Chapter 37.4 ?

She casually pushed out another completed work badge and silently closed her eyes.

At least this wave was muddled through.

God knows how panicked she was when she saw those two from Anxin Gardening coming over—after all, there were some things she really hadn’t had time to fabricate.

Of course, if she had to make it up on the spot, it wasn’t impossible, but at times like this, with so many things piling up, she really didn’t have the mental energy to improvise. Fortunately, for some reason, Fang Xueqing was surprisingly easy to deal with this time, just brushed it off a bit, and really didn’t ask further.

…Though, in a sense, she wasn’t exactly lying.

She really didn’t have time to explain now—there was too much to handle.

There were far more guests who could be contacted via the front desk computer than she had imagined, which meant more rules to modify. At the same time, to expand the vocabulary as much as possible, temporary workers’ badges had to be produced continuously. On top of that, she had to study all the reading records at hand and the rules she had obtained, striving to complete the modifications with the least cost…

Fortunately, Qiu Yufei was now helping with the latter task. Before Xu Ming formally carried out the modifications, she would first go through them and provide some modification ideas… But the overall workload was still enormous.

Not to mention her shoulders were still in pain—and because she accidentally used inappropriate words while modifying the rules earlier, she paid the price again, now both shoulders were hurting.

This was definitely unpaid overtime.

The good news was that her method, at least for now, seemed to be working—so far, most of the living guests had already come down, and five or six of those who had been trapped had also come down. They were being organized by the staff for registration and seemed to be resettled elsewhere.

More and more work badges were being issued, the corresponding vocabulary was constantly expanding, and modifying the rules was becoming increasingly efficient. She wasn’t sure if this method was effective in delaying the butterfly’s invasion, but she was certain that since the entire “event” began, not only the guests but also many trapped staff members had gradually come over. The blubberman said that perhaps due to some textual adjustments, they indirectly found an opportunity to exit the “secret room.”

The front desk area remained “clean,” with no signs of invasion. Moreover, as more hotel employees returned, Xu Ming noticed that many of them had somehow obtained chess-shaped clocks and were placing them around the hall one by one—Xu Ming couldn’t see them, but both the blubberman and Qiu Yufei said that with the clocks in place, the hall seemed increasingly clean.

The eerie texts, the butterflies themselves, and the invisible walls and secret rooms seemed to be temporarily blocked by those clocks.

The blubberman speculated that the clocks, like the candies they had once obtained, were products of the same origin.

Surprisingly, the clocks’ function was clearly more than just expanding the safe zone—Xu Ming hadn’t noticed at first, but later, with Qiu Yufei’s reminder, she realized that as the number of clocks increased, the flow of time seemed to speed up.

To be precise, the speed of the hotel’s clocks was constantly increasing.

Although only less than an hour had passed on her phone since the “event” started, the clocks showed it was already five in the morning. At this rate, reaching noon would only take another few dozen minutes.

…No.

Seeing those clocks still being moved in by hotel staff, Xu Ming suspected that it might not even take dozens of minutes…

What is this, crossing the Atlantic in seven days alone, or seven people crossing in one day?

Xu Ming didn’t understand the principle behind it, but it didn’t stop her from being astonished.

At this moment, two more figures entered the hall, one with flamboyant hair color, precisely the driver who entered the hotel with Xu Ming and her group—thus, all the living people in the hotel had been brought down.

Staff were already waiting in the hall and immediately led him aside to start a perfunctory conversation. The blonde man seemed either scared or confused, his face dazed until he was seated aside, holding a temporary work badge issued by the demolition office.

As for those who had been trapped by the butterflies, they were arranged in another area. Xu Ming shouldn’t have been able to see them, but for some reason, perhaps their collective presence was too strong, she could vaguely see outlines or see a pair of beautiful red shoes pacing around.

After a while, she saw several staff members heading towards that area—then she heard Qiu Yufei’s description, saying the guests waiting there were being called up.

“They’re queuing up, seems like they’re going somewhere… Ah, they’re moving.” Qiu Yufei whispered, “Where are they going? Why are so many staff accompanying them?”

Xu Ming instinctively looked over, the same question arising in her mind—from her perspective, she could only see about seven or eight staff members gathered in one place, like bodyguards escorting something.

Probably afraid of being trapped again, the leading staff held two clocks, looking somewhat eerie.

“They’re going to a safe place.” This time, it was the front desk employee who had been operating the computer, speaking in a calm voice without looking up. “There are some rooms here that it has a hard time entering. If they hide in there, they won’t be easily captured again.”

“Not be captured again?” Xu Ming curiously turned her head, “And then?”

“Choose to disappear. Choose to leave. Or become like us.” The front desk employee’s voice remained calm, “They’re all about the same.”

Xu Ming: “…”

Does that mean once you choose to stay and become an employee of the Magic Cube Mansion, you can never leave?