CH 162

Tang Erda opened his eyes in the game.

Overwhelming rose petals swept from the sky and a large field of bright flowers filled the horizon. The sky was as dark as night and as one moved deeper in the rose fields, there was an out of place modern factory against the backdrop of a country town.

A huge brass distilling apparatus was placed in front of the factory as a decoration. A white painted wooden plaque was hanging next to it with the words ‘Rose Dry Leaf Factory’ written in both Chinese and English.

Tang Erda’s breathing stopped for a moment and he subconsciously looked at the top of the factory. There was nothing there, only some fresh roses basking in the moonlight. Dew appeared on the fleshy petals and it gave off an addictive and fascinating aroma.

This was the factory where Bai Liu (6) stood at the top and asked him, “Do the roses smell good?”

In all the timelines he experienced, Tang Erda had never seen this level three game.

He knew that the solution to the Rose Dry Leaf Gas must come from a certain game in the system but no matter how frantically Tang Erda played the game, he had never come across this game.

It was as if there was an existence blocking his access to the game while teasing him. This made Tang Erda long lose hope that he could play the game related to the Rose Dry Leaf Gas.

Yet this time, after Tang Erda’s complete despair, he actually chased Bai Liu into the game by accident.

[System notification: Player Tang Erda has seen the factory door and triggered the main quest of the game.]

[System notification: The player’s identity is the lowest rose picker in the Rose Dry Leaf Factory. You need to work hard in the factory and be promoted to the top perfumer based on performance. After becoming the perfumer, you can kick out the previous factory manager and become the new factory manager.]

[Once a new perfume factory manager is born, the player who becomes the factory manager will pass the level and the game is terminated.]

[Now, please enter the factory and start working today!]

At the same time, Bai Liu was hiding behind the factory. He once again determined the main mission in a depressed manner. Meanwhile, Liu Jiayi was drinking an antidote to heal herself. She still had blood on her body but her face was much better. The gunshot wound was no longer bleeding.

After Liu Jiayi confirmed the main mission, she glanced at Bai Liu’s bad expression and turned around a bit awkwardly, whispering, “…I told you not to enter a level three game. I had a hard time saving you back then but now you entered yourself. Give me some face…”

Bai Liu sent Liu Jiayi a gloomy expression. “It isn’t because of you. It is because of this mission.”

“What is wrong with this mission? The mortality rate of a level three game limits the number of people who can clear the game. I reminded you before coming in…” Liu Jiayi quickly entered a thinking state. She put away the antidote bottle and frowned. “The mortality rate of level three games is between 80-90%. It is normal that only one person survives. Still, a level three game isn’t without loopholes.”

“However, this game limits it so that only players who have become the factory manager can clear the level. We saw it when we came in. There is only this Dry Rose Leaf Gas factory nearby so the clearance condition is stuck to a certain extent. We can only take it step by step. It is understandable if you don’t like the main mission of the level three game. The flexibility is reduced and the difficulty is increased…”

Bai Liu was in a rare state of absence and his gaze was a bit distracted. “…It is a part time job again. Why am I still working as a corporate drone in the game? I don’t like being exploited.”

Liu Jiayi, “…….”

He was lost because of this?!

Liu Jiayi blankly climbed onto the brass distillery used as a decoration and hit the back of Bai Liu’s head. “Troublemaker, regain your spirit first! Take care of your pursuer. He will definitely chase you into this game. That man has a strong fighting power. You had better think of a way to get us through this level three game.”

Bai Liu was hit against the wall by Liu Jiayi and remained motionless.

Liu Jiayi, “…….”

Liu Jiayi grabbed Bai Liu’s head and pulled him, roaring angrily, “Don’t pretend to be dead to avoid a part time job! You brought me into this game so you have the responsibility to take me out of here! Give me a bit of an adult man’s responsibility, Bai Liu!”

Bai Liu slowly lifted his head from the wall and looked at Liu Jiayi with a very sullen expression. “Is there anyone who will give me money for working here?”

“…Of course, there isn’t anyone. What are you thinking?”

“Oh.” Bai Liu slowly lowered his head again and exclaimed angrily, “Then I quit. I have been forced to do very bad business for 10 years. Now I have to work for nothing. I can’t do it.”

