bookpub Chapter 4178 Reversal of Fortune
Chapter 4178 Reversal of Fortune
Chapter 4178 Reversal of Fortune
Although the guestbook suggested that Wine Glass conduct a survey in the dormitories while the employees were at work, Wine Glass did not intend to do so.
She remained on the fourth floor, her fingertips tracing the thick stack of employee names on the oak table, occasionally pulling out a page to inquire about the employee's situation from the guestbook.
For example, right now—
"What kind of person do you think this number 11 is? Do you have any doubts about her?"
The guestbook flipped through two pages quickly, but no one objected to her choice.
In its view, getting to know each employee thoroughly is an essential part of the investigation process. Moreover, the fact that the wine glass was asking her questions shows that she knows how to leverage her connections and understands who in the shaping workshop knows the employees best.
"Whoosh, let me think... Number 11, her original form was an ice succubus. We don't need to worry about her; she's completely succumbed to the candle smoke. This kind of employee is definitely not the source of our unease."
The wine glass fell silent for a moment.
In her previous inquiries, she had already learned about "candle smoke" from the guestbook; it was a kind of addictive psychedelic mist.
Is it really a good thing to let employees become addicted to candle smoke? And can addicts really meet their weekly targets?
"It seems my deputy has a heart of justice? That's good, I like ladies who uphold justice."
"I used to scoff at the candle smoke mechanism, but later I realized that only with candle smoke can employees be kept in check to complete their weekly targets."
"Without candlelight, they would become restless, fear the endless overtime, and some might even commit suicide."
"The existence of candle smoke solved these problems. In the illusion created by the candle smoke, they were happy, they were blissful, they were able to feel the meaning of existence..."
“But it’s also very numb,” the wine glass added, frowning.
The guestbook turned a new page: "Wow~ You're right, they're numb too. But it's precisely because they're numb that they don't think too much. You know, the employees here work more than fifteen hours a day. The more they think, the easier it is for them to fall into numbness, and they might even fall into the trap of nihilism."
"The candle smoke is saving them."
The wine glass scoffed: "...Bullshit. The packaging is so beautiful, but in the end, it's just a way for you to numb and control your employees."
"You say they feel happy in the candlelight? That's a false satisfaction after being deprived of the right to think clearly. You call this 'salvation'? It's just replacing one kind of pain with another, making them willingly let their value be drained, without even the thought of resistance. This is clearly a deeper form of imprisonment."
Faced with the passionate objections of the wine glasses, the guestbook remained silent for a long time this time.
Even after the wine glasses had been replaced with a new employee list, the guestbook finally revealed a line of cursive handwriting:
"...But this place itself is a prison."
Hua Hua Hua——
"Thanks to candle smoke, volcanic ash, candy, fertile soil... their consciousness will at least not collapse, and they may even have a chance to return to their physical bodies in the future."
"But if it really collapses, then there's no hope left, don't you think?"
"Handing them soup laced with anesthetic, is that saving them? That's just drinking poison to quench thirst," the wine glass sneered.
What would be left of a consciousness bound by addiction, one that has almost forgotten who it is, even if it were to return?
The wine glass was too lazy to argue with the guestbook anymore, since their positions were fundamentally different, so it lowered its head and continued reading the new employee information.
The guestbook was silent for a moment, then slowly said, "The concept of candle smoke was left by the previous factory manager. However, at that time, candle smoke was not widely disseminated; it was only used by the apathetic employees."
"Now, because the weekly targets are too high, almost every employee has become numb. As a last resort, we have relaxed the restrictions, including those on candle smoke."
"I understand your anger, but the weekly targets are rules that cannot be broken. We currently have too few employees, and this is a last resort in order to avoid layoffs."
After reading the comments in the guestbook, the wine glass sneered, instinctively thinking: This is nothing but fake compassion.
But she ultimately held back and didn't refute it, because the guestbook mentioned a crucial clue: the factory manager.
Suppressing her discomfort, she asked, "So, this is the current factory director's decision?"
"No, that's not it. It was a decision made after discussions among management."
"Without the factory manager's permission?" the wine glass asked, seemingly casually.
"No need, the managers can decide. As for the factory manager... well, he'll be my deputy, you'll see in the future."
