The screen went out after the sound of voices died down, and no other NPCs appeared around, except that the computer at the front desk, which had been black, automatically came on.
The implication is self-explanatory: players are left to go there and make their own entries.
The players had no choice but to follow the instructions on the screen, unless they wanted to sit still until the bosses came out of their own accord and reaped the rewards of a different life but the same death.
One by one, players walked to the front desk and began to enter their personal information as instructed.
This step is not difficult, the instructions on the computer are so clear that even computer idiots who know the words can complete it without any problems, and it seems that the game does not intend to make things difficult for the players in this part.
In no time at all, the badges are produced one by one, with card holders on the side, so that the player can simply fit the badge in himself - a sweet and automated process.
But after getting their work permits, the players have noticed that something is wrong.
Because there was no mistake that it was indeed their photo on the work permit, but everyone's face was distorted as if it had been post-processed, but the whole process of making the work permit was done by them, and the players obviously would not have been interested in treating themselves in this way.
"What a wickedly funny thing to do." Cheng Wenyi watched as his handsome face was contorted into a bizarre look, giving a slightly mocking smile that was fleeting, and he soon returned to that haughty, reserved look, reaching up to scratch Xue Li's chin in his arms.
As for the ugly, tacky work card, he took one look at it and put it away in his pocket to save his eyes.
Heh, he's never stayed in such a low position before.
Xiao Lan looked at his face, which was as distorted as the swirl of a toilet bowl, and shrugged his shoulders and put his work permit in his pocket.
Hu Zhai wanted to express his shock, but was embarrassed to see how calm Xiao Lan and Cheng Wenyi, who had received their work permits before him, were.
He put his work permit away and looked around at the others in passing.
Then it turns out that most of them are the same, only Luo's is different.
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The photo on Luo's work card is pitch black.
It looks like a black hole that seems to harbour unknowable dangers and makes you feel uncomfortable just looking at it, and it is only then that Hu Zhai's large face, which is about to twist into a large round fan, looks incredibly smooth.
At least he had a face, didn't he?
"Faye Luo, why does yours look different? It's oddly oozy." Hu Zhai still couldn't help asking.
Luo looked at the work permit in his hand and gave his standard polite smile, "Probably because the boss is jealous of my good looks, right?"
Hu Zhai: "......"
He glanced at Luo and then at himself, who could only fit half his face in the reflection of a nearby vase.
Handsome is great!
Cheng Wenyi, who overheard their conversation: "......"
Why doesn't the boss come against me? Feel offended.
He condescends to Luo's body: tall, long-legged and well-proportioned; a good body, even through his clothes, with well-proportioned muscles; a good face; a good dress code; and a very distinctive personality.
Cheng Wenyi suddenly felt that he had met the most formidable opponent ever.
After listening to Luo's speech, Xiao Lan always felt that Luo had learnt something bad from this guy, who did he learn to be so cheeky?
It couldn't have been him, could it?
Players do not have the same job title on their work permits.
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Xiao Lan was assigned the position of art, as was Luo.
Xiao Lan always had a feeling of being finished when she saw Luo being assigned to art.
The other people's badges have the positions of programmer and planner respectively, but otherwise there is no other arrangement. The positions are not allocated to testing, administration, finance or commercial departments, and it seems that this small studio has no other function than R&D.
Other players have taken note of this.
"A small workshop." Cheng Wenyi commented on this.
"Mee-woo~" Xue Li seemed to echo her master's voice, soft and whispery and mewling.
Xiao Lan was tickled by the soft and fluffy look on his face and moved his hand, but regrettably gave up when he thought of how scared Xue Li seemed to be to come near his side.
Luo noticed this small detail and flicked a glance at Xue Li.
White, fluffy and with nice ticking blue eyes.
Luo suddenly felt that he had met the most formidable opponent ever.
Xue Li felt a cool sensation sweep over him and it was gone in an instant. Xue Li's ears were folded down and he whimpered a few times before burrowing back into Cheng Wenyi's arms.
