Yun Qingyue had been living inside “Apocalyptic Overlord” for two years now.
That wasn’t exactly accurate. According to the System, she was originally a character from “Apocalyptic Overlord.” Something had gone wrong somewhere, and she was sent into the modern-day workplace world instead.
The modern world she was in was also a novel, but because it was a workplace novel, the atmosphere was all about grinding and hustling.
She lived in that world without understanding the hidden rules, and simply followed the environment, grinding away.
She carried a heavy backpack, grinding through nine years of compulsory education. Every day she drilled into her head that this year was crucial, that she couldn’t fall behind, or else she wouldn’t get into a key high school. After struggling to get into high school, her eyes glazed over daily. Her only thought was that she had to keep up with the pack, or else she wouldn’t get into a good university. After finally getting into university, it wasn’t a glorious achievement or a relief, but the start of getting every possible certification to prepare for the job market, otherwise, how could she compete with graduate students and PhDs?
Finally, after sixteen years of constant anxiety, she successfully became an office worker with a monthly salary of three thousand.
It took her two years to climb from 3,000 a month to 5,000 a month.
Yun Qingyue felt she had been domesticated into a beast of burden. She went to work every day to earn her pathetic paycheck, came home, and continued working on project proposals.
She figured she’d die from overwork one day.
But before she got the chance to drop dead from overwork, the System that was supposed to notify her she had entered the wrong world showed up.
The sky that night was very dark, as dark as her boss’s heart. She had chugged two large cups of black coffee at home, rushing to finish the ninth version of a project proposal for a client, when a document icon suddenly appeared on her table. The document grew facial features and spoke in human language—
“I’m very sorry, there’s been a bit of a problem on my end. You shouldn’t be a supporting character in this workplace novel!”
Had the document come to life?
“…” She was finally being driven mad by the clients, was she seeing things?
“It’s not an illusion.” The little document seemed to know what she was thinking, as it tapped her computer. In the next second, her document started typing on its own, finishing the ninth version of the proposal and immediately starting on the tenth.
And that wasn’t proof she was crazy? Wasn’t this the dream of every corporate slave? The computer doing the proposal by itself.
In the next moment, the computer directly sent the ninth version to the boss. Right after that, the boss replied, “This version is decent, I’ll show it to them.”
In just four seconds, without even looking at it! That was her black-hearted, idiotic boss, no doubt about it. So this wasn’t a hallucination?
Yun Qingyue looked back at the computer screen as it jumped back to the document, typing at twenty thousand words an hour, and she was certain she probably wasn’t hallucinating.
“What did you just say?” Sorry, she had thought she was crazy and even felt a moment of secret delight that she wouldn’t have to revise that damn proposal anymore, so she hadn’t heard what it was saying.
“Hello, I am the maintenance System from the neighboring novel, ‘Apocalyptic Overlord.’ You shouldn’t be in this modern workplace romance novel. You are a character from our world. Our world had a bit of a malfunction, and after investigating, I found the cause is you.”
Yun Qingyue: “And?” She didn’t know what it meant, but if it wasn’t her fault, no one was going to gaslight her.
“In short, you shouldn’t be a supporting character in this workplace novel. You should be shining brightly in our ‘Apocalyptic Overlord’.”
Yun Qingyue thought to herself, Could it be that I’m the overlord of the post-apocalyptic world?
“You should be a supporting character in our novel.”
Oh, she had thought too much. It seemed a corporate mule would always be a corporate mule, no matter where.
But, an apocalyptic novel? A supporting character? The kind with zombies?
Yun Qingyue stopped asking questions and turned to check if there were still tasks on her computer. Years of reading novels told her it was better to stay a supporting character in a modern workplace novel. Being an office drone might be miserable, but at least there was no mortal danger.
Apocalyptic novels didn’t have that level of human rights. Supporting characters died without a second thought.
“Don’t underestimate being a supporting character, you are a very important one.” The System hadn’t expected her to just ignore it.
“Don’t be so negative, you’re important to our world.”
Yun Qingyue looked over. She wanted to hear just how important she was.
The System said: “You are the reason the apocalyptic villain turned dark. Your identity is the benefactor of the apocalyptic villain. When the apocalypse arrived, he had a high fever and was suspected of being infected with the virus. He was about to be thrown out, but you saved him. You two wandered and fought zombies together. Later, you both arrived at a human base. The villain was accepted into the base’s zombie-fighting team because of his Esper Power. Your job was to wait for his return in the base, until one day, the villain’s team didn’t come back safely. Hearing that the villain had been eaten by zombies, the base people naturally refused to support you. Without an Esper Power, you were forced out of the city and eventually died in a horde of zombies. When the villain returned, he figured his benefactor being dead was whatever, but on top of that, others were trying to kill him. In a rage, he destroyed the entire base and became the Zombie King there. Two years later, when the male lead came to grind the Zombie King, he not only got a base but also the Zombie King’s Crystal Core…”
See? Death comes out of nowhere. That’s the reputation of apocalyptic novels. And what was with the phrase “his benefactor dead and, on top of that”?
