Working Records in a Weird World - 97

 

| WRIAWW | I Plan to Go There | 97

Ding—

The microwave emitted a crisp chime.

Zong Le, wearing an apron, set down the kitchen knife and turned to open the microwave door, taking out the bowl inside.

After heating for a few minutes, the bowl was almost too hot to hold. But the black-haired young man carried it effortlessly, as if completely unaffected by the scalding temperature, and even leaned down to sniff it.

"Hmm..."

To be honest, Zong Le's cooking skills were mediocre at best, enough to keep himself from starving. For example, the microwaved egg custard in his hands right now was definitely not bad, but it wasn’t anything special either, it was just plain and unremarkable.

A while back, when the prison was still under construction, things had been so hectic that he barely had time to cook, he could only resort to mooching meals off others every day.

Unfortunately, the residents of Ankang Community weren’t great cooks either. After turning into weirds, they lost their sense of taste and no longer needed human food.

Only the Butcher’s culinary skills stood out, but all he knew how to make was meat stew. Although it was delicious, anyone would get sick of it after a while.

Left with no choice, Zong Le had to keep cooking for himself.

Luckily, the Butcher had collected quite a few recipe books. Now that he was the boss, he didn’t even have to buy groceries himself, someone would wash and deliver them to his door. Experimenting with different dishes every day was actually kind of fun.

After hastily finishing lunch, he strolled out to walk off the meal, and was pleased to see all the prisoners dutifully working.

The newly imprisoned Matchmaker was busy at the loom, crafting something by hand. Her abilities included controlling strings, so it was only natural to put her to good use, there was no point wasting talent.

Bluebeard, dressed in the prison’s latest batch of custom uniforms, was hauling buckets of garbage. Jiang Chou stood rigidly at the gate, taking shifts with Old Wang.

"Warden!"

Upon seeing Zong Le, everyone, including the former survivors and current weirds, greeted him respectfully, not daring to act out.

Zong Le nodded and continued forward.

The community was quiet at this hour. Most residents had just finished lunch and were already napping. Only Lai Cai, chewing on a bone he’d scavenged from who-knows-where, trotted behind him, yipping and whining as he followed along for the routine patrol.

Xiao Fu had been running wild lately, disappearing for days and even making a trip to Taikang Yongle Hospital, there was no sign of him now.

As he walked, Zong Le reached the empty lot behind the community.

This place used to be very desolate, but since he took over the community, he has transformed it, and one of the areas has been reclaimed as a vegetable garden.

While the more compact soil was left untouched. He hadn’t decided what to do with it, so he asked them to transplant a large piece of grass here. Now, more than a month has passed, a lush of green grass had sprouted.

Coincidentally, it had found its purpose after his latest mission.

A small tombstone stood there.

"These flowers are nice. Here, I'll give them to you."

With that, Zong Le casually placed a handful of dogtail grass and nameless yellow wildflowers he’d plucked along the roadside in front of the tombstone.

If he hadn’t picked them, the gardening-obsessed butler would’ve cleared them away eventually anyway. From a distance, at least, they kept the tombstone from looking too lonely and bare.

"Your last wish before death must have been to return to the real world. I'm sorry I couldn't fulfill that dream. After all, I'm a native of Guiyi City, I can't truly follow you survivors to the real world. Besides, there are still things I need to accomplish here."

Although Guiyi City's sky was always dark, the feeling of sleepiness after lunch still surged up.

Zong Le found a soft patch of grass beside the tombstone, folded his hands behind his head, and lay back. The grass embraced him gently, its fresh scent lingering at his nostrils. The earth beneath radiated a comforting warmth, as if the entire ground was cradling him softly.

"I'm very curious, what does this 'real world' you all talk about actually look like?"

Zong Le had once seen a trending forum post with over ten million replies, the most commented post in the entire Survivors' Forum. It wasn't about gossip or a strategy guide, but a simple check-in string titled "Going Home."

The first thing many survivors do when they go online every day is to check in on this check-in post. Many people will leave a brief message in addition to checking in.

