All Reset

Yu Xing walked slowly towards the front hall, encountering no one along the way, and the front hall was also quiet.

The dim lighting in the corridor made the place feel eerie.

Yu Xing pondered for a moment.

As someone new to the simulation, even if he wasn't required to do anything by the system, he should at least have a general understanding of the instance, such as... what his role as a waiter was supposed to be.

Yu Xing confirmed his identity based on his appearance, but otherwise gave him no further clues.

The system spoke again just as he was about to reach the end of the corridor.

[There are two roles in this event: guest and server]

[You are a first-day employee at a barbecue restaurant. Please follow the supervisor's instructions.]

[Task 1: Leave the changing room within one minute and proceed to the lobby to greet the new guests.]

The notification came a little late; Yu Xing was almost at her destination, and the system seemed to have become clumsy.

Without stopping, he walked through the hanging curtain, and his view suddenly opened up.

It's so quiet...

The lobby was deserted and empty because it hadn't started receiving guests yet.

There was only one woman standing at the cashier, her face bearing a warm yet stiff smile, which looked quite eerie at first glance.

The woman spotted Yu Xing immediately after hearing his footsteps.

It was obvious that there was a moment of terror in the woman's eyes; she may have mistaken him for a red ghost.

But the woman quickly calmed down, staring warily at Yu Xing, and asked in a low voice, "Are you... are you human?"

Yu Xing blinked blankly, then realized. "I am, I am... are you also a strategist?... Auntie?"

The woman wasn't angry at being called "Auntie," she just let out a long sigh of relief, "That's great, I've been waiting here for several minutes and no one has come, it was terrifying."

"A foreman with a sheep-like face came to check on me just now. Luckily, I remembered the employee rules—you have to smile, otherwise I don't know what he might have done to me!"

At this, the woman trembled all over, as if she were terrified.

Yu Xing pondered the information in the woman's words. So, the woman had already met the foreman, and the foreman was a sheep-faced ghost?

The woman's composure suggests she's a formal participant in the simulation, not just a candidate.

Thinking this, Yu Xing asked curiously, "Where did the foreman go?"

"It seems to have gone to the kitchen." The woman peeked nervously into the kitchen corridor entrance, and after confirming that nothing was coming out, she said worriedly, "It said it was going to check if the chefs had finished preparing."

Yu Xing instinctively felt that something was wrong, but he deliberately ignored it and took the opportunity to look around the front hall again.

A clock hangs on the wall behind the cashier, its hands pointing exactly to seven o'clock.

"Da da da..."

The sound of hurried footsteps suddenly came from behind Yu Xing. He glanced at the man out of the corner of his eye and saw a man dressed just like him.

The man was plain-looking, but his features were harmonious, and he seemed like an easy person to get along with. He came running over, his face covered in cold sweat, but his eyes lit up when he saw them. He then leaned on his knees and gasped for breath.

"Thank goodness I made it in time." He said in a low voice, full of relief.

A man in a suit with a sheep-like face slowly walked out from behind him.

The man was a full two meters tall, and his presence was extremely imposing. His sheep-like face wore a serious, almost human expression, conveying a sense of contempt from a superior towards a subordinate.

"We were almost late. Remember to leave earlier next time."

The Sheep-faced leader snorted coldly, "And remember to keep smiling."

"Okay!" The man snapped to attention, and a stiff smile instantly appeared on his face.

The Sheep-faced leader remained noncommittal, then turned his gaze to Yu Xing.

Where is your smile?

Yu Xing plays the role of a newbie, belatedly trying to salvage the situation, trembling with fear while smiling.

He glanced at the supervisor's name tag.

Zhang Xiaowei?

The foreman actually has a name, which means he has a story. If he's bored, he can go and find out more about this foreman.

The foreman was barely satisfied and ignored the three of them, walking towards the entrance of the barbecue restaurant, leaving them with his tall back view.

Almost as soon as the supervisor turned around, the woman and man both breathed a sigh of relief. The man quickly went to the cashier and whispered to the woman, "That was terrifying, I felt like I almost died..."

"Yes, yes, so this is what ghosts are... This is my first time playing Yugi..."

"Me too, I don't even know if I'll survive, sigh."

"My son is waiting for me outside, I have to survive!"

Their whispers were not meant to guard against Yu Xing; rather than a quick exchange of information, they seemed more like a way of venting their fears.

Yu Xing listened, her feeling that something was wrong grew stronger.

Both of them are candidates? But they seem very skilled, not at all like complete novices.

Also, since the three of them are all here, the rest of the people are guests, right?

