If they were in the real world, empty words would be hard to impress people.
Fortunately, this was the another world.
This was a strange and dangerous place due to spiritual pollution, and it was easy to move people’s hearts due to emotional infection.
As he finished speaking, Mu Sichen sensed that a small self totem identical to the pillar of the sanatorium had appeared in the hearts of the townspeople in the sanatorium.
Only the pattern was equally vague.
[When the player fulfills his promise, the self totem in the townspeople’s hearts will take shape, and the player will have a group of independent followers. They have the ability to distinguish between right and wrong, but may not to listen to the player’s command.]
The system told Mu Sichen.
“This is how it should have been.” Mu Sichen thought secretly in his heart.
Not trusting someone randomly because of their big words, and not completely following another person’s command, this was a normal person.
Mu Sichen stroked the small octopus, and stuffed the octopus doll back into his backpack.
He was carrying a twofold commitment, to Qin Zu and to the sanatorium townspeople.
However, the pressure was back to a bearable range.
“Are you guys going to the food processing plant?” Mu Sichen asked Chi Lian and Cheng Xubo, “Staying within the sanatorium will be able to guarantee safety for the time being.”
Chi Lian said, “Safe is safe, but there’s no way to get offline. I just received a system prompt asking me to help you fulfill your promise. Just like last time, if we complete the mission, we can go offline, but if we fail, we’ll have to stay here forever. So what are we waiting for? We’ll definitely go with you.”
Cheng Xubo also nodded and said, “That’s the reason, we can’t rely on you for everything, we’re just sitting here, right?”
The attitude of the two had a slight change from before.
It seemed that because Mu Sichen had set the tone for the self-totem, they had also become a bit more proactive.
“Last time we went offline, it was around 13:00 in the ‘dark night’. We were lucky and came online again after three days. 72 hours later, the big eye is still closed, and we are still in the ‘ dark night’. There’s still 7 hours until ‘day’, so we have plenty of time,” said Mu Sichen.
At this time, the tentacle eyed man, who was helped by Mu Sichen, whispered, “Director, the time is not right.”
“What’s wrong?” Mu Sichen asked.
The tentacle eyed man replied, “Since the last time Director purified the sanatorium, the ‘dark night’ has gotten longer. Now the ‘dark night’ is 14 hours, and there are only 10 hours of ‘day’ left. from 8:00 to 22:00, it’s ‘dark night’.”
The time for them to act had increased again.
It seemed that because of the loss of one of the pillars, big eye had been weakened.
It was a hard road ahead, but the light of hope was getting brighter.
“Thank you for the reminder,” Mu Sichen said to the tentacle eyes …… No, to a person named Cheng Xiaoliang, “And, I’m sorry.”
Cheng Xiaoliang blushed, and the tentacles on his head shook twice, “It’s also because I’m too scary looking la, and… in the past, I’ve also sacrificed other people, and I even stole a pair of eyes.”
The townspeople in charge of the sacrifice also lowered their heads.
Mu Sichen said, “Well then, all of us are at fault, and the environment, atmosphere, and public opinion are also at fault. We’ll change together in the future.”
Cheng Xiaoliang asked, “Director, do you know where the food processing plant is?”
Mu Sichen shook his head, the system didn’t give him a map, so he didn’t know where to go.
Cheng Xiaoliang moved his tentacles and pointed at himself, “I’ve been to the food processing plant before, the work there is very stressful, unlike the sanatorium which is so relaxing. I turned in a pair of eyes to exchange for factory vouchers in order to escape from the processing plant, and that’s how I was assigned to work at the sanatorium.”
Mu Sichen thought Cheng Xiaoliang was born without eyes, but he didn’t realize that he had turned them in himself.
“By handing in your eyes, you can leave the processing plant?” Mu Sichen asked.
Cheng Xiaoliang shook his tentacles, “No, I also did something very bad to get this opportunity in exchange. Director, don’t ask, I’ll tell you the route to the processing plant.”
