On the Ark.

……

"Hey! What are you doing!" Lin Guang's surprised and angry voice rang in Lin Ye's ears.

Lin Ye groggily opened his eyes and met Lin Guang's golden eyes, which seemed to be burning with flames.

He opened his mouth as if to say something, but then felt nauseous, instinctively grabbed Lin Guang's shoulder, and then vomited.

Lin Guang's face was so dark it looked like he could kill someone.

……

Twenty minutes later, the scene was cleaned up. Lin Guang took a shower, changed her clothes, and reappeared in the living room. However, her complexion hadn't improved much; she stood with her arms crossed, her face grim, and remained silent. The expressions of the others were somewhat subtle: Lin Ye was embarrassed, White Owl looked dazed and out of sorts, and Nightingale was exhausted, constantly rubbing her eyes. But her reaction also indicated the success of the experiment. Actively waking her would greatly reduce her mental burden, but it wouldn't completely eliminate it.

"So, you saw something disgusting in Liz's dream, and then vomited it out in reality?" Fleur broke the silence first.

Nearl's face darkened further. Originally, to prevent any accidents, Shining and Fleur were supposed to wake Nightingale at the appointed time, while Nearl was to support Lin Ye. However, Lin Ye hadn't woken up yet; first, he vomited all over her, then opened his eyes, glanced at her, and vomited again.

She's a former Radiant Knight of Kazimierz! No one has ever dared to vomit on her before, not twice!

Lin Ye awkwardly explained and apologized to Lin Guang, which softened Lin Guang's expression somewhat.

"It's nothing, it was just an accident." Nearl was still able to distinguish between primary and secondary matters. After a moment of silence, he showed his chivalrous demeanor again, "Tell me about the information you collected in Liz's dream this time."

Seeing that Lin Guang had forgiven him, Lin Ye finally breathed a sigh of relief, then nodded and said, "I found the secret passage; it's in that storage room."

"Storage room?"

"Yeah, it's that... uh, the storage room." Lin Ye coughed twice, then gestured for the white-faced owl to mark it on the map. "It extends roughly this way, around this location. Hmm, about a hundred meters."

As a programmer, White Owl was quite professional and quickly improved the map in the computer to make it more realistic about the dungeon.

"So, all we need to do is bring Liz into the secret passage?" Nearl asked. "According to you, those Sarkaz warriors are too small to even get into the passage."

Lin Ye nodded: "That's true."

After a moment's thought, the White-faced Owl said, "The White-faced Owl believes that a secret passage can only be judged as useful if it meets the following two conditions. First, it must be certain that the passage leads directly to the ground. Second, it must be certain that the pursuers cannot enter the passage, and that there are no invincible enemies or insurmountable difficulties within the passage."

Shining nodded: "What you said makes sense. But the second point should be nothing to worry about. In order to ensure the smooth transportation of supplies, the Dark Path should be 'clean' and there won't be any traps or anything like that you're imagining."

"Then that's the first point."

"I think..."

Soon, everyone present joined the discussion, and everyone was expressing their opinions, giving Lin Ye a sense of déjà vu, like when the boys gathered together to discuss game strategies during a break in high school.

The only one who didn't participate in the discussion was the nightingale.

"Liz?" Lin Ye walked to Nightingale's side and asked softly, "Are you alright?"

The nightingale raised its head.

Whether it was a misperception or not, the moment their eyes met, Lin Ye noticed that Nightingale's eyes were... completely unfamiliar.

Author's BB: I've been too lazy this month. It seems I still owe more than twenty chapters... Hmm, I'll pay it back in July, I believe I'll be able to pay it back soon.

By the way, I'd like to recommend a book: "The Gaming Abandoner Never Works Overtime Again." A certain gaming aficionado had to quit all games due to life's pressures, and the very next day, a girl with donkey ears was waiting outside his door with overtime work documents...

It's not exactly a pure Arknights fanfiction; it involves a bunch of characters from the game asking you to grind events. The theme is quite novel, so those who are interested can check it out.

