It was a small work ID, with no photo on the front. Instead, it displayed the postman's personal identification and job description
Position: Postman.
Transported item: Lin Baichi.
Recipient: Members of the inspection team working in the C008 development zone.
The dark figure froze on the spot. The next moment, his movements took on a strange rigidity, his hands and feet trembling slightly, as if trying to break free from his current state. Then, irresistibly, he turned around, opened the door in jerky motions, and walked out of the staff dormitory in the duty room.
A colleague who came out to use the restroom bumped into him, looking surprised: "Old Lin? What are you doing here at this hour..."
The personnel responsible for overseeing the order of the development zone were grouped in pairs. Today, it was Lin Baichi and Ren Shuhe on duty. After the accident occurred, Ren Shuhe suddenly disappeared, drawing everyone's attention.
Lin Baichi did not answer the other person. His gaze was fixed, his face deathly pale, and he walked forward with steady steps. The distance between each step was exactly the same, as if he were a wind-up puppet.
The colleague felt a chill rise up his back.
In the shadows of the corridor, a figure stepped out from behind Lin Baichi. It was Cheng Tingyu. Her clothes were dusted with some dirt, and her face bore the melancholy of someone who did not wish to be roused at midnight.
The two people in front of him looked too strange. The colleague wanted to intervene but hesitated, ultimately taking two steps back before turning around and jogging off to contact the night security personnel.
——Because of the sudden dungeon incident in the afternoon, the inspection team that came to handle it stayed directly. With Bu Wushang and others stationed in the development zone, I believe there shouldn't be any major issues tonight.
The temporarily requisitioned office was brightly lit.
Due to the sudden appearance of a dungeon in the development zone, the inspectors, who had only just lain down two hours ago after working through the night until dawn, got up one after another upon receiving the report. One first-class inspector even skillfully brewed a pot of coffee and attentively made a cup for Bu Wushang.
Working in the inspection team often brought unexpected overtime, and they had long since grown accustomed to it, able to face every sleepless night in life with tranquility.
However, currently present in the office, besides the members of the inspection team, were two outsiders—Lin Baichi, whose face was deathly pale, and Cheng Tingyu, who was brushing dust off his clothes.
In the evening, Bu Wushang had already learned about Guo Tingyu's situation from her subordinates, but the current scene still piqued her curiosity: "Why are you here now?"
The young man from the desolate area had a pair of beautiful phoenix eyes, with deep black pupils that gave an impression of intense focus when looking at others. At this moment, he smiled upon hearing the words and said, "I talked a bit about the development zone with Yu Wenran and the others during dinner last night."
Bu Wushang suddenly realized: "You know about the situation in the Regulatory Department."
Cheng Tingyu: "After all, we haven't known Yu Wenran and the others for long. The topics we can talk about are limited, so we can only draw from our work environment."
"When I came over, I met a middle-aged man with a supervisor's badge, and I asked him for the location of the duty room."
"The middle-aged man?" the inspector beside him also reacted
Ren Shuhe, who had previously been reported missing, was clearly a young man.
If Cheng Tingyu's testimony is valid, it means the inspection team received false information.
Cheng Tingyu nodded and pointed to the intruder who had not yet fully awakened from his confusion: "It's this middle-aged man standing in front of you."
"At that time, Ren Shuhe was not nearby; he had come to the duty room alone."
However, the report received by the inspection team stated that Lin Baichi and Ren Shuhe went to the duty room together. Upon discovering that the staff there had triggered the instance, Ren Shuhe subsequently disappeared.
The difference between the two narratives lies in the fact that, if it were the latter, then Ren Shuhe, who suddenly disappeared after the discovery of the duplicate, would obviously be more easily suspected by the external investigators.
However, on his way to the duty room, Cheng Tingyu had personally seen someone wearing a supervisor's badge and knew that the only person who had come over at that time was a middle-aged man.
As a young man, Ren Shuhe was not part of this two-person team from the beginning—perhaps he was late, or maybe he skipped his original work due to laziness and slacking off.
Afterwards, Ren Shuhe disappeared, drawing the main investigative efforts from the outside world.
Bu Wushang: "Is this where you discovered the oversight issues?"
Cheng Tingyu: "Actually, I had some suspicions in the dungeon—" He paused, then smiled, "Lin Baichi probably thought he had left some clues, so he deliberately created the illusion that 'Ren Shuhe is the more suspicious person.'"
Although the conversations on both sides went smoothly and the suspect was successfully captured, not everyone realized what clues Lin Baichi had left behind.
"..."
Cheng Tingyu: "After entering the instance, I kept wondering—why did I encounter an unexpected situation just as I reached the door of the duty room?"
