Programmer Li Daima accidentally gets bound to an “Embarrassment Point Collection System” and is forced to complete socially mortifying tasks like “confessing his love in front of everyone at the law firm's annual party.” Elite lawyer Su Lüfa, meanwhile, is shackled by a “Perfectionist System” and must maintain a flawless professional image. The two get bound together while developing software for a law firm party, and soon find themselves caught up in one absurd adventure after another. They must deal with ridiculous demands from product manager Zhang Chanpin, like “a black so dazzlingly colorful,” and rely on Grandma Li's garlic talismans and cinnabar porridge to “fix bugs with metaphysics.” They also have to join forces against a metaverse crisis, from AI-fueled rumors and hacker blockades to the ultimate program launched by Chen Ciyuan, the “Father of the Metaverse,” in his quest for “absolute order.”
Along the way, Auntie Zheng's square-dance troupe becomes an “external legal aid team,” retired police officer Wu Bao'an uses his anti-fraud expertise to protect the real world, and hacker girl Lin Xiaoling switches sides and becomes an ally. Together, they use “absurdity to break the system”: disrupting the metaverse with square dancing, cracking the core program with a rainbow progress bar, and intimidating the villains with legal statutes. The two Systems also go from opposition to cooperation, while Li Daima and Su Lüfa move from “forced partners” to relying on each other amid their laugh-filled adventures. In the end, they not only foil Chen Ciyuan's plan and preserve the balance between reality and the metaverse, but also find a love that goes both ways.
This book uses zany workplace mishaps as its starting point and blends metaphysics, technology, and legal education. It's packed with laughs, from garlic-scented keyboards to repairing programs with talismans, yet has a warm heart underneath. After all, the true meaning of life lies in the everyday bustle where “absurdity and order coexist.”
