parentshiftbook Chapter 241 Assigning Tasks
Chapter 241 Assigning Tasks
Tang Yuan took two steps forward.
"That's all I wanted to say." He glanced at everyone. "Now, I'll draw your tasks for today."
He paused briefly.
"Since it's the first day, the missions will be designed to 'match' your abilities and characteristics as much as possible. But starting tomorrow... that preferential treatment will no longer apply."
As he spoke, he slammed his ebony cane heavily into the ground.
Suddenly, a series of soft "crackling" sounds came from the ground in front of the square.
Everyone looked in the direction of the sound and saw a crack slowly appearing in the ground.
Immediately afterwards, a stone sculpture covered in moss and mottled cracks slowly rose from the crack.
The stone sculpture resembled a giant human face, its features distorted beyond recognition, its eye sockets empty, staring blankly at the crowd as if it could devour souls.
The most terrifying thing was its mouth, with its jawbone wide open, its jagged, stone teeth gleaming with a cold, hard blue light, and a wisp of sticky, transparent mucus hanging from the corner of its mouth.
A collective gasp rippled through the crowd, many turning pale and instinctively shrinking back.
"What...what is this thing?" someone asked in a trembling voice, unable to hide the fear in their voice.
Tang Yuan seemed to have expected this, a mocking smile curving his lips:
"What's the panic? It's just a task assigner."
"This is called the 'Mouth of the Contract,' which is the embodiment of the ancient rules for assigning tasks in the park."
"Simply put your hands into your mouth, and it will 'recognize' your breath and match you with the 'appropriate' position without harming your body—as long as you don't try to forcibly pull your arms away while it is 'recognizing' you."
As soon as he finished speaking, a commotion broke out in the audience.
"A hand...a hand going in?" A young woman's voice trembled as she stared intently at the jagged stone teeth of the sculpture. "What if those teeth...then what if they close up?"
"There's drool dripping from its mouth...it's clearly a living thing!" Another man's face turned deathly pale, his Adam's apple bobbing violently. "Put your hand into a living thing's mouth...is this...is this really reliable?"
Several staff members dressed in crisp black uniforms appeared silently from the corner like ghosts.
Each of them held a buzzing stun gun with a ghostly blue arc of electricity flashing at its tip, their faces expressionless.
There was no warning, no explanation.
They wedged directly into the crowd, roughly pushing and separating them.
A young man with curly hair was a beat slower and instinctively shrank back.
Before this subtle resistance could even form a complete movement, the nearest man in black had already taken half a step forward, and the eerie blue arc of the stun baton, like a viper's tongue, precisely pierced his side.
"Crackling sound—!"
The crackling sound of electricity and the young man's short, shrill scream tore through the air.
He convulsed violently and collapsed to the ground, a burnt smell instantly rising from his skin.
After a brief silence came a deeper fear.
No one dared to hesitate even slightly.
Under the chilling intimidation of the eerie blue electric light, the crowd scrambled to move forward and formed a queue.
In less than a minute, the fifty chosen ones were arranged into a straight line.
At the very front of the line was the chosen one from India, a young man named Raj Sharma.
He had dark skin and a tall, thin build. At that moment, his forehead was covered with fine beads of sweat, and his lips were trembling as he prayed softly in his mother tongue for the protection of Shiva.
"Step forward and extend your hand," a staff member in black urged impatiently.
Raj moved cautiously to the "Mouth of Scissors," and tremblingly extended his right hand toward the hideous mouth.
The moment his arm sank in, Raj shuddered violently!
He felt that the inside of his mouth was not hard stone, but warm, slippery, and covered with tiny granulation tissue. These granulation tissues seemed to be alive, gently brushing against his skin, bringing a tingling and stinging sensation that made his scalp tingle.
He almost screamed and pulled his hand back, but remembering the principal's warning, he gritted his teeth and stubbornly held on.
Time seemed to stretch out.
A few seconds later, a voice that was neither male nor female, with a strange metallic quality, rumbled from inside the stone sculpture, or rather from beneath the entire plaza:
"Identification complete. Position: Zookeeper."
Raj felt as if he had been granted a pardon and was about to withdraw his hand.
The voice continued, its tone measured yet undeniably authoritative:
"Assigned area: Reptile area."
As soon as he finished speaking, the granulation tissue on the inside of his mouth seemed to gently push his hand.
Raj quickly pulled his arm out, revealing it covered in a layer of shiny, odorless mucus, but his skin remained intact.
He paused for a moment, a strange image flashing through his mind, but he quickly shook his head and muttered:
"I'm going crazy... I must be going crazy!"
........................
Studio:
"Good heavens, this allocation, did they really not check Raj's browser history? Lizard... Danger!"
"Raj, you need to control yourself! Don't embarrass India in front of a global audience!"
"It is recommended that the reptile house immediately install warning signs: 'Please keep your distance from the animals, and especially prohibit close contact.'"
"Indeed, the one who understands you best is the 'Mouth of the Contract,' which is called matching expertise to one's job and making the best use of one's talents."
"Article 1 of the Zookeeper Code of Conduct: Please remember that your responsibility is to feed, clean, and observe, not to date."
........................
Raj stepped aside, and the man in black immediately turned to the next person in the group, coldly shouting:
"Next, reach out your hand!"
"Identification complete. Position: Cleaner. Assigned area: Monkey Mountain."
"Identification complete. Position: Security Guard. Patrol Area: Penguin Enclosure."
……
Job titles and regions were constantly being announced from the "Mouth of the Master," each announcement accompanied by either a sigh of relief or a tense frown from the chosen ones.
When it was Lin Feng's turn, he calmly stepped forward and inserted his arm into the wet and warm "mouth".
The sensation of the granulation tissue brushing against his skin was still unpleasant, but he steadied himself and did not back down in the slightest.
A few seconds later, a metallic scraping sound rang out:
"Identification complete. Position: Ticket seller."
"Assignment window: Main entrance, Window No. 3"
conductor?
Lin Feng's heart stirred slightly.
This job seems far removed from the ferocious beasts deep within the park, but it involves directly facing "visitors"—those mysterious beings with unknown identities.
The risks are probably greater than those of other jobs.
Then, a female chosen one from the White Elephant Kingdom stepped forward.
She was about thirty years old, named Songxi, wearing a well-tailored light gray business suit, her hair neatly tied up, only her tightly pursed lips and slightly trembling eyelashes betraying her nervousness.
She put her hand into the mouth of the cleric and quickly got the result:
"Identification complete. Position: Ticket seller."
"Assignment window: Main entrance, Window No. 2"
Subsequently, Chiba Saori from the Sakura Country was also assigned as a ticket seller, in charge of window number 1.
Wasim and Park Chang-beom both drew the security guard role.
The two will jointly be responsible for patrolling the large herbivore area.
Park Chang-beom glanced at Wasim's bandaged left arm and couldn't help but speak:
"Won't you be holding me back like this?"
Wasim didn't even turn his head completely, only glancing at him sideways: "How about we try fighting now?"
Park Chang-beom paused for a moment, then shrugged and looked away: "Why bother? I was just asking casually."