Non-Human Seeking Re-employment

(Be A Little Friendlier)

Plague City.

When you hear the name, you would think of gloom, chaos and corpses littered all over the dilapidated city, and zombies gnawing on the remains of bodies would be hidden at every turn of the corner.

But the Plague City before them was sunny and bright with a fragrance diffused in the air.

There were many small houses erected in the city, painted in different and stark colours and small animals ran around the streets. The types of animals were countless too: like rabbits, cats, leopards, fawns… It seemed like the Creator had abandoned the natural habits and characteristics of how these animals lived and piled all sorts of creatures together, allowing the city to become that of a zoo.

The strangest part of it all, however, was that in spite of the numerous animals, not a single sound was made.

The Plague City was extremely quiet; quiet to the point where it was exaggerated.

But now was not the time to explore.

The group followed the orange cat and walked into an empty house.

The house was not painted, revealing the grey hue of cement, and it seemed incompatible with its colourful surrounding.

Having completed its task, the orange cat left the players without looking back.

Someone did attempt to catch the cat to ask it questions, but the orange cat was agile despite its large, pampered size, and in a short moment, it exited through the window and disappeared without a trace.

Thus, leaving nine people standing in the main hall, and some of the irritable participants could not help but curse at the game.

It did not matter whether the game was good or bad, but could it at least leave them some clues?

Wu Jia raised the registration form that was on the table of the main hall. "We should probably be filling this up?"

All of a sudden, everyone's eyes were directed towards him.

The large registration form that Wu Jia was holding was blank and there was only one name written on it.

However, to say that there was only one name was not exactly accurate; upon closer scrutiny, it could be seen that numerous names had been crossed out before it had faded into translucence, while the three characters "Lu Xiaozhen" were still in black. Looking at the registration form, it listed that she was staying in the room 204.

Wu Jia made a guess, "Could she be a player from the last round?"

She was unexpectedly the last one alive even though so many players have come and gone.

All of a sudden, someone made an 'ah' noise and pointed at one of the names that had been crossed out: "I knew this person. I haven't seen them in a long time, but it turns out that they lost their lives in this copy."

Once that was mentioned, no one dared to sign it.

The nine were divided into small groups, and as they inspected the registration form vigilantly, they were whispering to each other and exchanging their thoughts.

The old players have always been more circumspect than new players who would have kicked up a fuss.

After a period of discussion, some decided to sign it while others planned to wait and see.

Shen Dongqing hugged his bag and queried: "Should we sign it?"

Zhou Wenyan did not hesitate in the slightest: "Sign it."

Within a few seconds, two names appeared in the same grid.

Zhou Wenyan's handwriting was a little wilful with his last pen stroke deliberately dragged out while Shen Dongqing, by virtue of the fact that he was not used to a pen, wrote his name with increasing seriousness and it turned out round and straight like a schoolboy's handwriting.

But when their names were placed together, they were surprisingly harmonious.

When Wu Jia saw his oldest brother signing it, he signed his name below as well.

In a short moment's work, several names were added to the registration form.

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There were three floors in the building: the first floor consisted of the main hall and the kitchen, and the second and third floors had a total of six rooms.

Considering how Lu Xiaozhen from the previous round was occupying one room, the remaining five had to be shared between the nine players present.

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It smelled floral.

With one glance, they sighted a bunch of fresh flowers on the table but its breed and strain was unknown. It was pink and white and it looked quite cute as it swayed with the wind.

As soon as Shen Dongqing entered the room, he dropped his backpack and fell onto the bed.

"So soft and—"

He hugged a soft pillow and started rolling around.

After being subjected to a long journey on the bus, Shen Dongqing was fatigued from the travelling, and his body sunk into the soft bed, not even willing to move an inch.

Zhou Wenyan spoked with an extremely indulgent tone: "Then you can rest first, we're not in a rush."

If the others heard what he said, they would probably pull out a question mark slowly.

How could he say that they were not in a rush when they were in a dangerous place?

Shen Dongqing nodded and retrieved his phone as he continued to lie on the bed. Unfortunately, this Plague City did not have internet and it did not have a place for him to charge his phone. Thus, he could only keep his phone again.

Meanwhile, Zhou Wenyan walked around the room and picked up a piece of paper that had landed in the corner.

When he flipped it over to look, he realised it was a newspaper.

Zhou Wenyan blew away the dust that had accumulated on its surface.

The newspaper was quite old; its edges were yellowed and most of its words were mottled and illegible, save the bold headlines.

《 Residents in the City have been Contracting a Sudden Illness,  Hospital Beds are in Short Supply 》, 《 Star Fortune Teller: For your horoscope, peach blossom, and future divination needs, please go to Venus No. 244 for more details 》, 《 Black Cat Heralding Disaster? Utter Nonsense! Please Believe in Science 》, 《 The Cathedral is open to residents every Sunday 》…

Zhou Wenyan read through the newspaper repeatedly but he could not find any useful information, and he could only put away the newspaper for now.

Just then, a terrible scream rang out from upstairs.

It was a fellow player.

Shen Dongqing immediately sobered up.

Zhou Wenyan said, "I'll go and take a look, you…"

Shen Dongqing jumped up instantaneously with an expression brimming with vigour as he raised his hand to say, "I want to go too!"

By the time the pair reached the source of the commotion, the other players had already crowded the corridor.

Wu Jia had arrived at the scene of the crime relatively quickly to check out the situation and he was leaning against the wall with an ashen pale complexion. When he saw Zhou Wenyan, he told him weakly, "I suggest that you don't look…"

However, Zhou Wenyan did not listen to his advice, and he walked over to peer at it.

A corpse was lying on the floor of the room.

