Chapter 3419: Mimics

"All mimics?"

Luweiya, the doctor, and Old John all looked at Xia De in surprise, while Iluna, who was responsible for vigilance at the end of the team, just pricked up her ears to listen.

Xia De was very sure he hadn't seen it wrong:

"All the workers I can see here are mimics... Let's change places, I have a bad feeling."

The number of workers in this medium-sized textile factory is about 700. The work of the workers includes operating spinning machines, looms, transporting raw materials and finished products, and only a very small number are technical personnel and management personnel.

And under Xia De's investigation, he didn't see any humans in this factory, and no one's head had any marks.

"So in the factory in front of us, there are more than 700 mimics? Could this be the main body of the Mimic's House?"

The doctor even put forward this conjecture, and even Luweiya, who gave the divination conclusion, was a little unconfident. However, the Whispering Elements in the area where the factory is located are not obvious, and the internal architecture of the factory area is completely different from the internal space of the relic described by Old John, so this should not be the relic main body.

The extermination battle against the 【Mimic's House】 in the distance has officially started. Although the church's team blocked the spread of sound and light, everyone could still feel the fluctuations of abnormal spirits and elements.

It's just that none of the mimics here had any intention of going to help. They just continued to work like normal people. Iluna even suspected that the cloth they processed had problems, but after inspection, everyone thought the factory's finished products were fine.

"Since the whole factory is mimics, there should at least be a fourth-stage mimic here to lead them. Let's go find the factory owner and see, I think the secret should be on him."

Old John gave a suggestion, and the factory's office building and workshop were independent. The office building was also lit at this time, but clerical staff such as accountants and secretaries had all gone off work. Breaking into that office building was effortless, and finding the person they wanted to find was also effortless.

The gas lamp light in the room was yellowish, and the factory owner mimic, who was wearing a suit and tie and was slightly bald, was writing financial statements in his office.

At a certain moment, it noticed that a shadow was cast on its desk, and when it looked up, it saw five people appearing in its office.

It loosened its tie, looking relaxed, and then shook its head at them with a sigh:

"Good evening, gentlemen, you have found the wrong place."

He said this:

"I know your intention, but although I am the factory owner, it is not me who is in charge here now. You should go to the spinning workshop in the east. The guy who manages this factory is there now."

Chains bound its body, and then the doctor and Old John packed up all the paper documents in the office. The group jumped out of the window directly, and after sending a signal to inform their companions outside the factory of their current position, Xia De led everyone into the spinning workshop full of mimics.

The steam gushing from the steam engine made the workshop in winter unusually stuffy. It is hard to imagine what the situation here would be like in summer.

The shrill whistle of the steam whistle and the sound of metal collision made this place not like a night at all. The iron-cast window frames cast spider-web-like shadows on the ground, hundreds of mule machines vibrated at the same time, the spindles carried the flying hum wrapped in cotton wool, and the humid air almost condensed into lead-like heavy fog.

The water droplets seeping from the steam pipes on the walls fell along the cracked wall seams. The fatigue of continuous work made everyone look like zombies in horror stories.

The suppressed coughing sounds that came out from time to time were one after another, but no one stopped the work in their hands. Various pipelines crossed and crisscrossed on the ceiling, and the dripping oil stains dripped on the workers' shoulders from time to time, mixed with sweat, and bloomed dark stains on the cheap cotton cloth.

Having been in this era for so long, this was the first time he had entered the factory and seen the workers' work with his own eyes. But except for Xia De and Little Mia, others did not pay too much attention to the surrounding environment, and seemed to be accustomed to all this.

The slightly bald factory owner led the way, and finally led the group to see a worker wearing suspenders, who was tall but a bit thin. He was the same as others, with no human mark on his head, but there was no alienation phenomenon on his body either. This was a fourth-stage mimic.

Even, when the group arrived, he, who was carrying yarn ingots by the wall, actually saw through everyone's illusions and saw them directly.

He waved his hand to signal everyone not to act, and let other companions who were carrying work go elsewhere first:

"Let the manager go, I will talk to you."

Wearing a linen short-sleeved top inside the suspenders, the tall and thin man spread out his rough palms, signaling that he had no weapons in his hands, and then he sat directly on the cart used for carrying goods.

