God-level Ferryman: Starting reward is the Ten Kings of Hell

The Supreme Court of the Underworld, the office of the Chief Justice.

The girl named V, with short pink hair, suddenly sat up from a desk made of ancient soul-nourishing wood. Her mecha armor was dull and lifeless, and the energy lightsaber on her wrist was motionless.

"Johnny? System self-check." V shook his head, trying to connect to the chip in her brain.

"Stop yelling." Chu Jiang sat cross-legged on the boss's chair opposite him, pointed at Li the programmer standing next to him, and said, "I've taken down your cheat code."

Li, the coder, held up his tablet computer with a blank expression. On the screen was a detailed diagnostic report.

"Reporting, boss. Target codename 'V' has run out of energy in its life support mech, and its core processor has overheated and crashed. Its neurally linked external AI, 'Johnny,' has been forcibly isolated by the firewall due to incompatibility with the local network protocol."

V looked in the direction of the sound, and his pupils instantly contracted.

"My mecha..."

"It's broken," Chu Jiang answered for her. "Seventy percent of the energy module is damaged, and the space jump engine is completely destroyed. Want to go home? There's no way to find it on navigation; the spatial coordinates are all shattered into QR codes."

V's face darkened. She instinctively tried to activate the weapon, only to find that her entire mecha was just a heavy metal shell.

"What do you want?"

"Here's a job for you." Chu Jiang pushed over a contract that had been prepared long ago, on which was written in cinnabar: "Agreement on the Introduction of Technical Talents and the Striving Individuals".

"I will provide the venue, resources, and merit points to help you repair your mech and find your way home. In return, you will serve as our company's Chief Technology Officer, responsible for the comprehensive information technology upgrade of the Underworld." Chu Jiang pointed to a line of small print on the contract, "Excellent benefits, five social insurances and one housing fund, 996 is a blessing, 007 is an honor, overtime is compensated with time off, but the company reserves the right to interpret the specific days off."

V looked at the unfair terms and conditions, then at his own immobile body, and finally fixed his gaze on Chu-Jiang's kindly smiling face.

She paused for three seconds, picked up the pen, and signed her name at the end of the contract.

"Very good, welcome to our warm family." Chu Jiang put away the contract with satisfaction. "Programmer Li, take the new colleague to familiarize himself with the business."

From that day on, the style of the underworld began to veer wildly in a bizarre direction.

At the gates of hell, the ancient stone tablet inscribed with "Fengdu" was demolished, replaced by a hundred-foot-tall holographic projection sign that continuously displayed Meng Po's smiling face and her catchphrase: "Meng Po, Snow King Ice City, Wangchuan Latte, second one half price!"

The Bridge of Helplessness is no longer congested; the dilapidated stone bridge has been transformed into a magnetic levitation conveyor belt. Ghosts stand on it, fasten their seatbelts, and "whoosh," they're on the other side. The regular passage is free; those who want to experience the thrill of being pushed back in their seats can pay to activate the "Formula 1" acceleration mode.

Meng Po no longer needs to personally ladle the soup. A row of huge vending machines stands at the bridgehead, filled with canned Meng Po soup in various flavors. There are "First Love Peach Oolong Flavor," "Ex-Wife Durian Flavor," and "Original Flavor: Boss's Empty Promise," a dazzling array of options. You can buy them by scanning the code.

King Qin Guang arrived with several Yama Kings to inspect the scene. Upon seeing what was before him, his mouth gaped open wide enough to fit a fist.

"Dean Chu... this... this is outrageous!" Emperor Song pointed at the holographic screen that was still playing GG, his hands trembling.

"This is called improving user experience and increasing revenue channels." Chu Jiang, dressed casually, handed out a can of Meng Po soup to everyone. "Here, try the new product, a special offer for civil servants, the 'Iron Rice Bowl Walnut Milk' flavor."

King Qin Guang took a sip, his eyes lighting up: "Hey, this tastes great! Much better than that old big pot of soup!"

"That's natural." Chu Jiang then pointed to a group of ghosts sitting cross-legged in the distance, their bodies emitting streams of data. "See those ghosts?"

"What are they doing?"

"Mining," Chu Jiang explained. "I launched 'Underworld Bitcoin,' or 'Underworld Coin' for short. They use their soul power as computing power to support the 'Three Paths Crossing' cloud server in the Underworld. The mined 'Underworld Coin' can be spent anywhere in the Underworld."

"Will this... will this work?"

"It's more than just successful." Li, the coder, appeared unnoticed, projecting a steep growth curve onto his tablet. "According to backend data, since the launch of 'ghost money,' the underworld's GDP has increased by 300% month-on-month. A large number of idle ghosts have found new employment, and the underworld's economy is thriving."

