The Company's Whip

When Zhang Caidong returned to Diesel Company and stood trembling before the huge tent built from lumber and animal hides, he was terrified.

Even the Sun Family Brothers, who had always been unruly and notoriously vicious within Diesel Company, stood there obediently without daring to say much. Their plump faces were covered in cold sweat, and they were clearly panicking.

Because seated inside that huge tent, attended by others, was the burly figure of Xue Zhigang, Diesel Company's second General Manager.

Before the Necromantic Rules descended, he had already thrived in both the underworld and legitimate circles, and the transport convoys under his command had moved freely throughout Long City.

Now, he had obtained the inheritance of an Orc lord from the Spiritual Realm.

Using Diesel Company as his base, he occupied the busiest transportation hub on Balihe Street and commanded more than three hundred Pigmen among the orcs, all skilled at breaking through defenses, as Followers.

Along with Diesel Company's original forty-odd Official Employees and over a hundred hired or third-party Temporary Workers.

Every one of them had ten to thirty creatures rescued from the Spiritual Realm as Followers.

Their total force numbered nearly four thousand.

They were truly a major power with absolute authority in the Balihe Street area!

Zhang Caidong and the Sun Family Brothers were nothing before Diesel Company.

If they had not reported the discovery of a new human lord, they would not even have been qualified to stand at the entrance of Diesel Company's General Manager's office—that was, before the Orc Chieftain's tent.

On the broad platform ahead, nearly fifty Pigman Elites stood like bodyguards on either side of the huge tent. They were over two meters tall, fat and muscular, dressed in Chainmail and leather armor, and armed with round wooden shields and Flail Hammers.

They glared viciously at Zhang Caidong and the Sun Family Brothers with hostile eyes, occasionally swallowing greedily.

They made no attempt to hide their craving for human flesh.

After all, if outsiders at Diesel Company committed mistakes that could not be remedied, their final fate was to be buried in the bellies of these pigmen and turned into manure for growing crops.

Of course, this punishment only applied to outsiders.

But as it happened.

Zhang Caidong and the Sun Family Brothers were outsiders to Diesel Company.

Now, Zhang Caidong secretly raised his head and glanced outside the huge tent. Quite a few members of management, dressed in leather armor, Chainmail, or mail armor and just as fat and muscular as the pigmen, stood respectfully outside, waiting to report on their work.

Because he was standing fairly close, faint voices drifted into Zhang Caidong's ears.

"General Manager, Sales Department reporting. These are the Spiritual Realm Marks we recently found, totaling 452 Space-Time Fragments. However, while collecting the marks, we had several rather intense conflicts with the Wood Elves of Green Leaf Group..."

"General Manager Zhigang, Human Resources Department reporting. The Black Tide is about to arrive. We have arranged for 13,574 ordinary people to enter the territory for protection, ensuring an ample supply of Blue Star Rules within our company. Here is the list and background analysis..."

"General Manager, Transportation Department reporting. We conducted another inspection before the Black Tide. The company's eight directly managed convoys are now all fully staffed, with each person assigned at least thirty pigmen as Followers. The remaining four Outsourced Teams are also basically at full Follower capacity and can be deployed at any time..."

"Greetings, General Manager. Quality Inspection Department reporting. Minor Magic Fluctuations have been discovered in multiple areas. In particular, obvious Magic Fluctuations were detected in the eastern suburbs. We suspect the descent of Rule Power and request that the area be thoroughly investigated..."

"..."

These were all reports from Diesel Company's management to General Manager Xue Zhigang.

Zhang Caidong listened with longing in his heart.

Wasn't a lord the master of a territory? No matter how powerful a leader or how high-ranking an official was, they still had to pledge loyalty to that lord, report to him, and bow their heads in submission.

"What luck." Thinking of Diesel Company's rise to power, Zhang Caidong could not help but feel jealousy well up in his eyes.

When the Necromantic Rules first descended, no one knew what those crystals representing various inheritances were.

Many people did not dare touch them recklessly.

Only after many people died did they gradually figure out that these Spiritual Realm Marks were gifts left behind by the shattered, dead legitimate rules of the Spiritual Realm.

They were the foundation for resisting corrupt rules like the undead and the abyss!

Unfortunately.

Because many Blue Star people had not known how to properly use the inheritances within Spiritual Realm Marks during the early days.

Nor had stronger professionals emerged, or people with more powerful Spiritual Realm Creatures as Followers.

They could only perish in one dark night after another.

Only now, three years later, had they barely gained enough experience from so many deaths to contend against the invasion of the Necromantic Rules and figured out some tricks.

But the casually chosen Spiritual Realm Mark inheritances from the beginning could never be changed back.

