Chapter 223

At ten p. m., Wu Chang left his desk early, following Xiao En's habit, to return home and rest.

When he left the office, the entire building was brightly lit; apart from staff on business trips, even the cleaners were voluntarily working overtime.

In Xiao En's memory, more than half of Saint Song Company's employees clocked out after four a. m., returned to their dorms for a quick shower, slept three hours, and arrived punctually before eight a. m. with concentrated black coffee in hand.

Another small group of employees were posted externally—either on business trips or en route to them.

Those who left the company before midnight, like him, numbered no more than twenty.

This level of overtime was not enforced by the company—it was self-imposed by employees through relentless competition.

At Saint Song Company, all employees from level one to eight were treated equally, except for Xiao En, whom Wu Chang had possessed.

Your rank, power, and salary were all earned through your own efforts.

Saint Song Company's promotion system produced the highest fatality rate and the highest average salary in the entire Federation.

Even for janitorial work, Saint Song Company paid more than five times the industry average.

But Xiao En, the body Wu Chang possessed, never competed.

It wasn't because he disliked money, nor because he relied on his status as the chairman's cousin—he simply chose to lie flat.

At home, he did nothing but sleep, tend to flowers and plants, and play with cats and dogs.

He had already entered retirement early.

Beep.

"Mr. Xiao En, welcome home."

As the electronic lock recognized him, the fully automated defense system around Xiao En's residence deactivated, and the front door opened automatically.

According to Xiao En's memories, three dogs should have rushed to greet him the moment he entered—but today, the house was unnaturally quiet.

Before he could retreat, a voice came from the shadows behind the door.

"Come in. Don't try anything."

Wu Chang halted his backward step, hesitated a moment, then walked forward into the room.

The moment he stepped inside, the door shut behind him.

"Don't turn around. Keep walking inward," the kidnapper ordered.

Wu Chang continued forward, passing through the foyer and into the living room.

There he saw two bare-chested men bandaging each other's kidneys on the sofa, while a short-haired woman watched him warily.

One of the men, wrapped in a headscarf, said:

"Peace Brother, I didn't think you'd actually catch a high-ranking Saint Song executive."

Peace, who held Wu Chang captive, replied matter-of-factly: "It's nothing special."

Of course it wasn't—after all, he was kidnapping himself. What difficulty could there be?

Veronica stared at Wu Chang's original body, leaned close to True Self, and whispered:

"I just searched the room—he seems to be a high-level Saint Song executive, possibly very senior. How do you plan to get him to cooperate?"

After witnessing Peace confirm the target, use his invisibility skill to bypass layers of security, and effortlessly pick the lock, the three members of the Four Major Organizations had already believed eighty percent of Peace's earlier claim that he could secure them Saint Song employee identities.

Now, all three followed Wu Chang's instructions precisely, terrified of accidentally ruining his plan.

Saint Song Company's high-tech weaponry was genuinely advanced—so advanced that even elite stealth operatives were rendered visible before it.

Especially Xiao En's house: as manager of the Fully Automated Defense System Division and Schultz's cousin, Xiao En's residence had the highest security rating in Saint Song Company.

Anyone else attempting to infiltrate using Wu Chang's method would either be riddled with bullets or already under nationwide manhunt by now.

The reason Wu Chang's True Self succeeded was simple: the original body had granted him a whitelist remotely.

Wu Chang's original body feigned calmness and asked: "What do you want? I'm a level-eight employee of Saint Song Company. Do you dare attack me? Aren't you afraid of being wanted across the entire Federation tomorrow?"

True Self replied without expression: "We're looking for jobs."

Wu Chang's original body frowned, sneering: "Under these circumstances, do I have the option to refuse? Even if I give you jobs, do you really dare take them?"

True Self said: "We've already proven our capability by infiltrating your home. I've heard Saint Song Company is fiercely competitive—outperforming rivals doesn't always require doing it inside the company. If you need it, our abilities can serve as your weapon."

