“From the rationality of the hints, the blue text seems more like the native inhabitants of the instance, while the red text leans towards external forces,”
Xu Dengming explained. “I once found a notice in the dormitory building’s first floor, written in red, about adjusting the number of people in the dorms.”
“Those dorms were originally six-person rooms, then changed to four-person, and finally to double rooms. It’s easy to tell from the color that the red text was the main force behind these adjustments.”
Zhao Bainiao added, “Because double rooms are most advantageous for the cuckoos.”
When the dorms were changed to double rooms, it became easiest to meet the condition of “only one survivor remains in a multi-person dorm.”
Those who wanted to become cuckoo chicks only needed to eliminate one roommate to break free from their shell.
Thus, a large number of cuckoos were born.
Zhao Bainiao touched his ear, feeling as if the soft chirping sounds were right beside him.
In the nest, healthy chicks with damp wings, just able to stand upright, instinctively began pushing eggs.
They knew exactly what they were doing, clearing out competitors would make the cuckoos stronger.
In the confrontation, the blue text gradually showed signs of decline.
Xu Dengming’s voice was soft, “Since all the reserve employees are essentially bird eggs in training, the park naturally provides ample nutrition for our normal growth.”
Looking back, the porridge clearly represented the egg white.
Consuming it meant normal nutrient intake, so employees who refused the meals would die, their true cause of death being malnutrition.
Those who followed the broadcast instructions would gradually mature, giving off a sense of being well-hydrated.
As for the cleaning workshop, it was a hint that hygiene needed to be maintained during the egg incubation period.
The translucent, lightweight protective suits represented the egg membrane.
Once damaged, the eggs would be eroded by bacteria and begin to rot.
Xu Dengming continued, “We are sealed inside the eggshells, unable to see the park staff, but occasionally we can sense something observing us.”
In her dreams, Xu Dengming would feel a presence approaching her.
If there were cracks in her eggshell, she might have seen the enormous, bird-like pupil outside.
The unmanned cashier counters and cafeteria windows, the inexplicably disappearing body fragments downstairs-many details reminded the reserve employees that there were unseen forces at work in the park.
But why couldn’t the reserve employees see them?
At the time, Xu Dengming thought that since even she couldn’t detect them, this invisibility likely had nothing to do with eyesight.
Connecting this to the fact that the reserve employees were essentially bird eggs, Xu Dengming began to suspect that these anomalies were actually beneficial reminders, telling them that their vision was obscured by the eggshells.
Xu Dengming spoke slowly, “After realizing that there were more and more cuckoos around, I started thinking about their behavioral logic. What struck me as odd was that the newly hatched cuckoos would want to enter nests where no cuckoos had been born.”
After pushing out the host eggs, the cuckoos could naturally enjoy all the remaining resources in the nest.
However, the reserve employees who had earned the right to live alone didn’t choose this path.
Instead, they actively sought out host eggs in other dorms.
Zhao Bainiao looked at Xu Dengming, eagerly anticipating her next deduction.
But Xu Dengming didn’t continue.
She smiled apologetically, “But ever since leaving the instance, my memory of many things has faded.”
“Everything was becoming blurry…”
Zhao Bainiao expressed understanding: “It’s alright, what you need most now is to rest properly.”
Xu Dengming’s complexion indeed didn’t look good, with dark circles under his eyes from excessive late nights.
Zhao Bainiao had seen many similar survivors of instances.
After coming out, it wasn’t that they didn’t want to rest, but because of the mental trauma, they would suffer from insomnia for a period.
Zhao Bainiao: “Actually, being able to leave is good enough. As for what happened before, it might be better to forget.”
He added, “You were quite lucky. Although this instance was a dead end, it collapsed midway.”
He wasn’t clear about Xu Dengming’s actions in the No. 17 abandoned factory area and automatically attributed the disintegration of the Nest Park to the ongoing confrontation between the red and blue factions.
Xu Dengming’s lips curved slightly: “It might not necessarily have been a dead end.”
Zhao Bainiao realized something: “You… found a way to clear it?”
Xu Dengming: “It’s hard to say if it was a way to clear it. Things happened too suddenly at the time, and I didn’t have time to verify the results.”
She then said, “The park is a place for nurturing young birds. Whether it’s cuckoos or host birds, they need to ensure the safety and cleanliness of the hatching area. So, after a body falls, it’s quickly cleared away.”
“According to general logic, eggs with no hope of hatching would inevitably be thrown out of the nest. Preparatory employees could take the opportunity to hide among them and leave together.”
Zhao Bainiao understood Xu Dengming’s line of thought and also understood why she didn’t verify it immediately.
To deceive everyone, one would have to hide among the shattered bodies.
This not only challenged the intelligence of the preparatory employees but also their tolerance.
At that time, Xu Dengming had just called upon her intelligence.
Although she had a preliminary idea to break the situation, she restrained the impulse to try it immediately.
Making the instance too easy wouldn’t be beneficial for the mental and physical health of the job seekers.
Moreover, when the snipe and the clam grapple, the fisherman benefits.
Since the red and blue factions were at loggerheads, Xu Dengming felt she might find an opportunity to exploit.
Xu Dengming didn’t explicitly ask her guest to leave, but she drank water several times while holding her cup.
Zhao Bainiao stood up somewhat reluctantly and said, “I’ll leave for today and come to see you again next time.”
Xu Dengming: “See you next time if you can persuade the medical staff to give me more internet time each day, I would be very grateful.”
Zhao Bainiao nodded vaguely.
In fact, the poor signal at the Seventh Hospital wasn’t due to a lack of technical capability but because the hospital didn’t want its patients to have too much contact with the outside world.
