roccoschili Chapter 676 A Spark of Fire
Chapter 676 A Spark of Fire
The audio ended amidst background noise.
The room was silent except for the breathing of Wu Wang and Xiao Qiu.
At the same time, the white icon on the bracelet projected a document for Wu Wang to see.
[Employee #2714's current Wish Points balance: -12500]
[Estimated repayment time: 120 years and 3 months at current work efficiency]
[Note: This employee has a service quality rating of A+ and a 100% smile maintenance rate; no further training is required.]
A strike leader was transformed into a smiler.
He serves with a smile every day everything he once wanted to overthrow.
Not only were his wish points not paid off, but they continued to grow with interest.
One hundred and twenty years.
This is the Desire Factory's definition of an "excellent employee".
"Sir, the monitoring records show that there is a suspected abnormality in Zhang Mingyuan's renovation process."
"During the 72-hour monitoring period after the surgery, he talked in his sleep, and the keywords recorded by the monitoring equipment were 'sorry' and 'I remember'."
"The file was marked as 'processed' and discarded, but the deletion operation was not completed."
"The reason is that the person who executed the deletion command experienced a 0.2-second delay during the deletion process, which led him to believe that he had executed the deletion, when in fact he had not."
These words made Wu Wang blink.
He recalled that in the conference room, after he made his statement about wanting to fire bullets, Zhang Mingyuan himself had a momentary unnatural contraction of his pupils.
Yes, Wu Wang noticed it.
After all, everything the other party did was supposed to be pre-programmed, so when something suddenly went wrong, Wu Wang's attention would naturally be alerted immediately.
"Can the person who performed the deletion be found?"
"Yes, we've found it. The number is HR-2923. According to cross-referencing, the smiling person was a former member of the Unity unit and was also involved in that strike back then."
Wu Wang shook his head with a slight sigh.
My fingers tapped lightly and rhythmically on the edge of the bed.
Zhang Mingyuan, it's true that you have a bit of idealism in you.
You actually believe the factory will let those who participated in the strike off the hook.
Do you think you've saved 235 people over 120 years?
Haha, I doubt there will be any.
Barring any unforeseen circumstances, they were all subsequently sent to the talent incubation center for various reasons.
Thinking of this, Wu Wang continued to ask, "What happened next? After he was modified, did he exhibit any other similar behavior?"
Since this situation has occurred before in the conference room.
That might have happened before.
[Bai] quickly pulled out a long document from the folder.
"Yes, sir, there are eleven records that have been marked as 'explainable anomalies' by the system."
Should we display each item individually?
Wu Wang shook his head: "Focus on the important things, especially any unusual interactions with other employees."
[White] quickly selected three reports that met the criteria and said:
"On the 204th day, when Zhang Mingyuan was processing employee complaint files, he added a handwritten note at the end. Although the note was erased in time, the erasure was not complete. The remaining ink was identified as the 204th one through spectral analysis. The employee who filed the complaint had already been sent to the talent incubation center and was one of the last members of the Unity Union that year. He explained that it was to record the number of complaint files received."
"On the 301st day, when Zhang Mingyuan was serving in the Wish Showroom, he manually selected the discontinued experience project [Family Simulation] for a prospective employee instead of the system-recommended [Talent Injection]. He later explained it as a touch sensitivity issue."
"On the 412th day, which is today, when he was setting up the meeting room before the sharing session started, after placing ten coffee cups, he moved the third cup from the left forward by 0.5 centimeters."
Upon hearing this, Wu Wang paused for a moment as he tapped out the rhythm.
The third cup from the left?
He recalled the conference table and the position of the cup, which happened to be directly opposite the chair he was sitting in at the time.
Zhang Mingyuan is sending himself a signal!?
0.5 centimeters, almost indistinguishable to the naked eye.
However, the factory's surveillance cameras could definitely detect it. As Wu Wang said at the meeting, the factory was watching the sharing session the whole time, not only with microphone arrays but also with intuitive hidden surveillance.
Zhang Mingyuan was certainly aware of the existence of the surveillance scan and also knew the other party's working logic. This small deviation causing abnormal records would not have any impact.
He just wanted to say hello to himself under the system's nose.