At these words, the original body fell into thought.

What followed was a duet staged entirely by Wu Chang himself.

To Booker and the others, Peace appeared as a devil who understood the human heart—he precisely sensed the executive's psychological shifts, each word altering his emotions.

Under Peace's manipulation, the executive first refused, then grew interested, then became anxious, and finally turned greedy and excited.

After more than ten minutes, an agreement was reached.

Peace, Booker, Colton, and Veronica would take orders solely from Xiao En, carrying out covert, illicit tasks on his behalf.

In return, Xiao En would provide them with employee identities and promise to place them in lucrative departments soon, guaranteeing promotion to level-three employees within one month.

After this maneuver, Booker and the others were thoroughly convinced of Peace's prowess.

No wonder he'd reached this level—a tryhard player; when it came to clearing dungeons, he was undeniably a professional.

After finalizing the deal, Wu Chang's True Self arranged temporary lodging for them and lent his home's healing pod to Booker and Colton for recovery.

Saint Song Company's healing pods could rapidly cure most ailments and accelerate tissue regeneration.

Entering the pod wouldn't immediately remove the negative effects left by the Mist on Booker and Colton, but it greatly weakened them.

Still, they didn't need to eliminate them entirely—only suppress them to a certain degree, after which they had their own methods to resolve the rest.

The night passed quickly. Wu Chang's original body gave them a few precautions, then hurried off to the company.

He had an interview this morning.

At eight a. m., Wu Chang arrived at the company precisely on time. Before reaching his office, his secretary informed him that the interview candidates were already waiting in the conference room and ready to begin.

At Saint Song Company, everyone's time was precious—they sprinted everywhere; even a hundred-meter dash pace felt too slow.

But Wu Chang was the opposite—he always walked leisurely.

"Let them wait. And bring me a cup of coffee."

Sitting in his office, he flipped through several résumés.

Six people in total—the leaders of the Iron Armor Squad, Flying Light, Haze, Thousand Leaves, and their deputies—had all chosen to come interview for his department.

These people had clearly done their homework. Ever since he took office, among the three core departments of Anthem Corporation, the Fully Automated Defense Systems Department was the easiest one to get into.

After finishing a cup of coffee, Wu Chang leisurely entered the conference room.

Before him, two department heads had already interviewed the group in succession.

All six had received very average scores, only 65—across the whole company, that was barely passing.

But that wasn't enough to get into the Fully Automated Defense Systems Department.

As a key department, the acceptance score threshold was 80.

The group fell quite short.

Even before Wu Chang arrived, his secretary had already told him that if he had official business to attend to, he could simply send the three back and not waste any time.

Wu Chang entered the conference room and looked at the six players sitting across from him, their faces tense.

Unlike the overbearing state they were in when they first entered the dungeon last night, the six were now wearing full suits, sitting ramrod-straight, behaving meekly.

Flying Light's normally half-narrowed eyes were now wide open; Thousand Leaves had removed all the colorful floral ornaments from her head, her shoulder-length hair coiled into a bun.

The biggest change was Haze. Last night he had been shrouded in a thin mist the whole time; now, for the interview, he had removed the mist covering his body, revealing an ordinary, generic face.

Although the previous two department heads had already expressed a dim view of them, even throwing out some cold barbs, the six still wore friendly smiles, completely without the killing-god demeanor from last night.

After Wu Chang entered and sized them up, his first words were: "Do you know what scores you received?" Their smiles stiffened somewhat, and Flying Light forced himself to say, "I don't think the score can reflect our abilities."

Wu Chang smiled without warmth, looking at Flying Light. "Are you questioning Anthem Corporation's system?"

"I wouldn't dare." Flying Light was immediately choked into silence.

Wu Chang shook his head, opened the tablet in his hand, and placed it in front of them.

The scores the previous two department heads had given them were all displayed on it.

