The Entity of the Urban Legend

Ye Yu set aside the matter of buying clothes for the cat. In her eyes, the most important thing now was how to dig out that Level 5 Urban Legend Core. At past eleven in the morning, she sat on the sofa at home, each hand holding a core. Not an Urban Legend Core, but a Transcendent Core.
Based on human testing equipment, Urban Legend Cores and Transcendent Cores were similar objects. However, the world of transcendents still held a very nuanced attitude toward whether humans could swallow Transcendent Cores to become stronger. The Investigation Team forbade investigators from using Transcendent Cores for any reason. As for those pursuing wealth like the Gold Hunting Groups, although they wouldn't swallow the Transcendent Cores of fallen teammates, they would take them to sell.
Ye Yu stared at the cores in her hands for a long time. So long that the large black cat couldn't help but jump onto the coffee table.
"Hey, are you going to eat them or not? If you're not eating, give them to me."
"Give them to you? Dream on."
Ye Yu snapped out of it and glanced at Wu Xi. Then she loosened her hands, and the two pieces of flesh fell to the ground, swallowed by the shadow.
A moment later, Ye Yu suddenly brushed her hands, and three throwing knives appeared out of thin air, swimming through the air like fish. Immediately after, Ye Yu stood up. When she ran, everything around her seemed to slow down. To be precise, it wasn't that the surroundings slowed down, but that she became faster. When she ran from the living room to the bedroom and back, it took less than three seconds.
Then Ye Yu manifested the black book and began to flip through it. On page 712, two more pages had indeed been added. [Throwing Knives]: Level 3 Transcendent ability, accompanied by an image of three throwing knives suspended in the air.
[High-Speed Movement]: Level 3 Transcendent ability, accompanied by an image of a running afterimage.
Two new Transcendent abilities had arrived to complement each other, finally making up for her weak attack power and giving her a few more points of security.
Seeing the wall clock showing nearly 12 o'clock, Ye Yu finally acted. The phantom of Bus 712 appeared in her living room. Then it vanished into thin air, along with the girl in the room and the large black cat.
*
"Welcome, new employees..."
As soon as Ye Yu entered the Urban Legend Factory, her vision went dark. Then the sound of a loudspeaker along with the *sizzle* of electrical current echoed in her ears. Looking down, her clothes had indeed turned into a gray factory uniform. Because cats had special meaning in this Urban Legend Factory, Ye Yu temporarily tucked Wu Xi into her shadow.
She reached up to touch her mask and wig. Since she was here to take the core, once the core was taken, the urban legend would disappear, and the workers living here would return to the normal world. Although Investigation Team records said that "urban legend residents" whose perceptions were strongly rewritten after the "stuck door" appeared would suffer memory loss or mental derangement upon leaving the urban legend's range, she still chose to disguise herself just in case.
Confirming the mask and wig were in place, Ye Yu looked around. The supervisor of Workshop A appeared before her. Just as Wang Xia and Tang Nianke had described, the pot-bellied middle-aged man handed her a copy of the *Normal Worker Conduct Manual* and fiercely urged her to get to work.
Fortunately, in the next second, the loudspeaker sounded, reminding workers it was time for lunch. The workers who had been busy all morning immediately stopped their tasks and filed out. Several people looked at Ye Yu curiously; they looked exactly like normal factory workers. What Wang Xia and the others had risked encountering last night didn't affect the factory's daytime operations at all.
The workshop director, seeing this, didn't require Ye Yu to work. He casually mentioned that there was a factory map at the back of the booklet and then leisurely left, preparing for lunch.
Ye Yu wasn't surprised by this; after all, she had intentionally timed her arrival for this moment.
She casually flipped through the rule booklet, confirming it was the same as what she already knew. Then she quickly ran toward the cafeteria.
The Wide-Mouthed Chef was at the window, smiling as he served food to the workers, having completely forgotten his rage and murderous intent from the previous night. No matter how much he seemed like an "existence," he was unlike Wu Xi; he was just a fixed "program" of this Urban Legend Factory.
Ye Yu ran fast. Currently, there weren't many people in the cafeteria. She approached the window under the guise of checking the dishes and then consulted Wu Xi. [Is it him?]
One of the reasons Ye Yu collaborated with Wu Xi was his keen nose. An investigator's "Little Genius Smartwatch" wouldn't be sharp in an urban legend domain, but Wu Xi's nose was. If he could smell the strength of Wang Quan and the others, he could naturally smell the locations of other low-level Urban Legend Cores.
Wu Xi indeed didn't play around this time. He said directly: [No. Just a derivative compound.]
