Chapter 89

Chapter 89

Su Ximu, at this moment, was clearly oblivious to the fact that he had been "placed on a wanted list." In his instance space, after the first little jackdaw successfully hatched, the other little jackdaws, already at the hatching stage, grew agitated by the commotion and began pecking at their shells one after another.

As the little jackdaws hatched, Jackdaw 4091, in this still somewhat empty space, remained uneasy and cautious, carefully observing his surroundings.

The moment he and the little jackdaws vanished from the cliff, he distinctly saw his entire body enveloped in a white glow. This power carried a warmth, yet it was starkly different from the inferno below the cliff.

He knew the source of this power.

It was the one who had marked him with power at the entrance of the tutoring center.

He had never imagined that being "employed" by powerful anomalies and becoming their staff would come with such benefits.

In his understanding, no anomaly would typically intervene on behalf of their instance employees. It was even common for employees to prey on one another within the instance.

In this brief period, Jackdaw 4091 couldn’t help but introspect. After much reflection, he still couldn’t find any reason why he deserved to be saved.

He wasn’t strong, and he probably wasn’t particularly clever either. At school, he was often a troublesome anomaly who angered the teachers.

Despite his current appearance, sitting on the ground as a rather large figure, if he were to shed his human skin suit, the nutritional value of his true form might only be equivalent to four or five little jackdaws combined.

Jackdaw 4091 couldn’t fathom it, but at this moment, he was indeed safe.

But what next?

Jackdaw 4091 lacked much confidence.

It was amidst Jackdaw 4091’s anxious thoughts that Su Ximu suddenly appeared beside the newly hatched little jackdaws.

The first little jackdaw to hatch had already consumed about half of its eggshell and had visibly grown a little larger, its fledgling down becoming even fluffier.

It resembled a tiny, fluffy little soot ball.

The sudden appearance of a figure nearby startled the little jackdaw, which had been pecking at its shell from the inside. The entire little ball tumbled backward like a roly-poly toy.

But before it could completely topple over, it was gently steadied by a pair of slender, pale hands.

Outside, Su Ximu had been observing the little jackdaws hatching through his connection to the instance, much like watching a live feed. Unable to resist any longer, he focused his intent and tried to appear within the instance.

The moment he appeared in the instance, Su Ximu suddenly had the illusion that he was about to be crowned emperor.

Because he felt that, in this small world, he seemed omnipotent.

However, this was merely an illusion. At the very least, he couldn’t simply will this small world to instantly transform into his desired form.

That required immense power or sustained effort as support.

Nevertheless, while he couldn’t instantly move mountains and fill seas with a flick of his finger like in a game, noticing a little jackdaw about to fall was quite easy.

After helping the little jackdaw up, Su Ximu, who had crouched down, couldn’t help but take another look at the plump little bird.

He had never seen such a round little bird before.

But while he was captivated by the plump little bird, he didn't forget about Jackdaw 4091, who had stood up respectfully yet cautiously not far away.

Jackdaw 4091’s demeanor reminded Su Ximu of the Tourism Park, where employees couldn’t hide their idolization and fervor when speaking about the Director.

However, a few days ago, his third brother had informed him that the Director, so highly revered by his employees, had never managed to cultivate more than four orange mushrooms under the red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet, gray ranking system.

Because the mushroom anomalies in the Tourism Park were both his employees and his emergency food supply.

Using his usual speaking voice, Su Ximu asked Jackdaw 4091 what dangerous situation had just occurred.

After confirming that the boss had indeed intervened because he sensed danger, Jackdaw 4091 couldn’t help but stand frozen for several seconds.

It wasn’t until the boss asked again that he snapped back to reality and hurriedly answered the question.

In his haste, he ended up blurting out everything from start to finish, including his initial grumbling.

Only after speaking did Jackdaw 4091 come to his senses and couldn’t help but close his eyes in despair.

Heavens, he had planned to make a good impression on the first boss of his anomalous life!

Seeing Jackdaw 4091 like this, Su Ximu thought he was reliving the harrowing experience after recounting it.

So, he comforted him, “Since it’s so dangerous outside, why don’t you and the little jackdaws stay here for now? After all, well… you’re my second instance employee now.”

Instance employees, after all, lived in the instance.

Raising young anomalies was actually much simpler than raising real children. As long as there was a place to live, once the instance’s ecosystem was fully established, the young anomalies could live without needing to eat.

Hearing that the boss truly allowed him to join, bringing along these little burdens, it’s no exaggeration to say that Jackdaw 4091’s eyes lit up instantly.

Perhaps because he had rescued all these little ones from the fire, Jackdaw 4091 now felt a fatherly affection toward the little jackdaws.

“Boss, what will my job be? Don’t worry, no matter what it is, I’ll complete it diligently!” Jackdaw 4091 snapped to attention, his chest puffed out. Unlike his passive fervor when facing Jackdaw 02, he now genuinely wanted to work hard for the boss.

But what he didn’t know was that the boss he was so eager to repay still viewed him as an underage worker.

So, facing the bright-eyed boy who looked to be at most fifteen or sixteen, Boss Su pondered for a moment, glanced around the barren instance environment with nothing to tidy up, and issued his first work order: “Well… then why don’t you straighten up and organize this place a bit?”

Organizing and tidying up—wasn’t that instance construction?

He had learned about that in extracurricular books!

“Yes, Boss!” Jackdaw 4091 responded with full-throated confidence.

