I Forged the Myth of the Ancient Overlords
Chapter 439 - 439 438. Factory brick moving I angrily scolded the

Chapter 439: 438. Factory brick moving, I angrily scolded the foreman_1 Chapter 439: 438. Factory brick moving, I angrily scolded the foreman_1 Zhou Yuan was an executive at an Internet company, overseeing three departments with over two-hundred people beneath him.

He himself worked hard every day, even coming in on weekends to put in overtime, embodying the 996 spirit, and reaped the rewards every day.

When a leader worked overtime, naturally, those below him felt embarrassed not to do the same. Although the company did not encourage overtime, urging everyone to go straight home after work, this led most people to work from home instead. As a result, working hours were no longer confined to nine o’clock endings and many people ended up working longer than the previous 996 schedule. Some even began to think that they might as well return to 996.

Zhou Yuan was full of energy, oblivious to the fact that people his age struggled to sleep so early.

When he was young, he was too excited and agitated to sleep, considering starting a business a beautiful thing. How come these young people, one by one, lay flat, like salted fish, unwilling to strive?

Even the company’s stock prices had fallen quite a bit, which saddened Zhou Yuan. Fortunately, housing prices hadn’t dropped, and he could still earn a decent amount from renting properties.

This time, due to the company’s new project that coincidentally matched Lu Ban’s concept for a large-scale immersive experiential game, he rallied the entire company to sign up and take part in the project. With luck, participants could get early experience and learn from Lu Ban’s expertise.

And coincidentally, Zhou Yuan got selected.

He didn’t understand murder mystery games or escape rooms; he was just there to observe and experience.

Zhou Yuan originally intended to approach it with a strict professional attitude, but upon receiving the script, he was somewhat dumbfounded.

He had to play a worker, someone literate who had once visited Doctor Howes’ clinic and lived in an apartment called the Home of Happiness.

Transforming from a capitalist to a worker, Zhou Yuan found it a bit too much to handle.

According to the information, his living conditions were still considered good for a worker.

In the cramped room, three people slept: one on a messy bed, another on an old, tattered sofa, and he himself on a thin mattress on the floor, with the cold floor seeping through his back, tossing and turning.

In an apartment, it was already rather good to have three people sharing and taking turns sleeping on the bed.

He had never suffered like this as he grew up.

Before four in the morning, an extremely restless Zhou Yuan was awakened by noise.

He opened his eyes to find his two worker roommates had already gotten ready to head out.

“So early? Doesn’t the shift start at eight?”

He asked subconsciously.

“If you go at eight, you’ll only end up in the toughest spots, and you won’t be able to finish the work anyway,”

said the worker, kindly offering him a tip.

Zhou Yuan didn’t quite understand, but since he was uncomfortable lying down, he had no choice but to get up, get dressed, and rush to the factory.

It was still dark outside, and the early winter morning was bitterly cold. The wind made Zhou Yuan shiver all over. He suspected he would definitely catch a cold and fever after the script ended. He reflexively pulled his clothes tighter in an attempt to warm up a little more.

On the way, he saw some food stalls open for business. Zhou Yuan wanted to grab breakfast, but after checking his pockets, he only had about ten yuan in savings and still needed to buy lunch, so breakfast was simply unaffordable.

He would just have to go hungry.

Luckily, a few steps later, he saw a factory.

The factory wasn’t large, but its chimney had already started to emit white smoke. As soon as Zhou Yuan got a whiff of the factory’s odors, he immediately started coughing. The stench mixed with the smell of excrement, the pungent smoke, and something else indistinguishable was unbearable and sickening.

Zhou Yuan vomited on the spot.

Although the scenario had him down as a skilled worker, his physical instinct could not deceive him.

Seeing Zhou Yuan throw up, the early rising audience members expressed their sympathy.

“What a sight this morning—I’m actually watching someone get up early for work and then vomit on the spot!”

“Brothers, this is so unappetizing, clean and sanitary.”

