The whole weird world is waiting for me to go to heaven

Chapter 993 Instantaneous Speed ​​(Part 8)

Old Zhang walked out of the warehouse in a daze.

As soon as he appeared, the crowd swarmed around him, questioning him with hostility.

Faced with these chaotic accusations, Old Zhang opened his mouth but couldn't utter a word.

He then took out the pack of cigarettes he had found in Jiahe Village.

There were still quite a few cigarettes in the crumpled soft case.

He always cherished his cigarettes, smoking only two a day. There were originally more than a dozen packets in that pack, but he had long since sold them to pay for his wife's medical treatment.

Because of working non-stop and traveling day and night, he broke his usual routine and smoked three cigarettes to stay awake. Now, feeling flustered and with trembling fingers, he couldn't help but light up another one.

He squatted by the door, took a deep breath, and let the pungent aroma fill his lungs.

All I could hear were people chattering about how the two girls had driven up in a big truck, packed up everything, and then disappeared.

"Now that's bad, I wonder how many more days it will be before I have any work to do..."

I wonder who made this remark.

This is also why Old Zhang is feeling down.

He hadn't planned to rest after returning from this trip; he intended to take a short break before getting new orders and making another trip immediately.

To their surprise, when they returned to the branch, there were no goods available to receive.

This completely disrupted his money-saving plan.

The money I gave Dr. Han yesterday was just the initial payment. There are still several other bills waiting for him to pay; not to mention that once my wife is discharged from the hospital, she won't be short of any tonics or nutritional supplements.

Which one isn't a money pit?
He was extremely annoyed, and the group of people around him were also sighing and groaning, some even cursing at the silent old Zhang, as if cursing could bring back the goods.

Finally, someone couldn't stand it anymore and spoke up:
"Come on, even if this warehouse is full of goods, you might not be so eager to deliver them, otherwise it wouldn't be piled up like this."

He was a tall, thin, fair-skinned boy with upturned peach blossom eyes filled with righteous anger.

These words immediately caused an uproar, with many people refuting them:
"Xiao Zhuo, Xiao Zhuo, how could you say that?"

"You don't understand at all! We can stay at the branch for a day after our trip, and they even provide three meals a day. Of course, it's more cost-effective to deliver slowly!"

"Exactly, it's easy for you to talk when you're not in our shoes, isn't it? Just because you have a mother surnamed Yun, an uncle who's the city lord, and an older sister who's the director of the Special Affairs Bureau, of course you don't understand the hardships of us who make a living by delivering packages!"

"Hmph, those people are big shots aiming for the branch office headquarters, they've long looked down on us lazybones!"

"Shouldn't he hate those two greedy brats even more?"

"Sigh, think about it, the last guy who dreamed of going to the branch office headquarters has already run himself ragged, and now he's just sitting at the front desk doing nothing. Maybe all this trouble will make him give up on that idea."

"Haha, that makes sense. It'll save us from ending up with a broken leg!"

"Hey, Xiao Zhuo, you'd better learn to accept your fate now!"

"With your looks, so fair and delicate, you might as well quit being a courier and find a big shot to serve you instead."

"I heard that the monks at Wanfo Temple are currently short of attendants..."

"Is it really necessary to go to such lengths? His uncle is Yunshan..."

"Hehe, yeah, I'd completely forgotten about that..."

The group of people kept talking, and the topic had gone further and further off track, becoming increasingly offensive and unpleasant to listen to.

Xiao Zhuo's face flushed red from the ridicule, but he couldn't refute it. His thin frame shrank into a ball in the corner, sulking.

He saw Old Zhang smoking to the side and couldn't help but ask in a low voice, "Could I... have one?"

Old Zhang glanced at him and uttered two words crisply: "Money."

Xiao Zhu gritted his teeth: "Okay, how much?"

He pulled out a few coins from his pocket, bought a cigarette, lit it, and took a deep drag, trying to expel all the frustration in his heart. However, he choked and coughed incessantly, his face turning bright red.

Old Zhang looked at it and exhaled a puff of smoke calmly: "If you can't smoke, then don't smoke."

"Sigh..." Xiao Zhu didn't reply, but just stared at the cigarette butt in her hand, muttering to herself, "Can they... really deliver all of this? So much stuff..."

"I do not know either."

Old Zhang gazed at the horizon, his eyes filled with a sense of bewilderment.

For some reason, he had a gut feeling—

They really can do it.

But how long will it take?
Xiao Zhu was also thinking, muttering to himself, "Maybe... I should go to other cities and check out those survivor villages, I'll make a trip there and pick up the goods..."

This may sound radical at first, but it is actually a possible solution.

However, deliverymen have always picked up some items on their way to deliver goods, which means that many survivors have to wait for the deliveryman to happen to be passing by even though they have something to send.

If the timing is off, all you can do is wait, and a lot of goods just pile up.

