Chapter 286 – Officially Forming the Team

Professional Assistance Center.

As the name suggests, this is an official facility specifically established to assist Professionals.

Nearly all procedures related to Professionals are handled here.

Whether it’s replacing a Professional certificate, applying for a Star Rank assessment, or similar matters—except for a few special cases—everything is processed here. Even the Mission Hall where Professionals receive tasks is located within this center, making it the most frequently visited official facility by Professionals.

Early one morning, Su Ming arrived at this Professional Center and followed the icon guides to the service counter with staff.

“Hello, respected Professional. How may I assist you today?”

The counter staff was a young woman with looks scoring over eighty points—approaching ninety—who wore a sweet smile that could lift anyone’s spirits.

Among all the staff, this girl’s appearance was undoubtedly the most outstanding and attractive, causing many Professionals to unconsciously gather at her counter, forming a dragon-like queue.

In contrast, the other counters, while not completely empty, couldn’t compare to this one, making the staff at those counters shoot envious glances at the long line of Professionals.

Of course, Su Ming automatically ignored those resentful stares.

Although he had no impure thoughts and was definitely not the same type as those lining up (serious face), who would refuse a pleasant-looking young woman with a sweet voice handling their affairs?

For the sake of his own mood, Su Ming chose to queue here, absolutely without any ulterior motives (smirk).

When it was finally his turn, Su Ming glanced at the name tag of the young woman.

He Zhaoyi—a rather elegant name.

Well, let’s call her Xiao He for now.

“Hello,” Su Ming said to the counter staff Xiao He. “I’d like to form a team. What procedures do I need to complete?”

That’s right, forming a team requires official reporting and application—it doesn’t count as an official team just by gathering people independently.

At best, that would be considered a hobby squad, not recognized as a formal team in Tianfeng City.

After all, the authorities grant privileges based on a team’s scale, Rank, strength, etc.—such as priority task acquisition rights and the ability to accept multiple tasks simultaneously. Without reporting, registration, and application, how could one obtain these privileges?

Thus, Su Ming came to the Professional Center early in the morning specifically to establish the team first.

“Forming a team, is it?” Xiao He acknowledged with an undiminished smile. “Understood. Please present your Terminal; I need to scan your Professional certificate first.”

“Here.”

Su Ming took out his Terminal and placed it directly in front of Xiao He.

“Please wait a moment.”

Xiao He politely accepted it, then placed Su Ming’s Terminal on an instrument resembling an alchemical tool to begin scanning.

“Su Ming, male, age eighteen, from Longyao Base City.”

Su Ming’s information gradually appeared on the instrument, becoming known to Xiao He.

Before long, Xiao He froze.

“One-Star Sorcerer?”When Xiao He saw Su Ming’s star rating, she couldn’t help but glance at him.

“Is there a problem?”

Su Ming naturally noticed this but pretended not to know.

“No, nothing.”

Xiao He shook her head, though inwardly she was puzzled.

“An eighteen-year-old One-Star Sorcerer? That’s basically a complete newcomer who just debuted.”

A newcomer who just debuted actually wants to form a team?

This was the first time Xiao He had encountered something like this.

Usually, those who came to the Professional Center to apply for team formation were either Upper-Rank Professionals with Four-Star ratings or above, or scions of wealthy Families. Even if the latter weren’t Upper-Rank Professionals, they were at least Two or Three-Star Professionals.

As for a complete newcomer like this, who just debuted and was currently only One-Star, there had never been one who wanted to form a team right from the start.

“Is it because he’s from out of town and doesn’t understand how fierce the competition in Tianfeng City is?”

Xiao He could only guess this way.

However, for an outsider to come to Tianfeng City while still at One-Star, he must be that kind of super Genius backed by a major Family, right?

In other words, the other party was likely also from a wealthy Family, which was why he was so eager to form a team.

Having figured this out, Xiao He’s doubts vanished. Combined with her professional competence, she didn’t do anything unnecessary.

