Sanye City, the outskirts.
A fine curtain of rain enveloped the entire city; the water vapor in the air carried a pungent scent of sulfur, mingled with the rusty tang of iron.
Since that cataclysm descended, human civilization had suffered a devastating blow. Habitable land had drastically shrunk, forcing people to dig underground, constructing massive bunkers to evade the frequent extreme natural disasters.
Nowadays, in this world, apart from the Central City, which legend held preserved the most scientific and technological achievements, the remaining cities were standardly classified as Level One, Level Two, and Level Three.
Level Three cities were mostly functional, established for specific purposes like mining or planting. The structures of Level Two cities and above, relatively speaking, retained some of the pre-cataclysm style.
Sanye City, where Lin Xiao was located, was a Level Two city, its area divided into the Inner City and the Outer City.
According to online data, although Level Two cities were not as prosperous as Level One cities and had relatively sparse populations, the City Management Bureau still allocated funds annually for various infrastructure projects. For instance, the Xiangyang Welfare Institute located in the suburbs had been established for only five years, yet it had already suspended external operations and was preparing to relocate to a new district.
Through the curtain of rain, the gate of the welfare institute could be seen in the distance, with a notice posted on it stating it was not accepting children. The rain had soaked the paper; the black ink blurred and spread across the white pulp. The line "Giving children a bright tomorrow" gradually became indistinct and distorted, while on the entire sheet, only "Looking forward to charitable aid from all sectors of society" and the contact number at the bottom remained clearly legible.
Ordinary printing paper was clearly no match for the erosion of acid rain.
Lin Xiao had read relevant popular science; one of the aftereffects of the cataclysm was the frequent occurrence of extreme weather, with acid rain, acid fog, and severe cold being the norm. Many people who had no choice but to go out on rainy days, besides carrying an umbrella, would often wear a raincoat underneath to prevent their clothes and skin from being corroded.
Unfortunately, Lin Xiao had forgotten to bring an umbrella when she went out. At this moment, she was sitting on a bench at the entrance of a somewhat desolate office building. She crushed the beverage can in her hand, which was printed with "Synthetic Paste Flavor," and tossed it into a nearby trash can.
Thud.
The empty can landed precisely inside.
The biggest characteristic of this beverage, aside from quenching thirst, was its terrible taste. It was originally developed to help the public adapt to the awful texture of synthetic paste. Production costs were low, and it couldn't fetch a good price, yet because it possessed certain survival value, it was sometimes distributed to citizens for free. This suited Lin Xiao's current financial situation perfectly.
However, considering that even residents of the Outer District tried to avoid choosing synthetic paste in their diets, this beverage would likely be completely phased out sooner or later.
Stimulated by the taste, Lin Xiao sobered up a little. She looked at the sky with a touch of melancholy; she remembered the weather was fine when she first went out, not expecting it to suddenly start raining, with no sign of the downpour weakening.
Lin Xiao took out her phone for a look; the screen showed only one bar of signal. She tried to refresh, and the result was as expected—the last bar of signal vanished without a trace.
"..."
This was normal; whenever it rained, communication within the city always became spotty. Added to that, the phone Lin Xiao used was an older model: it consumed power quickly, the body was heavy, and its performance was quite "minimalist."
Gusts of wind blew into the corridor, and the irritating smell emitted by the acid rain made one's throat dry. Lin Xiao put her phone back in her pocket, stretched her joints, then stood up lazily from the bench, intending to take shelter inside the building.
She had only taken a few steps inside when Lin Xiao suddenly stopped. Her gaze swept toward the wall beside the stairs, where a recruitment advertisement was posted.
She was a senior in university; if all went well, she would graduate in the middle of next year. But compared to many classmates who had found jobs early or didn't worry about employment at all, Lin Xiao, who frequently rushed between interview venues, had yet to receive her own offer.
Fortunately, she had already paid off her living and study loans through part-time jobs and scholarships. Otherwise, once she lost her student status, she would be forcibly dispatched to a Level Three city and passively accept a job arranged by others.
Lin Xiao crossed her arms, looking at the advertisement on the wall with some curiosity.
"Studio recruiting game testers. No education or experience required. Interested parties please go to Room 201 upstairs for details."
The ad didn't mention salary or working hours; it was so brief and hollow that one could tell at a glance the studio was on the verge of closing down.
Lin Xiao looked back at the heavy rain outside, smiled, and walked up the stairs.
Dim light pressed down like a blanket.
Although it wasn't evening yet, perhaps because the dark clouds were too thick, Lin Xiao felt her vision was somewhat blurred, as if she were walking through a waterlogged old photograph.
There weren't many people in the office building; footsteps echoed in the empty corridor. Lin Xiao knocked on the door of Room 201.
No one answered, but the door opened automatically. On the only table in the room lay a disc, with a note beside it that read: "Job seekers, please take the game disc to Room 206 for testing."
Lin Xiao: "..."
She took the disc as instructed, while deeply suspecting that the studio before her wasn't on the verge of bankruptcy, but had already gone bankrupt.
Room 206 was on the other side of the corridor, a sign hanging on the door reading "Prospective Employee Workspace." The door was wooden; the paint on the surface had peeled off due to age, giving it a dilapidated look that seemed ready to fall apart.
...It seemed the recent employment situation was indeed not optimistic.
The door before her was unlocked. Lin Xiao stepped into Room 206; the light in the corridor hadn't been bright to begin with, and the room was even dimmer.
She raised an eyebrow slightly, noticing that the door behind her had already closed automatically.
It was clearly an old wooden door, yet it made no sound when closing, lacking even the usual creak.
Lin Xiao stared at it for a moment, then lowered her eyes slightly, lost in some thought.
"...New here?"
