207: Chapter 208 Zeus in the Mediterranean? Thor as a Human Generator: Western Mythology is All Outsourced Contractors

Upon hearing the words "Western Mythology Outsourced Zone," Change and Xihe both wore expressions of extreme disgust.

"Go to the territory of those barbarians?" Xihe curled her lip with disdain. "Those guys smell like mutton, and the place they live in is like a pigsty. When this lady went there to hold the Universal Deities Exchange Conference, there wasn't even a place to stand!"

Jiang Chen listened, stunned. "Wait, Western mythology? Olympus? Asgard? They're at least God Kings and Main Gods, right? Why do you sound like you're talking about some suburban slum? And why are they 'outsourced'?"

"Husband, you don't know."

Queen Mother of the West sneered and patiently explained the hierarchy of the Five Dimensions' major firms to Jiang Chen: "In our Five Dimensions Multiverse Administration, Eastern immortals are 'tenured staff' with pure roots and red blood. We emphasize seniority and the Daoist way of nature, and our KPI assessments are the strictest."

"But those gods in the West? Hah. Their pantheon is chaotic. Today you cuckold me, tomorrow I turn into an animal to cuckold you. Their private lives are so depraved that even the General Bureau's auditing AI can't bear to watch. Because their family ethics are so messed up, causing frequent errors in the backend database, the General Bureau HR stripped them of their official status hundreds of millions of years ago, demoting them all to outsourced contract workers."

"In layman's terms, we are the management sitting in offices, and they... are just customer service agents and assembly line workers taking calls in a basement."

Jiang Chen's mouth twitched uncontrollably after hearing this.

Good grief, so Zeus and Odin, who are so badass on the 3D Earth, are just bottom-tier wage slaves in the Five Dimensions world without even basic social insurance?!

"Fine, whatever, whether they're tenured or outsourced, as long as we can get through!"

Jiang Chen waved his hand. "Open the door! Let's go meet these Western foreign gods!"

...

Following the Queen Mother of the West using her regional manager's backup permissions, a gray space rift tore open above the ruins.

Jiang Chen led the way, bringing his five peerless wives and the baby system holding a milk bottle, and stepped into the passage.

After a brief moment of dizziness.

Jiang Chen opened his eyes, expecting to see magnificent marble temples, beautiful fairies in white veils, or a holy mountain flowing with milk and honey.

The result.

"Rumble—!"

"Clang! Clang!"

A deafening roar of machinery and noisy shouting almost shattered Jiang Chen's eardrums.

What came into view was a huge, low-domed "cyber sweatshop" emitting acrid black smoke everywhere. The air was filled with the smell of machine oil, sweat, and cheap cigars.

Countless "gods" in tattered work clothes and covered in dirt were sitting at densely packed workstations, frantically typing on keyboards or processing mountains of physical documents.

"This is supposed to be Mount Olympus?!" Jiang Chen's eyes almost popped out. "This is clearly a black-hearted textile factory from the last century!"

"Look over there." Gu Liuli covered her nose and pointed to a huge high platform in the center of the factory.

On the high platform sat a middle-aged man who was obese, wearing a floral shirt, and... had a Mediterranean-style bald head.

This man was holding two thick, sparking high-voltage wires in his hands, furiously spitting at a holographic communicator in front of him.

"F*ck! What's going on with that area called North America on Earth?! Why are they praying for rain again?! I'm the King of Thunder, not a damn water company! Tell them, if they want lightning to strike trees, fine, but no rain! Connect these two wires for me! Electrocute those poor ghosts who don't pay their faith tax!"

While cursing, the Mediterranean-headed man slammed the two high-voltage wires together, erupting in a blinding flash of lightning that traveled down the data line to the lower realm.

"That person..." Jiang Chen swallowed hard, pointing at the Mediterranean-headed bald man. "That wouldn't be the legendary King of Gods, Zeus, would it?"

"Who else could it be besides that old lecher?" Xihe rolled her eyes. "I haven't seen him in hundreds of millions of years, and his head is getting brighter and brighter. I guess it's from the static electricity."

It wasn't just Zeus.

Jiang Chen turned his head and saw a huge transparent drum next to the high platform.

Inside the drum, a muscular, bearded man was holding a tattered hammer, running frantically inside like a giant hamster. As he ran, the generator connected to the drum let out a "humming" roar, providing lighting power for the entire sweatshop.

"Thor, the God of Thunder?" Jiang Chen's mouth twitched. "Why is he acting as a human generator here?"

"Because the Asgard area's performance didn't meet the target last month, and they couldn't pay the General Bureau's electricity bill." Queen Mother of the West explained expressionlessly. "As punishment, he has to pedal the generator himself to pay off the debt."

Too miserable.

Jiang Chen even felt a glimmer of sympathy for these Western gods. Being a god in the Five Dimensions is worse than being a programmer on Earth.

Just as Jiang Chen and his group were observing.

Zeus, who was throwing a tantrum, suddenly caught sight of the Queen Mother of the West standing below the high platform out of the corner of his eye.

"Clang!"

The high-voltage wires in Zeus's hands dropped to the ground, shocking him and making his whole body tremble. His face, which looked somewhat swollen from long-term lack of sleep and excessive indulgence, instantly turned pale, and even the few remaining hairs on his Mediterranean head stood up.

"Q-Queen Mother of the West, Director?!"

Zeus's massive body erupted with agility that was completely out of character for his size. He scrambled down from the high platform and "thumped" to his knees in front of the Queen Mother of the West, even sliding two meters along the ground.

"Oh my! What fragrant wind blew a big boss from the Eastern District like you to our bottom-tier outsourcing factory?!"

Zeus was all smiles, his sycophantic expression even more professional than a eunuch from the Qing Dynasty. "Why didn't you give a heads-up before coming to inspect? I could have had someone air out the smell of machine oil in this factory! Thor! Stop stepping, damn it! Don't you see the leader is here? Hurry up and come over to kowtow!"

Upon hearing this, Thor, the God of Thunder, in the drum immediately braked, ran over with his hammer, and knelt on one knee like a big, silly iron block.

The entire sweatshop went silent instantly. All the Western outsourced gods stood up trembling, heads lowered, not daring to even breathe loudly.

"That's enough, put away that disgusting face of yours."

Queen Mother of the West stepped back half a step with extreme disgust, as if afraid that the smell of mutton on Zeus would taint her. "I'm not here to check your KPI today. Open the backup channel to the core data stream of the General Bureau for me; we need to pass through."

"Pass through to the General Bureau?"

Zeus paused, his small eyes darting around.

He looked at the Queen Mother of the West, then at the peerless beauties behind her (Change, Xihe, etc.) who were clearly not part of the local staff, and finally, his gaze landed on—Jiang Chen, who was vaguely surrounded by this group of goddesses.

As an old hand who had been struggling at the bottom for hundreds of millions of years, Zeus's intuition told him that today's matter was not simple. A big shot from the Eastern District not staying on her own turf, but coming to their godforsaken outsourcing factory to ask for passage? This must be a huge deal!

"Oh, Director Wang, this matter... is difficult to handle."

Zeus stood up, rubbed his hands, and a very slick, mercenary smile appeared on his face. "You know, this is an outsourced area, and that backup channel is usually used by the General Bureau to dump junk data. The channel is locked by default. If it's opened casually and Inspector finds out, my position as acting factory manager won't be safe."

As Zeus spoke, he very subtly extended two fingers and rubbed them together.

The meaning couldn't be more obvious—he wanted more money. He wanted a bribe.