“Damn, what kind of brutal reality is this? Waking up at four in the morning to go to work, in such a harsh environment, I can’t take it.”

“I get it, this must be the new session of transformation reality shows, where the big boss experiences the life of the lower class. Lu Ban is really painstaking, he’s truly… I’m crying!”

“Wait a minute, isn’t this supposed to be a suspenseful murder mystery game—why do I have to watch him work?”

Zhou Yuan’s work, however, was straightforward—purely simple, repetitive manual labor. After starting work for a bit, he saw the work order for the day.

He could make one component per minute, but today he had to make twelve hundred!

Even if he worked continuously without any breaks, it would take twenty straight hours!

Starting at four in the morning, working until midnight would just be enough to finish.

No wonder his coworker said he wouldn’t finish if he started late.

“That’s just way too much…”

Zhou Yuan made a sarcastic remark, causing the people around him to glance at him.

“If you don’t want to do it, let me, you can earn a dollar for every hundred parts.”

“Ah… this…”

Zhou Yuan remembered that the steamed buns by the roadside cost a dollar each, and with today’s effort of twenty hours, he could only earn twenty dollars, which amounted to an income of six hundred dollars a month.

The rent was almost three hundred dollars!

The money he earned from toiling away at his job mostly went to the landlord, with only enough left over to fill his stomach.

“You’d better focus on your work, if the parts are not up to standard, they’ll deduct from your count, two for every substandard part, which is a big loss.”

The person next to him reminded him.

“There can be substandard parts?”

Just as Zhou Yuan complained, he saw a worker in front of him being dragged out by the factory supervisor.

“These parts of yours are not up to standard, redo them.”

Zhou Yuan looked at the “substandard” parts, which seemed no different from the normal ones.

“They look the same, though.”

He muttered to himself, but the supervisor saw it and immediately came over, glancing at Zhou Yuan’s parts.

“What kind of dogshit is this, all these parts you’ve made are not up to standard, redo them!”

“???”

Zhou Yuan could no longer tolerate it.

“What’s substandard about them, aren’t they exactly the same as the others?”

“Heh, in this factory, if I say they’re not up to standard, then they’re not up to standard.”

The supervisor lightly patted Zhou Yuan’s face.

“What do you all think, are his parts up to standard?”

He asked the people around him.

Everyone shook their heads, nobody daring to stand up for Zhou Yuan.

Seeing this, Zhou Yuan, in a fit of rage, cursed out loud.

“Screw this! What is this crap, such a waste of time!”

“Hold on, you have at least eighty parts here, you need to compensate for a hundred and sixty, so either continue to finish them, or leave sixteen dollars to pack up and go home.”

The supervisor called out to him.

“Aren’t you just bullying an honest person?”

Zhou Yuan cursed, but the factory security quickly arrived and subdued him.

After a struggle, the last few dollars in Zhou Yuan’s pocket were snatched away, and he nearly lost his clothes too.

Now, he was unemployed and idle.

“What kind of world is this, isn’t this bullying too much.”

Walking on the street, Zhou Yuan felt the coldness of the world; these capitalists were truly detestable, this wasn’t just exploitation, it was downright robbery!

As he walked, he noticed on the dimly lit street, there seemed to be a woman standing.

The woman had a graceful figure, wearing a form-fitting cheongsam, with a folding fan in her hand that she opened to cover the lower half of her face.

Zhou Yuan approached, thinking there might be a beautiful woman.

Since he had already been kicked out of the factory, he might as well find something to slack off on for the next few days.

He greeted the woman.

The woman seemed to smile and then closed her fan.

Zhou Yuan saw the face under the fan was twisted like a melting candle; the woman let out a frivolous laugh as her figure seemed to grow much larger, and from the hem of her skirt, shadows spread like tentacles, tightly entwining Zhou Yuan.

He hurriedly retreated, but missteped and fell into the sewer.

The scene jumps.