[Mom, I miss you.]

[Day 1,294, when can I go home?]

[I miss home so much, but my memories have blurred beyond recognition, I can't remember what my home looks like.]

These simple words carried deep emotions within them.

As someone born and raised in Guiyi City, Zong Le had no firsthand knowledge of this "real world." He could only piece together vague impressions from survivors' descriptions and their occasional complaints: [These NPCs in the instance are so inhumane! I miss how people coexisted peacefully in the real world.]

"Your real world must be...a beautiful place, right?"

Gazing at the blood moon in the sky, Zong Le muttered to himself: "You can change your fate by going to school, ordinary people can get money by working hard, everyone has food to eat and will not go hungry, and there is a social welfare system... when everything is settled here, maybe the main system can open a tourist channel."

The real world described by survivors didn't exist in Guiyi City, but it was something Zong Le wanted to create.

But with his current abilities alone, it's still far from enough.

Although he'd secured a seat on Taikang Yongle Group's board, his influence to changed things was limited.

Zong Le is not the kind of arbitrary tyrant, he is a gentle and kind.

"Ah... this is awkward. I didn't know you before your death. I don't even know your name, so I couldn't carve it on your tombstone."

His guilt resurfaced. He withdrew one hand from behind his head and reached into his pocket.

Due to someone's persistent stalking, Zong Le, who had been grinding relentlessly since joining the survivors decided to take a short break. Normally, he wouldn't even log into his survivor account unless it was to accep missions.

The moment he accessed the survivor interface, the "9999+" notification on the forum startled him.

"Why are there so many new posts in the forum? Could it be that my post has not received any response?"

Muttering to himself, he navigated to the forum homepage and began drafting a post under his username "Cola":

[Excuse me, did anyone complete the S-level mission "Sunshine Elementary School" last time?]

Main post: Does anyone remember the name of the A-level who died during that mission?

Unfortunately, Zong Le's bad premonition came true.

The post he sent out seemed to vanish without a trace, not a single reply came from any kind soul.

"What's going on? Where did all the posts go?"

Zong Le, who was used to receiving warm responses no matter when he posted, was utterly baffled.

He exited the post page and began browsing the forum in detail.

But what he saw shocked him to the core.

The entire screen was densely packed with desperate cries from survivors.

[Lord Joshua has been inside for a full eight hours with no news?!]

[We're doomed, doomed! Was that voice from the Central Court just a lie? I knew these weird were cruel!]

[The mission only gives us ten hours, and now eight have already passed... the situation is bad.]

[Please, just let me receive the system notification that the mission has been cleared. I'm begging you!]

[The main issue is this damn court isn't holding public hearings, so nobody knows what's the situation.]

[I don't care about mission completion, I only care about 1st's safety! Lord Joshua absolutely must be okay, we're at the critical stage of the ultimate dungeon, and losing a top-tier healer would be a disaster.]

[Exactly, if anything happens to 1st, it'd be a loss for all survivors.]

What's going on? Joshua's in trouble?

Zong Le frowned deeply.

Although that guy often played weak with phrases like "no combat ability" or "can't even restrain a chicken," Zong Le had never underestimated him.

Because combat power isn't just about physical strength, sometimes terrifying intellect is its own form of lethality, capable of killing without drawing blood.

For Joshua to reach the top ranking without combat abilities meant he must have extraordinary qualities. While the ranking system prioritized mission evaluations over comprehensive survivor attributes, it definitely wasn't as simple as the haters claimed—"just leeching off others' efforts in missions while playing support to snag perfect ratings."

For someone like Joshua to get into trouble now was truly baffling.

Thinking this, the ever-helpful Zong Le immediately sorted forum posts by popularity to catch up to speed.

Half an hour later, he slowly put down his phone, rubbing his temples, he'd mostly pieced together the situation.

"So this question-mark level mission turned out to be this tricky..."

Since participation wasn't mandatory and he'd been swamped with work, Zong Le had completely forgotten about the system notification, and spent these days in isolated rural tranquility.

