novelcrest Chapter 677 Should I learn it too?
Chapter 677 Should I learn it too?
The coffee machine in the break room was still humming regularly.
The staff here are constantly getting new coffee.
When Wu Wang handed the cup to Lao Fan, the other man's fingertips trembled slightly on the cup.
Of course, it wasn't because it was too hot; the coffee was at the perfect temperature.
He trembled simply because it had been too long since anyone had given him anything, especially a gift.
Old Fan held the cup in his palm as if he were holding a small ball of fire, feeling that it was slightly hot.
“Every time your son turns over in the hospital bed, the factory’s pricing algorithm will raise the price for you.”
"The questions you raised during the sharing session today were very accurate."
"What's rising isn't market fluctuations, but the fluctuations in your heartbeat."
After he finished speaking, there was a few seconds of silence in the tea room.
The employees who were just complaining about the bills were now all looking at Wu Wang.
They didn't know this person.
After all, the office areas on each floor are ridiculously large, and every employee is working desperately for their own dreams. It's already quite an achievement for them to recognize the faces around their workstations.
"But...but I didn't say anything." Old Fan's voice carried an awkward confusion: "Aside from when I acted impulsively at the sharing session, I've never mentioned my son at my workstation..."
Wu Wang raised his hand and tapped the Desire Bracelet he was wearing.
“You don’t need to say anything, it will listen to itself.”
"Your heart rate, cortisol, skin conductivity, and all other physiological responses that reflect psychological activity."
"You think this thing is a work ID? It's a stethoscope strapped to your pulse."
“It knows every time you worry about your son, it knows every time you suppress your tears and continue to work hard, it knows better than you do when you will break down.”
"But it's not in a hurry; you're the one who's in a hurry."
Upon hearing this, most people took a deep breath, and the air in the tea room seemed to be drawn away instantly.
They felt that this young man with a cat on his head spoke like a gun without a silencer.
Some people even subconsciously hide their wrists behind their backs, but then feel that the action is stupid.
Where can it hide? It will always cling tightly to its skin.
Empty, empty, empty—
The coffee machine made another strange muffled noise, clearly indicating that it was jammed with coffee beans again.
Wu Wang casually tapped the spot where he had just been, restoring its operation.
Pointing to the yellowed note, he asked knowingly, "Who wrote this note?"
No one answered him.
It's not that I don't want to, it's that I genuinely don't know.
They had all seen the note and had all followed the instructions to fix the coffee machine's jammed beans, but no one cared who wrote it.
Just as no one has ever cared why the coffee machine in the break room has never been filled with coffee beans, or why not a single dead leaf has ever been seen on the greenery on each floor, these things have become so normal in the factory of desire that they have become part of the background.
"How long has it been stuck here?" Wu Wang asked again.
This time, finally someone spoke up.
It was a woman in the corner who looked a bit older. She said in a reminiscing tone, "It must have been at least four years, right? It wasn't here when I first came to the fourth floor."
"Back then, the machine was new and didn't need to be tapped. It started getting stuck after a while. A few days later, I saw a sticker on it. I tried it and it actually worked, but I really don't know who put it there."
Upon hearing this, Wu Wang grinned and added in support:
"Let me tell you about it. The person who put this note up is called Zhang Mingyuan. He went to the 49th floor and never came back as an employee."
Hearing this, someone muttered under their breath, "Isn't that a talent incubation center? Only outstanding employees are qualified to go there. How can someone from our fourth floor be allowed to go?"
"You believe it?" Wu Wang interrupted him with a smile.
That familiar smile sent a chill down the spine of the hill above.
This is a smile that even a cat would find uncomfortable; the angle at the corners of the mouth makes everyone feel offended.
"Then go stand at the entrance of the 49th floor for a while. I don't know how many people walk out smiling, but do you see if anyone walks in smiling?"
After saying that, Wu Wang poured himself another cup of coffee.
After drinking it in big gulps, put the cup in the recycling sink in the tea room.
The words printed on the cup, "Every step is an effort towards a dream," appear particularly ironic against the backdrop of water stains.
"I'm leaving." Wu Wang waved to Lao Fan and said, "Drink the coffee while it's hot; it'll be even more bitter when it's cold."
He turned and walked out of the tea room.
Little Hill shifted to a more comfortable lying position on his head.
On my way to the elevator, I ran into employee #9288, who was there to pick up coffee again.
When the other person saw Wu Wang, besides the lingering fear from having his computer shut down twice before, there was a complex and unfathomable expression in his eyes. In fact, the moment Wu Wang met his gaze, he immediately lowered his head and quickened his pace.
It was as if they were afraid of getting involved with Wu Wang.
