**[LOCATION: IRON-BLOOD FOUNDRY — MAKESHIFT TRAINING ROOM]**
**[TIME: 07:00 AM]**
Ren Wu rubbed his temples with slow, circular motions.
He had a headache.
It wasn't caused by a spiritual attack or poisoning or some exotic curse designed to liquefy his brain. It was caused by looking at his new employees and trying to reconcile what he was seeing with what he'd hoped to accomplish.
Fifty men stood in something that generously could be called formation.
Yesterday, they had been the Iron-Blood Gang—the scourge of the wasteland, wearing spiked leather armor and necklaces made from human finger bones.
Today, they were supposed to be the Nether-Core Security Division.
They looked absolutely ridiculous.
Ren had ordered bulk business suits from a Sector 5 wholesaler at three in the morning, paying rush delivery fees that made his accountant's soul weep. The problem was that most of his new employees were built like industrial refrigerators with anger management issues.
Seams were splitting. Shoulder fabric was tearing. Sleeves ended somewhere around the elbows. They looked like gorillas who'd been forced into tuxedos at gunpoint for someone's wedding.
Chief Kui stood at the front of the group.
He was squeezed into a size XXXL suit that was still losing the battle against his massive trapezius muscles. His tie was knotted so tight it looked like a strangulation attempt in progress. Sweat beaded on his forehead as he tried to stand at attention without ripping the jacket clean in half.
"ATTENTION!" Kui roared like a drill sergeant addressing raw recruits.
The windows rattled in their frames. A few pieces of rust fell from the ceiling.
"THE BOSS IS SPEAKING! EYES FRONT! ANYONE WHO BLINKS GETS THEIR EYELIDS REMOVED WITH A RUSTY SPOON!"
"No," Ren interrupted, holding up one hand. "Kui. Stop. Right there."
Kui froze mid-gesture, his mouth still open.
"Sir?"
"Rule Number One of Customer Service," Ren said, holding up a thick manual he'd had printed overnight. The cover read *'CUSTOMER RELATIONS FOR FORMER MURDERERS: A BEGINNER'S GUIDE.'* "We do not threaten to remove body parts from our clients."
Kui looked genuinely confused, like someone had just told him that water flows uphill.
"But... how do we ensure compliance with payment schedules?"
"We *smile,*" Ren said, emphasizing the word like he was teaching a foreign language. "We are polite. We de-escalate tension rather than creating it."
Ren pointed to the whiteboard behind him, where someone had scrawled training materials in chalk.
**[MODULE 1: THE CUSTOMER GREETING]**
**[WRONG: "Empty your pockets or I'll feed you to the rats."]**
**[RIGHT: "Welcome to Nether-Core Transit Services. The toll is 500 Silver, please."]**
"Let's practice," Ren said with the weary tone of a man who'd already accepted his fate. "Kui. Step forward."
Kui marched forward with military precision.
Each footstep made the floor shake. A coffee mug on a nearby table rattled ominously.
"I will play the role of a merchant," Ren explained. "I'm driving a cargo truck through your checkpoint. Your job is to greet me professionally."
Kui took a deep breath that inflated his chest like a bellows.
He channeled his Qi, which made his eyes bulge slightly and caused veins to stand out on his forehead. He forced his mouth into what he apparently thought was a welcoming smile.
It looked like a bear trap that had learned to grin.
"WELCOME!" Kui screamed at the top of his lungs.
He slammed his massive fist onto an imaginary truck hood with enough force to cave in real metal.
"WE VALUE YOUR BUSINESS PARTNERSHIP! SURRENDER THE APPROPRIATE TOLL OR FACE IMMEDIATE LIQUIDATION!"
Silence.
A pigeon that had been nesting in the rafters took flight and escaped through a broken window.
Another piece of rust fell from the ceiling and landed on Ren's shoe.
Ren stared at Kui for a long moment.
"Kui."
"Yes, Boss?"
"If you smile like that at a civilian, they will die of a heart attack before they can pay the toll."
Kui's face fell. "I... I was trying to be enthusiastic. And welcoming."
"Less enthusiasm," Ren sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "More... not-murderous. Try again. Soften your eyes. Relax your jaw. Pretend you're talking to your grandmother."
"My grandmother was a cannibal."
"Pretend you're talking to someone else's grandmother."
Kui tried to relax his facial muscles.
He looked like he was having a mild stroke.
"H-Hello there," Kui rasped, sweat pouring down his face from the effort. "May I... help you with your... heavy cargo situation?"
Ren closed his eyes and counted to ten.
