Translator: AnubisTL
"Mission 1 completed by Li Shiji."
These words appeared on the Iris Chips of every train crew member exploring the abandoned factory.
This announcement greatly boosted the confidence of Old Pig and the others, who had been somewhat nervous.
They had been worried, considering there were thirty-six missions in total. But Li Shiji had already completed the first mission shortly after entering the abandoned factory, lightening the previously tense atmosphere.
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
"Biaozi... Biaozi..."
The abandoned factory was vast, and everyone had scattered to explore. Biaozi descended to the basement level, carefully examining the area. This floor was filled with large storage tanks that had long been abandoned. Dust and spiderwebs had clumped together, hanging like sticky curtains from the tank edges.
Biaozi nervously muttered to himself, trying to calm his nerves. He scanned every corner intently, not just searching for the mission objective but also trying to memorize every detail he saw, leaving no clue overlooked.
Just then—
A shrill telephone ring suddenly shattered the silence of the floor.
"Ding-ling-ling."
Biaozi instantly spun around, clutching his gun tightly. He saw an old-fashioned rotary phone mounted on the wall, its bell clanging incessantly.
"What era is this? Still seeing these old rotary phones. Is Mechanical Civilization so nostalgic?"
He took a deep breath and glanced at the pale yellow question mark beside the rotary phone.
He stepped forward and picked up the receiver.
"Hello? Could you ask Old Zhang if he's arrived yet? We've already..."
The line was filled with static.
He could only make out the first half of the sentence; the rest was completely lost in sharp static noise.
"Old Zhang?"
After the other party hung up, Biaozi scanned the surroundings anxiously. He didn't even know what this mission was about. Was he supposed to find Old Zhang? Surely there couldn't be any living humans left in this Mechanical Factory.
The next moment—
A message flashed across the Iris Chips of all train crew members who had entered the abandoned factory:
Biaozi has triggered a mission: Find Old Zhang. Provide any relevant clues immediately.
Soon after, several more lines of text appeared on Biaozi's Iris Chip:
The Captain of 3rd Guard Team said he saw Old Zhang's business card on the desk in the security room at the factory entrance. Old Zhang is listed as a mechanical repair specialist and was likely called in to fix the massive gear assembly in the central control room. I've already contacted the nearest person to go to the security room and retrieve the card information.
Please wait.
"Found it. Old Zhang's business card has his contact information: xxx-3148. Nothing else."
"The first three digits are smudged with coffee. We can't make them out yet. Wait... Old Pig has entered the central control room. There's another of Old Zhang's business cards there. The first three digits are 652."
"Thanks!"
Biaozi took a deep breath to steady himself before picking up the phone again and dialing the number. No one answered. After 45 seconds, the call automatically disconnected.
But—
The pale yellow question mark on the wall had now transformed into a green exclamation mark.
Clearly, the mission objective was to find Old Zhang's phone number and call it.
Second Mission: Biaozi Complete.
"Awesome!"
Biaozi pumped his fist in the air, exhilarated. He felt like he'd found his footing, his confidence growing, especially with President Ai's support. They were becoming a cohesive unit, sharing clues and information.
Abandoned factory, central control room
The central control room was enclosed on three sides by glass. Inside, a single control console sat elevated above a vast underground space filled with massive, stationary gear assemblies.
"There's nothing here but this vending machine."
Old Pig glanced at the vending machine in the central control room, his voice urgent. "President Ai, ask if anyone has any coins."
The vending machine's casing was adorned with pale yellow question marks.
First Squad Members have been instructed to retrace their steps to retrieve the coin from the employee dormitory table and have been provided with the fastest route.
Xiao Ai's message flashed across Old Pig's vision.
Each train crew member exploring the area wore a Mechanical Eye on their chest, back, and both sides of their waist. Every image captured by these devices was instantly uploaded to Xiao Ai's database, allowing for immediate analysis of any clues encountered.
About five minutes later, hurried footsteps echoed from outside the central control room. Wildcat burst through the door, panting and holding a coin aloft. "Trainmaster Zhu, here!"
Old Pig rushed forward to take the coin and approached the vending machine. He examined it—a coin marked "100." He selected an item priced exactly 100 and inserted the coin.
Clang.
The sound of a coin hitting metal echoed within the vending machine. A line of text slowly appeared on the screen, and the machine spat out the coin.