Because the cart was very low, his arms looked extra slender after sitting down. Seeing that Xia De didn't let anyone go, he sighed, and then looked at the direction of the 【Mimic's House】 outside the window:

"You are really too fast. I originally thought that we could earn money for a few more months. But these few months are enough, and we are all satisfied."

The complex emotions he showed at this moment were even more like humans than many humans. Xia De originally thought that this subtle way of expressing emotions was unique to intelligent life. He didn't expect that mimics could imitate it so well, even a bit too much—

"You... no, what exactly are you?"

He suddenly had a whim and used the "Eye of Edwards" to observe the other party's body, and then found that two-thirds of the other party's body was glowing, and the remaining one-third was still a human body.

This is not a pure mimic. He is a mixture of human and mimic. This is another situation that has never appeared in the data.

The man sitting on the cart laughed:

"It was probably last summer. My mother suffered from lung disease and then exhausted all the savings in the family. When burying my mother in autumn, there was almost no food left in the family, but I still had a wife and three children to support. Can you guess what I was thinking at that time?"

His eyes were observing the five people, and the doctor spoke:

"You want to make money?"

"Yes, I want to make a lot of money. I was thinking at that time, if I could work in the factory 24 hours a day, and would not be tired, would not get sick, how good would that be? In this way, everyone in my family could eat."

This time my wish was realized. When I went off work that day, I accidentally found a building nearby that didn't exist before. I don't know how I opened that red door and walked in—I knew everything, this can indeed realize my wish."

His figure was hunched, clearly tall, but he looked like he was curled up sitting there:

"I am the first person in Tobesk to enter the 【Mimic's House】. After I entered, a mimic should have replaced me and walked out, becoming the first mimic in this city. But because of my other wish, that house just replaced a part of my body with a mimic, allowing me to maintain my humanity. Can you guess what the wish that made the 【Mimic's House】 willing to help me was?"

No one spoke, until the oldest Old John answered:

"You, want to help more people?"

"Yes, Old Jack, the Simmel family, Mr. Bob, Little Mike... The factory owner's increasingly high work requirements, plus the unemployment wave caused by the winter blizzard, and a series of economic problems triggered by the upcoming war, now everyone is living very difficultly, and I am just one of them. Now I have such an opportunity, so I also want to help them."

After a brief pause, he frankly faced the eyes of the five people:

"I didn't lie to them. I told everyone that there would be something that looks exactly the same as them, but will not be tired, will not get sick, and will continue to take care of their families to replace them, and will continue to live completely according to their personality and habits."

Although everyone hesitated a little at first, everyone agreed in the end. After all, everyone's life is almost unsustainable now, and in this way, the family can live better, and everyone is indeed... tired."

Iluna pursed her lips, Doctor Schneider's expression didn't change at all, Old John just shook his head gently, Luweiya looked at Xia De, and Xia De continued to ask:

"You just like this, step by step replaced everyone in this factory?"

"Yes, and everyone is voluntary, and will even actively keep secrets and help me expand more. Some people found me on their own initiative and asked to be replaced, and I didn't even contact them."

He paused slightly:

"I have been to night school and understand some cultural knowledge. I don't remember where I heard this sentence: everyone lives with different masks and different clothes. Now everyone has let go of their masks and clothes. In a sense, they are actually still alive."

He looked at the factory owner who was bound by Xia De's chains:

"There is only one mimic here, who was forcibly transformed."

"Probably when the first snow in winter, I found that the 【Mimic's House】 was still expanding by more intense means. It and we would be discovered sooner or later, so I replaced the textile factory owner Mr. Murray, found a way to drive away the middle management, and then let all workers share the profits generated by this factory."

Mr. Murray was the only person who was forcibly replaced by us. He was scared to death at that time and scolded us as monsters. I told him he was also a monster."

The man was laughing:

"【Mimic's House】 doesn't mind what I do, because this is more conducive to expansion."

"So the whole factory was replaced with mimics who would not be tired, would not get sick, and would not even complain, and all profits were used to share and expand—can you imagine the profitability of this factory now?" ===== CHAPTER 3420 =====

"So the entire factory was replaced with pseudo-humans that don't get tired, don't get sick, and don't even complain, and all the profits were used for equal distribution and expansion—can you imagine the profit efficiency of this factory now?"