Working Records in a Weird World - 47

 

| WRIAWW | It's More Useful Than I Thought | 47

When Joshua’s gaze fell on the icy blue number above Tao Buxin’s head, the perfect curve of his lips, which he always maintained, cracked. He couldn’t even force a smile.

His ice-blue pupils constricted sharply, as if the eternal frozen layer of the polar region had suddenly shattered.

How is this possible?!

He stood rooted to the spot, for the first time in his life doubting whether the Eros Code ability had malfunctioned.

If it weren't for this reason, how could his loyal follower, supporter, fanatic believer, and executioner who often helped him deal with the dirty work have a rapid drop in emotional value in just one hour, from more than 90 to 0?

If he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes, Joshua would have not believed it.

"Boss Tao, you’re back?"

Seeing Tao Buxin, the other survivors in the operating room greeted her.

Although everyone knew Tao Buxin was aloof, her status as an S-level and a member of the Temple Army naturally earned her goodwill. Everyone wanted to get on her good side.

However, Tao Buxin walked straight past the crowd without a glance, heading toward Bai Shao, who was leaning against the wall by the door.

Bai Shao stood there with his hands in his pockets, seemingly lost in thought. Only when Tao Buxin approached did she hand him the lunchbox she was carrying: "For you."

"Huh?" Bai Shao was puzzled.

He wasn’t very familiar with Tao Buxin. At most, they would nod when they ran into each other, and they had hardly ever spoken privately.

“This is from my Lor... someone who wanted me to bring it to you,” Tao Buxin almost slipped up but quickly changed her wording.

Bai Shao, puzzled, took the lunchbox and opened it.

Inside lay two slices of braised pork knuckle, the surrounding sauce already solidified, glistening.

Bai Shao: “......”

He gritted his teeth. “Was it a C-level survivor who asked you to bring this?”

Tao Buxin nodded.

Just as Bai Shao was about to say more, someone quietly approached, his tone laced with amusement. “What are you two talking about? What's so secretive?”

Hearing that gentle voice, Bai Shao stiffened, instinctively wanting to step back.

But he was already leaning against the wall, with nowhere to go.

Helpless, he could only brace himself and say, “Sir.”

Seeing Bai Shao’s demeanor, Joshua, who had been losing control of the situation repeatedly, decided to cut to the chase. “Ever since we returned from the last mission, you’ve seemed very reluctant to speak with me. Did something happen?”

“No! Nothing! I mean... I’m not unwilling to speak with you.”

The question nearly suffocated Bai Shao, and he quickly raised his voice to defend himself.

“With your words, I feel reassured.”

Seeing Bai Shao’s emotional gauge slightly recover, Joshua decided to stop there.

His intention was to make Bai Shao feel guilty, but pushing too hard would backfire. So, the silver-haired Shepherd turned his head, his gaze sweeping over the two of them. “I didn’t expect to see such authentic home-cooked food in a dungeon. This must be the work of a dungeon NPC, right?”

The mention of it triggered Bai Shao’s PTSD.

Because he knew exactly who had made this braised pork knuckle. “Sir, this was sent by that talented newcomer.”

“Oh?”

For no reason, why would he send braised pork knuckle to Bai Shao?

“Because I casually mentioned it during the last mission, and he thought I liked it, so...”

For some reason, even though it was a perfectly normal explanation, with the preconceived notion that “Lord Joshua might be interested in the talented newcomer,” Bai Shao felt like he was only making things worse.

If it was just his wild guess, it wouldn’t matter. What he feared was that it might actually be true.

But Bai Shao, who was deeply homophobic, didn’t dare to look up into those icy blue eyes. He hurriedly said, “Sir, you’ve performed several surgeries in a row. You must be exhausted. You need this more than I do.” 

With that, he handed over the lunchbox.

Joshua didn’t refuse. He had already overheard the conversation and was highly suspicious of what Zong Le had sent.

Little did he know that this simple act only added fuel to Bai Shao’s misunderstanding. Bai Shao paused while his heart was shaking, and quickly found an excuse to leave.

After Bai Shao left, Joshua put away the lunchbox.

With more pressing matters at hand, he didn’t dwell on Bai Shao’s continuously dropping emotional gauge.

Joshua looked up. “Buxin, did you encounter anything unusual during your trip?”

What seemed like a simple question actually carried a lot of suspicion. He didn’t mention the previous command to avoid the risk of stirring up trouble when the emotional values was at zero.

Joshua was confident in his abilities, firmly believing that no one could bypass the Eros code under normal circumstances unless they exploited a loophole.

For example, forcibly erasing memories.

As expected, seeing Tao Buxin's puzzled expression, Joshua understood.

With the intention of proving his loyalty, Number Five handled this matter meticulously, leaving no room for error. It wasn’t a simple memory wipe but rather, under the premise of preserving Tao Buxin’s complete memory and transferring her emotions to Zong Le.

Joshua tested Tao Buxin with a few probing questions and discovered that Tao Buxin's memory is only slightly blurred.

