Eden Garden (9)

But as he interacted with them more, he realized they were like robots in human skin.

Besides work, they seemed to have little reaction to the outside world; one had to approach them and speak directly to get a normal human response.

This subtle sense of wrongness was chilling to think back on.

Gu Xiang Kai was halfway through his meal when he saw Nan Yue arrive. To avoid drawing attention, he didn't stand up, instead waiting for her to come to him.

But Nan Yue didn't come; the captain arrived first.

"Gu Xiang Kai, call the other teammates and come out."

Gu Xiang Kai had a bad feeling. He saw that almost everyone in the security group was heading outside.

Once they were all standing outside, the leader of the security group, a man named Zhang Jun, spoke with a cold face.

"A lot of new security personnel joined yesterday. Since you passed the assessment to be hired at Eden Garden, I assumed everyone was smart and quick-witted, but I didn't expect someone to drop the ball on the very first day."

"According to the reports from the team leaders, several security employees made blunders while on duty yesterday. I hope this situation never happens again."

"Being able to enter Eden Garden is something you could only dream of. You surely wouldn't want to become one of the trash people at the very bottom of the Federation, or even a scavenger who's lower than a trash person!"

Suddenly hearing the word "scavenger," Gu Xiang Kai's heart jumped, but he quickly realized that Zhang Jun meant the literal scavengers responsible for the Federation's sanitation.

The literal garbage collectors.

From just one short day, Gu Xiang Kai already understood that the so-called Federation was a place with a strict hierarchy and rigid social classes.

From the moment a person was born, their class for life was practically set in stone. Aside from geniuses, it was impossible for others to break free from their inherent fates.

Of course, that was for those who wanted to climb up.

There were far too many ways to fall down.

Sure enough, after Zhang Jun said this, Gu Xiang Kai noticed everyone's expressions turned much more serious.

"Fine, dismissed. Get some good rest. I hope no one leaves the team without permission tonight."

Leaving without permission.

In other words... they had gone missing.

Gu Xiang Kai had been looking for the other two men who had also been assigned to the security group, but he only found the one named Liu Haitao.

He couldn't find the weak-looking Zhao Xiao Shu.

Gu Xiang Kai squeezed over to Liu Haitao's side. "Have you seen Zhao Xiao Shu?"

Liu Haitao looked like an honest, simple man who didn't talk much. He shook his head in silence at Gu Xiang Kai's question.

After a moment, he said, "I heard the people in his group talking this morning. They said Zhao Xiao Shu was too cowardly and ran away halfway through the patrol."

Ran away?

If a scavenger's mental state was extremely poor, such a thing wasn't impossible.

A scavenger Gu Xiang Kai once knew in the digital city state, who lived by stealing, had died that way.

By all accounts, he was a veteran who had survived many missions, but because his living conditions were terrible for years, the mental damage accumulated during missions couldn't be healed, and he finally snapped during a task.

When a minor eerie entity appeared, that man had turned and rushed out of the mission map.

Without making a sound, he was enveloped by a black mist, leaving nothing but a pool of blood on the ground.

Now, Gu Xiang Kai knew that the black mist was pollution, the same thing inside Nan Yue's body.

But Zhao Xiao Shu's mental state hadn't seemed that bad yesterday; it couldn't be ruled out that he had seen something at night that caused a total mental breakdown.

However, if that wasn't the case, there was only one other possibility.

Something had happened to Zhao Xiao Shu.

But why?

Gu Xiang Kai hesitated for a moment but decided not to use this brief rest period to find Nan Yue and the others to exchange clues.

He pulled out a pack of cigarettes he always carried and found Zhao Xiao Shu's teammates, picking a thin man who looked like he loved to gossip and handed one over.

The man was also a newcomer and didn't have a strict sense of the rules yet. Seeing that Gu Xiang Kai was from the same intake, he happily took the cigarette and began to talk.

"Zhao Xiao Shu? You mean that coward. He was acting all weird and paranoid last night. I'm not surprised at all that he ran off."

"He said he saw the walls come alive."

A chill rose in Gu Xiang Kai's heart. He gave a forced laugh. "Alive?"

The thin man sneered and exhaled a cloud of smoke. "Yeah. He said something about there being blood vessels on the walls."

"There was nothing there at all. It wasn't like he was the only one there; we were all present. The tower was as normal as could be."

Gu Xiang Kai rubbed his fingertips together, suddenly thinking of something.

"Did he scream in terror?"

The thin man paused, then chuckled. "Yeah, did the sound reach your side? I'm telling you, someone that cowardly shouldn't be in this line of work."

Gu Xiang Kai followed up immediately. "Did anything strange happen after he screamed?"

The thin man looked Gu Xiang Kai up and down. "Why are you acting weird too? This is Eden Garden. The Wen family are the highest of the high in the Federation. What could possibly be strange here?"

Gu Xiang Kai rubbed his buzz cut. "Hey, I'm just saying, since they said he left his post, I was wondering how far he could really run in a garden this big."

The thin man finished his cigarette and ground it into the grass with his foot. "Speaking of which, it is a bit odd. I remember he was still there when we finished the shift, but he was gone in the blink of an eye."

"When did you notice he was missing?"

"After we left the castle. Maybe the kid is hiding in one of the houses."

The thin man wore a gloating smile. "If he gets caught like that, his fate will definitely be worse than a scavenger's. Forget sweeping trash; he might become the trash himself."

The thin man only knew that much. His background was ordinary, and since Gu Xiang Kai treated him with respect, he started acting like they were brothers.

Gu Xiang Kai stared at the cigarette butt he had ground into the grass; on the perfectly manicured, lush green lawn, it looked like an ugly scar.

"Here, take the whole pack."

Gu Xiang Kai suddenly handed over the entire pack of cigarettes. "I don't smoke. I just carry them to make friends, just in case."

The thin man was somewhat flattered as he took the cigarettes and stuffed them into his pocket.

"No problem. From now on, we're brothers."

Gu Xiang Kai watched as the shifty-looking thin man squeezed back into the western-style building. He looked down one last time at the trampled grass and the crumpled cigarette butt before heading back to finish his breakfast.

Nan Yue had been waiting for Gu Xiang Kai during the meal, but he hadn't returned even after the others had.

It was almost time for the maid group to start work. Zhu Xi Ning patted Nan Yue. "It's okay. I didn't sense any danger. Old Gu should be fine."

"Besides, isn't Old Jiang still there?"

It had to be said that Jiang Siyan being in the butler group provided a great deal of convenience. If something happened to Gu Xiang Kai, at least he could intervene, or at the very least, pass on a message.