In life, he worked for a company, pulling overtime until he dropped dead.
In death, he worked for the Gray Ruins, pulling overtime until his soul flame went out.
Wu Mian, 34, project coordinator, died suddenly on slide thirty-seven of a PowerPoint presentation.
He woke up in the world of the dead, and the first thing he was told was that he was in debt: 133 bone coins, at three percent interest per month.
The second thing was that he had to work, too.
This place had everything: tomb registrations, temporary residence permits, overdue notices, subcontracting chains; an antiques market dealing in bones, pawnshops taking bones as collateral, and "bone breeding" loans whose interest grew faster than bones.
The only way to make big money was to be summoned to another world to fight for a mage.
That place had sunlight, and bones felt warm beneath it.
Wu Mian went there once, and never forgot that warmth.
All he wanted was to save enough money to be reincarnated back home.
Until he discovered that reincarnation slots and coin-minting quotas were listed on the very same ledger.
