Death Spiral [Infinite Flow]

Chapter 52 Part 2 – Butterflies in the Stomach 2

When they finally got to the entrance of the factory, they saw several towering buildings standing in the open space. From the entrance they couldn’t see the roof. There were people in guard uniforms guarding the factory gates and the beret man warned everyone that they are not allowed to leave the factory privately during working hours. They were also not allowed to arrive late or leave early. Everyone nodded.  It seemed this factory was the main venue of the instance.

As soon as they entered the factory, they felt a wave of heat. Flames swayed across everyone’s faces, reflecting everyone’s look of surprise. It turned out that at the center of the factory was a huge molten pool. The orange-red liquid was slowly flowing through the pool. The conveyor tracks on both sides continuously poured unknown objects into the molten slurry. There were pipes below to transport the molten slurry to other locations.

Above the molten pool, there were countless huge gears that connected into each other. Steel bars of different thicknesses were connected to the gears. All the steel bars extended to different places and finally disappeared in the darkness. It was unknown where they went. When the gears rotated, these steel bars also worked together at their respective frequencies and angles. The mechanical gear converts the power provided by the steam into mechanical energy, thereby driving the operation of the entire factory, forming an original and sophisticated industrial production line.

Everyone was shocked by the simple and rugged industrial panorama until the beret man yelled at them. After that everyone came back to their senses.

“What are you all in a daze for! Come and say hello to the foreman!”

At that point everyone noticed that there was another small middle-aged man beside the beret man. This man had a foreign face. Although he was small, he has very strong muscles. The clothes on his chest and arms are tight and he looks a lot like a giant mouse that escaped from a laboratory.

The foreman looked fierce. He interrupted the beret man and spoke a few words in English coldly.

Some people in the team couldn’t understand what he was talking about and asked nervously. The beret man immediately translated: “The foreman said, now that the contract is signed, to not waste time and go to your workshop to begin working immediately!”

Everyone whispered again.

“What? Start work? Are we really going to work here?”

“It’s terrible here, I want to go home…”

“Let’s just listen to the NPC and work here for a day. Otherwise, what else can we do?”

Everyone was chattering and arguing. Suddenly, the rat-like foreman drew a whip from nowhere and slammed it against the ground. Snap! A huge whip reverberated inside the factory, shaking everyone’s eardrums and immediately silenced them all.

The foreman sneered and glanced around. He cursed in an extremely unfriendly tone. The beret man on the side looked a little ugly but he didn’t translate what the foreman said. He just half-heartedly coaxed them by saying: “Okay, okay, don’t make a ruckus, go to work obediently.”

Everyone looked at each other, feeling speechless. The beret man took a piece of paper handed to him by the foreman and led everyone to their workshops.

There were already several workers working in each workshop. Everyone was shocked at first glance, thinking that there are so many living people hidden here. A closer look revealed that these workers had numb expressions and stiff movements. It turns out that these are not real people but wooden dolls wearing worker costumes!

The clothes on their bodies were covered with black oil stains and their bare fingers and wrists were all spherical joints. They did not respond to the crowd’s arrival, but mechanically repeated the simple actions of screwing and oiling.

The jointed puppets worked in silence. Only the rumbling sound of mechanical crawlers could be heard in the workshop and everything else was very quiet. However, the quieter it was, the stranger the atmosphere became.

The girl assigned to the first workshop was a newcomer named Zhang XiaoXiao. When she learned that she had to be alone in this workshop for eight hours, she immediately protested.

“No, no! I’m here for the first time… This is my first time…” She was so anxious that she almost cried, looking at the nine teammates around her. However she didn’t know who to turn to for help. “Please, I beg you, don’t leave me alone, I’m so scared…” 

The beret man waved his hand impatiently, ignoring her cries.

Zhang XiaoXiao immediately slumped on the ground and started crying. However, before the cries even had time to ferment, the foreman on the side suddenly raised his whip and walked towards her.

Xu RenDong couldn’t stand it anymore and was about to step forward to help but was suddenly squeezed away. He was stunned and discovered that the man who had chatted to him earlier pushed everyone aside and walked towards the girl.

“Don’t be afraid.” He first calmed the girl in a low voice and then made a “stop” gesture at the eyeing foreman. He said in fluent English, “Don’t do that please, be a gentleman.” 

