Work

Lin Nieran smiled and said, "Trust your brother. If you follow them, your time to leave this place won't be long."

Lin Yi nodded, hesitated for a moment before raising his hand from beside his knee and patting Wang Ding on the shoulder.

Wang Ding turned to look at him, Lin Yi suddenly blurted out, "Are you guys sent from outside to investigate this place?"

One sentence left Wang Ding and An Ying completely bewildered.

"You don't seem like you're homeless, nor do you seem like you've been abandoned by your family," Lin Yi said firmly, his dark eyes fixed on them.

His voice wasn't quiet, Qin Rang, sitting in front, turned around and echoed, "So where did you come from? What's your purpose?"

The four children, who were not yet aware of their own background, paused for a moment and then unanimously chose to lie.

"Actually... actually, we snuck out. We just wanted to eat and drink freely, but we got kidnapped."

Wang Ding quickly recounted, "Later, luckily, Tao Yuan pretended to be unwell to send those people away, and we took the opportunity to escape. We then encountered people from the Orphanage, who took us in."

Seeing how detailed his explanation was, Qin Rang nodded in belief.

Tao Yuan also pretended to be sad, lowering her head to wipe away tears from the corners of her eyes, which were devoid of tears. She spoke in a childlike tone, "We all regret it. We shouldn't have run away like that. We don't know when Mom and Dad will find us."

Upon hearing this, Lin Yi no longer doubted them. There were other children in the Orphanage who had similar experiences; some had genuinely run away, while others had been lost by their parents.

He lowered his head and thought for a moment, then asked thoughtfully, "If a reporter comes and takes pictures of you on screen, will your parents see the news and come here to take you away?"

Upon Qin Rang's eyes lit up, and he looked at Tao Yuan and the others expectantly.

Wang Ding was just making things up; he had no family at all. He was trying to brush it off when he suddenly realized there was something more to their words.

What is a "reporter," and why were the two so happy, even expectant, about the arrival of a "reporter"?

If this place is truly good and without problems, why would they expect to be exposed by reporters, and why would they expect to leave after being found by their parents?

Wang Ding and Tao Yuan exchanged only a glance, and they immediately understood that their thoughts were completely aligned.

There's only one possibility: something's wrong with this Orphanage, and that something must be related to their current Instance mission.

"Of course they will, they'll definitely find this place!" Having figured this out, Tao Yuan nodded decisively.

A hint of joy flashed in Lin Yi and Qin Rang's eyes, as if they had reached some kind of consensus.

The brief moment of relaxation lasted only half an hour. Soon, the announcement for class came over the loudspeaker. Seeing many children getting up one after another, the group prepared to leave as well.

Qin Rang grabbed them, saying, "You're both D-Rank, and I'm C-level. Neither of us is qualified to attend class. Only B-Rank -B-Rank and above are allowed to attend. This announcement isn't for us."

Lin Yi remained seated on the steps, head held high, and said to them, "We'll wait until they're all gone. You'll be with us then, so talk less and do more. You don't have many points left to lose."

"Good."

There are two relatively tall buildings in the Orphanage. One is the main building in the center of the Orphanage, where they rest, eat, and pray. The other is the Church and their workplace, which is some distance away from the main building.

They were heading to the building next door, which was just as tall as the main building, but only had two floors. The Church was on the first floor, and C and D's offices were on the second floor.

Ascend the dilapidated stairs outside the Church on the first floor, push open the stairwell door, and the spacious second floor comes into view.

There were no partitions; the square room contained only wooden crates that stretched as far as the eye could see, along with piles of various colored fruits that resembled rugby balls.

On the walls of this floor, there are also signs that read "Grade C" and "D-Rank".

Lin Yi led them inside, deliberately slowing his pace to give them time to react.

The other children gradually came in and started working.

Beside them, two messy-haired children carried two empty boxes taller than themselves, filled them with fruit in front of the pile, and then lifted the boxes together to carry them back.

Some children formed a small circle, some carrying boxes, some filling them with fruit, and some using tools to crack the fruit open.

The group looked very carefully, afraid of missing any important clues about the Rules.

An Ying looked at it and it seemed more and more familiar. "This is... an assembly line factory?"

Although there were no machines operating, the way these children were busy was just like the work style in an old factory.

Qin Rang explained to them in a low voice, "These are all Cocoa Pod, picked by F-level people. We need to process these things well today; the sooner we finish, the more rest we can get. If we don't finish, we won't have dinner."

Mi Chuchu asked, "What about lunch?"

"Lunch is for people of higher rank," Lin Yi said. "We only have two meals a day."

Qin Rang stopped in an open space. "Let's stay here today."

Lin Yi glanced at the distance between this place and the pile of fruit. It wasn't close, but it wasn't too far either. Qin Rang chosen a place that wouldn't attract envy or lead to theft, nor would it require traveling too far and wasting time and energy.

"Good."

Lin Yi skillfully dragged the box to fill it with Cocoa Pod, then pulled it to the spot they had chosen to sit down and began processing the Cocoa Pod inside.

He skillfully cracked open the Cocoa Pod, scooped out the pulp, removed the Cocoa Beans, and then carefully separated the pulp from the shell.

Qin Rang also walked over to Lin Yi's vicinity, packed a box of Cocoa Pod, and started working.

An Ying looked at the mountain of Cocoa Pod piled high, then carefully examined Lin Yi's hands.

His hands weren't exactly beautiful; they were thin and rough, with thick calluses on his fingertips and numerous scars on the backs of his hands.

He then looked at Qin Rang's hands, which were in no better condition.

For some reason, An Ying felt a tightness in her chest.

Tao Yuan sighed, "Let's begin too."

The four of them also filled a box with Cocoa Pod nearby and began working diligently.

Seeing that Lin Yi was working diligently, Lin Nieran went to look around but didn't see his own cards there.

Aren't they D-Rank?

Or was it someone else's turn?

[Host, do you think they might not just stay here and obediently knocking Cocoa Pods?] 007 asked.

"That makes a lot of sense."

The thought that Puppet had also arrived but hadn't made a move yet gave him a bad feeling.

I always felt that he was doing something bad in some way that he didn't know about.