Calling the Dead Through Customer Support

7 PM sharp.
The brief dinner break that allowed the beasts of burden to catch their breath ended. They returned to their workstations in an orderly fashion to continue the night’s work.

Everyone’s face was ashen.
In the real world, working ages you. Working in a contaminated instance buries you directly.

Occasional workplace gossip became a way to relieve work pressure. The discussions in the elevator rose and fell—

“Come to think of it, don’t you think the new security guard looks a bit like the CEO?”
“What are you talking about? The CEO has never appeared here. How do you know what he looks like?”
“The CEO appeared in my dream, okay? In my dream, he pretty much looked like that…”
“Can you be any more ridiculous? Already sucking up? I also dreamed I became the CEO!”
“This isn’t sucking up. This is providing emotional value.”

“Don’t disbelieve. The Admin Director is usually so arrogant, but today he got humbled by the new guard and didn’t even dare breathe loudly. He must know the guard has connections and doesn’t want to offend him, right?”
“You mean not only is the guard connected, but to the real CEO…”
“Shh—!”

“Don’t believe rumors. Don’t spread rumors.”
Hearing all this, Su Lai nonchalantly stepped out of the crowd, his pink flip-flops slapping.

The beasts of burden stared at his back and fell silent.
The moment the elevator doors closed again, the deathly quiet elevator exploded.

“Doesn’t that prove the point!”
“Could he be that calm without some connection to the CEO!”

****

Back in the security room, Su Lai was watching the monitoring feeds, looking for new money-making opportunities, when the walkie-talkie in his pocket crackled again——

[1501 Security Guard, please patrol the basement parking garage between 8:00 and 10:00 PM tonight.]

Su Lai replied, business-like.
“Okay.”

The person on the other end didn’t hang up immediately. After a moment’s hesitation, they asked.
[What do you think about what happened in the company cafeteria tonight?]

Su Lai yawned, annoyed by their evasive speech, and gave a positive evaluation of his own actions.
“Solidarity and fraternity are part of the company culture. I felt the dining atmosphere in the cafeteria tonight was very friendly and peaceful.”
“But the cafeteria food was a bit sloppy. There’s room for improvement. And the prices aren’t very reasonable.”

The other end fell silent again. After a long pause, they replied.
[… Thank you for your feedback.]
[Actually, what I want to know is: what do you think about your colleagues’ speculation regarding your background?]

Su Lai played dumb.
“What speculation? Why don’t you elaborate?”

[Ahem… that you’re connected to company management.]
The person in charge himself wanted to know, so he took the opportunity of assigning the task to pry.

Su Lai deliberately gave an ambiguous answer.
“Oh. That falls under my personal life.”

The other end fell silent. Su Lai could practically hear them taking a deep breath.

He could tell the person in charge was much more polite tonight.
There were no secrets in the company cafeteria. Rumors and speculation spread quickly. The person in charge was now also doubting the new guard’s true identity, not daring to offend him easily.

[The thing is, since employees are considered part of company property, their personal lives fall under the category of company culture as well.]

Su Lai was almost amused by their twisted logic.
“Since you say so, I won’t hold back.”
“If I am connected, can I get a raise directly?” No more beating around the bush.

He was a security guard with a background, popular, and the subject of discussion among colleagues. Asking for a raise wasn’t too much, was it?

The silence on the other end stretched even longer. It took a while before they replied.
[We take your request for salary adjustment very seriously. The company is currently reviewing the compensation system from a strategic perspective. We encourage employees to maintain a positive work attitude. The company periodically conducts a detailed examination of employees’ backgrounds, and makes corresponding adjustments based on a comprehensive consideration of their work performance. We look forward to your continued growth with the company in future communications.]

The person in charge had said a lot of nothing. It took Su Lai a while to extract the key information: the connected rumor was unconfirmed. A raise wasn’t happening anytime soon.

Looks like he’d need to create more evidence to solidify his image as a connected person.
This person in charge wasn’t easily fooled.

The walkie-talkie was hung up at 7:05 PM.

Su Lai remembered that when he encountered the ghost in the elevator last time, the former security guard, disliking him, had deliberately torn off the yellow paper stuck on the elevator button.
Because of that, he had met the elevator ghost before the interview.

Su Lai entered the elevator again and tore off the newly replaced yellow paper.