Cheng Xiaoliang found paper and a pen and drew a route map.
A route map that only had the route, without any road signs or buildings.
“It’s all foggy outside, there are no road signs and only one direction, we can’t possibly walk there, right?” Chi Lian said.
“It doesn’t matter,” Cheng Xiaoliang said, “as long as you follow this direction, no matter how you go, you can walk to the processing plant.”
“The processing plant should also be a ‘pillar’.” Mu Sichen said.
Only a ‘pillar’ would have such a strong attraction that the townspeople couldn’t help but be drawn there.
The three of them organized their equipment and left the sanatorium.
Mu Sichen had wanted to leave some of the food in his backpack behind, but the sanatorium had a large number of people, so this amount of snacks was a drop in the bucket.
Too few resources would in turn create greater inequality, and there might be a scramble for it, which would result in greater losses.
Therefore, Mu Sichen didn’t take out any snacks, but simply set up a point system, compensating Cheng Xiaoliang with some points so that he could exchange for more food in the future.
Because the ‘pillar’ could only be eroded and destroyed internally, Mu Sichen hadn’t opened the sanatorium yet, and people from the outside couldn’t enter, so no one was guarding the outside of the sanatorium even during the “night”.
Except for a few attacks by the big eye during the “day”, no one came to disturb the peace of the sanatorium.
The three of them left the sanatorium without any problems, and made their way to the food processing plant.
After about an hour of walking, the fog gradually cleared and a huge industrial park appeared in front of the three of them.
Unlike the sanatorium, which was very small in size, the food processing plant was extremely large and couldn’t be seen at a glance.
“Here it is!” Cheng Xubo said, “We’re going in as employees here?”
“Don’t go yet.” Mu Sichen stopped the two.
He closed his eyes, and through the mist, his left eye saw that in front of the processing plant’s main door, there was a wanted notice posted, and on the notice were pictures of four people, precisely the three of them and Yao Wangping.
Shen Jiyue had been chained to a hospital bed and was a patient in that previous battle, so he hadn’t revealed his identity.
Instead, it was the three of them players and Yao Wangping; replacing identities, adding rules, breaking through walls, violently beating the feather-eyed dependent and grabbing the pillar…
The big eye had the ability to see everything he knew, so when he woke up, he was definitely be able to see everything that happened in the sanatorium.
Unless the big eye was a fool, how could he let them enter a “pillar” again.
Mu Sichen told the two of them about the wanted notice he saw.
Cheng Xubo sighed, “What can we do if we’re not allowed to enter?”
Chi Lian was very calm and thought for a moment, “How about we change our faces?”
“Change faces?” Cheng Xubo was surprised.
Chi Lian nodded, “Yes, after the last time I went offline, my ability was upgraded! Let me see what the system says. Oh, it told me that due to successfully assisting Mu Sichen in capturing the pillar, my game level was promoted to level 5, reaching the cornerstone level where I can cut more items.”
“Before, the most I could do with mine was to cut paper and wallpaper, now I can cut and paste things that are more superficial and abstract, I guess it shouldn’t be too much of a problem to cut and paste faces, right?”
“Why didn’t you say so earlier? How nice it would be for us to change our faces right there in the sanatorium!” Cheng Xubo said, “Where can we get a face for you to cut and paste now?”
Chi Lian said in embarrassment, “Just now I didn’t know that we would be wanted and I was not thinking well. But it doesn’t have to be a real person’s face, a photo will do, after all, it’s an abstraction, it’s not like I’m really cutting your face. Did you bring your cell phone?”
Cheng Xubo spreads both hands, “Do you think one can bring a cell phone in this game?”
Chi Lian: “…… Why don’t we go back to the sanatorium and change our faces and do it again?”
Cheng Xubo: “It took us an hour to walk over here, and another round trip would waste another two hours, but it seems like this is the only way.”
“Then we can only go back.” Chi Lian sighed.