With this realization, he sprang up from the grassy field, brushing off stray blades of grass before heading toward the neighborhood entrance.

"You're asking about the Central Court, sir?"

Seeing the big devil approaching, Old Man Wang, who'd been lounging in his rocking chair hurriedly set aside his fan and sat up properly: "That is a very special organization... or in other words, it is the only place in the entire Guiyi City where there is 'justice'. It is also a neutral organization. Although it is often regarded as the center or focus of the city, it is not involved in any factions."

Most Guiyi City residents feared the Central Court, its reputation could silence crying children at night.

Even powerful weirds avoided speaking of it.

After all, Guiyi's City police department only acted based on connections. Typically, the wealthy would bribe officers for falsified verdicts or arrests, which was common practice.

Given this corrupt system, the police should wield immense power, yet the Central Court's existence significantly curbed such abuses.

"No one knows the Central Court's master by name, we simply call her the Chief Justice. Her appearance remains unknown too, though we do know she's female and at least an S-level weird."

The Chief Justice was a breath of fresh air in the entire Guiyi City, she refused to be bribed by the powerful, swayed by public opinion, or biased due to status. For years, she had steadfastly upheld the principle that "all who enter these doors are equal before the law."

"The cases handled by the Central Court on a daily basis are mostly thorny disputes. Occasionally, there are those who bring forth genuine grievances with clear consciences and directly sue. Although such instances are rare... After all, most people are just dogs biting dogs, they don't have courage to bring the case to the Central Court."

Hearing this, Zong Le fell into thought.

He recalled attending the board meeting of Taikang Yongle Group recently, where an assistant had mentioned that Guiyi City was seeing an increasing number of "outsiders," which had begun to disrupt local power structures. They planned to submit files to the Central Court to test these outsiders capabilities.

"That's highly possible." Surprisingly, Old Man Wang agreed. "Boss, you don't pay much attention to the news, but recently, Guiyi City's television stations have been reporting on these outsiders. They appear and vanish unpredictably, and no one knows what they do in between. Yet many weirds have mysteriously disappeared because of them, which severely disrupting the city's balance. The big shots can't just sit back and do nothing, they'll definitely take action."

"It's not a bad idea to use the Central Court to test them. On one hand, the court will nip any potential threat to Guiyi City in the bud, that's the upside. But the downside is that the Central Court is always fair and impartial, strictly adhering to the rules without favoring any side. If the outsiders are lucky or well-equipped, they might gain the court's approval, which will ruin the big shots' plans."

In Ankang Prison, reading the room had become second nature.

Zong Le didn’t bother hiding it either. After bringing Jiang Chou and Bluebeard back last time, it was obvious to anyone with eyes that these two were unmistakably outsiders.

Their pure, weird-free auras stood out starkly against the locals. And after the last mission, he had even brought back a corpse, burying it conspicuously in the grass behind the community.

Anyone could see something was off and conclude that the Warden was close to the outsiders.

"Moreover, as you know, before this, Guiyi City didn’t have a prison... The court’s verdicts were always executed on the spot, weirds with severe cases were burned alive by the Holy Flame, while lighter punishments left the offenders half-dead..."

At this point, Old Wang suddenly remembered something. "Actually, given the scale of our Ankang Prison, it’s only a matter of time before you receive a summons from the Central Court. In Guiyi City, once judicial activities reach a certain scale, the Central Court will weigh them on the Scales of Judgment. Only those who pass can proceed, though sadly, there’s no precedent for this."

"That sounds quite good." The black-haired young man’s face showed undisguised admiration.

"...?"

Uncle Wang was surprised that his boss did not become alert after hearing these words. Instead, he felt a sense of sympathy for him. 

At this moment, he could not help but think of his boss's history of mental illness, and inwardly lamented.

"Um, boss... if I may ask, why are you suddenly inquiring about the Central Court? Do you have some plans?"

"It's nothing much. I'm planning to go there."

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