The foreman was surprised. Looking at him, he seemed very surprised that a migrant worker could speak English. Fortunately, he did not continue to embarrass the girl but cursed in a low voice and let the beret man handle the matter.

The beret man walked up to the two of them with an unhappy look and stared at the girl: “What are you doing? Weeping and crying! If you want to cry so much, do it when you go back!” 

The man who had intervened pulled the beret man over and seemed to be negotiating something with him. The beret man quickly compromised and said impatiently to him: “Then you stay here! The others, follow me!” 

The girl was taken aback and looked at the beret man with tears in her eyes. She didn’t quite understand what he meant.

The man who had intervened helped her stand up and said in a gentle voice: “I told him to change my work position with yours. There is also a girl in my workshop, so you won’t need to be alone.” 

The girl was very grateful and thanked him profusely. Soon she became uneasy again: “Then what will happen to you if you are here alone? Didn’t you say… didn’t you say that you could die…” 

The man smiled at her: “It doesn’t matter, anyway I’m a man. If anything happens, I can run faster than you.” He turned his back slightly to everyone and seemed to say something else to the girl but his voice was too soft for everyone to hear. The girl nodded vigorously, her eyes flashing with excitement.

As a result, the man was left alone in this workshop.

Xu RenDong feels that this person was quite gracious and knew how to take care of women and disadvantaged people. He was neither reckless nor cowardly when facing fierce NPCs. He solved things beautifully and tried his best to cooperate with others. At this point, he suddenly remembered that he still didn’t know the name of this person but it was a pity that the beret man kept urging everyone forward so he couldn’t turn around and ask.

He would just call him: “the gentleman” for now.

Soon everyone was assigned to their corresponding workshops. There wasn’t any problem with not knowing what to do, they just had to follow the joint dolls in the workshop. Xu RenDong and a man with glasses were assigned to the boiler room. The task of their group is the simplest. Just monitor the boiler and avoid explosions.

Before the beret man left, he solemnly warned everyone that they was not allowed to leave their workplace during working hours. The foreman would be patrolling everywhere. If he discovered someone being lazy, he would have the whip ready. 

After the beret man and the foreman left, only Xu RenDong and the man with glasses were left in the boiler room. Xu RenDong looked around the environment here and discovered nothing special. He was just about to ask the man with glasses for his opinion when he discovered to his surprise that he was actually sitting on the ground with a thick book in his hands.

Xu RenDong said in shock: “What are you…?” 

The glasses man pushed his spectacles and said helplessly: “I’m about to take an exam soon and I don’t want to fail it. See how I’m so bald? It’s because I’m a hardworking medical monk. Take pity on me oh great boss and just let me be a salted fish.” {Salted fish = someone that is lazy.}

Xu RenDong discovered that although his appearance was very young, his hairline was already very dangerous thin. He really was only a step away from baldness.

Xu RenDong was speechless for a while. The medical student ignored him and devoted himself to memorizing the book: “Ginseng tastes sweet and nourishes vitality, quenches thirst, promotes body fluids and regulates nutrition… Astragalus… Astragalus…” He looked down at the book and continued to recite, “Astragalus heats up the sweat and consolidates the surface, sore can produce muscle qi deficiency…” 

Xu RenDong listened in silence for a while then couldn’t help but say: “You study Chinese medicine?” 

The medical student said: “You got it. More specifically, it is a combination of Chinese and Western medicine.”

Xu RenDong: “Then why don’t you prescribe some Chinese medicine to replenish your  hair… Uh, nourish your kidney?” 

The medical student glowered at him, “Heh, do you think I’m not eating it?” 

In the next second, he burst out suddenly. He threw the book in his hand on the ground and stomped his feet: “Isn’t it just that the fucking speed of repairing hair that can’t keep up with the speed of hair loss! Ah?! Integrated Chinese and Western medicine! God fucking Integrated Chinese and Western medicine! The end of term examinations for the Chinese and Western medicine courses are going to do me in! Fucking Chinese medicine and Western medicine is about to split my personality!” {LOL I feel like this is the author’s own thoughts hahahaha…}

Xu RenDong was startled by him. The next second, the medical student bent down again to pick up the book. He patted it briskly and then embraced it religiously. He mumbled: “Forget it, passing is the most important, passing is the most important…”

Xu RenDong: “…” It felt very sincere.