Even finding a Spiritual Realm inheritance had become extremely difficult!

Not to mention becoming a lord and directly summoning territory from the Spiritual Realm, thereby gaining the protection of the legitimate rules of the Spiritual Realm.

It was no different from winning a five-million jackpot!

"When will I obtain a Lord Inheritance too? Then I won't have to stand here so humbly, being ordered around like some lackey!"

Zhang Caidong lowered his head again in a show of humility, but inwardly, he gritted his teeth. The jealousy was nearly suffocating him.

But a rough voice soon interrupted his wandering thoughts.

It belonged to a Pigman Elite.

The pigman strode over on thick, fat legs, glanced at the skinny Zhang Caidong, then gave the short and stout Sun Family Brothers an especially thorough look. Only after his thick tongue licked across his lips beneath his curved tusks did he speak crudely.

"Snort, snort! Come with me. The chieftain wants to see you! Explain everything you know clearly!"

"Ah, we'll explain it clearly."

Zhang Caidong seemed to snap awake. He hurriedly put on a fawning expression and nodded repeatedly.

He glanced at the dull-witted Sun Family Brothers behind him.

They nodded.

Then they followed behind the pigman, slightly hunched over as they headed into the enormous tent, which looked like a small real estate sales office.

Under the gazes of the Pigman Elites, whose eyes were unfriendly and who occasionally let out snorts, they behaved as meekly as quails.

"Greetings, General Manager." After entering the tent, the three of them spoke respectfully.

They saw that in the very center of the tent, a burly man in a white dress shirt sat behind a rosewood tea table carved from an entire piece of raw redwood, drinking kung fu tea while being attended by several young women.

That burly man in the white dress shirt was Diesel Company's General Manager, the chieftain of this territory.

Xue Zhigang.

Hearing their greeting, Xue Zhigang did not even raise his head. His eyes behind gold-rimmed glasses merely swept over the three of them, and he casually grunted in response.

Beside Xue Zhigang, a female secretary eagerly filled the small porcelain cup in front of him with black tea.

Only then did she turn around and say arrogantly.

"Tell us in detail about the human lord you reported."

"Yes." Zhang Caidong showed no dissatisfaction whatsoever. Instead, he smiled ingratiatingly and seriously gave a brief account of what he had encountered regarding Shen Mu.

Naturally, he did not mention a word about taking private jobs or knowing Zhang Bo, the Quality Inspection Department Deputy Director.

He was not an idiot.

"General Manager, it appears to be the report on the relatively obvious Magic Fluctuations detected by the Quality Inspection Department."

The sweet-voiced female secretary spoke to him from the side.

"Mm." Xue Zhigang nodded.

He picked up another cup of kung fu tea, raised his hand, tipped back his head, and drained it in one gulp, a satisfied smile on his lips.

Then another female secretary beside him lifted the teapot and refilled his delicate teacup with fresh black tea.

"Summoning his own castle inside an apartment. Should I say that youth knows no fear, or that he's stupid enough to make people laugh?"

Xue Zhigang spoke slowly. His voice was rough and powerful, and his tone was filled with mockery.

"He must have spent too long wandering the wilderness. He thinks that since Blue Star people and Spiritual Realm Followers have formed soul bonds, with Blue Star Rules and Spiritual Realm Rules layered over one another, they cannot be as easily destroyed by monsters under the Necromantic Rules as Spiritual Realm buildings can. So he thought he could arrange for himself a base in a high and easily defended place."

"General Manager, is he trying to guard against the Black Tide?"

The sweet-voiced female secretary beside him asked in confusion. "I heard that outside, ordinary people who cannot join territories like ours will hide in relatively high places, hoping to survive the seven-day Black Tide, when even daytime sees Undead Monsters appearing."

"Ordinary people can do that." Xue Zhigang raised his hand again and drained his black tea, his tone mocking. "But he doesn't know that once he becomes a lord, during the Black Tide, he will become the priority target of the true undead troops and Demon Troops—those controlled by the Necromantic Rules yet still possessing their own thoughts!"

Xue Zhigang had no intention of explaining further. Instead, he directly gave his orders. "Have the Eighth Convoy lead the Ninth and Tenth Outsourced Convoys. Eliminate that human lord and bring back his Lord Core. That way, I can summon even more Magic Buildings from the Spiritual Realm!"

"Yes, General Manager. I'll make the arrangements right away."

Another sweet-voiced female secretary covered her mouth with a smile. "Then we should celebrate in advance, General Manager Zhigang. With your brilliant strategy, our Diesel Company is about to grow even stronger."

At once, cheerful laughter rang out inside the tent.

Along with the resentful departing figures of Zhang Caidong and the Sun Family Brothers, who were casually waved away and dismissed from the tent.