Xu Dengming watched Zhao Bainiao leave.
Regarding the last issue they discussed, she wasn’t without guesses, but she didn’t voice them.
Moreover, her guesses involved the employee card, which might expose the existence of the No. 17 abandoned factory area.
When she discovered that the young cuckoos were actively seeking new nests, Xu Dengming had two thoughts.
The first was that their goal was to kill as many host eggs as possible, and the second was that they were searching for something in the park.
She thought carefully and felt that the first guess also made sense there were two different factions in the instance.
An increase in the number of host eggs hatching meant a decrease in the cuckoo faction’s power, so the latter would naturally want to cause trouble for the former.
But why did they choose to enter new nests instead of using red text to tempt and pollute those host eggs, turning them into cuckoos?
Xu Dengming’s personal experience told her that those who could see the blue text could also see the red text, which meant it was feasible to turn the host eggs into cuckoos.
The situation with B-304 further proved one thing: although cuckoo chicks would kill their own kind, under normal circumstances, they would not actively attack each other unless they unfortunately ended up in the same dormitory.
This indicated that the situation within the cuckoo faction was not yet tense enough to compete for resources, and they could accommodate the emergence of new cuckoos.
The dungeon had methods to increase the number of cuckoos and the conditions to do so, so killing the host eggs was not necessary.
With this in mind, Xu Dengming lowered the priority of the assumption that “entering a new nest was for the purpose of killing host eggs” and began to consider the possibility that the cuckoo chicks were frequently changing nests to search for something.
What further confirmed her speculation was the shattered employee ID cards found on the corpses.
The employee ID cards, though seemingly fragile, were actually very sturdy and lightweight.
It was possible for one to occasionally break, but every corpse she found had a shattered ID card.
Xu Dengming had reason to believe that there was some connection between the shattering of the ID cards and the deaths of the employees.
-Or perhaps the cause of death for those reserve employees was not falling from a height, but having their identification destroyed.
A thought flashed through Xu Dengming’s mind as she began to ponder: what was the easiest way to kill an unhatched egg?
At this thought, a smile already appeared on Xu Dengming’s lips—
The answer was obvious, something even a child could think of: just break it.
The reserve employees represented the bird eggs, and the employee ID cards represented the eggshells.
As long as there was a crack in the eggshell, the egg could be declared a failed hatch.
Xu Dengming also discovered that the employee ID card in her own hand was different from others.
She could feel a bulge beneath her card, while the others were smooth.
If the assumption that the employee ID cards were the eggshells was applied, everything made sense the bulge represented the inner side of the eggshell, and the smoothness represented the outer side.
She couldn’t stick her head into other bird eggs, so naturally, she couldn’t feel the bulges on other cards.
What the cuckoo chicks were searching for was also the information on the host egg cards.
However, the crucial information only existed on the inner side of the host eggs.
The moment the eggshell was forcibly opened, the precious message on the card was smashed into a bloody pulp.
With this hint, Xu Dengming successfully found the important information left by the blue text faction and led her classmates to the abandoned factory area No. 17.
After a tense and thrilling mental confrontation, she obtained the “dead meat” on the workbench.
Then, Xu Dengming realized she faced a new decision: should she follow the blue text’s instructions and place the “dead meat” in a specific area?
Without a second of hesitation, Xu Dengming immediately gave her heartfelt answer-of course, she wouldn’t.
In the Nest Park, the cuckoos harbored malice, and the host birds were equally untrustworthy.
Just like the two signs at the fork leading to the abandoned factory area No. 17, the words on them seemed contradictory at first glance, but in reality, they both pointed in the same direction.
The best outcome for those who tirelessly work for the Blue Letter faction is merely to become a host egg that successfully hatches.
Xu Dengming had no interest in this.
She was a human.
After Zhao Bainiao, who came to visit, left, the nurse on duty checked on Xu Dengming’s condition and brought her today’s glass of warm water.
Xu Dengming held the pill in her palm: “It looks familiar, like a vitamin.”
The nurse, who had become somewhat familiar with Xu Dengming, confirmed her suspicion: “The main ingredient is indeed a vitamin.”
Xu Dengming didn’t inquire about the other components.
She obediently took the pill with water.
She didn’t read the newspaper again but instead laid the pillow flat, folded her hands over her chest, and lay down to rest.
Compared to other unfortunate participants who had already been caught up in the company’s rhythm, Xu Dengming’s transformation into a bird egg wasn’t deep.
However, she had directly faced the “dead Meat” and suffered severe mental erosion.
Even in her sleep, she sometimes saw indescribable, terrifying images.
Xu Dengming tried to relax her emotions.
This time, just as she was drifting into a semi-conscious state, she was summoned by a familiar sensation and opened her eyes again.
In mid-air, Xu Dengming saw a line of text:
[System: Maintenance completed, functions restored to normal.]
[Congratulations, player, for clearing the multiplayer game [Nest Park Internship Incident]. The rewards for this instance have been automatically added to your backpack.]
[System: Friendly reminder, due to irreparable damage to the source code after testing, this game will no longer be released. We appreciate the understanding of all beta testers.]
Xu Dengming gazed thoughtfully at the prompt before her, her eyes lingering on “multiplayer game” and “source code” for a moment.
She had a feeling that her system had been making a special effort to convince all hosts that their previous experiences were merely part of the necessary process of game testing.
That wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, Xu Dengming thought.
Although she hadn’t received a satisfactory offer yet, at least in the eyes of the system, she was now an unpaid game tester…
Xu Dengming sat up again and began to check the restored system backpack.
Tftc!