76: Chapter 76 Welcome to Performance Appraisal Hell

Finally, he closed his eyes and, in a voice so raspy it was almost inaudible, spat out two words:

"...I... accept."

Those three syllables seemed to drain the last of his strength, yet also felt like the removal of some heavy shackle.

At the valley entrance, the smile on Levi's lips grew even gentler; he even clapped his hands lightly twice with a hint of approval.

The applause was crisp, sounding exceptionally piercing in the deathly silence of the early morning.

"A wise choice, Mr. Echo," he said into the microphone in a friendly tone, as if chatting with an old friend. "I believe you will feel fortunate for this decision today. After all, being able to contribute to the grand blueprint of Blackstone Territory is a supreme honor bestowed upon every person of insight in this era."

These high-sounding words, amplified by the array, clearly reached the desperate spider nest deep within the mine.

Levi had no interest in hearing the other party's response, and he expected that at this moment, they could say nothing meaningful besides gasping and cursing.

He turned sideways and gave a wink to the Troglodyte guide, Bolt, who had been waiting nearby.

"Bolt, go on, welcome our new colleague. Remember, follow the process in Chapter 3, Section 7 of the Employee Induction Manual; do not omit a single step."

"As you command, Lord." Bolt's wrinkled face showed no expression as he grunted in response and turned toward an unremarkable rock wall on the side of the mine.

His hand felt along the rough stone surface for a moment, seemingly pressing a hidden mechanism.

A dull grinding sound echoed, and a narrow crack, just wide enough for a person to pass through sideways, opened in the seemingly solid rock wall.

A thick current of air, mixing the fishy scent of moss, the dampness of rock, and the putrid stench of Cave Demon Spider bodily fluids, rushed out from the crack like something tangible.

Levi instinctively frowned slightly and gently fanned his hand in front of his nose with a handkerchief.

This primitive scent from deep underground always made him feel somewhat uncomfortable.

He preferred the scent in his castle's study—a mixture of dry parchment, high-quality ink, and the steam from black tea.

His gaze turned toward Princess Ella; the complexion of this Pearl of the Empire was even worse than before.

In those azure eyes, the flames of anger had been replaced by a complex mix of confusion, disgust, and powerlessness.

She bit her lower lip hard, seemingly searching for a word to use as an attack, only to find that all her moral standards appeared pale and weak in the face of Levi's bizarre operations.

Levi was in no hurry to explain.

He liked to let facts speak for themselves, especially those cold, precise numbers that could crush all idealism.

Meanwhile,

He heard the questioning voice of Echo coming through the Transmission Array, suppressed with rage.

The voice was hoarse and broken due to weakness and anger, but Levi could still clearly catch the keywords: "safety passage," "deception," and "exit."

Then came Bolt's emotionless, mechanical reply.

Levi could even imagine the Troglodyte pointing at something and reciting the rules by the book.

"...The right to use the employee passage is linked to performance... If task progress stagnates for more than one hour... the passage will be permanently closed... This is the Lord's incentive measure for employees."

After Bolt's voice faded, the other end of the array fell into a long, deathly silence.

Levi knew that Echo was using his top-tier assassin's brain to rapidly digest the absurd reality before him.

From a death trap to a debt trap, and now to this never-ending performance review hell.

One link followed another, the logic tight, leaving no blind spots.

This combination of moves was practically a dimensional strike against the powerhouses of this world who revered martial force and honor.

They might see through a thousand murder plots, but they absolutely could not deal with a meticulously designed "labor contract."

"You are enslaving them!"

Princess Ella finally found her words; her voice wasn't loud, but it carried a violent tremor from having her bottom line crossed.

She stared fixedly at Levi, as if trying to burn two holes into his soul with her gaze.

"Enslaving?" Levi shook his head slightly, as if he had heard a funny joke, and corrected her, "Princess, please use your words more accurately. I am merely providing them with an opportunity to repay their debts and realize their self-worth through labor. This is an equal employment relationship, evidenced by a contract. Look, Sylvie is already prepared."

He jerked his chin toward the legal advisor beside him.

Sylvie immediately understood and expressionlessly pulled a thick financial statement from her briefcase, presenting it to Princess Ella with both hands.

"What is this?" Ella frowned, not reaching out to take it.

"The cost calculation and expected revenue analysis report for the 'Blackstone Mine Security Incident,'" Sylvie explained in her unwavering voice. "Princess, I suggest you look it over. Understanding the facts is the prerequisite for effective communication."

Ella hesitated for a moment but eventually took the parchment.

She only took one glance before her breath suddenly hitched.

On the parchment, rows of heart-stopping numbers were listed in an extremely neat and clear font.

"Incident Cost List:

I. Direct Costs:

1. Transmission Array construction and mana consumption: 12 gold coins.

2. Emergency gate mechanical maintenance and activation: 7 gold coins.

3. Overtime allowance for Troglodyte guide Bolt: 1 gold coin, 30 silver coins.

4. Preparation cost for emergency antidote (inferior quality): 3 gold coins.

..."

The list continued item by item, from materials to labor, every expense precise down to the copper.

Total cost: 23 gold coins, 80 silver coins.

Below the cost list was a much larger section for "Expected Revenue Analysis."

"Incident Revenue List:

I. Direct Debt Revenue:

1. Debt generated by the Emergency Evacuation Service Debt Agreement: 50,000 gold coins.

II. Expected Output from Forced Labor (Phase One):

1. Hatchery clearing task:

- Adult Cave Demon Spider corpses (material value): Estimated output 300 units, average price 15 gold coins each, totaling 4,500 gold coins.

- Spider silk (Alchemy/Enchantment material): Estimated output 50 pounds, average price 30 gold coins per pound, totaling 1,500 gold coins.

