Working Records in a Weird World - 27

  

| WRIAWW | World View Shattered | 27

Upon hearing this, Bai Shao shot up from his seat.

The atmosphere, which had just lightened up due to Shi Jing's words, instantly plummeted to freezing point.

"You can gossip whatever you want, but you can't just say nonsense."

Bai Shao clenched his fists tightly, his complexion unusually poor: "Patriarch Joshua is a priest, always maintaining his integrity. How can you slander him like this!"

Zong Le was baffled: "Huh? I didn't say he wasn't maintaining his integrity. I just said his sexual orientation is gay."

He couldn't help but wonder why the S-level's reaction was exactly the same as Madam Xue's back then, both focusing on whether 1st had been promiscuous.

"Besides, Joshua isn't a proper priest, right? He got the position of Patriarch as a reward for clearing an S-level dungeon."

Bai Shao was speechless.

But what truly silenced him was that the system hadn't refuted this gossip.

This... could it mean that what the black-haired guy said was true?!

Bai Shao, who had always been homophobic, felt like the sky was falling.

He couldn't believe it, his pupils shaking as he tried to struggle: "Where did you hear this gossip?"

"From 1st himself, of course."

Zong Le replied calmly: "The system didn't object, so how could I have made it up?"

"Even if I wanted to make something up, I couldn't possibly fool the main system, could I?"

After years of experience, the survivors had figured out that the main system was a super-intelligent AI that strictly executed programs, with no possibility of loopholes.

The following card game proceeded with Bai Shao unusually silent.

His previous irritability and impatience was gone, replaced instead by a sort of cosmic cat enlightenment, still dazed and not fully recovered.

During the first change of the corpse in the preservation box, while Bai Shao was outside keeping watch, Xu Mu couldn't help but whisper: "Will the S-level be okay? He's not even talking anymore, I'm a bit worried."

"Don't worry, he'll be fine."

Zong Le comforted her: "It's probably just that his idol's sexual orientation doesn't match his imagination. Let him be alone for a while."

"Besides, he worships 1st so much, he'll definitely come to terms with it. If he can't, then it just means he wasn't truly devoted, it's not like I can change his mind."

Before sharing this gossip, Zong Le had thought it through carefully. He deliberately avoided explosive truths like "Joshua is actually a bad guy, his friendliness and kindness are all fake, he just sees you followers as lambs," which could completely overturn the survivors' perceptions. 

Instead, he limited the topic to the relatively safe area of sexual orientation.

After all, in this era, sexual orientation was no longer a stain worth criticizing, with homosexuality and heterosexuality at a fifty-fifty ratio. Just look at Xu Mu and Shi Jing's reactions - when they heard the gossip about 1st, the big star of the infinite space, they were just slightly surprised, with no further reaction, showing how ordinary this matter was.

Besides, Joshua wasn't a good person to begin with. If Bai Shao could unfollow while Joshua was clearly using him, wouldn't that be a good thing?

With Zong Le's explanation, everyone felt relieved.

Shi Jing and Xu Mu also took this opportunity to add him as a friend.

Although Zong Le was a D-level, neither of the two C-levels present looked down on him.

After all, not everyone could gain the favor of an S-level, nor could everyone survive after breaking into an S-level mission. Plus, after this mission, he would be promoted to C-level. Making friends now would mean more connections in the future.

The embalming room's box looked small, but in reality, it was quite spacious, and the torso was fortunate enough to avoid being sawed.

Just as a few people were about to leave the room, Bai Shao, who had been waiting, suddenly raised his eyes.

He warily looked towards the funeral home. At some point, a howling cold wind had begun to blow, causing the iron gates to creak and sending shivers down everyone's spines.

"Something is coming."

Even Bai Shao, who wasn't specialized in medium matters, could sense a vast, icy aura approaching.

What puzzled him was that this aura was far beyond what a C-level weird could emit... it felt more like an S-level!

But how could that be? This was just a C-level mission!

As Bai Shao was caught in his doubts, he suddenly heard Shi Jing's urgent shout: "The clock on the wall just passed 3 AM! The paper with the rules said that around 3 AM, a supervisor might come to inspect!"

The clues began to connect like threads.

If this S-level weird wasn't part of the mission itself, and the mission didn't require eliminating this S-level weird, but rather just playing the role of a "supervisor" for the mission, then everything made sense.

"What other rules were written on that paper?"

"It also said that when the supervisor comes to inspect, we must put away the playing cards and not let the supervisor find them, and we must remain calm and serious. Wait... our cards!!!"

Upon hearing this, everyone froze.

As luck would have it, the dark green deck of cards was still out, not yet put away.

With the sound of footsteps outside the funeral home coming closer, Bai Shao had no time to think further. He immediately activated his teleportation ability.

His figure vanished from the spot, and in the next second, he reappeared by the table.

Due to the urgency of the situation and the fact that they hadn’t had time to clean up after playing cards, it was impractical to pick up and stack each card one by one. 

Reluctantly, Bai Shao could only flip the tablecloth immediately, hoping to cover the cards on the table in this manner.

However, as the saying goes, when it rains, it pours.

This action did cover most of the exposed cards, but two cards at the edge were caught by the airflow, breaking free like rebellious butterflies and fluttering to the ground.

The footsteps had already stopped at the door.

"......"

Staring at the two cards that had landed even farther away from him, Bai Shao was left speechless.

