God-level Ferryman: Starting reward is the Ten Kings of Hell

Chapter 45 I'm having a team-building event in the underworld

The job fair ended in a noisy uproar, and Jin Chanzi was dragged to the Bridge of Helplessness to wash cups, which marked a perfect end to this recruitment expansion.

Chu Jiang sat in his newly replaced Soul-Nourishing Wood boss's chair, looking at the new employees standing in a row below, and nodded in satisfaction.

Chief Risk Officer Shen Gongbao was as thin as a stick, with small, darting eyes and a faint, mischievous smile playing on his lips.

Ma Liang, the chief graphic designer and PPT specialist, is a pale-faced scholar. He is holding a pen in his hand, and his palms are sweating with nervousness.

There's also a bunch of geniuses who barely met the hiring standards through written tests and interviews, a motley crew of all shapes and sizes.

"Not bad, our team at 'Santu Ferry Management Co., Ltd.' has been initially established." Chu Jiang cleared his throat.

"But!" he changed the subject, "I've noticed that each of you is lacking something."

"What is that?" The new ghosts looked at each other in bewilderment.

"Corporate cohesion!" Chu Jiang slammed his fist on the table. "Team spirit! We are a collective, we need a wolf-like culture! Understand?"

There was complete silence below; clearly, not a single person understood.

Chu Jiang sighed. Talking about corporate culture to these ancient people from the feudal era was truly like casting pearls before swine.

"Forget it, you wouldn't understand even if I explained." He waved his hand. "To improve relationships among colleagues and foster teamwork, I've decided that the company will hold its first-ever employee team-building activity this weekend!"

"Team building?" Shen Gongbao rubbed his hands together, looking curious.

"It's basically a publicly funded trip, involving eating, drinking, and having fun," Chu Jiang explained.

Upon hearing this, the crowd erupted in uproar, a cacophony of voices.

"Is this for real?"

"Long live the Dean! The boss is so generous!"

Chu Jiang gestured for silence. "I've already chosen the location; it's in the famous 5A-level scenic area of ​​the underworld—the Eighteen Levels of Hell."

"What?" The ghosts, who had just been cheering, suddenly stopped talking as if they had been choked.

"Team building activities include, but are not limited to: oil pan surfing, tongue-pulling rock climbing, iron tree swinging..." Chu Jiang counted on his fingers, "The main theme is to have fun in the underworld, so that everyone can feel the warmth of the company family in a tense and exciting activity."

The scene was deathly silent.

All the ghosts looked at Chu Jiang as if he were a devil.

"Why does everyone seem a little reluctant?" Chu Jiang narrowed his eyes.

"Boss, um... I have something to do at home this weekend..." a ghost soldier weakly raised his hand.

"Oh? What could be more important than company team building?" Chu Jiang looked at him kindly.

"My...my wife is about to give birth..."

Chu Jiang nodded: "Very good, very responsible towards family. Li the coder, make a note of this: half of his performance review will be deducted this month, his year-end 13th-month bonus will be canceled, and his reincarnation options will be postponed for 100 years."

The ghost soldier's legs went weak, and he immediately knelt down: "Boss, I was wrong! I don't have a wife! I love the company! I love team building!"

"That's right." Chu Jiang smiled with satisfaction.

"Furthermore," he instructed Bruch beside him, "send a letter to the Ten Kings of Hell, mandating that each of them send a representative to participate in promoting the harmonious and stable development of the underworld. Anyone who doesn't come is disrespecting our Supreme Court."

When King Qin Guang received the official letter, his hand trembled.

Team building in the eighteenth level of hell? This guy's thought process is truly beyond the comprehension of us mere mortals.

"Your Majesty, how about... we send Judge Cui?" the ghost messenger beside him suggested in a low voice.

"Foolish!" King Qin Guang slammed his hand on the table. "This is an opportunity Dean Chu gave us! A perfect chance to get closer to a 'senior'! Others would love to go but don't even have the connections!"

He immediately decided, "I will go myself! Cui Jue, you come with me. We represent the First Palace, and we must present our best performance!"

