RNP Chapter 684 The Missing Person
Chapter 684 The Missing Person
The eleventh unlucky one.
Judging from this address, Wu Wang instantly identified the other party.
To be honest, it was somewhat unexpected.
This guy is very likely one of the ten people Zhang Mingyuan had contact with whose current status is unknown!
Wu Wang initially thought that the unknown status simply meant that the other party had been dealt with by the factory without Zhang Mingyuan's knowledge.
I didn't expect there to be such an expert!
She actually hid right under the factory's nose!
What's more, the other party referred to himself and that Ke Ming as the Descendants.
It is clearly an NPC that has gained intelligence.
She knew there was another world beyond the factory!
Wu Wang narrowed his eyes and continued listening to the recording.
"I was able to escape from the factory because I was able to cut off the two-way signal between the bracelet and the factory."
"I have this ability, you don't."
"So, if you want to get to the data core, you need someone who can bypass system monitoring."
A faint machine hum could be heard in the background of the recording, deep and rhythmic. Her voice was lowered even further, almost drowned out by the background noise.
"If you trust me, I'll cut off the surveillance cameras in the break room at 10 p.m. tonight. There's an old ventilation shaft access door behind the innermost locker."
"I blocked the door, so it's not visible from the outside."
"You can open the door by inserting a fruit knife into the crack and prying it to the right a couple of times. I'll be waiting for you inside."
The recording has ended here.
The cabin returned to silence.
Wu Wang sat motionless inside the cabin, his expression difficult to discern in the dim light.
"Bai, analyze the cabin monitoring situation and the frequency of background noise in the recording."
A moment later, under Wu Wang's command, the artificial intelligence [Bai] began to rapidly analyze the data.
The answer came quickly: "Sir, the internal monitoring system has indeed been modified. It only shows the footage of you walking in, and there are no audio recordings playing out. It looks like you came in and sat down to rest for a while."
"The background noise is mainly low-frequency at 48 Hz, with a peak at 52 Hz, and regular interval pulses. This matches the sound signature of a large fan running in a normal old ventilation duct system. No other human activity was heard, so she is probably hiding deep inside the ventilation duct."
Wu Wang nodded.
He also had further speculations on this.
The other person's voice was lowered while her speaking speed increased, indicating that she was in a state of stress after being evacuated from a dangerous area and wanted to finish the recording as soon as possible before moving on.
In addition, there was her previous statement about Ke Ming being captured by the Smilers after attempting to hack into the Forgotten Zone.
Wu Wang could basically conclude that the other party was most likely acting with Ke Ming at the time, or that he was nearby and witnessed the whole process.
During this process, she was also targeted by the smiling man.
That's why the situation of constantly running away occurred.
Because Ke Ming's arrest was tantamount to a death sentence in her mind, she urgently needed to find another partner to help her complete a certain task, which is why she targeted herself.
Wu Wang pushed open the cabin door and returned to the light in the exhibition hall.
While nodding and greeting the customer service representative not far away, I also glanced at the end of another row of cabins next to the B-3 experience cabin—there was a cabin that was showing as being in use, but the door was not fully closed.
Little Hill perched on his head and meowed softly.
"Meow~"
Boss, there's a tail.
"Ok, I know."
Not long after entering the showroom, Wu Wang noticed the usage of the cabin.
Because that position is where you can see the B-3 hatch.
So he paid a little attention to it.
As expected, after I entered the B-3 experience cabin, the other side opened the door slightly to observe me.
Otherwise, who would quietly open the hatch while experiencing the wish?
Or rather, it's simply impossible to do.
Before Wu's demise, he experienced Zhou Ping's wish.
During the experience, all five senses are immersed in the wish. Under normal circumstances, it is impossible to experience the wish while controlling one's body to perform actions such as opening the hatch.
Unless, the person who wanted to experience it and the person who opened the capsule were not the same person, or the other person used some means to make the capsule move without actually lying down to experience it.
In either case, this indicates that the people inside have ulterior motives.
And it's not Li Shuang hiding inside.
It's impossible that she would have recorded the conversation while hiding nearby and spying on it during her escape from a dangerous situation.
Someone else is following me...
No, it wasn't just following; the other party seemed to know quite a bit, and was even able to arrive at the Wish Exhibition Hall before me.
Wu Wang smirked as he entered the elevator.
His reflection was shown in the metal mirror inside the elevator, a younger and more energetic version of himself with a smug grin.