With the experience of Wang Xia and the others, Ye Yu knew that except for the Happiness Sauce, the food wouldn't have major issues. But thinking of the Wide-Mouthed Chef in the back kitchen using those pots and pans to cook rabbit meat soup, she had no appetite. So after receiving the answer, she pretended the dishes weren't to her liking today and left the cafeteria.
Wu Xi suggested: [Why not go to Workshop C first?]
[No.] Ye Yu shook her head. [Workshop C and the back kitchen are both key locations. But if I didn't find traces of the urban legend entity yesterday, then the entity is likely not there.]
Living alone since childhood had formed Ye Yu's very independent personality, and she was very confident in her observation skills.
She flipped through the map at the back of the booklet again, then looked up at the only two buildings she hadn't investigated. One was the leadership dormitory, and the other was the Leadership Office Building.
[Wu Xi, if it were you, what would be your first impression of this Urban Legend Factory?]
Wu Xi: [Spiritual pollution?]
[Spiritual pollution is a method. I feel the essence of this factory is oppression; it's nearly compressing everything. Whether it's cats, dogs, rabbits, or workers, they are all part of the oppressed. The night shift workers are the most pitiful; they not only have no wages, but after turning into cats, they become the raw materials for Happiness Sauce.]
Ye Yu recalled. [Remember those few points in the *Night Shift Worker Conduct Procedures*? "Entry into the cutting room is prohibited; please work hard. Strive to contribute your remaining heat to the factory." "Stealing raw materials is prohibited; please work hard. Strive to contribute your remaining heat to the factory." "Please do not use Happiness Sauce; please work hard. Strive to contribute your remaining heat to the factory."]
[It looks like it's preventing night shift workers from turning into cats, but the focus is at the end. Pollution is everywhere; night shift workers turning into cats is bound to happen sooner or later. These rules aren't to save them, but to stall for time. The factory hopes to squeeze out their last bit of labor value, then wait for them to turn into cats and use their bodies to contribute their final utility value to the factory.]
[They are all being oppressed, so who exactly is benefiting? There's a saying: whoever benefits the most is the most suspicious.]
Ye Yu's eyes became more certain as she spoke, and she immediately walked toward the distant Leadership Office Building.
*
Ordinary workers couldn't freely enter the Leadership Office Building. Ye Yu noticed a security room on the first floor and didn't enter directly, but instead circled the building once. She stared at an open window on the second floor.
Two black shadows rose from beneath her feet. Ye Yu rode on the shadow's shoulders. Her gaze dazed for a moment; she seemed to see herself over ten years ago, in a crowded throng, a little girl holding cotton candy sitting on her father's shoulders.
The memory was just a flash. Immediately after, Ye Yu grabbed the window frame, first peeking inside to check the situation. She found it was a corridor ventilation window. Faint sounds of bitter pleading reached her ears.
"Manager, I beg you, Manager. I really didn't expect that bastard Wang Xia to take his cousin and run without even submitting a resignation. They are them, and I am me; I am absolutely loyal to our factory. My heart for the factory can be witnessed by the sun and moon. I guarantee that in the future, I will work even harder to recruit people."
"Truly, I will definitely work hard. I'll call my parents over; they only have me as a son and usually dote on me the most. As long as I talk to them for a few more days, they'll definitely agree to come work at our factory!"
"Manager, I beg you, please give me one more chance! Whatever you do, don't demote me!"
Ye Yu focused her gaze. The person kneeling on the ground hugging the manager's leg and pleading was Zhao Yang. Last night they had locked Zhao Yang in the Workshop A restroom and then forgotten his existence. Looking at this situation, he must have been discovered and rescued by Workshop A workers this morning. Was the upper management planning to demote Zhao Yang precisely because of Wang Xia and the others' escape?
Ye Yu really wanted to use an Urban Legend Record to see Zhao Yang's appearance right now. What could a human-looking exterior explain?
Would a normal person stubbornly stay at a factory that only knows how to exploit workers and doesn't pay a single cent in wages? One must know that Zhao Yang was someone with a "hate the rich" mentality. This kind of hatred wasn't about treating wealth like dross, but loving money to a certain extent, to the point of envying others' wealth.
Taking this as a premise, wasn't the sight of Zhao Yang humbly kneeling before the manager and pleading right now truly unhealthy? His values, outlook on life, and worldview had all been severely distorted.
To some extent, a person is composed of their perception of all things and themselves. So could this "person" with distorted perceptions before her eyes truly still be considered Zhao Yang?
