The Sheep-Faced Manager

Yu Xing circled the changing room, then checked himself over once more.

There was a lone key in his apron pocket. A crude sticker on it read "44," so Yu Xing used it to open locker 44, where he found his regular clothes and phone.

There was nothing unusual about them. The phone powered on normally, and he gave it a quick look. No matter how he examined it, it was just an ordinary person's phone.

The memo app was completely empty and offered no information.

Unwilling to give up, Yu Xing searched back and forth, and finally found another note tucked between the folds of his regular clothes.

[Who... who am I?]

The handwriting trembled. Whoever had written the note had been far from calm. The words were strange, too. Why would the person who wrote it have forgotten who they were?

No, the real question was, why had the waiter he was playing—a first-day employee—forgotten who he was?

If he thought about it seriously, Yu Xing could almost lay out every logical chain that followed from this clue.

That included the possible role his character played in this simulation, as well as the kind of mental contamination the barbecue restaurant might inflict on people.

But he didn't.

He even deliberately emptied his mind, pretending he hadn't seen the clue.

After all, he couldn't interfere with someone else's simulation.

Might as well give up completely, then.

He'd go through the simulation mission naturally in this role. At least that way, he might still have a little fun.

Yu Xing pursed his lips, stuffed the note into his apron pocket, and shut the locker. There were only five seconds left before the mission began.

He seemed to vanish from the spot, swept out of the changing room like a gust