Chapter 181
Chapter 181: The Truth About Professions
Faced with Albert's rare warning.
Guo Shuai leaned against the wall with the composure of an old dog, even picking his nose.
"I call you an old geezer and you get offended?"
"What's there to panic about? If the sky falls, the boss will hold it up."
"Even if that body of yours from back then was as strong as you claim, in front of the boss—"
"It'd amount to nothing more than a slightly harder piece of roadside rubble."
"Damn you! You insolent little brat, how dare you belittle This Divine One so!"
Albert hopped about in a furious frenzy. "I am the magnificent God of Magic!"
"Fit Albert! Do you think I'm joking?!"
"No matter how powerful your boss is, his current vessel is ultimately nothing but a mortal's body!"
"But that runaway shell of mine from back then—"
"Possessed genuine strength surpassing even the Special-Grade!"
Listening to Albert's roar, Guo Shuai finally stopped picking his nose.
Only then did he realize that this time, the other party wasn't blowing hot air the way he usually did.
"For real?"
Guo Shuai's tone turned serious.
"Absolutely true!"
Albert said through gritted teeth.
"This Eye of Calamity and that body share the same origin."
"If it senses my presence, it will act on pure instinct!"
"It will charge straight over and physically send you to the afterlife to take this eye back!"
"Hurry up and notify your boss—if you can leave, leave now!"
"Stop lingering in this godforsaken town!"
Guo Shuai rubbed his chin.
"Oh... I get it."
"In that case, while it hasn't detected anything yet, let me grab a knife and dig your eye out of my socket ahead of time."
"Toss it out on the street and let the boss wait for it to come to him—wouldn't that work just fine?"
Albert: "???"
"Listen to yourself, you little bastard! Does that even sound like something a sane person would say?!"
"I'm your Golden Finger, you moron!"
Guo Shuai let out a grin and patted his eyepatch.
"Don't go quiet on me~"
"Just cracking a joke to liven up the mood."
"Relax, I'll tell the boss."
"Whatever divine body it is, he'll scatter its ashes to the wind."
Albert heaved a long sigh, as though he had completely given up on the idea of a cure.
"Fine... to be saddled with a heartless host like you—this must be fate."
The queue had reached the very front.
Guo Shuai set aside his joking demeanor and strode quickly to Jiang Nan's side.
Lowering his voice, he reported everything Albert had told him—that the body might be right here in Soul-Return Town—without leaving out a single detail.
Jiang Nan listened to the end without letting anything show on his face.
He simply gave a faint nod to indicate he understood.
Then, with the slightest flick of his fingertip, a slip of paper stuck itself to Guo Shuai's forehead.
【Stay close. Don't fall behind.】
A warmth welled up in Guo Shuai's chest.
The boss was usually silent and insufferably arrogant.
But when it came to his own brothers, there was nothing more to be said.
That warning was a promise of safety.
"Got it, boss! I'll stick to you like a plaster!"
Guo Shuai broke into a grin.
Next came their turn to draw lots and receive their Occupation assignments.
Han Fei stepped forward first, casually pulled a bamboo slip from the canister, glanced at it, and raised an eyebrow.
"I'm a Merchant."
"Not bad—pairs well with my Plunder ability."
Quanquan bounced over as well, clutched a bamboo slip with both hands, held it above her head, and announced in her small, milky voice:
"Daddy! Quanquan drew Prisoner!"
"All I have to do is wear leg shackles every day and eat free meals in jail to earn a salary!"
"Outstanding! My child is brilliant—she's going to be living off the government!"
Guo Shuai gave a proud thumbs-up.
Then he rubbed his hands together and walked toward the lot canister with great anticipation.
"Heaven, please bless me—give me a peerless swordsman or a firstborn young master of some great wealthy clan..."
Guo Shuai closed his eyes and reverently drew a bamboo slip.
When he opened his eyes and read the 3 characters on the slip, he turned to stone on the spot.
"Manure... Hauler!"
‘What the hell?!’
He, the esteemed host of the Eye of Calamity—the boss's number-one lackey—
Was actually going to become part of the Manure-Hauling Brigade?!
At that moment, the town resident responsible for assigning Occupations caught sight of the slip and immediately clasped his hands in congratulation.
"Oh my! Congratulations, good sir! Congratulations!"
"This Manure Hauler is one of the finest Occupations our Soul-Return Town has to offer!"
Guo Shuai's eye twitched violently as he fought down the urge to strike someone. "You call this a fine Occupation?!"
The town resident nodded with a perfectly straight face and began his introduction.
"But of course! You need only clear away 20 buckets of waste per day, with completely flexible working hours!"