Before leaving, Su Ximu couldn’t resist bringing out one of the little soot balls from the instance to show to his second brother and Grandpa Niu.

His eldest and third brothers weren’t home at the moment.

After hearing about the little soot ball’s origin, the old man laughed and said, “Then it must be quite lively at your place now, Xiao Mu. These little birds are quite capable.”

The Jackdaw Family, like their distant relatives the Raven Family, were well-known artisan families in the anomalous world. The jackdaws in Tanzhong City were among the more elite branches of the Jackdaw Family.

Whether it was constructing buildings or developing instances, they had quite a knack for it and were highly efficient.

In the construction department of the Su Financial Group, there were several jackdaw employees who had overcome numerous challenges to secure their positions.

As for what Grandpa Niu meant by “capable,” Su Ximu didn’t have a concrete understanding yet. He looked at the little soot balls, Little Yellows, two hamsters, and the small green mushroom on the stone table—all of which he had brought out in one go—took out his phone, snapped a photo of the little creatures, and posted it in the family group chat.

Whenever his eldest and third brothers went out, they always reminded him to share daily updates in the group.

Grandpa Niu was also in this group. He hadn’t used a phone much before, but now he almost always had it with him.

Su Financial Group

Conference Room

The department heads only saw the boss pick up his phone from the table after wrapping up the agenda, and a smile appeared on his usually stern and serious face.

Since the boss hadn’t dismissed the meeting yet, even though the discussion had ended, they didn’t dare leave without being dismissed. They could only remain seated and wait.

A few minutes later, the boss put down his phone, clearly in an even better mood than before.

The Information Minister, seated third from the right at the conference table, suddenly heard the boss ask, “I recall you also have a younger brother about to graduate from university, right?”

The Information Minister immediately nodded, looking both honored and surprised. He never expected the boss, despite his hectic schedule, to remember such details about his family!

He responded humbly, “He’s not very driven—almost graduated and still asking the family for money. Nothing like the young master, who started working summer jobs at such a young age.”

Su Xuanxiao offered no evaluation, only adjusted his plain glasses and said calmly, “No matter what, as long as the child is happy.”

With that, he didn’t linger in the conference room and headed straight out.

Leaving the other department heads exchanging glances, silently reaffirming the young master’s importance in their minds.

The earlier incident where the entire Information Department was mobilized and granted the corporation’s only exclusive promotion pathway had long since spread throughout the headquarters.

Not long after, before everyone could even leave the conference room, an assistant from the CEO’s office entered.

The managers assumed the boss had additional instructions and promptly reopened their folders with serious expressions.

Instead, the assistant announced that, to commemorate the young master of the Su Financial Group successfully activating his first personal dungeon instance the previous day, the CEO’s office had urgently designed and printed a batch of commemorative postcards.

All employees could collect a postcard from the Finance Department, along with a celebratory red envelope distributed by the CEO’s office.

In short: The boss is happy and handing out money today. Limited quantities, first come first served.

Simultaneously, this notice was posted in the company’s main work group.

Once the notice went out, the Finance Department’s threshold was literally nearly overwhelmed from the rush.

What does currency in the anomalous world represent?

It represents power!

Employees from the Architecture Department, located near the Finance Department, held postcards in their left hands and thick red envelopes in their right. Feeling the heft of the envelopes, they almost wanted to go home and enshrine the postcards.

Some employees took a closer look at the postcards.

The young master’s actual appearance wasn’t shown—the CEO’s office wouldn’t be so imprudent as to print his portrait.

On the palm-sized postcard, scattered luminous white particles, like winter snowflakes, created a serene and romantic atmosphere.

One employee pondered, “Hey, what do you think these printed specks represent?”

The questioned employee carefully stored both the postcard and the red envelope, then glanced dismissively at his dense colleague. “You fool, it must be related to the young master.”

Luminous white specks, clearly not naturally occurring—if not a manifestation of the young master’s power, what else could it be?

Just as he was about to share his theory, the employee suddenly paused, his anomalous body shuddering violently!

He hurriedly dug out a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket and smoothed it out.

It was unmistakably a wanted poster he’d picked up on his way to work.

The Architecture Department employee stood frozen, scrutinizing the poster repeatedly, his back teeth grinding audibly in anger.

He turned, like a crazed hyena searching for prey, and locked onto his target.

Then, under the watchful eyes of everyone, many Architecture Department employees looked on in bewilderment, thinking their colleague had lost his marbles.

A new hire actually daring to attack a group leader?

Jackdaw 15 was equally baffled, followed swiftly by fury at the subordinate’s insolence.

If not for company rules prohibiting employees from harming each other and requiring major conflicts to be resolved by the Security Department, he would have torn apart this subordinate who dared challenge him in front of everyone!

Even if he couldn’t kill him now, he had to teach him a lesson.

As Jackdaw 15 gathered himself to retaliate, he saw the subordinate, who had rammed into his stomach, angrily throw a piece of paper at him.

“You Jackdaw Family have some nerve! How dare you put a bounty on the young master!”

“I’m filing a complaint! I’ll take it straight to the CEO’s office!”

What?

What bounty? A bounty on the young master?!

Jackdaw 15, who had been pulling overtime at the company all day yesterday, instinctively unfolded the paper. Upon reading its contents, he felt as if he'd been struck by lightning.

Behind Jackdaw 15, several players who were mid-dungeon exchanged glances.

What’s going on?

Why are the anomalies fighting among themselves?