Chapter 13: Floor Chief

Xia Mi recalled Shield’s self-introduction. She had called herself Survivor No. 008. Liao Tianhua had mentioned before that a survivor who underwent brain surgery had successfully made it through.

Doctors had removed over a thousand insect eggs from that survivor’s brain, and it was unclear if any remained uncleaned.

Could “Rong” mean a normal person who has perfectly integrated with the “Zhuo”? Someone who looks like an ordinary human on the outside but possesses the special powers of a corrupted person, all while maintaining a stable mental state.

Liao Tianhua suspected she might be a “Rong,” likely because of the game in Xia Mi’s hands that seemed to possess prophetic abilities.

Xia Mi thought to herself, “Is this my special ability? But when did I get it? Did I gain it the moment the nest opened, or did I have it before then?”

She thought of Project Queen Bee mentioned in the ending of Hani Apartments and swallowed nervously.

Xia Mi shook her head, tossing the suspicion out of her mind. She was a normal, healthy child with both parents still living.

She didn’t have the beauty of a celebrity, looking more like a girl-next-door. She didn’t have the extraordinary destiny of a protagonist in a novel, anime, or game. Her grades weren’t at the bottom of the class, nor were they at the top of the grade, and she had never experienced school bullying significant enough to change her life.

Even her height, her only standout feature, wasn’t the tallest in the school. In a region like Shandong where people were generally tall and sturdy, there were plenty of girls taller than her.

In her entire life, the only thing special was encountering this mysterious incident tonight. Before tonight, her life had been flat and unremarkable. How could she have had superpowers before this?

“Absolutely impossible!” Xia Mi thought firmly.

Even if she were a “Rong,” it must have happened tonight after the “Zhuo” opened the nest!

Xia Mi’s self-brainwashing was a success. She fully believed her own reasoning, and her lingering guilt vanished.

She asked Liao Tianhua openly and without hesitation: “Is a ‘Rong’ someone who luckily survives an encounter with the ‘Zhuo,’ overcomes the parasitic infection, and gains powers similar to the corrupted?”

Liao Tianhua: “Your deductive reasoning surprises me.”

Xia Mi: “Then you must not read many novels or play many games. This kind of setting is everywhere. Anyone could make the connection.”

Liao Tianhua: “…”

As he was thinking of how to reply, another message from Xia Mi arrived: “Is the goal of the organization behind the men in black to mass-produce ‘Rong’?”

Liao Tianhua: “They want to research a safe, stable, and repeatable process for creating ‘Rong.’ Ideally, they want to create an absolute being that can dominate all ‘Zhuo’ and ‘Rong.’ To progress with such experiments requires a massive number of people. It is a very cruel experiment. Within our borders, such experiments are strictly prohibited. But in other countries, especially those in the midst of war, it is hard to say.”

Xia Mi felt relieved when she saw “strictly prohibited within our borders.” She was a local through and through and had never even been abroad. How could she possibly be an experimental subject?

Xia Mi: “Captain Liao, don’t worry. Even if I accidentally become a ‘Rong,’ I’m still a firm believer in the revolution, born under the red flag and raised in the spring breeze¹.”

Liao Tianhua: “…”

He put down his phone and asked the team members beside him, “Does the civil service exam now include testing for the basic rhetoric used within the system?”

The team members looked at each other with blank expressions. “I don’t know. None of us got in through the exam. Captain Liao, did you take the exam?”

Liao Tianhua had been raised with special training since childhood. He hadn’t taken the exam either.

Though he didn’t quite understand her phrasing, he felt that Xia Mi was indeed a firm and persistent person.

So he praised her: “Xia Mi, even without this incident, you would have definitely passed the civil service exam with your ability and wisdom. After all, you are such an outstanding talent.”

Xia Mi read the message over and over a dozen times. Every word felt incredibly comforting. The fatigue from staying up all night was successfully soothed by the text. She was now full of energy, feeling like she could take on an entire company of corrupted people.

Liao Tianhua was truly a reassuring leader.

Xia Mi realized that she had gained the favor of her direct superior even before officially starting the job. This meant her future career path was already smooth and clear. Her fighting spirit surged.

A bright future was waiting for her. She had to successfully lead the residents of Building 6 to overthrow the oppression of the “Zhuo.” She couldn’t stop here.

Xia Mi stood up abruptly and turned toward the corrupted on the 11th floor. Seeing the person who had been sitting still for two hours suddenly move, the corrupted were startled. They tightened their grip on their newly grown corrupted parts and hugged their families tightly, their bodies trembling slightly, not daring to make a sound.

Meanwhile, Xia Mi leaned against the wall, her expression beneath the helmet twisting in agony.

Her legs were numb.

The corrupted had provided her with a small stool. It was very, very low, so sitting on it was only slightly higher than crouching.

Xia Mi had essentially been crouching for two hours before standing up suddenly. With her blood circulation restricted, it was only natural for her feet to go numb!

“Who says I’m a ‘Rong’? I’m so ordinary, my legs even go numb!” Xia Mi thought painfully while pounding her legs.

“Heh.” A pleasant laugh rang out inside her helmet.

Xia Mi wasn’t wearing headphones, and she was certain the sound didn’t come from the outside. It was a sound produced by the helmet itself.

It had to be Shield laughing at her.

A line of handwritten text appeared on the helmet: “I’ll help you.”

Then, Xia Mi felt as if a pair of hands had reached out from within the Protective Suit at her calves, massaging her numb legs to relax the muscles and stimulate blood flow.

