Chapter 52 – Job Seeking
Misha left her resident as she did not like staying idle in the game.
She followed the map that Thorn had given her, which was the town hall for people who was looking for a job to earn some jellies or food.
As she entered the building, hundreds of people with tentacles wriggling around on their back gathered inside. Over a hundred chairs were arranged inside the lounge as their waiting seats, which none of them was free.
In front of the waiting areas, ten workers behind a long counter with were sorting their documents. Before the counter, several mutants were lining in the queues, waiting for their turn.
Misha blinked several times in confusion. This place was busier than she had thought, and it looked more like an official bank than a job-seeking center.
A female reception at the door noticed Misha's reaction. She walked to her and greeted her.
"Are you new here? Is this your first time?"
"Ah, yes."
"Then, could you please fill in this form? Make sure that you write everything about your specialties, interests, levels, and your current class. We'll assign tasks base on your abilities."
"Oh, okay."
Misha filled in the form even though she did not understand how this place operated. She filled everything, including her status attributes and her current skill levels. However, she did not include her [Polymorph] skill as she thought it might be too risky to expose her identity as a player.
"I've filled the form. What should I do next?"
"May I look?"
Misha passed the paper to the staff, who read through the form in every line. Upon getting to the specialty section and status attribute, she giggled.
"Are you sure about the intelligence part? Is it really 500? WIS is also 375?"
"Yes, what's wrong?"
"Oh, nothing. Well, do you know that ordinary human can have only 150 to 200 INT and WIS?"
"Huh?"
"You might want to correct this. It's good that you have enthusiasm, but an obvious lie can ruin the first impression on the employers."
Misha frowned. Though she did not like it when the staff underestimated her, she complied with the request and changed it to 200.
The staff glanced at the fixed attribute, but she still had that grin on her face.
"Okay, 200 it is. Be careful when any potential employer asks you about technical questions in the interview. Also, do you have any preference about your job?"
"Which job is available at the moment?"
"As usual, wasteland expedition and new militia recruitment. For the domestic jobs, we still …"
"Can you tell me more about the expedition and the recruitment, please?"
"Eh?"
The staff was confused. Usually, everyone in this bunker was picky when it came to choosing a job as people wanted to work inside the shelter and avoided going out in the wasteland. Most of them suffered from PTSD because of the infection while the rest did not like going out there to face zombies or monsters again.
Though they had a partner inside their body, each of them had a different personality like real humans. Moreover, most of the eggcats were cowardly by nature, so they also influenced their host not to participate in any risky activity.
However, the demands for volunteers who could join the wasteland expedition were endless because the base always required more resources.
Because of such unbalanced demand and supply, everyone was waiting in the lounge, hoping for a risk-free job to arrive.
"Come this way, please."
Anyone who asked for a risky job was rare, so the reception guided Misha to the VIP lounge inside the building.
Before they could get into another room, a woman in her 50s up and protested.
"Hey! I've been waiting here all day. How come that girl gets the job first!?"
All eyes were on Misha and the reception. Instead of getting flustered, the staff turned around and smiled back at the woman and the angered crowd.
"She asked for an expedition job. Do any of you want to join her as well?"
The woman shrunk and sat down immediately, "N-N-No. You go girl."
All staffs behind the counter sneered at the woman as they looked down on the cowards who only asked for a carefree desk job.
…
Misha got inside the VIP lounge. It was smaller than the front waiting area, but it was more decorated.
Instead of having plastic chairs in rows, sofas with armrest and a coffee table set were everywhere.
The staff guided Misha to one of the sofas, and the other receptionist served her a cup of coffee.
Misha blinked in confusion. She wanted a simple job of any kind to learn the rope about this base. Why were they treating her as a VIP?
'Well, let's try this world's coffee. Want to taste it, Tama?'
*Meh*
'I guess that's a no.'
