Chapter 9: Nails and Planks

Recalling the scenes from his interview, Fang Heng couldn't help but feel that the old woman had been targeting him.

One step at a time.

The current situation in the game was looking great. Once the trading channel between players opened up in a while, it wouldn't be hard to fill his stomach as long as he sold off some supplies.

He had only come to this interview because Xia Xi had forcibly dragged him here.

In fact, Fang Heng didn't want to stay here for too long.

Fang Heng took a sip of coffee.

As expected of a large company, the coffee tasted authentic.

A young woman from the HR department hurried into the reception room, clutching a stack of documents.

"Mr. Fang Heng, this is an urgent matter. Our company would like to sign an internship contract with you directly. The probation period is half a month with a monthly salary of 30,000. It starts today, and you will automatically become a full-time employee after half a month."

"Here is the contract. Could you please check if there are any issues?"

Signing a contract so quickly?

A monthly salary of 30,000?

In Su City, a salary of 30,000 was definitely considered high.

However, Fang Heng hesitated for a moment.

Was it really necessary to join the Huangming Company?

Yes, at least he was short on money right now.

The game had just launched, and due to the lack of trading channels, the supplies he had collected were difficult to convert into cash, while his phone was already receiving payment reminders from the bank...

Fang Heng carefully reviewed the contract.

Huh?

Fang Heng was somewhat surprised.

The terms of the contract were too generous!

So generous that it made one wonder if it was a trap.

A monthly salary of 30,000, no mandatory office hours, and the company would not take any cut of any supplies, equipment, skills, or other rewards that the player obtained in the game.

The only thing he needed to do was meet the company's performance targets.

If the targets weren't met, his bonus would be deducted, and in serious cases, he would be dismissed.

There was even a bonus?

Fang Heng thought to himself that he would only be working here for a month anyway, so he might as well take the 30,000 salary to solve his immediate financial crisis.

He could just resign after a month.

Besides, joining the company might give him a chance to see if he could obtain the company's S-rank talent enhancement mission...

He would just have to endure it for now and be a wage slave for a month.

"Alright."

After a brief moment of thought, Fang Heng signed his name on the contract.

"Mr. Jimmy is an important client of Huangming Company. President Qin hopes that you can start working immediately. During this period, you are to fully ensure Mr. Jimmy's safety within the game. This will serve as your performance assessment for the internship period."

Fang Heng nodded, thinking that this job was actually quite good.

As long as Jimmy didn't run around causing trouble in the game, it wouldn't be much effort to keep him fed and protected.

This way, he could save a lot of time to develop in the game.

He could earn 30,000 a month just like this?

Fang Heng suddenly felt that making money was quite simple.

"I'll take you to the Operations Department first. Your accommodation hasn't been arranged yet. Is it alright if we put you up in the hotel next door for these few days?"

"Of course!"

It was a big company, after all; they even provided a free hotel.

Fang Heng muttered to himself.

...

Third floor, Game Operations Department.

Just as the young woman from HR led Fang Heng into the room, a disheveled young man with a stubbly beard walked up to them.

"You're finally here, my angel! Is this the new manual laborer? I've been waiting for ages. We're short on hands here. What level are you? Which district?"

As the guy spoke, he kept sizing Fang Heng up, looking at him like he was a piece of cheap labor.

"No, no. If your project team needs people, you need to submit a report to the higher-ups. This person isn't for you. President Qin is just letting him transition here for two weeks."

"What do you mean? He's not my guy? Let me tell you, District 8 is open now, and we're desperately short on hands. You know it's an emergency, and I already submitted the report..."

"Oh my, oh my, don't tell me that. Fang Heng has a special mission from the boss, it's..."

The HR lady wanted to explain, but her phone rang again.

"Okay, okay, I'm coming right away." She hung up the phone and pushed Shen Qing toward Fang Heng.

"Fang Heng, this is Shen Qing. You'll be working here for the next few days. Follow him to get familiar with the environment. Just remember to complete the tasks assigned by the boss. The boss will talk to you once he's finished with his work."

