During the daytime, the roses in the flower fields remained tightly closed, reduced to unbloomed buds. The once-moist soil dried out beneath the sunlight, and the entire flower field looked peaceful and harmless.

But after experimenting for a while, Bai Liu and Liu Jiayi discovered something unsettling:

Simply remaining near the flower fields caused their mental values to drop much faster than in other locations.

They only possessed two bottles of low-grade perfume. Since each bottle was needed to maintain a stable mental value, staying near the flower fields would likely exhaust their supply before nightfall even arrived.

So Bai Liu decisively chose to move away from the flower fields.

More accurately—

He intended to distance them from the entire perfume factory itself, the place that clearly housed some unknown source of pollution.

With only two bottles of perfume capable of lasting roughly four hours each, they needed to survive until the following morning.

Remaining in an area that accelerated mental corruption was obviously not a wise decision.

Bai Liu decided to follow the factory grounds outward and investigate what the surrounding area looked like.

“The things you can think of, other players can think of too.”

Liu Jiayi walked beside him while being led by the hand, her little face scrunched up unhappily.

“If we wander around like this, it’ll be easy to run into other players. And shouldn’t you be thinking about tonight’s quota first?”

Her brows furrowed.

“Eighty kilograms per person. Last night already pushed my abilities to their limit, and we barely managed eighty total. One hundred and sixty kilograms is impossible.”

Bai Liu remained completely unhurried.

“Didn’t you hear what the processing worker said this morning?”

“All the newly arrived flower pickers completed their tasks last night.”

He lowered his gaze slightly.

“There are six players in this game. At the start, all players possess the identity of newly arrived flower pickers.”

“So if all the flower pickers completed their tasks, that means the other four players also possess the ability to harvest forty kilograms of roses in a single night.”

A faint smile curved Bai Liu’s lips.

“Four people harvesting forty kilograms each...”

“That’s exactly the one hundred and sixty kilograms we need, isn’t it?”

“...”

Liu Jiayi rubbed her arms, goosebumps rising from the eerie smile on Bai Liu’s face.

“...What exactly are you planning?”

“First, we investigate the area around the factory.”

Bai Liu’s eyes darkened slightly.

“Every monster in a game has an origin. Refugees were originally humans.”

“Since I can trade with humans, then I think...”

“You want to trade with the Refugees?”

Liu Jiayi frowned.

“Most monsters are humans whose mental values dropped to zero from pollution. They’ve already gone insane.”

“How are you supposed to trade with insane creatures? They don’t even possess enough sanity to communicate.”

Bai Liu lowered his eyes toward her.

“What if they can temporarily regain their sanity?”

Liu Jiayi froze before immediately refuting him.

“That’s impossible.”

Monster corruption within the game was irreversible.

This was one of the game’s absolute [Rules].

Once mental value reached zero, it froze permanently in a grayed-out state. Even [Mental Bleach] could not restore it.

A monster remained a monster forever.

It could never return to being human.

But very quickly, Liu Jiayi realized the contradiction herself.

The [Mental Bleach] in this game was sealed.

Not only for monsters—

For players as well.

And yet the perfume worked on the Refugees without restriction.

Which meant—

If the perfume truly affected Refugees, then these monsters might actually recover their sanity temporarily and return to normal human behavior.

At the very least, they might stop attacking.

Just like the Siren Statues freezing in place when observed.

“Perfume is probably the weakness of the Refugees.”

Liu Jiayi looked up at Bai Liu.

“When did you figure that out? That the perfume in this game functions like Mental Bleach for monsters?”

“Before entering the game.”

Liu Jiayi stared at him.

“Before entering the game?!”

Bai Liu casually tossed the perfume bottle in his hand upward and caught it again. His gaze followed the movement as he smiled faintly.

“Someone told me before I entered that even crazed employees can recover their reason and normal state after using this perfume.”

“No matter how insane they become, once sprayed with perfume, they immediately return to normal as though nothing happened.”

“At the time, I thought—”

“This is basically another version of Mental Bleach.”

Bai Liu lowered his eyes and idly rotated the perfume bottle between his fingers.

“It restores people from madness and stabilizes their condition.”

“And the game setting itself is the same.”

“If players fail to continuously use [Mental Bleach], their mental values decline from monster pollution until they eventually go insane.”

“For players, Mental Bleach is essentially Rose Perfume.”

“We ordinary players are also addicted to it.”

“To obtain it and survive, we become Flower Pickers working for the game.”

“The Refugees who fail to earn enough points are [Laid Off] and exiled to the [Unlisted District].”

“Meanwhile, players who successfully earn points are promoted to the front stage.”

Bai Liu looked toward Liu Jiayi.

“Doesn’t this system sound familiar?”

A chill crept over Liu Jiayi’s skin.

She understood what Bai Liu meant.

“...The game itself is one enormous Rose Factory.”

If the game was a massive factory exploiting players—

Then within this game, who exactly was the [Factory Manager] profiting from everyone’s suffering?

Bai Liu’s gaze deepened.

They had already reached the edge of the flower fields.

Beyond the magnificent and romantic sea of roses was not a fragrant little town—

—but a barren, decaying suburb.

Old newspapers curled through the wind. Long-abandoned factories stood in silence. Not a single person could be seen for dozens of meters.

Compared to the bright and colorful flower fields behind them, it looked like an entirely different world.

Bai Liu stopped before one of the abandoned factories.

A recruitment notice was still pasted beside the entrance, though the date printed on it was from ten years ago.

