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Inside the game, Tang Erda opened his eyes.
An endless storm of rose petals swept across the horizon. A vast field of roses stretched as far as the eye could see, blooming in lush, saturated waves beneath a sky dark as polar night. Deep within the sea of flowers stood a modern factory, abrupt and unnatural against the backdrop of the rural town surrounding it.
At the factory entrance stood an enormous copper distiller displayed like a monument. Beside it hung a white-painted wooden sign:
Dry Leaf Rose Factory
The words were written in both Chinese and English.
Tang Erda’s breathing faltered for a moment.
Instinctively, he looked toward the top of the factory.
No one was standing there.
Only baskets woven from bean stalks sat beneath the moonlight, filled with fresh roses left out to dry. Their petals unfurled lazily under the pale glow, fermenting an intoxicating fragrance inside their crimson flesh-like folds.
This was the factory where Bai Six had once stood at the highest point and asked him:
“Rose. Does it smell good?”
Across every timeline Tang Erda had experienced, he had never once encountered this Rank 3 game.
He had always known that somewhere within the system existed a solution to the Dried Rose Leaf Gas. Yet no matter how obsessively he cleared games, no matter how desperately he searched, this game had never appeared before him.
It was as though something had deliberately blocked his access to it.
As though some unseen existence had been toying with him from the shadows.
Eventually, Tang Erda had long since given up hope of ever entering a game connected to the Dried Rose Leaf Gas.
But this time—
At the very moment he had fallen into complete despair—
He had accidentally followed Bai Liu into it.
[System Notification: Player Tang Erda has observed the factory entrance. Main quest triggered.]
[System Notification: Your identity is that of the lowest-ranking rose picker in the Dry Leaf Rose Factory. Work diligently within the factory and rely on your performance to earn promotions until you become a senior perfumer. Once promoted, the player may drive out the current factory manager and assume the position themselves.]
[When a new factory manager is born, the player who becomes manager will clear the game. The game ends immediately upon the birth of a manager.]
[Player, please enter the factory and begin today’s work.]
Meanwhile, behind the factory building, Bai Liu silently reviewed his own quest prompt with a gloomy expression.
Beside him, Liu Jiayi was drinking an antidote to recover from her injuries. Blood still stained her clothes, but her complexion had improved significantly, and the gunshot wound on her body had finally stopped bleeding.
After checking her own main quest, Liu Jiayi glanced awkwardly at Bai Liu’s dark expression and muttered under her breath:
“...I already told you not to enter a Rank 3 game so casually. I nearly died trying to save you, and then you ran straight in here yourself. Why are you giving me attitude now...”
Bai Liu cast her a tired glance.
“It’s not because of you. It’s because of the quest.”
“What’s wrong with the quest?” Liu Jiayi frowned and immediately slipped into analysis mode. “Rank 3 games lower the survival rate by restricting how many players can clear them. I warned you about this before we came in.”
“The death rate for Rank 3 games is usually between eighty and ninety percent. There are six players here, so it’s normal if only one survives. Still, Rank 3 games usually leave loopholes players can exploit.”
“But this game specifically states that only the player who becomes factory manager can clear it. And from what we saw outside, there’s only one Dry Leaf Rose Factory nearby. So the win condition is heavily restricted.”
“We’ll have to take this step by step. I understand why you dislike Rank 3 quests—the higher the difficulty, the less freedom the game gives you—”
Bai Liu, however, seemed completely distracted. His eyes drifted blankly into space.
“...I still have to work after entering a game...”
His voice sounded genuinely hollow.
“...Why am I still being exploited as labor inside a game? I hate working.”
Liu Jiayi: “...”
You’re depressed over that?!
Expressionless, Liu Jiayi climbed onto the decorative copper distiller and smacked the back of Bai Liu’s head.
“Snap out of it, you disaster! Deal with that captain chasing you first! He definitely entered the game after you. That guy’s combat ability is insanely high, so hurry up and think of a way for us to clear this Rank 3 game!”
Bai Liu was slapped face-first into the wall.
And stayed there without moving.
Liu Jiayi: “...”
She grabbed his head and yanked him backward.
“Don’t pretend to be dead just to avoid work! You dragged me into this game, so you’re responsible for getting me out alive too! Show some adult male responsibility, Bai Liu!!”
Bai Liu slowly pulled his face out of the wall and looked at Liu Jiayi with utter lifelessness.
“Are they paying us to work here?”
Liu Jiayi: “...Obviously not. What are you even thinking about?”
“Oh.”
Bai Liu calmly shoved his face back into the wall.
