Dimensional Hotel-Chapter 597: Onboarding in Bulk

To be honest, Yu Sheng wasn’t surprised that Luo agreed, but he was a bit taken aback by how quickly she conceded—it exceeded his expectations. He had initially thought he would have to haggle with this elf for at least an hour, discussing everything from conditions to rules and the "corporate culture" of the travel agency, especially since he essentially commandeered her space station and dragged her into this gig without pay. Even Erin at home had scolded him for his lack of decency... 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

In the end, Luo didn’t even let him finish his planned sales pitch.

"...You’re quite straightforward," Yu Sheng couldn’t help but remark due to how smoothly things were going, "Aren’t you worried this might be a trap?"

"Well, at least I’m jumping from a deep pit into a shallow one," Luo was rather philosophical about it, "Isn’t that better than being imprisoned long-term? Plus, with my situation, it’s not unlikely that imprisonment could turn into execution one day—being given a position here at least means I won’t have to worry about being secretly executed anytime soon."

Yu Sheng instantly understood her logic.

For a "prisoner of war" trapped helplessly with a bleak future, being given a task—even a grueling one—is far better than having no task at all. Even if it’s just jumping into another pit, at least that pit has value.

"Lack of value" is the most dangerous state for a person, and Luo was acutely aware of this. Being from the cold, cutthroat environment of the Black Dot Group had long taught her this rule.

Of course, Yu Sheng had reservations about Luo’s notion of "jumping from a deep pit to a shallow one."

Someday, she’d probably miss the days of hiding with the long-haired princess, gnawing on spirit mushrooms.

While Yu Sheng was pondering this, Baili Qing noticed the hesitation in Luo’s eyes and her unspoken expression. Baili Qing coughed gently, "Ahem, do you have something to say?"

"Can I make a small request?" Luo glanced at Baili Qing and then at Yu Sheng—her theoretical new boss, "Of course, it’s okay if you don’t agree..."

"Just say it," Yu Sheng chuckled, "I’ve never seen you so polite when you were locked up. Why so cautious now?"

"Back then, I had given up on myself. Now, I see a glimmer of hope," Luo felt a bit awkward, then adjusted her expression, "I mean, doesn’t the Special Service Bureau also have my guard detained? It’s the team that crossed the World Bridge into this building when the rift opened... Can you release them as well?"

Then, perhaps worried her request was excessive, she quickly explained, "You see, I’m only one person; I can’t manage the entire Black Stone Station alone, right? A part of my guard can serve as maintenance personnel for the station. Also, you said you wanted me to work on research projects, which isn’t something I can complete alone; running a Pioneer Laboratory requires an entire technical team. I need to recruit people, and I need to reach out to see if there are any surviving subordinates. All of this requires help..."

As she continued, she seemed to grow more self-conscious, her voice getting smaller and smaller, finally spreading her hands in resignation as she looked at Yu Sheng.

Honestly, Yu Sheng hadn’t expected the first thing this "Black Spot Warlord" would do when faced with the dawn of freedom would be to rescue her subordinates.

After all, Baili Qing had told him the Black Dot Group internally followed an extremely ruthless operational rule, devoid of any warmth in that vast tech-commercial empire.

"Didn’t expect you to care about your subordinates so much," Yu Sheng rubbed his chin, commenting casually.

"They’ve been with me for many years," Luo said softly, "And besides, if it hadn’t been for them risking their lives to rush out from the laboratory to bring us the information, you wouldn’t have been able to grasp the situation in the Rift Laboratory so quickly. They also deserve credit..."

"Don’t worry; they’re already on the release list," Baili Qing, who had been quietly observing, finally spoke, "They’ll return to Black Stone Station with you—from now on, you’re all under Yu Sheng’s command."

Luo’s eyes instantly brightened; she looked at Baili Qing with a bit of disbelief at first but quickly realized this iron-faced stoic wouldn’t joke about such matters, so she swiftly turned her gaze to Yu Sheng, "Then..."

"Then there’s no problem, right?" Yu Sheng beamed at the golden-haired elf in front of him, "Ready to sign the contract?"

"No problem at all," Luo eagerly nodded, "Bring on the contract, I’m ready to sign."

Yu Sheng waved his hand, "Why bother with that—our travel agency has its own rules, which are more binding than any contract."

Luo was just about to curiously ask when she suddenly saw Yu Sheng pull a small knife from his pocket. He used it to cut a wound on his hand, and blood quickly welled up, forming into a sphere controlled by an invisible force, hovering quivering in mid-air.

Yu Sheng guided the blood sphere to float in front of Luo, "Drink it; this is your destiny."

Luo’s face immediately turned pale—it was even paler than when she saw the Boundary Land through the huge hole in the Black Stone Station’s dome, with cold sweat pouring down her forehead, "Wait, wait... You never mentioned this; what does it mean?!"