Cheng Wenyi was a little surprised by how clingy Xue Li was today, but he also cuddled up to him and reached out to stroke his long, fluffy, soft white fur.
Oh no, there was only one butt left in Furry, and Xiao Lan had to look away with regret.
Luo, on the other hand, gives a hidden smile.
Once the players had all received their work permits, the system prompt rang out.
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"Ding dong--"
"He who comes from nowhere goes to where he returns."
The voice was cold and chilling, and the words were strange: "He who comes from nowhere"? And where does it refer to "to the place of return"?
From this vague hint, players can probably hear that someone or something is being sent away, but as for other clues, I'm afraid they will have to find them themselves later in the game.
With the cue, the whole game is officially declared to have started.
"Tick-" The light on the access control system next to the closed glass door on one side of the hall came on, signalling that the players could now pass through there and enter the work area.
Players swipe their cards in turn to enter.
Behind the door are closed doors, more akin to residential rooms in terms of layout, and it appears that each room is not very large and should not be able to accommodate so many people entering together; it is clear that the staff here do not work collectively inside one large office.
Xiao Lan found the room labelled 'Art Office' and opened the door to enter it.
Other players have also found their place of work.
Xiao Lan, Luo, Mu Yang and Hua Bei are the four who have been assigned to the art office.
There are exactly four workstations in the office, with a folding bed attached to each position, the meaning of which is self-explanatory.
Dear employees, the company is your home, how can you be enough for the home you love, just 996? Why don't you come to 7*24 and dedicate your youth to the company?
There is also a copy of the company's rules and regulations posted on the wall.
The general gist is that overtime is good, the more overtime you work the higher your performance, the company covers food and accommodation, and all going home and taking time off is not worth promoting.
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"This, this, this boss is too, too scary ......" Hua Bei is heartbroken about the intensity of the game dog's work.
Xiao Lan surveyed the place, "Do you guys think the cause of death for all the employees in this company is sudden death from staying up all night? Then the grievances of the overtime dogs transformed the place into a ghostly place dedicated to making everyone who comes in experience their pain."
Mu Yang looks up from his game: "......"
What is all this terrible human misery?
But how does he feel a hint of familiarity? This feeling that the more overtime you work the higher your performance, and that the company is covering your life without oil, how is it so much like your own reincarnation ......
Realising a certain truth, the punk teenager suddenly has the illusion that he is under undue pressure in life at the age of Little Xiao.
Luo smiled and said, "Did they die with their hair still on?"
The other three looked at him, "......"
Are you the devil, this gentleman?
Overtime dogs are already miserable, so don't wake them up to the pain of losing their hair, okay?
Following the signs on their work badges, the four men found their work stations, only to discover that they not only had the usual keyboard, mouse and number pad, but even gave each of them a mobile phone.
Xiao Lan picks up the phone.
On the screen was his twisted work pass, and the program inside was simple when you unlocked it to enter, basically software related to the art preview screen, plus an app for contacting punch cards within the company, and the network was only LAN, with no connection to the outside world at all.
Mu Yang picks up her phone: "Is this ......'s special for us because they know most players don't bring their phones into the game?"
Xiao Lan also looked at the phone she hadn't touched in a long time: "It's amazing that Advent World has such a thoughtful service."
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It really makes you think ...... don't want it.
Mu Yang fiddled with it for a while and regretted, "It's a shame you can't download the game, it's rare to have such a big screen."
Xiao Lan tapped on the company's internal contact app on her phone and saw an unread message. The message was from the boss and it said that they should go to the meeting room upstairs in 20 minutes for a project meeting.
He gives Luo a questioning look, and Luo flashes him the screen of his own phone with an identical message.
It seems the boss is really raining on the parade, and he's not too tired to just chat privately one by one.
Ten minutes later.
The players all emerged from their offices and headed upstairs to the meeting room.
--
On the first floor there is a fairly large office and on the other side is a tightly closed room that looks like the boss's room from the texture of the door.
In the meeting room is a long table with seats on both sides and a screen in front of it, which is used to show PowerPoint presentations during the usual meetings, with sound placed on both sides of the screen.
