This is the story of a delivery rider bringing food to customers in a Cthulhu world, only to discover that “delivering on time” is harder than saving the world.
Chen Duole is an ordinary corporate drone and delivery rider. One day, he gets a bubble tea order to the “Unspeakable Realm.” The customer is an ancient god dressed in yellow pajamas, and the delivery note says, “Sing ‘Love’s Transactions’ to get the door open.” From then on, his world goes completely off the rails.
He is forced to join the half-baked official organization known as the Bureau of Anomalous Folk Affairs, or the Anomaly Bureau for short. His code name is “Hungry?” His daily tasks change from making deliveries to things like giving Cthulhu a tentacle treatment, presenting a PowerPoint report to a sleeping god, holding weekly meetings in primordial dreams, and suppressing an evil god possessing a square-dancing auntie with “The Most Dazzling Ethnic Style.”
He discovers that the world’s mysteries all have the absurd air of corporate drudgery. Ancient gods fly into a rage over bad reviews, sealing formations are made from shared bikes, and the forbidden incantation is, “Just put the proposal together however you think best.” His special ability is seeing the “user manual” for everything, including an ancient god’s ingredients (70% chaos, 20% seafood, 10% formatting errors) and how much battery life his coworkers have left.
When the “Shadow of Eternal Overtime” spreads across the world, the ultimate crisis isn’t the end of the world. It’s all of humanity being forced to write weekly reports that never end. Chen Duole grips the handlebars of his electric scooter and glances at his order: “Deliver hope before destruction. Note: add tapioca balls, no pearls.”
This is a story about battling cosmic nothingness with five-star reviews, soothing the Old Ones with off-key singing, and finding small meaning amid absurd rules.
