They didn’t dare delay and returned to the factory as quickly as possible.
This happy little town is interesting; when the town is brightly lit, it can be seen from afar.
But after leaving the town, there are no streetlights.
Looking back, Xu Xingzhi's residence is actually outside the town limits. A small house stands alone in the dark, with a light on, making it even lonelier.
Besides that, the factory is also brightly lit. After walking through a long stretch of darkness, they finally see the factory…
Today, the factory seems different from usual.
From a distance, a crowd of people can be seen gathered at the entrance.
Yu Ye Zhou sighed, “It seems that after we return, things won’t be too peaceful.”
The car stopped at the factory entrance. Yu Ye Zhou opened the door to take a look outside and discovered that a group of puppets and a clown cat were waiting at the entrance.
“It’s out,” Yu Ye Zhou said quietly. “Can you tell if there’s anything different about it?”
Based on their previous speculation, after the label on the clown cat's head was replaced, it would surely find a way to avoid meeting them, as it couldn't refuse their demands. The more they saw it, the more disadvantageous it would be for it.
Indeed, just as they thought, when they went to look for the clown cat, the office was empty… even when they sought to exchange work with the puppets, the clown cat did not show up.
But now, it was waiting here with a group, so it must have found a solution.
Gu Zhan shook his head; labels can only be seen in the inner world, while in the outer world, there are only a few situations where one can discover the labels above others' heads.
Yu Ye Zhou parked the car on the roadside, opened the door, and said, “Let’s go meet it.”
The two got out of the car and opened the trunk, calling down Yang Lin and Xu Yu.
The two sides met at the factory entrance. When the clown cat saw them approaching, it didn’t move.
Yu Ye Zhou was the first to speak, smiling, “What does this mean? It’s late at night; why is everyone standing at the door and not resting?”
The clown cat's wooden face showed no expression, but Gu Zhan instinctively felt that it was not happy.
“You have violated the factory’s rules.” The clown cat’s gaze swept over Gu Zhan and the others, and the more it looked, the more the disdain on its face was hard to conceal.
These imperfect beings… have disrupted the factory’s perfection. Why are they still allowed to stand here?
“Rules? What rules?” Yu Ye Zhou pretended to be confused.
“Stop pretending! You used some despicable means to escape the test and stayed with those imperfect beings who failed the test… It’s a waste of my efforts to leave you an opportunity. It seems I don’t need the test to know that you are not perfect beings!”
The clown cat scolded them loudly, seemingly venting all its previous grievances.
Seeing this, Yu Ye Zhou leaned closer to Gu Zhan and whispered, “Didn’t you say you changed its label?”
Gu Zhan quickly reacted, saying, “We changed the label, but labels are not permanent; it may have found a way to switch the labels back.”
“……”
So that’s how it is. No wonder it’s making such a fuss waiting for them at the entrance; it must have found a way to deal with them and is ready to strike.
As they were talking, the clown cat suddenly stopped, staring closely at the four people at the door. Their expressions were calm, clearly aware of what was about to happen.
“Imperfect beings have no right to stay here!”
As soon as the words fell, a huge object resembling a black box descended upon them. They instantly lost their vision, but it was not the kind of fainting… They could still feel their bodies’ presence, even moving, but they could see nothing.
In the darkness, Yang Lin screamed, “Am I blind? Can you see? Am I the only one who can’t see?”
Her voice clearly conveyed urgency, suggesting her sanity value had fluctuated.
Yu Ye Zhou quickly reassured her, “We can’t see either; it’s the clown cat playing tricks. It’s fine; don’t panic.”
After hearing this, Yang Lin calmed down a bit, but soon she panicked again, “Why? Are we moving forward? What’s beside us?”
To be honest, when Yang Lin said this, Gu Zhan felt something was off. They didn’t seem to have been transported to some void; it felt more like they were simply blinded. If they listened carefully, they could still hear faint sounds around them.
He mustered his courage to stretch out his hand, and Xu Yu, sensing his movement from behind, jumped in surprise, “What are you doing?”
“I want to see if there’s a boundary here.” As soon as Gu Zhan finished speaking, he indeed felt a wall.
But this wall didn’t feel like concrete and wasn’t cold… rather, it felt like a cardboard box.
He tentatively said, “Are we in a cardboard box?”
“Cardboard box?” Yang Lin panicked again, but she still tried hard to overcome her inner turmoil and attempted to participate in the discussion, “What could be put in a cardboard box?”
Many things could be put in a cardboard box, but at this moment, Gu Zhan could only think of one.
A cat.
Kittens love to climb into cardboard boxes.
This seemed irrelevant to the current situation.
“Cardboard box?” Yu Ye Zhou was also surprised. Why a cardboard box?
Just now, when the clown cat was angry, they did see something shaped like a box descend, but considering the other party’s behavior, they thought they had been transported to some strange place again.
