Bai Liu looked around and joined the queue for the printer.
Usually, in real-life talent markets, everyone prints multiple copies of their resumes to distribute repeatedly. However, the job seekers here in the talent market were obviously not wealthy, and the cost of printing once was quite high. So, Bai Liu noticed that most of them only printed a single 10-yuan [Hard Card Style] resume.
This kind of resume was an A4-sized piece of hard cardstock densely packed with all the resume content, with a hole punched at the top.
After printing their resumes, this group of people naturally pulled out a string, threaded it through the hole, hung the resume around their necks, and then walked toward the talent market.
This peculiar type of resume attracted Bai Liu’s attention. Following the movement of this group with his eyes, he discovered they passed through a long corridor, turned a corner, and walked into the talent market proper.
Bai Liu turned his head, and then he froze.
Actually, after understanding the system here, Bai Liu was basically clear that this group of temporary residents who needed work to survive and pay off loans were at the bottom of the food chain in Sunshine City.
Given that a massive number of residents needed jobs to maintain basic living, the supply and demand relationship dictated that finding a job here would definitely be difficult. That also meant that those offering positions would have a very high status relative to the job seekers, while the job seekers would have a very low status.
Job hunting here was different from reality. It wasn’t the type where you sit properly in front of a desk with basic politeness and respect given to the applicant, go through rounds of written tests and interviews individually, and then get informed whether you’re hired.
Instead, it was as chaotic and naked as a market.
Job seekers with resume boards hanging around their chests squatted densely like beggars on both sides of the corridor, faces sallow, holding instant noodles and half-eaten bread. They looked with desperate longing at the recruiters in suits and ties walking through the middle, like piles of humanoid merchandise waiting to be bought, having already properly labeled themselves with brands and prices.
The recruiters looked left and right indifferently, pointing at job seekers as if selecting pork: “You, stick your head out here.”
The chosen job seeker would impatiently stick their head out, stretching their neck as much as possible like a dog so the recruiter could see the resume hanging on their neck, speaking carefully: “H-hello.”
The recruiter casually lifted the resume hanging on his chest and glanced at it: “…Graduated from an average university, three years of work experience, previous company was okay…”
“Salary expectation five thousand?” The recruiter’s tone changed when he read this part.
The job seeker immediately said tremblingly: “It’s negotiable! How much do you think is appropriate?”
“Our expectation for this position is three thousand eight hundred to four thousand,” the recruiter said lightly.
The job seeker hesitated. He lowered his head and touched his resume board, whispering with difficulty: “Four thousand is too little. This position requires working ten hours a day. I have to spend three thousand a month on land fees. I can only save eight hundred to a thousand. Instant noodles here cost eight yuan a bucket. Even if I only eat two meals a day, just eating instant noodles costs four hundred and eighty. Plus other things…”
“I still want to save money to buy a house.” He half-squatted on the ground, looking like he was kneeling, looking up at the recruiter with eyes full of pleading. “I can’t survive on four thousand. How about four thousand five…”
A job seeker beside him with bloodshot eyes suddenly stood up and shouted loudly: “I don’t need four thousand five hundred, just give me three thousand five hundred! Let me do it!”
Another person tried hard to get close to the recruiter, grabbing his pant leg and looking up to show the resume hanging on his neck: “Look at me! I can do it for three thousand two hundred!”
“Three thousand! I’ll do it for three thousand!”
“Two thousand nine hundred!”
“Two thousand eight hundred!”
Under the sluggish gaze of the initial job seeker, the salary slid all the way down to two thousand five hundred, finally getting stuck at this threshold as countless people fought over it.
The recruiter seemed to have anticipated this scene long ago. He yawned leisurely, waited for these people to finish arguing, then turned his head to the initial job seeker and asked indifferently: “Two thousand five hundred, you doing it?”
Tears filled the job seeker’s eyes bit by bit. He lowered his head and didn’t speak. The recruiter moved his gaze away without stopping, looking at other people: “You, stick your head out…”
“Wait!” The job seeker gritted his teeth and interrupted the recruiter. He seemed about to cry. “Is three thousand okay? I really can’t survive here on two thousand five hundred!”
The recruiter looked indifferently at the job seeker kneeling on the ground: “You can’t survive—does that have anything to do with our company?”
After speaking, the recruiter shook off the motionless job seeker and pointed to another one: “Stick your head out, let me see?”
The person pointed at impatiently stuck his head out, opening with: “I can accept a salary of two thousand five hundred!”
“Mm.” The recruiter nodded as if it were nothing strange. “Lots of people can accept it; just because you can accept it doesn’t mean you get the money.”
The man squatted back down awkwardly, shrinking his head and agreeing in a low voice: “…Yes.”
The recruiter turned to instruct the person beside him: “Distribute the written test papers to them. Hand them in when finished. Those scoring above ninety will be notified for an interview.”
After speaking, the recruiter left under the eager gazes of the crowd. The few who finished answering and handing in the papers began holding their phones, waiting deliriously, clasping their hands together and praying ceaselessly:
“Bless me, let the call come quickly, call quickly!”
“Let me get this job!”
The initial job seeker sat on the ground holding his resume in a trance. He was obviously new: “Why are people fighting for a job that pays two thousand five hundred? You can’t survive on that at all…”
The job seeker beside him who had finished the written test gave him a strange look. His eyes were full of bloodshot veins from staying up late: “Of course you can’t survive on one job.”
