Nan Yue did not know how much truth there was in his introduction, but she understood Lan Jing Shui's final words were telling her that he was willing to cooperate.
Of course, the prerequisite was that Nan Yue showed sincerity and had something to offer in exchange.
Although she had confidence in herself, these top-tier experts were all shrewd old foxes. Why would he extend an olive branch for no reason?
The thoughts of such powerful people were hard to guess, so Nan Yue did not dwell on it and turned her focus back to the mission.
Searching for the true meaning of work...
What exactly was the true meaning?
Why would work even have a true meaning?
Nan Yue was a person from the real world, and being a scavenger was their job. Following that logic, the true meaning of work should be sacrifice and dedication.
Therefore, Nan Yue planned to wait and see, and simply do her job well for now.
This mission was somewhat special as it provided no time limit. This was not a survival-type mission; rather, it had no clear direction. It was not impossible to be trapped in this mission for a lifetime if one made the wrong choice.
Could the goal be to reach a certain level?
From what she could see, V5 was a major threshold, so Nan Yue could only set that as her target for now.
However, without a special contribution, it would take Nan Yue twelve years to be promoted naturally. Obviously, what they needed to find was a way to make a special contribution.
When Nan Yue returned, she still had three minutes of her break left. She clocked in and sat at her desk to familiarize herself with the manual.
The manual was very comprehensive and covered all aspects. She only then realized the company even had a gym, a swimming pool, a sauna, and a nail salon.
These were all located in the luxury hotel next door, but they were only accessible to those at V5 or above.
This company seemed to divide everything strictly by rank to encourage employees to strive for promotion.
"Miss Nan, what would you like for afternoon tea?"
Nan Yue saw it was the short-haired girl from the 18th-floor reception. Her ID card identified her as Vivi, a V9 employee.
"No thanks, I'll pour my own drink. Thank you."
Unexpectedly, Nan Yue's simple words caused a look of terror to appear on Vivi's face.
"What are you saying? Please, don't let anyone else hear that, or I'll be in big trouble."
"Your rank is higher than mine. You don't need to say thank you to me. It is only right for you to give me orders."
Nan Yue looked at Vivi, feeling somewhat speechless. She realized the girl's expression was not an act; she truly believed what she was saying.
"Then what if I asked you to do something outside of your job description?"
Nan Yue was naturally bold and never missed an opportunity to test the limits.
"Any order from you is my job."
Nan Yue was silent for a moment. "I understand. You may go."
Vivi immediately bowed and turned to leave.
The hierarchy in this place... seemed even more severe than she had imagined.
Just as Nan Yue was thinking this, her phone suddenly emitted a sharp, piercing shriek.
For a moment, she thought the phone was going to explode.
She hurried to open it. The alarm continued to ring in her ears, and the entire phone screen had turned red.
The striking red characters on the screen looked as if they were written in blood.
【Sales staff Zhong Jian, Qi Han, and Ke Yan exceeded their break time. They are issued one demerit. This notice is hereby broadcast!】
Nan Yue tried for a while but found there was no way to turn off the alarm. Moreover, it sounded like everyone's phone in the company was ringing.
She could hear the alarms echoing one after another in the hallway.
What was the difference between this and a public execution...
Nan Yue remembered that among these three, only Zhong Jian was a scavenger. She didn't know what the consequences of a demerit would be.
According to the manual, it would likely delay promotions and result in deductions from wages and bonuses. She just didn't know if it was the same for scavengers.
The office of the Sales Department was so noisy that it was impossible to stay calm. The Sales Department was the largest department with the most people. Now that everyone's phones were ringing, it was like tens of thousands of speakers screaming in one's ears.
Zhong Jian stood by the clock-in machine, his face pale. He looked at his phone as if he were seeing a ghost.
He was only late by one minute. He only had a fifteen-minute break, but after eating, his stomach had really hurt, so he went to the bathroom.
Despite rushing back as fast as he could, he was still a minute late. He had breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the successful clock-in message, thinking it would be fine since the machine accepted it.
He never expected that in the next second, everyone's phone would scream an alarm like they were infected with a virus. When he saw his name on the broadcast, he was scared to death.
What kind of ghost company was this? They broadcast a public notice for just one minute?
The other two reported with him were a newcomer who had just arrived today and a veteran who had been with the company for two years.
The veteran's face was also very grim. He had been drinking with his leaders two days ago and felt so terrible today that he went to the bathroom to vomit, which caused him to miss the clock-in time.
The three latecomers looked sickly, while their other colleagues watched them without any attempt to hide their stares.
Zhong Jian was very sensitive to gazes. He felt many malicious eyes looking at him.
People watching the drama, people gloating, people pitying, and people feeling relieved... it all made him feel like he couldn't breathe.
He wasn't from this world, nor was he an employee who had worked hard to get into this company. He was just here for a mission. Logically, he shouldn't feel this kind of panic.
But he felt an invisible tightness in his chest and his mouth went dry. The gazes of others carried weight. He could feel himself being isolated. No one wanted to be associated with him, and people even walked in wide circles around him.
In that moment, even though he knew the NPCs were not his kind, Zhong Jian still felt the fear that comes from being excluded by the crowd.
He opened his mouth to explain, but everyone he made eye contact with looked away. No one wanted to look at him or comfort him.
Even the other scavengers were merely observing because he was the first to violate the rules. No one was willing to lend a helping hand.
Zhong Jian stood in place, feeling his body slowly turn cold.
...
The phones wailed for a full minute before falling silent. At that moment, Linda returned. She didn't mention those who had violated the rules; in her eyes, they were just ants at the bottom.
She played with her phone and efficiently printed out some charts.
"There's a general assembly this afternoon. Everyone must attend."
Nan Yue knew this was the weekly meeting, so she obediently followed Linda to the conference room.
This was the largest conference room she had ever seen, large enough to hold over ten thousand people. The densely packed people resembled bee pupae in a honeycomb, wriggling with indistinguishable faces.
Nan Yue tried to find where the V8s sat, but Linda led her directly to the front.
"Newcomers have to go on stage. You don't need to sit."
Nan Yue saw dozens of people standing next to the stage; they were all the scavengers who had joined today.
Nan Yue exchanged a glance with Gu Xiang Kai and stood next to Zhu Xi Ning. No one spoke, and only the three people who had been publicly shamed looked panicked.
Among those people, Nan Yue's gaze sharpened.
The woman standing next to Lan Jing Shui... wasn't she the girl she had seen in the noodle shop? There were too many people during the interview so Nan Yue hadn't noticed, but she now realized that girl had also gotten in.
"The weekly meeting now officially begins."
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