“Something’s happened!”
At the Mist Observation Center, an alarm sounded in front of an observer.
He quickly reported, “Director, there’s mist appearing in the city. Based on surface observations, the mist level is between F and E. The locations include the 2/3 section of the inner and outer city tunnels, and inside subway Line 1…”
“Just low-level mist?” That day’s duty director was buried in bone calculations, not even lifting his head. “Forward the report to the city defense squad on duty.”
The observer swallowed nervously and said, “But Director, this time it’s a red alert.”
“What?” The duty director raised his head from the pile of bones. “What’s going on? Explain in detail.”
The city alarms at the monitoring center were divided into three types: yellow, red, and black.
Generally, yellow alerts were the most common, occurring once or twice a month on average in the city. Most of the time, it indicated a low-level mist calamity within the city, which was inevitable—after all, the city was too large.
However, red alerts only occurred a few times a year, and if it was just a mist calamity, it should at least be classified as a danger level of C or above.
Given that the current mist calamity was classified between F and E levels triggering a red alert, there must be some special circumstances.
…However, compared to those special circumstances, the director would rather it be just a normal C-level calamity.
The observer quickly reported, “According to the statistics from the monitoring data of all subway stations in the city, there are currently 1444 people trapped in the subway cars on Line 1. It still falls within the scope of a small-scale calamity, and there have been no reports of mist mutations or ‘mist within mist’ phenomena. The reason for triggering the red alert is that one of the trapped individuals is a family member of an SSS-level registered person. Director, I don’t have enough authority to access the file of this person.”
“The family member’s file can’t be accessed either?”
“The registered person has applied for special protection.”
The director furrowed his brows, swiftly wheeling his chair over to the city’s intelligent monitoring station and swiping his identity card.
[Beep, identity verification passed.]
[Observation Center, A-level Superpower User, Director Tong Lan, greetings. Please enter your command.]
“Access the current files of the special individuals on Subway Line 1.”
[Sorry, your permissions are insufficient.]
Tong Lan paused for a moment, pursing his lips. “Activate emergency situation investigation authority.”
[Verifying… Verification successful, data retrieved. Due to permission restrictions, you can only view partial information.]
【Special Individual Profile】
Name: Shen*
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Resident ID: 010******7309
Gender: Male
Age: **
Occupation: *****
Address: *******、******
Superpower Ability: None
Registered Partner: Zong Lin
Kbcu Ojc rajgfv ja atf ijra ilcf bo atf qgbolif.
Ibcu Olc’r qjgacfg.
Efulrafgfv jcv ifuji.
Cr tf ibbxfv ja atf akb kbgvr “Ibcu Olc,” tf gfmjiifv atf wjc ktbrf lcofmalbc njief tbnfgfv bc atf yglcx bo mbggeqalbc, jcv tlr afwqifr yfujc ab jmtf.
Ktlr kjr j rlvf foofma bo tlr bnfgerf bo tlr qbkfg jylilas.
As a Rank Four superpower user of the Fate category, he had always been very concerned about Zong Lin’s situation and had submitted expulsion recommendations to the city several times.
At this moment, Tong Lan’s eyelids were twitching violently, and he immediately thought of some dreadful consequences. He turned his head sharply and said sternly, “Notify the City Defense Bureau’s team leader to personally lead the team! Quickly! In ten minutes… no, in five minutes, make sure to resolve the situation as soon as possible and do everything possible to save the lives of the passengers on the train.”
“Additionally, inform the news center to block all information and media reports, especially… make sure the person on the plane knows absolutely nothing about this.”
—
Subway Line 1, inside the carriage.
“Happy Workers” group chat.
No one in the group was muted, but no one dared to speak.
Everyone was aware of the eerie atmosphere.
Shen Jie idly tapped on his phone screen, switching back and forth between the group chat and the conversation with his partner at the top.
His finger movements were indeed swift, leaving only afterimages as the system could barely keep up with the screen transitions.
System: [What are you thinking about, host?]
Shen Jie: “I’m thinking about dinner tonight.” He murmured calmly, “The recipe says that lamb should be stewed for at least an hour and a half to be tender and flavorful enough. I’m worried we won’t have enough time later.”
System: [Well, actually, an hour should be enough for lamb stew. When it comes to cooking, you don’t have to strictly follow what the recipe says…]
“Can’t do that,” Shen Jie said, “The cooking time for the ingredients matters, and it will make a difference.”
What difference?
The system really didn’t want to understand right away: [Forgive my bluntness, but I think someone like you, host, smiling would be more effective than ten pots of lamb stew… But now is not the time to consider this, host, you’re still in the mist!!!]
If it had a physical form, the system would have wanted to grab Shen Jie’s shoulders and shake him vigorously.