The S-level weird was probably just passing through and might not take action. But if even the basic requirements weren’t met, task failure was inevitable. Thinking that this was the first task assigned to him by the Patriarch. Bai Shao couldn’t bear the thought of him dying in such an embarrassing manner.

Fortunately, at the critical moment, a pair of black combat boots suddenly appeared, firmly stepping on the two cards.

Almost simultaneously, a blinding white light, sharp as a blade, pierced through the darkness, shooting straight into the funeral home. The "weird" wandering outside was clearly holding a high-powered searchlight, scanning every corner of the room with malicious intent.

The four of them maintained their previous positions, standing still as if playing a game of "one, two, three, freeze," allowing the pale light to sweep over them repeatedly.

Unfortunately, the light scoured the mahjong table and the oil-stained floor, but no matter how hard it searched, the inspecting supervisor couldn’t find a single trace of the playing cards. The funeral home remained eerily quiet, with everyone maintaining a serious expression.

Unable to find any reason to deduct points, the supervisor reluctantly turned off the searchlight and left.

From beginning to end, they never got a clear look at the weird outside, only catching a glimpse of the hem of a long black coat sweeping by.

Feeling the presence grow farther away, Bai Shao gradually relaxed his tense back.

"Is... is it gone?" Xu Mu didn’t dare to speak, only mouthing the words.

"It’s gone."

The S-level’s words were like a shot of reassurance, instantly calming everyone down.

Shi Jing was still trembling with fear: "What level was that supervisor? The pressure was overwhelming..."

"Of course, it’s an S-level weird. How could it not be strong?"

Bai Shao casually replied, "You must have seen the documentary about the A-level dungeon, 'Moonlit Bamboo Palace,' right? In that dungeon, there’s an S-level weird, the Eight-Headed Serpent. If you were performing any task in the palace, you might see it patrolling outside the window. The situation is similar to this mission. If you’re caught, you won’t die, but the task will fail immediately."

The two C-level survivors turned pale with fear, unable to believe they had narrowly escaped an S-level weird.

Zong Le moved his foot, picked up the two playing cards he had stepped on, and placed them back on the table, just as he overheard their discussion.

"I didn’t expect NPCs in the ultimate dungeon to have such a wide range of free movement."

"Didn’t we mention during the last group meeting? Except for the resident NPCs being weird, the ultimate dungeon completely follows the rules of the real world, so it’s normal for supervisors to conduct inspections."

"Yeah, the real world is a thousand times better than Guiyi City. This dump is crawling with weirds. I really don’t know how those ordinary NPCs manage to survive."

"It’s probably because everyone’s evil. Haven’t you seen the posts on the forum by other survivors? The NPCs here are no good."

......

After the leader’s inspection, the two C-level survivors, who had been tense, finally relaxed a bit.

Everyone returned to the processing room, took out the torso, and arranged all the processed body fragments on a long tray, preparing for the final steps.

Xu Mu volunteered, "I can handle the stitching. My family used to run a weaving business, so I’m quite skilled at this."

Shi Jing said, "I’ll trim the nails, hair, and shave the corpse, then apply the glue."

Zong Le thought for a moment, "Then I’ll take care of the makeup."

Although he knew nothing about makeup, he had some experience with painting.

They tacitly didn’t assign any tasks to Bai Shao, who, in turn, acted quite naturally, leaning against the wall of the processing room like a boss, keeping an eye on the surroundings while idly watching them work.

Zong Le picked up the palette, mixed the colors, and approached the head with a brush.

The head, placed on the tray, couldn’t help but tense up as it heard the footsteps of the "big boss," its broken throat twitching nervously.

"Don’t be nervous, my painting skills are pretty good."

During his stay at Taikang Yongle Hospital, the only subject he scored high in was painting. The doctors and nurses praised his skeleton drawings as the most lifelike.

Is this D-level guy okay? He’s actually talking to a head?

Bai Shao, who was observing everything, yawned.

However, after what just happened, he had a slightly better impression of Zong Le, and was not as disdainful as before.

Although he’s a D-level, his reaction speed was very fast, and he had a good eye.

Since he had nothing better to do, Bai Shao decided to gather more information and asked, "Hey, Zong Le, how long have you been in the Infinite Space?"

The question caught Zong Le off guard. With a guilty conscience, his hand trembled, successfully painting a panda-like black eye on the weirds face.

He dipped the brush into the paint, slightly nervous, and replied, "N-not long, just a week ago."

"A week ago?"

Bai Shao was stunned, then looked suspicious. "You’re not lying, are you?"

After all, everyone knew that a week ago was when the ultimate dungeon had just opened. And the main system announced on the second day that it would no longer send new people into the Infinite Space.

"I’m not." To clear his name, Zong Le quickly took out his phone and showed his task list. "Look!"

Bai Shao leaned over.

His eyesight was good, and he immediately saw the C-level task labeled "Novice’s Mission" at the top of the list.

"Oh... so it’s true. I didn’t expect you to be such a newcomer with only a few missions under your belt."

For a beginner, having such quick reactions and staying calm under pressure is actually quite impressive.

Bai Shao had initially intended to pick a fight, but instead of finding any fault, he found himself revising his opinion of Zong Le once again, and could only retreat in frustration.

However, halfway through, he suddenly realized something was amiss and sharply turned back.

"Wait, your novice mission is C-level???"

Holy crap, wasn’t there a highly talked talented newcomer on the forum recently?!

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