Chapter 19 - 4#
For Luo Mingshan’s birthday, Zhao Xing planned to give him a small wooden carving toy, so he went to the woodworking factory in the afternoon.
In District K13, repentance points were practically omnipotent.
Soon, Zhao Xing used his repentance points to buy a high-quality piece of wood and several professional carving knives from the supervising prison guard.
As Zhao Xing was about to leave with his items, he suddenly remembered what Lü Zhiqiang had said yesterday—that the place they were currently working was a low-level factory, and beyond low-level factories, there were also high-level factories and top-level factories.
Zhao Xing became interested.
He turned around, lazily leaning against the workbench, and directly knocked on the window of the guard booth, asking the guard inside: “I want to work in the top-level factory. What conditions do I need to meet?”
The guard’s expression was somewhat strange: “You’re not short on repentance points, so why do you want to go to the top-level factory?”
Zhao Xing was already unruly and unmatched in arrogance, and after causing a scene at No. 8 Academy that morning, many people now knew that he had topped up a hundred million on his electronic card.
Zhao Xing let out a scornful laugh: “Who said I’m going to the top-level factory to earn repentance points? I just want to know what makes those top-level workers so special compared to us, that’s all.”
The guard: “One moment.”
Then, he closed the window in front of him, turned around, and spoke quietly with his superiors through his wireless earpiece.
After about three minutes, he turned back, opened the window, and handed Zhao Xing a red electronic card: “You can now freely enter and exit the top-level factory. Go out from here, take the elevator, press the No. 1 button twice, then swipe this card, and you’ll reach the top-level factory.”
If Zhao Xing remembered correctly, this No. 5 Factory only had 10 floors in total.
And that “top-level factory” was on the underground 11th floor—definitely a secret factory.
But such a secret factory—why was he allowed to go there immediately just by asking?
Zhao Xing took the red card and directly asked about his doubts.
The guard replied: “Actually, our top-level factory is in need of talent like yours. We’ve been wanting to recruit you for a while now, but since you never seemed short on repentance points, we didn’t bring it up.”
Talent like mine?
What kind of talent? The kind that starts fights, causes trouble, does all kinds of evil, acts arrogantly, and is vicious and ruthless?
Zhao Xing found it a bit odd, but with over nine thousand repentance points in his pocket, he wasn’t afraid of much. After a moment’s thought, he headed straight for the top-level factory.
Zhao Xing deliberately chose a time when no one was around to enter the elevator and went directly to the 11th floor.
When the elevator doors opened, Zhao Xing felt his eyes dazzled.
No other reason—the lighting here was just too bright.
Zhao Xing walked in step by step, and soon a robot approached him: “Hello, Zhao Xing. Welcome to the top-level factory. You have been assigned to Area F. Please follow me.”
As Zhao Xing followed the robot forward, he looked around.
He found that this top-level factory was ridiculously large, probably connected underground to Factories No. 1 through No. 5, but there were very few people. Among them, several clearly recognized Zhao Xing, sneaking glances at him while working and whispering among themselves.
“Why would Zhao Xing come here? Isn’t he loaded?”
“Who knows, maybe he’s looking for some excitement. Let’s not provoke him.”
“…”
“Forget about others, hurry up and work.”
“…Bro, what do you think we’re making here? It looks like clothes, but not quite…”
“Probably some kind of high-grade fabric for the rich…”
Zhao Xing stared at the “high-grade fabric” in their hands for a moment.
The Zhao family, where Zhao Xing used to live, could barely be considered a “wealthy household,” but he had never seen this kind of fabric in the Zhao residence.
It was clearly the material worn by the “surface humans” he had seen when he was six years old.
Zhao Xing continued to look around Area A, and then he saw shoes he had never seen before, gloves he had never seen before, and bags he had never seen before.
But every single one of these items was a semi-finished product.
Walking from Area A to Area E, Zhao Xing saw quite a few things.
There were tables and chairs, single-person vehicles, helmets, some iron lumps and parts whose purpose he couldn’t tell…
But no matter what they were, they were all semi-finished products, so even though these items looked a bit peculiar in shape, they didn’t have any functions beyond what everyone could recognize.
Zhao Xing lowered his eyes, thinking to himself: Just as I expected.
This entire “top-level factory” served the surface humans. Everything produced here would be sent up to the surface.
In fact, ever since Lü Zhiqiang mentioned the high-level factory and the top-level factory, Zhao Xing had already had this suspicion.
After all, with so many “low-tier humans” living underground, they had to provide some conveniences for the “high-tier humans” on the surface, right? Otherwise, wouldn’t it be a waste of labor?