Insufficient change. Unable to make change.
Please insert a coin worth 5 points.
Almost simultaneously, a message flashed across the Iris Chips of all train crew members exploring the area:
Required: One coin worth 5 points. Everyone, pay attention to clues.
"Let's check elsewhere first! Move!"
Old Pig didn't linger. He strode out of the central control room with Wildcat and they split up again. He had already searched this area and found no coins worth 5 points. The coin must be hidden somewhere else. Staying here any longer was pointless. They could return later to search once they found it.
"Zhang Damei, the family photo on the floor beneath your left foot has a lot of holes in it, like someone stabbed it with a screwdriver. It's likely a clue. Pick it up and check the back for any information."
"Let me see... [They all deserve to die, betraying me like that]."
"Pocket it."
"Try to explore every area thoroughly. I'm using your visual data to create a 3D model of the factory, but some parts don't match up. This factory has secret rooms, and more than one."
"Biaozi, the combination lock embedded in the wall in front of you likely doesn't belong to a safe. According to the data, there should be a twenty-square-meter secret room behind that wall. Since this is the factory director's Office, it's highly probable this was a secret love nest. Try entering the factory director's and his mistress's birthdays."
"Zhang Damei, the woman in that family photo might be the factory owner's mistress. See if you can find her birthday."
"I found it!"
Li Shiji stood in the archive room, rapidly flipping through the paper files in his hands. "The man in the family photo is Old Zhang, an outsourced maintenance worker. The woman is his wife, not a formal employee."
"Old Zhang always brings his wife with him when he comes for repairs."
"Her birthday is April 27, 7229."
"I'll try it."
Standing in the factory director's Office, Biaozi looked at the combination lock embedded in the wall. He attempted to enter the numbers. The safe, originally concealed by a painting and partially blocked by a bookshelf, would have remained hidden if he hadn't searched carefully.
Beside the safe, a pale yellow question mark was printed on the wall.
72290427
After Biaozi entered and confirmed the password, the indicator light on the safe turned green. The wall panel containing the safe then began to recede inward, revealing a hidden, private space.
"There really is a secret room."
Biaozi quickly surveyed the room. The pale yellow question mark on the wall had also turned green.
Sixth Mission: Biaozi completed.
The secret room contained only a massive bed, a washroom, and a huge floor-to-ceiling window. The glass appeared somewhat dim, like one-way glass.
You could only see out from inside.
From outside, you couldn't see in.
He walked to the window. From this angle, he had a perfect view of the massive gear assembly at the heart of the abandoned factory. Two bloody handprints stained the glass, and dried blood covered the floor.
Following the trail of blood, he turned to the wardrobe.
He opened the wardrobe.
All the clothes were piled in a corner, and at the bottom lay a tightly clutched photograph.
It was a surreptitiously taken photo, slightly blurred, captured through the crack in the wardrobe door. In the photo, a slender woman was leaning against the glass, while an extremely obese man stood behind her.
In the corner, he found a 5-point coin.
"President Ai, contact Old Pig. I've found the coin."
"And I have a new lead."
Biaozi's voice was urgent with excitement. "It's obvious that before this factory was completely abandoned, the perverted factory director would deliberately damage the 'Giant Gear Assembly' and call Old Zhang to repair it. Then, he'd bring Old Zhang's wife into a secret room, forcing her to watch her husband struggling to fix the gears below."
"Old Zhang eventually discovered this, and he snapped, stabbing the factory director to death on the spot!"
"But—"
"When this photo was taken, Old Zhang must have been down below, working on the Giant Gear Assembly. Otherwise, the factory director wouldn't have bothered bringing the woman here in the first place. And the woman's face wouldn't have shown that strange mix of guilt and uncontrollable emotion."
"In other words, Old Zhang had planned the murder. He positioned himself below the gears to create an alibi, while someone else hid here in advance to carry out the killing."
"And he even took a photo as evidence. This person must have had some kind of emotional connection to either the factory director or his wife. Otherwise, they wouldn't be clutching the photo so tightly—it's an unconscious reaction born of intense emotion. My guess is it was most likely the factory director's original wife!"
You've deduced this perfectly.
President Ai's praise appeared on Biaozi's Iris Chip.
Next.
Xiao Ai had just relayed this information to everyone.
