Chapter 69 Live-Fed Farm - Exploration

The room doors opened as the Administrator walked by; at that moment, they hadn't yet reached the room where Bai Xiao was.

The clothes they wore were still that same set of light gray sportswear. They wore this set to sleep and to go out. There were no wardrobes or any other extra items in the room; the only thing they had was this set of clothes.

Bai Xiao lowered her head and sniffed; the clothes were clean and fragrant, not smelling like they had been worn for two days. She recalled that her body had felt a cool touch last night, and she clearly hadn't been wearing this set when she was in bed. Obviously, someone had changed them.

The three roommates got out of bed without saying a word, focusing only on lining up at the door to wait for it to open.

Bai Xiao stood at the end of the line and asked the person in front of her, "How long have you been here?"

The person in front's brain stalled for a moment upon hearing this question, as if they had never thought about the issue of time. One by one, they all turned their heads in unison.

"Haven't we always been here?"

"Do you know what your name is?" Bai Xiao asked again.

"Number 735."

"Number 1107."

"Number 21533."

The three of them looked at Bai Xiao as if she were a fool.

Bai Xiao rubbed her nose. Forget it; she couldn't determine if they were NPCs or unawakened players.

Just then, the dormitory door slowly opened. The four of them stopped communicating and walked out to stand by the wall as usual.

As she passed the doorway, Bai Xiao looked down. She had always thought the dormitory door required the Administrator to use a touchscreen to open it and that the lock must be quite advanced. To her surprise, the door's lock was quite simple—just an electric bolt. This kind of bolt was very easy to pick.

After they came out, the door was about to close. Bai Xiao intentionally extended a foot to the edge of the doorframe, blocking the closing dormitory door. As soon as the door touched her foot, it stopped immediately and remained stuck there.

She withdrew her foot without a trace. She did this to test whether the Administrator's panel system would have an alert if the door malfunctioned. As it turned out, the patrolling Administrators noticed nothing; they just stood at the stairwell, blowing whistles to direct everyone to move.

After enduring the boring music class, the uncomfortably sunny PE class, and the staggeringly large lunch, it was finally time for the two hours of free activity.

Yesterday, her mind hadn't been fully clear yet. She had just wandered around the building roughly without much purpose.

This time, she had to clearly observe the layout and rooms of the building first. Except for the two locked rooms on the First Floor and the Administrator's room on the Third Floor, she would check every open location.

The second and Fourth Floors were both classrooms. Besides desks, the classrooms only had teaching aids. Like the dormitories, the furnishings were very simple, with nothing extra that could be utilized. Only the windows were different; the classrooms had two windows each at the front and back, making the rooms very bright.

Bai Xiao tried to push one, and the window immediately opened a crack. She thought she must find an opportunity to climb out from a window at the end of the second or Fourth Floor hallways to see what kind of windows the Administrator's room on the Third Floor had and if there was a chance to get inside.

After all, she couldn't see the situation inside the Administrator's dormitory from the door and couldn't know if anyone was there. Since she couldn't pick the lock forcefully and make noise, she could only start with the windows.

The Massage Rooms on the Fifth Floor had no windows. Perhaps it was because they needed a dim environment to watch films on the screen. There wasn't much else to investigate here, so Bai Xiao returned to the First Floor.

On the First Floor, besides the dining hall and those two locked rooms, only the Back Kitchen remained unvisited by Bai Xiao.

Yesterday, her brain often had groundless thoughts—for instance, that she couldn't approach the large iron gate of the perimeter wall, that she should stay away from the Administrator's room, and the same for the Back Kitchen area.

Now that her mind was clear today, she insisted on focusing on the places she wasn't supposed to enter.

There were two cafeterias on the First Floor. The six-person and eight-person rooms used the right cafeteria, while the two-person and four-person rooms used the left cafeteria. The former had more people, so the right cafeteria was very large, occupying half of the First Floor. The latter had fewer people and used the smaller left cafeteria, which shared the other half of the First Floor with the Back Kitchen.

There was a large silver iron door outside the Back Kitchen, with a piece of glass on the door through which one could see the situation inside.

There were still a few classmates lingering on the First Floor—let's call them classmates for now, since they attended classes and ate together.

Braving the curious and confused gazes of these people, she approached the Back Kitchen door and leaned in to peek inside.

The classmates not far away clutched their stomachs, stunned. "Ah? Is there someone who hasn't eaten their fill?"

Bai Xiao understood their looks, which were like they were seeing a gluttonous fool. She was speechless, but doing business was more important. Let the Muggles think whatever they wanted.

Inside the Back Kitchen, a group of people were still busy, seemingly preparing another meal. Bai Xiao guessed it might be for the Administrators.

Near the door, several employees were sitting, picking vegetables while chatting and complaining.

"When can we go to the High-Level Zone? Even Zone C would be fine. Cooking every day from morning till night, I've really had enough."

"Exactly, this work is so tiring. Our hands never stop. To put it bluntly, I feel like we're living more exhaustingly than that group of blood livestock. They have good food and drink every day, plus music and massages. They live better than normal people."

"You're actually envying them? Do you want to live that kind of captive life without consciousness?"

"Stop talking! You can't just say things like that. Don't you know the Park strictly forbids discussing this? Be careful not to be overheard by those outside; it's their free activity time now."

"Oh, what's there to fear? How could they have the guts to come over here? They've all been turned stupid from the medicine, and their natural instincts have been ground away. If you ask me, locking their living quarters is redundant. Even the iron gates and perimeter walls outside the building are unnecessary. Even if you gave them twice the courage, they wouldn't have the thought of leaving."

"That's true. Thinking about it that way, our cooking job isn't so bad. At least we can go home freely every week and do whatever we want."

"Indeed. Let's get to work; we have to provide meals for that group of Administrators in a bit."

The few people sped up their work and stopped chatting.

Bai Xiao caught a few keywords. Zone C? Which zone was she in now?

Thinking Zone C is good means the higher the zone, the better? Then the current place must be worse than Zone C. She wondered which zone it was—Zone D? Zone F? What did these letters actually mean?

Information was limited. For the time being, Bai Xiao couldn't figure out how these zones were divided, nor could she analyze the functional positioning of different zones. In short, it sounded like there should be even better Zones A and B, or perhaps zones even worse than this one.

At first, she had thought the game mission "Escape the Park" meant finding a way to leave the large iron gate outside the building. After all, the current building was already unprecedentedly large, and there was a huge lawn, a track, and a perimeter wall outside. If there really were many zones, it was hard to imagine how large this Park would be.

It seemed the mission to escape the Park wasn't as simple as imagined. Just investigating the current building area was far from enough; she had to find a way to get out!