If one insisted on going by the scores, only Flying Light barely met the standard; everyone else would be eliminated.

Wu Chang said, "Out in the world you may well be outstanding, but this is Anthem Corporation—a place that gathers the finest talent from the entire Federation, from the entire world. Your résumés here are so ordinary they couldn't be more ordinary."

"I'm not exaggerating when I tell you—that old man wearing earphones mopping the floor in the first-floor lobby scored a 67 on his interview back in the day."

"A score of 65 represents what? It represents that in the eyes of those two department heads just now, your value only qualifies you for Maintenance, Cleaning, or Transport—departments that don't require much thinking."

Wu Chang's words, paired with the scores on the tablet, made the smiles on Flying Light and the others' faces impossible to maintain.

They had originally thought that by preparing in advance and using props to fabricate an entire set of fake résumés, even if the score wasn't high, they could at least scrape in. They never expected the gap to be so large.

!

Flying Light's wide-open eyes gradually narrowed; Haze exhaled an almost invisible black mist between breaths; Thousand Leaves pinched the hem of her clothes, and a flower bud sprouted at the hem.

They were all famous players in the Wasteland Realm. In the past, when entering other dungeons, they mostly just brute-forced their way through—mindlessly killing, killing, killing. When had they ever suffered this kind of grievance?

If it weren't for carrying out that organization's instructions, they would have risked a dungeon failure just to slaughter the idiots who'd given them a 65.

What a joke—they'd fabricated an entire set of fake résumés and only got 65. Didn't that mean that based on their own real ability, they couldn't even make it as janitors?

That was fucking insulting.

Flying Light and the others were all holding their breath, ready to wait for Wu Chang to announce the interview failure, then immediately leave, take out those two guys tonight, and submit résumés to Maintenance tomorrow.

They hadn't expected Wu Chang to suddenly clap his hands and say, satisfied:

"I like the state you're in right now."

He pointed at Flying Light. "Especially that look in your eyes."

"They treat you as trash. Funny thing is, behind their backs they call me trash too. Maybe it's a case of trash appreciating trash—I sense a kind of possibility from you lot."

"If you can maintain your current state—unwilling to accept it, angry, full of killing intent—I can give you a chance."

Flying Light and the others had thought there was no chance left, but unexpectedly the situation suddenly turned around, and they inexplicidentally completed their onboarding.

While the six were still in a daze, Wu Chang called the department's HR in and had them process the onboarding paperwork.

The department manager had made the call, so HR naturally had nothing to say.

She asked softly, "Manager Xiao En, which group are you planning to assign them to?"

Wu Chang said, "I'm planning to set up a special group that I'll lead personally. They'll be the first batch of members of the special group."

The HR young lady froze for a moment, then said, "I'll go handle it right away."

Wu Chang told the group, "Wait here for now. Someone will come take you through the onboarding paperwork in a bit. You'll start work today. I'll come find you later."

Watching Wu Chang turn and leave, Flying Light and the others finally came to their senses. Haze said quietly, "Did we just become direct subordinates of a Grade Eight employee?"

Flying Light nodded. "That should be the idea."

Thousand Leaves pulled a four-leaf clover from her pocket, taking credit: "I told you this morning—the four-leaf clover I picked meant something good would happen."

Haze wanted to roast that the fourth leaf of that clover had clearly been sprouted by Thousand Leaves using her ability, but after thinking it over, held back.

In their original expectations, getting half of them through the interview and assigned to a group whose performance wasn't dead last would count as success.

They never expected to skyrocket straight to being direct employees of the department manager.

According to their intel, department managers were all Grade Eight employees. Even if the manager they were following was a bit lacking and dead last in performance, following him was actually the best outcome for them.

Other managers with good performance had too many productive employees under them; it would be very hard for them to stand out.

But Wu Chang was different—because of his poor performance, many capable employees had applied to transfer to other departments. Being in a fish pond, it was easier to rack up achievements.