Xiao He simply maintained her smile and began explaining to Su Ming.

“Generally speaking, to apply for team formation, you only need to present a valid Professional certificate and pay a 500 Contribution Points processing fee, and then you can proceed.”

“In principle, Tianfeng City encourages Professionals to form teams and engage in collective activities. This is safer and more secure, helping to prevent the unnecessary loss of valuable talent. It also makes completing tasks easier and faster.”

“So, there aren’t very high requirements for forming a team. Even a One-Star Professional can form one.”

As she explained this, Xiao He also intentionally or unintentionally reminded him.

“However, while forming a team is easy, developing and expanding it is quite difficult. If the team’s Commander doesn’t have exceptional strength or financial resources, it will be very hard to recruit members.”

“Based on this, we generally recommend that high-star Professionals form teams, while low-star Professionals are better off joining an existing team.”

“May I confirm, are you sure you want to form a team?”

Xiao He was seeking confirmation.

Clearly, this beautiful young lady had a good heart, as she reminded Su Ming in this gentle way.

Su Ming looked at He Zhaoyi with newfound respect.

This young lady is quite kind-hearted, knowing how to advise in such a gentle manner.

Unfortunately, this couldn’t make Su Ming change his mind.

“I’m sure.” Su Ming nodded and said, “Please proceed with the application for me.”

“Alright.” Seeing that Su Ming had no intention of giving up, Xiao He sighed silently to herself, but her hands moved quickly as she began processing the application.

The beautiful counter Young Miss first entered Su Ming’s Professional certificate into the archives, then took out several contracts for Su Ming, asking him to review and sign them with his name and date.

Su Ming glanced at those contracts – good heavens, they were all contracts.Although it was of the lowest quality—likely the poorest among the low-grade ones—with weak binding force, it was sufficient to serve as written proof and an initial contract.

As for the content of the contract, Su Ming roughly summarized it into several key points:

1. The applicant voluntarily forms a personal team, with the authorities merely recording it and granting privileges. Should any issues arise during this period—such as encountering danger, sustaining injuries, or even fatalities while executing multiple tasks or prioritized missions—the authorities bear no responsibility.

2. During the team’s operation, the Commander must accept and complete at least one mission per month. Failure to meet this condition will result in the automatic dissolution of the team, along with the permanent loss of priority and multiple mission acceptance rights.

3. It is strictly forbidden to coerce others in the team’s name or forcibly increase the number of team members.

4. When recruiting members, a contract must be signed in accordance with basic regulations. The contract must be fair, just, and transparent, and must not violate fundamental prohibitions or laws and regulations.

In addition to these, there were several other clauses requiring attention and compliance, but the most critical ones were essentially these four. The remaining clauses would only come into play under special circumstances.

After confirming these terms, Su Ming sighed with emotion.

“No matter where you go, the authorities always have this kind of flavor to them.”

Fortunately, these were merely precautions. As long as they weren’t violated, forming a team would bring only benefits and no drawbacks.

Incidentally, in Tianfeng City, every team also had its own Rank.

S, A, B, C, D, E—all teams in Tianfeng City were divided into these six Ranks. The higher the Rank, the larger the team’s scale, the stronger its capabilities, and the more Advanced the missions it could undertake.

Similar to the mission system in Longyao City, all missions in Tianfeng City were also categorized into S, A, B, C, D, and E Ranks. However, compared to missions in Longyao City, those of the same difficulty level in Tianfeng City tended to be more challenging and dangerous.

The authorities did not require Professionals or Professional teams to reach a specific Rank to accept missions of corresponding difficulty levels.

Mission difficulty and team Rank were merely references, allowing Professionals and Professional teams to more intuitively understand which difficulty level of missions would be safer and easier to complete.

Generally speaking, only Upper-Rank Professionals were capable of completing missions of S, A, and B difficulty levels, while lower-rank Professionals could only handle missions of C, D, and E difficulty levels.

Of course, having a team could change the situation, but the authorities still advised Professional teams not to accept high-difficulty missions beyond their Rank to avoid unnecessary sacrifices.

