My World Needs Antivirus

Lin Jue is a textbook "corporate drone." His motto in life is, "If you can sit, never stand; if you can lie down, never sit." He thought his life would be an endless cycle of 996 workdays and KPIs until retirement.

That was until the day he dropped his toast on the floor ten times in a row, and every time, it landed jam-side down. Right after that, a pink octopus with a passion for philosophical discussions crawled out of his toilet.

A translucent interface resembling an old-fashioned computer operating system popped up before his eyes:

[Warning: Detected Class C reality-warping anomaly "Philosophical Seafood" and Class G probability contamination "Spread-Side-Down Law."]

[Ping! Congratulations, temporary administrator privileges for the Asia region of the Earth server have been activated. Employee ID: 9527.]

[Beginner's task: Within thirty minutes, persuade an octopus to abandon its ontological philosophy and safely return it to the sewer. Failure penalty: Your home will become a local internet sensation within an hour: "Deep-Sea Philosophy Museum."]

From then on, Lin Jue's lie-flat life was over. Fixing bugs, catching anomalies, and matching wits with all kinds of bizarre phenomena. From an endlessly refilling bottle of cola, to a deliveryman trapped in a time loop, to a library that devours concepts... This temporary cosmic employee gets no salary, no social insurance or housing fund, and has to stay ready at all times to clean up the mess in this crazy world.

System: "Because your 'laziness' is, on a logical level, closest to the universe's ultimate law of 'governing by doing nothing.'"

Lin Jue: "...Put it in plain language."

System: "Because you're the cheapest."