"Everyone, keep an eye out for any traces of the factory director's wife. This could be a new mission or a crucial clue."
"And Old Pig, your 5-coin reward has been found. The optimal route has been planned for you. Please proceed to the factory director's office immediately."
"Heh," Biaozi muttered, glancing at the countdown. They had five and a half hours left, and they had already completed six missions. Finishing thirty more in that time seemed more than manageable.
He lit a cigarette in excitement and sprawled on the floor, peering under the bed.
He was feeling incredibly satisfied.
More satisfied than when he had cleared the Extreme Difficulty "Resident Evil" for the first time!
He had never imagined he could make a living with his mind. Even as a pure martial artist, he was already so strong. If he just applied a little intelligence, he couldn't even imagine how powerful he'd become. He wondered if God had been too partial to him, showering him with so many advantages during his creation. It was almost embarrassing.
Meanwhile, in the abandoned factory's archive room, Li Shiji was rapidly flipping through all the paper files. Though there were no missions here, it might hold many clues.
The factory director was having an affair with the wife of an outsourced maintenance worker.
He then had a secret room specially designed so he could watch her cheat on her husband. TL: NTR final boss.
Could this possibly be true love?
Absolutely not.
Pure perversion.
Otherwise why would he use his mistress's birthdate as the combination lock password?
There must be something strange going on here!
Meanwhile, inside the Stellaris's locomotive cabin, Chen Mang's face was flushed as he emitted strange sounds.
"Mmm! Mmm!!! Mmm-hmmm!!!"
"Mmm-hmmm!!!"
The first wave of zombies had been completely wiped out. He hadn't used any firepower accessories, relying solely on the vehicle blades. They were currently in a brief rest period. In a minute, the second wave of Tier 2 zombies would arrive!
Xiao Ai, standing in the locomotive cabin, glanced at Chen Mang and met his gaze. The words "Suspicious" and "Confused" appeared on his cheeks. He couldn't understand why the train conductor was making such strange noises.
He looked around.
Ji Chuchu wasn't here. Xiao Fang was standing obediently nearby. What was wrong with the train conductor? Was he just pleasuring himself?
After waiting a moment and seeing that the train conductor didn't say anything further, Xiao Ai returned his full attention to the abandoned factory. It was the more critical task at the moment, demanding greater computing power and focus!
"Cough, cough, cough!!!"
The train conductor's violent coughing echoed again.
"Train Conductor, why don't you go to the medical bay?"
"Damn it!"
Chen Mang's expression darkened with anger. He turned and strode to the floor-to-ceiling window in the locomotive cabin, slamming his palm against the glass and roaring, "These damn mosquitoes! Damn them! Damn them all!!"
"Why are there always mosquitoes in this place!"
"Damn it!"
Xiao Ai, bewildered, walked to Chen Mang's side and instinctively looked at the spot on the glass where the train conductor had slapped. He gazed outside, where a pile of zombie corpses had accumulated. Amidst the scattered flesh and gore, one relatively intact zombie stood out starkly.
The other zombies were naked, their bodies covered in shredded flesh. Only this one wore a uniform that appeared to be a maintenance worker's.
Realizing this, Xiao Ai immediately contacted Wildcat, who was closest to the factory.
"Wildcat, return to the train immediately! There's a zombie corpse outside that could be Old Zhang, the maintenance worker!"
"Hoo..."
Chen Mang's brow slowly relaxed. He walked back to the control console with a weary sigh, his eyes glazed over as he slumped into his chair and lit a cigarette. He looked utterly exhausted.
This feeling of having something to say but being unable to speak, like having to hold in a fart, was excruciating.
He dared not offer too obvious a hint, fearing he'd be accused of cheating and fail the mission.
This level specifically excluded the train conductor from participating. It tested the overall strength of the train's crew, excluding the conductor. But... such a crucial piece of information—how could they possibly clear the level if they missed it?
So...
He had no choice but to use this indirect method to remind Xiao Ai.
Fortunately, he managed to get the message across in the end. Otherwise, he'd have torn apart by the Train Auxiliary AI when he got out. Damn, it had nearly driven him crazy!
"Found it!"
Li Shiji, kneeling on the floor of the archive room, was surrounded by a mountain of hastily flipped-through, wildly disorganized files. Finally, he spotted a notice in one of them:
"Wang Ziru marries the factory director's daughter and inherits the old factory director's position, becoming the new factory director."