Xia Mi muttered softly, “You can clearly speak, yet you insist on writing. Just trying to be mysterious.”

The utility of this Protective Suit far exceeded her imagination. It could write, speak, and even massage. Even if a blade suddenly popped out of the suit one day to hack a “Zhuo” to pieces, Xia Mi wouldn’t be surprised.

When Shield said “we’re even,” she was likely referring to the dialogue Xia Mi heard in the game and the intelligence regarding Project Queen Bee. The secret she had let Xia Mi in on was her own ability.

The capabilities the Protective Suit displayed were far beyond what Liao Tianhua had described. Xia Mi wondered why Shield was hiding her true strength from the Disposal Bureau.

Having leverage over each other was indeed the best way to establish trust.

The Protective Suit’s massage function was highly effective, and Xia Mi quickly recovered her strength.

The 11th floor was now under Xia Mi’s control, making it the safest place in the entire building. As long as she held this floor and waited for the results of Liao Tianhua’s investigation into the pharmaceutical factory, she would be fine.

In the meantime, she could play the game a few more times to unlock more endings and prepare for future battles.

But Xia Mi was not one to sit idly by.

To combat the process of corruption, those turning into Mosaic Monster would amplify their desires and commit acts that harmed others. When their emotions reached a peak, the “Zhuo” would devour that emotional energy, leaving them as walking corpses driven by the power of “Zhuo” itself. Once the “Zhuo” dissolved its nest, these people would simply die.

The twenty-four-hour period was the feeding time for the “Zhuo.” During this window, those undergoing corruption would be continuously consumed.

Xia Mi couldn’t just stand by and watch these people be eaten.

She decided to delay the feeding time of the “Zhuo.”

The “Zhuo” fed based on the degree of corruption. Logically, it should have started its meal on the 11th floor.

However, the thing it wanted to eat most was Xia Mi. With a massive lure like her present, everyone else was like coarse bread and bitter greens to the “Zhuo,” temporarily unpalatable.

Because of this, the people in the building had not yet been killed.

Xia Mi had a theory. She believed that if she could chop off all the corrupted parts of the residents and gather them together, using force to suppress their desires, they would no longer meet the “Zhuo’s” feeding criteria. This would prevent them from being attacked.

She sent this plan to Liao Tianhua.

Liao Tianhua replied: [Severing the corrupted parts can indeed slow down the feeding speed of the “Zhuo,” but that requires engaging them in direct combat. You are reluctant to take their lives, but they possess superhuman strength. This is dangerous.]

Xia Mi: [Is there a Third-Class Merit in it?]

Liao Tianhua: […There would have to be.]

Xia Mi: [Then it’s a deal!]

Liao Tianhua: “…”

He had a premonition that if Xia Mi actually succeeded in joining the Disposal Bureau, she would be a real handful of a teammate.

Xia Mi wasn’t acting on reckless impulse; she was doing this because she was confident.

Earlier in the game, “Xiao Mi” had taken down all the Mosaic Monster in Building 6. Xia Mi knew exactly how many monsters were in each building and which ones were particularly dangerous.

She had already used the game to map out the distribution of monsters within the building, mastering every detail. Only then did she dare to take action.

Xia Mi slammed her axe into the floor, resting her hands on the handle and leaning her chin on her hands in a cool pose. “I’m going to the 10th floor to rescue the suffering residents,” she said. “You all… want them to be saved just like you were, right?”

The eyes of the corrupted residents on the 11th floor lit up.

Driven by the mindset of “I shouldn’t have to suffer alone, and if I must suffer, others should suffer just as much,” the residents of the 11th floor naturally hoped Xia Mi would torment the people on the other floors exactly as she had tormented them.

They nodded fervently.

The Spider-man², whose four extra legs had been severed, spat out a strand of silk and gave a raspy, cackling laugh. “I can help you,” he said.

Xia Mi patted his shoulder. “I appreciate your enthusiasm, but I didn’t realize you still had a corrupted part in your mouth. That was an oversight on my part.”

Spider-man: “…”

Xia Mi gripped his chin, spotting a corrupted organ inside his mouth that allowed him to spit out silk to capture prey.

She lined up her massive axe several times, but the blade was too large to precisely excise that specific part. She eventually gave up.

“I’ll let you keep that part for now,” Xia Mi said. “You don’t need to help me with the 10th floor. Sister Li and I can handle that. Your mission is to be the floor manager of the 11th floor. You will manage the residents here and ensure their safety, while also making sure they don’t go around hurting anyone else.”

“We’re implementing a system of accountability. If anyone on the 11th floor gets hurt or launches a sneak attack on someone else, I’ll dismantle your jaw and cut out that corrupted part in your mouth!”

The axe blade scraped against the Spider-man’s teeth. Breaking into a cold sweat, he promised, “I… I will definitely keep a strict eye on everyone. I won’t give them a single chance to plot against you!”

Xia Mi nodded in satisfaction.

This management system was truly a great idea. She was originally supposed to deal with 660 people, but by appointing floor managers, she only had to keep an eye on eleven people. Her workload had plummeted.

Xia Mi instructed the Spider-man, “Take the residents of the 11th floor and wait for my signal. When I call, you will all relocate together. Take the stairs down to the 10th floor and regroup with the residents there. Understood?”

Facing Xia Mi’s raised machine gun, the thirty-odd people on the 11th floor nodded in unison. “Understood.”

Having settled the emotions of the 11th-floor crowd, Xia Mi set off for the 10th floor alongside Sister Li, the model citizen cooperating with the government.

The corrupted residents of the 10th floor were in grave danger!

Translator’s Notes