Bai Liu smoothly deceived the curious factory worker without the slightest change in expression.

“I have special processing techniques.”

The factory worker looked at “her” suspiciously.

Processing dried rose leaves was, in essence, physical labor. Children held no advantage in that kind of work, much less enough to produce such an astonishing output.

Bai Liu pretended to glance anxiously at the two members of the Kings Guild below.

The factory worker understood.

It had to be those two below who had helped this little girl and given their roses to her.

Although processing workers were not allowed to openly rob one another, they could still engage in “covert smuggling.” If one party “voluntarily” handed over the results of their labor to another, then the audit for promoting a processing worker to factory worker was not, in every sense, completely fair.

These unspoken rules were well known to factory workers who had once been promoted from the processing ranks themselves, and they had no intention of pursuing the matter.

After all, the competition between them was not especially fierce.

“Processing worker number 71063 turned in 302.7 kilograms of semi-finished dried rose leaves.”

The factory worker beside him lowered his head and recorded Bai Liu’s figures. Then he waved his hand, motioning for him to go down, turning a blind eye and letting him pass.

Most of the other processing workers had dried rose leaf weights under 250 kilograms. Those who exceeded 280 kilograms were few and far between.

Bai Liu, Liu Ji, and Tang Erda were the only three processing workers present so far who had turned in weights exceeding 300 kilograms.

Soon, the weighing was finished.

While the factory worker lowered his head to verify the data, Liu Ji pulled Bai Liu aside and silently stepped out of the crowd, putting distance between themselves and the processing workers who were staring at them with hatred.

At the same time, a vacuum-like circle had formed around Tang Erda.

The processing workers around him were all gnashing their teeth as they looked at Tang Erda, who stood more than a head taller than them. Yet none of them dared to clash with this new processing worker, whose body was steeped in murderous aura and who looked very difficult to provoke. They could only retreat two steps before daring to glare fiercely at Tang Erda.

These three newcomers had actually snatched away the chance to be promoted to factory workers!

After verifying the data, the factory workers raised their heads.

“Processing workers with the following three ID numbers, please come with us.”

“Number 71063... These three processing workers will be led by us three factory workers into the next workshop to understand the daily work of a factory worker. However, please note that this does not mean you already possess the qualifications to become factory workers.”

The leading factory worker spoke in a solemn tone. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

“This is merely an opportunity. There is still a very long road ahead before you become official factory workers.”

After saying this, he turned and waved at Bai Liu.

“You, come with me.”

Bai Liu walked forward.

Liu Ji looked at him with concern, then left with another factory worker.

Tang Erda followed the third factory worker away, but before leaving, he turned back and cast a deep, lingering look at [Liu Jiayi]’s back.

From today’s [Liu Jiayi], he sensed a very familiar and very unpleasant feeling.

Bai Liu was led by the factory worker through a deep, narrow corridor with an extremely high ceiling.

On both sides of the corridor were the rooms with large communal bunks where they had slept the night before. All the doors were closed, preventing even the faintest sliver of light from entering the corridor.

Strangely, although only two people were walking, the corridor was filled with the sound of many continuous, eerie, hurried footsteps.

The doors on both sides creaked faintly, as if something behind the cracks was staring at their feet.

The factory worker walking in front turned somewhat pale. He seemed to have heard these sounds as well, and his pace unconsciously quickened.

Bai Liu was not flustered.

He knew that, as long as he closed his right eye now, he would be able to see an entirely different, real world.

But there was no need for that at the moment.

Although he already possessed the “key” that allowed him to freely pass through the [Inner World], entering the [Inner World] was for the sake of obtaining more information. And right now, there was clearly more important information waiting urgently for him to acquire.

Bai Liu looked at the factory worker’s hurried footsteps and asked politely:

“Excuse me, what do I need to do if I want to become an official factory worker?”

The factory worker, who seemed to have been frightened by those sounds, snapped back to his senses because of Bai Liu’s question. His expression softened slightly as he answered:

“We provide processing workers with outstanding results an opportunity to be promoted to factory workers. But this opportunity isn’t something just anyone can grasp. Only those with certain innate qualities can be selected as factory workers.”

Bai Liu tilted his head.

“For example, what qualities?”

“The qualities of a perfumer,” the factory worker replied softly. “The reason the factory workers of the Rose Factory are permanent employees who do not face layoffs is because we are all reserves for perfumers. A perfumer is a profession with an extremely short lifespan. If we do not select reserve candidates in advance, a gap will easily appear, and the factory will be unable to continue operating.”

