While Nicholas was preparing the 'Eastern Expedition.'
Rewinding time a bit, on the Shenzhou mainland, Fu Hua's plot was also steadily advancing.
Chongqing, Shencheng Pharmaceuticals headquarters building.
Two girls with similar styling stood at the building entrance. One had black hair and red eyes, the other black hair and blue eyes. They were precisely Nuwa and Fuxi coming to start work.
After being optimized by Mobius not long ago, the two had used the offer Mobius gave them to contact this company called Shencheng Pharmaceuticals.
The two had originally thought this was just some roadside small company, but after learning more, they discovered that although this company was newly established, under President Sheora's management, it was expanding at an alarming rate. Its scale was already comparable to some established pharmaceutical companies.
This made the two sigh with emotion—worthy of Dr. Mobius. Even casually given offers had such great power.
Thus, eating, drinking, and playing along the way, stopping and starting, after quite some time, these two unfortunate optimized souls finally arrived at Shencheng Pharmaceuticals to report.
Looking at the magnificent company building before them, Nuwa couldn't help sighing: "Such a large company, benefits should be no problem. Just don't know what the work environment is like."
Hearing Nuwa's words, Fuxi clasped her hands and closed her eyes, praying to some unknown existence: "Please please, definitely no overtime, holidays released on time, enough time to slack off..."
As two salted fish who'd made slacking their life creed, Nuwa and Fuxi only hoped their new job would have enough slacking time.
Just as the two were full of hope and anxiety about the future, the headquarters' gate opened. A woman holding a folder walked out.
After seeing Nuwa and Fuxi, understanding showed on her face.
"From the looks of it, you two should be the colleagues the Doctor mentioned."
Nuwa and Fuxi were surprised and subconsciously looked over.
This was a woman with wheat-colored skin. Brown curly hair casually draped over her shoulders. A pair of golden pupils were looking at them spiritedly.
"You are...?"
"You two can call me Cleo. I'm the Doctor's assistant." The woman calling herself Cleo smiled, then continued: "Of course, also the person who'll familiarize you with the environment next."
Nuwa and Fuxi exchanged glances and immediately understood—the person before them should be the one Shencheng Pharmaceuticals arranged to handle their work.
Thus, the two immediately became enthusiastic.
"Pleasure to meet you! Miss Cleo, just call me Nuwa. This one beside me is Fuxi."
The three exchanged pleasantries, then Nuwa and Fuxi were led by Cleo into Shencheng Pharmaceuticals' interior while she explained Shencheng Pharmaceuticals' origins and vision.
Of course, if not for mentioning "Doctor" every three sentences, with her eloquence, she should count as a decent guide.
But Nuwa and Fuxi weren't interested in the company's origins or the so-called Doctor. Compared to these, they cared more about other matters.
Thus, taking advantage of gaps in Cleo's speech, Nuwa rubbed her hands and inquired: "Miss Cleo, we just want to ask, like... what are our company's benefits and treatment like?"
"Treatment? Chongqing probably has no company with better treatment than ours."
"Then... does our company have overtime? How many vacation days per year?"
"We have three months of vacation per year. As for overtime... we're a legitimate enterprise strictly implementing eight-hour workdays. Of course there's no such thing as overtime."
After hearing Cleo's answer, Nuwa and Fuxi exchanged glances, both seeing the surprise in each other's eyes.
Simultaneously, they understood each other's thoughts.
—Good days are coming!
Soon, Cleo brought the two to their assigned office, then left under the pretext of arranging their work.
After Cleo left, Nuwa and Fuxi could no longer suppress their inner excitement, excitedly hugging and spinning in circles.
"It's actually a conscientious enterprise! Next we can happily slack off, hooray!"
After being excited for a while, they then thought of Mobius on Earth's other end.
Thus, Nuwa sighed somewhat emotionally: "After we left, wonder if that little Su can handle the Doctor's work well."
Hearing Nuwa's words, Fuxi's face showed pity: "With the Doctor's financial resources, probably no money to hire other people. This little Su probably has to do alone what the three of us did before. Wish him luck. As for us..."
Nuwa and Fuxi exchanged glances, both seeing the increasingly rich smiles in each other's eyes.
Then, Nuwa snickered:
"Hehe... what was that saying? This place is pleasant, no thoughts of Dr. Mobius~"
"However, although the Doctor talks tough, she's actually quite nice. Just too easily angered normally."
"Fiery temper harms the body. The Doctor is already an old wom—"
Fuxi saw Nuwa's words stop halfway as she suddenly shivered violently, then surveyed the surroundings with alarm and uncertainty. This puzzled her.
"Nuwa, what's wrong?"
"Tsk... something's wrong!" Nuwa somewhat horrified moved closer to Fuxi, then said: "Fuxi, do you feel a very cold sensation, like being targeted by a venomous snake?"
"There's no snake here. Are you scaring yourself?"
Hearing Fuxi's words, Nuwa looked left and right, finding nothing scary nearby. Even that old woman Doctor was on Earth's other end.
Ultimately, she breathed a long sigh of relief.
"True, probably just my imagination..."
"Speaking of which, why hasn't Miss Cleo returned? Should we contact her?"
Just as Nuwa said this, the office door opened.
The two looked toward the door, but what met their eyes wasn't Cleo's appearance but a small cart loaded with documents.
Those documents piled high on the cart, even so many they blocked Cleo's appearance.
"Miss Cleo, what are these things?" Nuwa inquired.
After pushing the cart into the office, Cleo's figure emerged from behind, then said: "These are your upcoming work."