As the elevator slowly ascended, the sound of mechanical friction with some unknown object continued in the enclosed space. Creaking, like something was stuck in the shaft.

Su Lai tilted his head, thinking about using his telescopic steel fork to poke the ceiling. Maybe he’d poke down a fresh corpse.

Lost in this random thought, the elevator lights flickered, growing dimmer and colder.

Su Lai raised his head, hoping a ghost would appear.
But even as the elevator reached the 7th floor, besides the occasional flicker, nothing else happened.

He pressed the button for the first floor again. On the way down, the friction sounds grew louder, the flickering more frequent. But still all thunder, no lightning. The expected ghost didn’t appear.

Su Lai went up and down a few times. He even called out ID 1213 a few times. But he didn’t see the elevator ghost.

The side quest [Is your former colleague still hanging in the elevator today?] had been triggered, but its progress was stuck at 5%. Now that he had found relevant clues, there should have been some reaction.

Could it be that the death Bai Ke had heard about wasn’t the same person as this elevator ghost?

Or was this ghost a social phobe, not wanting to encounter former colleagues in the elevator to avoid the awkwardness of forced conversation in an enclosed space?

If all else fails, he could just stop the elevator and climb into the shaft to find her corpse?

Countless dangerous and outrageous ideas flashed through his mind. He went up and down a few more times. Luckily, it wasn’t rush hour, or he’d definitely get complained by colleagues waiting for the elevator.

Customer Service department, ID 1213…
In a flash, Su Lai thought of another way to talk to the ghost. He quickly pressed the button for the 7th floor.

Night had fallen. The Customer Service department was dimly lit, but the clatter of keyboards and the din of ringing phones rose and fell, continuously stimulating the workers’ eardrums and nerves.

Under the pale light, the customer service agents’ eyes were dull and exhausted. More lifeless than fish with their bellies up in a market.

Su Lai walked over to the workstation of the player 1723.
1723 was currently frantically handling customers’ disturbing complaints, her brow deeply furrowed, glabella darkened. Her face, illuminated by the screen, had grown muddled and hollow.

In this Fortuitous Retribution Building, players in any department would be to varying degrees contaminated during work.

Work itself was the source of contamination. Even Su Lai, the security guard, couldn’t avoid it. It’s just that his nerve for perceiving weirdness was dull, he had no idea what “eerie” even was, so the contaminants couldn’t touch him.

1723 was clattering away like a machine. Customers’ cursing voices came through her headset, along with heart-wrenching screams for help and the sound of a chainsaw dismembering a body…

“If you encounter a psychopathic killer, call the police!”
“If your family member is dead, go to the funeral home!”
“If your loved one’s ashes have come back to life, hire a maid to clean up!”
“Why are you coming to me, a customer service agent, with this fucked-up, bizarre shit!”
“Is this the kind of thing a complaint to customer service can solve!”

1723 was losing it.
But losing it or not, the work had to continue. She still had to call these crazy complainers “dear” one after another.

She might as well go crazy.
Go crazy along with these crazy customers!

Just as she felt her mental state slipping but couldn’t afford the coffee, those pink flip-flops appeared again.

1723 jumped. The shock scared away her daze.
The overwhelming despair, ready to explode at any moment, also subsided instantly.

“Can I ask you something?” Su Lai got straight to the point.
“Can I request a specific customer service agent as a customer?”

1723 paused, then nodded.
“Of course. Why?”

Su Lai: “Earlier today, a colleague from your department was hanging from the ceiling. I kindly poked her down, but she seemed upset and left quietly. I have some questions for her, but I can’t find her anywhere.”

1723 paused again. This security guard player’s words were too abstract. The information load was also too much, too absurd. She couldn’t process it immediately.

Too bad this player wasn’t in Customer Service. Otherwise, she would definitely have a lively time chatting with those abstract customers.

“Which colleague was hanging from the ceiling…?” Perhaps she had been working too long, exposed to the contaminants for too long, the words slipped out.

She even looked up curiously at the ceiling. But there was nothing there except the cold, white light. Stretching her neck felt kind of nice…

Su Lai: “ID 1213. I want to use the designated consultation method to communicate directly with her. I need your help.”

The worst thing about working in customer service was being specifically requested by a client.
Once a customer message appeared, even if the customer service agent was buried, they’d have to pop open their coffin lid, turn on the computer, and obediently type “dear” one after another.

