ghost on paper

Chapter 3 Dangerous consecutive words
Early the next morning, when Anton saw Truman who arrived at the station at eight o'clock, his expression was a little complicated.

An apprentice who is too good may threaten his status.

"There is a special job for you, and the pay will be double." Anton said to Truman, "Are you interested?"

"Of course..." Truman was about to agree, when suddenly the corner of his clothes was pulled.

Turning around, Truman saw a girl with golden hair and white skin. Due to lack of nutrition, her hair was dry and dull, and she looked very thin, but her pair of blue eyes were still bright.

Truman knew her, her name was Lilith, and she was another apprentice.

The apprentices working in the workshop usually stay in their cubicles and work silently without communicating with each other. Only the pain and howling when the "share" runs out will be heard by others.

Although Lilith wanted to stop him, Truman still accepted this special job.

"This is a set of consecutive words, which must be translated within a day to make sense. You have such strength, so I will give you this job." Anton said.

'Consecutive words' are the barriers and fortresses in the mysterious text. If you only translate one of the words, you can't get the complete meaning, and it will be forgotten the next day, so the translation must be completed within one day.

For ordinary apprentices, this is a difficult, dangerous, and impossible task.

For Truman, the possibilities are high.

Especially today's Truman, the effect of the invigorating potion he took on the other side of the earth last night was boiling in his brain, and his perception was as sharp as a needle.

It is a great discovery that the biotechnology that acts on the human body on the earth can be brought to this world.

It is also a great benefit of Truman's journey through time.

……

Truman and Lilith walked into the corridor of the workshop one after the other.

If this dark corridor is like a gateway to hell, then the streets of the city outside the workshop are hell.

In this winter, too many unemployed and bankrupts in this city have become beggars, and a large number of frozen corpses are sent to the outside of the city by carriage for burial every day.

Had he not found the job, Truman might have been one of those corpses.

So everyone has to work hard.

When passing through his cubicle, Truman was about to go in, but was pulled by Lilith, and Truman looked at Lilith suspiciously.

There was pity and determination in Lilith's blue eyes, Truman was moved by this look, it was rare for him to see such human eyes in this world.

They went on and walked through another five or six cubicles.

Truman never walked this corridor to the end. It is unfathomable, and it seems that the number of cells cannot be counted.

Only one house number marks the difference between the grids.

Lilith brought Truman to a cubicle marked with the number '0518', and then pushed open the door of this cubicle.

The door slid open slightly, Truman looked into it defensively, and then he saw a strange candle...

It should be a candle. It is very tall and has a strange shape like a Christmas tree. It is almost as tall as Truman, and its whole body reveals a kind of waxy white.

Truman looked at Lilith strangely, this girl who was a head shorter than him, looked a little young because of malnutrition, and whispered at this moment: "That job you had originally belonged to him."

……

Until he sat in his cubicle, the huge candle still appeared in front of Truman's eyes.

Lilith said very little, she has always spoken very little, and all the apprentices speak very little, but Truman can still understand what she said, what she means is that if the translation of this 'continuous word' cannot be completed Work, and it becomes a stick of wax.

It's a little ridiculous, but Truman thinks it's true.

Human beings who have lost all their "shares" will not only degenerate into beasts, but may they also become non-human beings...?
Lilith is reminding Truman not to accept this job.

But it was too late. After Truman received the job, if he didn’t complete it, Anton would not give him another job, and there was no “basic salary” for the position of apprentice, that is to say, Truman could no longer get paid .

In this cold and ruthless city, not being able to work without pay is tantamount to slow suicide.

In the end, perhaps because of the potion, Truman was now full of confidence in his ability to complete the job.

He picked up the more complete piece of pottery, and began to clean the dust on the pottery with a small brush, sweeping out the traces of writing that must have existed on it.

When focusing on a job, the time passed quickly. When Truman translated the first word "seven", it was not yet 12 o'clock at noon. He hurriedly copied the word on the parchment with a quill pen .

The pens, ink, and parchment used by the apprentices in the workshop are very expensive, and it is a good idea to steal them for money, but no good ends for the apprentices who dare to do so.

After translating the first word, Truman felt that he had a lot of 'share' left.

The existence of "share" is difficult to accurately describe, but it can be accurately measured. The measure is whether you can think clearly.

So Truman took the bread and bacon prepared by the landlord and finished his 'rich' lunch with a little rum.

On Earth, the single way for Truman to feed his stomach is to order takeaway food. In this world, work is even busier, so he can only ask the landlord to prepare meals for him, and the price is 1 gold coin per month... no, 1 gold pound.

The currency of this world is composed of gold coins, silver coins, and copper coins. The names are gold pounds, silver orders, and copper kellers, and the exchange ratio is 1:20:200.

Now Truman can earn about 10 gold pounds a month, which is considered a "high salary" in this city, so he can afford the "landlord's special offer" of 1 gold a month.

Even though Truman knew that the price given by the landlord was not cheap, the food was not delicious either.

……

At 3 o'clock in the afternoon, Truman got the second word "star". At this time, his "share" was not much, but his body and spirit were still invigorated. The stimulant brought from the earth lasted unexpectedly long.

"The effect is surprisingly good..." Truman muttered.

Even so, it is still a challenge to get the third word.

Truman endured the anxiety and uneasiness in his heart caused by the reduction of "share", and continued to clean the dust on the third word with a small brush.

The origin of these pottery pieces is very mysterious.

It can also be said to be the biggest secret of this workshop.

If you can figure out their origins, you may be able to figure out the Extraordinary system of this world. In the entire workshop, only the workshop owner has this knowledge.

Only by approaching the workshop owner can one have the opportunity to gain access to this knowledge.

……

8 pm.

It's time to get off work.

There is no rest from 8 in the morning to 8 in the evening, self-provided food, and no basic salary for piecework wages. If on earth, capitalists who make such regulations will be suspended from street lights.

But in this world, this kind of work is the golden bowl that not everyone is entitled to.

Every apprentice who walks out of the workshop can get at least 6 silver orders per day, 8 gold pounds a month, and about 100 gold pounds a year, which is much higher than the income of farmers.

In this city, only reputable silk merchants, cloth merchants, and medicine merchants can make so much money a year.

Holding her 6 silver tokens today, Li Lisi wandered around the workshop, unwilling to leave, because Truman's cubicle was still tightly closed.

Anton was also paying attention to Truman's cubicle door.

If Truman chose to rest for three days before returning to work after returning home last night, then Anton would worry about Truman's health.

But when Truman came to work the next day, Anton would worry that Truman was too healthy.

So Anton chose to hand over the dangerous work of a 'continuous word' to Truman. So, can Truman complete it?

Or will it be like other apprentices, because the 'share' is reduced enough to resist those 'pollution', and become weird candles one after another?

At this moment... Guang suddenly appeared.

Those lights are very, very bright, flowing out of the cubicle like something tangible, passing through the feet of Anton and Lilith, passing through the feet of the apprentices who have not left, and then flowing to other areas of the workshop, always Flowing to the eyes of the mysterious workshop owner.

(End of this chapter)