For survivors, efficiency has always been extremely low; but for deliverymen, making sure they don't come back empty-handed is the most efficient way.

Old Zhang had the same idea.

He always ran the same routes and never considered taking the initiative. Now, hearing Xiao Zhuo's words, he paused, then slowly asked:

"You really... want to make that much money?"

What he didn't say was—Xiao Zhuo is actually already well-off in this apocalypse, so why does she have to work so hard?

Xiao Zhuo's face flushed red.

"It's not about making money, I just want to meet my KPIs."

"That way I can... go to headquarters."

"Go to headquarters?" Old Zhang was surprised that Xiao Zhuo really thought that way. "Why?"

“Because…that’s different, right?” Xiao Zhuo said in a deep voice, “I heard that headquarters also has interstellar couriers.”

Old Zhang was slightly taken aback, then smiled:
"Heh, that was so long ago. It's impossible now. Even interstellar couriers are just like us now, running errands on the ground. Nothing special."

"But Lao Zhang, aren't you one?"

Old Zhang didn't say anything, but took out another crumpled cigarette, lit it, took a deep drag, and squinted as if gazing into the distant past.

Xiao Zhu pressed further, "What did it feel like?"

“That is…” Old Zhang thought for a moment before saying, “The feeling of freedom.”

"But it's also a feeling of loneliness and fear. You're floating in the void, and you never know what's in the darkness. There's nothing around you except yourself."

"So that's why you stopped doing it later, right?"

"Heh..." Old Zhang didn't reply, he just kept smoking in silence.

Xiao Zhu didn't press further, but just smiled and said, "Actually... I don't necessarily want to be an interstellar courier. I just want something to strive for, so I don't get numb from being trapped in this monotonous life and become like everyone else."

As he spoke, he raised his head and looked around.

The noise started up again, with background sounds coming from phones and tablets, and people left in twos and threes, showing little interest in staying.

"There's nothing wrong with doing it day after day."

Old Zhang also took out his phone and opened the replay of his favorite older sister's live stream. She was talking about how to manage an account. He thought he could talk to his wife about it later, and when she recovered from her surgery, he would let her try it at home.

Xiao Zhu was somewhat disappointed.

Old Zhang could be considered another colleague who worked just as hard as him, but it seemed that their views differed and there was nothing more to say. He didn't say anything more, but just lowered his head and opened his tablet.

I wonder where those two girls are now?
Hopefully they'll realize it's not feasible soon, cancel the order and come back, or die on the way, so he can set off immediately to pick them up.

Many people still here are hoping for the same thing.

But the next second, Xiao Zhuo's eyes widened suddenly. He stared intently at the screen, not even noticing the cigarette butt burning his lips, until a spark landed on the screen, and he jolted awake, letting out a soft gasp:

"They...all of them finished!"

But his voice was too soft and drowned out by the surrounding noise, so it didn't elicit any response.

Only Old Zhang, who was standing nearby, heard it.

"What's finished?"

Xiao Zhu held up the tablet in his hand, which displayed a row of "Completed" items in the current task status.

Old Zhang hadn't clicked on this page earlier because he thought it was unnecessary, but now that he saw it, he was so surprised he was almost speechless:
"How can this be?"

But then, Xiao Zhu suddenly noticed something, and her voice rose even higher:
"Wait a minute—there are so many more tasks! So many new orders!"

Xiao Zhuo's voice was somewhat shrill, becoming even shriller when she got anxious, piercing the noise like a needle.

This time, many people looked up and turned to look in the direction of the sound.

It took a while for some people to understand what Xiao Zhu was talking about. Some frowned, some were suspicious, and some instinctively took out their tablets to verify.

But soon, there was no need for confirmation anymore.

Two large lights shone from afar, illuminating the astonished faces of the crowd, making them appear pale and distinct.

A truck with its bed fully loaded pulled up, and the two men jumped out as soon as the doors opened.

After getting off the vehicle, they didn't say much. They went around to the back of the vehicle, opened the cargo compartment, and quickly unloaded the goods, which piled up on their bodies like small mountains.

"Please give way."

Seeing that everyone was still standing there motionless, the girl's voice rang out from under the pile of goods, neither too loud nor too soft.

As if snapping out of their daze, the crowd made way for them.

"What are you doing here...?" someone asked.

“I picked them up from a nearby village,” Liu Sheng answered readily. “They were just piled up there and no one was collecting them, so I went to collect them all.”

A moment of silence fell over the room after he said that.

Her idea was the same as Xiao Zhu's previous assumption.

Under normal circumstances, goods must go through the network's warehousing process before they can be distributed to other couriers for outbound delivery. Even if it's urgent, it cannot be completed directly point-to-point to prevent collusion and fraudulent order placement.

That's exactly what Liu Sheng and Qiao Yu are doing now.