But Gu Zhan didn’t think so. Previously, they entered the inner world through a mini-game, modifying the clown cat’s label, which caused it to be unable to attack players for a while.
With that precedent, the clown cat clearly couldn’t use the same method again.
Just when they were puzzled by this matter, the cardboard box next to them was suddenly taken away, and everything around them brightened up.
Gu Zhan narrowed his eyes slightly, finally seeing where they were.
Everything around them seemed incredibly large, and they were on a conveyor belt, slowly moving forward with it.
This appeared to be a large machine inside a factory, and their size was clearly abnormal.
Yu Yezhou exclaimed in surprise, “Have we shrunk?”
Yes, they had shrunk, and not just a little.
They had become small toys, mixed among other small dolls in the factory, moving slowly along the assembly line.
Yang Lin was at the front, while Xu Yuzhou was at the back.
Every now and then, gigantic puppets passed by, their steps causing slight tremors.
At the front of the assembly line were several huge mechanical arms, continuously removing labels from the puppets.
They would soon be next.
Gu Zhan saw that most of the labels being removed from the small puppets were negative ones like “pessimistic,” “stubborn,” and “aggressive.”
These labels didn’t disappear into thin air after being removed; instead, they were tossed into a large wooden box nearby.
Due to the accumulation of so many negative labels, the box emitted an ominous aura, making anyone who glanced at it feel uncomfortable.
Next to the box stood two large puppets acting as guards.
Gu Zhan said to Yu Yezhou, “This is where they change the labels. We need to escape.”
Yu Yezhou moved a bit and realized he wasn’t restrained; they could leave the assembly line!
“Let’s get out of here!” Yu Yezhou shouted.
However, Yang Lin didn’t move at all.
“Yang Lin!”
Yu Yezhou called out to her, but was suddenly held back by Gu Zhan, who grabbed his shoulder.
Yu Yezhou was taken aback, turning to look at Gu Zhan, who shook his head.
He immediately frowned. What did Gu Zhan mean? To not care about Yang Lin?
However, the next moment, Gu Zhan’s actions only confused him further.
Gu Zhan pointed at Yu Yezhou’s head, then at Yang Lin’s, and then at his own.
Yu Yezhou looked up in turn.
He noticed a “townsfolk” label had appeared above Yang Lin's head, and upon looking at Gu Zhan and himself, he was shocked to find he also had this label!
Wait! When did their labels change?
Moreover, each person had different labels, more than he had imagined!
Xu Yuzhou had two rows above his head, Gu Zhan had one row… but when he looked up, he discovered he had three rows of labels!
But Gu Zhan had clearly said that most townsfolk only had three labels.
How could this be?
This situation was completely beyond his expectations!
Looking back, he finally understood Gu Zhan’s intention in stopping him.
Yang Lin had two rows of labels, but most of them were replaced positive labels, and there weren’t many left that belonged to her.
Once she got on the assembly line, those labels would take effect, and Yang Lin… would no longer act with them.
Sure enough, when Yang Lin reached under the mechanical arm, the last few labels that belonged to her were removed, turning her from a small person into a small puppet like the others.
She lay quietly on the conveyor belt, allowing the assembly line to carry her to an unknown destination.
After Yang Lin, it was Yu Yezhou’s turn.
“Let’s go.” Gu Zhan pulled Yu Yezhou, there was no time to waste.
The three of them rolled off the assembly line. Given their current height, the conveyor belt was surprisingly high, and they all fell hard. By the time they got up, Yang Lin’s figure had already been submerged among the many puppets.
Yu Yezhou quickly realized, “The reason we became townsfolk is that we have labels above our heads, and we need to remove them!”
But the assembly line ahead would obviously only remove the labels that originally belonged to them.
“Let’s go.” Gu Zhan pushed him, and he fell off the conveyor belt, with Xu Yuzhou closely following.
The commotion quickly attracted the attention of nearby puppets, who approached with heavy steps, reaching out to grab them.
Gu Zhan dodged and slid along the edge into a pile of cardboard boxes. The puppet opened the box, but he had already run away.
Being smaller had its advantages; he could slip into the gaps that the puppets couldn’t reach. Soon, the three of them met in a corner.
The puppets searched for a while, confused, but after they couldn’t find them, they simply gave up and resumed removing labels from other puppets.
They leaned against the wall, and Yu Yezhou stared at the puppets, saying, “They’ve taken the boxes away.”
Gu Zhan replied, “Let’s follow them.”
Those boxes contained the removed labels, including Yang Lin’s.
Yu Yezhou hesitated, “What about Yang Lin?”
Gu Zhan said, “Then we’ll split up.”
In this situation, splitting up wasn’t a good idea.
After hesitating, Yu Yezhou said, “Alright, I’ll go with you to find the labels, and Xu Yuzhou can look for Yang Lin.”
As for how they would contact each other once they found what they were looking for, they’d figure it out later.
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