“Then I’m not working. I just got tricked into a ten-year loss-making contract, and now you want me to do unpaid labor too. I need time to recover emotionally. I can’t go on like this.”
He looked exactly like a modern-day Grandet who had been forced to hand over his inheritance while still alive—a soul-crushing expression of despair born purely from financial loss.
Clearly, he still hadn’t recovered from Lu Yizhan’s ten-year hotpot agreement.
Liu Jiayi stepped on Bai Liu’s shoulder and tried to drag this work-avoiding corporate slave back out of the wall while cursing furiously:
“No man gets to say he ‘can’t do it’! Get up and work already!!”
After discovering that absolutely nothing could revive Bai Liu from the depression caused by losing money, Liu Jiayi was forced to use her final move.
“...Fine. If you work, I’ll pay you. One hundred yuan an hour. Okay?”
Bai Liu immediately pulled his head out of the wall and turned around without the slightest hesitation.
He calmly extended his hand.
“Deal. Payment first.”
Liu Jiayi: “...”
That infuriating feeling of Bai Liu patiently waiting for her to hand over money while secretly calculating profits—
Was this man really this stingy?!
He was even scheming against an eight-year-old girl’s allowance?!
Liu Jiayi cursed him viciously in her heart, though her face remained expressionless as she took out the money and handed it over.
Bai Liu elegantly accepted the cash, straightened his clothes, and instantly returned to looking like a properly dressed office worker.
“Let’s go. We’ll head into the factory and gather information first.”
“Wait.” Liu Jiayi grabbed his sleeve before he could move. Her tone turned serious again. “Were you even listening to me? Captain Tang entered the game too. If we walk into the factory and start triggering NPC quests, there’s a high chance we’ll run into him.”
“That gun of his is extremely dangerous. He can even use it in reality. If he sees you, he’ll absolutely ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) try to kill you immediately.” fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com
Bai Liu gently removed Liu Jiayi’s hand from his sleeve.
“From the moment he entered this game,” he said calmly, “he stopped wanting to kill me.”
Liu Jiayi froze.
“...Why?”
“The game stage called Rose Factory was deliberately presented to Tang Erda and me by someone—or perhaps something—that isn’t human.”
Bai Liu lowered his eyes. His expression darkened.
“This game contains a secret capable of saving everyone contaminated by the perfume. Just like the reward item from the god-statue monster in Love Welfare Home could save the children poisoned by the Blood Lingzhi.”
“And Tang Erda believes the key to uncovering that secret lies with me. He thinks I know how to clear this game.”
“So before the game is cleared, and before he gets what he wants, he won’t kill me.”
Bai Liu’s voice remained calm and unhurried.
“The antidote that can save the person he wants to save is right in front of him. I doubt Captain Tang still has the same madness he showed before—the resolve to drag over a thousand innocent people down with both of us.”
A faint mocking smile appeared in his eyes.
“After all, in Captain Tang’s eyes... my life probably isn’t worth as much as Vice-Captain Su’s.”
Holding Liu Jiayi’s hand, Bai Liu walked along the edge of the rose fields surrounding the small town.
Once they rounded the decorative distiller, the factory’s iron gates came fully into view.
They were already open.
A wooden plaque hung above the entrance.
[Welcome to Rose Factory]
Bai Liu led Liu Jiayi inside.
The interior was an enormous open-air workshop. Freshly harvested roses covered the ground in heaps. Workers crouched among them, separating petals from stems and leaves before sorting them into categories.
On both sides of the yard stood giant copper furnaces that operated nonstop, releasing heat and clouds of white steam. Workers beside the furnaces used steel shovels to stir thick masses of compacted rose petals.
The scene looked busy and prosperous.
But the workers themselves were deeply unsettling.
And the timing was wrong too.
It was already late at night.
The workers wore black protective suits tightly sealed at the wrists and collars with elastic bindings. White linen gloves covered their hands, black rubber boots their feet, and black gauze hats concealed their faces.
They looked less like rose-processing workers and more like researchers handling biohazards—or beekeepers.
The moment Bai Liu and Liu Jiayi entered, several workers immediately stopped them.
Without a word, they handed the newcomers two protective suits that seemed prepared specifically for them.
The workers raised their heads.
Their eyes behind the black gauze were cloudy, dull, and faintly hostile.
Their voices sounded dry and cracked.
“You must wear protective clothing before entering. We can’t allow the scent on your bodies to contaminate the fragrance of the roses. Understand, newcomers?”
At such close range, Bai Liu could clearly see the face beneath the veil.