"Meow?"
[Boss, why were you speaking so gently just now?]
Xiao Qiu knew all too well how venomous and despicable Wu Wang's mouth was.
Just now in the break room, Wu Wang was absolutely capable of saying something even more hurtful and suffocating to the employees, not just something that made them feel oppressed.
Wu Wang shook his head and said, "It's not the right time yet. Forcing bullets into the gun will cause it to jam like a coffee machine getting stuck with beans."
"They have to load the gun themselves little by little. All I have to do is tap them when it jams."
Just as he returned to his cheap rental apartment.
The voice of "Bai" suddenly came—
"Sir, the distribution of computing power in the system has changed."
"Some computing power has been transferred to the behavior monitoring and analysis module. The large-scale billing query behavior at the fourth layer has prompted the factory to investigate the cause of the abnormal emotion warning."
In response, Wu Wang simply asked, "Will your little tricks be discovered?"
[Bai] smiled slightly and said, "No, sir. I just wanted to tell you that in order to handle the abnormal emotion warning, the factory just pushed out a new round of limited-time special offers, and the emotional fluctuations of some employees have been suppressed again."
Wu's death was not a big surprise.
Discounts are indeed the best tranquilizer for most people.
But this is only a temporary solution; the harder you suppress that spark of anger in the employees' hearts, the more fiercely it will burn when it rebounds.
Let the bullets fly a little longer...
After returning to his room, Wu Wang decided not to go out and contact other employees that night.
To reiterate—he won't give the factory a real chance to find fault with him.
Now that the surveillance cameras on the fourth floor have started to be checked, there's no need for me to keep going against the grain.
brush--
Wu Wang suddenly pulled two scalpels out of his backpack.
His gaze fell on Zhou Ping's wife beside him.
One of these two scalpels is a normal scalpel, while the other is a scalpel facing in the opposite direction.
Since I don't sleep at night anyway, I might as well take this time to do some research.
Are the products of the Desire Factory actually made from modified human bodies?
Hmm... I'm quite confident in my ability to perform brain surgery...
"Meow……"
Watching the horrific scene unfolding beside me, I felt a chill run down my spine.
A pitiful cat's meow came from the hill.
If you kill her... you can't kill me, meow...
The examination and surgery lasted a long time.
It wasn't until almost dawn that Wu Wang began to clean up the horrific scene inside the room.
He certainly didn't kill the other person.
Because of the "knife in the opposite direction," Zhou Ping's wife didn't even suffer any wounds. Apart from a little blood on the ground, everything seemed normal, as if nothing had happened.
I looked at the cow cat huddled in the corner, shivering.
Wu Wang picked him up and asked seriously, "Have you learned it?"
"Meow?"
Should I... learn it too?
Wu Wang rolled his eyes, poked the black and white cat's forehead with his finger, and said in a tone of exasperation, "Nonsense! So you've been huddled in this corner all night and haven't learned anything! Do you know how rare it is to have the opportunity to observe this kind of clinical surgery? I have to charge admission for others to watch!"
"If I ever need surgery on something in my brain in the future, you'll be the one to perform the operation!"
"Meow?"
This isn't something a cat should be able to do, is it?
Little Hill waved its cat paw weakly.
He felt that he didn't look like someone who could hold a scalpel steady and perform precise surgery.
In response, Wu Wang simply kept shoving two scalpels into the cat's paws and said:
"I don't care what other people's cats are like, but since you're our cat, you have to learn from them."
"As punishment, you'll have to learn how to scalpel twirl today while holding a scalpel."
And so, a strange scene unfolded in the room—
Wu Wang sat on the edge of the bed chatting with the "White" projected on his bracelet, while a cow cat with a lifeless expression sat on his head, raising its front paws and brandishing a knife.
Sometimes, if it doesn't dance well, it will scratch its own paws, and then pitifully use another scalpel to heal the wound.
Anyone who saw this scene would probably be full of questions.
"Sir, your career planning consultation appointment has been successfully scheduled."
"Please go to Consultation Room 7 in Section C on the 10th floor in fifteen minutes."
Finally, a reply came through the bracelet.
[Bai]'s voice continued, "A user guide for the consultation room was attached to the notice, but the spacing between the characters in the document's title is flawed, and it seems to follow some kind of pattern?"
She projected the document onto the screen.
Wu Wang also noticed that the characters were not quite right; some characters were spaced further apart, while others were very close together and looked crowded.
"cat?"
He arranged the spaces of varying lengths to obtain a Morse code.
The deciphering revealed only one word—cat.
Wu Wang raised an eyebrow and said, "Zhang Mingyuan means that I should bring the cat over, which means that the cat won't be monitored as an 'abnormal item' in that consultation room. Do you know what that means?"