He knew who the other person was...
At the same time, after Wu Wang entered the elevator, the floor began to change downwards, and the suspected experience cabin slowly opened, from which a petite figure wearing glasses stepped out.
Not only that, but she was also followed by a woman who was quite ordinary in appearance.
There are two people in this experience capsule!
"A hawksbill turtle, is this thing really that valuable?"
The woman stretched and asked, feeling uncomfortable being crammed into one cabin with two other people.
She was the same companion who had chatted with the bespectacled little girl, Tortoiseshell, in the training hall earlier.
In response, the hawksbill turtle squinted and said, "It's definitely worth it, otherwise the factory wouldn't keep giving me high-paying work assignments related to him."
My onboarding task was clearly to supervise the other party's normal work for 48 hours.
However, not long after their encounter on the tenth floor, when the tortoise returned to its workstation to check its computer, it was discovered that only about 24 hours had passed.
However, the work task has been marked as completed ahead of schedule, and the reward points have been distributed accordingly.
New work tasks will also pop up that you can accept.
It's also about this guy.
【Task ID: 029-02】
[Task Objective: Identify and address the misconduct of employee #00000]
[Task Description: This employee's behavior is threatening the safety of all employees. Please find any violations by this employee within 48 hours and record them visually, such as through video or audio, and deliver them to anyone who smiles.]
[Task Reward: 1000 Wish Points]
Another 1000 wish points!
Compared to other employees who work themselves to the bone all day just to complete tasks that only earn a few dozen wish points, Dai Mao felt that her side was being unusually generous.
But the initial job assignment was alright, and she felt she had made a profit.
Two such clearly targeted tasks in a row made her unsure whether all players' tasks had this probability, or if it was just special to her.
If all players are like this, then the factory is secretly encouraging players to kill each other in order to minimize the threat players pose to the factory.
Fortunately, she still has a trustworthy companion in this instance.
He then called the other party over to explain his situation and also took the opportunity to check if there were any abnormalities in the other party's work tasks.
It turned out that only his own work tasks were related to another player.
All of the tasks assigned to my companions involve interacting with those NPC employees.
That basically confirms that the problem isn't with them, but with the target of their mission.
Just then, she noticed a candy that had inexplicably appeared in an oddly placed position on the other person's workstation. After all, her workstation was right next to it.
Even though she was so close, she didn't realize when the candy had been placed there.
So she used the tool to examine the candy.
【X-ray Glasses (Premium): The holder can see through targets for ten seconds. Cooldown time is one hour, and each use increases the cooldown time by thirty minutes.】
[Equipment Requirements: The holder must have a certain degree of myopia]
[Note: This is a precious tool that Ga La gave to Mu Li! Don't use it for anything righteous!]
Although this is only a "premium" piece of equipment, it still has limitations and issues such as increased cooldown.
But its capabilities are undeniably convenient most of the time.
Therefore, the hawksbill turtle always wore it on its face.
That's why she knew the message inside the candy without even opening the packaging.
Only then did they arrive at the Wish Exhibition Hall a step ahead of Wu Wang to wait.
To avoid attracting the other party's attention, the hawksbill turtle even called its companion to come over.
Inside, companions experience their desires, making it appear from the outside that this is a normal experience pod in use.
She quietly crouched behind the door, opened a crack, and used her X-ray vision glasses to observe Wu Wang's movements next door.
Unfortunately, these glasses, apart from their X-ray vision, do not have any eavesdropping function.
I thought the other party would meet someone inside the cabin, or get clues from some desired experience.
In this way, the hawksbill turtle can also obtain clues simultaneously.
Unexpectedly, all she saw was Wu Wang's expression changing from time to time, without him making any substantial moves.
Fortunately, he had hidden the recording equipment in the cabin beforehand.
At this moment, Turtle walked towards the B-3 hull and took out the equipment she had placed behind the seat.
He turned it on and played it under the curious gaze of his companions.
However, only a woman's threatening voice came from within—
"Either come with us."
"Either become our enemy."
"You are watching him...and I am watching you too!"
The contents of the recording device made both of them freeze in surprise.
This was... said to them!?
For a moment, the two looked around, but found no strange looks.
Turtle frowned slightly and tried replaying the message left by the other party to see if he could glean any clues from the background of the message.
Unexpectedly, when it was played again, the recording device only produced a series of noises, like the static on a television screen, with no other sound at all.
"How did you do that?" his companion asked, somewhat surprised.