"His former girlfriend left the factory heartbroken."
"The truth has come out," Li Shiji murmured, his lips slightly pale. "The factory director and the repairman's wife were genuinely in love at first. But for the sake of his future, the factory director abandoned his girlfriend and married the Old factory director's daughter, living off her family's wealth."
"Yet he still loved the woman he'd abandoned, using her birthday as the password to his secret love nest."
"I don't know how much time passed."
"It wasn't until Old Zhang, the repairman, came to the factory to inspect equipment that the factory director realized the woman he'd once abandoned was now the repairman's wife. Their first meeting rekindled their old flame, and their affair began."
"The plotline is smooth," Li Shiji mused. "But where can we use these clues?"
Meanwhile—
In a hidden corner, a Tier 17 Mechanical Train stood in the plaza, its roof covered in tens of thousands of glass pods filled with various mechanical organs.
A bald man sat grimly in the locomotive cabin, staring up at the ceiling.
His deductions were correct.
The glass pods above were indeed a Link-Link puzzle, but they required Tier 20 attack strength to eliminate. By now, the man's train had completely exhausted its resources. He had no iron ore or copper ore left, and he had already cleared nearly seventy thousand glass pods.
Yet the glass pods continued to replenish themselves endlessly, as if from an inexhaustible source.
"At most, a hundred thousand," the man muttered. A hundred thousand was a round number. If this fortuitous encounter map wasn't entirely rigged, there should be a hundred thousand medical pods. But the problem was that his train now had absolutely no resources left.
His train's resource reserves had once been considered substantial, but here they were utterly inadequate.
The other nineteen trains were all holographic projections, completely fake.
"I wonder if the other trains have cleared this stage yet," the man mused, glancing across the chasm with a flicker of resentment in his eyes. He had correctly deduced the solution, but he was now stuck due to a lack of resources. This was supposed to be a puzzle map, not a resource-gated challenge. He felt like he was facing the final, most difficult math problem on the college entrance exam: he knew the answer, but his pen had run out of ink.
The feeling was more nauseating than eating cockroaches alive.
It would have been better not to know the answer at all, allowing him to accept his fate with peace of mind.
But he refused to give up.
He jumped off the locomotive cabin and began searching the plaza for clues. The fortuitous encounter map couldn't possibly demand such high resource requirements from the train. There might be a large copper ore deposit nearby, but he'd have to find it himself.
...
"Up, up... down, down..."
A Tier 17 flesh train was parked inside a cage whose walls were embedded with hundreds of thousands of human faces. Two massive tentacles extending from the flesh train were rapidly scanning each face.
"Nine ups, three downs."
"And the number 1892 is carved into the ground, meaning the correct sound frequency should be 11352 Hertz."
The little boy sitting in the locomotive cabin chuckled.
"Not too difficult. This is actually kind of relaxing."
He felt certain he was the fastest, without a doubt. It seemed he'd have no trouble advancing to the third stage. The only question was whether he'd finish first or second.
Only the top five could advance to the third stage.
The next moment—
"Beep beep beep"
A piercing alarm blared from his flesh train. All the faces embedded in the wall closed their eyes, and the wall slowly opened to reveal a Train Tunnel.
The train entered the tunnel and continued forward. When it emerged, it found itself in an abandoned factory.
A holographic screen materialized before them.
"Congratulations, Pioneer. Making it this far already proves your strength."
"But—"
"The train is a collective. If only the train conductor is putting in effort, this train won't have much potential. Talent reserves in the apocalypse are counterintuitive, yet absolutely necessary."
"What comes next will be quite entertaining."
"You..."
"..."
"In this stage, the train conductor must remain on the train and is prohibited from entering the factory."
"The first zombie horde will arrive in fifteen minutes."
As the young boy stared at the light screen before him, the smile on his face gradually froze, his gaze fixed on the small text:
"The train conductor must remain on the train and is prohibited from entering the factory."
He glanced at his train crew: 0. He was the only one on the entire train. Where would the flesh train find residents?
After a long moment, he croaked out in a hoarse voice, "Hey, I'm the flesh train. If you won't let me off, how am I supposed to clear this stage? Didn't you make any adjustments for the flesh train?"