- Venom (Potion/Poison raw material): Estimated output 20 bottles, average price 50 gold coins per bottle, totaling 1,000 gold coins.

- Loss rate control bonus (negative): If higher than 5%, a double penalty will be deducted from team assets.

III. Human Resource Value Assessment (Long-term):

1. Control over the Shadow Guild organization: Unable to value.

2. Thirty-year usage rights of a top-tier assassin team (4 people): Conservatively estimated at market mercenary rates, an average annual value of no less than 8,000 gold coins, totaling 240,000 gold coins over thirty years.

String after string of cold numbers formed a massive and terrifying profit model.

An investment of less than 24 gold coins was leveraging a potential value of hundreds of thousands of gold coins.

Ella recognized every word on it, but combined together, they made her feel waves of dizziness and nausea.

This was no longer business; it was the most naked, calculated predation.

"This... this will destroy a person's will! What do you take them for? Livestock for calculating value?!" Ella's voice carried a hint of despair; she could not understand, nor could she accept, this logic that completely objectified life.

"I don't need his will; I only need his productivity."

Levi calmly withdrew his gaze and cast it toward the deep entrance of the mine.

His voice was very soft, yet like a sharp scalpel, it cut through all the tender-hearted pretenses.

"Princess, when survival is the only choice, productivity is one's only value. Will? That is a luxury one is only qualified to talk about after being well-fed and warmly clothed. And I am providing them with an opportunity to continue possessing 'productivity.' From that perspective, one could even say I am their benefactor."

This twisted reasoning left Ella momentarily unsure of how to refute it.

She felt her proud royal education, the chivalry she believed in, and her noble honor being crushed before this man by a cold and efficient logic she had never encountered before.

Her mind was in a mess; she could only stare blankly at the report in her hand, at those numbers, as if seeing a group of souls bound by invisible chains, struggling day after day in the dark mine to repay a debt that could never be cleared.

Levi paid no more attention to the princess, who was lost in self-doubt; his focus had already shifted to another, more interesting matter.

He took a palm-sized black Magic Crystal Slate from Sylvie. The surface of the slate was as smooth as a mirror, and it was currently glowing with a faint light, with lines of text written in the Common Tongue flowing slowly across it.

This was an information terminal he had commissioned Dwarven craftsmen to make, modeled after the tablets of his previous life.

By connecting to the micro-perception arrays placed throughout the mine, it could monitor the situation inside in real-time and issue commands to the sub-terminal in Bolt's hand.

On the slate, the real-time data of "Team Echo" was clearly displayed.

[Team Name: Debtor No. 01]

[Current Task: Hatchery Clearing]

[Task Target Completion:]

[ - Adult Magic Spider Corpses: 31/300]

[ - Spider Silk (Grade A): 5.2/50 lbs]

[ - Venom (High Purity): 1.8/20 bottles]

[Total Current Output Value: 631 gold coins]

[Deducted Debt: 50,000 gold coins (Rescue Service Fee), 567.9 gold coins (Tool and Antidote Loss Fee)]

[Current Remaining Debt: 49,936.9 gold coins]

Looking at this number, Levi nodded with satisfaction.

Efficiency was not bad.

The techniques of these top-tier assassins were indeed precise; the damage to the Magic Spiders' body structures was minimal, greatly reducing the material loss rate.

Every strike of theirs was not just for killing, but for creating value for him.

He could imagine that at this moment, deep in the mine, those assassins who once only knew how to take lives from the shadows were being forced to learn how to cut open a Magic Spider's abdomen at the most precise angle to avoid damaging the silk glands, and how to pierce the venom sac with the smallest wound to ensure the venom wasn't contaminated.

The art of killing was being transformed into efficient assembly-line slaughtering techniques.

This was the progress of productivity.

Echo himself should have already demonstrated his management talent as a leader.

In such an extreme environment, he had to suppress his subordinates' despair and organize them to complete those seemingly impossible tasks in the most energy-efficient way.

Levi lightly tapped a point on the slate, calling up a pre-set new command.

Deep in the mine.

"Pfft!"

The short sword in Echo's hand was like black lightning, accurately piercing between the compound eyes of an elite Cave Demon Spider and crushing its brain.

This monster, a size larger than its kin, let out a shrill hiss, its eight long legs twitched a few times, and then it crashed to the ground.

He leaned on his sword, panting heavily, sweat mixed with the foul-smelling green blood of the Magic Spider dripping down his pale cheeks.

Around him, his only two remaining subordinates were equally exhausted; they stood back-to-back, warily watching the restless crimson pinpoints of light in the surrounding darkness.

Their movements had changed from initial anger and confusion to numbness and mechanical routine.

Stripping silk, cutting venom sacs, stacking corpses—it was as if they had practiced it tens of thousands of times.

"Guild Master... we..." one assassin spoke with a raspy voice, a wound deep enough to see bone on his arm slowly oozing blood.

They did not dare waste precious Battle Qi on healing; every bit of strength had to be used for the endless fighting and "work."

Echo did not answer; he only staggered to the sub-terminal slate Bolt had left behind, wanting to see what their several hours of hellish labor had actually earned them.

When he saw that massive, almost unchanged debt figure on the slate, even a man with a heart as firm as steel like him had a flash of despairing gloom in his eyes.

Everything they had traded their lives for was as tiny as a grain of dust before this astronomical debt.

However, just as he was prepared to look away and continue this hopeless labor, the light on the slate flickered, and a line of fresh, ominous red text abruptly refreshed at the very top of the task list.

[Emergency Rush: Capture fifty Juvenile Cave Demon Spiders alive for an Ecological Farming Project.

Note: Capture mortality rate will be factored into the final performance penalty.]