"Acceptable. Barely. We'll work on it. Next volunteer!"
---
**[LOCATION: THE GOLD RUN HIGHWAY — TOLL BOOTH #1]**
**[TIME: 09:30 AM]**
The first customer of the day arrived right on schedule.
Old Liu was a fat merchant who'd been running grain shipments through Sector 9 for fifteen years. He drove a battered hover-wagon held together with prayer and industrial-grade duct tape, and he was sweating bullets.
He'd heard through the merchant network that the Iron-Blood Gang controlled this stretch of road. He had his emergency robbery fund ready—500 Silver in small bills that he could hand over quickly before they decided to get creative with his internal organs.
But when he crested the hill and saw the checkpoint, he had to blink several times to make sure he wasn't hallucinating.
It was *clean.*
The toll booth had been freshly painted in corporate blue and silver. There was actually a small potted plant on the counter. A professionally printed sign read: **"NETHER-CORE TRANSIT SERVICES - SAFE PASSAGE GUARANTEED."**
Inside the booth sat a man with a jagged scar running from his left ear to his chin. He was missing two fingers on his left hand and had the kind of build that suggested he lifted weights by throwing them at his enemies.
But he was wearing a black business suit that looked like it was three sizes too small and about to detonate.
"Uh..." Old Liu stammered, pulling his wagon to a stop. "Please don't hurt me. I have money."
The bandit—formerly known as 'Razor' among his peers—looked down at the laminated cheat sheet taped to his desk. Sweat was dripping into his eyes. The Boss was watching from the tower through security cameras. If he screwed this up, his pay would be docked, and he really needed that dental coverage.
"Welcome-to-Nether-Core-Transit-Services," Razor recited in a mechanical monotone, reading directly from the script. "We-guarantee-safe-passage. Please-pay-five-hundred-silver."
Old Liu blinked in confusion.
"Five hundred? That's... that's it? Just five hundred?"
"Yes," Razor grunted, fighting every criminal instinct he'd developed over the past decade. According to his training materials, this was the point where he was supposed to smile.
He grimaced.
It looked like he was in physical pain.
"Have... a pleasant... day."
Old Liu fumbled for his wallet, hands shaking. He counted out the silver coins and placed them on the counter.
"Are you... are you going to rob me later? Once I'm down the road?"
Razor's left eye twitched.
He *wanted* to rob him. Every fiber of his being was screaming at him to jump over the counter, bash the old man's skull in, and take everything in the wagon. It would have been so easy. So natural.
But he could feel the weight of the Vassal Contract pressing down on his soul like a lead blanket. And he remembered what the Boss had said about the medical benefits. His teeth really did hurt all the time.
"No," Razor said, the words coming out like he was pulling them from his throat with pliers. "We... appreciate... your business."
Old Liu drove away, confused and vaguely terrified.
Razor watched him disappear over the next hill, then turned to Kui, who was monitoring from the security booth next door.
"I think he liked me," Razor whispered hopefully.
"Good work," Kui whispered back, wiping sweat from his own forehead. "You didn't stab him even once. The Boss will be pleased."
---
**[LOCATION: NETHER-CORE TOWER — MAIN LOBBY]**
**[TIME: 11:00 AM]**
Ren had summoned Kui to the main office building for what he'd diplomatically called "HR Integration Training."
Mei Lin was sitting at her reception desk, typing away at quarterly reports and humming something cheerful under her breath.
The elevator chimed.
The doors opened.
Kui stepped out.
At seven feet tall and built like a siege engine, he had to duck to clear the elevator doorframe. His red skin was slightly less red today—he'd spent two hours scrubbing it with industrial soap—but he still looked like something that ate tanks for breakfast and used the armor plating as dental floss.
Mei Lin looked up from her computer screen.
She gasped.
Kui froze in absolute terror.
*Oh no. The Civilian. The Boss specifically said not to scare the Civilian. The Civilian is off-limits for violence.*
Kui tried to make himself smaller, which was like trying to hide a rhinoceros behind a potted plant. He hunched his massive shoulders and hid his clawed hands behind his back.
"Hi there!" Mei Lin chirped brightly. "You must be the new security contractors Mr. Ren mentioned!"
Kui blinked in confusion.
"Uh... yes. Ma'am. Security. I am... security."
"Wow," Mei Lin said, studying Kui's collection of scars like she was reading an interesting book. "You guys look really experienced. Were you in the Special Forces or something?"
Kui thought about the time he'd ripped a rival gang member in half for looking at him sideways during a territorial dispute.
"Something like that," he rumbled in his deepest, most non-threatening voice.