Bai Liu was like a contemporary Grandet who was forced to hand over his legacy to his son, only to find that he wasn’t dead yet. He had an expression of loss. It was obvious that he hadn’t recovered from his 10 years of hot pot transactions with Lu Yizhan.

Liu Jiayi stepped on Bai Liu’s shoulder and pulled out the corporate drone trying to escape from working. She scolded him. “You can’t just say you won’t do it. Hurry up and work!”

After discovering that nothing could make this corporate drone immersed in loss and depression recover, Liu Jiayi had to resort to the ultimate move. “You work and I’ll pay you. How about 100 yuan an hour?”

Bai Liu, who had buried his head in the wall, turned without hesitation. He stared at Liu Jiayi, reaching out his hand to her. He wasn’t ashamed at all. “Deal. Pay first and then work.”

Liu Jiayi, “…….”

D*mn, this Bai Liu was just waiting for her to pay money, calculating her feelings…

Was this man so stingy? Even calculating the money of an eight year old girl?

Liu Jiayi scolded in her heart but on the surface, she gave Bai Liu the money without moving. Bai Liu took the money, tidied up his clothes and returned to being a part-time worker. “Let’s go to the factory to check it first.”

“Wait!” Liu Jiayi grabbed Bai Liu in a slightly helpless manner. “Weren’t you listening to what I just told you? That Captain Tang is chasing you into the game. If you go directly into the factory to find the NPC and receive a quest, you might bump into him. His gun, the skill weapon, is very powerful and it can even be used in reality. If you bump into him, he will kill you without saying a word!”

Bai Liu removed Liu Jiayi’s hand with a casual expression. “The moment he entered this game, he won’t kill me.”

Liu Jiayi was stunned. “Why?”

“Rose Factory is a game stage specially presented by someone for Tang Erda and I. Of course, it also might not be a human.” Bai Liu lowered his eyes and they darkened. “In this game called Rose Factory, there must be a secret that can save all those polluted by the perfume. This is the same as the reward of the Love Welfare Institute monster book, where it provided me with an item that can save a child from the blood ganoderma lucidum poisoning.”

“Tang Erda thinks that the core of the game that hides this secret is in my hands. He thinks I know how to clear the game so he rushed to this point. Before the game is cleared and before Tang Erda gets what he wants, he won’t be able to bear to kill me.”

“The antidote to save the people he wants to save is right around the corner. I believe that the righteous Captain Tang won’t have the same madness as before or the courage to die with me.”

Bai Liu commented in an unhurried manner and there was a slightly teasing manner to his tone. “After all, in the eyes of Captain Tang, my life shouldn’t be as precious as his Vice-captain Su.”

He held Liu Jiayi’s hand and walked next to the rose field of this rural town. After going around the distiller placed in the factory, he could see the opened wrought iron front doors.

There was a wooden plaque hanging from the main entrance that read: Welcome to Rose Factory.

Bai Liu held Liu Jiayi’s hand and went in. After entering, there was a huge, open air workshop with fresh roses just picked from the fields scattered on the ground. Some people were squatting on the ground and separating the stems, leaves and petals of the roses into a pile. Then they were sorted into categories.

Both sides of the venue had huge copper furnaces that were working. Hot and colorful steam was continuously coming out. Beside the copper furnaces, there were people constantly stirring the rose petals into a ball with steel shovels. It looked like a thriving work scene but the people working were a bit strange in appearance. Their working hours were also out of place because it was late at night looking at the sky.

These workers wore black protective clothing with elastic bandages around their wrists. In addition, they were gloves, black rubber boots and black hats. They didn’t look like they were dealing with roses. Instead, they looked like virus researchers in a dangerous laboratory or beekeepers.

Bai Liu was stopped by these people as he led Liu Jiayi in.

The workers handed Bai Liu and Liu Jiayi two sets of protective suits that seemed tailor-made. They raised their heads and spoke with hoarse and cracked voices. They stared at these two uninvited guests with hatred and vigilance. “You have to wear protective clothing when entering this place. You can’t let the smell of your body contaminate the smell of the roses, understood?”

At such a close distance, Bai Liu could clearly see under the black veil. The face of the person who handed it to him, or the employee who could no longer be regarded as a human being, had some deep and huge cracks on his face. Black, rotten and bulging flesh appeared along the cracks and it was like a rose was blooming under his eyes.

