Life Game In Other World
Chapter 165: Issues with the Factory (Long - , Please Subscribe, Add to Favorites, Request Monthly Tickets)

Chapter 165: Chapter 165: Issues with the Factory (Long Chapter, Please Subscribe, Add to Favorites, Request Monthly Tickets)

As twilight bathed the earth, a wearied man stretched languidly and walked step by step into the apartment building.

This apartment was located at the crossroad of Kwei District and Aston District, with one door facing Aston District and the other facing Kwei District.

The area was a bit messy, but the rent was cheap.

His wife wouldn’t get off work from the restaurant until nine o’clock at night.

His daughter had enrolled in after-school tutoring classes and would probably not be home for another half an hour.

This half-hour was his alone, his quiet moment.

The elevator ascended floor by floor, until it stopped on the 27th floor.

That was where his rented room was located.

As the elevator doors slowly opened, he walked along the corridor, playing with his smart wristband.

And just as he was about to reach his front door, he stopped, his gaze shifting downward.

A youth, looking enfeebled, was squatting at his doorstep, quietly watching him as he raised his head.

"Hello, Mr. Jack, my name is Joey,"

He Ao slowly stood up and introduced himself.

During the waiting time, in order to save energy for his Combat Suit, he would typically choose to squat, relying on the special structure of the Combat Suit to maintain his body’s balance and rest.

After all, Joey’s physical conditioning was quite weak.

"You...hello,"

Jack looked at the youth somewhat strangely, then he reached to press the fingerprint switch on his smart door lock and turned his head, looking at He Ao with confusion, "I don’t think I know you? Do you need something from me? If it’s about work...sorry, I’m off the clock now."

"I am Parr’s son, Parr from Avis Machinery Factory,"

He Ao stated calmly.

Click—

The smart lock was disengaged.

Jack still looked puzzled as he grasped the door handle, seemingly not understanding why He Ao was looking for him.

"My father died," He Ao continued, "He died in a mechanical accident at the factory."

The hand holding the door handle froze in that instant, as if time had stood still.

"Come in."

After a while, Jack sighed and slowly opened the door.

He Ao followed him into the apartment.

The apartment wasn’t large; it had a narrow layout.

Upon entering there was a long corridor, on the right side of which were the bathroom and kitchen, and to the left, a small bedroom.

The corridor led directly to a cramped square living room.

Jack walked to the end, pulled open the curtains of the living room, and then moved to the side of the sofa.

This sofa, to be precise, was a fold-out sofa bed, on which lay arranged bedding and a somewhat dirty pillow.

"Sorry,"

Jack went over and folded the sofa bed back up, grouped the bedding and pillow together, and set them aside, "I usually sleep here, and my wife and daughter take the bedroom."

He Ao understood, having lived in a similar one-room apartment with his parents before they had gotten jobs at the factory.

These apartments were small, but the rent was affordable.

He Ao didn’t sit down on the tidied sofa but instead looked up at Jack.

Compared to these matters, he cared more about the truth behind Joey’s parents’ deaths.

Jack looked into his eyes, paused in his tidying up, then stopped, and sat down on a nearby chair.

He gestured for He Ao to sit on the sofa, and then paused for a moment, seemingly organizing his thoughts,

"I’m sorry... I never expected things to really go this far."

He Ao slowly sat on the sofa, looking at Jack.

Jack opened his mouth, wanting to say something, then scratched his head, as if unsure where to begin.

He Ao, observing his hesitation, softly guided, "So, why did you resign from the factory?"

"Because there was something wrong with that robotic arm."

Having clarified the first thread of the issue, Jack gradually unveiled what he knew under He Ao’s guidance.

Jack had attended college, though it was just the crappiest community college.

He studied mechanics there, and his grades in all subjects were terrible, and of course, the teachers in community college basically didn’t teach much either.

In contrast to his poor grades, however, he had an extraordinary passion for mechanics, which drove him to proactively learn a lot about mechanical knowledge during his time at university.

This passion led him to choose the Avis Machinery Factory after graduating—the largest machinery factory in Dawn City.

In the first few years, his work went very smoothly.

Because of his exceptional theoretical knowledge and love for mechanics, he was quickly promoted due to outstanding performance, and within just a few years, he went from an ordinary worker to a trainee engineer.

Becoming a trainee engineer meant that he had the chance to become part of the factory’s professional management.

After that, he started rotating through various critical frontline positions in the factory to become familiar with the different mechanical equipment.

And his first station was as Operator B for the I-27 robotic arm.

He had originally planned to stay at this position for a year and a half.

But just six months in, he realized that the I-27 robotic arm he operated had a problem.

In the afternoons, just before the end of the workday, the robotic arm would make a slight abnormal noise, which shouldn’t occur in such a large-scale robotic arm.

After discussing this issue with his coworkers, they informed him that this had been happening since a year ago when they first started, initially occurring only occasionally but had lately begun to occur more frequently.

But it was just a strange noise and didn’t affect the operation.

He deduced that there was a damaged or excessively worn part inside the robotic arm.

He reported this to his superiors.

The next day, specialized engineers came for an inspection, and afterward, his superiors told him that there was nothing wrong with the robotic arm, that the strange noise was simply a design flaw of this particular model.

He vaguely felt that something wasn’t right, but he still believed what his superiors said.

And so, he remained in that position for another half a year, with the abnormal noise constantly accompanying his work and becoming more frequent, to which he gradually adapted.

Until one time, just when he was about to finish his shift, he was using the robotic arm to assemble some type of heavy machinery according to the usual operations.

He had barely gotten halfway when the robotic arm suddenly jammed.

In theory, in such a situation, the robotic arm’s emergency system should have immediately shut down all the motors, using the backup motors to slowly lower whatever heavy load it was carrying.