The "Eighteen Levels of Hell" scenic area, also known as the "Mountain of Knives and Sea of ​​Fire," is a popular spot for tourists on weekends.

The area had already been cleared out, and a huge banner was hung at the entrance: "Warmly welcome all employees of Santu Express Company to visit and provide guidance."

Chu Jiang, dressed in beach shorts and flip-flops, wearing large sunglasses, lay on a beach chair made of millennia-old ice, while Li, the coder, was reporting on the process on a tablet next to him.

King Qin Guang, accompanied by Judge Cui, also changed into what he considered to be fashionable casual wear and came running over eagerly.

"Dean Chu, what do you think of our outfits?" King Qin Guang tidied his shiny black wig, his face beaming with smiles.

"Your Majesty, your taste is quite retro," Chu Jiang said dismissively.

The first project: oil pan surfing.

Inside a huge oil cauldron with a diameter of 100 meters, scalding hot oil bubbled and sputtered.

"Who wants to be the first to set an example for everyone?" Chu Jiang shouted.

King Qin Guang, eager to prove himself, stepped forward without hesitation: "I'll do it!"

He stepped onto a specially made cold iron surfboard, took a deep breath, and plunged into the oil pan.

At first, it was quite steady, drawing a beautiful arc on the scalding hot noodles.

"See that! That's how you play! As long as you have no fear in your heart, even karmic fire is like a clear spring!" King Qin Guang shouted triumphantly to the shore.

No sooner had he finished speaking than a wave crashed over him, causing his surfboard to tilt and him to lose his balance, plunging into the frying pan with a "plop."

When it resurfaced, the ghosts on the shore were stunned.

King Qin Guang's head was bald and shiny with oil, and an exquisite wig floated on the oily noodles not far away, rising and falling with the waves of oil.

Society dies in an instant.

King Qin Guang wished he could disappear into a crack in the ground right then and there, but Judge Cui quickly used his magic to retrieve the wig.

With King Qin Guang setting an example, the ghosts behind him were all ready to die, screaming as they rushed into the oil cauldron, creating a scene of wailing and howling, filled with a joyful atmosphere.

When it was Shen Gongbao's turn to go on stage, he smiled and cupped his hands in greeting towards the oil fryer.

"Fellow Daoists, I've arrived! I wish you all a wonderful time!"

His words were like a magic switch that had been pressed.

"boom!"

The oil in the pan, which had been relatively stable, suddenly exploded.

The flames at the bottom of the pot suddenly shot up dozens of feet high, the temperature increasing more than tenfold in an instant, turning the oil in the pot bright red. The smoldering oil in the pot seemed to be boiling, churning up towering waves.

"Aaaaaah!"

"Help! My feet are being scalded!"

"The equipment is malfunctioning!"

The ghosts, who were still "surfing" in the oil pan, instantly switched from vacation mode to survival mode, scrambling and crawling to escape to the shore.

Li, the programmer next to Chu Jiang, suddenly saw countless red alerts pop up on his tablet.

[WARNING! The oil temperature in the pan has exceeded the safe threshold by 900%!]

[WARNING! Abnormal voltage at the Mountain of Knives; Thunder Mode activated!]

[WARNING! The core temperature of the inferno is out of control, and a chain explosion is imminent!]

Looking at the chaotic scene before him, Shen Gongbao scratched his head innocently: "Strange, I only offered everyone a blessing."

The scene had become a living hell, no, a hellish inferno.

What was originally a team-building activity has completely turned into an extreme survival challenge.

The mountain of knives, which was originally just a matter of climbing up to be considered a success, is now covered with crackling purple arcs of electricity, and touching it will cause one's soul to be scattered.

In the sea of ​​fire, the color of the flames changed from dark red to a blinding white, and even space itself was distorted by the heat.

King Qin Guang and his men had already fled back to the safe zone. Looking at this apocalyptic scene, they were all terrified.

"This...this team building activity is too exciting!" King Yama said, wiping away cold sweat.

"As expected of the senior's work, truly extraordinary!" King Qin Guang was still stubborn, trying to find a reasonable explanation for Chu Jiang's behavior.