Chapter 116 Don't stay on the fourth floor too late!

Sitting in his office, Lin Ye kept replaying Nightingale's gaze in his mind.

Those eyes felt unfamiliar to him, yet not entirely unfamiliar; he felt as if he had seen them somewhere before, but couldn't quite place them. He didn't have time to confirm, so Hibiscus took Nightingale to rest. Although the experiment of waking Nightingale early to reduce the mental burden of Lin Ye's abilities on her had been successful, to be on the safe side, Nearl still didn't allow Lin Ye to use his abilities on Nightingale multiple times a day, a decision Shining agreed to.

Apart from Lin Ye, the others didn't seem to notice anything different about Nightingale, only saying that Nightingale was tired.

But was the nightingale truly exhausted?

Lin Ye looked at the documents in his hand, but his mind was not on them at all.

"Doctor," the voice of the operator Shining Owl rang out, "This is the third friendly reminder from operator Shining Owl: you've got your file upside down."

"Oh, oh." Lin Ye finally snapped out of it. "Sorry, I was daydreaming."

After Nightingale rested, Lin Ye could only take White Owl back to his office. Although his work was mostly leisurely, it wasn't entirely without tasks. After all, in addition to being Rhodes Island's chief psychological counselor, he also served as the manager of the fourth floor of the office building.

So right now, he was reviewing documents from the HR department in his capacity as a manager. It seemed Amiya had left the document before leaving, hoping the HR department could clean the entire fourth floor of the office building when they had time. It mainly involved removing trash and adding equipment. Apart from Lin Ye's office and the restrooms, the entire fourth floor was like storage rooms; it was a mystery how the previous residents of the fourth floor had managed to rest amidst all that trash and cardboard boxes.

Since it required clearing four layers, it was naturally impossible to bypass Lin Ye, the layer master. So Lin Ye signed his name on the document with a flourish.

"Is this all?" Lin Ye handed the documents to his assistant. "Should we send people or drones for the cleanup?"

The white-faced owl took the document, hugged it to its chest, twitched its ears, and replied, "On Rhodes Island, room cleaning is done by drones."

"So you mean I don't need to worry about it?" Lin Ye asked. "Can I just go back to sleep?"

The white-faced owl shook its head and replied in a mechanical voice, "You need to monitor the drone in case it malfunctions."

"Ok."

Lin Ye nodded helplessly. He actually wanted to go back to his dorm to sleep, after all, he had gotten up very early today and used his ability five times in a row. Although he hadn't found any burden on his ability yet, entering the dreams of five people in one day, as if intruding into their lives and traversing five different timelines, was still a bit tiring, especially since he had ended up "dying" twice.

He glanced at the time and realized he had two hours left before he was off work, so he asked the white-faced owl, "Is the drone coming today?"

"Yes."

"Then I'll wait here," Lin Ye said. "You've had a busy day, you can go home now."

"Would you like Operator Shiny to leave work early?"

"You don't want to?" Lin Ye said with a smile.

"No, Operator Shining is willing." Shining turned and left. "Goodbye."

Lin Ye: "..."

Just as the white-faced owl reached the door, Lin Ye suddenly remembered something and called it back.

"Is there anything else?"

The white-faced owl remained still, but turned its head 180 degrees to look at Lin Ye.

Lin Ye felt a chill run down his spine and almost dropped the pen in his hand. But fortunately, having learned from He Mo's experience, he quickly calmed down, then took out a recruitment notice from the drawer and handed it to White Owl: "Help me post this on the bulletin board. The one I posted last time was torn down by someone."

The white-faced owl took the recruitment notice and glanced at it: "Do you still need to recruit assistants?"

“Well, Dr. Kal'tsit gave me three spots. One spot was taken by Lungmen, and one of them is for you, so there’s one left,” Lin Ye said. “Since it’s just sitting there anyway, we might as well give it out.”

White Owl shook his head: "White Owl doesn't understand why you need so many assistants. Can't the operator White Owl satisfy you?"