“That’s my importance?” Yun Qingyue sorted through it and said, “Your world is essentially a big project. The project is titled ‘Everything to Make the Male Lead the Overlord.’ And my position is a small project, titled ‘Delivering Experience Points to the Male Lead.’ I’m not even the manager of this small project.” She was still the lowest-level worker, with zero decision-making power.
“Don’t calculate it like that, you’re a key figure.”
“Now, because you didn’t appear, from the very start, the villain with the high fever was directly killed by others. When the male lead gets to that base, what he needs to deal with is no longer the Zombie King, but a group of scheming humans. So, you must return to your position.”
No decision-making power, and when things go wrong, she has to take the blame. Just like now, she wasn’t given the lead role, she wasn’t allowed to be the Zombie King. In the end, the project failed, and they came looking for her, the bottom-rung worker, to pin the blame on her. Saying it was her fault the project went bankrupt.
Looking at the little document icon, Yun Qingyue politely refused: “Piss off.”
She honestly couldn’t think of any reason to give up her perfectly good 5,000-yuan job. If she worked hard for another two years, she should be able to get a raise to 6,000 a month. Such a promising future! There was no way she’d do something this thankless.
“There’s a salary!!! A very high one!”
The other party gave a very reasonable reason.
Yun Qingyue became interested.
Seeing that this reason was working, the little document immediately pressed on: “Just think of it as finding a new job. Thirty thousand a month for you. Your current job is only 5,000 a month and it’s exhausting you to death. Now, you have a job offering 30,000 a month. You can slack off most of the time. A conservative estimate is that you’ll be there for ten years. 30,000 a month, that’s 300,000 a year, and 3 million over ten years. And during these ten years, no time will pass in your own world.”
“360,000.”
“Ah?”
“You misspoke just now. 30,000 a month, 12 months a year is 360,000.” Ten years would be 3.6 million.
A huge sum of money.
Yun Qingyue was now a textbook corporate mule. When she was little, she thought earning 10 million when she grew up would be easy. Now, she thought 3.6 million was a colossal amount, one she might not earn in a lifetime of working.
So, her heart stirred. And while her heart stirred, she also had to pinch pennies. Not a cent could be off.
The System had probably figured out what she was thinking, and continued its efforts: “Not only that, when you come back, you won’t have to work 996 any more. After completing this project, you’ll get a job offer for a four-day work week.”
Yun Qingyue’s heart was racing. Who wouldn’t want a four-day work week?
But right now, the other party was just words. Yun Qingyue said, “Let’s talk through the details first, then decide whether to take on this project.”
The System had thought that offering her 3.6 million for ten years in a small world would end the matter.
“What other details are needed?”
Yun Qingyue said, “Of course everything needs to be discussed. When I go over, will I use my own body? What’s the maximum level of injury I’ll sustain there? Will there be psychological protection? If something happens to me during work, if I kick the bucket prematurely and can’t continue the project, do I return immediately to my current body? How is the salary settlement handled then?”
She wasn’t just seeing the 3.6 million; she also saw the risks behind it.
“How do you make payments? Do you accept payment in advance? As for the villain I’ll be cooperating with on this base project, can he follow the plot development you want? If he doesn’t cooperate and causes the project to fail, how is responsibility determined?”
Although this project seemed highly profitable, there were simply too many uncertainties. Especially the villain she was to cooperate with; everywhere she looked, there was risk. When you added it all up, it was all problems.
“Don’t worry about that. As long as you don’t subjectively sabotage the mission, even if the mission isn’t completed, the blame won’t be shifted to you.”
“You won’t use your own body. We’ll create a body for you over there. As for the maximum damage… let me find that… it’s that at the very end, you’ll have your neck bitten by a zombie, but we can extract your soul ahead of time.”
“You won’t die prematurely. If such a situation really occurs, we will rescue you. If the project has issues, your salary will still be paid.”
That all sounded too good to be true. It was nice to hear, but she needed it to be concrete.
“How is our salary paid? Mid-month or end of month? Do you have the capability to make such a large sum of money appear in my account without this world getting suspicious?”
“For you, spending ten years in there only takes five minutes in reality. We’ll send you the final payment within those five minutes. This world won’t be suspicious; we have our methods.”
“Alright, all of this needs to be written into a physical contract. And you must prove to me that this contract is binding on you. You have to tell me, if a dispute arises between us, how do I file a complaint against you? Basically, your labor bureau’s contact details.”
The System also reminded her: “Fine, I also have requirements: no slacking off negatively, and no suicide.”
“For thirty thousand a month, why would I commit suicide?”
Up to this point, she had been in this world for two years. These two years were a transition period; the apocalypse hadn’t come yet, and she was just a university student.
Returning to university days was so nurturing. No certification exams, no club activities, sleeping until she woke naturally every day, then choosing whatever general elective course she wanted to take.
She had been enjoying such comfortable days for two whole years, and she was earning a yearly salary of 360,000.
She felt her mind and body had returned to the days before she became a bitter person.
And now, the apocalypse was about to begin.
She was also about to officially start this small “base” project.
First, she needed to find her work partner, the future main villain.
If she remembered correctly, the System had said that at the start of the apocalypse, he seemed to be hanging by a thread.
Of course, she didn’t sympathize with this work partner.
Because she held grudges.
“His benefactor dead and, on top of that,” was it?