"???"
Nuwa and Fuxi glanced at the mountain of documents, their small faces filled with great confusion.
"Miss Cleo, you're not joking with us? Didn't you say our company has no overtime?"
"Right!"
Cleo looked at her strangely, seeming not to understand why she'd ask such a question, but out of politeness still said: "So you just need to complete it during work hours."
Seeing the calm on her face, Nuwa and Fuxi felt deceived. Looking at that mountain of documents, their eyes couldn't help twitching.
"Miss Cleo, how could we possibly finish these in just work hours!"
"I know this is somewhat demanding, and our company also doesn't allow overtime..."
Hearing Cleo relent, Nuwa and Fuxi also breathed inward sighs of relief. Seems this wasn't requiring them to definitely finish quickly.
But soon, they heard Cleo say: "So you can take this work home to handle after work."
Hearing this, Nuwa and Fuxi froze. They felt like they'd been pulled into a bottomless vortex.
"Remember, the company's rules are strict. You must complete it within the required time. Otherwise you might be optimized."
With these words, their fantasy completely shattered.
Nuwa and Fuxi exchanged glances, both seeing the horror in each other's eyes, then with uniform movements pounced toward Cleo, tightly hugging her arms.
"o(>﹏<)o Don't!"
Tears seeped from Nuwa and Fuxi's eyes as they pleaded miserably: "Miss Cleo, this much work will kill us!"
"Not that exaggerated. The Doctor evaluated your work efficiency. She said as long as you take it seriously, you can handle most of it during work hours."
Hearing this, Nuwa and Fuxi only felt this Doctor was too inhuman.
Oh my, how could this Doctor be so bad!
But just as Nuwa and Fuxi fell into despair, Cleo paused, then looked at the two somewhat strangely.
"You two, you don't need to do this work."
"Ah?"
"The Doctor sent me a message. She needs you two as assistants. Go over as soon as possible. I'll handle this work for you."
Nuwa and Fuxi looked at Cleo puzzled, only seeing envy in her eyes.
"The Doctor is a world-renowned great scientist. You must seize this opportunity!"
But the two didn't notice the envy in Cleo's eyes. They only thought of another more important matter.
Assistant? They were all too familiar with this position.
Nuwa and Fuxi exchanged glances, both seeing the secret delight in each other's eyes.
Back in Mobius's laboratory, they'd also served as assistants and knew this job had great slacking space.
This new Doctor didn't know their background. As long as they controlled work efficiency well, they could squeeze out tons of slacking time.
Soon, following the address Cleo gave, the two arrived before a laboratory's gate.
Seeing the laboratory gate's lights illuminate, Nuwa and Fuxi couldn't hide the delight on their faces.
"Fuxi, our good days of slacking off have returned."
Hearing this, Nuwa nodded deeply in agreement, similarly delighted: "Yes yes... Hope it's not the Doctor's old woman personality... tsk!!!"
Nuwa's words weren't finished when she sharply inhaled.
"Wrong, wrong! This heart-palpitating aura... this is... this is..."
Then, in their trepidation, the laboratory door opened.
And what met their eyes was an extremely familiar green figure.
The instant they saw her, Nuwa and Fuxi only felt their calves trembling, cold sweat pouring out.
Because appearing at the laboratory door was precisely Mobius, whom they thought they'd escaped.
And now, Mobius's expression was terrifyingly dark. She tightly clenched her hands, body trembling uncontrollably, continuously repeating "old woman" several times.
Obviously already extraordinarily furious.
"Nuwa, Fuxi, you two have made something of yourselves!"
Nuwa and Fuxi's faces instantly turned deathly pale, hugging each other and trembling.
"Doc... Doctor? Why are you here too!"
"Because this is also my territory!"
"You two, immediately get to work. I'll have AI constantly watch you. If I see you slacking..."
Mobius's face showed a cold smile.
"Wait to be optimized!"
Having spoken, Mobius no longer cared about this pair of trembling troublemakers hugging each other, walking toward outside the laboratory.
She'd finally left the lab once—not to welcome these two salted fish.
However, she'd truly come to receive someone.
...
Outside Shencheng Pharmaceuticals headquarters building, two more figures were waiting.
One had light purple hair and brownish-red eyes, carrying some evil aura—precisely Lucius disguised as Faded Fairy.
The other was a white-haired, blue-eyed girl—precisely Kiana who'd arrived at Shencheng Pharmaceuticals with him.
However, today's Kiana's outfit differed somewhat from usual.
Her upper body wore a sleeveless spliced light blue jacket with black tight inner clothing.
Lower body was high-waisted black shorts, going down with black long socks reaching her calves, stepping in blue and white sneakers.
Around her neck hung white headphones, head wearing a blue-white cap.
Simultaneously, she had a medium-sized light blue backpack on her back, one hand also holding a white suitcase.
Just looking at her outfit showed she was prepared to travel.
In fact, she'd indeed accepted Lucius's invitation to tour Shenzhou. Only after just getting off the plane, Lucius dragged her to Shencheng Pharmaceuticals headquarters.
If not for knowing her brother thoroughly, she'd suspect he was going to harvest her kidneys.
"So, Mu, you're not planning to take me to tour pharmaceutical enterprise assembly lines?"
"Of course not. Just need to do something critically important for saving the world here. And this matter needs your help."
"What matter?"
Hearing this, Lucius's face showed a strange smile.
"Good brother, are you interested in becoming humanity's ancestor?"
"Mu, what nonsense are you talking about?"
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