Chapter 125

【Tang Tian is a seasoned corporate worker. I was originally worried along with Fairy Shi Jian that she might run into trouble, but turns out she’s totally in her element.】

Snacks and drinks, she’s got everything—and it’s only been how long since they entered the instance?

Most importantly, she even collected the company’s policies.

【Master of information gathering, forever the GOAT!】

【Isn’t this streamer being a bit disrespectful? This is a horror instance, super tense stuff, and the others are all trembling with fear—meanwhile this team’s about to start a tea party.

P.S. I hope the disrespect continues. I love it. Thanks.】

...

Once Shi Jian confirmed that Tang Tian was completely unharmed, she decisively joined in.

At the reminder, Shi Jian held up her juice. “One bottle per person.”

She had juice, too.

Tang Tian happily accepted it. “This juice looks tasty. I’ve got sunflower seeds over here…”

A real tea party.

Xu An thanked them and opened his juice to drink.

A tea party needs conversation. After Tang Tian had rested a bit, Shi Jian curiously asked her:

“You weren’t sent to the pantry to fetch water? You didn’t meet the long-tongued woman?”

Tang Tian was surprised. “Wait, was that part of the standard process? I did meet her!”

As for why Tang Tian was standing there totally fine—it wasn’t because she used some invisibility skill, as Shi Jian had guessed.

Thinking back on the scene, Tang Tian still felt a little shaken. “She shut the door on me—I couldn’t get out. And my skill has a time limit, so waiting it out wasn’t an option…”

And yet, Tang Tian remained unscathed. She scratched her head. “I just didn’t fight her. We ended up chatting for quite a while about gossip.”

“She’s really talkative. Total chatterbox. Some of the info in the handbook actually came from her.”

Shi Jian: ??? Unexpected, but also somehow totally expected.

Tang Tian lives for gossip—she became a streamer just to gossip herself to death. The long-tongued woman loved chatting, too. One human, one ghost, somehow they got along just fine.

“I don’t have any offensive skills either.”

While Shi Jian and Tang Tian were deep in conversation, Xu An suddenly spoke up.

Shi Jian tilted her head toward him. “Hmm?”

She already knew he’d encountered the long-tongued woman too. Since he brought it up, she went ahead and asked the new teammate, “Then how did you get away from her?”

Xu An replied, “I hypnotized her.”

Shi Jian nodded. That made sense. Seemed like hypnosis was pretty effective. Then she immediately cued the next step. “Should we start compiling our intel?”

Xu An, who thought he was going to tell a whole story: …That’s it?Tang Tian and Xu An were both employees of Gongfu Company, just like Shi Jian—they were clerical workers too. What they encountered after joining the company overlapped somewhat with Shi Jian’s experiences, but not as extensively.

Tang Tian sneered and complained, “This company is a collection of all the worst aspects of workplace culture—so-called ‘voluntary overtime’? Who the hell would voluntarily do that? They’re clearly using our jobs to threaten us!”

If it weren’t for the fear of being fired or targeted, wouldn’t it be better to just lie at home and play on your phone?

“Voluntary” overtime, brainwashing, false promises, gaslighting… they had it all.

Xu An said thoughtfully, “This company seriously exploits its employees.”

“It’s not just serious—it’s toxic.” Shi Jian was ready to shout good heavens.

She gathered them together, holding up the handbook Tang Tian had brought. “Look at this.”

What Sun Rouyuan said earlier about paying to work was no exaggeration.

Things like getting your pay docked for being late were already trivial—but what Tang Tian had discovered was—

Gongfu Company’s time clock was rigged. It was set 15 minutes earlier than the actual time.

So even if you showed up on time according to the company’s stated schedule, it didn’t count. You had to arrive 15 minutes early.

Logic didn’t matter. They were outright scamming people.

And that wasn’t all.

Shi Jian quietly read aloud, “One day of leave results in a deduction of two days’ wages; employees must maintain cleanliness, so trash bins in the office are not to be used for actual trash…”

Shi Jian’s small head was filled with big question marks. Take a day off and you get docked double pay? A bonus unpaid workday? And garbage cans that aren’t for garbage?

What are they supposed to hold—management’s bizarre ideas?