Although the guestbook did not explicitly state it, the wine glass understood that the reason for not obtaining the factory manager's consent was that the current chocolate factory did not actually have a factory manager!
The wine glass was originally thinking that it might be possible to take this opportunity to get the guestbook to reveal the information that "there is no factory manager," and then ask when the factory manager would be selected.
However, the avoidance of the "factory manager" in the guestbook prevented her from having an opportunity to ask.
To avoid arousing suspicion in the guestbook, the wine glass didn't press the matter, but instead said, "If the employees are addicted to candlelight, how can they meet their weekly targets?"
"Didn't you feel any inner peace while you were at your workstation just now?"
The wine glass recalled that when he was at his workstation, his mood did not fluctuate much, and his emotions were as stable as an old dog.
Even the sudden appearance of Pinocchio the monkey didn't stir much emotion in her.
"This was also arranged by the previous factory manager. In order to prevent employees from falling into addiction, it would have a suppressive effect on their addiction when they are at their workstations."
Wine glass: "...Why does the former factory manager seem so evil?"
The guestbook made a rustling sound: "..."
"Is this factory director the same?"
"Hey, hey, hey, don't think that just because you're my deputy you can be so disrespectful... Talking so freely about the factory manager, aren't you afraid of getting struck by lightning?"
The wine glass said, "But it wasn't struck by lightning, was it?"
"You can only get through this in the next couple of days. You'll see how serious it is in a few days."
The wine glass's eyes lit up, as if it had guessed something: "What do you mean by 'we'll see how powerful you are in a few days'?"
You'll find out later.
The guestbook clearly didn't want to talk much.
But the wine glass already guessed that its words implied: offending the factory manager won't get you struck by lightning these two days, but things will be different in a few days.
The reason.
It's highly likely that the factory has been without a manager for the past two days, so there's no need to worry about being struck by lightning for "insubordination."
But in a few days, once the factory director takes office, anyone who criticizes the factory director behind his back will definitely be punished by lightning.
Therefore, the wine glass is now very eager to know whether it is "a few days later" or not?
She thought for a moment and asked, "To avoid your deputy being struck by lightning as punishment, you have to tell me exactly how long this 'a few days' means? Is it three days, five days, or a week?"
The guestbook paused for a moment, as if considering whether to say something.
A moment later, a line of text appeared:
"Who knows exactly how many days? Maybe after the next management meeting? I'm not sure either. Anyway, as my deputy, don't gossip about the factory manager behind his back."
"I can't even criticize other managers in my mind... and I can't even mention crickets!"
After that, the guestbook stopped discussing this topic.
Knowing that further questioning would likely arouse suspicion, the wine glass maker stopped pressing the issue and instead picked up a new employee list.
"And this one?"
"Number 17, her original form was the Child of Frost and Snow. This one is not addicted to candle smoke and has a very strong will. She has been an employee for almost three months and has not become depressed at all. I think we can investigate her."
The wine glass nodded, saying nothing more, but simply remembered the information about the 17th.
The main reason she stayed here to ask the guestbook for employee information was to consider the future: if it was later determined that she needed more rebels to become the factory manager, then she would suggest that Satan prioritize converting some of the more resilient individuals.
Take number 17 for example.
Of course, this is just a backup idea. If the factory director can be elected by a vote of just five managers, then there is no need to expand the ranks of rebels.
"what about this?"
"Number 19..."
She asked for employee information one by one, and after a while, her eyes flickered because she had flipped to Ice Maiden's employee file.
To avoid attracting the attention of the guestbook, she picked up the Ice Maiden's information as before and asked, "What about this?"
"Wow... She's a bit special."
Hearing this answer, Wine Glass felt a little worried, but maintained a calm expression: "Oh? What's so special about her?"
"What's unusual is that I don't know much about her."
Wine glass: "..."
As the guestbook recounted the events, the wine glass roughly understood the situation.
It turns out that Ice Maiden only entered the Shaping Workshop a few days ago, and Pinocchio hadn't had time to check on her. In the last few days, Pinocchio has been preoccupied with the "source of unease" again, and has had even less time to pay attention to Ice Maiden.
In this situation, Pinocchio also had no further information about the Ice Maiden.
However, after a moment's hesitation, the guestbook still left a message:
"Although I don't know much about her, I think you should investigate her more thoroughly. I only started feeling uneasy in the last few days, and she's also a new employee who joined the factory in the last few days. There's a possibility that the source of my unease is her."