"Not only is the work light, the pay is extraordinary—a base daily wage of a full 30 taels of Silver Banknotes!"
"Most critically, with the identity badge that comes with this Occupation, you may freely enter and exit the affluent district within the town's 2nd ring!"
"You may even enter the Forest of the Middle Grove directly—a forbidden ground that only the privileged and powerful may tread—to collect night soil!"
"This is a once-in-a-century Occupation!"
"If the previous Manure Hauler weren't about to retire and enjoy his twilight years, you wouldn't have drawn such a plum assignment today!"
After hearing all of this, Guo Shuai's fury flipped into incredulous laughter.
"Oh! So by your logic, I should be falling to my knees in gratitude for pulling a dung-hauling job?"
"I ought to treat you to a meal to celebrate, is that it?!"
The town resident gave a slight bow.
"No need to be so courteous, good sir."
"I require no meals. So long as you are pleased."
Upon hearing those words, the anger vanished instantly from Guo Shuai's face.
He stared blankly at the other party's unchanging smile.
That was not the reaction of a living person.
To one side, Tu Xiaowu let out a quiet sigh and stepped forward.
"This is the power of Soul-Return Town's Occupation."
"It can bestow behavioral logic upon a corpse—letting the dead come back to life and maintain the town's operations."
"But..."
As Tu Xiaowu spoke, she suddenly delivered a flying kick straight at the town resident!
"Ow!"
The town resident stumbled and fell directly to his knees.
He raised his head and fixed his gaze on Tu Xiaowu, his eyes flaring red as he issued a warning.
"Miss, please refrain from laying hands on me."
"Per the rules, I am issuing you a 1st warning."
"Should this happen again, I will summon the Ghost Constables to have you imprisoned!"
Tu Xiaowu stepped back half a pace and gripped Tang Sirui's cold hand.
"But... what is false will always be false."
5 seconds after Tu Xiaowu's words fell...
The light in the town resident's eyes faded.
He patted the dust from his knees, stood back up, and returned to his original position.
As though the confrontation a moment ago had never happened.
"Come, come—next in line! Everyone queue up, come draw your Heaven-Chosen Occupation!"
He continued calling out with the same cheerful enthusiasm.
Tu Xiaowu turned her head and looked at the stunned faces around her, explaining with quiet bitterness.
"Do you see? They are merely playing the roles Soul-Return Town requires."
"Like puppets without souls, mechanically carrying out the instructions the Phoenix Sovereign set in advance."
"Once someone violates the relevant rules, they will follow their programming and issue a verbal warning first."
"The next time, they will relay the command to the Ghost Constables, who will carry out the execution or punishment."
Guo Shuai listened, scratched the back of his head, and had a sudden flash of understanding.
"Holy crap, these are basically NPC AIs."
"Even their aggro values and detection range are hardcoded into them."
At this, Guo Shuai glanced at the dumbstruck Tang Sirui standing nearby and couldn't help asking…
"Miss, so... are you planning to keep Tang Sirui like this indefinitely?"
Tu Xiaowu lowered her eyelids and shook her head, her voice very soft. "No..."
"The town's rules state that after a person dies and is resurrected, they must go to the Assignment Office to choose a new Occupation."
"But..."
She bit her pale lip. "I'm scared..."
"I'm scared that when Sirui draws again, if he ends up with a different Occupation..."
"The rules will forcibly take him away, separating him from me..."
She did not finish the rest, but everyone present could guess at the obsession in her heart.
Rather than let her beloved become an NPC who might be assigned to forget her—
It was better to leave him as he was now, even as an empty shell, to selfishly keep him by her side.
Just as the group fell into silence—
A tall, upright figure stepped out from the inner hall of the Assignment Office.
Jiang Nan had already removed his black button-up shirt.
He was now dressed in an ancient Constable's uniform.
Evidently his luck had been decent—the Occupation assigned to him was Constable.
Just as Jiang Nan was straightening his cuffs and walking out—
Outside the Assignment Office, 2 cold gusts of wind swept past.
2 Ghost Constables appeared before the group.
They knelt on one knee before Jiang Nan in respectful deference.
"Esteemed Candidate Lord."
"The other 2 bridal sedans are about to arrive."
"The auspicious hour is near. We respectfully ask that you set off and return."
"The wedding procession will escort you to the Forest of the Middle Grove... to meet the Phoenix Sovereign!"
Jiang Nan's eyes narrowed slightly.
He did not reach for a slip of paper—he simply gave a casual wave of his hand, signaling Guo Shuai and the others to follow.
The group then fell in behind the 2 Ghost Constables, treading the bluestone-paved road, retracing their steps toward where the bridal sedans waited.
The real main event...
Was finally about to begin.
Bunny Bunny