Do Not Forget Your Name

The playback stopped abruptly. The screen froze on the words “Thank you for watching” in Source Han Sans font.

[You possess a strong mental core. You have fully viewed the “Personal Work Log of Employee 1213.”]

The system paused for two seconds before continuing——
[According to uncontrollable data: 99.999% of laborers cannot walk away unscathed. They will be affected by varying degrees of negative emotions. You belong to the 0.001%.]

The system’s voice also changed. The crackle of static became more stable, colder, more devoid of emotion.
After all, the system had no life. It couldn’t shout itself hoarse, nor could it get tired.

Su Lai: “I’m just a security guard. If I’m really unhappy, I can take compulsory measures against any dangerous individuals anytime.”
“As the building’s sole security personnel, I can take compulsory measures against any dangerous individuals. Right?”

The more it said, the more likely it was to make a mistake. So the system chose to remain silent for now.

Su Lai took the system’s silence as assent.

[You are the first player to unlock this work log. 1213 commends your beautiful mental state.]
[Your “Deceased Colleague Rapport” has significantly increased.]

The system’s notification confirmed Su Lai’s guess: compared to living people, he was more popular with his dead colleagues.

[Congratulations! You have unlocked the final task of the side quest “Is Your Former Colleague Still Hanging in the Elevator Today?” You have obtained the final request of Employee 1213: escape workplace gaslighting, and become a “person” again.]
[Helping 1213 achieve her final request will unlock generous rewards.]

The moment the PPT finished playing, the disordered elevator returned to normal.
The crimson light returned to cold white. The feeling of weightlessness, going up and down, also disappeared. The steady hum of the motor continued.

The floor buttons lit up again, as if nothing had happened. The elevator returned to its usual order.

The phone screen went black briefly. When it came back on, the chat box with 1213 was gone. The shopping page had also become a 404.

He wondered if he would still receive the limited promotional mystery box he had ordered. After all, he’d spent a whole yuan.

One yuan couldn’t buy loss or being cheated, but it could buy a tea egg.
Su Lai sighed.

It was still ten minutes to eight. This shopping trip had been just enough time.
From 8 to 10 PM, he was scheduled to patrol the basement parking garage.

The elevator descended slowly. The enclosed environment was good for thinking.

Employee 1213’s suicide had happened in this very elevator. Trapped in the malfunctioning space, 1213 had suddenly regained the ability to think like a human.

Alienated by Fortuitous Retribution Building, she began to question who she was, why she was here, why she was trapped.
Day after day, night after night.

But employees alienated into beasts of burden didn’t need to think about such things. A thinking being was hard to exploit, and wouldn’t allow itself to be enslaved.

So once they started thinking, beasts of burden would question, become anxious, develop inexplicable negative emotions.
In a precisely operated office building, such negative emotions were seen as incompatible bugs, “diseased foci” that needed immediate cleaning.

A broken elevator and a broken beast of burden.
1213, having regained the ability to think, despaired amidst her crazily growing doubts, and rotted away in that despair. She cut off the ears, tongue, and fingers she used for work, believing these body parts no longer belonged to her, but were alienated products of “blessed retribution” contamination.

Su Lai noticed that 1213 and 911, both deceased former colleagues, had many similarities——

First, they only remembered their employee IDs from when they were alive, but forgot their real names.

Second, they were also trapped in the building after death, and carried the important mission of scaring new colleagues.

Third, both 1213 and 911 had clichéd and clumsy scaring tactics. But perhaps it wasn’t their fault. What dead person would want to meet a new colleague like Su Lai?
It hurt a ghost’s pride, making it hard for them to rest in peace.

In summary, combining this with Article 3 of the New Employee Handbook, 「You do not need to remember your name. Your employee ID is your name」——

To Fortuitous Retribution Company, employees’ real names were “incompatible.”

Here, employees had lost their “personhood.” They were part of the company. Beasts of burden and machines.
Beasts and machines only have serial numbers, not names.

At the end of her work log, 1213 repeatedly asked, 「Excuse me, do you know my name——?」

A person who has lost themselves will be forever trapped in Fortuitous Retribution Building. Even if their body dies, their soul cannot be free. They are nothing but dead beast-of-burden ghosts with only a work serial number.

“I’ll find your name. Then you can completely quit.”
Su Lai spoke to the void above the ceiling.

He thought, even though 1213 no longer had the strength to come out and scare him, maybe she could still hear him.

“Don’t be afraid of unemployment. It’s not worth it.”
“If you’re worried about being jobless, you can come work at my mom’s wonton shop. We pay salaries in advance. All neighbors, easy to talk to.”
“If the shop gets bigger, maybe we’ll even open chains.”

After a brief silence, Su Lai’s phone vibrated. A message from an unknown number——

「What if the leader won’t approve my resignation…」

1213 had heard him.

Su Lai couldn’t be bothered to type a reply. He just said directly.
“Then he doesn’t get a choice.”
“Just have my mom come for a visit, put the cleaver to his neck, and get that resignation paperwork signed.”

“One chop for each refusal. Let’s see how many chops his neck can take.”
Su Lai spoke calmly, not at all treating the leader’s neck as a neck.

「Thank you——」

The message vanished from his phone. Meanwhile, the person in charge of the 7th floor customer service department was sneezing continuously at his own workstation.

Perhaps because he hadn’t rested well last night and had a stiff neck, the customer service department person in charge felt a throbbing pain in his neck, as if someone was hacking at it with a dull cleaver.

And on his computer screen, a product design graphic flashed: 「Request a Chop! One more chop and you can cash out!」
The person in charge shuddered violently.