The players entered the meeting room and took their seats.
No other figures appeared in the meeting room.
It was only after the time the boss had previously announced that the projector in the conference room suddenly came on, projecting a ghostly word "hidden" on the screen.
On the black background, only this one miserable white word exists, and the projector's image is somewhat unstable, making the word crawl across the screen as if it were alive, making it uncomfortable to watch.
"Everyone's here on time, good." A morose voice that the players had heard before came over the speakers.
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It seems that the voice is that of the owner.
Although his mouth said it was good, his tone was tinged with a bit of regret, clearly preferring to have a few ungrateful fellows be less obedient so that a little Little Xiao punishment could be given as a matter of course.
Unfortunately, this time no iron-headed wares appeared.
"First of all, welcome to all our new colleagues. The main purpose of this meeting is to introduce you to the projects you will be working on, and I will start with a short introduction, as you all know, we at DEATH Game Studio are known for developing indie horror games ......"
What follows is a tens of thousands of words long and seemingly never-ending summary of the workshop's results.
It seems that no matter what world you live in, a brief word from a leader is never brief.
As the players' eyes began to drain and their expressions became dazed, the boss finally turned the conversation back to the subject of this meeting: the
"And this time, the project we've developed is called The Hidden."
"The game focuses on a ghostly creature that hides from people, which quietly devours them, and each person devoured by Cain is forgotten by all its existence, and it is as if he never existed."
"Well, the job descriptions have been sent to your computers."
"I hope you can all take your work seriously and the meeting is now adjourned."
Then the projector screen disappears.
"Thud - thud - thud - thud -"
The meeting was adjourned by the boss and a clear ringing sound came from the stereo.
The players got up and headed downstairs.
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At this point, the number of people walking out was -
Eight people.
After the players had returned to the office, Xiao Lan heard Hu Zhai's voice outside in the corridor.
"That ...... I seem to have found something wrong."
Attracted by his voice, players came out in droves and headed in the direction of the planning office.
The curator's office is no different from the others, the only difference is that there are two seats here and the only player who becomes a curator is Hu Zhai.
All the other offices seem to be specially arranged according to the number of people in them, so why is there an extra one in Hu Zhai's office?
"Look at this, guys." Hu Zhai points to the desk at the workstation opposite his own, which bears a work pass that strikes the other players as familiar.
Xiao Lan went up and picked up the work card and examined it carefully. The card holder and the contents were similar to his, but this one had blank identification information and a photo.
The player called Mo Dan said, "Who took more?"
Cheng Wenyi said lazily, "All of us remember how we entered our information at the front desk and then watched our work cards appear in front of us, don't we? We put the card holder on ourselves, and we didn't see anyone take an extra one with so many people watching."
"So could ...... have been misplaced by an administrator earlier?" Another player said.
Mu Yang gave him a mortal really stupid look, "Have you ever seen an administration here?"
Players who tried to take a chance were left dumbfounded.
A vague suspicion surfaced in the players' minds, what the boss had said before about The Crypt, he remembered, in which those who were devoured by The Crypt would disappear from everyone's memory.
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They looked at each other's faces, the faces that had come out of the meeting room with them.
In other words, just before, in the conference room where everyone was gathered, a player just vanished into thin air.
Boss just made a man disappear right in front of everyone's eyes! And what this disappearance represents is often death.
Not only are they oblivious, but this boss even has the power to alter their memories!
The players fell silent and a tense atmosphere hung in the air.
At that moment, Xiao Lan's eyes were greeted by a black line of elegant, sinewy handwriting, the handwriting of Luo.
[The missing player is called He Kaisui]
Luo actually remembered!
Faced with a slightly surprised look from Xiao Lan, Luo continued to write.
[Yes, my memory has not been tampered with]
The author has something to say.
Cheng Wenyi: I've put off tens of millions of dollars of business to catch up on announcements, and I'm so handsome, but readers say they don't remember me, gasp ......
Mu Yang: Who told you that you have too few roles, you can't even get a male number 5.
Cheng Wenyi: ...... essay plus one more.