Or rather—
What remained of a face.
Deep cracks spread across the worker’s skin. Rotting black flesh curled outward from the fissures like blooming flower petals. Beneath his eye, something resembling a rose appeared to be growing directly from his flesh.
And inside the worker’s eyes—
A withering rose bloomed there too.
Dark red edges slowly blackened as though rotting from within.
It looked almost identical to the one growing on his face.
—
Bai Liu and Liu Jiayi exchanged a glance before silently accepting the protective suits and putting them on.
The worker then guided them deeper into the factory.
As he walked, he continuously introduced the factory’s structure, though Bai Liu’s attention was clearly focused elsewhere.
Every step the worker took produced a dry rustling sound from inside the suit, like dead leaves crumbling apart. Pieces of decayed flesh occasionally fell from his body and squelched wetly beneath his boots.
A nauseating odor of blood and rotting meat seeped faintly through the suit.
Yet the worker seemed entirely unaware of it.
“...The perfume factory contains three workshops,” he droned mechanically. “The petal preparation and distillation workshop you saw earlier. The essential oil purification workshop we are currently in. And the core workshop—the fragrance blending workshop.”
“You newcomers are not qualified to enter the blending workshop yet. Only perfumers may work there.”
“There are four ranks of workers in this factory. Flower pickers who harvest seasonal roses are the lowest level. All newcomers begin there.”
“Outstanding pickers are promoted to petal processors. Excellent processors are promoted to official factory workers in the purification workshop.”
“Only at that stage are you qualified to study perfumery.”
“And among those workers, the individual with the greatest talent and highest aptitude for fragrance blending becomes a perfumer.”
The worker’s tone carried near-religious reverence.
“That is a supreme honor.”
“Tsk... though explaining all this to newcomers like you is probably meaningless.”
While observing the environment around him, Bai Liu suddenly asked:
“Then how does someone become the factory manager?”
The worker abruptly fell silent.
After several seconds, he slowly turned his head.
Beneath the gauze veil, exposed cheekbones could already be seen where flesh had peeled away.
His voice became eerie and cold.
“The factory manager is not promoted.”
“He alone possesses the factory’s core perfume formula and the cultivation method for the dry-leaf roses.”
“Those things cannot be inherited.”
“If you want to become factory manager...” The worker stared at Bai Liu darkly. “Come speak to me after you obtain those two things.”
Bai Liu smoothly changed the direction of questioning.
“How many factory managers has this factory had?”
“Eight.”
“And how were they replaced?”
The worker’s expression darkened instantly.
Only then did he seem to realize what Bai Liu was truly asking.
After a strange pause, he answered stiffly:
“The previous manager disappears.”
“And the next person who possesses the perfume formula and rose cultivation method automatically becomes the new manager.”
Bai Liu stopped there.
He understood.
This was effectively a rebellion-style succession system.
The disappearance of the previous manager was unlikely to be simple, and the inheritance of the next manager certainly wouldn’t be peaceful either.
The [Perfume Formula] and [Rose Cultivation Method] were essentially the equivalent of an imperial seal.
Whoever possessed them ruled.
The deeper they went into the factory, the wider the interior became. The low-ceilinged darkness gradually opened up into interconnected industrial corridors lined with aluminum cooling pipes.
Water rushed violently through the pipes.
Long rows of distillation and drying machines occupied the concrete floor. Their metal surfaces had been permanently stained pale pink—almost the exact same color as the roses themselves.
Under the dim yellow lights, the machinery gleamed strangely.
Ordinary roses could never corrode metal to this extent.
Even through the protective suits, the scent in the air remained overwhelmingly thick and pungent.
Rose-colored oil slowly flowed through transparent glass tubes before dripping into fist-sized collection beakers.
“We are the only factory in the world capable of producing Dried Rose Leaf Gas perfume,” the worker said proudly.
“Our perfume is distributed from here to every corner of the world.”
“Everyone is obsessed with it. No one can live without it.”
“But our rise was not smooth.”
The worker pointed toward the wall on the left side of the corridor.
“You can see the factory’s history there. Every major event was recorded in the local newspapers.”
Bai Liu turned to look.
The wall was covered with old newspapers displayed behind glass panels. Beside them were trophies and gold-framed awards:
[Best Perfume of 202X]
[Top Ten Enterprises of the Year]
“...Ten years ago, when Dried Rose Leaf Gas was still considered a prohibited substance, our factory nearly shut down.”
“But then a massive explosion almost destroyed the entire facility.”
“The leaked fragrance drifted into a nearby major city.”