"Hey, hey, can you hear me? I said I'm the flesh train. There are no residents on this train at all! Didn't you consider the flesh train when designing this fortuitous encounter map?"
"Is the flesh train an illegitimate child?"
He didn't know who he was talking to.
He didn't know if anyone could even hear him.
But...
He still wanted to struggle as much as possible. After all, he had cleared the first two stages so quickly and flawlessly. He couldn't just be stuck here like this, could he?
He repeated his pleas countless times, begged repeatedly, and waited for fifteen minutes.
No response came.
But what did arrive was the first wave of the zombie horde.
"I'm talking to you, damn it!!!"
Ignoring the approaching zombie horde, the young man shouted in a mixture of excitement and rage, "If you won't let me off the train, how am I supposed to complete this stage, huh? Tell me!"
"Didn't that damn Princess Tuotuo consider the flesh train when she designed this fortuitous encounter map?"
"Isn't the flesh train a living being?"
"The Train Class Change system never said the flesh train isn't a living being. Why do we flesh trains always suffer such unfair treatment, even though we're still trains?"
"And that damn Neon City Encounter Map! Why can't corpse meat be exchanged for stellar coupons? Where am I supposed to mine iron ore?"
"If you're so biased against flesh trains, why don't you just delete them altogether?!"
Still, no one responded.
Cold silence is always the most hurtful.
Even if the screen had just cursed at him, he would have felt better.
Each punch he threw landed on cotton, that soft, powerless sensation pushing him to the brink of collapse. He couldn't take it anymore. Ignoring everything, he jumped off the train and forced his way into the Mechanical Factory.
But as his left foot crossed the threshold, a screen materialized before him.
"Because the train conductor entered the Mechanical abandoned factory in violation of the rules, the mission has automatically failed."
"A portal will open in ten seconds. It will close in one minute. Please leave immediately to avoid unforeseen accidents."
"..."
The young man stopped at the factory entrance, turned, and stared at the zombie horde that was already retreating rapidly. His eyes were filled with despair and resentment. Why?
This is discrimination!
Why discriminate against the flesh train?
If he'd known this would happen, he'd rather have failed the First Stage from the start. Now, it felt like he'd gone to the college entrance exam, aced every question, written with divine inspiration, and had all the answers in his mind.
His pen was even full of ink.
Everything was perfect.
If he handed in his paper, he'd be the top scorer, and his life would soar to new heights.
But...
Just as he was about to write his name on the exam paper, he was told that because he was dark-skinned, he couldn't write his name. Who could he even complain to?
He really wanted to cry.
He desperately wanted to cry.
"...Everything's stable," said the man sitting in the locomotive cabin of the first stage's plaza. He glanced at the nineteen motionless trains around him and sneered. "Since no one's in a hurry, let's just wait it out and see who cracks first."
Clear the stage within 48 hours.
Three or four hours had already passed.
From the start, all the trains had remained stationary, rooted to the spot. While he couldn't see the expressions on the other train conductors' faces, he knew what they were all thinking: they were waiting for someone brave enough to fly across the chasm and scout the situation.
He certainly wasn't going to be the fool who volunteered.
There was no need to rush. They could just wait it out.
Only the top five finishers would advance to the Third Stage. Since everyone was here, what was the hurry? They could drag this out as long as they needed to!
...
Abandoned factory,
"One hour left," Chen Mang murmured, glancing at the control panel in the Stellaris's locomotive cabin. Five hours had passed since the mission began. A new wave of zombies had already arrived, and all 41 Viper Drone Fighters were circling in the air, unleashing a relentless barrage of fire on the 1,000 Tier 16 zombies.
The zombies now appearing were all Tier 16.
The train could hold out for at most another hour—that was the absolute limit. After that, it would be nearly impossible to maintain their defenses; they were running desperately low on ammunition.
He turned his gaze to the screen, watching Old Pig and the others exploring the area.
For this mission, he had to remain in the locomotive cabin. The objective was simply "The train conductor must remain on the train." It didn't explicitly state whether he could give orders, but he didn't want to risk interfering. Biaozi and the others were performing admirably, and didn't need his guidance.
From start to finish, he only spoke once—to remind Xiao Ai to take the zombie corpse. Otherwise, he hadn't uttered a word.
And now—
Three missions remained.
