Volume 1: Days Moving Bricks at the Construction Site
Blood-Colored Cement
I did not expect that among the people participating in the game, there is a great saint
The atmosphere of this meal was unusually heavy.
The old players seemed to have a tacit understanding of some kind of situation; everyone understood each other, seeing through but not revealing it. The only two newcomers, Shen Maomao and Golden Retriever, trembled as they shrank beside Xiaolou, pleading for the big shot’s protection.
After the meal, the foreman appeared again. He was somewhat eager, urging the players to quickly go to work: “I looked over by the pond, the height is already sufficient, now we just need to cover the top. You all move quickly and lay the slate on top. I’ve already driven the cement truck over, so after laying the slate, use cement to fill all the gaps. Do you understand?”
Yun Shengjin asked, “Foreman, there are no steel bars on top, how do we lay the slate?”
The foreman acted as if he didn’t hear and said, “Quickly go to work, don’t dawdle!”
As usual, the other people went to work, while Yan Nan and Shen Maomao washed the dishes.
Yan Nan found communicating with a deaf person too troublesome, so she did not mock out loud; Shen Maomao was even less inclined to communicate with her. The two silently finished everything, walking one in front of the other towards the pond.
The bricks by the pond were already as high as a person, and Shen Maomao was certain that without external help, it would be very hard to climb to the top of the wall. Not far from the brick wall, a cement mixer truck was parked.
Shen Maomao crawled to the top from the scaffold, and she did not ask them why they were not moving bricks but instead laying slate. She simply followed and learned whatever others were doing.
The operation of laying cement boards and stacking bricks was the same. Possibly the game considered that players had no experience moving bricks, so they only needed to place the slate on the bricks or join it with other slates to fix it well, ensuring that stepping on top posed no problems.
This is also too unscientific.
According to the current trend, the foreman plans to completely seal off this small pond — I haven’t heard of any community center needing such a completely enclosed wall. Combined with the mutation in the pond last night, the foreman perhaps knows something, which is why he made this decision.
The Shuitian Yise Community losing its “water” is somewhat strange to talk about.
Xiaolou laid beside her and wrote in front of her a 【slowly work】.
Shen Maomao was just about to ask why, but her mouth was covered by Xiaolou’s dirty hand.
“Peh peh peh…” She pushed Xiaolou away, softly spitting a few times.
Xiaolou pointed in the direction to her left.
She turned her head and looked, discovering that the person with a safety helmet working hard with his head down was actually the foreman!
Previously, she hadn’t looked closely or counted how many people were on the construction site, which is why she hadn’t noticed the foreman mingling among the players.
The foreman, wearing a yellow safety helmet, diligently laid the slate, more seriously than anyone else, not even lifting his head, and very quickly finished laying a small row. It seems he was really anxious, even somewhat impatient.
By the time work resumed in the afternoon, the slate had already been laid halfway from the outside towards the inside.
The foreman started the cement mixing truck, and a large pile of red cement poured out, emitting a pungent fishy smell.
“F*ck!” Shen Maomao almost fell off the scaffold.
After pouring for a while, a “ka-cha ka-cha” sound suddenly came from inside the mixer, and the cement tank stopped running.
The foreman jumped down from the truck and kicked the rear of the truck. The cement tank shook slightly but still couldn’t start turning again.
The sound inside the tank made Golden Retriever’s teeth sore. He shrank behind Shen Maomao and Xiaolou, murmuring in a low voice: “Inside…”
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Before he could finish his words, the foreman pointed at Binzi: “You kid, come help me take a look!”
Now there was no Brother Long to stand up for him, and Binzi said flustered: “I don’t know how!”
The foreman said: “No need for you to know how, just come take a look, quickly.”
Reluctantly, Binzi climbed down from the scaffold, while others stood on the slate watching him.
The foreman had him climb to the top of the cement tank to open the manhole above and see what fault had occurred inside.
Binzi looked helplessly around; no one could help him, nor was anyone willing to. He angrily spat, seemingly holding a grudge against the others for this.
Xiaolou curled her lip disdainfully, indifferent to his hostility.
He climbed little by little to the highest point, his hands trembling as he opened the manhole cover and leaned his head inside to look.
The shocking red burned his eyes, and the fishy stench made him unable to breathe. The inside of the cement tank was already a blood-red, with smooth red surfaces showing six human-shaped bulges, one stuck in the middle of the internal fan. It was precisely because of this that the cement tank had stopped running.
He took one glance and didn’t dare to look again, quickly retracting his head and kneeling on the cement tank to shout loudly at the foreman: “There’s something inside! It’s stuck…”
The foreman said, “Then you take it out!”
“I can’t… I won’t do it!” he said, about to jump down from the tank truck.
At that moment, a sudden mutation occurred.
A pair of hands covered in blood-red cement stretched out from the manhole, grabbing Binzi’s leg and directly pulling him into the cement tank.
Everything happened in an instant, and the others had not yet reacted. With a “bang,” the manhole of the cement tank automatically closed and began turning again. From inside came a piercing scream, loud enough for Shen Maomao to hear clearly.
The foreman sat in the driver’s seat and happily shouted, “It’s moving, it’s moving!” Then he pushed the switch and continued to pour down the blood-red cement.
“F*ck!” Shen Maomao’s eyes widened, unable to believe he had actually started the cement tank truck just like that.
The others were indifferent to this, coldly watching the cement tank turn over and over. With each turn, a scream would come out.
