Blooming Media Company (32)

In the silence, Zhu Xi Ning spoke up hesitantly, "Nan Yue, things are so urgent, let's not use metaphors, okay?"

"What do you mean by burning employees to light up the company? Isn't that a bit too vague?"

Nan Yue: "..."

"No, I'm speaking literally."

Nan Yue frowned; what she had seen was difficult to describe. Simply put, behind the secret door in the warehouse was a massive factory.

There were mines, farms, smelters...

But the raw materials inside were all humans.

Flesh and blood from corpses were used to build the foundations. Nan Yue had even seen blueprints for future buildings, precise down to how many corpses were required for construction.

Corpses were used as fertilizer to grow plants and animals, which were then sent for processing into the cheap meals provided by the cafeteria.

Of course, that was only for ordinary employees; high-level employees still ate healthy ingredients.

Corpses were constantly tossed into smelting furnaces, the roaring flames driving electrical energy to supply power to the building.

When Nan Yue saw it, she felt it was almost like science fiction, even forgetting her disgust. Now, looking back, she realized that while the three of them hadn't reached V10 yet and hadn't eaten food grown from human flesh, the thought that the place where they lived and worked was built from corpses made her want to gag.

"Is... is this even possible?"

Zhu Xi Ning was shocked. Based on the knowledge she had learned from books, this was pure fantasy.

"It's not impossible. The worlds in these missions are already polluted and distorted; such a bizarre reality is actually normal. Everything before this was too mundane."

Gu Xiang Kai had a different understanding. Missions always involved things that went against their own logic.

Rural areas where boys were favored over girls to the point of killing them, husbands plotting against wives for property, children planning the murder of their peers...

"How could these things happen?!"

"Of course, it's because they've been polluted and distorted that they've become so malformed."

So, while using human flesh and blood to sustain a company sounded strange, it was actually normal for a scavenger.

Zhu Xi Ning thought about it and reluctantly accepted this explanation. Perhaps she had spent too much time in this mission, as she had started to internalize her identity as an employee.

The scale of this mission was so vast and everything seemed so normal; when she drank the milk tea sent by her subordinate the other day, she had even marveled that it felt like a real world.

So, when something so inconceivable suddenly happened in such a world, Zhu Xi Ning's first reaction was disbelief.

"So... there is no such thing as leaving."

"Everyone who leaves is dead, becoming nourishment for the company?"

Nan Yue nodded, confirming Zhu Xi Ning's statement. "Yes."

"But I think it's precisely this that hints at the way for us to leave."

The two of them looked at her with burning eyes. Nan Yue touched her ear and shared her thoughts.

"Resignation."

Then she watched as their eyes widened in disbelief.

"Resig... Resignation?"

"But haven't those who left all died? Their bodies even used to generate electricity?"

Nan Yue nodded. She had no strength left, and speaking was a bit of a struggle.

"Yes, they left, but we will resign."

Nan Yue sat up slightly and explained in detail.

"Actually, the mission has been giving us hints all along. The title is the true meaning of work. With so many people in the company, only two are truly important."

"Jiang Su, who jumped, and that man who committed suicide."

"They were the outliers in the company, the only two who independently chose the direction of their own lives. Everyone else was brainwashed by the company into becoming tools for making money, only to be killed and used for their corpses once they had no more utility."

"Jiang Su believed that working hard was for a better life, and everything was built on the premise of freedom. So, when she couldn't fight the fate the company gave her, she chose death."

"So, I think the essence of the mission is for us to have the courage to give up this hard-won job and go find a real life."

Zhu Xi Ning followed the logic, but she was still a bit uneasy. "Is it really that simple?"

Gu Xiang Kai shook his head, baring his teeth in pain as he pulled on his wound. "It's not simple."

"This company has been brainwashing its employees constantly. Even some scavengers fell for it, which led to their deaths. This shows that the ghosts in this mission actually don't want us to be obsessed with work and used as tools by the company."

"But the longer one stays in this company, the deeper the conditioning of this level becomes. The more one believes in the so-called bright future, the harder it is to break free and leave the company."

"For a scavenger, the habitual way of thinking is to look for a way out within the company. They wouldn't easily think of resigning because everyone has deduced that those who leave the company die."

Gu Xiang Kai said weakly, "But they didn't realize that being passively removed by the company and actively leaving the company are two different things."

Nan Yue nodded. "That's exactly it. And I have another piece of evidence."

"Do you remember why that man jumped?"

A sudden flash of insight hit Zhu Xi Ning. "He wanted to resign, but the company wouldn't let him."

"Exactly. On our first day in this mission, we heard this story, so everyone had the preconceived notion that we must never leave the company, or death would be the only path."

"But in reality, why exactly did that man fail to leave? Did he hesitate? Did he back down? But then he couldn't accept living like this forever?"

"We don't know the details of the story, but our thoughts were confused by it."

"This was a trap set by the mission. Once the ins and outs are clear, it becomes an obvious cover-up."

Zhu Xi Ning was finally completely at ease. "Then we'll submit our resignations tomorrow morning. What about the others?"

They weren't actually sure about the remaining few. They only knew of Bi Danyuan, who had transferred to the Mobile Division, and Lan Jing Shui. They didn't know if there were others.

"If we submit our resignations tomorrow, it will definitely cause a huge stir. If the others are willing to go, they can join us."

Nan Yue's meaning was simple: everyone finds their own way. If the remaining scavengers didn't think their method was right, she wouldn't force them to come along.

Zhu Xi Ning was actually asking about Lan Jing Shui, but Nan Yue pondered for a moment. "Him... I'll let him know before I leave tomorrow, but he might not come with us."

Lan Jing Shui was very powerful. The way he chose to leave might be different from theirs, yielding more points.

Nan Yue had a vague guess about what Lan Jing Shui would do. If it really was what she thought, it would prove that top-tier powerhouses were indeed terrifyingly strong.

"By the way, that man who jumped—did you see him clearly?"

Nan Yue smiled at Zhu Xi Ning. "Because I saw him clearly, we can make one last test before leaving."

"What do you mean? Who is he?"