Lin Ye was speechless: "Can't you speak properly? Don't act like those Sarkaz."

“Just kidding, White Owl knows you won’t mind.” White Owl pointed to the requirements Lin Ye had specially written down and said, “But White Owl thinks your requirements are too high. If you want to find a suitable assistant, you should lower your standards.”

"...Your joke is quite funny."

The white-faced owl said seriously, "The white-faced owl is not joking."

Lin Ye: "..."

“But since you’ve already decided, White Owl can help you post the announcement back.” White Owl turned its head back, “provided that White Owl’s database doesn’t malfunction before then.”

"I'll leave that to Tieba."

"Just kidding, I know you won't mind." White Owl left the office. "See you tomorrow."

Watching the white-faced owl's departing figure, Lin Ye sighed softly.

Who said talking to a pretty girl would make you feel good? Why does he only feel mentally exhausted?

Lin Ye couldn't quite understand. They were both transmigrators, and in other novels, the male protagonists would already be building harems by now, but he felt like he was running a kindergarten. No, not a kindergarten, but a mental hospital. He was the exhausted director of that mental hospital, the biggest boss of all the mentally ill patients.

Thinking this, Lin Ye felt increasingly tired. Just as he was about to lie down on the sofa to rest for a while, the White Owl's eerie voice sounded behind him again: "Doctor, the White Owl suggests that you don't stay on the fourth floor too late."

Lin Ye was startled and immediately turned around, only to see the white-faced owl standing in the corridor, poking its head into the doorway and looking at Lin Ye.

"What's wrong with you now?" Lin Ye said irritably.

“It’s not crazy, it’s advice,” said White Owl. “It’s advice from Operator White Owl: don’t stay on the fourth floor too late, lest you see something you shouldn’t.”

Lin Ye felt a chill run down his spine after hearing what the white-faced owl said: "Are you joking again?"

"No, the white-faced owl doesn't like jokes."

With that, the white-faced owl slowly withdrew its head. Lin Ye stood still, staring intently at the door frame, waiting for the white-faced owl to peek out again.

But it didn't.

Two minutes later, Lin Ye walked out of the office and found that the white-faced owl was indeed gone.

"What a crazy girl," Lin Ye sighed. "When will I get a normal person?"

No one answered him, because he was the only one in the hallway.

Lin Ye didn't take the white-faced owl's words seriously and went back to his office to rest.

I only intended to take a short nap while waiting for the drone to arrive. But when I closed my eyes, sleepiness washed over me like a tidal wave, and my eyelids felt incredibly heavy, impossible to keep open.

When I woke up, the office was completely dark, and I could hear a buzzing sound in my ears.

He turned his head and found the room crammed with drones at work.

"So they've already arrived?" Lin Ye propped his head up and sat up from the sofa, then glanced at the time.

9:37 PM.

Chapter 117 The Residents on the Fourth Floor Have Returned (4K Updates Still Available, 30 More Chapters Due)

Lin Ye had no idea he'd slept until almost 10 a.m. Was he really that tired? And when did these drones arrive? He hadn't noticed a thing while he was asleep. Besides, these drones were only about the size of a palm or two; what could they possibly be used for?

He poked one of the drones with his finger, and the drone seemed to sense something and immediately circled around his hand.

It's just like a cat.

But how do we use these guys?

Lin Ye took out his phone and found two missed calls, both from Zilan. He dialed them.

"Is this Dr. Lin Ye?" Zilan's voice rang out. "Why haven't you answered your phone? The drone has been sent; have you received it?"

"I fell asleep earlier, sorry." Sleeping during work hours, and then sleeping until evening, was still a little embarrassing for Lin Ye. Fortunately, Zi Lan didn't seem to care, probably because she understood the nature of Lin Ye's work. Then Lin Ye looked at the bunch of drones surrounding him and asked Zi Lan, "So, how do you use these things?"

“Drones? That’s simple,” Zilan replied. “Just give them commands and grant them access to all rooms on all four floors.”