This recording equipment isn't connected to the internet, so there's no way to modify it online.
The tortoiseshell was watching Wu Wang's actions the whole time, and the other party didn't even notice the recording device!
Why did the recording become so strange?
This cannot even be submitted as evidence to the Smiler.
“That guy must have gotten something in the experience pod!” Tortoiseshell said with a hint of regret, “If we want to know, we’ll probably have to keep following him.”
His companion retorted, "But haven't we already been exposed? They just threatened us."
“Even football has a goalkeeper, right? Does the fact that someone is standing in front of the goalpost mean you won’t play?” Tortoiseshell retorted. “I want to see what he’s up to!”
After saying that, he changed the subject and asked, "How about you? How's it going with contacting the other players?"
His companion shrugged, somewhat helplessly.
Of course she knew who the hawksbill turtle was.
This seemingly petite and adorable little girl actually possesses the personality of a strong-willed woman with an extremely strong desire for control. In the past, during the process of conquering dungeons, Dai Mao always tried to take complete control of the situation.
In most cases, this desire to control the situation does make the dungeon clearing process easier, since the hawksbill turtle does indeed have strong leadership abilities, and the players it gathers only need to follow its commands.
However, their companions also knew very well that the current situation was exactly what hawksbill turtles found most troublesome.
There is an unpredictable and unstable factor that is constantly provoking her.
This leads to the fact that, in the process of uniting players, the hawksbill will want to spend more energy dealing with this unstable factor and bringing the situation back under her control.
But what if we can't handle this unstable factor?
The companion didn't dare ask the question directly, because that would only further provoke the hawksbill turtle's competitive spirit.
So he just sighed and said, "We've found six players so far, and five of them have said they can cooperate to complete the main quest of taking over the factory. As for the sixth one... I can't get in touch with him anymore."
Because the main storyline of this instance allows you to choose between taking over the factory and liberating the factory.
Since it's called a factory, there must be someone like a factory manager, so you just need to defeat the boss and take his place to complete the main storyline.
However, when it comes to the Jiefang Factory, the definition of the word "Jiefang" becomes somewhat vague.
Who knows if defeating the BOSS counts as liberation? What if it also means every employee has to resign?
That would probably be far too complicated to implement.
Therefore, most players still feel that taking over the factory would be simpler.
Upon hearing this, the hawksbill turtle raised an eyebrow and asked, "What do you mean by 'can't be contacted'?"
Although she has a strong desire for control, she is not the extreme type who cannot tolerate any flaws.
Even if some players are unwilling to cooperate with her, as long as they don't deliberately make things difficult for her, she won't do anything to them. Everyone can go their own way.
What I said to Wu Wang in the training hall before was always true.
However, Wu Wang's subsequent actions were no longer a trivial matter, but rather like a ticking time bomb, which made Dai Mao confused and want to figure out what he was up to.
She was genuinely worried about being harmed by this ticking time bomb.
"The sixth player is named Ke Ming. He said last night that he found a key clue and would go and check it out before deciding whether to take over the main storyline or the liberation storyline."
"But when I went to ask him about the results this morning, he was gone."
"He was nowhere to be seen, neither at his workstation nor in his room. It was as if he had vanished into thin air from the game. I suspect he crossed some kind of rule and has been killed."
The hawksbill turtle became wary after hearing its companion's words.
Red line in the copy.
She naturally figured it out through her own means: the red line for this instance was to reach the "promotion" standard of the talent incubation center and then be forcibly taken in by the Smiler for transformation.
There are many ways to reach this red line.
Examples include inefficient assets, overdue loans, and even passive resistance to work.
In short, once a factory determines through algorithms that someone can no longer satisfy their desires, it's essentially a death sentence for that person.
However, the players only entered this instance yesterday.
Logically speaking, it's impossible to trigger a loan default or other red line overnight.
Therefore, Ke Ming encountered a red line that had nothing to do with his wish.
"Either they came into contact with people they shouldn't have."
"Either they went to a place they shouldn't have gone."
"I deduced softly," the hawksbill turtle said.
She squinted and continued, "It seems that Ke Ming has indeed found some key clue, and this thing can probably have a direct impact on the completion of the main storyline."
"Qingning, you need to find out where Keming went last night, or what special NPC he came into contact with."
"I'll continue looking for clues from #00000."
"Let's work together, sisters! We'll conquer this dungeon in one fell swoop!" (End of Chapter)