When the two were carrying the goods for the second time, Xiao Zhuo stubbed out his cigarette on the ground and volunteered to help. The others were also inspired, and the group of deliverymen quickly emptied the entire truck and completed the warehousing.

As goods were brought into the warehouse, it became full again.

But no one left.

Even Old Zhang, who originally planned to set off immediately as soon as he got an order, stayed put and didn't want to leave.

Xiao Zhuo, eager to earn KPIs, followed closely beside Liu Sheng and Qiao Yu, running around obediently.

Because everyone shared the same doubts, the original resentment and questions were now suppressed.

"Excuse me, how did you do that?" Xiao Zhu asked eagerly.

Liu Sheng gave him a deep look.

Qiao Yu stood quietly beside him, like a silent mountain.

Everyone held their breath, worried that she might be holding back, since everyone knew that achieving such efficiency was not just about physical strength and speed.

But Liu Sheng just smiled faintly, took out his tablet, and waved it casually. "As for how I did it—it's all thanks to the plugin I made."

Plugin?

Everyone was puzzled.

All eyes turned to the tablet in Liu Sheng's hand.

Although it uses the same task system interface, it's not quite the same – several new data labels have been added next to the tasks, such as "priority", "matching degree" and "difficulty level".

"This is task adaptation information generated based on the data I input," Liu Sheng explained.

Can I still input data?

What data should I input?
Those who were nearby could see that a new interface had opened on the tablet in Liu Sheng's hand, where they could input their various data and preferences.

This includes load capacity limits, available transportation options, acceptable delivery time windows, maximum route radius, and whether to avoid the haunted areas, etc.

Although everyone still didn't understand, they already had some vague intuition. Watching Liu Sheng fill in an astonishing "weight limit" and then complete all the other fields, the page refreshed instantly, and a task recommendation list popped up.

Furthermore, it can be divided into different preference tags such as "shortest route", "best road conditions", "highest delivery cost", "high KPI efficiency" and "easy to communicate with customers".

After Liu Sheng explained, everyone finally understood.

"It's like the video recommendation preferences we select when watching videos! Selecting different options will push different videos... no, it's like recommending tasks!"

"You mentioned 'best route,' could it be... this plugin can plan routes?" someone asked incredulously, "Can it... provide navigation?"

This is something that existed before the Great Cataclysm.

Many of the younger people have only heard of it but have never seen it.

Liu Sheng smiled and said, "That's right, the entire map has been imported into the system. The more people use it, the stronger the system's road recognition and map completion capabilities will become. Not only can it expand the map, but it can also update the task algorithm in real time with things like road damage, areas where monsters are active, temporary village closures, customer reviews, and so on."

"Customer reviews?" Someone in the crowd frowned.

“Yes.” Liu Sheng nodded. “Couriers can rate customers, but customers can also rate couriers, creating a virtuous cycle that improves the experience for both parties.”

This is something that everyone is still confused about.

Of course, some people were very unhappy when they heard that they would be evaluated, but they were also curious about what other magical functions the plugin had, so they stayed there muttering curses under their breath.

Sure enough, Liu Sheng continued to drop bombshells:

"Moreover, this system is not only for delivery personnel, but we have also developed a user portal for customers."

Liu Sheng raised the tablet, gently tapped the upper right corner of the interface, then switched to another interface and continued:
"Customers—that is, senders or recipients—can upload their shipping needs, delivery address, desired delivery time period, and even make special notes in advance through the client, such as 'do not knock on the door,' 'refrigerated transport,' 'fragile items,' 'requires multiple people,' and 'avoid ghost places.'"

"This information will be incorporated into the system in real time to match the most suitable courier and simultaneously communicate with nearby delivery personnel who are currently on the relevant routes."

"You can think of it as a decentralized intelligent system where deliverymen no longer passively accept orders, and customers no longer have to wait for a deliveryman who just happens to be passing by."

“More importantly,” she added, “customers can also view the progress, route prediction, and estimated delivery time of each task in real time. The entire process is transparent, traceable, and evaluable.”

Her gaze swept over the crowd. "In short, this plugin is designed to maximize the interests of both our deliverymen and our customers."

"We've been testing this plugin for the past two days. That's why we took over all the tasks in the entire repository. We apologize to everyone for that."

"But as you can see, we completed all the peripheral tasks using the plugin, which took only 15 hours and 24 minutes and accumulated 543 KPI points."

"This is the effect of our 'Swift Wind Run Fast' plugin!"

As she spoke, she flashed a confident smile.

As soon as this statement came out, the whole place was in an uproar.

Old Zhang was the first to react.

He knew perfectly well how much bonus and how many orders were represented by the 543-point KPI, and his fingers trembled slightly with excitement.

Xiao Zhu's eyes lit up, and he almost blurted out, "Then... how do I download this plugin?"

Liu Sheng turned the tablet around, revealing a QR code.

"Scan the QR code to download."

"But, just so you know—this plugin is not free."

(End of this chapter)