Just when all the ghosts thought Chu Jiang would step in to stop the disaster, they witnessed a scene they would never forget.

Chu Jiang, facing the towering waves of oil, gracefully leaned back and lay directly into the sea of ​​oil, which was powerful enough to melt divine iron.

He took off his sunglasses, stretched his limbs, and surprisingly... began to swim on his back in that boiling sea of ​​oil.

Their posture was perfect, their expressions relaxed, as if they were soaking in a Hawaiian hot spring, not in karmic fire or yin oil.

All the ghosts, including King Qin Guang, were dumbfounded.

As they watched the figure swimming leisurely in the sea of ​​fire, their eyes slowly shifted from fear to awe, and finally to fervent worship.

Is this what a big shot is like?

He regards the might of heaven and earth as nothing, plays freely in the world, and is impervious to all laws!

【Ding! 】

[Employee admiration has reached its peak, and team cohesion is at its maximum!]

A system notification sounded in Chu Jiang's mind. He changed his swimming style to breaststroke and felt very pleased with himself.

That was a perfectly timed display of arrogance.

Just then, the system notification sounded again, but this time it was sharp and piercing.

[Red Alert! Red Alert!]

[Intruder from a higher dimension detected! This individual is not a dead soul, but is attempting to physically cross over using illegal means!]

[WARNING! The dimensional barrier has been breached. Location: Center of the inferno!]

Chu Jiang paused.

The next second, the sky directly above the sea of ​​fire, like glass, suddenly cracked open with a pitch-black gash.

A figure, enveloped in blue arcs of electricity and fragments of shattered space, plummeted straight down from the crack.

"Thump!"

The figure crashed precisely into the center of the inferno, sending up a spray of pale white flames.

As the flames subsided, a girl with short pink hair, dressed in a futuristic, tight-fitting mecha suit, stood up from the inferno.

A lightsaber made of pure energy popped out from her wrist, its blade humming.

The girl looked around blankly at the dumbfounded demons, then at the distant mountain of knives flashing with lightning, her brows furrowed.

She turned on the helmet's communication channel, only to hear a jumble of static.

"That's strange... Johnny? Are you there?"

"Is this... the sewers of Night City in 2077? Something seems... off."

The ghosts on the shore were all dumbfounded.

What is this thing? Did it fall from the sky? It's dressed in weird clothes.

Only Chu Jiang's eyes shone brightly.

Cyberpunk style! High-tech mechs! Lightsabers!

Isn't this a top-tier cross-disciplinary talent?!

The ruthless boss's spirit within Chu Jiang instantly ignited.

He teleported in front of the mecha girl, pulled out a business card he had prepared at some point from the pocket of his beach shorts, and handed it to her.

The business card is made of pure gold and engraved with the words in seal script—

[Chu Jiang, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Underworld, CEO of San Tu Kuai Du Management Co., Ltd., and Chief Order Officer of the Underworld]

"Miss, I see you have extraordinary bone structure and an unusual appearance. Would you be interested in becoming the CTO of our Underworld?"

Mecha girl "V" frowned even more deeply as she looked at the strange man in beach shorts handing her a business card.

"A new NPC? Did it trigger some hidden quest?"

Without hesitation, she raised her hand and swung her sword towards Chu Jiang's neck. In her view, this was just an interaction within the game.

However, the lightsaber stopped an inch from Chu Jiang's neck.

Chu Jiang extended two fingers and casually pinched the blade of the energy sword.

"Young lady, you've got quite a temper."

With his other hand, he weighed the black baseball bat that he had never parted from, and gently tapped it against the girl's mecha helmet.

"Thump."

A muffled thud.

All the light emanating from the mecha girl, along with her lightsaber, instantly went out.

Her eyes rolled back, and she fell straight backward. The mech automatically deployed its airbags before landing.

[External high-energy weapon attack detected, system crashed...rebooting...]

This was the last thing V heard before losing consciousness.

Chu Jiang, carrying a baseball bat, grinned as he looked at the "high-end talent" lying on the ground.

"Li, coder, drag her back to the office and give her a good look."

"I feel that our company's technology is about to experience a revolutionary leap forward."