“Therefore, another name for factory worker is perfumer’s apprentice.”

The factory worker continued speaking, his expression complicated.

“Before becoming official perfumers, we are responsible for basic operations such as distillation, extraction, refining, and concentration. Only after becoming perfumers can we truly produce the Rose Factory’s perfume—Dried Rose Leaf Gas.”

“Most perfumers spend their entire lives only able to blend low-grade perfume. The blending process for mid-grade perfume is already very complex, and its output is small. Outside, even a single drop is hard to buy for a thousand gold pieces. High-grade perfume is currently not for sale and is supplied only to certain special customers. As for special-grade perfume—”

The factory worker turned to look at Bai Liu.

“It is auctioned only during the annual May Rose Festival. The highest bidder obtains it.”

“Then how do you screen whether someone has the qualities of a perfumer?”

Bai Liu thought for a moment about the requirements for the profession of perfumer in the real world.

“Is it olfactory sensitivity?”

As he spoke, he had already begun to switch panels.

[System Tip: Does player Bai Liu wish to use player Mu Shicheng’s soul currency to cut into the other party’s system panel?]

[Confirm.]

That fellow Mu Shicheng, if Bai Liu remembered correctly, possessed an extremely high level of olfactory sensitivity.

However, even with an excellent sense of smell, if Bai Liu were the one doing the smelling, he still would not be able to distinguish too many specific kinds of spices. But this stage of the game should only be a simple screening for certain traits.

Otherwise, aside from professional perfumers, no ordinary player would be able to pass.

Then the game would lose its playability.

Although he had no evidence, Bai Liu felt that the game designer °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° behind the system would not like a game with no playability.

“We do not screen processing workers based on simple sensory traits like smell,” the factory worker said, shaking his head. “We screen them through a very important perfuming instrument.”

“An instrument?”

This was the first time Bai Liu had heard of an instrument that could detect the qualities of a perfumer.

In his impression, most perfuming instruments were used for stirring and blending, such as pipettes, stirrers, and scent strips. Many were rather primitive and simple, with little technical content. There were almost no modern instruments.

And in this game world, where the level of technology appeared visibly backward in every respect, such an instrument actually existed?

But when Bai Liu continued asking, the factory worker was unwilling to answer any questions related to this instrument.

Whenever Bai Liu tried to approach the subject of the instrument in a roundabout way, an expression that was both extremely fearful and deeply reverent appeared on the factory worker’s face.

In the end, he only said cryptically:

“No. It is not any instrument you could imagine. It is an instrument that comes from a dead person, but it is indeed a living instrument. It even has a heartbeat!”

“It is this living-dead-like instrument that selects the people who can use it.”

After saying this, the factory worker stopped speaking altogether.

Pale-faced and silent, he led Bai Liu into a pure white cleaning room that resembled an operating room.

The factory worker had Bai Liu change into a set of clean, sterilized protective clothing and thoroughly wash his hands before he was allowed to enter the next room for screening.

Under the guidance of this factory worker, Bai Liu passed through a purple disinfection room, then through several more disinfection rooms filled with unknown, foul-smelling gases.

The factory worker explained that this was to disinfect them before they entered the core perfuming room. The thick protective clothing Bai Liu had changed into earlier could provide a simple protective effect.

These rooms disinfected living people in a crude and direct manner, as if disinfecting objects, with no regard for whether they might die because they could not withstand the intensity of the disinfection.

From this, it could be seen that the builder of the Rose Factory considered the instrument capable of testing perfumer qualities far more important than their lives.

After passing through three or four rooms, Bai Liu was finally led to a strictly sealed room cast from metal.

At that moment, for the first time since entering this dangerous factory, the look in Bai Liu’s eyes changed.

He raised his head and carefully scanned the room’s door from top to bottom.

—This completely sealed and immensely tall door had the exact same construction as the door of number [0001] in the Dangerous Heretic Management Bureau. Even the small window in the middle of the door, which had been forcibly welded shut, was identical.

The factory worker knocked twice on that small window.

Two knocks came back from inside.

The factory worker lowered his head respectfully and said in a low voice to the person behind the door:

“I have brought a newcomer to undergo [Its] screening.”

There was silence inside for a while.

Then that incomparably heavy door, covered in welding scars, slowly opened inward.

The instant Bai Liu saw the scene inside, his pupils contracted slightly.