pertwk Chapter 7 Losing Everything in One Night
Chapter 7 Losing Everything in One Night
After a strenuous climb up the stairs, I put the key in.
Click, click.
The door lock remained unmoved.
What's going on?!
Before she could even ask a question, the landlady, wearing slippers, stepped out of the house, leaned indifferently against the door, lit a cigarette, and looked at Yang Lan with puffs of smoke.
"While you were in the hospital, you didn't pay the rent and utilities, which cost me a fortune. So now I'm renting the place out to someone else."
"Where are my things! Where are my things in my room!"
"I threw them all away a day ago."
Yang Lan spent a lot of money on luxury goods this month, but now she's getting ripped off by her medical bills.
She had hoped to continue selling her belongings to recoup her losses, but now she's been told to throw everything away?
Yang Lan froze on the spot.
It's over! It's all over now.
Isn't it said that the Meilika represents the pinnacle of human civilization?
Isn't it said that the Meilika healthcare system is advanced and provides free healthcare for all citizens?
Isn't it said that even the life rights of sparrows in Meilika are respected?
what about me?
Who respects my rights to work and life...?
The successive blows left Yang Lan feeling hopeless.
She never imagined that a simple accident would cost her her job.
Losing my job is bad enough, but losing my address is even worse. It's so unfair.
Many people may not know what a "Melica" means.
Yang Lan only learned about the importance of the address during a conversation at a tenants' party.
In the US, an address is like a second identity card.
It has the functions of classifying job levels and receiving salaries, allowing employers to judge the job applicant's level at a glance based on the neighborhood where the address is located.
Now that she has nowhere to live, Yang Lan has essentially lost her address. Without an address to receive her salary, she will fail to get a job because she cannot fill in an address.
Lost their job and lost their rental housing.
Losing their address makes it impossible to find a job, and losing their source of income makes it impossible to afford rent.
This is a vicious cycle that will keep spinning once you get caught in it!
The cycle eventually leads to falling into the death trap and becoming one of the homeless people Yang Lan observed during her postpartum period.
Yang Lan left helplessly, feeling physically and mentally exhausted. For the first time, she began to doubt the world that Meilika had sung about.
Is this truly the pinnacle of human civilization?
However, what she didn't know was that her own hellish scroll had only just begun to unfold...
*
*
*
Copy space.
Labilins, sitting in front of the big screen, was equally confused, but was greatly shocked to see the negative energy value next to the live broadcast screen skyrocketing.
How exactly did the parade executioner manage to do it?
A mere bill or an accident can cause someone to lose their job and their home, unleashing more negative energy than death itself.
Labyrinth observed it.
Yang Lan alone lost her job and address after being discharged from the hospital.
In three days, a total of 200 points of negative energy were provided, and Labilins was so excited he almost jumped for joy!
You should know that the more negative energy she collects when the dungeon is successfully completed, the more commission she will receive and the better the rewards will be.
The average output per player in the 30-player D-level test dungeon is almost comparable to that of the average output per player in the A-level horror dungeon.
The white demon clenched her small fists excitedly, looking at You Xing with seductive eyes, a bold idea popping into her mind.
What is the concept of an A-level horror dungeon?
In the real world, the beautiful and terrifying dungeon "Survival Crisis" and the cherry blossom country's "Silent Ridge" are both famous A-level dungeons.
Tens of millions of participants lost their lives in the competition.
Now you're telling me that a dungeon where no one dies generates more negative energy than a long-running A-level horror dungeon?
Anyone else who said these words to Labyrinth would have thought it was a fantasy.
But now, she is witnessing a historic moment firsthand.
Excluding the first month which provided players with an immersive experience, in just three days, negative energy levels soared from 0 to 500, with no sign of stopping.
"You Xing, can you tell me how you did that?"
Labilins turned his head and stared at the executioner, his tone serious and earnest.
One accident is an accident, but when a group of people are involved in an accident, it's no longer an accident.
What truly terrified Labyrinth, this mid-level demon, was this:
In the past few days, the participants have experienced a series of accidents, leading to an outpouring of negative energy.
The only ghost in the instance, the Free Ghost, is in the same room as them—or more precisely, the kitchen next door—cooking for the Rangers and the Administrator.
Let's not even talk about inducing, deceiving, or intimidating the participants.
Throughout the entire process, it was either cooking for Youxing and itself, or it was learning and observing in its own little space as instructed by the dungeon designer.
There was absolutely no intervention in the copy.
Even more Zen-like than the ghosts outsourced from horror dungeons.
The question was asked by the designer, You Xing, who assigned him the task.
The entire instance ran entirely on its own, without any ghostly interference, and surprisingly achieved results comparable to A-rank instances.
How exactly... how did they do that?!
"Administrator, do you still think this was a coincidence?"
"But how did you design this? The dungeon ghosts, you, and I—three people who can control dungeons—are all here observing. Do you have other control methods?"
The executioner turned his head and looked at the free spirit.
Feeling the trust in the administrator and designer's gazes, the little devil's face flushed with excitement.
He stepped forward and explained.
"Report, this was actually designed from the very beginning of the horror instance!"
"Oh? Tell me about it."
Labilins' eyes showed a hint of surprise.
"For example, Yang Lan chose a female office worker who has been binge eating for many years."
"Most white working-class people prefer to rent small attics on the 2nd or 3rd floor, which requires them to go up and down stairs every day."
"She suffers from high blood pressure and diabetes, and her joints are fragile. She can easily become unsteady on her feet if she is not careful."
At this point, Labilins had basically understood the design scheme behind Yang Lan's hospitalization.
"What about renting an apartment and finding a job?"
"Let me explain this," You Xing said, taking over the conversation.
"In the end, the beauty industry is a society where capital calls the shots. Yang Lan's loss of her job was destined the moment she fell and was hospitalized."
"But I never expected her to be so stupid as not to pay the rent."
You Xing strictly followed the Meilika rental system, designing it to be paid weekly. His initial idea was that Yang Lan would be kicked out of the apartment because she couldn't afford to pay rent after repeatedly failing to find a job.
She has officially fallen into the death row.
Little did anyone know that Yang Lan's level of abstraction exceeded expectations.
After hearing this, Labilins shook his head awkwardly, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.
No wonder people say reality is more abstract than fiction. At least fiction has some logic, but reality doesn't at all!
She completely forgot about something so important, even though the system had kindly reminded her about the rent!
"What about the contestant who chose a Black person?"
"He caught the flu while showering and was forced to go to the hospital; that must have been a coincidence, right?"
Seeing that Yang Lan's negative energy had stopped increasing, the three quickly turned their attention to the others.
After watching it a few times, the White Demon has established a reflex arc where "sending to the hospital" equals triggering "killing" and a surge of negative energy.
The question immediately hit the nail on the head.
The black contestant went to the hospital for a cold.
Yang Lan previously stated that her fall was caused by her own diet and illness.
The contestant in front of us is a Black man, a healthy, strong, tall guy, without any illness or pain, and there is no record of him smoking marijuana in his records.
A perfectly healthy person.
I can't let you set me up, can I?