Zhu Nan was alone when she entered the mission. She had been assigned to the Technical Department, a V10 position.
There were three scavengers in the Technical Department. They had shared information at the start, but the one named Li Da disappeared within a few days.
Zhu Nan didn't know what happened to Li Da. They weren't exactly teammates; she felt he was too impulsive and likely to cause trouble, so she wasn't close to him.
After Li Da vanished, she and another scavenger, Liu Bingyang, tried to find out where he went, but were only told that Li Da had resigned.
Resigned? What on earth did that mean?
He was likely dead.
Recalling Li Da's mention of investigating the sound of people jumping at night, both of them felt he must have triggered a death rule and died.
Zhu Nan and Liu Bingyang felt that the most important thing now was to live more cautiously.
From that day on, they stopped exploring the mission and focused on their work.
At some point, Zhu Nan gradually forgot what she was actually there to do.
She was scolded daily by the Team Leader and bullied by other V10 employees. Back at the dorm, her room was so small and dilapidated that she couldn't even get a full night's sleep.
She felt it was unfair.
Scavengers seemed to have a greater ability to be noticed by leaders than NPCs. Liu Bingyang had been promoted to V9 a few days ago, which gave her hope.
If she worked a little harder, she could move up too.
However, Liu Bingyang began to grow paranoid. They used to eat together occasionally to exchange ideas, but they eventually drifted apart as they got busy with work.
When Zhu Nan tried to find him, she found him acting erratic, not only talking to himself but also constantly looking behind him.
There was clearly nothing there.
But when she pointed that out, Liu Bingyang became terrified and immediately moved away from her.
Had he gone mad from the overtime?
Zhu Nan didn't bother with him anymore because a choice had been placed before her.
A department head approached her, hinting that if she were willing to submit to him, she could be promoted to V9 immediately.
Zhu Nan hesitated. The man was fat and greasy, only a V7, but he constantly acted like a big shot.
The thought of being with someone like that was disgusting.
But... if she didn't agree, he would surely make her life difficult. How long would she have to work then?
What if she couldn't get promoted even after four years?
Didn't they say at the meeting that some unlucky people were still V9s after nearly twenty years because the leaders didn't like them?
Zhu Nan didn't want to be one of those unlucky ones. Moreover, she wasn't sure if it was just her imagination, but she felt like someone had been staring at her lately.
Did others find out about the department head's intentions?
She knew the office was never short on gossip. She hadn't even done anything yet, but those hyena-like colleagues were already eyeing her.
That gaze was very uncomfortable... even a bit frightening.
Zhu Nan decided to take a gamble. Just one night. The female employees in the department had similar experiences, and being groped in the workplace was common. At least this man was willing to offer a fair trade, right?
Zhu Nan didn't want to spend her life wiping tables and pouring water until she was in her fifties.
That night, Zhu Nan knocked on the department head's door.
When he opened it, he was wearing only a bathrobe. The smile and the look in his eyes made Zhu Nan extremely uncomfortable.
She felt like she was sitting on pins and needles.
Just as the man was about to touch her, she suddenly snapped to her senses.
Wait!
What was she doing here?
She... she wasn't a real employee. She was a scavenger!
Why would she agree to something like this?!
Zhu Nan bolted out the door, ignoring the department head's angry curses behind her. She only breathed a sigh of relief once she was back in her room.
This damn mission...
Zhu Nan felt a lingering fear. She didn't know when she had been affected, and she didn't even know where the mission's traps were.
But she knew she hadn't been right.
Looking back now, including that strange, chilling gaze she couldn't trace...
They might have all been signs.
Fortunately, after she escaped that pig's room, she no longer felt that persistent gaze.
Such good luck...
Zhu Nan exhaled deeply. She had escaped.
The next day at work, she planned to warn Liu Bingyang.
He was just like her, definitely deluded by the mission. She had to warn him; an extra person meant an extra pair of hands.
But she didn't see Liu Bingyang the next day because she was brought before the General Division Head.
Zhu Nan had a bad feeling. The General Division Head was a V6, someone who rarely appeared before entry-level employees. It was her first time meeting her.
The woman had a stern expression, and the gaze behind her black-framed glasses was cold.
"Is she the one you mentioned?"
The woman was asking the department head she had stood up last night.
The fat man nodded, looking like a disappointed mentor.
"I was wondering why the Technical Department's budget didn't balance. I checked yesterday, and it turns out she was the one tampering with it."
"To think she's only been with the company for a few days and already has such ideas! It's simply unforgivable! That's why I reported it to you."
Zhu Nan realized what was happening. Because of her rejection last night, the man was furious and was intentionally framing her.
Zhu Nan was livid. She pointed at the man and exposed everything about his sexual harassment and his attempt to abuse his power for personal gain.
"Shut up!"
The woman in glasses slammed the table and stood up to look at Zhu Nan.
"Do you have any evidence for what you're saying?"
Zhu Nan was speechless. These things were open secrets in the department, but even though everyone knew, who would testify for her?
Liu Bingyang?!
Before Zhu Nan could say anything, the woman shook her head. "Aside from everything else, your disregard for company regulations and disrespect toward your superior is enough to prove that your character is unfit to continue working at this company."
"What?" Zhu Nan couldn't believe it. "Wait, I really didn't..."
Zhu Nan's words died in her throat because she saw that the other person no longer wanted to listen. The two of them left the office immediately.
She was left alone in the room. Zhu Nan felt cold, both angry and anxious.
She didn't know what she would face next, but she knew that because she had confused her identity with the mission, she had accidentally violated the rules.
Normally, she would have been more than capable of handling that man's harassment, but lately, she hadn't been in the right state of mind at all.
Zhu Nan left the room in a daze. She was absent-minded during work all afternoon, but to her surprise, nothing strange happened all day.
Except for the fact that all her colleagues avoided her like the plague.
It wasn't until she returned to her room at night that she felt a bit safer.
She had messed up.
What now?
Zhu Nan didn't know how long she sat there thinking until she felt the temperature in the room drop significantly.
She looked up and discovered that two people wearing white masks had appeared in the room at some point. They were standing to her left and right, silently "watching" her through masks that had no openings.
Zhu Nan's heart skipped a beat. She tried to communicate with them, her voice trembling.
The two masked figures said nothing. Like two shadows, they stepped toward Zhu Nan in perfect unison.
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