"Fine, fine. Then I'll give you one more chance. If you can't get your parents here in three days, I can only handle it according to the rules."
The manager's impatient response made Zhao Yang overjoyed, and he hurriedly bowed and scraped, offering a few words of praise for the manager's brilliance and kindness.
Ye Yu watched silently, waiting until the two had left and the corridor was empty. She immediately had the shadow lift her a bit, then used that force to quickly flip through the window.
The corridor doors were all closed. Ye Yu tilted her ear to listen; there were basically sounds of people talking and working. Logically, this should be lunch time. Ye Yu recalled; she didn't seem to have seen any leaders go to the cafeteria, and Wang Quan and the others hadn't mentioned this point when sharing intelligence.
There were signs on the doors; where the personnel department was, where the maintenance department was, and where the office of a certain manager was could be seen at a glance. Although the map in the booklet didn't have a detailed layout of the Office Building, Ye Yu thought for a moment and then ran toward the top floor via the fire stairs. Based on common sense, most boss's offices were at the top of the office building.
Investigation Team materials taught that most urban legend domains were mutations based on the original environment, and the layout and specifications wouldn't undergo too large a change.
And Ye Yu's guess wasn't wrong; the largest boss's office in the factory was at the very end of the top floor. She raised her hand and slowly turned the doorknob.
The door wasn't locked. As the large door slowly opened, Ye Yu immediately saw an extremely spacious office. Floor-to-ceiling windows occupied nearly an entire wall, allowing a large amount of sunlight to stream in, shining on the red wood furniture and casting a moist glow. A purple clay teapot and teacups were placed on the table. On the wall hung a calligraphy piece saying "Heaven Rewards the Diligent." In the red wood wine cabinet that occupied an entire wall, many precious white spirits were displayed.
And in the place where the sunlight didn't reach, several oil paintings with gloomy colors were hung. The contents ranged from small rooms inside with rows of dead cats hanging on iron hooks to bleed, to the Fat Chef in the back kitchen holding a bowl of rabbit meat soup, then to a tightly tied sack, and finally to a high mountain piled with gold and silver treasures.
An obese old man was sitting in the boss's chair. What was surprising was that even though his hair was gray and his figure had become much fatter over the years than when he was young, one could still recognize him at a glance—he and the Wide-Mouthed Chef of the cafeteria were nearly identical. And during this lunch hour, he was holding a bowl of hot meat soup, drinking it hurriedly and greedily.
Noticing the movement at the door, the old man instinctively looked up. As a result, in the next second, he felt a sharp pain in his chest. Ye Yu, who was just at the door, had appeared before the old man, the small knife in her hand stabbed straight into the old man's heart!
The old man's cloudy eyes suddenly widened. His hand struggled to press the alarm button under the desk. "Who are you?! Someone! Security! Security!"
Ye Yu, a person of few words, had no intention of answering him. With a successful strike, she suddenly pulled the knife out. The old man's chest immediately sprayed blood, a few drops landing on her clothes.
At the same time, a black shadow flashed. The black cat jumping out from her shadow had bitten into the old man's neck with one gulp. Sharp fangs sank deep into the old man's flesh.
"Hiss!"
The old man's throat was severed, emitting a sound like a bellows. In the next second, the obese old man seemed to be inflated, swelling up. His clothes burst, and the flesh expanded wildly, instantly filling the room. The red wood furniture let out a tragic *creak*. The luxury wine cabinet worth millions before was now, along with the wall, cracking simultaneously. Countless white spirits flowed out into the corridor along the cracks.
Ye Yu and Wu Xi, relying on their speed, fled out the door before the room was filled. As a result, in the next second, only a *thud* was heard as the wall burst open with a large hole. Several bizarre tentacles composed of flesh, like live snakes, jumped out, trying to coil around Ye Yu and Wu Xi.
Misfortunes never come singly. As the mass of flesh continued to expand, Ye Yu only felt the floor beneath her feet begin to shake and sway violently.
Wu Xi, with more combat experience, immediately turned and ran toward the stairs: "The volume of this urban legend entity is likely not small. The building is about to be crushed. Go down first!"
Ye Yu had the same idea, immediately using High-Speed Movement to race toward the lower floors. Passing by Wu Xi, she even reached out and scooped him up, stuffing him back into the shadow. Wu Xi's leg was still lame; his speed definitely wouldn't be as fast as hers. Wu Xi hadn't expected Ye Yu to scoop him up at this moment; his body stiffened, but he didn't struggle.
