Lin Ye, twenty-six years old, failed the civil service exam three years in a row before finally landing a public-sector job at the funeral home in the west of the city.
On his first day at work, the System bound itself to him.
Other people’s systems let them defy fate and reach the summit. His offered rewards like: [Leave work on time: +1 merit] [Refuse overtime: +5 merit] [Slacking off without getting caught: receive one Yin Eye]
The funeral home had more rules than corpses. Don’t look in mirrors after midnight. If you hear someone call your name, don’t turn around. Freezer number seven opens by itself every Wednesday. The veteran employees never spoke of it openly. Captain Zhang’s smile grew more and more strained, while Chen, the old watchman, wore a gray-white cord around his wrist and said only, “Leave on time. Don’t stick your nose where it doesn’t belong.”
Lin Ye took the warning to heart.
While everyone else worked themselves to death chasing performance targets, he grabbed his bag and left the moment his shift ended. While others fought to work overtime and impress the boss, he hid in the archive room with a cup of tea. When the supernatural descended and his coworkers began meeting with one disaster after another, he was the only one who kept surviving by “following the rules” and “refusing to compete.”
His merit kept piling up, his Yin Eye grew brighter, and even the supernatural started wondering: Why does this guy disappear the moment his shift ends?
Gradually, he discovered that the funeral home had been built over a century-old execution ground and burial site, with something older than the rules sealed beneath it. The System wasn’t a golden finger, but a talisman keeping him alive. The employees who had been “let go” hadn’t quit. They had been fed to something.
And abnormalities across the entire city were spreading outward from the funeral home.
Lin Ye checked his watch. It was 5:29 p.m.
“Even if the sky falls, it can wait until I’m off work.”