“Overnight, millions of people fell hopelessly in love with the scent.”
“A truly exceptional perfume possesses that kind of charm.”
“That incident revived the factory and brought it to unprecedented prosperity.”
“Today, the entire world uses this perfume.”
“Demand vastly exceeds supply.”
“Dried Rose Leaf Gas is now more valuable than gold.”
The worker rambled on proudly.
But Bai Liu had already stopped listening.
His gaze had locked onto a familiar face inside one of the old newspaper photographs.
He stepped closer.
At the edge of the display case hung a yellowed newspaper from years ago.
The headline, printed in bold black letters, read:
[A chemical perfume processing factory on the outskirts of Jingcheng suffered a gas leak due to inadequate protective measures. 139 workers were injured, while 17 police officers investigating the scene fell unconscious after inhaling the gas.]
Below the headline was a black-and-white photograph. freёwebnoѵel.com
Two extremely familiar figures appeared in the image.
Both men wore police uniforms and lay unconscious on stretchers while being loaded into ambulances.
They had clearly been affected by the gas leak on-site.
Liu Jiayi also recognized one of them instantly.
Her eyes widened slightly.
She stepped closer, standing on tiptoe to examine the unconscious police officer in the photograph more carefully.
After a long silence, she quietly opened her system panel.
[System Notification: Does Player Liu Jiayi wish to spend 600 points to activate a silent broadcast barrier for her Small TV? All speech within one meter will be muted before transmission to the audience.]
[System Notification: Transaction complete. The player may now speak freely.]
Only then did Liu Jiayi finally turn toward Bai Liu.
Her voice tightened.
“...Isn’t that policeman... Lu Yizhan?”
Bai Liu responded with a calm hum.
“The other one is Su Yang.”
He lowered his eyes toward the date printed on the newspaper.
It was the day after they had entered the game.
At that moment, the connection between the Rose Factory game and reality became completely clear.
This was a game instance that had not yet fully descended into reality.
And the method by which it entered reality—
Was this explosion.
The official timeline of the game instance began more than ten years after the explosion.
Which meant: now.
The turning point that caused the instance to manifest in reality—and triggered the worldwide obsession with Dried Rose Leaf Gas—was the very explosion scheduled to occur the day after Bai Liu entered the game.
A normal game only lasted one day.
Which meant—
Bai Liu looked at the explosion timestamp printed in the article.
4:15 AM.
Almost exactly the same time they had just entered the game.
The discrepancy was no more than ten minutes.
In other words—
Whether the player who cleared the game was Tang Erda or Bai Liu—
The moment they left the game, they would inevitably witness Lu Yizhan and Su Yang being contaminated by the explosion and slowly beginning to wither away under the influence of the Dried Rose Leaf Gas.
Even if the game reward contained an item capable of curing the contamination, the leak itself had already happened.
And reward items were limited.
Just like the [Blood Lingzhi] from the previous game could save exactly six poisoned children.
The existence manipulating events behind the scenes would never allow them to repeatedly clear Rose Factory and endlessly farm cure items.
Without exception, even if they obtained a cure, it would likely only be enough to save the current thousand-plus infected victims.
But once the explosion spread further—
The number of victims would exceed the available cure.
And based on Bai Liu’s understanding of Lu Yizhan and Su Yang—
Those two were textbook righteous public servants.
If the civilians could not all be saved, they would absolutely refuse to use the cure on themselves.
This was precisely the outcome the mastermind behind everything wanted to see.
He wanted to watch Bai Liu and Tang Erda stand helplessly before the hospital beds of the people most important to them—
Watching them slowly wither away before their eyes.
Watching them kill each other.
Watching them sacrifice innocent lives in exchange for saving their friends.
Watching them become the very monsters their friends would despise.
What a perfect arrangement.
And neither of them had even realized they had already stepped onto the board.
Before entering the game, Bai Liu had heard that Su Yang planned to investigate a perfume factory the following day.
And after everything that happened tonight, that idiot Lu Yizhan—determined to prove Bai Liu’s innocence and uncover the truth behind the Dried Rose Leaf Gas—would undoubtedly volunteer to join the Third Branch in the investigation.
Exactly as the mastermind intended.
The chips had already been placed onto the scales of reality.
The players had entered the arena.
And the audience lurked beneath the sea and within the abyss, maliciously observing the drama they themselves had orchestrated.
The curtain was rising.
Bai Liu could almost hear someone whispering beside his ear—
Excited.
Delighted.
Completely insane.
“The show is about to begin.”