"Blood Transferring Ceremony," Yu Sheng declared with a straight face, "all newcomers at the travel agency have to go through this procedure."

Luo stared at him for a long time, then suddenly turned to Baili Qing, "Didn’t you say you don’t practice Dark Spiritual Ability?!"

"Stop blabbering—this is much more effective than Dark Spiritual Ability," Yu Sheng said, stepping forward to give Luo’s shoulder a pat. At the moment she turned her head in surprise, he flicked the blood sphere directly into her mouth. In truth, the ceremony didn’t require the subject to drink the blood, but after performing the process so many times, he felt a sense of ritual doing it this way, "Don’t move, don’t resist, it’ll be over soon. If you resist, it might be uncomfortable, and who knows, Luna might drag your soul into the wilderness for a beating."

Luo instinctively grabbed her neck, and as she heard this, several elements instantly came together in her mind: a secret society disguised as a righteous organization, a dark spiritual energy ritual using blood as a medium, an eternal curse-like mark—and resisting would result in the soul being tormented (indicating being dragged to the cathedral by the Country Maiden Saintess for a beating with persistent nagging)...

In the end, she imagined it all with utter despair for quite a while, but didn’t feel any curse taking effect on her. If anything, she felt that the blood drop just now melted in her mouth and was somewhat sweet...

"So this... is it?" Luo looked down at herself in confusion, then up at Yu Sheng and Baili Qing, unable to hold it back any longer, "Aren’t you ’righteous people’ all doing this now? When we were fighting in the city, I felt those ’kids’ and those self-proclaimed ’righteous cultivators’ were off... did they all experience this too?"

Baili Qing awkwardly sidestepped half a step, expressionless: "The travel agency is the travel agency; the Special Service Bureau is the Special Service Bureau. We recruit openly and legally..."

"What we do isn’t illegal either," Yu Sheng quickly said upon hearing this, then gestured at Luo. "It’s rather complicated to explain from start to finish. You might want to ask the long-haired princess or Mo Ran about it later. Anyway, the ritual just now was safe and harmless; its main role was to establish a connection between you and me. As long as you don’t actively court death, you can even pretend it doesn’t exist. By the way—your Guard also needs to go through this process."

Luo blinked, her expression suddenly becoming subtle.

She felt as if she wanted to be a good boss but faintly realized she might have already led her old employees into a pit of fire.

However, whatever she said now would be useless.

Ten minutes later, in a large office near the medical area, the "Laboratory Guard" that was once detained by the Special Service Bureau was brought before Yu Sheng and Luo.

Dozens of people, all Arglede Elves, slender and elegant handsome men and women—they wore gray-blue prison uniforms, but looked in good spirits, showing no traces of being mistreated. Yet, given their status as captives, they were clueless when suddenly summoned, entering the room with evident anxiety.

As soon as they entered, they saw Luo standing with Yu Sheng and Baili Qing.

Shock appeared on every face.

The Guard Captain, a tall male Arglede Elf with short pale golden hair, seemed better able to judge than the other guard members. Almost instantly, he surmised some things from the atmosphere and details of the scene.

Their boss didn’t seem like a prisoner.

Though she looked a bit nervous, awkward, and uneasy, there was an air of being duped about her. But a prisoner wouldn’t stand so openly next to the Special Service Director with no signs of suppression on her spiritual energy.

It was settled; their boss had switched sides.

The Guard Captain’s expression relaxed, first glancing at Baili Qing, then lowering his head to greet Luo: "Boss."

Yu Sheng exchanged a look with Luo, who cleared her throat twice, stepped forward, "Ahem, are you all... okay?"

"Pretty good," the Guard Captain nodded, "The food is decent, and they haven’t troubled us."

"Alright, let me be brief," Luo sighed lightly, pointed to Yu Sheng, "In short, this is the new ’big boss.’"

Among the dozens of guard members, there was some minor commotion—some were surprised, some confused, but about a dozen people, including the Guard Captain, remained calm; the situation was expected—they anticipated the boss would indeed switch sides.

The only surprise was that the boss switched not to the Special Service Bureau but to that "Angel Hunter," which amounted to the same—to abandon darkness for light.

No one stood out to raise objections. After all, their loyalty was not to the Black Dot Group but to Luo herself.

They were a Black Spot Warlord’s true "directly affiliated forces."

Seeing things unfold smoother than imagined, Yu Sheng was delighted, even the small knife’s arm-stabbing motions were more fluent.

The scent of blood spread in the office, and blood droplets floated slowly in front of each guard soldier.

Luo put on a rigid face, stiffly explaining to her subordinates: "Don’t resist; it’s... part of the onboarding process."

The Guard Captain, who had just relaxed, instantly tensed up again: "...?"

No, what on earth did the boss join?