But it got even weirder. “Employees may not stay in the restroom for more than ten minutes.”

Tang Tian had something to say about that. “Isn’t that completely outrageous?!”

She had really wanted to vent to Shi Jian about it at the time.

Tang Tian felt lucky. “At least I can gather intel elsewhere—this place definitely isn’t short on people.”

Shi Jian agreed—ridiculous.

So many of these rules were worthy of complaints to the labor bureau.

Shi Jian said, “There probably isn’t a labor bureau here, but…”

She changed the subject mid-sentence and said nearly in unison with Tang Tian, “We can file a complaint in the Judgment Room.”

Excitement appeared on both women’s faces. Shi Jian even offered the opportunity to Tang Tian, “You go this time.”

In the past, there was Kong Rong offering the pear. Now, there was Shi Jian offering the complaint slot.

Shi Jian was a frequent visitor of the Judgment Room. Ever since learning that just opening her mouth could earn her 100,000 points, Tang Tian had grown very eager to go too.

Now that the opportunity was right in front of them, Shi Jian was generous with her best friend as always.

Xu An politely reminded the two of them:

“These rules might be a feature of the instance…”There is a very high probability the complaint will fail.

Shi Jian and Tang Tian quickly calmed down after the reminder.

Tang Tian still felt a bit regretful. “Seems like that’s true—at Qingshan No.1 High School, the teachers don’t really act like teachers.” The head of teaching even said some didn’t have teaching certificates.

So for now, they gave up on complaints. Random complaints would cost them points.

But Shi Jian quickly comforted Tang Tian, “It’s okay, there will be more chances later. I’ll keep digging for loopholes.”

Tang Tian: Already looking forward to it!

Now it was Xu An’s turn to cue the process. He said, “We need to hurry. There aren’t many people here yet, but we can’t guarantee we won’t get caught.”

Shi Jian and Tang Tian set aside the Judgment Room matters for now.

Based on previous instance experience, they needed to carefully note down these rules to avoid pitfalls.

But there was still a very important question.

Shi Jian frowned. “What’s the clearance condition for this instance? It seems we haven’t been assigned any tasks yet.”

“Did you receive any?”

Before, they would almost always get relevant tasks right after entering the instance, either via their phones or directly from NPCs.

But this time, there had been no sign.

Then they got negative answers.

Tang Tian: “Nope.”

Xu An: “No.”

Xu An continued, “Or maybe we can speculate—given the context, what kind of tasks would the instance generally assign us?”

“Promotion and raise.”

Three different voices spoke simultaneously.

Shi Jian still remembered how the team leader mentioned promotion and raise, and the colleagues had cheered like crazy. There was a high chance they would also join the promotion and raise army.

And Shi Jian also remembered that Manager Dou was no longer in his position.

...

When Shi Jian said, “I have an idea,” the audience had already started imagining.

Shi Jian suggested that if the clearance task really was promotion and raise, then if she became the boss, she could naturally promote Tang Tian and Xu An. The audience felt this simple and straightforward idea was indeed worthy of the superstar Shi Jian.

[Waiting for Director Shi Jian to become President Shi Jian.]

[Isn’t there supposed to be another round of Real Estate Tycoon 2.0 before that?]

Tang Tian was ready, “Let me find out if there are any buildings nearby about to be demolished?”

But longtime viewers who thought they already knew Shi Jian didn’t expect her to show a mischievous smile and say:

“The company boss must be weird too. Why don’t we just tie him up directly?”Eager to try.

She wasn’t joking; she really had this idea.

Audience: Now that Shi Jian’s power is rising, her methods are getting wilder. She doesn’t even plan to spend money anymore!

She wants to just tie someone up.

Tang Tian also brainstormed, “What if he’s a monster? Could he be a plant-type?”

“Then there’s even less to fear—he’s just food…”

Shi Jian was crunching sunflower seeds loudly, and in a nostalgic tone said, “Actually, the plants in the Misty Forest are pretty tasty.”

!!!

The team leader around the corridor corner never expected to overhear such a horrifying comment.

He had been repeatedly blocked by Shi Jian—she refused overtime, got a bunch of employees to sneak away with her, making him lose face. Later he managed to control some employees to keep working overtime.