Shen Maomao clenched her fists, wanting to speak out to stop the insane foreman, but sadly realized she didn’t have enough courage. She bit her lips tightly, her body trembling from being too tense, and her feet felt like they had grown roots, unable to take a step forward despite all her mental preparation.
Xiaolou glanced at her, quickly jumped down from the scaffold, walked to the left side of the car, and pulled open the driver’s door, immediately saying: “Shut it off!”
The foreman turned his head to look at her, his gaze sinister: “There are many people inside; do you want to manage every one of them? Or do you want to go in instead?”
Xiaolou, not afraid in the slightest, coldly repeated: “Shut it off immediately!”
Shen Maomao was so moved she wanted to cry!
Xiaolou was not the meddlesome type, so her willingness to speak out could only mean she saw Shen Maomao’s struggle and fear and proactively did what she didn’t dare to do!
She quickly followed and climbed down, and Golden Retriever also jumped down from the scaffold. The two stood on either side of Xiaolou, like the most loyal guardians.
The foreman cursed and said a couple of dirty words, then pulled the switch down again.
The scream inside the cement tank abruptly stopped, and Xiaolou pushed Golden Retriever: “Go, see if the person is still alive.”
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Golden Retriever: “QAQ why is it me again?!”
Xiaolou said: “Rest assured, we will hold you.”
Golden Retriever was timid, but he excelled at being obedient. Even though he was very scared, he still chose to trust Xiaolou and climbed up to the top of the cement tank, trembling.
Xiaolou followed close behind, and Shen Maomao also wanted to climb up, but Xiaolou refused her. She pointed to her own leg, and Shen Maomao, understanding, held onto one of her legs from below.
Once everything was ready, Golden Retriever carefully opened the manhole cover, mustered his courage to look inside, and then screamed as he lifted his head.
Xiaolou asked him: “What is it?”
Golden Retriever replied: “There are seven corpses inside…”
The other six missing people were originally all here. Initially, Auntie, Glasses, Xuehua, Brother Long, Luo Xingbang, Wei Gu, and finally Binzi, fully packed and quite crowded.
After confirming that the people inside couldn’t be saved, Golden Retriever fearfully jumped down from the car. Until his feet safely touched the ground, the things in the tank didn’t reach out to grab him like they did Binzi earlier.
The foreman muttered: “Unnecessary, wasting my time…” and then started the machine again.
Shen Maomao was so angry she wanted to beat him up, and she quietly asked Xiaolou: “Can we hit the NPC?”
Xiaolou wrote in her palm: 【Don’t court death.】
Alright, it’s known that it can’t be done.
Even though there was one more person than before, the cement tank this time was not stuck at all, smoothly turning in circles on the site and pouring out the cement.
Shen Maomao couldn’t bear it and turned her head away from the scene.
Yan Nan coldly laughed: “Didn’t expect there to be a great saint among the game participants, truly rare.”
Xiaolou’s gaze coldly moved across her face, then returned to Shen Maomao.
The foreman said: “Alright, quickly put the cement on the wall, make sure every gap is covered well, absolutely no air leaks.”
The remaining four people endured nausea and fear, holding cement trowels and following the instructions.
Shen Maomao watched their actions, and a wave of sorrow surged in her heart.
If the purpose of this game is to wear down humanity, then it has already succeeded.
She looked at Xiaolou with a pleading gaze: “Sister Lou… I don’t want to do it anymore…” She really couldn’t bring herself to do it.
Xiaolou thought for a few seconds, brought her down from the scaffold, and righteously said to the foreman: “We quit!”
The foreman became anxious: “You can’t work like this! Do you still want your wages or not?!”
Xiaolou said: “We can do without the wages, but Shi Xin, your weakness is still in my hand.”
The foreman’s face turned white, and his expression was dazed for a moment. His eyes widened, as if he saw the figure of another person through Xiaolou.
Even though that person was already dead, the fear he brought him hadn’t diminished in the slightest.
Xiaolou no longer cared about his reaction, pulling Shen Maomao’s hand and taking her away from the pond.
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“Hey! Wait for me!” Golden Retriever jumped down from the scaffold, running and crawling to catch up with the two of them.
The foreman was awakened by his shout, looked at the remaining four people, and suddenly asked very democratically: “Do you also want to leave?”
Yun Shengjin was silent. He glanced at his wife beside him, who was full of trust, then looked at the relationship-broken Beidou and the expressionless Leng Bingbing, and gritted his teeth, saying: “We will stay.”
The other two men did not refute, which was considered as tacit agreement.
The first rule of the game is that you cannot directly refuse the NPC, otherwise, you will suffer a very strong backlash. They also guessed that the guiding NPC foreman in this dungeon is not a good thing, and perhaps their choice is aiding evil…
But not everyone has the courage to break old rules, walk on the edge of a blade, and fight on that line between life and death.
The scorching sunlight quickly dried the cement they applied, and the bloody smell faded a lot as a result. The blood-colored cement attracted many flies and mosquitoes, buzzing noisily around them. Even in the bright sunlight, there were decaying and vile plants slowly emitting a rotting smell.
Shen Maomao on the other side: “Sister Lou, you’re so domineering! So, what do we do next?!”
Xiaolou smiled and deliberately spoke loudly into her ear: “We must find the exit before dawn tomorrow! Otherwise, we will all die!”
Shen Maomao: “?? And you speak with such confidence?!” F*ck, can I still go back??