Employee Handbook

The staff member in black knew he was already a lamb to the slaughter.

He had no leverage to bargain with Su Chen.

He might as well leave a good impression.

Perhaps Su Chen would keep his promise rather than go back on his word.

With that, the man in black picked up the Employee Handbook and handed it to Su Chen.

Seeing how cooperative the man was, Su Chen felt fairly satisfied.

He was quite pleased with the man's attitude.

He took the handbook, smiled at the man in black, then lowered his head and began reading carefully.

Employee Handbook

Our zoo offers exceptional employee benefits, including overtime pay at ten times the normal rate, generous annual leave, and insurance for all employees. We hope you will work diligently while keeping the employee rules firmly in mind to ensure your own safety. Life is precious, and you only get one. For your family's sake, please protect yourself and obey the following rules.

1. If you discover escaped rabbits, do not attempt to catch them directly or approach them. Lure them into the lion enclosure and leave the rest to the white lions.

2. There is only one path in the ape enclosure. If a visitor reports seeing two paths, lead all visitors who have already entered the enclosure onto the path on the left and close the entrance. Once all visitors have left, seal off the ape enclosure for at least ten minutes.

3. If, while inspecting the elephant enclosure, you notice that the elephant you are observing looks significantly different from the elephant depicted on the sign, stop observing it and repeatedly tell yourself that a real elephant is the creature depicted on the sign, not the one you see.

4. If you work at the beverage shop, check the shelves once every hour. If you discover "Rabbit Blood" that has appeared out of nowhere, immediately put it away and store it safely.

5. Trim the bushes in the rabbit enclosure once a month. Avoid leaving any shaded areas in the enclosure whenever possible.

6. Our zoo has no Aquarium. If a colleague mentions the Aquarium to you and insists that it exists, end the conversation immediately. That colleague is no longer the person you know.

7. If you see the Aquarium, do not enter. Tell yourself that it does not exist and leave immediately.

8. Feed the rabbits once every seven days. Do not feed them any snacks other than the designated food.

9. If you hear laughter in the rabbit enclosure that clearly does not come from the direction of the visitors, tear the last page out of the Employee Handbook along the dotted line and hold it in your hand. Then go to the elephant enclosure and throw the page onto the grass inside. Other staff members will know what happened and will not blame you for littering.

10. If a visitor asks you for help, claiming to have violated the visitor rules, immediately escort that visitor to the lion enclosure. Along the way, you may encounter colleagues wearing black uniforms who attempt to take part in your work. Refuse and ignore them. They are not your colleagues.

11. There are only four white lions in the lion enclosure. If the number of white lions suddenly rises above four, take out the "Rabbit Blood" and show it to them, then splash it onto the first white lion that immediately runs toward you. Once you have done all this, leave immediately. Do not keep watch over the extra white lions during this process.

12. If you see someone wearing rabbit-ear accessories enter the elephant enclosure, immediately disperse the nearby visitors and stand guard at the entrance to the elephant enclosure until you hear a child scream inside.

13. Experiencing ringing in your ears, chest tightness, migraines, or red and swollen eyes for up to five minutes is normal and no cause for concern. However, if these symptoms last longer than five minutes, stop working immediately and do whatever it takes to reach the lion enclosure as quickly as possible.

14. Treat the white lions kindly. When there are only four white lions, you do not need to take any precautions against them. They have been trained from birth to be friendly toward humans.

(This passage was crossed out.) If you are unfortunate enough to be attacked by a white lion in its normal state but do not die on the spot, rules 6 and 7 no longer apply. Do not rush to the hospital. You will not die. After leaving the lion enclosure, head to the Aquarium. You will find it very soon. You will put on a black uniform.

After reading these rules, Su Chen was a little surprised.

There was not a single line of blue text in the Employee Handbook.

That suggested two possibilities.

The first was that the employees had a way to resist "its" distortion of the employee rules.

The second was far more frightening.

"It" did not care.

It did not care about anything the employees did.

Perhaps "it" had already found a loophole in the rules.

Of the two possibilities, Su Chen leaned more toward the first.

The implications of the second were simply too terrifying.

If "it" no longer cared about the employee rules, wouldn't that make this strange-tale world an unwinnable level?

Wasn't that bullshit?

At that thought, Su Chen reined in his wandering thoughts.

No amount of pondering those two possibilities would yield a definite answer.

He might as well study the employee rules carefully first, then probe the staff when he had the chance to see whether they had a way to resist "it."

So Su Chen began examining the rules one by one.

After studying the entire handbook, he reached his conclusions.

Most of the rules contained nothing that warranted particular attention.

They merely confirmed once again that the blue rules were traps.

The final crossed-out passage, however, gave him rather more to chew on.