Chapter 57: CH 56

Chapter 56 – Butterflies in the Stomach

It had been nearly an hour since he’d left his work station so Xu RenDong decided to go back first.

Before going into the boiler room, he squatted down to examine the soot at the door. The coal ash still kept its original appearance, with no traces of being trampled on. It seems that the medical student has not left the boiler room during all this time.

Xu RenDong opened the door and entered. Sure enough, the medical student was still sitting on the ground and reciting his book.

“Ginseng has a sweet taste and nourishes vitality, quenches thirst, promotes body fluids and regulates nutrition and health. Astragalus heats up sweat and solidifies the surface, supports sores and promotes muscle qi deficiency. Atractylodes is sweet and warms the spleen and strengthens the stomach. Li Qiao, Bai HuaTan hydrates the red water channel…” 

He already seemed much more proficient at reciting it than earlier. So it can be said that his efforts were in earnest.

Xu RenDong thought it was better not to disturb him. He went to the console and  pretended to start working, but in his mind he was sorting out the clues he had found so far.

Just now when they were in danger, both he and Zhang XiaoXiao felt nervous and nauseous. Zhang XiaoXiao’s reaction was more serious than his and she directly spat out live moths. But the prompt is clearly “butterfly”, so why did moths appear? That is one problem.

In addition, Doctor Birdbeak and the foreman seemed to be opposed to each other. The Doctor’s combat effectiveness was not as good as the foreman, otherwise he would not have chosen to run away. Xu RenDong originally thought that the foreman was the boss of this dungeon and that the death condition was also related to the foreman. But now there was an additional force which confused him.

He always felt that the most critical mystery in this instance had not yet been solved but he had no clue what it was. But still today he still made good progress. Not only did he get the key to the factory director’s room but Zhang XiaoXiao also survived.

At night, the medical student was still studying. Unlike last time, Zhang XiaoXiao also slept with them in the same room that night. After the events of that day, Zhang XiaoXiao’s dependence on the gentleman has been transferred to Xu RenDong. After all, the gentleman had turned into coal and was melted in the molten pool and it was impossible for her to keep relying on him.

Lian Qiao put on Lamia’s eye again. He had cleared the instance and sat alone in front of the elevator, wanting to wait for Xu RenDong to pass the instance and go out together.

“It turns out that the prompt this time is not as simple as I thought. The prompt was the skeleton in the cupboard. We did find a skeleton in the cupboard. But the skeleton here also implies another thing, which is the skeleton key. That has the meaning of a ‘master key’. In the end, we used a finger bone of the skeleton as the key to open the secret room in the castle and that completed the puzzle solving…”

“I did not expect this at all and that finger bone was also not noticed by me. Fortunately there was a middle school student in the team who thought of this concept. Afterwards, we checked the cupboard carefully and then discovered that the skeleton finger bone can be used as a key. In fact, if you think about it, this instance is quite difficult. If nobody understood this allusion, then it would have been impossible to pass this level.”

“Brother RenDong, what’s happening on your side? Did you find any clues afterwards?”

Xu RenDong explained what had happened during the day. Soon after he returned to the boiler room, the foreman came around for a second patrol. The foreman was wounded and his expression was stinky but he didn’t mention Doctor Birdbeak. Doctor Birdbeak also never showed up again. Just like that the day passed and then they got off work. Only after everyone returned to the dormitory did they discover that only Xu RenDong and Zhang XiaoXiao left their work stations to explore the factory. The other middle-aged man who tried to be absent from work was caught red handed by the foreman as soon as he walked out of the workshop and was beaten to death with a whip. After watching the torture, the others did not dare to come out again, so they did not get any useful information or even know Doctor Birdbeak was presesnt.

{Some people might be wondering why XRD didn’t try to save the middle-aged man. I think the whole reason we went through so many reincarnations in the first arc was so that XRD can understand that it’s impossible to save everybody, since you never know if saving that person could indirectly cause another’s death, etc.}

Xu RenDong said: “So I plan to go there again in the evening.”

Lian Qiao: “I agree. You have a lot of pig teammates this time so it’s better to go on your own. You can do it by yourself, big boss. I believe in you.”

Xu RenDong thought: Don’t call me boss anymore, it’s embarrassing.

The deep night enveloped this industrial town. Xu RenDong waited until everyone else had fallen asleep and left the dormitory quietly.

At this time it was close to two o’clock in the morning and there were no street lights in the town. Fortunately, the moon tonight was big and round, illuminating the road in front of him. Being accustomed to the brightly lit lights in the city, now that Xu RenDong was walking on the dirt road shining in the moonlight, he felt quite tranquil as though he had gone back in time.

When Xu RenDong looked up at the moon, he found that there was also a moon in his left eye. At this moment, Lian Qiao was also looking up at the moon. Xu RenDong suddenly had an illusion that Lian Qiao was by his side, looking up at the same sky with him.

When he got to the edge of the town, he could see a huge shadow from a distance. It was the darkened factory. In the guard room at the entrance of the factory, a man with a beard was dozing off. Xu RenDong bent over, tiptoed quietly passed the guard room and entered the factory alone. He closed the factory door behind him.