What she had lost was her previous devotion.

Tao Buxin still remembered every detail of her past loyalty to Joshua, but she could no longer reclaim that deep-seated devotion. Like a puppet stripped of its soul, she moved as usual, but the flame of faith in her eyes had been extinguished.

What Joshua didn’t know was that the emotion he thought had disappeared hadn’t vanished—it had merely been transferred.

“Sorry, my lord.” Facing her former master, Tao Buxin showed no intention continuing to greet her previous master: "I'll take my leave first."

Her gaze at Joshua was no different from that of a stranger. Given her aloof nature, the fact that she exchanged so many pleasantries was already a sign of respect.

However, when she realized that 1st was subtly probing for information about her new master, Tao Buxin’s expression turned displeased, and she left directly.

Watching her retreating figure, Joshua’s eyes turned icy cold.

A survivor nearby, sensing something was off, asked, “My lord, has something happened?”

“No.” The silver-haired shepherd snapped out of his thoughts and smiled. “Nothing at all.”

If the sudden drop in Bai Shao’s emotional value had initially surprised Joshua and made him realize that things were slipping out of control, then Tao Buxin’s appearance made it clear to him that some things had already broken free like wild horses, taking root and sprouting in places he couldn’t see.

Once might be a coincidence, but twice is definitely inevitable.

'He is a bit more skilled than I imagined.'

At this moment, the murderous intent boiling in Joshua's chest was more intense than ever before.

The faith points he had painstakingly accumulated were now crumbling because of some nobody. He could almost hear the sound of his sanity snapping, he wished he could tear Zong Le into a thousand pieces.

Looking back at Joshua's life, excluding the earlier years, since entering the Infinite Space, he had never been in such a humiliating situation.

Not even once.

When the time was right, he would personally measure just how capable this guy, who had repeatedly ruined his plans, really was.

......

On the other side, Zong Le, who had discovered a shortcut, was in a rather good mood.

After completing the main task of splitting the morgue, he began running to other departments.

Taikang Yongle Hospital had over a hundred departments, many of which were in dire straits. Only those departments assigned to capable individuals had a clear path forward or had already started collecting signatures. The rest were still at a loss.

Zong Le couldn't just waltz in and offer help, so he came up with a plan and headed to the fifth-floor medical department.

Inside the medical department, the head and deputy who were resting were still cursing: "Seriously, how could the psychiatric department just let him come back like that? And not only did he come back, but they also sneaked around, making us run into him."

"Chief, should we report this to the dean?"

"Forget it, the dean probably already knows."

......

As the two continued chatting, the deputy suddenly fell silent as if choked, while the chief kept talking: "The hospital's available resources are getting scarcer by the day. The fees collected this month aren't even enough to buy a few packs of cigarettes. Where are we supposed to get the funds for our expenses? We need to find an excuse, or else we'll barely meet the dean's performance criteria, and there won't be much left for us..."

Halfway through, the chief finally realized something was wrong and turned around abruptly, only to see a black-hair young man standing at the entrance of the medical department office, looking at him like they were trash.

How did this guy come in without making a sound?!

The chief cursed inwardly but didn't dare show it, forcing a smile instead: "You... why are you here in the medical department?"

"If I hadn't come, I wouldn't have known you were scheming to deceive the higher-ups and just looking to fill up your own pockets."

Zong Le's tone was mocking: "I assume you wouldn't want the dean to find out about your little plans, would you?"

As he spoke, he waved his phone, the recording button glaringly obvious.

The head of medical department: "......"

As if we'd dare to resist you even if you weren't recording! What's the point of doing this?!

With the two medical department staff crouching on the ground like quails, Zong Le cleared his throat.

"Alright, there's something I need to get done, but I'll need your help. You understand what I mean, right?"

"Understood!"

Given the situation, they had to understand, even if they didn't! They weren't fools!

Zong Le was satisfied.

After completing tasks in three consecutive departments, the survivors on the forum were getting anxious.

The top two spots were undisputed, but the morgue securing third place in completing the task was truly unexpected. Many curious individuals went digging through the previous statements of the morgue survivors, only to find that their group level was subpar, and their director wasn’t the cooperative type.

It was simply a hellish difficulty at the beginning.

【How come the morgue could complete the task, but our department couldn’t?】

【Yeah, someone from the morgue, come out and explain! How did you guys manage to finish the task?】

After countless pleas, Xue Heguang finally caved and made a post.

【Honestly, we don’t even know how we completed the task... It just happened out of nowhere.】

【？？？Are you guys taking lessons from the psychiatry department now?】

【This is a question level task! Stop being so humble and share some tips, will you?】

Xue Heguang’s post sparked collective outrage, and everyone began to criticize him.

Then, another system notification arrived.

【Main Task (divided): The Intensive Care Unit has completed the main task.】

This time, before anyone could even ask, the S-level team from the Intensive Care Unit personally spoke up and did not treat them as outsiders.

【Can you believe it? Our department director just left his signature on the table!】

Previous TOC Next