As for how to improve a team’s Rank, it depended on actual performance.

If a Professional team wished to advance in Rank, it could only do so through achievements.

In other words, the more missions completed and the higher their difficulty, the easier it would be to elevate the team’s Rank.

The authorities would monitor the mission completion status of each Professional team in real time. Once a team’s achievements met the standards, its Rank would be elevated.

Once a team’s Rank improved, it might gain access to special missions, unique rewards, and specific incentives.Most importantly, the authorities would publish the actual achievements and ranks of various teams, allowing high-ranking Professional teams to gain fame throughout Tianfeng City, achieve great renown, and obtain glorious honor and prestige.

This meant more missions would come your way, even designated specifically for you to complete. More Professionals would also be drawn by your reputation, choosing to join your team, making it increasingly powerful.

In Tianfeng City, where teams were equivalent to personally established forces and team members were like direct subordinates, these were tangible benefits and gains.

However, all this was still too early for Su Ming.

Even if he successfully formed a team, he would only be the Commander of an E-Rank team—the lowest of the low, the bottom of the barrel.

But who didn’t start from this step?

Su Ming didn’t particularly care about this.

“As long as I can recruit Upper-Rank Professionals into the team as planned, raising the team’s rank would be a piece of cake, wouldn’t it?”

From what Su Ming understood, in Tianfeng City, generally only B-Rank teams had Upper-Rank Professionals, with a few special C-Rank teams also having them.

Teams composed entirely of Upper-Rank Professionals had to be at least A-Rank.

As for S-Rank teams, it wasn’t just about having multiple Upper-Rank Professionals; they also had a large number of lower-rank Professionals serving as subordinates.

For now, Su Ming’s goal was set above A-Rank.

Therefore, Su Ming swiftly signed his name, making the contract effective and allowing the official review to pass directly.

“Congratulations, you have successfully become a team Commander.”

Xiao He handed the Terminal back to Su Ming with both hands, her sweet smile still in place.

“You can name your team and also go to the Talent Market to recruit team members.”

“The Talent Market is on the tenth floor of the Professional Center. You can check it out first.”

“May your team have smooth sailing and soon make a renowned name for itself.”

No wonder so many people wanted to queue here!

This beautiful, kind-hearted young girl offering blessings in such a sweet voice—wasn’t it incredibly uplifting and morale-boosting?

Su Ming felt as if any obstacles on the road ahead were no longer a problem, his mood truly relaxed and joyful.

“Thank you.” Su Ming took his Terminal and smiled at the counter girl. “I’ll come find you for help when I need to pick up missions later, lovely counter miss.”

With that, Su Ming turned and left.

Leaving Xiao He alone, sitting there, looking somewhat dazed.

It took a while before Xiao He reacted.

“Was I just teased?”

The young girl’s face immediately turned red.

Seeing this, the staff at the adjacent counters also started teasing her.

“Oh, Comrade Xiao He, another admirer has come your way?”

“This one’s not bad—not only young but also quite handsome, much better than that fat-headed Hunter from last time.”

“You should consider it! After all, he is a Professional!”

“Really envy you, Comrade Xiao He, getting courted by Professionals every now and then. Being pretty sure has its advantages!”

Her colleagues teased He Zhaoyi like this.

He Zhaoyi rolled her eyes at them and ignored them.

The shy expression on her face, however, had already disappeared.”A Professional’s courtship… huh?”

Xiao He murmured softly, letting out a sigh.

“How many of those are actually reliable?”

Recalling all the Professionals who had either openly expressed interest or dropped hints to her so far, her mood grew somewhat somber.

“Excuse me, may I ask…”

At that moment, the next person in line at the counter timidly spoke up, snapping Xiao He out of her thoughts.

She quickly patted her cheeks to shake off the distracting thoughts.

“Hello, how may I assist you?”

A professional smile reappeared on the young woman’s face as she diligently resumed her work.

(End of Chapter)