The Wolf Is Fierce and Cautious

The factory had a lot of workers, roughly several thousand.

An old employee only took a few dozen of them, assigning them to different places for various tasks.

Newcomers like Zhao Yi, who entered the steel processing plant on their first day, were given the simplest job:

—Weeding.

They were responsible for cutting away the rusted plants on a giant lawn within the factory and continuously spraying a quick-healing agent on the plants.

Zhao Yi, along with two fellow specters, Zhang Ming and Ying Xiong, were tasked with transporting the rusted grass to the smelting furnace.

As they reached the outskirts of the vast lawn, the sun was gradually rising from behind the clouds, tinged with a reddish hue like an undercooked egg yolk.

On the lawn, dozens of specters were preparing their tools to start working.

According to the agreement, they must not step on any normal green grass while removing the rusted grass.

If caught, they would immediately lose their eligibility for the employee of the month award and might even be expelled from the steel processing plant!

So, these specters worked cautiously, afraid of accidentally stepping on the grass.

Their tools varied in length, whether knives or scissors, all were clean and smooth, capable of mirror-like reflections.

The delinquent specter from earlier was also among them.

In just about seven or eight minutes, Zhao Yi's cart was fully loaded with rusted grass, and he began heading towards the building housing the smelting furnace, as per the work protocol.

This novel is available on bit.ly/3iBfjkV.

On the way, Zhao Yi carefully examined the grass inside the cart.

Aside from the rust naturally growing on the grass, what was more bizarre was the obvious rust stains appearing at the freshly cut edges...

...

[Rust: Neutral]

[Note: What are you thinking... it's just ordinary rust.]

...

"The rust grows so quickly on the wounds... The rules say not to leave any wounds on the surface, so the infection factor likely comes from invisible tiny particles in the air, similar to a virus, and the skin can block the spread of this virus..."

Zhao Yi recalled his rules, the first few were all about preventing the employees here from getting infected.

This wasn't good news.

Any confrontation, battle, or minor accident could easily lead to wounds.

Once a wound is exposed to the air, it means it could get infected.

What happens if rust grows on the body...?

Zhao Yi's eyes filled with intense curiosity.

He pushed the cart into the smelting room.

It was completely different from what he expected.

The room was empty and spacious, but there was no furnace.

Three conveyor belts stretched to the entrance.

At the end of the conveyor belt was a giant decaying human head, about thirty times the size of a normal human head!

The decaying head's mouth was wide open, with sharp teeth covered in rust.

Whenever something passed through its mouth, it would be crushed by those sharp and dense teeth!

The neck below the head was long, resembling a highly retractable pipe, extending below the ground into pitch-black darkness.

Zhao Yi arrived beside the conveyor belt, ready to unload the items from his cart.

At this moment, an employee approached.

The employee looked unwell, wearing thick gloves, and placed all the rusted grass from the cart onto the conveyor belt.

"Every day it's these damn rusted things..."

The employee cursed, seemingly deeply resentful of it.

A chaotic aura emanated from its entire body.

Zhao Yi carefully observed the specter in front of him, noticing a slight tremor in its arms while moving the rusted grass.

The thick gloves seemed to be filled with something, with no indentation at all.

His gaze shifted to an abandoned table nearby.

There were some thumbtacks.

Some still had traces of blood on them.

Zhao Yi walked over, picked up a blood-stained thumbtack, and placed it in his inventory.

"Are these supposed to be melted too?"

The employee responsible for handling rusted items turned his head and cursed:

"Melt my ass!"

"A few days ago, some idiot put non-rusted items here, without any special markings, packed in a burlap sack!"

"I've told them countless times, these sharp things that can easily leave wounds on the body must be specially marked and packed in transparent air bags... Damn idiot!!"

The employee cursed incessantly, growing more agitated, and something seemed to change about him.

Zhao Yi carefully observed him.

His gaze was slightly puzzled.

Everything seemed normal.

But just now... he was sure something about the other person had changed.

What was it?

Zhao Yi shook his head, pushed his cart away, and prepared to return to the lawn to continue loading rusted grass.

The sun was fully out now, its scorching rays accompanied by heat, shining down on everyone. At this moment, Zhao Yi suddenly felt something on his body melting.

It was very uncomfortable.

And the longer he was exposed to the sun, the more intense the feeling of emptiness inside him became.

It was as if... he had lost something particularly important.

Sweat dripped down his back.

He looked down.

He found that his shadow... was gradually fading under the sun's scorching rays, as if it were about to disappear!

His body also felt increasingly thirsty.

Without hesitation, Zhao Yi began searching for a shaded area away from the sun.

Because there were many factory buildings, finding such an area was not difficult for Zhao Yi.

He pushed his cart to a wall, crouching down.

Avoiding the sunlight.

The emptiness gradually subsided.

He no longer felt thirsty.

He looked at the distant lawn, bleached white by the intense light, where the specters continued to work diligently, their shadows unchanged.

Ironically, a group of specters was not afraid of the sun at all, yet he, a living person, had to avoid the sun and seek shelter in the shadows.

"The shadows of these specters haven't changed at all, not fading... Is it because I'm human, or because..."

Zhao Yi was puzzled, continuing to observe his surroundings.

Their group of new employees consisted of 56 people, and Zhang Ming and Ying Xiong, who were responsible for transporting rusted grass with him, were nowhere to be seen.

At the edge of the distant lawn, there was a lone cart.

"It seems they also went to avoid the sun... So it appears that the rules for different projects may not be entirely the same."

Zhao Yi remained silent for a while, reaching out to test the scorching sunlight.

His barely visible shadow gradually returned to its original form.

"Color..."

Zhao Yi murmured, his gaze focused.

"Yes... it's the color."

"The person in the smelting room, the color of their blue uniform had faded..."

"When I went in, their clothes were already lighter than ours, and when they were talking to me, their clothes faded even more..."

Why would the color of the clothes fade?

As Zhao Yi pondered, someone approached from a distance.

No one paid attention to him.

The employees working on the lawn had a heavy workload today, all busy looking for rusted grass.

If today's work wasn't completed, it would affect their evaluation as outstanding new employees!

Zhao Yi squinted, watching the person walk towards the unattended cart by the lawn.

Then, just like that, he pushed it away.

That guy was neither Zhang Ming nor Ying Xiong.

It was someone... wearing gray clothes.

Walking with a limp, struggling to move that lame leg, as if it was particularly heavy...

PS: Buying groceries, last night, taking a dump, writing.

Thank you all for reading!