The robot stopped: “Here we are. This is Area F.”
Area F was different from the other areas—it wasn’t open but enclosed.
The robot: “Please swipe your card to enter.”
Zhao Xing swiped his card, and a narrow passage barely wide enough for one person appeared in front of him. Zhao Xing stepped inside, and the door behind him immediately closed.
But what lay ahead wasn’t a factory—it was an empty little room.
In this room, there was also a robot sitting behind a desk, but this robot was a more advanced model, operated manually from behind, similar to the teachers in Class 109.
The robot pulled out a tablet: “Please sign.”
What was displayed on the tablet was a confidentiality agreement, stating that Zhao Xing could not disclose anything he saw or heard in the top-level factory’s Area F. If violated, he would receive a Level 3 electric shock punishment.
Zhao Xing had no objections to this rule and was willing to comply.
However, at the bottom of this agreement was written: “To comply with regulations, I voluntarily consent to having a listening device implanted inside my skin.”
Zhao Xing slowly put down the confidentiality agreement and took a step back: “Sorry, I really can’t do that.”
Zhao Xing turned around to swipe his card and leave, but the door wouldn’t open.
The robot: “By coming here, you can earn up to 50 repentance points per day. You won’t get that treatment anywhere else.”
Zhao Xing sneered: “Haven’t you heard? Your big bro here has more repentance points than he knows what to do with.”
The robot: “The listening device will not cause any harm to your body. No one will monitor it—only an AI will scan for keywords to ensure you keep your mouth shut about what you’ve seen in Area F.”
Zhao Xing: “I’m afraid of pain. I don’t want to get cut open.”
The robot then pulled out a pill: “We have another product here, using the latest technology. As long as you swallow it, the listening device inside will remain permanently in your body. It’s tasteless and odorless—no pain, no bitterness.”
Zhao Xing: “…”
What the hell?! This is getting more and more ridiculous, isn’t it?
Zhao Xing took another step back: “My mother taught me from a young age not to eat things given by strangers.”
Zhao Xing started trying to pry the door open, but it wouldn’t budge.
The robot stood up, slowly walked over to Zhao Xing, and extended an arm crackling with electricity: “Once you’re here, there’s no backing out, Zhao Xing. Please cooperate with us.”
Damn it!
Seeing the robot raise its arm to deliver an electric shock, Zhao Xing kicked it in the leg, knocking it over, then grabbed the nearby table and smashed it into the power source on the robot’s chest.
Amid a series of crackling noises and chaos, Zhao Xing finally rendered the robot on the ground motionless.
Zhao Xing breathed a sigh of relief and began searching for some switch that would let him get out.
Just then, Zhao Xing heard a broadcast overhead.
“A newcomer is causing trouble at the passageway entrance. All workers in Area F are requested to subdue him. Upon successful suppression, each person will be rewarded with 100 repentance points.”
Zhao Xing was stunned.
One hundred repentance points… they’re playing this big?!
Zhao Xing quickly snapped back to reality, pulled off a table leg, and gripped it tightly, preparing for a tough fight.
But then…
With a loud rumble, the “walls” in front of him, to his left, and to his right all rose up simultaneously, leaving Zhao Xing completely exposed in the vast Area F space.
Immediately afterward, people came walking over one by one from a distance, surrounding Zhao Xing at the passageway entrance.
Everyone was wearing identical uniforms with name badges pinned on them.
These people were mostly big and tall, with fierce expressions. Some were strangers to Zhao Xing, while others he had seen by chance.
But among this group, he had dealt with two people before.
One was one of the Su family dogs who had caused that kidnapping fiasco at the No. 9 passageway entrance of No. 7 Academy.
The other was much more interesting.
It was his roommate—Zhang Yue.
Zhang Yue could barely suppress the grin on his face, but he didn’t make a sound.
His expression looked somewhat twisted, a far cry from the loyal and honest demeanor he usually had in the dormitory.
There were too many of these people. Zhao Xing had never fought so many at once, and they all looked tough.
Zhao Xing estimated there were nearly a hundred people surrounding him…
No, not right!
Zhao Xing quickly scanned each person’s name badge.
“F037.”
“F085.”
“F014.”
…
“F100.”
Zhao Xing roughly scanned them and found that the largest number was “F100.”
There were exactly one hundred people here.
Suddenly, Zhao Xing thought of something. He hurriedly pulled out the red electronic card the prison guard had given him.
On the back of the electronic card was printed a line of gold code—
F101.
Zhao Xing put the card away and let out a low chuckle.
So this is where it is.
One hundred and one, the most heinous of criminals.