Forbidden Zone of Deception

Chapter 96 Glass Factory

The taxi driver, who was a hundred meters away, was shocked to see this and immediately stuck his head out of the car window, shouting, "Officer Jiang! Officer Jiang!"

The moment Jiang Jin stepped through the stainless steel door, he felt a strange change in temperature. A damp, musty smell mixed with a sweet, fishy odor wafted towards him.

It seemed colder inside the factory than outside; the wind felt like tiny ice needles pricking the skin.

As he ran, he shouted into the empty factory area, "Xiaoya! Xiaohai! Where are you! I'm coming to save you!"

Then, Jiang Jin first found a factory map on a bulletin board, and then, following the sound of the scream, he quickly ran towards the raw material workshop.

Upon arriving at the workshop, the stainless steel door appeared to be severely rusted!
The glass factory hasn't been closed for that long!
Jiang Jin tried to open the door, but couldn't open it for a moment, so he could only shout, "Hello...hello? A-Jie, Xiao-Hai, Xiao-Yu, Xiao-Ya? Are you inside now? Are you hurt? Are you inside the Minghui Glass Factory?"

A girl's voice quickly came from inside: "Yes, yes...who are you?"

Sure enough, it's here!

"Don't be afraid, I'm a police officer. Are all four of you children here? Is anyone else around?"

Jiang Jin's voice was tense as he continued to pound on the stainless steel door!
Rapid breathing came from the other side of the door, mixed with the crisp sound of glass colliding.

This time it was a boy's voice: "Yes, yes, officer, we're in the raw material workshop of Minghui Glass Factory... Our bodies... different parts of our bodies have become so scary, like the transparent people in the movies!"

Jiang Jin's throat felt dry.

Invisible man?
Clearly, these children have been contaminated with memes! However, if the level is still above 60%, timely administration of cognitive stabilization medication may still offer hope!

"Listen carefully, tell me first, are all four of you present? Are you free to move around?"

Suddenly, a screeching sound came from inside the door, like someone dragging a heavy object. Then came Xiaoya's voice: "Right now, it's just me, Xiaohai, Ajie, and our friend Xiaoyu. She went to pick up a bottle that makes a sound... We can't move now. The closer we get to the outside of the workshop, the more transparent we become!"

"Have you seen the 'Rules for Wrongful Entry' posted by the Meme Contamination Monitoring Department?" Jiang Jin knew very well that once a red code area appeared, the Reincarnation System would issue a "Rules for Wrongful Entry," which would then be posted by cleaners.

"We didn't see it..."

"Xiaoya! Quickly, let the police contact the sanitation workers!" Just then, another boy's voice rang out: "Only the sanitation workers can remove the meme contamination!"

Jiang Jin shouted, "I've already contacted the Membrane Contamination Monitoring Department, and the cleaners will be here soon! First, tell me, how did your body become transparent?"
"It's...it's those bottles. This started happening after we touched the bottles..." Xiaoya sobbed.

A scream suddenly erupted from inside the door.

A child suddenly shouted, "Xiaoya, stand behind me! My right hand still works!"

The sound of shattering glass echoed, as if something was struggling to break free from the bottle.

Then, there was another dull thud as flesh hit the ground.

"Ah Jie!" Xiao Ya screamed.

"I'm fine..." The child named A-Jie's voice was so weak it was almost inaudible, "Xiao-Ya... take them behind the raw material shelf... quick..."

"how about you?!"

"I...I blocked them..."

The dragging sound came from inside the door again, as if Ah Jie was using his body to block something.

"Officer..." Xiaoya's voice suddenly became unusually clear, "A-Jie's legs... have become completely transparent..."

Just then, Jiang Jin finally broke down the door!

As Jiang Jin walked through the loading and unloading area littered with broken glass, his boots stepped on numerous shards. With each shard, a different scene flashed before his eyes—female workers on the assembly line, the ticking numbers on the time clock, the distorted face of the night shift foreman. At the same time, he vaguely heard: "This order must be placed before dawn… the label is wrong… the filling line can't stop…"

Jiang Jin checked his Reincarnator Watch; his SAN value had dropped to 75%! He had already entered the Mysterious Layer!

"January 15, 20XX..." Jiang Jin murmured the date from the workshop work log that flashed in his hallucination, and suddenly realized that this was the day the glass factory was listed as a red-code restricted area.

His temples throbbed, and many cases of meme contamination that Yu Tianlun had told him flashed through his mind: many red-code restricted areas retain the state at the time of meme contamination, like insects sealed in amber.

"Officer, we're here!"

Jiang Jin ran towards the sound and saw three children huddled behind the overturned raw material rack!
Looking at the photo, it really is Xiaoya, Ajie, and Xiaohai!
The three children's bodies, like sheets of rice paper soaked in water, became transparent to varying degrees! A-Jie lay on the ground, half his body already transparent, and a glass bottle rolled at his feet! "Police officer!" Xiao-Ya, a girl with a birthmark on her face, cried out, her left arm strangely translucent, the fingertips revealing the mottled brickwork behind it, "You, you must come and save A-Jie!"

