"I'd like to register. I may have been affected by dungeon contamination, and I need a status assessment." Zhang Anzai walked up to the front desk and spoke to the employee, who looked like a nurse.
Although almost all their employees stayed at the company around the clock, their work was so unusual—and not everyone could quickly use items from the shop to leave ordinary humanity behind—that medical care was still a necessary service.
This book was first published across the web on
This floor housed one of the more respectable parts of the Logistics Department: the Medical Department. It was practically a hospital tucked inside the company building.
He looked around. White walls, white lights, and a faint smell of disinfectant—it all felt so familiar.
"Turn left for the Dungeon Contamination Department, third room." The employee looked exhausted, as if she could barely summon the energy to speak, but she still arranged Zhang Anzai's examination.
There was a special reason for that: dungeon contamination was a serious matter.
People came here to register for only a few reasons. The first was ordinary injuries, colds, and other illnesses they could catch outside. The second was problems caused by company products, usually from buying an internal item and having something go wrong with it.
Then there was the third, which required special attention: effects caused by dungeons. These mainly affected administrators like them.
The first was fairly common, since everyone nowadays was in poor health. The second wasn't unusual either, since the company's items didn't offer benefits without drawbacks.
Take the Ox-Horse Pill, for instance. Its side effects were unpleasant. Zhang Anzai had seen a newbie who was terrified of dying wolf down three or five Ox-Horse Marching Pills, hoping to pull three all-nighters in a row and boost his performance. He'd nearly gone into shock and ended up admitted here.
But when it came to the most dangerous, the third was by far the worst.
Zhang Anzai walked down the hall to the Dungeon Contamination Department and opened the door to the third room. Inside was a space with a window, like a psychological counseling room. It wasn't as coldly decorated as the rest of the building; instead, it looked like an ordinary home.
The room was only a little bigger than a typical single bedroom. It had a desk, a large cabinet, and a medical recliner.
A long-haired doctor sat behind the desk, wearing a white coat over a casual shirt as she looked through some documents.
"Administrator Group 7, Number 01, Zhang Anzai?"
Zhang Anzai closed the door and nodded. "That's me."
The doctor's long hair was braided and draped over one shoulder, giving her a gentle, refined air. She pointed to her name tag. "Just call me Dr. Yu. Sit down and tell me what's going on."
Zhang Anzai glanced at her name tag. "Yu Xian..."
Then he sat in the chair across from her.
"You seem to be in fairly good shape," Yu Xian remarked.
That was true. Dungeon contamination referred to cases where employees watching a dungeon were affected through the screen by things like cognitive contamination, curses, or black magic.
Usually, nothing happened. But when it did, it was never a minor problem.
Among the employees who came in to get checked for it, Zhang Anzai was in pretty good shape.
"I ran a dungeon last night. There was a cognitively contaminating ghost in it. I'm not sure whether I was affected, so I came to get checked," Zhang Anzai said.
That was true. He just didn't mention that he'd personally touched two materials connected to the ghost. They might have carried more direct contamination, and that was what he was mainly worried about.
"A ghost?" Yu Xian made a note on the medical chart clipped to her board, then said, "Lie down. I'll examine you."
Zhang Anzai stood up and lay back on the recliner by the window, which resembled a dentist's chair.
Yu Xian came around from behind her desk, wheeled over her office chair, and sat beside him.
On one side of Zhang Anzai was the company's glass exterior wall. On the other sat Yu Xian, holding a medical chart and a tablet.
For some reason, he felt the sunlight in this room was warmer than the sunlight in the office or dormitory. The colors of the whole space were more soothing.
They probably designed it to help us relax... Everyone at the company knew how much pressure the employees were under.
"Put your hand on the armrest so I can check your condition," Yu Xian said, raising the broad armrest beside the recliner.
A metal panel shaped like a hand was set into it.
Zhang Anzai placed his hand on it while Yu Xian looked at the screen on her tablet.
"Did you take Ox-Horse Pills with side effects last night? Are your arms and legs weak, and are you feeling listless?" Yu Xian asked softly.
"Yeah," Zhang Anzai replied.
He was still suffering from the mental exhaustion caused by splitting his attention. His condition was probably different from that of someone who'd taken an ordinary stamina pill, so the test might not be able to identify everything. It could only show that most of the problem was caused by the medication.
"You new administrators are under a lot of pressure, but you have to be careful. Those pills sold in the internal shop have frightening side effects.
"They won't leave poison lingering in your body, but sometimes the side effects feel worse than being sick. That's especially true if you take too many," Yu Xian gently cautioned him.
Judging by his reaction, she probably thought he'd swallowed several different Ox-Horse Pills at once.
"I understand." Zhang Anzai gave a brief reply, then asked, "What about the contamination I mentioned?"
Yu Xian tapped at her tablet, then said, "I was just about to check. Close your eyes, and I'll examine you."
Zhang Anzai stayed in the same position. Then, beneath the palm resting on the armrest, he suddenly felt a strange current. At the same time, it seemed as though several fingers had pressed against his temples and forehead.
"What the—" Zhang Anzai's body twitched involuntarily, like the sudden falling sensation you got when you were sleeping badly and dreamed you'd stepped into empty space.
In reality, his body was perfectly still, lying securely on the recliner. His consciousness, however, had already stood upright in a pitch-black space, separated from his body.
"Where is this...?" Zhang Anzai looked around. Every direction stretched into endless black fog.
There seemed to be no ground beneath his feet, yet he was clearly standing there.
"Relax. Don't be nervous. You can walk around in any direction. You might feel dizzy or as if the space is shifting, but that's all normal," Yu Xian's gentle voice came slowly from somewhere far away.
"This is inside your consciousness. Newbies are almost all still ordinary people, so their inner worlds are fairly rudimentary.
"Move around for a bit. In a moment, I'll try loading a scene. If there's really something wrong with you, it should show up."
Yu Xian guided him slowly.
Zhang Anzai was amazed. He tried taking a couple of steps through the mindscape.
He looked down and saw that his own form was clear. Wherever he walked, a floor-like plane gradually lit up, replacing the emptiness.
She pulled me into my mindscape in an instant... None of the company's departments are simple.
Before you continue