“Going back to the sanatorium isn’t feasible, nothing within Tongzhi Town will be hidden from the big eye, the faces in the sanatorium must have been recorded as well, and those faces may not be usable, it’s best to use some new faces.” Mu Sichen said, “You guys, wait for me to look for something.”
He opened his backpack, reached inside and rummaged around, and actually turned up a cell phone.
It was exactly his cell phone, even the game pod app was in the phone, only there was no signal.
“Captain Mu, how did you bring your cell phone in?” Cheng Xubo’s jaw dropped, “It’s too amazing, isn’t it?”
Mu Sichen also didn’t expect the cell phone to follow him in, not to mention the backpack and snacks.
Chi Lian and Cheng Xubo, on the contrary, didn’t bring in anything except their personal clothes.
Before entering the game, Cheng Xubo actually bought a bunch of fireworks, firecrackers, and some parts and tools. He planned to make earth bombs by hand after entering the game to increase his attack power. In case he encountered a monster like the Feather Eye dependent, he would set off fireworks to blow his eyes and see if he could still use his sight to k*ill.
Unfortunately, Cheng Xubo prepared a large box, yet nothing came in.
But Mu Sichen, not only brought snacks, even his cell phone followed him in.
Mu Sichen opened his cell phone’s photo album and asked Chi Lian to choose a photo suitable for a face swap.
While Chi Lian was choosing, Mu Sichen quietly stared at the octopus doll in his backpack.
The octopus doll’s eyes were motionless, even the usual watery glow was gone, and it seemed a bit nervous.
He always felt that the fact that he could bring in so many things had something to do with this doll.
He had also touched the octopus doll’s tentacle when he looked for his cell phone earlier, it seemed to be poking and prodding at it.
“Although you shouldn’t mess with my phone, this time, thanks.” Mu Sichen said to the octopus doll.
The doll’s eyes hit the highlights all of a sudden and became moist again.
Mu Sichen closed the zipper of his backpack, thinking that he couldn’t let Yao Wangping see this thing.
Yao Wangping was definitely a fervent believer in Qin Zu, if he saw that Qin Zu’s totem had turned into this, he would be so shocked that his faith would probably collapse on the spot.
At this time, Chi Lian had already found suitable faces in the photos and replaced them one by one for the three people.
If she wanted to change the faces, it had to be a clear selfie, the face had to be the right shape, and the requirements for the photo were very high, preferably an ID photo.
Luckily, Mu Sichen was a working maniac.
He often helped students to take photos suitable for enrollment in various exams. The school studio charged 10 yuan, he charged 5 yuan. There was a pile of white background front photos of his classmates stored on his phone.
Chi Lian chose a clear girl’s photo, and Cheng Xubo chose a boy with slightly thinning hair.
When it was Mu Sichen’s turn, after changing faces, Mu Sichen opened the front camera of his cell phone to take a look, and was so shocked that he almost threw his cell phone out.
The one Chi Lian chose happened to be He Fei’s face.
The last time Mu Sichen had seen He Fei, it was when He Fei had sneaked into his bed in the middle of the night for the octopus doll, and that night had been quite a frightening one, causing Mu Sichen to momentarily develop a psychological shadow.
“Can we change it to something else?” Mu Sichen asked.
Chi Lian revealed a sheepish look, “Changing a face requires 500 energy value, although I’ve risen to level 5, my energy value is only 1200, so I borrowed 300 from you.”
Mu Sichen opened the energy value and saw that it was indeed 300 less, originally there was 5000, now it became 4700.
Despite the fact that he had upgraded his energy value to replenish it, digging up a big-eye believer would cost more than 3,000, and 5,000 wasn’t quite enough, so 300 was heartbreaking
If he changed his face, he would have to consume another 500.
“Forget it, just use this.” Mu Sichen said with forced patience.
At least He Fei was quite handsome, and he would have to face He Fei in the future, it was just the right time to get used to this face.
After changing to three absolutely unknown faces, the three of them calmly arrived at the food processing plant.
As with the sanatorium, there was a registration desk in front of the door for the three to register their name and information.