Mei Lin suddenly noticed something on the polished marble floor near the elevator.
One of Kui's lieutenants—a mountain of muscle and bad decisions who went by 'Bone-Crusher'—had dropped a candy wrapper while exiting the elevator.
Mei Lin frowned.
She stood up from her desk and walked directly toward Bone-Crusher, who was roughly twice her height and four times her weight.
"Excuse me," Mei Lin said in the firm tone of someone used to managing office discipline.
Bone-Crusher looked down at her.
He was a Tier-D cultivation warrior. He had personally killed at least ten people in hand-to-hand combat. He had once eaten someone's liver while they were still alive.
But he looked at this tiny office worker and felt a chill run down his spine.
"You dropped this," Mei Lin said, pointing to the wrapper with the authority of someone who took corporate cleanliness standards seriously. "Mr. Ren likes the lobby kept spotless. Please pick it up."
Bone-Crusher looked desperately at Kui for guidance.
Kui's eyes went wide with panic. He made a subtle throat-cutting motion with his finger. *DO EXACTLY WHAT SHE SAYS OR THE BOSS WILL LIQUIDATE ALL OF US.*
Bone-Crusher panicked completely.
He dropped to his knees on the marble floor with a sound like a building collapsing.
"I AM DEEPLY SORRY!" he shouted, loud enough to rattle the windows. He grabbed the candy wrapper like it was a live grenade. "I HAVE BROUGHT DISHONOR TO THE LOBBY! PLEASE FORGIVE MY TRANSGRESSION!"
Mei Lin giggled, a sound like wind chimes.
"Oh, you don't have to yell! Just put it in the waste bin over there."
She reached up and patted the terrifying giant on the shoulder like he was an oversized puppy.
"You guys are so well-disciplined! Mr. Ren really knows how to pick his people."
Kui exhaled slowly, wiping sweat from his forehead with a hand that was shaking slightly.
They had just survived the most dangerous encounter of their new corporate careers: The Receptionist.
---
**[LOCATION: EXECUTIVE OFFICE]**
**[TIME: 02:00 PM]**
Ren sat at his desk, watching security camera feeds on his tablet while sipping jasmine tea from a delicate porcelain cup.
"They're clumsy," he muttered, watching Razor accidentally punch a hole through the toll booth wall while trying to hand a customer their receipt. "But they're learning."
"They're absolutely terrified of you, sir," Han said, organizing revenue reports with the satisfied efficiency of someone whose spreadsheets finally balanced. "But it's working. We made twenty-five thousand Silver today. Word about the 'Safe Road' is spreading through the merchant networks. They're calling it a miracle."
"It's not a miracle," Ren said, setting down his cup. "It's a monopoly with customer service training."
**BEEP.**
The desk intercom buzzed with the cheerful tone that meant Mei Lin had a message.
"Mr. Ren? There's a gentleman here to see you. He doesn't have an appointment, but he says it's urgent financial business."
Ren's hand paused halfway to his teacup.
"Does he have a name?"
"Yes, sir. Representative Shen from the Alchemist Consortium. He says it's about outstanding accounts receivable. Also, he has a really expensive car."
Ren's eyes narrowed to slits.
The comedy hour was officially over.
The Alchemist Consortium. The biggest criminal cartel in Sector 9, masquerading as a legitimate pharmaceutical company. The organization that Kui owed forty thousand Silver to for a weapons shipment he'd "intercepted" but never managed to fence.
They weren't here to congratulate him on his successful business transformation.
They were here to collect.
"Send him up, Mei Lin," Ren said, his voice dropping to the tone he used for hostile acquisitions.
He turned to Han, who had gone pale.
"Hide the good tea. Get the Black Ledger. And clear your schedule for the next hour."
Ren straightened his tie and rolled his shoulders, feeling the familiar weight of authority settle around him like armor.
The boredom vanished from his eyes, replaced by the cold, calculating gaze of a predator who'd just caught the scent of blood in the water.
"The debt collector has arrived," Ren whispered, his fingers already reaching for the ledger. "Let's see who ends up paying whom."
---
**Author's Note:**
Watching Kui try to smile without traumatizing civilians is honestly the most terrifying thing in this story so far. Customer service training for former cannibals is harder than it looks.
Next Chapter: **"The Collection Agency"** - Ren vs. The Loan Shark. When a corporate debt collector meets someone who actually reads the fine print, things get interesting fast.
**Add this to your library to watch Ren counter-sue a cartel with their own contracts!**
The audit continues. The empire grows. The dental plan remains non-negotiable.
---