In the eye of the worker staring straight at Bai Liu, there was a crimson rose with black edges that was about to wither—much like the one on his face.

Bai Liu and Liu Jiayi glanced at each other and silently took the protective clothing that the worker handed them. They put it on and went inside under the guidance of the other person.

The worker walked inside while turning his head to introduce Bai Liu to the three different workshops in the factory. However, Bai Liu’s attention was drawn to something else.

As the man walked, the face in the protective suit rustled along with his movements and made the sound of falling leaves. Then the dropped things were stepped on by his feet. A scent was faintly revealed during the action but he didn’t care. He just kept introducing the structure and rules of the factory.

“There are three workshops in the perfume factory. There is the petal processing and distillation workshop that you just saw, the essential oil purification workshop where we are now and the most core fragrance workshop. You aren’t qualified to go to the fragrance workshop. Only perfumers are qualified to work there…”

“We are recruiting four types of people here. There are those who are responsible for picking the roses in season and this is the lowest level worker. Newcomers who have just arrived all start here. Those with an outstanding flower picking performance will be promoted to the petal processing workshop and become a processor. A processor with good performance will be promoted to the purification workshop and become a formal factory worker. At this level, you are qualified to learn the knowledge of fragrances…”

“Finally, those with the strongest learning ability and highest perfume talent can become a perfumer. It is a great honor but it is too far away for newcomers like you.”

Bai Liu observed his surroundings while listening to the NPC talking about the factory. Finally, he asked, “Then how do I become the manager of this factory?”

The worker who was talking about how to be promoted to perfumer abruptly stopped talking.

The worker turned his head abruptly. His cheekbones under the black gauze were faintly visible after the flesh and blood was peeled off. His low voice was grim and frightening. “The factory manager? You can’t be promoted to a factory manager. The manager has the core technology of the factory’s perfume and the cultivation method of the Dry Rose Leaf Gas. These things can’t be spread out. If you want to be the factory manager, let’s wait until you have those things.”

Bai Liu changed his question. “How many factory managers have you had?”

“Eight,” the worker replied.

Bai Liu sighed lightly. “Then how did they change?”

The worker’s expression became ugly as he realized what Bai Liu wanted to ask. This made him pause eerily for a moment before replying, “…The previous factory manager disappears and the next factory manager who has the perfume formula and rose cultivation method will automatically take office.”

Bai Liu asked up to here and wisely stopped. It seemed that this was a transition rotation. The previous factory manager disappearing and the next factory manager being appointed might not be too simple. The perfume formula and rose cultivation method were equivalent to passing along the national jade seal. Whoever got it would take office.

They continued to walk inside and the low, dark factory interior gradually became wider to the left and right. Various aluminum cooling pipes were embedded in the surrounding walls and water flowed rapidly inside.

There were long chains of distillation and drying devices on the ground, the casings of which had been dyed pale pink like a rose and gleamed in the dim yellow light. Normal roses weren’t so corrosive as to color the metal.

Even though Bai Liu and the others were wearing protective clothing, there was a strong scent of roses that filled the air. From the various devices that were working, he could see rose colored drops of oil flowing slowly through the pipes and dripping from the spout into a beaker the size of a fist.

“We are the only factory in the world that can produce the Dry Rose Leaf Gas perfume. The perfume we produce will be shipped from here to the world. Everyone in the world is crazy about this perfume and can’t live without it. However, we haven’t developed smoothly to where we are today.”

The worker introduced it to Bai Liu in an inexplicably proud tone of sharing joy and sorrow. “You can see the development history of the factory on the wall to your left. It was all published in the local newspapers.”

Bai Liu’s gaze moved to the left and he saw a wall covered with old newspapers. It was placed in a glass cabinet with various trophies and certificates in it such as ‘Best Perfume of 202X’ and ‘Top 10 Companies of the Year’.

“10 years ago, the Dry Rose Leaf Gas was strictly prohibited and our factory was almost closed. Then a big explosion that almost completely destroyed the factory caused the fragrance of the Dry Rose Leaf Gas to spread to the surrounding area. In a big city, millions of people became addicted to the perfume overnight. A good perfume has such charm and brought the factory back to life, allowing it to develop to its peak!”