This action directly alarmed the Heavenly Court.

At an internal meeting, the Jade Emperor slammed the economic growth report of the Underworld on the table and lamented to the assembled gods, "Look! Look at the Underworld! And look at our Heavenly Court! For tens of thousands of years, the Peach Banquet has been the same old three dishes! We have no spirit of innovation whatsoever!"

That afternoon, Chu Jiang received a private message from Venus.

[Venus]: Dean Chu, I have long admired your name! I have heard that the reforms in the Underworld have yielded remarkable results. My Heavenly Court would like to organize an inspection team to go down and learn from your advanced experience. I wonder if you would be so kind as to grant me this favor?

Chu Jiang replied with two words.

【Chujiang】: Queuing.

Meanwhile, the Western Sect, seeing the Underworld's business thriving, couldn't sit still any longer.

Jin Chanzi, who was punished to wash cups on the Bridge of Helplessness, secretly sent a message to Chu Jiang, saying that a new APP called "Cyber ​​Buddhist Scripture" had been launched overnight in Lingshan, wanting to compete with "Three Paths Crossing".

V was in the office when he casually brought up the interface of that app on the water mirror.

The app features a glittering swastika logo, and upon opening it, you're greeted with an 800-word Buddhist teaching. The homepage is filled with colorful lotus flower pop-ups, and clicking "close" brings up three more.

"Boss, their UI design is a visual disaster," V commented professionally.

"A bunch of clueless monks, what are they doing meddling in?" Chu Jiang waved his hand dismissively. "Ignore them, users will vote with their feet. Let's keep going."

He cleared his throat and announced the next plan to V and Li the programmer.

"To further enrich the nightlife of the underworld's inhabitants and cultivate user loyalty, I've decided to hold the 'First Underworld Electronic Music Festival'!"

"The location is on the banks of the River of Oblivion. V, you'll be the head DJ. Bruch, you'll be the lead dancer and keep the atmosphere lively. Tickets are 998 Yin Virtue each, take it or leave it."

On the night of the electronic music festival, the entire underworld went crazy.

On the banks of the River of Oblivion, a massive open-air stage was constructed using arrays. V, dressed in a shimmering, lightweight mecha suit, stood atop a high DJ booth, his fingertips dancing across the control panel, the explosive heavy metal rock mixed with cyberpunk electronic sounds resounding throughout the underworld.

Beneath the stage, a hundred ghosts roamed the night, demons danced wildly. Countless spirits, wearing glowing bull horns redeemed from the app store, swayed frantically to the rhythm.

Bruch, dressed in a shiny leather jacket, led a group of vampire security guards in a zombie dance in the center of the dance floor.

Chu Jiang even spotted several familiar figures in the VIP booths. King Qin Guang and several other Yama kings, wearing sunglasses, were clumsily swaying to the rhythm. In a corner, a young man in an ordinary Taoist robe was excitedly waving a glow stick—it was none other than Yang Jian, who had secretly descended to the mortal realm.

"Boss, the atmosphere at the scene has reached its peak. The number of viewers watching the live stream has exceeded ten million, and the donation revenue has exceeded one million merit points," Li the programmer reported to Chu Jiang.

"This is nothing." Chu Jiang took a sip of his "Forget-River Mojito". "When it gets to the climax, set off the virtual fireworks and let these bumpkins see what the joy of spending money is."

Just as V was bringing a song with the most exciting atmosphere to a climax, a piercing electrical sound suddenly rang out in her mecha's communication channel.

A roar filled with despair and fear came from a distant world.

"Lucy...save us...the network is alive...it's devouring everything..."

It's the voice of her former teammate, David Martinez!

The instant the signal was interrupted, a blood-red skull icon lit up on V's DJ console!

The next second, an invisible, highly infectious stream of data swept across the entire electronic music festival like a tsunami, centered on the stage!

In the dance floor, all the ghosts who were dancing online suddenly froze.

They slowly raised their heads, their eyes flashing with an ominous red light, and the previously fanatical expressions on their faces turned numb and blank.

"Delete...delete data..."

"Formatting...the world..."

Tens of thousands of ghosts, like a program infected by a virus, uniformly uttered cold, emotionless murmurs.

Chaos erupted instantly. The uninfected ghosts screamed in terror and scattered in all directions. The "cyber zombies," meanwhile, moved with stiff steps, reaching out their hands towards them.

In the midst of the chaos, the system's unprecedentedly sharp alarm rang in Chu Jiang's mind.

[Red Alert! High-dimensional "meme contamination" intrusion detected!]

This virus can directly infect souls, spread exponentially through network protocols, and will ultimately devour the very essence of the underworld!

[Urgent Mission Issued - Physical Virus Removal!]