eyes that were like the sea were swollen with light colored roses that were gradually blooming. The second petal stretched out and the end of the first petal had turned dark red.
[System notification: Player Tang Erda's mental value has dropped to 89...]
___________
The author has something to say:
2 (Tang Erda): Bai Liu will definitely be able to complete the task. I have to hurry up and complete the task before him!
(Hum hum hum picking flowers)
6 (Bai Liu): Liu Jiayi, do you think we can finish it?
1 (Liu Jiayi): I don't think so.
The two people started to drink tea and watched the show on the shore, wearing sunglasses (goggles) and watched worker 2 work to get rid of the san value.
2 (Tang Erda): ????? Aren't you afraid of your value dropping?!
6 (Bai Liu): (decisive)There is nothing in this world that can make me drop the san value other than working.
1 (Liu Jiayi): .....
~