The blood-red tentacles like fierce pythons followed them down the stairs crazily, and even more tentacles like the roots of a giant tree *bang bang bang* pierced through the ceilings of each floor, intending to intercept Ye Yu and Wu Xi.
Because of this, the further down Ye Yu ran, the more tentacles piled up at the stairs. At first, she could still operate the throwing knives to cut through the intercepting tentacles to escape smoothly. But by the fourth floor, the stairs were already filled with blood-red tentacles. They were like blood-red pythons, either hanging from the ceiling, crawling onto the stair railings, or twisting on the stairs. It made one's scalp go numb just looking at them; there was simply no place to step.
As soon as Ye Yu saw this situation, she immediately turned and ran. She raced down the third-floor corridor. The sound of wind breaking hit her from behind as the blood-red "giant python" followed her around the corner. Just as the "giant python" was about to touch her back, she decisively jumped out of the window.
However, the "giant python" behind her didn't let her go, but followed her out the window. Ye Yu, holding Wu Xi, fell straight down. As someone who didn't often jump off buildings, she unfortunately jumped in a back-downward posture. This kind of posture, once she hit the ground, would at least leave her paralyzed from the waist up. Thus, both above and below seemed to be dead ends. However, just as her back was about to touch the ground, her figure vanished into thin air!
Where Ye Yu should have hit the ground, a small hand-sized mirror was gleaming under the sun. There were five more such mirrors around the Office Building. Unfortunately, the mirrors placed inside the building earlier seemed to have all shattered. Inside the mirror, Ye Yu calmed her pounding heart while quickly marking the two nearest mirrors.
Her approach was extremely correct, because just as she finished marking, the mirror she was hiding in was smashed to pieces by a blood-red tentacle.
The urban legend entity of this factory had been alerted. It seemed using the mirror space as a safe room wouldn't work. Ye Yu quickly transformed from the Mirror Girl state back into a living person. Her figure flashed, and she appeared beside the shattered mirror. The black cat jumped out, landing beside her. A blood-red tentacle immediately swept toward her. A person and a cat dodged simultaneously.
Only a loud *boom* was heard as a large block of wall detached from the office building, stirring up a sky full of dust.
Ye Yu, relying on High-Speed Movement, quickly dodged. Looking up, a hint of shock immediately appeared in her eyes. She saw that the low office building that was quite normal just now had more than half of its parts collapsed. Countless flesh tentacles, either as thick as giant trees or as thin as a bowl's mouth like giant tree roots, pierced through the office building from top to bottom, swimming on the walls like snakes, supporting the swaying building.
On the tentacles, not only could blue veins be seen bulging and blood-red membranes, but there were also "head-boils" growing on the tentacles. Ye Yu's vision was very good, so she clearly saw on the outer wall of the second floor, a wandering tentacle with two head-boils—they were Zhao Yang and the nameless manager she had just seen not long ago.
The loud sound of the office building's collapse attracted the workers who were on lunch break. They filed out from the dormitory and cafeteria to the empty ground. The polluted perception made them not feel the scene before them was eerie at all. Instead, they said in surprise:
"Why did the Big Boss come out?"
"Wow, it's the Big Boss!"
"Heavens! The leaders are all out. Is today some big day?!"
Those head-boils were all the leaders of the office building. Currently, the bodies of these leaders were gone, or rather, all had merged into that expanding flesh. But they didn't feel their current image was wrong at all; each had a ruddy complexion and was glaring angrily at Ye Yu, scolding her for being a worker who defied superiors, being rebellious and derelict in duty!
"Worker of Workshop A!"
"Supervisor Chu, how do you manage your people!"
"Rebellion, rebellion! A normal worker actually dares to attack the leaders! This is wanting to revolt!"
"Our factory gave you a job, and this is how you repay the factory? Ungrateful, white-eyed wolf!"
"A worker like this, our factory absolutely cannot have!"
Ye Yu ignored these noises and instead slowly moved her gaze upward. The top floor had more than half collapsed. The old man's figure wasn't there, nor was the expanding flesh. Instead, there was a truly massive mouth. The wide-open mouth was supported by countless mutated blood-flesh tentacles. Above the mouth was a... or rather, half a head that was extremely conspicuous—it was the ferocious head of the Wide-Mouthed Chef!
This head only had the part from the nose up; the lower half was replaced by the massive mouth occupying more than half of the top floor. Overall, this half-head was like a boil protruding on the upper lip. The full, wide mouth stood high on the top floor, exposed under the sun. The entire image was eerie and bizarre!
Could that Wide-Mouthed Chef be the owner of this Urban Legend Factory?