The wine glass said, "The timing is so coincidental, it's only a possibility? I think it's more likely that it's her."
Seeing that the wine glass seemed to be concluding, the guestbook quickly said, "We can't be so hasty. Although there is a certain coincidence in the timing, I personally think that the probability of her being the source of the problem is not very high."
"After all, she's only been here a few days. It's highly unlikely that she could make me feel uneasy in such a short time. Besides, I've seen her a few times, and I feel that she's very calm, even a bit dull and clumsy. It's hard for someone like that to become a troublemaker."
"Personally, I still think that some of the older employees are more problematic, since they have experience and time to plan ahead."
"Take that number 17 for example. Three months have passed and she hasn't lost her will or become addicted to candle smoke. In my opinion, she's more likely to be the one to break free."
"Because only those who still have hope in their hearts can persevere for so long without losing their will. And the hope in her heart may very well be related to my unease."
The wine glass probably understood the guestbook's thinking; from its perspective, it was indeed more likely that veteran employees would cause trouble. After all, new employees were completely clueless about everything.
However, what the guestbook doesn't know is that while Ice Maiden isn't the type to cause trouble, she's not alone; behind her is Satan, who thrives on chaos.
Satan is the source of all this trouble.
The Ice Maiden was simply implicated by Satan...
However, while the message in the guestbook was fundamentally wrong, it did give her an excuse. She could then use this pretext to deal with it in return.
The plan goes through!
……
While the staff were "reconciling accounts" over the wine glasses and guestbook, a discussion was sparked at Heart Space.
"I never expected to have this kind of gain..." Luigi exclaimed.
In less than half an hour, the wine glass had somehow ended up next to Pinocchio and become his second-in-command.
This is practically comparable to Ingres's extra-argumentative approach!
"Moreover, the wine glass also revealed an important piece of information: the election of the factory director is very likely to begin after the next management meeting!"
This intelligence is very important to the resistance team.
This means that if they want to control the secret realm and become its masters, they must eliminate all the managers and take their place before the next management meeting.
While it's still uncertain when the next management meeting will begin, that time is definitely not far off.
In other words, the resistance team doesn't have much time left.
Angell and his water clone nodded in agreement. At this pace, they would need to have a plan of action within the next two days.
Luigi: "Speaking of which, I feel like everyone's luck has improved since we left Cloud Harbor."
"Satan has acquired a hidden identity—the Rebel, and this Rebel seems to be the only answer to completing the main storyline 2."
Satan even used this identity to kill Violet on the very first day and successfully ascend to the high position of manager of the honey steaming workshop.
This kind of luck is practically comparable to that of a chosen one!
"The same goes for the wine glass. Without any warning, it suddenly rose to power and became Pinocchio's second-in-command. It even got information about the factory manager election."
This luck is just unbelievable.
The water clone then added, "Also, our previous judgment that different elements might be related to the assigned region proved to be correct!"
Because of its "wood" and "life" properties, Na was assigned to the "Bean Pod Temple".
Mud Lord and Milk Dragon, one imbued with the power of the earth and the other carrying a metal frenzy, were assigned to the "Dream Cellar" and the "Coronation Hall" according to their attributes.
In addition to the "Honey Steaming Workshop" that has already been occupied, and the "Shaping Workshop" that is about to be occupied.
It can be said that they already have people in all five major regions.
The flames of resistance will also burn fiercely in the five regions.
"From this perspective, it's also a kind of luck."
Angell agreed with this view, and he even wondered if the power of the fairy realm might be exerting its influence in secret. However, upon closer examination, he felt that this was unlikely.
If the power of the Fairy Realm can already influence the secret realms of the Yi World, then there is no need for the window instance to exist. The power of the Fairy Realm can simply exploit the authority of the Yi World on its own.
However, it is undeniable that the fortunes of this rebel squad are currently on the rise.
"Given the 'unexpected developments' on the wine glass side, I'm now very curious whether Na, Milk Dragon, and Mud Duke will also bring us surprises?"
Unfortunately, both of the two people currently hosting live streams are at the body sculpting workshop, and the situation in other areas remains unknown.
However, it is precisely because of the unknown that everyone is full of expectations for the development of Na and others.