Chapter 43: On the Job

Time continued to pass, and before long, another six years had gone by.

On this day, Lu Qing was cultivating inside the spaceship’s control room when the auxiliary AI Deep Blue suddenly spoke in his mind.

“Master, the spaceship is about to arrive at the company’s headquarters!”

“So I’m finally starting work?”

Lu Qing slowly opened his eyes, then couldn’t help sighing: “Time really flies! The next hundred thousand years—I’ll be working nonstop!”

Fortunately, his upcoming duties were relatively light; he could cultivate seriously during the spaceship’s journey, so it wasn’t a waste of time.

As Lu Qing sighed, Blood Red No. 3 swiftly darted back into the Original Universe.

In a dreamlike starry void, the vast mainland of the Virtual Universe Company’s headquarters floated suspended in space.

At this moment, Lu Qing’s “Blood Red No. 3” was an official spaceship of the Virtual Universe Company’s Transport Department, so as it neared the headquarters mainland, it did not receive the tractor beam signal as it had during his first visit.

Thus, Lu Qing quickly passed through one of the entrances and docked the spaceship at the Transport Department’s designated landing pad.

Whoosh!

The hatch opened, and Lu Qing, clad in dark gold battle armor, flew out of the ship.

Outside, a Lord-level Transport Department staff member had already been waiting: “Lord Lu Qing, please follow me!”

Lu Qing nodded slightly, then followed the man down a dreamlike corridor, soon arriving outside a spacious hall.

Lu Qing entered the hall and found over a dozen figures already present—the other Immortal Spirits who had joined the Virtual Universe Company’s Transport Department alongside him.

“Hahaha!”

Seeing Lu Qing arrive, the werewolf warrior Klimo, who had arrived earlier, quickly stepped forward with a grin: “Brother Qing, you’ve finally shown up! I’ve been waiting here for over ten days!”

“Klimo!”

Lu Qing looked at this friend he had known even before entering the Original Universe and smiled in greeting: “I’m not late—you’re just too early!”

“Our Noah Universe Nation is farther away, so I feared arriving late and left a few days ahead!”

Klimo chuckled: “By the way, the F-class spaceship the company issued us is incredibly efficient—I took less than half the time to get here compared to last time, and the energy crystals consumed barely increased!”

“Same here!” Lu Qing smiled.

“Have you heard the news?” After a few casual remarks, Klimo’s voice lowered slightly.

“What news?” Lu Qing asked, puzzled.

“Of course, Tori—the one who joined the Transport Department with us!” Klimo whispered.

“What happened to him?” Lu Qing asked calmly.

Originally, seventeen Immortal Spirits had joined the Virtual Universe Company’s Transport Department alongside Lu Qing, and Tori was one of them.

But over the past thousand years, Lu Qing had been in deep seclusion, and apart from chatting in the group, he had paid almost no attention to Tori or the others.

“He’s dead,” Klimo said, his voice growing somber.

“How is that possible?” Lu Qing was startled, then asked: “Was he attacked by alien elites deep within human territory?”

After all, as core members of the Virtual Universe Company, even powerful figures in human territory usually showed them some respect—only alien elites would directly attack them!

Yet now, before they’d even started work, one of them had already perished?

“No, that didn’t happen!”

Klimo shook his head: “I heard Tori thought our Transport Department’s leave was too short and the rewards too meager, so he directly applied to go to the Outer War Zone!”

“But I heard he only stayed in the Outer War Zone for three hundred years, failed to even meet the minimum military merit quota, and was killed by a strong alien squad from the Beast Clan!”

Hearing Klimo’s words, Lu Qing understood.

As core members of the Virtual Universe Company, they were required to obey company assignments at all times—except for one exception: going to the Outer War Zone!

This “going to the Outer War Zone” didn’t mean serving as staff; it meant entering the battlefield to fight alien elites directly!

Only then could they somewhat violate company rules, as long as they met a certain military merit quota within a set time.

Tori must have thought the same—unfortunately, he vastly underestimated the dangers of the Outer War Zone and ultimately perished there.

Three days later, all the Immortal Spirits who had joined the Transport Department had gathered in the hall, when a burly man clad in ancient blue battle armor approached Lu Qing and the others.

His face was covered in thick blue fur, and he had a thick tail behind him—he was clearly a super-strong Ape Clan warrior.

“Welcome, all of you, to the Virtual Universe Company’s Transport Department!”

The blue-armored giant’s gaze swept over Lu Qing and the others, then he said gravely: “I, Lord Qingcang, will now command you all!”

“Greetings, Lord Qingcang!” Lu Qing and the others bowed deeply.

“Hahaha…”

Lord Qingcang laughed heartily, then said: “I’ve already activated your access permissions within the Transport Department—you can now check your assigned tasks directly in the Virtual Universe!”

“Let me warn you: the most critical rule in my department is to never harbor greed!”

“The cargo you Immortal Spirits transport is often extremely precious—wealth you could never accumulate in endless lifetimes!”

“But I must remind you: although you are entrusted to transport it, it does not belong to you!”

Long ago, an Immortal Spirit stole vital cargo during transport and fled—cleverly even escaping into alien territory. But he was eventually tracked down by our company’s elites, utterly slain, and even his entire clan enslaved!

“Therefore, I hope you take this as a warning!”

Lord Qingcang said seriously: “At any time, in any place, under any circumstance, never betray the company or your race!”

“We understand!” Lu Qing and the others nodded.

“Of course, if you work hard, the company will reward you generously!”

Lord Qingcang continued: “Over a million years ago, our Transport Department’s Immortal Spirit Klin, while guarding a prodigy from the Original Secret Realm, faced an ambush by alien spies. He remained calm, even burned his Immortal body to block their assassination attempt!”

“Thanks to Klin’s protection, the Original Secret Realm prodigy survived until reinforcements arrived. Klin was rewarded by the company: not only were precious treasures used to restore his body swiftly, but he was also granted one hundred thousand years of Original Universe cultivation time!”

Hearing this, Klimo and the others were deeply stirred.

After all, Original Universe cultivation slots for Immortals were far more valuable than those for Lord-level cultivators.

Back when Lu Qing and the others were still Lords, three hundred years of Original Universe cultivation had cost them over thirty thousand Hunyuan units.

For Immortals—even as core members of the Virtual Universe Company—each hundred years of cultivation required a full fifty thousand credits!

That meant Lu Qing and the others would need to work for a million years just to accumulate enough credits for a hundred years of cultivation in the Chaos City!

And that Immortal Spirit named Klin—just by fighting alien spies once—earned one hundred thousand years of cultivation time!

Thinking of this, Klimo and the others almost wished they themselves had been the ones targeted by alien assassins!

Afterward, Lord Qingcang gave Lu Qing and the others further warnings and reminders, then dismissed them.

Next chapter will come later.

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(End of chapter)