Newcomer Work Summary Meeting: Commendations...?

"I'm getting more and more adept at this. I really have grown stronger."

Although Big Brother had not been badly injured, he was in poor condition, exhausted both mentally and physically. Since the instance had not been very difficult, the evaluation was lower-middle. Still, it was pretty good: three and a half days as a reward, plus 100 points.

Zhang Anzai felt that personally entering instances really did help with administrator work.

"You've developed a dangerous misconception. Think back, Anzai—the terror of being controlled by obnoxious players and players who refused to listen." Lin Zhao reminded him from beside him.

Zhang Anzai thought back. "Hiss... Right, not every player is this willing to listen. Forget it, whatever."

The middle-rated instance he had cleared himself was a good start for building experience. Since he had not spent much on this mission, he now had 400 points on hand.

And with the original eleven-plus days added to these three and a half days, he basically would not have to worry about being fired next week. Things really were slowly getting better.

Just as Zhang Anzai was about to switch screens and write his work report, he heard a familiar dog bark. "Woof! If you're not in an especially tight spot, put your work aside. It's Monday. Time for a meeting."

The team leader stood at the door, looking dog-like in human clothes, wearing a suit as he knocked on the desk and called everyone over.

That was right. Even after coming to this kind of company, they still had to attend meetings, and they were generally just as useless.

However, Zhang Anzai had just finished his mission, so he shut down his computer and went over. Lin Zhao seemed to have reached a stage where she did not need to keep watch so closely, so she went too.

There were plenty of people in every administrator group. Logically, there was no need to call everyone away, but this meeting was the weekly summary conference for the newcomer groups, so naturally everyone had to attend.

The venue was a large conference room resembling a tiered classroom or lecture hall. It was two stories tall. All Zhang Anzai could say was that the company building's layout was genuinely strange—it even had space like this crammed inside.

The meeting itself was not interesting. Zhang Anzai spent most of it spacing out. A summary meeting had little meaning for basic employees like them.

Knowing how each group had performed last week would not make their jobs any easier. Just the death countdown and their monster of a team leader were already stressful enough.

Besides, some parts of the meeting were even more pointless than reviewing their performance—namely, representatives from each group taking turns to speak.

Of course, those representatives were basically the group leaders.

Interestingly, promotions within the company depended on performance and time.

Complete two upper-rated missions, five upper-middle-rated missions, or ten middle-rated missions—or simply remain for half a year—and one could enter the Official Division. Other than their positions, employees had no personal leveling system.

But group leaders had requirements even higher than those of the Official Division, so most people who had made it to team leader had been around for a long time.

Naturally, they would not spend all their energy on players for that long. They would begin improving themselves as well. So most group leaders had something slightly abnormal about them.

Group 6's leader looked rather young, with long, swordsman-like hair and a blade always at his side. Group 8's leader was a woman, but she had four spider-like compound eyes.

The tall leader of Group 9 had a bamboo-like prosthetic arm. Group 10's leader looked the most normal, but he resembled a child.

Still, after looking around, their own team leader was clearly the most unusual. No one else had been modified so thoroughly—his entire head had been replaced with a dog's head.

The moment he opened his mouth, he sounded like an old fast-food manager. "Now that newcomers have arrived, you should work hard. Young people grow through more work. Look how long you all work—we stay up late with you every day too, don't we..."

Zhang Anzai listened helplessly and slipped into the "yes, yes, right, right" mode he had honed in exploitative companies. Also known as playing deaf and dumb.

As he listened, he even had time to turn and poke Lin Zhao, who was nearly asleep. "Awaken, girl. Accept the baptism of the intelligence-reducing aura."

Lin Zhao looked close to collapse. "Wow... Do you have any paper? Lend me some. I want to plug my ears."

She had worked in programming before. She was not a team leader and had not interacted with management often, so she truly was not used to this sort of thing.

Zhang Anzai found it funny, but he had to admit, "What's the point of this leader's speech..."

After the five small-group leaders finished speaking, it was the Official Division's representative's turn. There were many people over there, and their work was more specialized. The person they had sent was not even a group leader, but an assistant group leader—a position only the Official Division had.

"I am Xu Xinhai, assistant group leader of Administrator Department Group 1." He looked like a young man nearing thirty and did not seem abnormal in any way.

"No." Perhaps because he had observed so many instances, Zhang Anzai's powers of observation had grown quite sharp. At a glance, he noticed that Assistant Group Leader Xu's right hand had seven fingers.

"That's so weird, especially since it's asymmetrical. What was he thinking?" Zhang Anzai was deeply puzzled.

"The Official Division has seen all of your work performances. Quite a few newcomers have done well. Given time, the Official Division welcomes you to join us." Assistant Group Leader Xu spoke clearly and concisely. It was at least somewhat pleasant to hear.

"But there's still nothing substantial..." Zhang Anzai mused, resting his chin on his hand again.

"I'd especially like to mention Jiang Pan from Group 6, and... Zhang Anzai from Group 7."

"Fuck, here comes the substance!" Zhang Anzai, seated seven or eight rows from the podium, jolted upright at once.

Even Lin Zhao was no longer sleepy. "What's wrong with you? Did you cause some trouble I don't know about?"

Zhang Anzai looked equally confused.

At that moment, Xu Xinhai onstage extended a hand toward someone in the front row and continued.

"Jiang Pan completed an upper-rated instance-leading mission. This is uncommon even in the Official Division, and it deserves great encouragement. I believe you will soon become an official employee."

The newcomer administrators below, who had nearly been driven mad by all sorts of awful players and their penny-pinching lives during the newcomer period, immediately fixed their gazes on Jiang Pan.

Then, under Xu Xinhai's lead, everyone began applauding.

"Impressive." Zhang Anzai applauded along with them.

For a lower rating, one only needed to clear the instance, regardless of the player's condition. Lower-middle meant clearing it while injured or in poor condition.

A middle rating required being in good condition, or only lightly injured but with some gains. Upper-middle required a certain degree of gains, or clearing the instance through a more difficult method.

An upper rating meant either breaking past one's level limit and clearing an instance above one's own level without injury or with only light injuries, completely crushing the instance Boss by the most difficult method, or taking away something exceptionally valuable from the instance.

Some of the workplace's inevitable sour-grapes types muttered that he had surely been matched with an amazing player, that he was just a lucky dog, and so on.

But Zhang Anzai understood that even with his special ability assisting him, he might not easily achieve such an evaluation. The young man seated in the very front row really did seem to have some skill.

However, it was not over yet. After that man, it was his turn.

Xu Xinhai likewise gestured toward Zhang Anzai's location, and a ring of gazes swept over him like laser eyes.

"Although Zhang Anzai's performance had always been average and unremarkable, and up until last week he had only led one middle-rated instance..."