Dimensional Store: Welcome to the Apocalypse Apartment - Chapter 225

Chapter 225

The Library Director tried to move his wheelchair to the left. It wouldn’t budge.

He tried to move it to the right. Still nothing.

Gu Huaiwei’s hand seemed to rest lightly on his shoulder, yet it pinned him in place.

To keep him from hoisting up the wheelchair and fleeing again, Gu Huaiwei simply planted one foot on the steel bar beneath it.

As the Instance progressed, the Library Director’s body would become more and more contaminated.

His legs were crippled, but his eyes still worked just fine.

Sitting in his wheelchair, he put on that half-dead, gravely ill look, drooping his gray, wrinkled eyelids and refusing to look at Gu Huaiwei.

“I have already… click, click, click… hired a Secretary.”

When the Library Director publicly recruited a Secretary, he would pay the Trial-taker a certain amount of Lifespan as compensation.

He wanted to reason with Gu Huaiwei.

An Instance had its own arrangements. He wanted to tell her that what she was doing was wrong.

But Gu Huaiwei did not belong to this Dimension, and she did not play by this Dimension’s rules.

“I know. That’s why I’m free.” Beneath Gu Huaiwei’s perfect smile lay an unshakable determination to get what she wanted. Her voice was gentle. “Don’t worry. Your wife has already left the basement, and Han Zhusheng is keeping her company. For the time being, she has no attention to spare for delivering your medicine.”

She had no intention of poisoning the Library Director to death.

“You suffer from Mist Lung Disease. I plan to turn you into the flagship advertisement for our Sanatorium and film a promotional short for you, so other people in Gray Mist Town with the same illness can better understand the services our Sanatorium provides.”

As an Anomaly, the Library Director had always been someone humans avoided at all costs.

Now their positions had been reversed.

For the first time, the Library Director realized that humans could be hauntingly persistent too.

Even an Instance reset couldn’t erase Gu Huaiwei.

He only wanted to enjoy bullying and chasing Trial-takers inside his own Instance. He did not want to be chased down by a human every single day.

How bitter his heart felt.

Lu Xiaoxing, dressed in women’s clothing, tended the fire and decocted the medicine.

As a Trial-taker, his life was constantly on the line. He would never dare act as boldly as Gu Huaiwei.

Gu Huaiwei sat beside the medicine stove, warming herself by the fire. While she was at it, she skewered a sweet potato on an iron rod and roasted it to eat.

Compared to the terrified Lu Xiaoxing, Gu Huaiwei was practically on vacation in the Library.

She openly rummaged through the confidential documents in the Library Director’s study.

It turned out that the Library Director had once been part of the chemical factory’s management. He and his colleagues had taken a large sum of money from a merchant and hired a huge number of Miner who had come out of the mines infected with pneumoconiosis.

Because those Miner had contracted pneumoconiosis, they could no longer perform heavy physical labor.

So the chemical factory publicly announced a recruitment drive, claiming it was a humanitarian gesture toward early-retired Miner.

The chemical factory would arrange simple jobs for the Miner, such as guarding warehouses, so they would not end up unemployed.

Those sick Miner did not know that pneumoconiosis would grow more and more severe.

They were all honest, simple townsfolk. How could they understand the evils of capital?

In order to obtain placement jobs at the chemical factory, they stopped protesting at the mines for compensation. Instead, they chose to work at the chemical factory, earning money for medical treatment.

But the chemical factory did not actually need that many warehouse guards.

The so-called recruitment was only a stopgap measure.

After they had hired a certain number of people, the chemical factory deliberately manufactured an explosion, burying all those Miner there.

After committing such a vile act, the chemical factory’s management put on a good show in front of the families of the Miner who had died, saying all the right things and promising they would definitely pay compensation and properly handle the funerals.

In reality, once public opinion died down, they paid out only a small amount of compensation, then directly declared the chemical factory bankrupt, turning the entire matter into an unrecoverable bad debt.

