Free Web NovelLiu Jiayi also sensed that something was wrong.
She looked up at Bai Liu, who was holding her hand, then leaned closer with a frown and lowered her voice.
“I already muted the Small TV broadcast space, so the audience can’t hear us. What exactly is going on? Something feels off. There are too many coincidences. It’s almost like...”
“Like someone specifically designed this game to wait for Tang Erda and me to enter it?” Bai Liu finished calmly.
His gaze remained fixed on the wall of newspapers inside the glass display case.
“Don’t you think the previous game felt the same way?”
“Logically speaking, a game instance that has already descended into reality shouldn’t reappear. And yet the welfare home you were in just happened to lose all funding and get pushed into a dead end. The Dean had no choice but to target the remaining children again in order to maximize profit, which ultimately brought the situation to me.”
“And then, by pure coincidence, I met Liu Huai on The Last Train to Blast Off, causing him to owe me a favor. After that, events in reality drove him into Love Welfare Home with me.”
“And coincidentally enough, the game mechanics separated you from him and placed him on the same side as me.”
Bai Liu stared at Lu Yizhan’s black-and-white photograph in the newspaper without blinking.
His tone remained completely flat.
“Including Mu Shicheng entering during the second round and just happening to encounter Liu Huai.”
“Liu Huai became the thread connecting me to all of you.”
“At the same time, he became your emotional weakness and was deliberately placed into the game alongside me. Naturally, I would use those weaknesses for my own benefit, forcing conflict between us.”
“You would choose to kill me.”
“And I would be forced to retaliate.”
Bai Liu lowered his eyes slightly.
“I rarely believe in coincidences this elaborate.”
Liu Jiayi slowly understood.
“...It’s like someone intentionally manufactured all these coincidences, dissected our weaknesses one by one, handed them to you as weapons, and then sat back to watch us slaughter each other...”
“But in the end, neither of us killed the other.” Bai Liu’s voice remained calm. “So the game arranged by the person behind the scenes reached a stalemate.”
“This time, to intensify the conflict further...” Liu Jiayi reacted quickly, “...your weakness has also been dragged into the game.”
“Your friend Lu Yizhan.”
“Mhm.”
Bai Liu’s expression remained cold and detached.
“Because of him, I’ll inevitably accelerate my progress through the game. But only one player can become the Factory Manager and clear the instance. That means the conflict between Tang Erda and me will become even more severe.”
“And the bargaining chip placed on Tang Erda’s side...” Bai Liu paused briefly. “Is enough to completely drive him insane.”
“The seventeen officers involved in the explosion were all members of the Third Division. Su Yang personally led them to inspect the factory before the accident happened.”
“In that situation, it’s difficult for Tang Erda to remain rational.”
Bai Liu fell silent for a moment.
He didn’t tell Liu Jiayi the most critical part.
In other timelines, Tang Erda had personally witnessed Bai Liu standing at the center of that rose-colored explosion—the disaster that ultimately dragged the entire world into corruption and decay.
That alone guaranteed one thing:
In this game, Tang Erda would absolutely choose to kill Bai Liu.
Because in Tang Erda’s eyes, Bai Liu was the source of every tragedy.
Killing him was the only way to prevent history from repeating itself.
Everything had already been woven into a perfect trap built specifically for Bai Liu and Tang Erda.
Tang Erda’s only escape route was killing Bai Liu.
And Bai Liu’s only escape route was killing Tang Erda.
The person manipulating everything behind the scenes had once used Su Yang’s death to drive Tang Erda into madness, transforming him into a monster hunter who had abandoned all restraint.
Now, that same person was repeating the process with Lu Yizhan.
They wanted Bai Liu to abandon the principles Lu Yizhan had painstakingly built into him.
They wanted him to kill innocent people again and again.
They wanted him to become a monster—
A monster as insane as Tang Erda, yet terrifyingly rational.
They were forcing him...
To become Bai Six. ƒree𝑤ebnσvel.com
—
The worker continued leading them deeper inside.
After passing through a long, suffocating corridor, they arrived at an office.
The interior was decorated in a classical style. Behind a walnut desk sat a bespectacled supervisor leisurely drinking rose tea.
Unlike the other workers, this man wasn’t wearing protective gear. Instead, he wore an immaculate tailored suit.
His status was clearly much higher.
The supervisor raised his head and examined Bai Liu and Liu Jiayi.
Inside the center of each eye, a rose slowly bloomed.
The roses within the supervisor’s eyes were fresh and vibrant—far healthier than the nearly withered flowers growing in the workers’ sockets.
A faint fragrance drifted from his body.
Even through the protective suit, Bai Liu could smell it.
The supervisor resembled a newly blossomed rosebud carrying a delicate scent.
“You’re the new workers?”
The supervisor placed down his teacup °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° and looked at them arrogantly.
“You have entered the most famous Rose Factory in the world. You are now participating in the production of the world’s greatest perfume.”