After saying that, the young woman hurried away.

"Sigh!" Shen Qing sighed and patted Fang Heng on the shoulder. "New guy? I'm Shen Qing, the team leader of Operations Team 3. Which server are you on?"

"Server 8."

Fang Heng said, looking around.

The office for Team 3 was very large, with a row of gaming pods along the side, a third of which were currently in operation.

Most of the other employees were sitting in front of their computers, looking busy and stressed.

"Oh! A new server player, too. You must be busy." Shen Qing nodded and pointed to a row of high-end gaming pods in the room. "Our team doesn't have that many rules. These seven gaming pods here are still new. Pick one and use it as you like. For meals, go to the seventh or eighth floor..."

"Brother Qing! Come take a look, there's a big order from District 7! The client is rushing us!"

"Coming! Coming!" Shen Qing shouted, then said to Fang Heng, "You look around for now. If you have any questions, just find me."

Fang Heng nodded silently.

A busy operations department.

No one was bothering him, which was fine by him.

The little secretary said he was starting work today, so this was work time, right?

Playing games at work was the right path.

After all, time in the early stages of the game was the most precious; he couldn't afford to waste it.

Fang Heng walked over to a new gaming pod, opened it, and climbed inside.

...

There are two ways to enter the God's Domain game. One is to enter actively, using items like a gaming pod to log in.

The gaming pod is equipped with an emergency button; once pressed, the player in the game will receive a prompt.

The other way is to be added passively, where the player is pulled directly into the game world by the God's Domain game, disappearing from reality.

This method is considered extremely dangerous.

Opening his eyes, Fang Heng appeared once again in his system shelter.

Inside the small wooden cabin, materials like wood and stones were scattered randomly on the floor.

A zombie wobbled into the cabin and dropped the collected supplies on the ground one by one.

Seeing this, Fang Heng rubbed his temples, feeling a bit of a headache.

Liu Lin and Liao Bufan had gone out.

According to the plan he and Liu Lin had made this morning, Liu Lin would take Liao Bufan to search to the west of the cabin, figure out the situation in the west, and see if they could find a suitable location to build a shelter.

Jimmy was still in reality, just like he had been a moment ago.

This meant there was no one in the entire shelter. If someone were to walk in and see supplies scattered all over the floor, wouldn't they wake up laughing in their dreams?

He needed to build a shelter as soon as possible and store his supplies to prevent other survivors from breaking in.

Fang Heng opened the game log to check.

[Notification: During the time you were AFK, your zombie group collected: Wood *221, Nails *7, Instant Noodles *1, Parts *1, Insulator *1, Murky Water *4, Bird Eggs *3, Bricks *7...]

Huh? They found instant noodles!

Fang Heng summoned all the zombies to stop their AFK tasks and return to the cabin, then took the opportunity to make himself a bowl of instant noodles.

Twenty minutes later, Fang Heng, now full and satisfied, walked out of the cabin.

Behind him were ten zombies carrying wooden spears.

Their combat power was not bad.

In the morning, Fang Heng had already circled the cabin a few times, clearing out the wandering zombies nearby and picking up some evolution crystal fragments along the way.

Perhaps because it was the early stage of the game, the God's Domain game was relatively merciful; there weren't many zombies respawning around the cabin, and he had only managed to collect two crystal fragments after two laps.

"Forget it, let's put killing zombies aside for now and move on to the next step of the plan."

Nails!

To build a player shelter, there were two materials needed most.

Wooden planks and nails.

For wooden planks, Fang Heng had zombies as manual labor, so producing and collecting them wasn't much of a problem. But the difficulty of obtaining nails was a bit high.

Relying solely on scavenging in the wild and trading with other players made it hard to meet the requirements for building a large shelter.

The other way to obtain them was to manufacture them himself.

This would require cast iron and a furnace.

The materials needed to build a furnace were very complex, and it also required a very high skill level. It was almost impossible to do in the early stages; he could only purchase them from the Doomsday Merchant's camp.