Rules for the Deliveryman

"Why?"

Liu Zheng asked.

"Giving the reason is prohibited."

Cow-Horse shook his head.

"Fine. What other rules are there?"

"Second, do not leave the break room unless you have an order."

Cow-Horse continued.

"Then how do we handle biological needs?"

"Staff meals will be placed in your locker on time every day. As for using the toilet, you can only make time for it while delivering food."

Cow-Horse shrugged.

"That's pretty humane."

Liu Zheng nodded approvingly.

"Be grateful. If the owner hadn't changed, you wouldn't even get staff meals. You'd only get scraps and slop."

Cow-Horse caught the sarcasm in his tone.

"When did we change owners?"

Thinking of that bewitching noblewoman, Liu Zheng hurriedly pressed for an answer.

With Si Xue's presence, she was either the big boss or a key NPC.

"Three—"

Cow-Horse stopped after uttering a single word.

His thick lips clenched together unnaturally, and his body stiffened as though he had been injected with an overdose of sedatives.

Yet his eyeballs trembled violently, bloodshot and bulging.

A fishy, rank smell rushed into Liu Zheng's nostrils. He looked beneath Cow-Horse and saw a puddle of dark yellow liquid on the floor.

Liu Zheng realized something unexpected had happened, but he knew too little right now.

Rather than panic, he might as well wait and see.

"Bang."

Five minutes later, Cow-Horse's eyeballs finally stopped trembling.

And the first thing he did after returning to normal was kick Liu Zheng with a hoof.

The force was like that of a heavy truck. Liu Zheng had no way to Block it and was sent flying straight into the wall.

"Cough!"

Liu Zheng retched, a sweet metallic taste rising in his throat.

"You bastard, you almost got me killed."

Cow-Horse cursed furiously.

"I didn't do it on purpose."

Liu Zheng explained.

"I know. Otherwise, you'd already be dead."

Cow-Horse snorted.

"Remember, don't ask about the owner again."

"Got it."

Liu Zheng nodded.

He tried to stand, but a sharp pain shot through his chest, making his vision go dark.

That kick had broken at least three of his ribs.

"You're done for, human boy."

Cow-Horse looked at him with pity.

With such serious injuries, Liu Zheng could not possibly handle the job.

Is this really a beginner dungeon?

Liu Zheng complained inwardly.

One wrong word could trigger a death flag, sanity could drop anytime and anywhere, and the only NPC he could communicate with might kill him at any moment.

If this was the average difficulty of a beginner dungeon, then this game's survival rate was truly worrying.

"I'm done for, but what about you?"

He coughed as he spoke.

"You'll have a hard time delivering all the orders by yourself, right? Besides, no one will give you massages anymore."

Cow-Horse stared at Liu Zheng with bloodshot eyes, trying to find even the slightest sign of weakness beneath his calmness.

However, Cow-Horse found nothing.

"This is the first time I've seen a human like you."

Cow-Horse muttered, then walked over to the wall lockers.

He spat out a key and opened one of the lockers.

Liu Zheng saw a photograph pasted to the inside of the locker door. It appeared to show a Cow-Horse wearing a maid outfit.

"Drink it."

Cow-Horse hooked out a bottle with his horn and dangled it in front of him.

The translucent glass bottle contained more than half a bottle of cloudy, viscous liquid. Countless hairy worms swam within it, appearing and disappearing from view.

"Name: Ascension Hair Moss 53°"

"Type: Item"

"Quality: Fine"

"Effect: Rapidly restores the user's injuries, slightly increases Strength and Constitution, slightly decreases Spirit and Perception, with a chance of entering a drunken state."

"Note: Ingredients include sorghum, wheat, water, hairy bloodstained worms, Feces Moss, and things you don't want to know about."

"Quality rankings from lowest to highest: Inferior, Common, Excellent, Fine, Perfect, Legendary, Epic, Mythic."

"Ascension Hair Moss."

Liu Zheng accepted the bottle, his expression turning subtle.

He had the distinct feeling that the system was hinting at something, and he had proof.

Without much hesitation, Liu Zheng twisted off the cap and took a huge gulp.

A pungent smell like concentrated hydrochloric acid made his head spin, but what made him even more uncomfortable were the worms crawling down his esophagus.

Their mouthparts gnawed at the muscles and mucous membranes along the way, then they sprayed sticky vomit to heal the damage.

The painful, itchy sensation finally stopped only after they were completely digested by his stomach acid.

That brief torment alone would have been enough to make even the most stubborn spy spill everything.

After the pain came a rushing warm current that quickly filled his body.

Liu Zheng could not help scratching at his exposed skin. He felt his entire body swelling up, like a stuffed and roasted suckling pig.

"Intense, right? This is good stuff I secretly got my hands on. You got lucky."

Faced with Cow-Horse's bragging, Liu Zheng only found him noisy and simply opened his character sheet.

"ID: Liu Zheng (modifiable)"

"Level: lv1"

"Strength: 17"

"Constitution: 15?"

"Spirit: 9"

"Perception: 8"

Strength and Constitution had increased by 3 points, while Spirit and Perception had decreased by 2.

Stat-wise, he had come out ahead. And he had not entered a drunken state, so his luck was fairly good.

He touched his chest. His broken ribs had already healed, though they still ached faintly.

No medicine in reality, no matter how expensive, could achieve such an effect. Yet here, it was merely a Deliveryman's private stash.

It truly was a game meant to select the extraordinary.

Liu Zheng felt a little more anticipation for the future.

"Remember, you owe me two thousand."

Cow-Horse said, thoroughly ruining the mood.

"How much do we get paid?"

Liu Zheng asked.

"One thousand a month, plus bonuses."

"Fine. I'll pay you back at the end of the month."

Liu Zheng agreed readily.

Debts that did not need to be repaid always felt good to owe.

"Then let's continue with the work."

Oxhead nodded, as if nothing had happened just now.

"Third rule: you are forbidden from speaking to the people preparing the meals."

"What if they prepare the wrong meal?"

"Then put it back on the meal cart, return to the break room, and wait for another meal to be prepared."

Oxhead replied.

"Understood."

Liu Zheng noticed that Oxhead had said speaking was forbidden, not communication.

"Fourth rule: after 7 p.m. every night, loud noise is strictly prohibited."

"Fifth rule: do not reveal anything about the Bloodstained Restaurant to outsiders, and do not reveal anything outside the restaurant to employees, except me."

"Doesn't this overlap with the third rule?"

Liu Zheng asked.

"You just can't speak to the meal preparers. You can still talk to the other employees. But I suggest you keep your distance from them, so you don't bring trouble upon yourself."

"That's about it. As for not stealing food from deliveries, not adding ingredients to them, and delivering them on time, I won't go into those. You should understand them yourself."

Oxhead licked his lips, seemingly a little thirsty from all that talking.

Liu Zheng immediately shoved the bottle into his mouth.

Oxhead raised his head and drained the remaining liquor in one gulp.

"Since you're such a quick learner, I'll give you one more reminder."

"Be bolder when you're outside. You're a restaurant employee."

He raised a hoof and patted Liu Zheng on the shoulder.