“I hope you take your work seriously.”
As he spoke, he pulled two contracts from a drawer beneath the desk and pushed them across the table with an elevated chin.
“These are your employment contracts. Sign them, collect your work badges, and you may begin.”
Bai Liu picked up the contract and skimmed through it rapidly.
Then he lowered it and looked at the supervisor calmly.
“No fixed working hours.”
“Free food and lodging.”
“And salary paid in Dried Rose Leaf Gas perfume?”
“No cash wages?”
“Do you have a problem with that?” The supervisor sneered contemptuously. “Only the top corporations in the world can afford to pay employees in Dried Rose Leaf Gas.”
“Ordinary people work themselves to death just for a chance to enter this factory and receive perfume as payment.”
“Nowadays, outside this factory, perfume can buy you anything.”
“Food. Houses. Jewelry. Gold.”
“Beautiful men and women.”
“Even the [Redacted] of rare animals.”
“The entire world is addicted to Dried Rose Leaf Gas.”
The supervisor leisurely sipped his tea.
The roses in his eyes bloomed even more vividly as a smug smile spread across his face.
“People without perfume simply wither away.”
“Money is worthless now. Just useless paper.”
“Roses are the true currency of this world.”
Bai Liu went silent for a moment.
Then he bent down without hesitation and signed the contract.
Liu Jiayi silently signed hers as well.
However, the worker who had escorted them there still lingered nearby.
His gaze remained fixed greedily on the bottom of the supervisor’s emptied teacup. freewebnøvel.coɱ
The supervisor clearly seemed accustomed to this.
Without even looking at him, he tilted the teacup slightly.
A single drop of tea fell onto the floor.
The worker instantly collapsed to his knees like a starving dog. Without the slightest dignity, he bent low and desperately extended a cracked, blackened tongue from beneath his mask to lick the droplet before it evaporated.
The moment the tea touched his tongue, the shriveled black flesh began recovering like drought-stricken earth receiving rain.
The tongue gradually turned soft pink again.
The supervisor kicked the worker’s head away in disgust.
“Watch yourself.”
“Don’t let the stench from your body contaminate my office.”
The worker immediately pressed both hands against the floor and bowed repeatedly, overwhelmed with gratitude.
“Thank you, Supervisor! Thank you for the tea!”
“This is the most fragrant rose tea I’ve ever tasted!”
“It must have been brewed using dried roses left over after extracting Dried Rose Leaf Gas!”
The worker lay sprawled against the floor he had licked clean and inhaled deeply with blissful intoxication.
“The taste...”
“It’s truly... wonderful...”
Realizing he would receive nothing more, the worker finally rose reluctantly. He cast one final yearning glance toward the teacup before bowing respectfully.
“Supervisor, I’ll now take the two new flower pickers to begin work.”
The moment he turned around, his expression transformed instantly.
All humility vanished.
He impatiently waved Bai Liu and Liu Jiayi forward.
“Move.”
The two lowered their heads and followed him out of the factory.
Outside, beneath the night sky, the flower fields appeared strangely beautiful.
Blue fluorescent insects drifted among the blooming roses.
A soft wind swept through the sea of petals, causing the flowers to sway like dark waves beneath the moonlight.
Rustling sounds echoed continuously through the fields.
The deep red soil beneath them looked unnervingly moist.
Almost like freshly spilled blood.
The worker pointed toward the endless flower fields.
“This is your work area.”
“Our factory cultivates sixteen thousand acres of Dried Leaf Roses. Each plot is assigned to one or two workers.”
“The roses here are yours to harvest.”
“Nighttime is when Dried Leaf Roses bloom.”
“These flowers are extremely sensitive to sunlight. Before dawn arrives and the petals close, you must harvest as many as possible.”
“Only nocturnal Dried Leaf Roses produce pure fragrance without impurities.”
“Once daylight touches them, they lose all scent.”
The worker then pointed toward several crude tents lined along the narrow dirt paths between the fields.
“You low-level flower pickers don’t qualify for dormitory housing.”
“You’ll sleep in those tents.”
“If you see an empty one, it means the previous flower picker was dismissed and turned into a Refugee.”
“You can move into any vacant tent.”
Between the narrow field ridges stood countless crude canvas tents.
They varied in size, though most could house no more than three people.
The tents were made of gray-blue canvas—a material originally chosen for its resistance to dirt and stains.
Yet now they were covered in splashes and handprints resembling dried blood.
It was impossible to tell whether the stains were truly blood...
Or merely mud wiped away by exhausted workers after finishing their shifts.
—
The author’s note afterward is mostly personal commentary from the author rather than story content, so it doesn’t really need full literary preservation in an edited novel-style release.
The important part can be naturally condensed as:
(Author’s Note: The author clarifies that the story is entirely fictional and asks readers not to associate the protagonist’s actions or worldview with the author personally.)