“We all work two or three jobs.”
The person asked back in disbelief: “Two or three?! One job requires working seven days, ten hours not counting overtime. How do you have time to work two or three jobs?! Don’t you sleep?”
“Sleep? We don’t have houses, where can we sleep? We can’t sleep on the street, so we can only sleep at the company.” The person yawned, holding up five fingers with an excited expression. “Besides, if you’re lucky enough to work for a real estate company, because the land is theirs, you only have to pay five yuan per hour for land fees while working at their company! You can even sneak a nap! It’s a huge profit, okay!”
“The company that wanted to recruit you just now is a subsidiary of a real estate firm. You really lost out by not agreeing,” the person advised earnestly. “Next time someone asks you, you can say yes to two thousand five hundred.”
“A salary of two thousand five hundred is the average price here. In their eyes, we’re only worth that much—a price just enough to keep us alive.”
Bai Liu withdrew his gaze. He printed a resume, but instead of hanging it around his neck, he held it in his hand and walked into the talent market.
Most of the people here were temporary residents and mortgage slaves who desperately needed money.
Everyone’s eyes were bloodshot. Under their numb expressions lay a shadow-like anxiety and despair. Every recruiter passing by would make a cluster of light ignite quickly in their eyes, but soon, as the recruiter left with others, that cluster of light would extinguish again, becoming fainter and fainter.
On his second lap, Bai Liu found his own team members squatting together among the recruiters.
When he found them, Mu Sicheng was arguing with a recruiter.
“You want to hire me for two thousand five hundred?!” Mu Sicheng held the resume board and sneered, his smile carrying a hint of violence, feeling like he was about to slap the recruiter in front of him flying with the board in the next moment. “So cheap, why don’t you go hire a dog to be your company’s receptionist?”
“I think a dog receptionist and a dog company make a good match.”
Anger also appeared on the recruiter’s face: “I picked you because you have a good image and our sales office needs a receptionist. Don’t be ungrateful. If you don’t want this two-thousand-five-hundred job, plenty of people do!”
As soon as the recruiter’s voice fell, the heads of the people in the circle nearby immediately lifted up.
Mu Sicheng probably wasn’t encountering this scene for the first time either. Seeing this formation, he knew what was going to happen, and his anger surged up instantly: “I even cursed that only dogs would do this! Are you rushing to do it because you feel like being cheap?!”
No one cared what Mu Sicheng was saying. Everyone looked up, staring tightly at the recruiter, waiting for him to speak.
The recruiter looked around at the circle, crossed his arms, and looked proudly at Mu Sicheng: “If you don’t do it, there are plenty of people who will. I tell you, forget two thousand five hundred—even for two thousand, or one thousand five hundred, there are plenty of people coming to do it.”
“What’s the difference between these low-class citizens who can’t even afford a house and dogs?” The recruiter looked scornful and disdainful. “Being willing to give them money, letting them work, allowing them to stand on Sunshine City’s ground a little longer, letting them live here a little longer—that’s already their blessing. We are doing charity, okay?”
Mu Sicheng bared his teeth: “You f*cking…”
Beside him, Tang Erda, with a dark expression, reached out to stop him: “You can’t attack. Attacking and hurting people will turn your identity card red instantly. Red names will be expelled by the patrol team, and then there’s no way…” to buy five buildings.
Before Tang Erda finished speaking, a sharp bone whip appeared on the recruiter’s neck, slicing cleanly to the right.
Blood sprayed out. The recruiter covered his gushing throat, the proud look on his face turning to panic. He gasped for air in large heaves, reaching into his pocket for his phone to call the police.
A pair of bloodstained hands unhurriedly took the phone out of the recruiter’s pocket. Bai Liu half-knelt down with a smile, waving the phone in his hand at the recruiter struggling on the ground clutching his throat: “Were you looking for this?”
[System Warning: Detected that player Bai Liu has killed an NPC. City ID Card turns to Red Name status. Status changed from Temporary Resident to Wanted Criminal!]
Tang Erda looked tensely at Bai Liu squatting on the ground: “Bai Liu, our mission is to own five buildings. Killing people will get you expelled and disqualify you as a resident of Sunshine City, let alone owning a house here.”
Bai Liu waited until the recruiter breathed his last before looking up at his team members. He smiled faintly: “Captain Tang, you missed the point. We need to own five buildings in total, not I need to have five buildings.”
“It’s impossible to solve this instance through normal channels and own five buildings within a week. We have to take some unconventional routes. Besides, this is a team instance. Everyone has a division of labor. As long as one person in our team is a normal resident and can hold property rights, that’s enough. The others don’t need to care so much about resident status in this city.”
Bai Liu extended two fingers and rummaged through the body of the recruiter dying with grievance, finding a Resident ID Card, some written test recruitment documents, and finally, from an inner pocket, a property deed.
[System Notification: Congratulations to player Bai Liu for killing a (Homeowner), obtaining the property deed for an apartment in Building 17, Floor 18, Zone A!]
[After death, a Homeowner will turn into a ghost wandering in their own room, attacking all who enter, turning the house into a Haunted House. This isn’t very good!]
[System Notification: Please ask player Bai Liu to proceed to the location. After dealing with the Homeowner’s ghost, you can obtain a Haunted House!]
Bai Liu stood up with a smile, holding the bloodstained property deed between two fingers: “It seems my line of thinking was correct.”