Apparently, the factory never needed more workers afterward.

Across the metal rolling door, someone had painted a giant yellow character:

[DEMOLISH]

The paint was peeling and cracked with age.

Liu Jiayi crouched down and picked up the scattered newspaper fragments nearby.

[Rose Perfume Officially Released?! Highly Addictive Product Banned by Multiple Countries, Triggering Massive Public Protests!]

[—If this should be banned, then why not ban coffee and cigarettes too?! This is a serious violation of consumer freedom!]

(Said by Mr. Wang, a convenience store owner who led the protests. It is reported he stockpiled large amounts of rose perfume and earned hundreds of thousands this year.)

[Factory Explosion Causes Perfume Leak — Protests Succeed — Dried Rose Leaf Gas Sells Worldwide!]

[Rose Perfume dramatically increases alertness. Student academic performance rises, employee productivity improves... ushering in a golden age of rapid development. Factories and enterprises expanded recruitment by 7.2% this year...]

[...Rose Gas undergoes its third major price increase this year, triggering global protests. Once considered a daily necessity, the perfume has now become an unbearable burden for ordinary citizens earning under 100,000 annually...]

[...The repeated price increases toll the death knell for countless impoverished civilians...]

[...Governments worldwide unite in protest against skyrocketing perfume prices, sanctioning the Rose Factory and demanding an end to unrestricted price hikes or forced closure...]

[...Three national leaders withered to death during diplomatic tours due to interrupted perfume supply. The Rose Factory announced that high-grade perfume would only be prioritized for countries willing to sign friendly agreements...]

[...The global rich list is now dominated by the rose perfume manufacturing industry...]

[...During the Great Depression... factories shut down... schools closed... unemployment rates soared... riots broke out repeatedly... withered Refugees could be seen dying in street corners everywhere...]

[...The rose industry may become the only remaining employment path for modern youth...]

[...Rose production fell again last year, and the number of ‘withered’ individuals worldwide continues to rise...]

...

Bai Liu crouched beside Liu Jiayi and silently examined the newspapers with her.

Even someone like Liu Jiayi, who was not particularly compassionate by nature, felt a suffocating numbness in her chest after seeing the shocking black-and-white photographs attached to the reports.

Chaotic crowds.

Bloodstained roads.

Desperate people hanging themselves beneath bridge arches for relief.

Empty, lifeless eyes staring directly into the camera.

Every black-and-white image carried a suffocating despair.

“This kind of thing inevitably destroys the entire ecosystem.”

Bai Liu calmly picked up another newspaper clipping.

The headline read:

[Despairing Withered Refugees Commit Mass Suicide Beneath Bridge Arches; Rose Factory Remains Indifferent, Refuses to Lower Perfume Prices]

[Rose perfume, originally distributed freely or cheaply during early promotion periods under promises of permanent affordability, has now reached {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} astronomical prices...]

“First they give it away for free or sell it cheaply during promotion.”

“Once people adapt to it and become dependent, the market becomes monopolized. By the time no substitute exists, the price rises.”

“And because people can no longer survive without it, they’re forced to continue paying increasingly higher prices.”

“They become slaves to the rose.”

Bai Liu’s tone remained calm.

“It’s a very ordinary exploitation tactic.”

“But when applied to an addictive substance tied directly to survival, it becomes a form of near-genocidal exploitation.”

“In a world like this, even money itself loses meaning.”

“That’s why I dislike this thing.”

“It erases the meaning of what I pursue.”

Bai Liu loosened his fingers.

The old newspaper scraps were swept away by the cold wind.

...Was this the future Tang Erda had seen?

A future so hopeless that destruction was the only remaining answer?

Watching Su Yang and the others gradually become monsters obsessed with roses—

Watching them wither away with no possible salvation—

Endlessly escaping into one timeline after another...

After experiencing that repeatedly, it was hardly surprising Tang Erda eventually lost his mind.

Bai Liu withdrew his gaze.

Several dark shadows suddenly flashed behind the abandoned factory nearby.

Dense tentacles spread rapidly across the ground.

Liu Jiayi immediately pressed close to Bai Liu, poison already in hand.

The hidden Refugees inside the abandoned factory had discovered them.

“Perfume!!”

“He smells like perfume!!”

The Refugees shrieked hysterically.

A mass of dark figures lunged toward Bai Liu all at once.

“There are so many Refugees here...”

Liu Jiayi tightened her grip on the poison bottles, body tense.

“Are you sure our perfume supply is enough?”

“I’m not sure,” Bai Liu admitted honestly.

“But don’t I still have you?”

Liu Jiayi: “...”

“DAMMIT!!!”

The writhing Refugees slithered across the ground like a nest of serpents.

Tentacles whipped through the air, sweeping the scattered newspapers upward into the dusty gray sky.

One drifting newspaper carried a smiling photo of a Flower Picker whose face-shell had already shattered.

[Even if I work overtime day and night without rest... even if I’m not an official employee... even if I need to pick forty kilograms of dried roses just to exchange for a single bottle of low-grade perfume...]

[Being able to work at the Rose Factory is still the happiest thing in the world.]

[We are doing work that changes the world.]

[As long as we keep working hard, maybe perfume prices will eventually fall... and more people will survive.]

—Said a weak Flower Picker on the verge of withering.

(At the time this interview was published, the Flower Picker who accepted the interview had already been dismissed and laid off for violating Rose Factory confidentiality regulations.)