When he learned Shi Jian hadn’t left the company immediately, the team leader decisively came to cause trouble.

He deliberately softened his footsteps, planning to scare Shi Jian, then make her run an errand to get his dry-cleaned clothes.

But before he could suddenly jump out and scare her, he was the one scared by Shi Jian.

Pervert!

The trembling team leader quietly left without a sound.

He walked away quickly until some employees respectfully called to him, then he regained his composure.

The team leader strutted arrogantly and picked an unlucky employee, “You, go get my dry-cleaned clothes and bring them to my house.”

Since he happened to bump into him, it was settled.

The team leader didn’t dare give the job to Shi Jian anyway.

The employee, afraid to complain or resist, nodded obediently and mechanically accepted a job that wasn’t his, “Yes, team leader.”

At that moment, Xu An glanced up at the corridor corner.

...

The task hadn’t fully come out yet, so these predictions weren’t very useful.

After gathering and exchanging the information, Shi Jian and the others returned to the employee dorms.

The night was calm and uneventful. The next day, Shi Jian and the others deliberately arrived at the company early.

They stared at the old man swiping his card. His face was covered with age spots, his eyes deeply sunken and cloudy, but he still firmly guarded his post.

When Shi Jian and the others clocked in early, regret clearly showed on the old man’s face.

The employees who came in at the normal time swiped their cards, and the machine emitted a piercing, incessant beep—beep—beep.

The old man’s cloudy eyes seemed to activate, and he laughed loudly, shouting, “You’re late, salary deduction.”

The employee showed panic and was unwilling.“I’m not late. Look at the clock; there are still ten minutes before the clock-in time.”

But no matter how he argued, the old man turned a deaf ear.

He even sarcastically said, “Maybe your watch is broken.”

Someone nearby immediately took out a small notebook and informed the employee, “You have been officially recorded. A few more times like this, and the company will fire you...”

Shi Jian clenched the card in her hand, wanting again to thank Tang Tian for collecting information so quickly and thoroughly.

Otherwise, she would have been in the same situation.

On the second day of work, the dungeon mission finally arrived.

The CEO of Gongfu Company gathered everyone to speak passionately.

“I started from scratch myself, and I know better than anyone what everyone wants... To improve everyone’s work enthusiasm, to help everyone realize their ambitions, there is now good news to announce. No need for connections, all based on ability. You can skip levels; the manager positions await truly talented people...”

“Do you want to be a manager, or even go further?!”

A flood of voices shouted, “Yes!”

Hundreds of people’s faces again showed the hyped-up state Shi Jian saw last night.

Even the gatekeeper was on the side, raising his hand and shouting heart-wrenchingly that he wanted to be a manager.

Xu An stood next to Shi Jian. As if he saw through her thoughts, he explained, “There’s no mind control here.”

Shi Jian also felt fine, mentally normal, not caught in any madness.

However, they still had to pretend to be busy occasionally, or they would stand out from the surroundings.

Tang Tian’s phone buzzed. She glanced and said excitedly, “Mission’s here.”

Shi Jian and Xu An’s phones buzzed as well.

The dungeon mission was as they guessed: promotion and raise.

Tang Tian noticed Shi Jian falling into thought and quietly asked, “What’s wrong?”

Shi Jian sighed, “I heard that promotions also depend on evaluations from colleagues and supervisors. That might be a bit difficult for me...”

“I’ve offended a few people.”

Tang Tian quickly gathered detailed rules in a short time.

Shi Jian had offended several monsters.

Tang Tian, knowing Shi Jian well, asked, “How many did you offend?”

Shi Jian counted on her fingers, “Sister Wang, the team leader, I don’t know if the long-tongued woman counts... Oh, and most importantly, I offended the one at the top.”

Shi Jian meant the CEO of Gongfu Company, the one who first tried to drag her to social events.

Listening to Shi Jian’s brilliant record and impressive level of making enemies, Tang Tian quickly accepted it.

As expected of you, Shi Jian.

But Tang Tian noticed that the new teammate’s expression didn’t change much—she was very calm and composed.Shi Jian typed quickly on her phone. The audience saw the stunning actress searching for stores nearby that sell hemp rope.

Fate wouldn’t let her get promoted normally—kidnapping seemed more reliable.