What Sweatshop?

After Su Wen walked out of the Mental Review Bureau's gates.

He clearly saw Jiang Menghan sitting beneath the shade of a tree in the distance.

The girl was holding a book and reading intently.

But before he had gotten much closer,

she gently closed the book, as if she had anticipated this moment all along, and asked:

"Did everything go smoothly?"

"Compared to being an extraordinary individual, I was first and foremost a Legal Citizen protected by law."

He answered with a smile.

"Could it be that Miss Jiang wanted me to do something else in the Special Affairs Bureau that would make the headlines?"

"I wasn't that bored."

Jiang Menghan looked at him with clear eyes.

"If you made the headlines, it would probably be because of that illogical hero complex of yours from before."

"That was a decision I made after careful consideration."

(I was worried about a stubborn girl who had turned off her phone.)

Su Wen did not say the rest aloud.

He merely took the unopened bottle of drink from beside the girl with complete ease,

then asked her as he twisted open the cap:

"What are you reading?"

"A collection of Shelley's poems."

The girl answered calmly, then added:

"Also, the newspaper in your hand is already outdated."

Su Wen did not quite understand what Jiang Menghan meant.

He opened his phone and saw the little red notification dot had already reached 99+. Only then did he realize he had probably missed something again.

After all,

the major media outlets had already been flooded with it.

Just like the previous hard sci-fi feature film, it was another wave caused by that mysterious contributing company, Azure:

But this time, it had released a documentary:

Night Watch, Awaiting the Dawn

Aside from the scene where he saved Count Reinhardt, the most unforgettable shot was the ending: that handsome Europa gentleman leaning against a wall in the burning banquet hall, watching the dawn gradually rise beyond the window.

Rhine Mr. was so handsome.

He was my dream man from now on.

Who filmed this documentary?

If I had been there, I definitely would have fallen in love with him.

The person above, watch your words. Rhine was my husband.

That was a standard firearm stance, and even while moving, he was completely unaffected by the Angle Offset caused by recoil. This Night Watch had definitely received training.

The documentary's comments were everywhere.

The overwhelming majority were praise.

Perhaps many people could not understand what the documentary was trying to convey.

Just as people in England did not make reading The Times their first priority at breakfast every morning, The Guardian, with its lighter, brisker style and stronger appeal to the scientific community and younger readers, might be more popular instead.

Looking at those comments,

Su Wen silently nodded.

"For the first time, I discovered someone whose looks were second only to mine as a male lead."

"Vulgar."

Jiang Menghan gave his remark a highly pertinent assessment.

"What was wrong with being vulgar? I thought you were especially beautiful too, particularly when you were reading."

Su Wen looked at the girl beside him, speaking with two parts teasing and three parts sincerity.

"Really."

"Idiot."

Jiang Menghan closed her book. Her fair, beautiful face flushed slightly, and she turned her head away and said softly:

"It would have been better if you hadn't added those meaningless qualifiers."

As for those words,

Su Wen did not know whether he had heard them.

He smiled gently and said:

"After all, I had never changed. What are you planning to eat later? You decide."

"The glutinous rice balls from that shop across from the high school."

"Miss Jiang, how many times have you eaten there already? Weren't you tired of it yet?"

"No."

The two of them were just like they had been in high school.

He had risked getting beaten senseless by Jiang's father, a former soldier, to greet Jiang Menghan beneath her apartment building at night.

Then, amid the early autumn plane tree leaves scattered across the street corner, the two of them would go to that familiar shop and order some affordable handmade desserts, along with a steaming roasted sweet potato.

Back then,

it seemed to have been that same shop.

Time passed quickly.

Due to the confidentiality regulations, news of Su Wen being an extraordinary individual had only circulated within a small circle for a while.

Then it was completely eclipsed by the release of Night Watch, Awaiting the Dawn and the Westminster Equality Act.

He did not particularly care about that.

After all, if there was no danger of death,

Su Wen only wanted to lie in bed and rest.

Just as he browsed news on Twitter and Facebook about Grandma Smith's dog breaking through to the first extraordinary rank and speeding around in a Ford,

the Time Travel Game's countdown, which had not moved for ten days, began turning once more:

15 natural days remained until the Player's scheduled time of death.

Countdown started.

Would you like to begin the game?

He had no choice but to send Jiang Menghan a message:

"Help me ask for leave. I won't be going today."

"Get some rest."

Miss Jiang's reply was concise and clear. She neither asked what had happened nor suspected that he had overslept again.

Su Wen liked that kind of tacit understanding.

He turned on his computer and prepared to begin the game.

Coastal Dismantler

Game Type: Construction Simulation Game

Real-Time Duration: Eighteen Days

Game Difficulty: Low

Game Background:

Time: Early Origin Era,

Location: East Asian coastal region, North Pacific Ocean advance point.

...

Due to the upwelling of deep-sea geological veins, a tropical vortex gradually formed at the oceanic low-pressure center and moved toward the East Asian coastal region as a hurricane.

Although the meteorological bureau had intensified its public warnings,

the super hurricane Hurricane Ewiniar abruptly changed its route due to the displacement force of the Spiritual Energy Tide.

It swallowed the returning Globetrotter ruins research vessel. The ancient virus it carried, Ilofenchi-Type 3, rapidly replicated its genetic information while left unattended.

This laid the Plot Hook for the later Information Contamination incident, Sleeping in the Deep Sea, and Song of Death.

Game Objectives:

One Star: Use discarded materials to construct the target buildings (four structures) as cheaply as possible.

Two Stars: Reduce the hurricane's impact or rescue the Globetrotter in time. (Choose one to complete.)

Three Stars: Hidden objective.

Note: Achieving the minimum rating will prevent the Player from dying in reality.

Trial Ability: Basic Modular Construction (Trial)

You heard a message borne by the sea breeze.

This game was different from the previous adventure games.

When Su Wen's screen loaded, he found himself before a roaring mechanical scrapyard.

But before he could begin operating anything,

a digitized contract document popped up before his eyes:

Please agree to every clause below.

I have no criminal record on Earth, the Moon, or Mars. (Border Regulations ETR-03 also apply.)

I have not participated in any undesirable organizations, such as unions or mutual aid associations for workers.

I will complete the basic daily work requirement of sixteen hours with a positive mindset and abundant positive energy.

I can adapt to a working environment with prolonged high-decibel machinery noise and "relatively low-risk conditions."

Do you confirm that you wish to join Schlote Heavy Industries?

What kind of sweatshop was this?

Even a production team's donkey probably could not handle it.

Only an idiot would agree to that.

Su Wen looked at the so-called "friendly" reminders one after another.

He decisively clicked "No."

Are you sure you wish to give up?

The roar of ventilation fans from an abandoned machinery recycling plant also came from the background audio.

The Death Countdown before his eyes seemed to have been covered by a dusty gray filter as well.

Did they think I would fall for it just because they set the mood like this?

After repeatedly clicking the grayed-out "No" button more than a dozen times to no effect,

Su Wen realized

that he really had no way around it.

"Fine, you win."

He clicked the "Confirm" button, which was three times larger than the "No" button.

Congratulations. You have successfully been employed by Schlote Industries.

Please promptly begin your work as an abandoned machinery recycler.

Looking at those words,

Su Wen raised his right hand before the screen and made an internationally recognized gesture of "friendship."

"Just you wait, Schlote Heavy Industries.

Once I finish this game, get ready to receive the righteous reports of the people."