So the fastest way to find customer service agent 1213 was to become a customer and specifically request her.

That’s why Su Lai had come to find 1723, also a player, to get the store link.

“So this is for your personal reasons…”

Su Lai could sense that if he kept “talking nonsense,” 1723 would quietly shatter before his eyes.

But some things were hard to explain. He kept it short.
“Since the company has online customer service, it must have an online store or service.”

He took out his phone. Like in Spring Breeze Community, the signal bar was empty.
“The signal is blocked in this building. I can’t find any information about Fortuitous Retribution Building online, or any related store.”
“You help me copy a shopping link from a complaining customer. Then I can become a customer.”

“I want to contribute some purchasing power to the company, too.”

Interrupted by Su Lai, 1723’s previously muddled mind cleared up a bit. She quickly grasped his meaning.

As new employees, the players didn’t actually know what business this company did.
The job listings included R&D, Tech, Sales, Customer Service… It seemed they did everything, yet nothing at all. Just an empty shell.

From the instance’s perspective, what Fortuitous Retribution Building actually did wasn’t important. What mattered was the players competing themselves to death in their respective departments, frantically trying to complete their never-ending KPIs.

Under the brainwashing and exploitation of “blessed retribution,” the players’ spirits would gradually collapse, their bodies even mutate. That’s what the contaminant viewers wanted to see.

Because there was a Customer Service department, there were these endless, bizarre customer complaints.

The customers weren’t real. They were characters created and processed by the contaminants to extract more viewing value from the players.
To make everything happening in the building more extreme, more dramatic, more impactful.

As customer service agents handling customer issues, the players were completely passive, facing a steady stream of information, frantically trying to resolve issues and barely maintain their mental stability.

So the question was, where were these customers buying the products?

If he changed his perspective and obtained information from the customers that the players didn’t have, could that work?

Neither the [Customer Service Work Rules] nor the [Employee Handbook] said customer service couldn’t ask customers for shopping links…

Why not give it a try? Maybe there would be unexpected clues!

Employees spending their own money to boost the company’s sales wasn’t illegal!

1723 had an epiphany. She immediately turned her attention back to the computer screen.

“What type of product do you want to buy?” Clicking into the complaining customer’s dialog box actually led to relevant products.

However, most products only had a blurry, pixelated image. The details page was empty.
Some didn’t even have an image. The product link displayed a 404 error.

Su Lai: “The cheapest.”
Concise. Clear purpose.

1723: “Done.”

She had a good habit of keeping her desktop organized, files categorized. She quickly moved her mouse, finding the relevant product link based on Su Lai’s needs.

Soon, she found the target product.
“One yuan. Cheap enough?”
“It’s a promotion for a soon-to-expire mystery box. The box contains expiring products. It’s a surprise.”

“But I should warn you, a previous customer got an urn from the mystery box. If you don’t find that unlucky…” She gave a heads-up.

Su Lai: “An urn is practical.”
“If a colleague dies from overwork, we can cremate them on-site. The ashes will have a place.”

He was a pragmatist. He didn’t care about flashy marketing gimmicks, only whether what he bought was practical.
Of course, buying for his cat was an exception. Any amount of waste was tolerable.

1723 looked at Su Lai, at a loss for words. She suddenly felt this player was scarier than her customers.

As a player, this security guard was terrifyingly calm.

“Cremating on-site might be difficult. The building’s fire alarm would go off.” Her calm was contagious. 1723 couldn’t help blurting out her thought.

Su Lai: “Get friendly with the cafeteria auntie. The back kitchen could solve that problem.”

“But,” Su Lai thought for a moment.
“Things are this competitive now? Even urns have an expiration date?”

The customer service’s expression was subtle.
“Maybe it refers to what’s *in* the urn. The product page only said it was an expiring mystery box. It didn’t say whether the contents were second-hand.”

Whether the urn might have traces of use by a previous customer was anyone’s guess.

Su Lai nodded.
“If you buy an urn and they throw in the ashes, that’s quite a deal.”

The customer service agent choked.
“So this is the link?”

Su Lai: “Wait!”

The agent thought something was wrong and tensed up. Su Lai thought for a moment, then said seriously——

“Can you see if there’s a discount?”