But that shouldn't be the case! After I went in, I just randomly picked an empty seat and sat down.
How did the other person know that I would be sitting there?
Wu Wang pondered for a moment but still couldn't figure out how the other party had done it.
"Sir, there is another record in Zhang Mingyuan's file that I find rather strange and that is related to you, but the system has not identified it as abnormal."
[Bai] suddenly spoke.
Wu Wang gestured for her to continue reading.
"After becoming a Smiler, Zhang Mingyuan took the initiative to approach new employees several times, the most recent time being three months ago."
"The other party is an employee with the ID number #1123. On the day he joined the company, he publicly questioned the pricing mechanism of the Wish Shop and demanded a clear explanation from the factory."
"This employee was labeled an 'inefficient asset' after only five days on the job and was eventually sent to the talent incubation center."
"When Zhang Mingyuan contacted #1123, he also invited them to attend a new employee experience sharing session, which is exactly the same as your current situation."
Wu Wang narrowed his eyes.
On the day I joined the company, I questioned the factory and was warned by the system that I might be placed on the inefficient asset watch list. Later, I was invited to attend a new employee experience sharing session.
Indeed, this perfectly matches my own situation.
Was Zhang Mingyuan warning the other party?
No, no, he was marking.
His identity as a "smiling person" allowed him to legitimately approach any employee exhibiting "abnormal behavior."
Zhang Mingyuan didn't offer any advice or dissuasion. He simply picked out those who had unusual views on the Desire Factory from the vast sea of people and then screened them in a way that allowed him to do so without having to worry about the rules.
He wanted to find someone who could detect 0.5 centimeters.
And now, in the years since he became the Smiler, amidst a debt of 12,500, a prison sentence that will not end for another 120 years, and a smile programmed into his being—he has finally found one.
Wu Wang chuckled.
It seems the situation isn't so bad after all. Besides the factory keeping an eye on me, there are other things in this instance that are watching me.
pretty good.
"Which office area did Zhang Mingyuan spend the most time in before becoming a Smiler, and which floor did the Solidarity Union employees mainly come from?"
Wu's words prompted Bai to frantically search through the files.
After a moment, he replied, "Sir, both are on the fourth floor where you are located."
He added, "After becoming a Smiler, Zhang Mingyuan frequently patrolled the fourth floor."
As expected, Wu Wang sighed inwardly.
Because the employees on higher floors are already immersed in the trap of the factory of desire, daydreaming and working themselves to the bone.
Only in the fourth-floor office area, which is mainly composed of new employees and older employees who lack the ability but want to change the status quo, can enough people be found to join the strike.
"Bai, does your file mention whether the 'Smiling Personnel' has been given a function similar to 'remembering the behavior of other employees'?" Bai answered this question quickly:
"Sir, the memory module of the Smiler is limited to content directly related to the service work. Personal behavior of non-service recipients should not be within the scope of memory permissions."
Upon receiving this answer, a slight smile appeared on Wu Wang's lips.
"Then what he's memorizing now is beyond his authority."
"Yes, sir."
Do you know what this means?
[Bai] remained silent for two seconds.
In those two seconds, she thought from the perspective of artificial intelligence, because in some ways, Zhang Mingyuan and she were no different now, and his behavior was also programmed.
However, the biggest difference is that [Bai] possesses a human soul; she is not simply an artificial intelligence.
She is free.
Then [Bai] said, "This means that a part of the person who was erased by the Talent Incubation Center 412 days ago has already regrown in the cracks of the factory system."
Snapped--
Wu Wang snapped his fingers.
“That’s right. Since someone who should have been completely erased can grow back little by little, then there must be loopholes in the system and rules of this factory of desire. Maybe we can find other cracks to dig out.”
"Bai, after dawn, please arrange for Zhang Mingyuan to apply for a private career planning consultation with HR-2714 as employee #00000. I think the factory should not refuse this."
Faced with Wu Wang's decisiveness, she was slightly taken aback:
"Sir, are you going to confront him directly?"
Hearing Bai's confusion, Wu Wang pursed his lips and said, "He has already made direct contact with me."
"Ten cups, one sharing session invitation, and years of waiting."
"Wouldn't it be very impolite if I didn't respond?"