One hour for three missions seemed ample. After all, they had completed six missions in just half an hour at the start, a lightning-fast start that felt like a perfect hand in a card game.
However...
The reality was that they had been stuck on these three missions for two hours already. An hour had passed with no progress. They hadn't found any clues for one mission, and hadn't even located the remaining two.
Yes, they hadn't even found where the missions were hidden.
The entire Mechanical abandoned factory had been searched top to bottom. They had even checked the secret rooms marked on Xiao Ai's Three-Dimensional map, but still couldn't find the remaining two missions.
"Hang in there," he muttered.
At this moment, Chen Mang could only silently cheer them on. He had already envisioned both the celebration scene and the scene of comforting everyone after failure. Which one would come to pass, he didn't know. He could only say he would do his best.
He had no clue where the last two missions were hidden.
He turned his head to look out the train window, refocusing his attention on the approaching enemies. The monster levels were gradually increasing, making it impossible to rely on the train's autopilot. He needed to manually control it with precision. The rest was up to Biaozi and the others. Whether a miracle would occur was now entirely up to fate.
It was time to offer incense to the heavens.
Inside the abandoned Mechanical Factory, Old Pig and Biaozi met in the central zone. They exchanged grim glances at the massive gear sets before them and shook their heads in unison. They still had three missions left.
They had no leads whatsoever for one of the missions.
That mission involved the massive gear sets in the factory's center. A faint yellow question mark was imprinted on the steel surface of one of the gear sets.
What the clue meant, they didn't know.
Nor did they know what they were supposed to do.
As for the remaining two missions, they were nowhere to be found.
"One hour left," Old Pig said hoarsely.
Biaozi rasped in a strained voice, "We're running out of time. Why don't we ask Lord Mang to let all the train residents come in and search for clues? There shouldn't be any clues left to damage at this point."
The initial reluctance to let so many people enter was entirely due to the fear of them destroying clues. For example, coins—with so many people milling about, who knew where they might get kicked or stepped on?
"No," Old Pig shook his head. "Haven't you noticed that these 36 missions are interconnected? Letting the train residents in would mean we'd have to re-brief them on the plot. Such a large crowd swarming through the factory would inevitably trample some clues."
"Let's keep searching. We only have three missions left. There must be clues we haven't found yet."
Just then—
A message appeared on the Iris Chips of all the train crew members present:
Li Shiji has found a notice issued by the factory director in the archives. The notice seeks his missing password-protected diary. This is the most recent notice, meaning it was likely posted just before the factory's destruction. Everyone, focus on searching for clues related to the diary.
"A diary?"
Biaozi paused, then turned his head to the massive gear assembly beside him, his voice rising in pitch: "Right! Didn't they say the factory director often deliberately sabotaged the giant gear assembly? If it's damaged too badly, the factory shuts down, causing huge losses."
"If the damage is minor, the factory has its own maintenance crew. They wouldn't need to call Old Zhang."
"So there must be a method to damage the giant gear assembly just right. And that method is likely written in the factory director's diary."
"If we find the diary, we'll complete this mission!"
The two men exchanged glances, seeing the excitement and renewed hope in each other's eyes. They immediately strode out of the core zone together.
"Do you think he'd really write something like that in a diary? Does anyone actually write their true feelings in a diary?" Old Pig asked anxiously.
"Isn't that the password notebook? It's locked."
"Who could have stolen it?!"
"It must have been Old Zhang."
"We already searched Old Zhang's body. We didn't find any diary."
"He must have passed the diary on to someone else. For example, if he wanted to recruit the factory director's wife, he'd need evidence to convince her her husband was really cheating. The diary is the most likely piece of evidence, since the factory director recorded his dirty deeds in it. So it's probably in her hands."
"Damn! That's so fucking logical. The logic is flawless and fits the clues perfectly. Biaozi, why did you suddenly have an epiphany?"
"It wasn't an epiphany."
"But the factory director's wife doesn't live in the employee dorms. Where could she hide the diary? She wouldn't keep it at home, would she? We can't go to her house. This whole area only has this one factory."
"It's definitely in the factory, but hidden in a secret spot, somewhere no one could find it—definitely not the factory director. Let me think... Could it be in the Processing Department?"
"The Processing Department?"