As for the management personnel at the chemical factory who had participated in the incident, every single one of them was arranged to retire comfortably in other organizations around Gray Mist Town.
The Library Director was one of the people who had benefited from it.

“Tsk, tsk. If the Library Director hadn’t been so greedy and stolen so many unprocessed Gray Crystal Gem from the merchant’s mine, he wouldn’t have ended up infected with pneumoconiosis too.”

Lu Xiaoxing pricked up his ears, listening to Gu Huaiwei’s muttering.

To him, every bit of this was priceless intel.

He didn’t dare steal anything himself.

Nor did he dare crowd around Gu Huaiwei to look.

He silently lowered his presence, doing the work a Secretary ought to do while keeping his eyes and ears sharp, waiting for Gu Huaiwei to get happy enough from eating sweet potatoes that she might say a few more things about the Instance.

Gu Huaiwei would not take anything from the Instance.

After she finished reading, she would take photos, then put the originals back where they belonged.

When the Library Director first discovered the drawer had been opened, the pollution in his body worsened. His entire belly swelled up, and in a fury, he smashed an ashtray against the desk while interrogating Lu Xiaoxing.

Lu Xiaoxing timidly lowered his head and secretly pointed at Gu Huaiwei.

Gu Huaiwei admitted it without the slightest attempt to hide it.

“I even helped you sort out all the messy documents in your Office while I was at it. No need to thank me too much.”

“What did you see?” The black aura shrouding the Library Director’s body was like the sky before a torrential downpour, its oppressive pressure bearing down on Gu Huaiwei.

“Oh, just those things you and the Black-hearted Merchant conspired to do.”

Gu Huaiwei watched the black aura around him grow at a speed visible to the naked eye.

She said, “Don’t worry. I’m not some emissary of justice here to punish you.”

According to the Rules, if a Trial-taker obtained these truths, they had to leave the Library Director’s study immediately and could not be discovered by him.

Lu Xiaoxing listened from the side, his heart pounding with fear.

When an Anomaly fought, he was worried an innocent, fragile Trial-taker like himself would get caught in the crossfire.

Within an Instance that belonged to them, Anomaly strength would be enhanced.

Especially at this very moment, when Gu Huaiwei had touched upon one part of the Rules.

The Library Director said madly, “Kakaka… Since you already know about these things, don’t even think about leaving this place.”

“I… What does this have to do with me? I don’t know anything!” Lu Xiaoxing’s eyes widened as he hurriedly explained, “Director, I’ve been wronged! I didn’t see anything, I didn’t hear anything. I’ve been working diligently the whole time…”

Lu Xiaoxing had violated the Rules because he had heard Gu Huaiwei say, “just those things you and the Black-hearted Merchant conspired to do.”

He should have left the room at once, or covered his ears, instead of standing there like an idiot and listening.

But now that things had come to this, it was already too late for Lu Xiaoxing to realize it.

“Kakaka… I absolutely won’t let you leave this place!”

The Library Director’s body tilted, and he toppled out of his wheelchair. His two arms hit the floor, his whole body flipping over so his swollen belly faced upward. Using his arms in place of his crippled legs, he crawled toward the terrified Lu Xiaoxing.

Lu Xiaoxing retreated again and again, then knocked into the scalding medicine pot.

Medicine spilled all over the floor.

The fragrance of Chinese herbs filled the room.

“Hiss-” Lu Xiaoxing had no time to care about the pain of being burned. He bolted out the door.

The Library Director chased relentlessly after him.

Gu Huaiwei strolled unhurriedly to the doorway and blocked the Library Director’s path.

“If you’re sick, stop running around.”

Gu Huaiwei grabbed the Library Director as he crawled along sinisterly. Ignoring his struggles, she picked him up by the only intact arm he had left, then placed him back in his wheelchair.

“Kakaka… Kakaka…”

Gu Huaiwei sighed softly. “If you keep making trouble, I’ll have no choice but to call your son over to take care of you.”

And just like that, the Library Director shut down.