"Meow?"
Does this mean I'm worthless?
white:"……"
This cat picks up these weird and rubbish phrases from its master pretty quickly.
“That’s not entirely wrong,” Wu Wang shrugged. “But to be precise, it means he remembers you. Remember how we found out earlier that the Smiler’s memory access was limited to service-related areas?”
"He shouldn't be able to remember you, which also means that his ego is becoming more active."
"Or perhaps, this is also some kind of signal?"
After Wu Wang finished speaking, he stood up and put on the work clothes that were draped over the bed.
They then left the room and went to the elevator to wait for their turn downstairs.
The elevator door reflected his silhouette, and for some reason, the reflection looked more energetic and pleasing to the eye than his real self. Even his dead fish eyes seemed to have softened considerably.
Staring at the somewhat unfamiliar reflection, Wu Wang smiled.
This is most likely just a visual effect.
All the mirrors in the building that could reflect one's face had a similar beautifying effect, so he naturally wouldn't be fooled.
He was just thinking—what if one day these mirrors stopped beautifying the reflections and instead honestly showed dark circles, chapped lips, skin problems caused by lack of sleep, and those bloodshot eyes?
How many people in this building will break down?
Ding-dong-
The elevator doors opened with a click.
However, there was already someone standing inside.
Wearing the same work uniform as Wu Wang, Dai Mao smiled and greeted him:
Good morning, off to work?
Wu Wang stepped into the elevator, raised an eyebrow, and said, "You came down from upstairs? Didn't you sleep last night?"
The hawksbill turtle's room is still on the 30th floor; it hasn't been moved upstairs using wish points.
Now, if we come down from up there...
Either she has a work goal upstairs, or she's exploring a talent incubation center.
But this is far too early; it's not even dawn yet.
"I'm going to sleep." The tortoiseshell replied cheerfully, "The product [Sweet Dream Rest Pod] can provide a full day's sleep in just three hours. It costs 10 wish points per use, which is a great deal."
Wu Wang scoffed, "Worth it? Do you know how many dangerous chemicals were injected into your cerebrospinal fluid over those three hours? Aren't you afraid your brain will be tampered with?"
The hawksbill turtle's smile faltered slightly.
But he quickly resumed squinting and said, "Are you trying to scare me?"
“Yes.” Wu Wang chuckled lewdly without any attempt to hide his true feelings.
It's hard.
The fist hardened.
The elevator descended amidst silence and the clenched fists of the tortoiseshell.
Only the 10th floor was lit up, which had been pressed long before Wu Wang came in.
Finally, as they were almost there, the hawksbill turtle spoke up and asked, "Are you going to the 10th floor too?"
“I went to the counseling room for psychological support arranged by the factory. It’s probably because my behavior rating was too low.” There was a deliberate frankness in Wu Wang’s tone.
This kind of honesty is harder to expose than a lie.
Turtle tilted its head casually and said, "What a coincidence, I'm also on the 10th floor. I have a task to assist the Smilers in conducting an employee satisfaction survey. I'm going to Room 3 in Block B. What about you?"
Room 7, Section C
There's no need to hide this information; on the surface, my trip appears to be perfectly in accordance with procedure.
If she wants to investigate, then let her investigate.
The two arrived at the office area on the 10th floor.
The corridor here is brighter than on the 4th floor, and the paintings on the walls have changed from landscapes to abstract art.
The seemingly random combination of color blocks and lines is actually the result of careful composition.
Wu Wang could tell at a glance that these pictures could subconsciously reduce a person's aggression in psychology.
Factories don't want employees thinking about things outside of work, especially rebellious thoughts.
At that moment, a smiling person stood not far from the elevator entrance.
It wasn't Zhang Mingyuan, whom Wu had booked, but a smiling woman with an unfamiliar number.
The smile on the other person's face was exactly the same as Zhang Mingyuan's.
She gave a slight bow and a smile to each employee who passed by, saying, "Good morning, please stay focused on your work."
When the hawksbill turtle approaches, it adds, "Please follow me this way."
Clearly, she was the smiling one that the hawksbill turtle was supposed to assist.
Wu fell here, and Wu parted ways with Daimao.
However, he hadn't gone far when the hawksbill turtle suddenly turned around and looked at his back, its eyes filled with a kind of scrutiny.
However, when you look up at the top of his head...
The hawksbill turtle was stunned.
Because she saw the black and white cat turn around, holding the scalpel upright between its paws, with an extremely smug expression on its face, as if it had already guessed that she would be spying on it from behind.
The cat is giving itself the middle finger... (End of Chapter)