Chapter 49: The Real Inspector

Chapter 49 The Real Advertising Inspector

"How come... everyone here is wearing identical red vests?!"

At a glance, the entire open-plan office was packed with a sea of identical workers.

Everyone wore identical red vests with blue lanyard ID cards, seated in neat rows of workstations, busy at work. They were unusually focused—aside from necessary work-related conversations, the only sounds were the click-clack of keyboards and the occasional noise of large printers spitting out documents.

The players noticed that among these staff members, the women all had neatly tied high ponytails, while the men sported uniform buzz cuts. Their appearances were identical, showing no individuality.

Coupled with their identical perfect posture, the players could hardly tell one row of backs from another.

The office worker hugged her arms uncomfortably. "This place gives me a terrible feeling. Everyone seems like pre-programmed robots, completely lifeless."

"I dare say any follower of the Tree of Life would be horrified by this disgrace to life..."

After a moment of thought, Chu Fu walked toward the nearest workstation, and the other players instinctively followed, treating him as their leader.

As soon as they approached, the red-vested staff member at the workstation lifted their head from the computer screen, displaying a plastic smile. "Hello, how may I assist you?"

"We're temporary advertising inspectors. There's one last ad left to review, but the screening room seems to have malfunctioned, preventing us from selecting and playing it," Chu Fu explained their situation briefly before asking, "Could you advise us on what to do next?"

The staff member's smile remained unchanged. "The system shows your task has already been completed. Any subsequent payment issues will be handled by the finance department."

"What do you mean, 'already completed'?"

Perhaps eager to leave this "blasphemous" place, the office worker snapped with unusual anger. "There were five of us when we arrived—each was supposed to review one ad, so five screenings in total! We've only done four so far..."

"There's no rule stating one person per ad," the staff member maintained a polite smile, though in this exchange, it seemed creepily mechanical. She repeated, "The system shows your task has already been completed."

The office worker wanted to argue further, but Chu Fu gave her a sharp look and shook his head slightly—making her immediately shut up. She took a deep breath to clear her mind and stepped aside.

Chu Fu didn’t take further action either. He simply stood quietly before the staff member for a while, observing her reaction.

Thus, everyone clearly saw that when no one interacted with her, she went completely still like a powered-down robot.

After a while, as if having forgotten the previous exchange, she smiled and looked up again. "Hello, how may I assist you?"

"This..."

Now, everyone sensed the deep unease.

They realized these carbon-copy workers might truly not be human—or at least, not normal humans.

To test this, Chu Fu continued forward to the next workstation.

Sure enough, this staff member was identical to the last in both movement and speech: "Hello, how may I assist you?"

Without pausing, Chu Fu walked past the inquiring staff member and proceeded to the next, and the next...

Along the way, every staff member turned their heads—some even twisting nearly 180 degrees—persisting in an impossible neck angle to maintain their standard polite smiles, their eyes dull and vacant as they stared at the players, voices droning in unison:

"Hello, how may I assist you?"

"Hello..."

"Hello..."

The players walked down the aisle between the workstations, surrounded by identical greetings and inquiries no matter where they went. The sea of red vests in their peripheral vision created a disturbing illusion—

As if they were walking in place, or treading an endless loop.

Just as they began to grow numb, Chu Fu, leading the group, finally turned and asked abruptly: "Do you remember what we heard when we first entered this instance?"

Meng Siyou, who had excellent memory, effortlessly recalled immediately and blurted, "The first thing we heard was the instance's background introduction—the advertising company's company pitch..."

As he spoke, the voice from the past seemed to come rushing back, growing clearer and louder, echoing in the players' minds:

—Welcome to Kaleidoscope Advertising Company!

—Here, we pursue more authentic, more exciting ad designs, delivering everything users desire...

"Wait!" The bespectacled man's eyes widened. "This wasn’t the usual system-provided instance introduction we’ve always received!"

And there had been no broadcast in the lobby, no one explaining the company’s details to visitors...

So where had that promotional script come from?

It could only have come from the company itself!