The names that were used in the previous sanatorium definitely couldn’t be used again. The three names of Sha Dayan, Chi Lian, and Cheng Xubo were posted on the wanted notice outside.
Chi Lian made up the name Liu Yiyi, Cheng Xubo was called Wang Wuliu, as for Mu Sichen, he chose Chun Xiaoyuan, phonetically translated as Stupid Little Eyes, walking further and further on the road of cursing the big eye.
Unlike the sanatorium, the person at the processing plant’s registration desk was clearly a follower, one level higher than the volunteer.
This volunteer gave the three of them their usual badges, only this time instead of an identity and name, the badge was a colorful swatch with dozens of colorful colors on it.
“This can’t be lost can it?” Cheng Xubo asked.
The follower’s eyes swept over their badges and a hint of greed actually flashed in his eyes.
He shook his head and said, “No need, in case you lose it, you can go to the office to get a replacement.”
“Can we leave the processing plant when ‘Daylight’ is approaching?” Chi Lian asked.
The follower said, “Of course we can, we have a normal commuting system here, we used to go to work at 9:00 and get off at 19:00. But these days the great presence isn’t feeling well and the ‘day’ has gotten shorter, our off time has become 21:00.”
Cheng Xubo touched his head, “Is there a day off?”
Follower: “Factory work is so easy, why do we need to rest?”
Cheng Xubo gritted his teeth and turned back to the two men and whispered, “This place is even more ruthless than our unit, we are 996, here it’s directly 997, and still say the treatment is good!”
[The 996 working hour system is a work schedule practiced illegally by some companies in China. It derives its name from its requirement that employees work from 9:00 am to 9:00 pm, 6 days per week; 997 – 9 AM to 9 PM, 7 days a week]
Mu Sichen patted Cheng Xubo’s shoulder comfortingly, from the thinning of his hair he could see how hard this believer of his worked.
“What are we going to do in the factory?” Mu Sichen was in no hurry to enter the factory, he asked for clarification first.
The follower treated them well, smiling, “You are the highest ranked employees, you are meant to work in the energy area, that’s the easiest position in our Bright Pupil Processing Factory. Every day, just by starting up the processing machine, you can eat, drink and have fun, and you can also bring some food back to your family.”
As he spoke, the follower couldn’t help but lick his lips.
Mu Sichen noticed his line of sight, which always fell on their badge, as if there was something delicious on the badge.
Mu Sichen asked again, “How many grades are there for employees? What do they all do?”
The follower answered patiently, “The high-level employees are responsible for working in the energy area, the mid-level employees are in the assembly area, and the low-level employees are in the farming area.”
“What is the Employee levels determined by?” Mu Sichen asked.
The follower finally became a bit impatient, “I’m just a registry gate guard, you have to ask the workshop director about these questions. Take this pass card, go to that workshop, and swipe the card when you enter and leave.”
Seeing that he couldn’t ask anything more from the follower, Mu Sichen led the two to the energy area.
Chi Lian touched the badge and said, “That follower’s eyes are so strange, like he’s going to eat this badge like it’s food, I want to change the badge.”
Mu Sichen frowned and said, “Don’t change it yet, I have a feeling that this chest card isn’t a proof of identity, it’s useless to change it.”
The interior of the processing plant was very large, and strangely enough, the fog was relatively thin here.
Looking up, behind the thick fog in the sky, there actually seemed to be hidden sunlight filtering through.
“This place is too normal to be the big eyes’ territory,” Cheng Xubo said, “It’s like an ordinary industrial park.”
“Here, the more normal it is, the more wrong it is.” Mu Sichen said, “I have a feeling that this place might be even more dangerous than a sanatorium, so everyone be careful, no matter what you encounter, observe first, then delay, and if someone is really forcing it, delay until you can’t.”
As he was talking, a dull-looking employee pushed a cart of packaged bread past the three of them, and Mu Sichen saw that his badge was only black, blue, and green, very different from the three of them with their colorful badges.
Thanks for the chapter!