“Now the entire world is using this perfume and demand is surpassing the supply. The Dry Rose Leaf Gas has been transformed into something more precious than gold.”

The worker was chattering. Bai Liu kept moving forward only to see a familiar face on the newspaper wall. This made him abruptly stop.

His eyes fell on the old and yellowed newspaper stuck to the edge of the window. This newspaper was a few years old and the headline was printed in bold black letters.

[A perfume processing and chemical factory on the outskirts of Jing City (TL: previously Mirror City) leaked gas due to improper protective measures. This resulted in injuries to 139 workers and 17 police officers who came to investigate the scene fell unconscious after sniffing the gas.]

Bai Liu’s gaze moved down. Below the headline was a large black and white photo with two faces he was familiar with. Both of them were wearing uniforms and lying on stretchers. They were unconscious and about to be carried to the ambulance. They were obviously affected by the gas leaking from the perfume factory.

Liu Jiayi also recognized one of them. Her eyes widened slightly and she went to the wall. She stood on tiptoe and looked at the policeman lying unconscious on the stretcher due to the explosion. Then she opened the system panel.

[System notification: Does player Liu Jiayi want to use 600 points to open the mute space of the small TV? Everything you and any players within one meter say will be muted. It won’t be broadcasted to the audience watching your small TV.]

[System notification: The transaction is completed. You can now speak freely!]

Liu Jiayi finished her actions and turned to look at Bai Liu. Then she nervously asked, “Isn’t this… Officer Lu Yizhan?”

Bai Liu agreed in a lukewarm manner. “The other one is called Su Yang.”

He looked at the date in the newspaper. It was the date after they entered this game.

Now the connection between the Rose Factory game and reality was very obvious. It was a game instance that didn’t have time to be logged into reality. The way it was logged in was this explosion.

This mission officially began more than ten years after the explosion, which was now.

The huge leak that triggered this game being logged into reality i.e. the huge leak that made the Dry Rose Leaf Gas popular all over the world, happened the day after Bai Liu entered the game.

A game usually took a day which meant…

Bai Liu looked at the specific time of the explosion. It was around 4.15 a.m. which was basically the time when Bai Liu had just entered the game. There was no more than 10 minutes of error.

This meant that it didn’t matter if it was Tang Erda or Bai Liu who passed the game. The moment they went out, what they would see was Lu Yizhan or Su Yang being affected by the explosion and dying after being contaminated by the Dry Rose Leaf Gas.

Even if the item reward they got for clearing the game might be able to save a contaminated person, the leak that caused the large-scale contamination had already happened.

Meanwhile, the reward given for clearing the game i.e. the item to save the contaminated people was limited. It was just like the blood ganoderma lucidum given after clearing the last game. It was just enough to save six children.

According to the arrangement of the person behind the scenes, the game Rose Factory would definitely be refreshed after it was cleared and it would be difficult for them to find it again, preventing them from getting the items.

Not surprisingly, even if they got the item to save the contaminated people, it might just be enough to save the 1,000 people already contaminated.

If the big explosion spread, the item to save people was likely to be insufficient.

According to Bai Liu’s understanding of Lu Yizhan and Su Yang, both of them were typical public officials and had very righteous personalities. They would never use the item to save themselves as long as the ordinary people hadn’t been fully saved.

This should be the situation that the person who arranged everything behind the scenes wanted to see. He wanted to watch with a smile—Bai Liu and Tang Erda fighting in front of the hospital beds of their most important friends while only being able to watch them wither and do nothing. They might even fight with each other or sacrifice the lives of innocent people to save their friends’ lives, becoming the villain that their friends despised.

Such a wonderful arrangement unfolded before he knew it.

Bai Liu remembered what he heard before entering the game. Su Yang was going to investigate the perfume factory the next day.

So many things happened tonight and Lu Yizhan was a fool. In order to prove that the Dry Rose Leaf Gas had nothing to do with Bai Liu and to understand what happened to Bai Liu, Lu Yizhan would definitely take the initiative to investigate the matter along with the third team. This perfectly formed the chessboard that the person behind the scenes wanted to see.

The chips were placed on the scale of reality and the players were in the game ring. The onlookers were hiding in the abyss and the bottom of the sea, watching the play that they had made.

The show was about to begin—Bai Liu seemed to hear someone whispering happily and frantically in his ear.