Ye Yu couldn't be certain of this point, but there was one thing she could be certain of: the entity of this Urban Legend Factory wasn't just the boss, but the entire leadership layer!
Just as she instinctively retreated, the tightly closed wide mouth suddenly opened. The *sizzle* of electrical current instantly filled Ye Yu's ears, making them ring for a moment. And along with the current, the familiar male voice of the loudspeaker appeared. Ye Yu's pupils suddenly contracted.
"New supplementary regulation to worker procedures: workers are not allowed to attack leaders. Violators shall atone with death!"
"Re-emphasizing, new supplementary regulation to worker procedures: workers are not allowed to attack leaders. Violators shall atone with death!"
"Re-emphasizing, new supplementary regulation to worker procedures: workers are not allowed to attack leaders. Violators shall atone with death!!!"
The current and the loudspeaker's voice quickly rose along with the repeated words, becoming sharp to the point of being ear-piercing. The muscles of Ye Yu and Wu Xi tightened, looking at each other, fearing the other would actually commit suicide on the spot after suffering spiritual pollution. But after waiting a while, nothing happened.
Ye Yu was stunned, then looked down at her clothes and laughed with joy.
"Wu Xi, look, I guessed right. The factory uniform really is the key to identifying status!"
Ye Yu's prior preparation wasn't for nothing. Relying on Bus 712 being able to support her at any time, Ye Yu had placed many things on the bus. Besides mirrors, thinking of the gray factory uniform of normal workers, the black mask symbolizing elite workers, and the black factory uniform of night shift workers, Ye Yu had stuffed another set of clothes onto the bus. Before going upstairs, she had also found a quiet place and replaced the factory uniform on her body with normal clothes.
And now it seemed her guess was indeed correct; the factory uniform automatically worn upon entering the factory was the key mark of a worker's identity!
This made her unable to help thinking: if she had directly told Wang Xia and Tang Nianke to take off their factory uniforms, could she have directly used 712 to lead them out? But it didn't matter; confirming this point now wasn't too late.
When experts clash, every second counts. Seeing the opponent's specialty of spiritual pollution had no effect on her, Ye Yu's confidence multiplied. Three flashes of cold light were seen as three throwing knives stabbed into that fat, fleshy wide mouth.
Likely because all skills were poured into spiritual pollution, the wide mouth itself was just a mass of blood and flesh, its defensive power extremely weak. The throwing knives sank deep into the soft flesh, spinning like a meat grinder inside, then quickly flew out from the other side. Instantly, minced meat and fresh blood fell from the sky.
The wide mouth roared in pain, the electrical current becoming even more ear-piercing.
Tentacles lashed out, and the head-boils on them roared in fury.
"She doesn't follow worker procedures!"
"She's not wearing a factory uniform!"
"She's not our worker!"
The Wide-Mouthed Chef's eyes were full of malice and rage. The wide mouth below the head roared: "New supplementary regulation to worker procedures: all workers immediately kill the foreign intruder!"
The head-boils on the tentacles followed like sycophants, roaring.
"Kill her!"
"Kill her!"
"Kill her!"
Ye Yu turned and saw that all the workers in gray factory uniforms were now glaring fiercely at her, each pair of eyes gradually filling with murderous intent. As the first worker pounced toward her, the remaining workers surrounded her like hungry wolves.
The black-clothed workers didn't appear for some reason. These gray-clothed workers had very normal physiques; many were uncles and aunts in their forties or fifties. Even several old security guards, who together didn't have seven teeth, held anti-riot forks and tremblingly stabbed at her.
It scared Ye Yu into quickly using High-Speed Movement and the marked mirrors around her to dodge, fearing these old folks would lose their last few teeth. But these workers were easy to dodge; however, with the crowd pressing in, those tentacles frequently sweeping toward her weren't easy to avoid.
Many times Ye Yu dodged a tentacle, only to nearly be bitten on the butt by the "boil" fangs on it.
"Wu Xi, hurry up! I can't hold on for long!"
"I know! Today I'll show you this old man's skill!"
The sturdy black cat lunged toward the office building. A thick tentacle struck toward him, but he took the opportunity to jump up, and following the tentacle, he began to race upward on all fours. His black fur reflected light like ripples under the sun, and traces of bulging muscles could be vaguely seen.
Even with one lame leg, his claws were sharper than human nails, still ensuring that every step he took gripped the tentacle beneath him, no matter how those blood-red "giant pythons" lashed and struck in fury. Nothing could stop him as he rapidly leaped, getting closer and closer to the wide mouth on the top floor.