Seeing that the medical student was obsessed with studying, Xu RenDong didn’t bother any longer. He directly took out his mobile phone to talk to Lian Qiao. He briefly summarized the information he had so far and asked: How is your situation over there?

Lian Qiao: My side is a battle for inheritance. We play the role of detectives to find the murderer of the old patriarch. The progress is very fast and three people have already died.

Xu RenDong was shocked: Three people have died in just over one hour?!

Lian Qiao: One NPC and two teammates. The teammates ran out by themselves and we couldn’t stop them. The butler shot them in the head and they fell into the sea.

Xu RenDong: What about the NPC?

Lian Qiao: It was the housekeeper who was thrown into the sea by my headshot.

Xu RenDong: Your headshot? Where did you get the gun?

Lian Qiao: I snatched it from the housekeeper… Oh, you didn’t see it. The scene was a bit chaotic at the time. I was afraid that you would get dizzy so I removed Lamia’s eyes.

Xu RenDong: …. Killing the NPC as soon as you go in, aren’t you afraid of missing key information?

Lian Qiao: It’s okay. When I pointed the gun at the head of the housekeeper, he quickly said everything he could possibly say.

Xu RenDong: …

Lian Qiao: I don’t have to be circumspect when questioning other NPCs now. After all, I have a gun.

Xu RenDong: …

He suddenly felt that he was stupid to have worried about Lian Qiao. So he straightforwardly accepted Lian Qiao’s kindness and listened to him analyze his instance for him.

Lian Qiao: There is a foreman on patrol… hm, let me think about it. The foreman does not allow you to be lazy at work, so if he catches you during the patrol, then he will whip you. The beret man also only said “You are not allowed to leave your post during working hours” but he did not set a quota for the work you need to complete. Besides that, Brother RenDong, your boiler room position has no output at all so you just need to leave the medical monk to watch over things. So actually you can leave your post to explore the factory, as long as you avoid the foreman. However, there are guards at the gate so you can only explore the inside of the factory and cannot go out.

Xu RenDong: Yes, that’s what I think too.

Lian Qiao: It’s best to come here to take a look at the factory again at night. If you can escape the guards and enter the factory, you can explore freely without being disturbed.

Xu RenDong was a little surprised. He didn’t expect this.

Lian Qiao continued typing: The instance clearance prompt is the “butterflies in the stomach”. We already know the literal meaning but we still can’t guess what it is  exactly hinting out…. But the sound of it makes my insides churn and it doesn’t feel good. Brother RenDong, you have to be careful.

Lian Qiao’s words were stern. Xu RenDong couldn’t help but nod, but then he stopped and calmly typed the word “En” into the phone.

Lian Qiao: Big boss, how is my performance this time! Is it better than the previous two instances?! ~~~~

Looking at the rippling waves, Xu RenDong had already envisioned the appearance of Lian Qiao raising his tail high and begging for praise. Xu RenDong raised the corners of his mouth slightly and there was some tenderness in his cold and handsome eyebrows. The smile on the lips was like spring water and the clearness of the ice melted with a little warmth and sweetness.

The medical student on the side glanced at him inadvertently and suddenly he was taken aback.

Fuck, why is this man so good-looking?

It’s over, it’s over, he’s about to be bent….

The medical student hurriedly buried his head back in the book, beginning to memorize it with his undivided attention and daring not to look up again.

Xu RenDong was unaware of this. After contacting Lian Qiao, Xu RenDong put away his mobile phone and said to the medical student who was sitting on the ground: “I’m going out to explore the factory. You will stay here to watch the place… uh, to memorize your book.” 

The medical student looked up, startled, and clasped his hands in a solemn thankful gesture. “I am grateful!” He immediately lowered his head and immersed himself in the ocean of knowledge.

Xu RenDong found the Swiss Army Knife from his backpack, held it in his hand, and took a deep breath. As he was about to leave the sultry boiler room, the corner of his eye suddenly caught a figure at the end of the corridor. He immediately retreated subconsciously and closed the door smoothly.

Leaning behind the door of the boiler room, he listened carefully to the heavy footsteps outside, getting closer and closer…

The foreman was coming.