“We also have to respond to his 0.5 centimeters.”
After saying that, he got up, opened the door, picked up Xiao Qiu, and walked outside with a strange smile on his face.
This was different from his usual sarcastic laugh.
It is quieter and sharper.
"Let's go down and see how to load the gun..."
It's already evening.
If this happened in another instance, and Wu Wang were out wandering around late at night instead of sleeping, he would probably attract the attention of other NPCs.
However, this is a factory of desire.
There are plenty of people working hard late into the night, keeping the office brightly lit, just like during the day.
But tonight is slightly different.
There has been a noticeable increase in the number of employees coming to the tea room to get coffee.
They weren't as tired as they usually are at night, after all, they're used to working late into the night.
I came here tonight for a different reason.
Wu Wang arrived just in time to hear what they were talking about.
"Old Li, did you check it out too?" The person speaking deliberately lowered their voice, as if afraid that something unseen might hear it.
"Nonsense! It's practically popped up on the desktop, who could resist clicking to take a look!" The person who replied sounded dry and helpless: "I owe three thousand eight hundred, what about you?"
"Five thousand two."
The two remained silent for a moment.
Then a third voice cut in from the side, its tone even more helpless, even a bit like a sigh: "I'm six thousand seven."
Before Wu Wang even went inside, he could see out of the corner of his eye that there were not just two or three people in the tea room, but a full ten.
They hadn't made an appointment.
On the same night, after doing the same thing—checking the bills—and feeling parched, we went to the break room and, without prior arrangement, started chatting with colleagues we normally barely interacted with.
The instinct to band together for warmth has always been a behavior ingrained in human DNA.
When they discover that their fear is not unique, they will instinctively seek out companions who share the same fear.
Of course, it wasn't to discuss how to solve the problem, but just to confirm one thing—that I wasn't crazy.
Among these people is even Lao Fan, the construction worker who questioned the smiling man at the experience-sharing meeting today.
He didn't join in the conversation or drink coffee; he just silently stared at his bracelet, which displayed the Wish Shop page.
Old Fan stared at the price tag as if it were a lab report he couldn't understand.
"Still rising?" Wu Wang asked casually as he walked in.
The other person looked up in a daze, their reaction slightly slow, as if their thoughts had just returned from a very distant and deep place.
His eyes were bloodshot, and his voice was a little hoarse.
"Hmm, it went up another 500 points after the meeting. I wonder if it was because of the punishment I gave to the person who smiled during the meeting."
"Moreover, this price increase wiped out all my previous savings. My fitness tracker says I don't meet the minimum spending requirement, and factory benefits are temporarily frozen, so I can't enjoy the free tea..."
His words were tinged with sadness.
No wonder he was standing in the break room like everyone else, without holding a cup of coffee in his hand.
Wu Wang raised an eyebrow and walked to the coffee machine.
There was a yellowed sticky note on the side of the coffee machine.
It was written in neat handwriting—
[The machine is prone to jamming on Wednesday nights, click here.]
An arrow was drawn below the text, pointing to a panel on the side of the machine.
This sticky note is quite old, and the adhesive of the tape is almost gone when the corners are curled up.
But nobody tore it down.
They didn't have the strength to tear anything extra off; everyone was too exhausted, their eyes only focused on the pressure of paying off debts.
[Bai] whispered in a voice only Wu Wang could hear: "Sir, this is the same handwriting as Zhang Mingyuan's handwritten annotations!"
Clearly, this is a friendly reminder left by the other party before they become the one smiling.
This break room has provided help to countless people on countless Wednesday nights.
Wu Wang placed the cup in front of the coffee machine and listened to what sounded like a stuttering or sluggish noise coming from inside.
He casually asked the person behind him:
What day of the week is it today?
"Wednesday."
A voice in the crowd answered in this way.
He raised his hand and tapped twice in the direction indicated by the arrow. A muffled sound came from inside the machine, as if something had fallen down. Then came the normal operating sound, and a steaming cup of coffee was poured in.
Wu Wang picked up his coffee cup.
He handed it to Lao Fan and said, "Consider it my treat."
"The embers of warmth still burning in your heart deserve a toast."
He knew how to load the gun... (End of Chapter)