[Zone A issues a declaration to Zone C: If you don’t join us, then someone among you is guaranteed to die. From 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. will be your last chance to escape death.]
D03’s throat moved slightly, as if he were swallowing.
"You can’t gain points through normal work on that day?"
This punishment was equivalent to depriving the other side of thirty points. And this was only the first publicly announced negative effect.
There was also a hidden negative effect.
That hidden negative effect was probably just as fatal.
D03 said:
"Officer, seems like Yun Xinghe is pretty confident about wiping out Zone C. That final declaration sounds like... a victory speech, like he already decided someone in Zone C will die?"
Lorenzo nodded:
"That line is actually a bit redundant. Yun Xinghe’s really inflated right now, though of course we can’t rule out the possibility that his judgment is correct."
"But even so, I still think that sentence exposes some information."
"The question is... what exactly will Zone C do?"
Right now, the problems Zone C had to solve were quite tricky.
First, they had to guess that hidden piece of information.
Yun Xinghe’s wording actually implied that the negative effect of being unable to gain points from normal work, when combined with that hidden negative effect, would be enough to kill people in Zone C...
To make sure Zone C would definitely lose someone.
That hidden information actually wasn’t hard to guess.
The real issue was... how to deal with it.
He had thought of a possible way.
...
...
The fifth day was about to begin.
Yun Xinghe hummed a little tune, looking relaxed and elegant.
He sat at the boss’s workstation, thinking about Three Towers Company’s benefits, thinking about how this company must be a huge organization in the apocalypse.
Just this one ability alone—to gather people from all over the world—was already terrifying.
A company capable of that was bound to have an extremely high status in the post‑apocalyptic world.
a.m.
Yun Xinghe pulled himself a bit out of his beautiful fantasies about the future.
"Weird, no one’s job‑hopping?"
"Makes sense, I guess. After all, the return on normal work is one point."
"But overtime pays three."
"For 29 people, it’s not hard at all to get 29 points through overtime. That’s probably why they think there’s no need to switch."
"After all, Wen Xishu’s employees have the highest Life Value reserves."
a.m.
Yun Xinghe was still a bit surprised.
Even though overtime paid a lot, Zone C had already been hit twice, and Zone B had been wiped out by him outright...
Wen Xishu’s employees weren’t the least bit nervous?
Clark Kent had straight‑up switched over, after all.
But now, literally no one?
a.m.
There was still one hour until the fifth day started.
Yun Xinghe hadn’t slept.
Because he knew that these thirty days here were only a few days in the real world.
In other words, not sleeping was fine; at worst his real body would just go a few days without rest. And they were only one‑sixth of the way in.
Yun Xinghe was still a little disappointed though:
"No employees hopping over... looks like Wen Xishu found some way to boost his subordinates’ loyalty?"
"Makes sense; he hardly ever has them work overtime. Maybe he’s some sort of humanitarian?"
"But in the apocalypse, kindness is a weakness."
Looking at the employees already gathering, starting to move around, and repeatedly slapping their own faces, Yun Xinghe felt like he was watching a herd of cattle and horses.
Livestock, not people.
The moment they failed to become the boss, they’d already lost.
Of course, if humans are going to drive their cattle and horses, they have to learn to use lies.
"What a pity. The cattle and horses on Wen Xishu’s side probably have the most hp and the highest dr values. They’re premium livestock, yet not a single one came over."
"Whatever. After today, Zone C will no longer exist. It’s the path they chose, not my fault."
...
...
The fifth day, 6 a.m.
Some thirty people with heavy dark circles under their eyes started up Zone A’s familiar wolf‑culture routine.
The former ’sales champions,’ without their hp advantage, had already been somewhat marginalized.
To stay alive, they were still working hard to contribute their share of points.
But normal work also cost five dr points.
As their dr values dropped...
some people had begun to recall certain unpleasant scenes or show symptoms—like childhood traumas, or a high‑pitched ringing in their ears.
Clark Kent was still holding up pretty well.
As a musclehead, his willpower was stronger than most, and not long ago he had received a full thirty points of Life Value subsidy.
That Life subsidy was enough to let him work another six hours of overtime.
Clark was very curious where that Life subsidy came from. In the early hours yesterday, although it showed Yun Xinghe had bought some expensive item, Clark was well aware that it was most likely something prepared for war.
He thought of what Yun Xinghe had said: You just keep grinding, I’ll take care of the hp problem.
Yun Xinghe seemed to have fulfilled that promise, but Clark couldn’t shake a bad feeling.
Of course, that feeling wasn’t very strong, nowhere near as intense as his worry over Zone C.
He had come from Zone C, after all, and he knew Zone C’s point distribution method was egalitarian. Wen Xishu looked after everyone, hoping each team member could survive.
Compared with Yun Xinghe, Wen Xishu seemed ridiculously naive.
But even so, Clark still really hoped that guy could make it.
No doubt about it, Yun Xinghe held all the cards this time.
Sure enough, after the ear‑slapping and personality‑humiliation segment of the wolf‑culture routine ended...
Yun Xinghe gave a speech:
"Today will be the day we rack up the most points. Today, our score will blow the other two teams’ minds."