Zhou Du, a corpse retriever on the Yellow River, finds a bronze token and is forced to sign a “River God Employment Contract,” working for the water ghosts drowned in the river.
He helps a drowned bride find the man who betrayed her and delivers a sunken ship’s vengeful spirits’ cargo to their door. Each completed job earns him a “Secrets of the Riverbed” fragment, piecing together a thousand years of mysteries hidden in the Yellow River.
The problem is, he’s the only candidate the Dragon King has waited sixty years for. “You’re the worst one I’ve ever signed.”
Every time he levels up, he gets an adverse trait instead of divine power. Take “Underwater Breathing,” for example: he can breathe freely underwater, but every bubble he exhales can be heard by all the water ghosts nearby.
Worse still, no one has managed this River God System for sixty years. There’s no training, no coworkers, and no option to quit. Every job he takes is a mess left behind by his predecessor.
Then one day, he hauls a coffin up from the riverbed. The person inside is himself. Time of death: three days ago. Carved into the inside of the coffin is a single line: “What number is this time?”