A muffled greeting came from within the room, breaking the silence. Lin Xiao immediately turned to look inside.
Two computer desks were placed in the room. A burly man in a tank top, around thirty years old, was sitting at one of them.
The light from the screen reflected on the man's face, giving his skin an unhealthy pallor.
The man glanced up at Lin Xiao and pointed to another computer on the left with his chin: "Your station."
An ashtray sat on his desk, more than half filled with cigarette butts, and a foul, murky smell drifted in the air.
Lin Xiao nodded first to indicate she was the new recruit reporting in, then placed her backpack on the workstation and asked politely, "Could you open the window?"
The man looked a bit impatient: "Window's broken, can't open it." As he spoke, he used the hem of his shirt to wipe sweat from his face, fanning himself in the process.
Lin Xiao fell silent for a moment, then settled for the next best thing: "Then is it okay to open the door?"
This time, the man didn't even reply; he just shook his head quickly and let out a snort from his nose that was clearly unrelated to pleasure.
Lin Xiao didn't rush to sit down. She glanced around and discovered that the only window in the entire room was located diagonally behind her workstation, facing the main door of the restroom.
Through that window, Lin Xiao could see the gloomy sky outside.
Opposite the room was an arcade. A lighted sign hanging on the outer wall of the staircase, with the giant characters for "Happy Valley," nearly filled the entire window frame.
Lin Xiao took a couple of looks and confirmed the window was sealed shut, so she resigned herself to sitting down in the chair.
From the information she had so far, the position she had applied for was clearly closely related to game testing, and the content on the disc was the requirement for the upcoming work. Lin Xiao originally had other questions she wanted to ask, but unfortunately, the colleague before her had already expressed an unwillingness to communicate through practical action.
The computer used for testing was very old; it looked like a product from the same era as Lin Xiao’s mobile phone, even equipped with an optical drive.
Lin Xiao pressed the power button to read the disc. Soon, a game interface with a rather retro style popped up on the screen.
"'Test Game 1' is launching, please wait..."
After a brief black screen, the game officially started.
"Game Name: Escape Room Game Type: Single-player RPG Adventure Countdown: 00:59:59."
It was a full-screen pixel game. Lin Xiao quickly discovered that the game interface couldn't be shrunk and there were no extra options. No matter how she moved the mouse, she could only control the player character on the interface to walk around the room.
She maneuvered the character to the cabinet and box in the diagram, trying to open them, but found no useful clues or items.
Lin Xiao: "..."
She really wanted to give the game a negative review.
Lin Xiao had rich working experience during her school years and had even done game boosting, but rarely had she been stuck right at the beginning like this.
The game map was limited. She maneuvered the character, trying to bump into walls and stomp on the floor, using the exhaustive method to trigger every possible mechanism, but ultimately found nothing.
There were still forty-three minutes left on the countdown in the top left corner of the screen.
To Lin Xiao's right, the large man was staring intently at his screen. He was playing a combat game, and the continuous sound of strikes drifting over suggested his testing was going very smoothly.
Lin Xiao put down the mouse, leaned back in her chair, and took a deep breath.
The current working environment was rather poor. The room's decoration had almost no aesthetic value at all, and there was so little furniture that one could see the whole place at a glance.
The only thing that looked remotely as if it might cool a person down was the freezer beneath the window.
Lin Xiao walked over and opened it, wanting to see whether there were any colder drinks inside.
To her disappointment, however, the freezer held nothing but beer, and she had never touched alcohol.
The cans bore no brand name. They only listed the ingredients and alcohol content, along with a line of red warning text: "This product contains alcohol. After drinking, there is a certain probability of excitement, elevated blood pressure, dizziness, frequent urination, and other conditions. Please consume in moderation."
Lin Xiao wiped sweat from her face and once again felt a trace of stifling heat.
She stood by the window and looked outside. The arcade across the street still looked just as deserted as before. The three enormous characters of "Happy Valley" occupied most of the window frame, giving off a dull pressure, as though they might crash through the glass at any moment.
The burly man acted as though he saw none of what Lin Xiao was doing, remaining intent on his own screen.
Lin Xiao picked up two cans of beer and set them directly on his desk.
Only then did the man finally look up. He glanced at the beer, then at Lin Xiao, and guessed, "For me?"
Lin Xiao nodded.
His expression showed a bit of hesitation. "You're not drinking any yourself?"
Lin Xiao swallowed the snarky thought that "drinking during a job interview would only make the chance of being hired too high," and instead chose a more practical truth. "I generally don't drink." Then she added politely, "It's too stuffy in here. I'm going to wash my face first."
With that, Lin Xiao turned and walked into the washroom, closing the door behind her.
Inside, there was only a single yellowing light bulb. The surrounding tiles were old, but at least not filthy. Even so, the moment the door clicked shut, Lin Xiao's expression changed at once.
The room was too strange.
The window was sealed shut, the door could not be opened, and there were beer cans in the freezer below it as though placed there for someone to make use of. The "Happy Valley" sign outside was so large it nearly pressed against the glass, and that silent coworker had refused both the window and the door being opened. There was clearly something off about this place.
Lin Xiao bent over the sink, splashed cold water onto her face, and forced herself to calm down.
Then she raised her head and looked at the mottled mirror.
In the mirror, the yellow light fell over her pale face and the old washroom behind her. Everything looked normal. Yet for some reason, the instant her eyes met her own reflection, a powerful sense of wrongness rose in her heart.
It was as if something in this room was waiting for her to notice it.
Lin Xiao slowly straightened. She did not turn around immediately. Instead, she stared into the mirror, inch by inch, examining every corner reflected behind her.
The next second, her pupils shrank.
Behind the half-open stall door, a pair of bloodshot eyes was staring straight at her.