The manager removed the lock from the barbecue restaurant's door, revealing the dark sky and empty streets outside.

Yu Xing listened to the ticking of the second hand, she felt a subtle sense of disorientation.

I had a feeling that he had a strange familiarity with the barbecue restaurant, and both candidates seemed to have worked there for a long time, not like it was their first day.

Instinctively, he reached into his apron pocket and touched the note that read "Who am I?"

Although the guests hadn't arrived yet and nothing had happened, he already had a vague, ominous premonition, a dark and heavy feeling hanging over his head.

But soon, the outside world became noisy, attracting Yu Xing's attention.

Suddenly, a large number of people appeared on the street, and customers began to enter the barbecue restaurant. Behind them, a large number of animal-faced waiters, whom they had not seen before, suddenly emerged from the corridor, as if the world, which had been frozen in time, had suddenly come to life.

Yu Xing's eyes were filled with a dark light. While smiling at all the guests, she slowly walked towards the door.

The foreman stood there, like a greeter.

He spoke up, "Foreman, may I bother you for a moment?"

The sheep's face then turned around.

The sheep's face was unreadable, its black, pebble-like eyes fixed on Yu Xing, and a chilling aura instantly ran down his spine.

The other person remained silent.

Yu Xing gave him a genuine, very sunny smile.

"I see there are already enough staff inside, so why don't I be the greeter? The guests will definitely like my smile, and I'm quite good-looking."

There are different kinds of laughter.

Compared to those stiff smiles, Yu Xing's appearance, which seemed to radiate stars from the inside out, was truly endearing, even melting the supervisor's serious expression.

"Okay, you're very good." The supervisor patted him on the shoulder. "Then you can stand here and greet the guests. Remember, always keep smiling. If we bring in a lot of guests today, you'll get a bonus."

Yu Xing smoothly changed positions, almost too hastily.

Actually, the greeters should have been wearing suits like cashiers, but neither he nor the supervisor paid attention to that. He just stood there at the boundary between the gate and the outside world, and looking ahead, all he could see was a bustling crowd of animal people.

In the distance, the lights shimmered, making it look like a bustling pedestrian street, just like in the real world.

The sky was overcast, there was no moon, but it wasn't weather that looked like it was about to rain.

The supervisor gave him a few instructions, then turned and went back into the store, I wonder which post he was planning to inspect next.

Yu Xing stood ramrod straight. Now that there was no one else around, he stopped pretending to be a newbie and greeted the pedestrians with ease.

Quite a few people did enter the barbecue restaurant because of his laughter—as for what such laughter meant to the customers, Yu Xing didn't know, and he planned to leave the question to other deducers to explore.

The reason he wanted to change shifts was because he had a nagging feeling that he wanted to see something more exciting.

It seems that by greeting guests here, he can achieve his goal.

Soon, his expression shifted, and he looked to his right.

A group of eight people approached, their human faces standing out conspicuously among the animal faces.

What's even more striking is the demeanor of this group; the more relaxed and carefree the animal faces around them are, the more dejected this group appears.

The leader was a young man with a serious face, while the middle-aged man in a suit next to him looked anxious.

And then...

Yu Xing's pupils contracted when she saw who was behind her.

He saw Qu Xuanqing, which was expected; Qu Xuanqing was most likely a guest.

But beside Qu Xuanqing, a tall young man walked with a pale face and pursed lips, as if he too was trapped in unease.

But he knew it was an illusion; no one could possibly understand the expression on that face better than he did.

Because that was him.

That was clearly his usual half-hearted pretense, just something he did to join in the fun and tease the newcomers.

No, that's not right. How could he be in the queue of guests?

There was also a woman at the cashier's counter, and a male waiter...

Everyone is here.

In that instant, Yu Xing felt as if she had stepped into a parallel universe, seeing herself in that universe from the perspective of an observer.

Time – is there something wrong with time?

Yu Xing's sensitivity to the word "time" instantly put her on alert.

That's exciting, definitely exciting.

He was now a greeter, and before he could even cover his face, his eyes met those of himself in the queue of guests.

Error! This is a timing error--

Yu Xing's heart pounded, but she found that nothing had happened.

Another version of himself smiled subtly at him; his deep blue eyes held no hostility, yet seemed to be both provocative and intrigued.

Qu Xuanqing glanced at him indifferently, without any expression, as if she was not surprised by the appearance of two versions of him.

Others reacted very strongly.

The leading boy stopped abruptly, his eyes widening in surprise as he scanned back and forth between himself and Yu Xing, the boy in the group.

"What is this? A doppelganger??" (End of Chapter)