Molten liquid surged in the molten pool and the orange-red glow illuminated the entire central area. Xu RenDong felt warmth on his face. This feeling dispelled the anxiety of walking alone at night. Nevertheless, he walked very carefully. The factory in the middle of the night was very quiet, so quiet that only the sound of his own footsteps could be heard. It didn’t take long before he got to the director’s room on the fourth floor.  Holding the steel bar picked up on the road in his hand, took a deep breath and opened the door of the director’s room with the key.

Unlike what he had imagined, nothing in the factory director’s room rushed out to attack him. Xu RenDong protected his body with a steel rod in one hand and raised the flashlight in the other. He cautiously entered the factory director’s room.

The decoration of this room was clearly more luxurious than those in the offices outside. The furniture was made of solid wood and the wallpaper is painted with dark patterns. Directly facing the door was a set of leather tables and chairs, with a stack of drawings on the table and a few documents on the side. It was unknown if the owner went out too hurriedly but the lid of the ink bottle was not closed. A quill pen was still inserted in it.

Xu RenDong walked behind the table and his eyes lit up. It turned out that what was spread out on the table was the floor plan of the entire factory. He turned to the part of the underground area and found that the underground area was indeed as he expected.  The terrain is very complicated and, simply put, it was a maze. There were many dead ends and some places were marked with strange symbols.

Lian Qiao said, “Did you see the escape sign? It’s in the deepest part of the maze. That should be where the elevator is.”

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Xu RenDong nodded gently. Picking up the quill in the ink bottle, starting from the deep end of the maze, he drew the route to the beginning of the maze. He used his mobile phone to take photos of the map and save it. Then he began to investigate the folder next to it.

In the folder was a stack of employee information. On the first page was the cruel foreman. In the photo, his eyes were fierce and a bloodthirsty sense of violence almost rushed out from the photo. On the side; the name, age, and work history of the foreman was recorded in handwriting. Xu RenDong read it briefly, turned to the next page, and was stunned.

On the second page was Doctor Birdbeak!

Unlike the previous page, the photo of Doctor Birdbeak was painted over with a big cross in red paint. The text is also blurry and illegible and it is impossible to recognize what was originally written.

The whole face of the person in the photo was hiding behind the beak mask. The black goggles appeared bottomless, like two black holes, and made people feel flustered. Xu RenDong suddenly had a horrible feeling, as if he were not the only person in the factory director’s room. He suddenly raised his head and looked around. He couldn’t help squeezing the steel rod in his hand.

Lian Qiao: “What’s wrong? Did you hear anything?”

Xu RenDong sighed, “No, I’m too nervous.”

Continuing to look at the file, the next few pages were all the joint dolls in the workshop. He was surprised to find that these dolls had different names. Even the gender and family situation were clearly written. Nothing was repeated. It was obviously a dummy, but it was made out like a real, living person. Xu RenDong recalled the numbness of those jointed dolls working in the workshop and couldn’t help but feel a chill.

It is worth noting that the bottom of each joint puppet’s data is marked with a line of words in capital letters, which translates to: 17 hours of work and 7 hours of rest. Because the work is too hard, you must not disturb them during their break.

This appeared to be some kind of hint. Xu RenDong recorded it in his heart.

Turning back again, the remaining pages were almost completely blank, except that there was a different symbol in the middle of each page. Xu RenDong thought they looked familiar and Lian Qiao suddenly said: “The signs on the map!”

Xu RenDong suddenly realized. He took out the map and saw that, as he expected, all these symbols had appeared in the underground maze.

Lian Qiao: “… So this is an illustrated monster appendix.”

Xu RenDong: “What do you mean?”

Lian Qiao: “That is to say, you haven’t encountered these monsters in the maze yet, so the appendix is blank and waiting for you to encounter them. Once you do, their information will appear here.

Xu RenDong thought for a while, then turned back to the page of Doctor Birdbeak. He looked at the red cross in the photo.

Lian Qiao: “This cross may mean ‘deceased’.”

Was he beaten to death by the foreman?

Xu RenDong pondered and said: “I always get the feeling that something is wrong.”

Lian Qiao: “Huh?”

Xu RenDong has too many mysteries in his heart. For example, who was it that killed him in his sleep the first time around in the dormitory? Another example, what taboo did the gentleman violate to cause him to be thrown into the lava by Doctor Birdbeak?

Unfortunately, he didn’t have any way to answer these questions. Xu RenDong could only sigh and refocus his attention on the drawings in front of him.

He estimated the distance from the entrance to the end of the maze. Even if he successfully avoided the unknown monsters on the road, it would be impossible to go back and forth within an hour. So he typed on the phone: “I’m going underground now.”

Lian Qiao: “Okay. I’ll direct you on the way.”

Xu RenDong put the folder in his backpack. Holding the steel rod, he cautiously headed towards the underground area. When passing by the molten pool on the first floor, he subconsciously glanced into the molten pool. The fire blazed up high and even though it was so far away, the heat wave on his face still burned his cheeks.

The scene of the gentleman falling into the molten pool and turning into ash was still vivid. The strange face of Doctor Birdbeak and his big scissors also appeared in front of him, awakening a certain indescribable sense of fear.

He retracted his gaze, suppressed the faint anxiety in his heart and walked quickly toward the underground entrance.

As a result, he did not notice that behind him, the factory door he had previously closed with his own hands was now cracked open.

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