Moreover, in their understanding, the workplace wasn't afraid of lacking ability; it was afraid of lacking background.

With Wu Chang's such solid background, latching onto his thigh—wouldn't that mean walking sideways through the entire company?

The six exchanged glances, and the same thought surfaced in their minds at once.

They had to perform well, serve this lord above them properly, and not let a single thing go wrong.

Their future in the dungeon, and the things those big shots wanted, all depended on that biggest connected figure in Anthem Corporation.

If Flying Light and the others in the conference room were shouting "we win" in their hearts, then Wu Chang sitting in his office was Qin Shi Huang touching an electric wire—winning so hard it numbed.

The players of the Iron Armor Corps and the four major organizations had all become employees under him; every move they made had to follow his orders — how could he possibly lose?

Holy Song Company might as well just rename itself to Wu Chang Company.

Wu Chang leaned back in his office chair, looking at the computer on his desk.

With strong troops and everything in place, he had to seize the time and produce results.

If he got Xiao En's permission and pulled all these guys into Holy Song Company, only to become the first player fired for failing to meet his performance targets —

That would be quite the spectacle.

As for how to grow performance, back in Schultz's office, the tycoon Morez had given him an idea.

Morez mentioned the rags-to-riches story of another Level 8 manager, Farrell.

Wu Chang looked into it later: in order to promote defense insurance, portable weapons allowed on campus, and children's bulletproof equipment, Farrell had orchestrated a series of large-scale, connected campus shootings across multiple schools in Wielde City, including kindergartens.

Ever since that incident, enrolling in school and purchasing campus defense insurance had become almost inseparable.

Wu Chang obviously couldn't do something like that — aside from the question of whether it was even moral, the instance's Main Quest 3 simply wouldn't allow it.

"Main Quest 3: Maintain Wielde City's Peace Value; the Peace Value must not drop below 30 points."

After Main Quest 3, a floating Peace Value was displayed.

At this moment, Wielde City's Peace Value was 51 — not even a passing score.

This number could not withstand a large-scale public attack incident.

Wu Chang couldn't copy Farrell's methods wholesale, but he could borrow the thinking behind them.

If there's no demand, create demand — you must first endanger the target group's safety, and only then will they pay for security.

However, to avoid affecting Wielde City's Peace Value, his actions had to be confined to a small scope: few attacks, big impact, a sense of crisis delivered straight and hard, and the threatened clients had to have the means to actually pay.

Taking all of the above into account, the face of a certain good person surfaced in Wu Chang's mind.

A kindly smiling, bespectacled, gleaming bald head full of wisdom — the tycoon Morez.

Wu Chang hurriedly pulled up Holy Song Company's performance distribution map for Wielde City; if he remembered correctly, the Orleans Estate where Morez lived was Wielde City's most luxurious and safest villa district.

A large police presence was deployed there, and not far from the estate was a Holy Song Company patrol squad outpost.

Because the environment was already so secure, Orleans Estate had not upgraded to the latest fully automated armed defense system — it was still using a model from seven years ago.

Wasn't the target right here?

Since Morez had given him such a fine suggestion, presumably Morez wouldn't get angry when he actually carried it out, right?

Still, threatening Orleans Estate was no easy task — aside from the dedicated police force of the wealthy district and Holy Song Company's patrol squad, every tycoon's mansion employed quite a few high-level bodyguards.

Orleans Estate hadn't upgraded its fully automated armed defense system not because it couldn't afford to, but because its defensive capability was already overkill — it didn't need it.

Precisely because of that, ordinary attacks wouldn't be enough; he had to bring out something heavy.

The kind of heavy hitter that belonged to Holy Song Company.

Wu Chang opened Holy Song Company's backend permissions and entered the Level 8 employee permission application center.

Among the many permissions, there was a special application button called "Disqualified Monster Requisition."

(End of Chapter)