Jiang Jin rushed over, took out the medicine bottle that his brother Jiang Han had given him, poured out the MPTTD-007 pill inside, and gave it to A-Jie on the ground!

"Quickly, swallow these! You all take two pills each!"

This is a new drug developed by the Meme Contamination Monitoring Department. Although the meme contamination suffered by the red code restricted area cannot be completely cured by cognitive stabilization pills, it can at least curb the progress of contamination and hold on until the cleaners arrive!
About ten seconds after the medication was administered, the children's bodies began to become transparent more slowly, and the transparent parts even began to appear faintly.

Then, Jiang Jin said, "Listen carefully, I'm going to save Xiaoyu first! You guys..."

Jiang Jin suddenly noticed that the scattered shards of glass on the ground were trembling slightly, like strings being plucked by invisible fingers.

Jiang Jin shook his head; the alcohol and the strange environment had thrown him off balance.

Jiang Jin handed the children his cell phone, which had lost signal after they entered the factory area, and said, "Take this first; it can emit some light. The cleaners will be here to rescue you soon. I'm going to rescue the child named Xiaoyu first! You escape to the factory's iron gate. You'll see a taxi outside, but whatever you do, don't get close to the driver. You're all contaminated with memes now; we can't let the contamination spread. Once the cleaners arrive, they'll take you to get treatment immediately!"

The corridor leading from the raw material workshop to the filling workshop was like a stretched rubber band; it took Jiang Jin a full three minutes to see the workshop door at the end.

Instead of enjoying the corridor, he found the "Rules for Wrongful Visitors" posted by the cleaner.

"I've got it, this is it!"

It says:

1. Personnel who accidentally enter the area must wear cut-resistant gloves when handling the product (the image shows yellow rubber gloves).

2. Fragile items can be recycled using the red container (pictured is a square plastic basket).
3. Immediately sound the alarm in case of a filling line malfunction (shown as an orange button).

4. Immediately call the memetic contamination monitoring department. When you see cleaners in orange uniforms, you are basically safe. Remember, cleaners will only wear orange uniforms; no other colors are possible.

Below is the seal of the Meme Contamination Monitoring Department.

Then, after Jiang Jin opened the door to the bottling workshop, he saw that it was filled with rotten wooden boxes and yellowed foam plastic.

What he saw next froze his blood instantly—the bottling line was running at full speed, hundreds of perfume bottles refracting eerie colored light on the conveyor belt. Near the end, a delicately crafted, etched glass bottle hung alone in mid-air, floating steadily without any support.

The closer you get to the production line, the stronger the sweet smell in the air becomes.

Jiang Jin's vision began to blur, and double images appeared before his eyes: the real workshop and the scene in his memory overlapped—the same conveyor belt in the same position, the same perfume bottle, only a dozen or so stiff workers sat at the operating station, each of their faces a blurry block of color.

"Xiaoyu! Xiaoyu!" Jiang Jin's calls echoed in the empty workshop. "I'm a policeman! Don't touch that bottle!"

Suddenly, the floating perfume bottle started spinning on its own, playing a distorted version of "Für Elise".

Holy crap! It's "Für Elise" again?!
Meme contamination severely affected his vision, to the point that he knocked over a yellowed duty logbook as he passed the quality inspection station at the end of the assembly line.

Jiang Jin picked it up and happened to turn to the last page, which was soaked with liquid, and could barely make out the last few lines of the record:
"At 9:00 PM, Team Leader Lin forced us to work overtime until after 9:00 PM. We said this violated the monthly rules, but he said that taking some medicine would make us feel better."
At 22:05, the filling line stopped abnormally, but the cause could not be found during inspection.

At 23:10, the bottle was actually singing.

......"

The final record was covered by a large brown stain.

"Police officer..."

A faint call came from below the quality inspection station. Jiang Jin bent down to look and saw Xiao Yu, with her pigtails, huddled in the small space. The girl was in much better condition than the other children, except that the ends of her hair... had a glassy sheen.

“Officer,” Xiaoyu held up the suspended bottle, the liquid inside shimmering like mother-of-pearl in the dim light, and clung to Jiang Jin, trembling, “a lady said that I can only leave if I help her put on all the labels…”

Jiang Jin's blood froze instantly. Only then did he notice that the workshop walls were covered with tattered labels, each printed with the same production date.

It was the very day that Minghui Glass Factory was listed as a red-code restricted area after the accident!
The label on the perfume bottle in Xiaoyu's hand was only half-attached.

"What sister?" Jiang Jin's voice was so hoarse it didn't sound like his own.

Xiaoyu pointed behind Jiang Jin.

He slowly turned around, and now, his vision, clouded by hallucinations, only allowed him to vaguely see a semi-transparent "human figure" sitting on a chair next to the quality inspection station. It wore old-fashioned work clothes, held a labeling machine, and had a face without features except for a bright red mouth that opened and closed to the rhythm of "Für Elise"!
(End of this chapter)