No, it should not be called a corpse when its entire body was a mess of flesh and blood. Most of its white bones and organs were scattered on the ground and its original appearance was beyond recognition.

Since such a thing happened, the deceased's roommate was frightened to the point of incoherence.

Even though that was the case, there were still people tugging on the deceased's roommate, asking a myriad of questions because they were deathly afraid of committing the same taboo as the deceased.

"What did you do when you entered the room?"

"Did they happen to encounter something?"

The deceased's roommate was also confused.

According to him, they had not done any extraneous actions after they had divided up the rooms and went upstairs. It was after he had entered the toilet that he heard the deceased screaming outside of the door. Hence, he hid in the toilet, only daring to come out to take a look when the others had arrived.

Out of the blue, Zhou Wenyan said, "He didn't sign."

Judging from the clothes that the deceased was wearing, it happened to be one of the players who had chosen not to sign their names.

When he said that, the others started remembering that fact.

After seeing the tragic situation the deceased landed himself in, the people who hadn't signed panicked and they swiftly ran down to register their names.

Within a short while, the people in the corridor dispersed, leaving only the incomplete body.

Shen Dongqing wandered over to take a look.

Subconsciously, Zhou Wenyan tried to pull him back, afraid that he would be scared by the sight.

But Shen Dongqing was not afraid, and he even analysed the body: "He was probably bitten by a wild animal."

Zhou Wenyan: "Wild animal?"

Most players died in the hands of ghosts and monsters, grotesque or fantastic in shape and appearance, and it did not lack in variety.

Therefore, no one would question the cause of death of the deceased.

Shen Dongqing said, "It could be a wild dog, look at his wound."

Zhou Wenyan looked at where he was pointing at. Sure enough, it did resemble a wound that only a wild animal could inflict.

Wild dog…

"Where would such a wild dog come from?" Wu Jia muttered.

Zhou Wenyan unconsciously thought of the small animals outside.

Meow—

A black cat jumped onto the windowsill from the outside.

All the players were gathered in the main hall.

Some of them were signing in a hurry, afraid that they would turn into corpses if they were a step late while others had their heads lowered as they discussed their next course of actions.

"I think we should go and find the surviving player from the last round and ask her what she knows."

"But she didn't come down."

"Let's go upstairs and find her then."

In a series of footsteps, the group trod up the stairs.

Wu Jia moved his chair until it was by Zhou Wenyan's side: "Boss, I think what they said is quite logical."

Zhou Wenyan eyed him, "En?"

Wu Jia replied, "Lu Xiaozhen might have some information."

Lazily, Zhou Wenyan said, "Not necessary."

Wu Jia asked curiously, "Why?"

Zhou Wenyan: "Because too many people have done so, and I don't want to do the same thing as others."

Wu Jia: ……

"What are you going to do then?"

Zhou Wenyan stood up and slipped both of his hands into his pockets: "What are you asking a player for? Wouldn't it be better to ask the NPC directly?"

Tentatively, Wu Jia said, "Boss, do you know cat language? When did you learn that foreign language?"

The guide here was an orange cat. Apart from it, he could not think of another NPC.

Shen Dongqing's eyes brightened as well. "Really? You know how to speak to cats?"

Zhou Wenyan lowered his eyes to look at Shen Dongqing and slowly said: "Meow—"

The meow was very cute but it was not congruous to Zhou Wenyan himself.

Rather than a cat, he was more similar to that of a leopard. Once he became serious, he would bite at the throats of his enemies.

Shen Dongqing tilted his head: "Meow? What did you say?"

Zhou Wenyan chuckled. "I said 'dummy'." He ruffled Shen Dongqing's hair, "Wasn't there an NPC outside?"

Now that he mentioned it, the memory clicked.

There was a little lady in charge of registration outside of the city as well.

The place they were staying at was not far from the entrance of the city and there were several yellow and green buildings between the two points.

The city gates were opened when they came in, but now it was shut tightly, as if you could only enter but you could not go out.

They happened to chance upon the little lady who was packing up her work and she had her head lowered as she walked away quickly.

Zhou Wenyan gave Wu Jia a look: "You go."

Wu Jia asked, "Why is it me again?"

Zhou Wenyan: "Men and women have differences."

Well-played, with such a solid and strong reasoning, it was impossible for Wu Jia to refute.

Hence, he could only roll up his sleeves and rush forward.

Zhou Wenyan even gave him a warning: "Don't be too rude, be a little friendlier."

The principle of using diplomacy before resorting to violence was something he still understood.

Wu Jia felt that his advice was correct and he plastered on an amicable smile before he stopped in front of the little day.

The suddenness of another person appearing before her startled the little lady, and she immediately turned around and ran when she saw Wu Jia.

Wu Jia froze. "Am I that scary? I even smiled on purpose!"

Shen Dongqing nodded: "Scary."

Zhou Wenyan commented, "You're not friendly enough."

Wu Jia: "Go ahead, please demonstrate."

Zhou Wenyan no longer chaffed, and he immediately did a run-up. His long legs stretched and he leaped onto a balcony of a one storey house. After taking two or three more strides, he flipped himself and landed in front of the little lady.

His movements were clean and handsome.

"Don't be afraid." Zhou Wenyan opened with a kind smile.

The little lady stood rooted to the ground and looked back. Behind her, two people were obstructing her way out and they were wearing "friendly" smiles as well.

"We are not bad people," Wu Jia emphasised.

Shen Dongqing nodded and echoed, "Uh-huh."

The little lady: "……"

Then, her body swayed as her eyes rolled to the whites, and she collapsed to the ground unceremoniously.

Zhou Wenyan touched his chin: "Were we being too friendly?"