Soon, a man in a similar uniform as Thorn came. He was an elder who looked like a Daoist in wuxia movies rather than in this post-apocalypse world. Furthermore, an elder in his 90s with long white beard, white long hair tied in ancient Chinese topknot, and a green camouflage uniform did not go well together.
Furthermore, an eyeball poked out of his chest, peeking at Misha.
"Greetings, young Daoist. I am Padawan Igor Shang Shifu. I'm the HR manager here."
Misha's face twitched.
'Are you a Jedi, a Slavic, or a Daoist? Make up your mind!'
"You can call me Mr. PISS for short."
Misha almost spat the coffee and dropped the cup. Is this person sane?
"First, let's take a look at your status and level. You have never taken any job or a class change before, am I correct?"
"Y-Yes."
"What did you do before you were infected?"
"I was a military trainee at Mafdet Federation."
"Oh, that's rare. So, are you looking for a military job or something similar?"
"Yes, please. Preferably, I wish to join the pilot division if there is any."
Mr. PISS laughed as he stroked his beard, "Good. Good. Well, you're hired."
"Huh? That easy?"
The elder laughed again, "We accept all volunteers who wish to join the army. We're short on hands at the moment, and you're coming at a good time."
"… Okay."
"Well, you didn't laugh at my name, so you pass!"
"…"
"Here are the details of your work. You can pick one of the four options here in the paper. Be warned that all divisions have a high mortality rate."
"May I ask, how high?"
"10% at the lowest. Check the details yourself."
…
[Hunter Division]
Responsibility
- Scavenging for supplies.
Employees will be dispatched on the wastelands to search for newborn queen eggs or green zombies.
- Hunting wandering local military units for weapons and spare parts.
Employees will occasionally be dispatched if the base locates a group of preys on the wastelands.
- Combating as reserves.
In the case of emergency, all hunters will be dispatched along with the main forces of the base to fight any adversary.
Mortality Rate: 37%
Payment: One red gel per month.
…
[Logistic Department]
Responsibility
- Deploying on the wasteland to collect loots.
Employees will be sent out to collect the spoils whenever the hunters are not capable to bring them back.
- Rescuing the hunters.
As hunters sometimes face difficulty outside of the base, employees must be able to deploy and bring back the hunters, dead or alive. Should the situation is unfavorable, the base can order the logistic employees to fight as reserve forces.
Mortality Rate: 25%
Payment: Fifty yellow gels per month
…
[Harvester Department]
Responsibility
- Cleaning green zombies and baby queen eggs.
Occasionally, the hunters bring back living loots, which can potentially cause damages within the base. As the last line of peacekeeper division, employees will deal with the collected living green zombies and queen eggs before they can infiltrate the resident areas.
- Diving into matured queen eggs.
Employees are responsible for diving into wombs of matured queen eggs to collect fresh jellies, crippled baby eggs, and all eggs from the inside. All employees are required to go into hand-to-hand combat with the baby eggs inside the wombs. Be warned that you can only exit the womb by allowing the queen to shoot you outside. Any attempt to force your way out is considered a suicide.
Mortality Rate: 15%
Payment: Thirty yellow gels per month.
…
[Breeder Department]
Responsibility
- Organizing newborn baby eggs from the green zombies.
As dead green zombies eventually burst out newborn eggs, employees of this department must separate and filter the eggs from the zombies before they eat each other to the last egg.
- Rearing newborn eggs.
Employees have to feed and tame newborn eggs with care. At least a thousand newborn eggs will be under the responsibility of one employee.
Mortality Rate: 10%
Payment: Twenty yellow gels per month
…
Reading all job description, Misha gazed at the payment differences between divisions. It seemed that the riskier the job was, the higher the pay.
But she still did not understand the currency system of the base.
"Can you tell me about the currency in the base? How much is a red gel or a yellow gel?"
"Red gel has the most value. One red gel equals 100 yellow gel, and one yellow gel equals 100 green gel."
"Huh? Why are they so different?"
"Yes. Well, if you have ever eaten a red gel, you will know why."