Chapter 14: Timed Task

Never would he have expected that a player could find a decent job as soon as they logged on.

Chen Zhi had assumed they would all be doing manual labor.

Among the 18 players currently online, 16 had gone to do manual labor; 6 of them had been sent by him to the Farm, and the remaining ten were all working as laborers at the train station.

It must be said that these players had the gene for diligence carved into their very bones; even after arriving in another world, they did not forget the all-important matter of earning money.

Zhuguli was one of the players who had run to the docks; because he was not a primary focus of Chen Zhi's attention, there was only a blue dot in Chen Zhi's mind representing his coordinates.

He had originally been playing other games, taking advantage of the October holiday to run dungeons with his teammates, but because he had brought two newcomers along, one dungeon had taken over four hours of back-and-forth before they cleared it; wanting to play a bit more, he had ultimately turned off his computer.

Opening his phone, he saw the message Chen Ai had posted on Weibo, stating that today was the first day of the *New Calamity* closed beta.

Rolling over, he opened the forum and saw that many more posts had appeared; it seemed this game actually had some playability.

Although many posts were spouting nonsense like "completely realistic" and "epoch-making game," he still couldn't sit still.

Sometimes people are just like this: even knowing the other party is lying, they still want to see exactly how they intend to deceive them.

Driven by some strange impulse, he opened the box he had shoved into a corner, and as soon as he entered the game, he had one feeling: Damn, I wasn't fooled!

This game really is: completely realistic, an epoch-making game!

He quickly followed the guide and arrived at the station to start looking for work.

There was only one station in Tana City, but it was quite busy every day; there were three train lines here, two coming from the O'Neil Federal Republic and the other from Sweetwater Port.

Cargo shipped from Sweetwater Port had to be transported by people to nearby warehouses, and when merchants from the O'Neil Federation came to collect it, it would then be transported from the warehouses onto the trains.

Do not ask why they had to go through this extra trouble instead of pulling it directly to the designated location.

This was the territory of the Wealth Church, and everything entering or leaving here had to be registered, recorded, and taxed before it could leave Tana City.

Listening to the complaints of the people here, Zhuguli followed the flow of the crowd and found one of the foremen.

Perhaps because these laborers were illiterate, the foreman brought out a document.

"There are three more carriages here that need unloading, and I need to hire six people. You..." He saw Zhuguli at a glance, pointed at Zhuguli's head, and said, "You, yes, and you, you, you, and you, all come with me."

Among the group, only six strong, lucky individuals got the job. The foreman said as he walked: "This shipment is coal; what you need to do is carry it with poles to the warehouse with the red roof over there."

Following the foreman's hand, Zhuguli only saw a touch of red in the distance.

"The pay is negotiable. If you can finish transporting it before dark, I'll give each of you thirty Tana, and we can provide a meal."

After hearing the foreman's words, the five strong laborers besides Zhuguli were exceptionally happy; if a meal was provided, they wouldn't have to spend money on food today, and they would also walk away with thirty Tana for nothing!

Only Zhuguli looked at everyone with indifference, his face expressionless.

"No slacking off allowed." The foreman glanced at Zhuguli, which actually made Zhuguli feel a sense of fear.

In that instant, he had only one feeling in his mind.

Could this foreman be played by a living person?

A feeling of horror washed over him, and by the time he came to his senses, those five people were already scrambling to get to work.

The coal had to be unloaded one cart at a time. Zhuguli picked up a basket; this basket could only be carried on his back, it wasn't as big as he had imagined, and even when filled with coal, it wasn't very heavy.

This was not to say that the work was not tiring.

It was because most of the porters were not strong, healthy people; even if they were young, they were used to feast-or-famine, so how could they have the strength to carry anything too heavy?

"Hurry up, all of you! Remember to finish before dark! Otherwise, I won't be providing a meal!" Seeing that everyone's progress was not fast, the foreman became a bit anxious; the train had been delayed today, and if the task wasn't finished on time, he wouldn't have time to go to the bar to relax.

Hearing the reprimand, the few strong laborers quickened their pace, though they remained sluggish.

The warehouse was simply too far away; relying only on this method of transport, what was the use of being faster?

They weren't working at the train station for the first time; these foremen were often lying, and the few laborers at this moment had already dismissed the dinner promised by the foreman as a lie.

With only six people, they definitely wouldn't finish before dark.

Urged on by others, Zhuguli immediately found another basket, picked up a wooden pole on the spot, and tied the two baskets to the ends of the pole.

The foreman had been reading a newspaper, and then he saw Zhuguli stringing the two baskets together.

"This guy is really a good lad." The foreman, Forman, looked at the young man with some gratification; it seemed he had misjudged him. Being able to think of this method showed that he was the only one truly working, while the others were a bunch of lazy ghosts who looked like they were trying hard but were actually brainless fools.

Carrying the homemade shoulder pole, Zhuguli could carry the load of two people by himself, which was equivalent to seven people working.

He hadn't thought at all about whether he was losing out by doing this.

After all, in his eyes, completing the task was the top priority.

It would be best to finish the task immediately; if he had to lose out a little, so be it. If he had enough strength, he would have just carried the carriage over directly.

It was a pity that this game was too realistic; every time, every step, and even every drop of sweat felt like it was happening for real.

If it weren't for people on the forum complaining about too many bugs, he would have suspected he had transmigrated.

"Oh, you blind, lazy ghosts, can't you see that you can only be faster if you do things like him? What's wrong with getting off work early? Don't forget your dinner!" Forman's favor for Zhuguli increased quite a bit. He certainly knew that six people might not be able to finish these things before dark, but based on experience, most of these laborers were lazy, and they would only work hard if forced.

On the contrary, an honest guy like Zhuguli was too rare.

If there was a next time, he would definitely have Zhuguli come to work again; this young man was truly too sincere, he was worthy of his favor!

Zhuguli did not yet know that he had been noted by an NPC; he carried the coal with a grunt, while complaining in his heart about why these people didn't just get a handcart—wouldn't it be faster to finish the task if they used a cart?

(End of this chapter)