He immediately burned three sticks of incense, placed them in the niche in his office, and knelt on the ground in devout worship.

****

To reach the basement parking garage of Fortuitous Retribution Building, you needed to take a special elevator. Only the ID cards of management, security, and janitorial staff could access it.

Su Lai turned to the special elevator and pressed the button for the basement level.
The auntie watering the plants nearby glanced at him sideways, her gaze finally resting on his pink flip-flops.

Su Lai never avoided others’ stares, nor did he feel awkward being scrutinized. He looked directly back at the janitor auntie and asked,
“Auntie, if you all like these shoes, after I quit, I’ll come back here and get you wholesale from the night market.”
“Even second-hand, the price will be fair.”

He noticed that NPCs in the contaminated world, whether they had eyes or not, alive or dead, all paid special attention to his flip-flops.

Su Lai couldn’t be bothered to investigate why. Either way, missing such a big business opportunity would be a loss.

Maybe he could expand his business, open up a new opportunity of pairing delivery with flip-flop purchasing agent service.

The auntie didn’t speak. Su Lai continued.
“Is there anything I need to watch out for patrolling the parking garage?”

The auntie’s hand, watering the plants, paused slightly. Her gaze narrowed. She looked at the thick fog outside the building and nodded stiffly.
“Come back alive!”

With that, the auntie poured the remaining water from her can into the potted plant.
“This building’s foundation is unstable. It has ‘earthquakes’ occasionally.”

“Every time there’s an ‘earthquake,’ something happens in the basement garage. Rumor has it that the security guards who come back alive from the garage are all connected with very strong backing.”
“Ordinary workers get buried!”

With a *crackle*, the janitor auntie had poured boiling water into the plant.
But the plant in the pot was completely unaffected, still thriving under the nourishment of the boiling water.

Closer inspection revealed the plant was artificial.
The janitor coming to water it was just going through the motions, making this lifeless office building seem orderly and full of “vitality.”

But this janitor seemed rebellious.
She used boiling water to remind the new players that there was no real vitality in Fortuitous Retribution Building. Even the greenery was fake plastic, devoid of life.

What was presented to new employees might also be an illusion, a deception.
But here, what was real or fake didn’t matter. What mattered was what the employees *saw*.

Su Lai pondered her words.
“Auntie, are you saying there’ll be an ‘earthquake’ tonight?”

The janitor’s gaze narrowed. She looked at the thick fog outside the building and nodded stiffly.
“Something came in just now. It won’t be peaceful.”

Su Lai followed her gaze. He couldn’t see anything except the neon reflection of the characters 「Fortuitous Retribution Building.」

Having said her piece, the janitor packed up her watering tools and walked away from the elevator.

Su Lai: “Thanks for the warning.”
He watched her light, airy figure until he noticed that the building’s lights didn’t cast her shadow.

Now, it was hard to say whether the auntie was human or ghost.

Probably because his “Deceased Colleague Rapport” had significantly increased, he had received this warning from the janitor.

Tonight’s patrol wouldn’t be peaceful.
That suited Su Lai just fine.

If there really was an “earthquake,” and he survived his patrol of the basement level, it would further solidify the rumor that he was “connected.”

With the cover of a mysterious connection, no one would dare mess with him, and he could negotiate a raise with Human Resources.

Su Lai had calculated things nicely.
Maybe Bai Ke was right. He was particularly favored by middle-aged aunties, especially those already in the ground.

****

Basement Parking Garage of Fortuitous Retribution Building.

Just as he entered the garage entrance, the walkie-talkie emitted a beeping sound, like signal interference.
Su Lai listened closely. After the noisy static, he could faintly hear rustling voices, as if a group of people were holding a meeting through the walkie-talkie. But the words they said couldn’t be translated into comprehensible information. Nonsense.

After a few more steps, the noise in the walkie-talkie disappeared.
The painted automatic barrier was open. On the dark green painted wall, someone had used red paint to write a full wall of 《Patrol Guide for Basement Parking Garage of Fortuitous Retribution Building》——

1. The basement parking garage of the building has been closed due to force majeure. Even if there are parking spaces, do not park your vehicle here!
2. All abandoned vehicles in this garage have been cleared. Patrol personnel should not see any vehicles here.
3. In principle, empty parking spaces will not spontaneously grow vehicles.
4. If during patrol you see an unknown vehicle parked, you must immediately find an enclosed space to hide! Avoid exposing yourself in the empty garage!
5. If the patrol personnel is an officially employed security guard of this building, it is recommended to hide in the nearby temporary security room.
6. For the safety of patrol personnel, the door of the temporary security room will automatically lock. Do not panic. Just wait quietly for the non-existent vehicle to disappear…

The ominous red paint and messy handwriting looked less like a patrol guide and more like a debt-collecting blood letter.

Su Lai took out his phone and photographed the rules on the wall. It was his habit from working in the service industry: document everything as evidence, to prevent the other party from reneging.

“Excuse me…”
The moment the flash went off, a pale, hair-covered face suddenly appeared in his phone’s lens.

This face had long hair, blurred features, a deathly weary expression.

Another beast of burden worked to death?
But whether human or ghost, popping up right in someone’s face while they’re taking a photo was quite rude.

“Excuse me…” The long-haired female ghost repeated, hesitantly.

Su Lai paused slightly in his photo-taking. He frowned impatiently, but his hand holding the phone didn’t tremble at all.

“Hey. Too close.”
He tilted his neck, speaking to the ghostly face blocking his lens.
“Please move aside. You’re blocking my photo.”