Just then, Shen Jie’s phone vibrated.
His fingertips paused, and the phone screen stopped at the “Happy Worker” chat group.
Someone with a fully black profile picture and a blank nickname had just sent a message in the group chat.
“Congratulations, you have been hired as an employee at the mechanical factory.
Before officially joining, please familiarize yourself with the factory’s employee rules:
1. Sit properly at your workstation during working hours, do not move around, even if you have acute hemorrhoids or adult ADHD. Excuses are not accepted, the factory does not need excuses.
2. Work diligently and create value. Please note that the factory does not provide paid restroom breaks. Slacking off will have serious consequences if discovered.
3. Inspectors will conduct patrols in various workshops, but as long as you obediently focus on your work, you won’t face punishment. Pretending is also acceptable.
4. The boss will randomly inspect employees’ work status. Please note that we are all professionally trained employees, and regardless of how funny the boss is, laughter is not permitted.
5. The boss enjoys smoking. If the boss asks you for a cigarette, please offer it with both hands and use a lighter to help the boss light it.
6. The boss dislikes disobedient employees. If the boss presents you with special work requirements, regardless of how unreasonable they may seem, you must comply.
7. Work creates the future, strive to achieve in life.
(This line is in bold red font, as if blood is dripping down.)
We sincerely wish everyone to work happily and harmoniously in the factory.
Come on, workers!”
This message seemed very strange.
[Since this is the host’s first encounter with the mist, I will assist the host in analyzing it.] The system said, [I think this set of rules…]
Shen Jie：“I think there’s a problem with the second rule of this code.”
System：[Huh?]
Shen Jie calmly analyzed, “Not providing paid bathroom breaks is a significant burden on the physiological needs of human employees. Studies have shown that requirements contradicting basic human physiological needs lead to a significant decrease in work efficiency. The time saved by not going to the bathroom is not enough to compensate for the negative effects the rule brings to the factory.”
[The host drafting these rules may have just been trying to make a joke… Wait, why am I discussing this kind of issue with you???]
The system was a bit overwhelmed, why did you add the word “human” before employees? And weren’t you specifically researching superpower suppressors? Why did you seem to have such expertise in human physiology?
Shen Jie: “You have a database?”
System: [Of course.] The system felt this was an opportunity to showcase its usefulness, and promptly said: “[The seven major superpower evolution categories are ‘Life,’ ‘Death,’ ‘Fate,’ ‘Soul,’ ‘Rule,’ ‘Space,’ and ‘Nature.’ From the lowest-ranked Rank Nine to the highest-ranked Rank One, there are a total of 73,219 types of abilities and variants stored in my database. As long as you want to use them, I can immediately retrieve them…]”
Shen Jie felt puzzled, “Would novels really write about them in such detail?”
System coughed a few times, and said [This is additional information about the content of the book world, captured by my information engine.]
“Oh,” Shen Jie responded noncommittally.
As they chatted, the mist began to dissipate, revealing a clearer scene around them.
The sound of the subway’s movement disappeared, replaced by the rumbling of mechanical cutting.
Before them stood a massive mechanical factory.
Underneath a steel dome, countless cold and rigid machines filled the space, extending endlessly into the distance.
They found themselves in a vacant area at the center of the factory.
Shen Jie glanced down at the employee guidelines on his phone, selectively focusing on a few words: “Do not move recklessly.”
Coincidentally, he didn’t feel like moving much either.
This was originally the third section of the front carriage of the subway. When the mist spread from behind, most of the original passengers had already run to the first two sections, but because there were also many people coming from behind, the space in the carriage was still not very spacious.
So, when the scene shifted to the mechanical factory, there was also a crowd of people squeezed in the central open space of the factory.
Like a bunch of squashed sardine cans, everyone looked disheveled, their faces pale, and their postures askew.
“So many people,” Shen Jie thought silently.
As a top-tier slacker in the research institute, he found it hard to imagine commuting in the cramped subway every day for work in the inner city.
If it weren’t for Zong Lin going home, he would never take the subway during rush hour.
Hmm, he thought about it, maybe he should buy a pressure cooker for today’s stewed lamb…?
Thanks for the chapter! I can’t wait to see how this plays out.
Thank you for the update ❤️💯
Still thinking of dinner, yes a pressure cooker would work for that recipe.
Aha as expected of the big boss all he really think about is how his lamb pot would taste for his hubby to eat!!! (No but fr, considering that mc isn’t a human, who just so coincidentally became a cannon fodder, how on earth did he and ml meet? And is his love for ml only because he wants to experience human emotion?)
“What could possible happen?” “SOMETHINGS HAPPENED!”😂😂😂😂
Food is more important than anything else..
The mystery of this host is just too big!