But the I-27’s emergency system did not activate, and all the motors were still forcibly running.

This heavy robotic arm, which could easily lift five tons, twisted violently in front of him, making squeaking and creaking noises.

If the arm exploded and ejected any fragments, he, standing closest to the control station, wouldn’t stand a chance. Even the smallest flying component could be lethal.

He hurried out and shut down the workshop’s power supply.

Afterward, he was fined a month’s salary for interrupting production by turning off the power, and the robotic arm underwent a simple repair before resuming operation.

But the strange abnormal noise persisted.

He realized that the I-27 robotic arm was not without issues; in fact, the problems were significant, so he immediately applied for another inspection at the factory.

However, this time, his application was rejected, and it seemed that his superiors were not willing to listen to his concerns.

Besides that, his superiors also stated not to worry, because even in the event of an accident, the factory had purchased accident insurance for him, and his family would receive a substantial compensation.

This scared him into hastily applying for resignation and he informed his colleagues, who had been frightened by a previous incident; they resigned along with him.

He had intended to tell more of his coworkers, but he soon received death threats from gang members, which kept him silent.

"So you haven’t seen my parents?"

He Ao looked at him, puzzled.

"I have seen them..." Jack paused, "I had completed the work handover with them... sorry..."

In that moment, He Ao abruptly stood up, grabbed Jack by the collar, lifted him up, and slammed him against the wall.

"So, why didn’t you tell them?!!!"

"I," Jack looked at the haggard and angry face of the young man before him, wanting to say something, but then he sighed, "sorry..."

"Daddy, I’m home!"

A little girl in a pink cotton jacket, with two braids on her head, pushed open the door. She was holding a small bag of candy, "Daddy, look, teacher rewarded me with a big bag of candy today."

Then she saw He Ao, who was holding up her dad, and paused.

He Ao slowly released his grip, letting Jack go.

Then he straightened up his backpack and walked towards the door.

As he passed by the little girl, a small hand stopped him.

The little girl took a handful of candy from her bag, held it up high, and brought it into He Ao’s line of sight,

"Brother, candy."

Although her handful only amounted to four candies.

"Thank you."

He Ao took the candy and gave the little girl a slight smile.

Then he slowly walked out of the house.

Behind him, Jack quickly rushed over to embrace his child.

——

Justice and evil are never so clearly differentiated.

Jack was a father and a husband; he was just an ordinary person.

Those who could maintain courage under the death threats of corporations were indeed few.

Which is why fearless heroes are so precious.

He Ao unwrapped a piece of candy and put it in his mouth.

As the sweet and bitter tastes mingled and dissolved on his tongue and in his heart, the elevator doors in front of him slowly opened.

The streets bathed in twilight appeared before him; stepping out from this door of the apartment would lead into Aston District.

Outside the apartment, a dense crowd of people wielding machetes and pistols stood silently, watching him intently.

Some of these faces were familiar to He Ao, as he had seen them in Noad’s bar.

They were once Noad’s underlings.

"Kill this kid, avenge the boss!"

A shout came from the crowd, coming from a tall, sturdy man, surrounded by a host of underlings.

It seemed the internal strife within Noad’s forces had ended, and the new boss needed to kill the enemies of the former boss to establish his own authority.

The bloody rise to power within small gangs is indeed swift.

He Ao bit into the candy in his mouth and slowly stepped out of the apartment building.

"Kill!!!"

The gang members at the very front immediately raised their guns.

Bang bang bang—

The glittering bullets pierced through their foreheads in an instant.

He Ao held a Butcher Pistol in one hand and a submachine gun filled with magazines in the other.

The front row of armed figures fell like rows of straw men.

The battle had not lasted ten seconds when the entire dense formation began to frantically scatter in all directions.

"Don’t run! Don’t run! There’s a big reward for killing this kid!"

The newly appointed boss, who had been surrounded in the middle, watched the scattering crowd in horror and bellowed loudly.

But the gang members, terrified out of their wits, could no longer hear his shouts; all they wanted was to flee, to escape this place that had become like hell.

Even the underlings who had been close by discarded their loyalty, leaving just him standing alone in the middle of the street.

He Ao holstered his guns and began walking towards him, one step at a time.

"Don’t you come over here!!!"

The new boss took two steps back, swallowing hard.

Then, with a swift motion, he drew a pistol and aimed it at He Ao, "F**k, you die when you’re killed, I don’t believe I can’t shoot you dead."

The instant his finger pressed on the trigger, a silvery flash of the sword pierced his throat.

His body twitched and struggled for a moment before finally going still.

He Ao pulled the short sword from his throat, and the fresh blood flowed neatly down the silvery blade, restoring its pristine moon-like shimmer.

He then slowly inserted the short sword back into the mechanical scabbard on his back.

At that moment, a thought struck him, and he turned his head to look.

Jack was standing at the door of the apartment, staring blankly at the carnage on the street and the weakened young man standing amidst the corpses.

He swallowed with a tremble.

He had just been talking to what kind of monster.

"Is there something you need?"

He Ao looked at him, curious.

"Where... where do you plan to go next?"

Jack did his best to suppress the intense discomfort in his heart, lifting his head and avoiding looking at the bodies on the ground.

He Ao did not answer, but continued to look at him, puzzled.

"If you want to investigate the factory," Jack said with a tremble, pulling a white card from his coat pocket,

"I used to be very interested in the factory’s work cards, and then I tried to replicate some blank cards... Now I can only find this one, but it should still work; you can use it to access certain doors in the factory."

He Ao took out a tissue, cleaned the fresh blood on his hands, then walked over to receive the blank card,

"Thank you."

"No, no need for thanks."

Jack watched, numb, as the young man turned and walked away, moving into the glow of the setting sun, across land stained with blood.