"When I met Li Shiji, he was in the archives room. I glanced through the records and noticed a piece of information stating that before becoming factory director, he was an employee in the Processing Department who had been constantly bullied. As a result, after taking office, he had consistently made things difficult for the Processing Department's veteran employees and refused to set foot in the department."
"Biaozi."
"Hmm?"
"You've really changed. I'm starting to look at you with new eyes."
"Not bad, I guess. I don't know why, but before, I wouldn't even dare voice my suspicions. Now, I feel increasingly confident and dare to speak them out loud. I used to worry about making a fool of myself."
"...'"
In the Processing Department of the Mechanical abandoned factory, a factory shed was piled high with automated assembly line machine tools. Most of the people were gathered here, turning the place upside down.
This area had already been searched many times.
But after a thorough, carpet-like search, they finally found a diary with a combination lock hidden inside one of the machine tools.
A pale yellow question mark was marked on the cover.
"We found it!"
Biaozi took a deep breath. "But it's clear we can't open this diary directly. We need a password. Do any of you have any leads?"
"Try 72290427," Li Shiji suggested.
"That's Xiao San's birthday. It's already been used to crack the combination lock on the secret room. It's impossible the diary uses the same password," Biaozi said, hesitantly entering the code. As expected, the system displayed "Incorrect Password" and indicated that they had four more attempts.
"Only four tries left," he said, pausing before continuing. "First, Old Zhang must have stolen this diary. After reading it, he gave it to the factory director's wife."
"And this diary shows no signs of forced entry!"
"That means..."
"The password must be something Old Zhang could have guessed!"
"If we review Old Zhang's background, I think we can start there."
He glanced at the countdown timer. Only 50 minutes remained. The sound of artillery fire outside the factory and the groans of zombies made him slightly anxious. "Time is running out. We only have 50 minutes left."
"Once we crack this diary's password, we'll have only one mission left!"
"A password Old Zhang could have guessed..."
The Third Squad Captain repeated the phrase softly before speaking. "Could it be the factory director's birthday or something like that?"
"I think it might be the day the factory director takes over," Old Pig whispered. "Before he climbed to power by living off his wife, he was just a low-level employee here. So I think this day of sudden elevation would be even more memorable for him!"
"Maybe. Let's try it."
After entering both password combinations, the diary notebook flashed red twice in a row, indicating both were incorrect.
"We only have two more chances left," Biaozi said, shaking his head grimly. "If we fail this mission, we won't have the 'face' to face Lord Mang. We just finished a banquet in Neon City the day before yesterday, and now we're failing the mission today. It'll be a huge embarrassment for everyone."
"It couldn't be..."
Zhang Yi, standing in the corner, hesitated, but seeing everyone's eyes on him, he ducked his head and retreated, whispering, "I was just throwing out an idea. Keep thinking. It definitely isn't the password I'm thinking of."
Zhang Yi and Zhang Er weren't originally assigned to the exploration team.
But a few hours earlier, the factory had needed heavy objects moved, so they were sent in.
"Finish what you were saying," Old Pig said, looking at Zhang Yi seriously. "This is a crucial moment. Any idea, whether right or wrong, could give us a breakthrough."
"Well..."
After a moment's hesitation, Zhang Yi continued, "Um, I noticed the Wi-Fi password written on the factory wall is eight eights. Do you think that might be the password for this diary?"
"Besides, the factory director didn't rise to the top through his own merit. He's a kept man. People who get rich through luck often believe in luck even more. The number eight is considered auspicious, and his office is filled with lucky cats and money trees. I think the diary's password might really be eight eights."
"Of course, it's a long shot. I know it's unlikely. I'm just spitballing."
"Don't take me too seriously."
...
Biaozi remained silent, his head tilted toward the faded notice on the wall.
"Wi-Fi Password: 88888888"
It wasn't very conspicuous.
But...
Would the factory director really make his diary's password so blatantly public?
They had two more chances. If they failed this time, they'd only have one last shot—a chance that would determine their fate.
He couldn't make up his mind.
"Let's try it," Old Pig said softly. "I think Zhang Yi's idea has a good chance of working."
"Alright."
Since everyone agreed, Biaozi didn't argue further. He nervously clutched the diary to his chest and carefully entered the eight-eight password.
The next moment—
Clang.
With a crisp sound, the diary opened.
(End of the Chapter)
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