Three years was over in a blink of an eye for beings with long, long lives, but for Hao Ren, it was long enough for him to get better at his job and more familiar with his colleagues. Though he usually stayed out of the community and did not make the effort to catch up with them, he remained well connected with his colleagues because of the way inspectors keep in touch with one another.
As the observer and responder to all living things in the universe, inspectors are distributed throughout the entire galaxy. Some were even assigned to different galaxies. Since every inspector had their own jobs and territories to look after, they did not have time to gather round and catch up frequently. The only way to stay connected was via data link or virtual meetings—the former was for day-to-day communication, while the latter was for official purposes.
The inspectors were physically separated from one another, but that did not stop them from communicating with each other.