The office worker abruptly looked up, her gaze sweeping the surroundings as the answer suddenly clicked in her mind.

"So that’s it? No wonder..." she murmured.

Chu Fu said calmly, "You’ve all figured it out by now, haven’t you?"

He pointed at the robotic, unnatural staff members. "Here, there are employees who—no matter the time, place, or situation—always wear their uniforms and are endlessly patient toward work and inquiries."

"And workstations perfectly organized, devoid of any personal items unrelated to work."

"Of course, the most crucial and indispensable element is the peppy company jingle at the very beginning."

"—Put together, doesn’t this resemble an advertisement?"

Chu Fu smiled faintly, connecting the dots. "This is an ad promoting 'Kaleidoscope Advertising Company.'"

In that instant, the other players felt as if they could hear the sound of illusion’s veil being crumpled and torn apart. They got goosebumps.

The sensation of finally cutting through the confusion to reach the truth was downright exhilarating.

"No wonder our task wasn’t completed, yet the screening room couldn’t play the next ad..."

The office worker whispered to herself, in shock. "We were already inside the final ad from the moment we opened our eyes in this instance—we’ve been part of this real ad all along."

In truth, the instance’s hints were fairly obvious, but it cunningly blended the initial ad script with the system’s introduction.

Moreover, players were already accustomed to background narration upon entering instances. Their conditioned minds inevitably grew sluggish, making them overlook a simple question: Why would the company’s promotional spiel play coming from nowhere in the lobby?

Furthermore, the initial moments of an instance were when players were most distracted by their surroundings and fellow players—unaware they were missing the most critical clue...

No wonder the receptionists and staff behaved so oddly, as if following some preset script.

Because they were merely set decorations in the ad, embodying the concept of "disciplined, diligent, and enthusiastic employees"—not actual individuals.

In the context of the ad, these staff members were insignificant. They might appear briefly in the background or be given a line or two, such as smiling and asking visitors:

*‘Hello, how may I assist you?’*

Perhaps due to his Ability’s life-preserving instincts, the bespectacled man was the first to shake off the realization and get practical: "Then how do we finish reviewing this ad and get out?"

Based on their past testing experience, there were only two possibilities to exit an advertisement.

First, the tester is killed by the advertisement, and the ad automatically shuts off.

Second, the tester survives an attack in the advertisement, or... like Chu Fu, neutralizes the threat directly.

Meng Siyou pondered for a moment before suddenly questioning, "Wait, in this advertisement, are we still playing the testers' roles?"

As soon as he said this, the others immediately turned their attention to him. Chu Fu seemed intrigued by his idea and nodded, "Go on."

Meng Siyou inexplicably felt as if he were giving a status report to a manager, so he straightened his posture slightly and said, "I just remembered—that receptionist who escorted us to the screening room earlier seemed different from the red vests here..."

"Aside from work-related instructions, she even chatted with us, asking if we were brave enough and such. Compared to the NPC background props in this advertisement, who exist as token 'model employee' placeholders, she felt genuinely human."

After a pause, Meng Siyou hesitantly voiced his speculation, "Is it possible that she also originated outside this ad scenario?"

And the only real, living people who could enter the advertisement would be the testers—

Not these "scripted tester characters in the ad," but the actual testers employed by the external advertising company.

"I had the same thought," Chu Fu nodded, making Meng Siyou feel unexpectedly flattered. He then asked, "So, how do you think we should find that receptionist?"

"She won't go down without a fight. I suspect she’s currently blending in among the cookie-cutter red vest staff on this floor, disguised as one of them..."

Chu Fu’s almost Socratic questioning approach made the other players feel as though they were being guided and tested by a patient and wise teacher—though, in their minds, Chu Fu’s real age could indeed qualify him as their teacher... or even their ancestor.

As if spurred by an invisible motivation, the players began thinking seriously.

The bespectacled man lamented, "When she was receiving us, we didn’t think to grab her directly. Now, finding her might be a bit difficult."

The office worker tapped his chin thoughtfully and said, "But if we can pinpoint the differences between her and the other NPCs, smoking her out might be doable..."