"Either I have bad luck and the instance was meant to be triggered this way, or someone misjudged my identity and wanted to involve 'the person who should appear outside the duty room in the afternoon' into the instance, but got the wrong target."
"When I left the instance, I learned that Liu Xuehong had carried the entrance to the instance with him, allowing him to control when to enter it. Coupled with his detailed understanding of the situation in the cold-proof house, it was very convenient for him to use the rules inside the house to kill others. Therefore, the likelihood of the second hypothesis was much higher than the first."
Bu Wushang: "Everything is because Liu Xuehong failed to successfully conceal her abnormality in front of you."
Cheng Tingyu smiled, "I guess I showed up at a really inconvenient time—what he was actually aiming for was Lin Baichi, who came by in the afternoon for an inspection. Supervisors work in pairs, so it was a fifty-fifty chance. Plus, I had seen the other person with my own eyes, so the answer was quite obvious."
So she could know in advance the identity of the possible night visitor and fill out the list on the work permit ahead of time.
Bu Wushang looked at her for a moment and reminded, "There's a bit of dust on your clothes."
Cheng Tingyu helplessly spread his hands: "Considering that the other party might have some way to roughly locate me through the door, hiding in the wardrobe would easily arouse his suspicion, so I hid under the bed."
"You helped the inspection team with a task today. Once the process is complete, we will apply for a reward for you." Bu Wushang stood up and nodded to the visitor from the desolate area in front of him. "Cheng Tingyu, welcome to City F0631."
After the matter was resolved, Cheng Tingyu, without any burden, handed over the finishing work to the inspection team and returned to his room to continue the second half of his unfinished sleep. The inspectors in the office exchanged a few words, still feeling that there were some inexplicable aspects.
Bu Wushang suddenly said, "From the moment the incident was triggered to the arrival of the inspection team, it was only twenty minutes. Liu Xuehong dared to drag someone from the duty room into this mess, without fear of being investigated and arrested afterward. She most likely has a tool that can help her escape the development zone."
"He died prematurely, and the instance was cleared, so that item was most likely not absorbed by the instance. Lin Baichi probably has some guesses about this matter."
Considering the size of [You Are the Postman], Bu Wushang thought for a moment and concluded, "It should be an [Exemption Entry and Exit Permit]?"
The function of the [Exemption Pass] is as its name suggests: primarily, it allows one to exit before the instance is officially triggered; secondly, it permits bypassing inspections to enter or leave certain areas.
Lin Baichi guessed that Liu Xuehong possessed such an item. After learning that the instance had been cleared, he surmised that the item would most likely end up in the hands of a key contributor, namely Cheng Tingyu. So, he quietly sneaked into the latter's room under the cover of night, hoping to obtain this item that could help him escape from under the watchful eyes of the inspection team.
——He orchestrated the disappearance of a colleague, temporarily delaying the investigation by the inspection team, but if he continued to stay here, it was only a matter of time before his issues were discovered.
Because the two props were very similar in appearance, and because the room was dark, Lin Baichi mistook [You Are the Postman] for the [Exemption Pass] he was looking for. This led him to touch the trap without any defense, and ultimately, under the influence of the prop, he walked right into the snare.
A constable sighed, "Even among the veteran participants in the desolate zone, it's rare to find someone so perceptive."
Bu Wushang: "[You are the postman] is a type of cursed item. When applying for additional compensation later, remember to include the cost of the lost item for her."
5:30 in the morning.
Cheng Tingyu, with dark circles under his eyes, struggled to get out of bed and encountered the yawning inspector.
The inspector's dark circles were even deeper than Cheng Tingyu's. Upon seeing the visitor, he handed over the package in his hand: "The inspector has something that needs to be given to you. The instructions for use are already inside. The forum has been pre-downloaded. Here is the account. Please keep it safe. If you don't need it, you can destroy it directly, but you cannot transfer it to others."
The package handed over by the other party contained a... cell phone.
Cheng Tingyu silently gazed at the familiar yet strange electronic device before him, once again feeling the changes brought by time travel.
Inspector: "What, you haven't used it over in the Wasteland?"
People in the city all knew that resources were scarce outside, and there was a lack of sufficient signal towers. Even if they had the chance to get a mobile phone, those in the desolate areas wouldn't think of carrying one with them.
Cheng Tingyu nodded sincerely, "I really haven't used it."
When she traveled through time, the thickness of mobile phones was generally around five to eight millimeters. She had only seen pictures online of the ultra-thick phones like the one in front of her, which, besides communication functions, could also double as a brick.