Working Nine to Five in the Heavenly Court

Piracy protection ratio: 50% 24 hours My next upcoming novel is a no-romance, male-lead doomsday-player story: "Cultivation Begins with Game Design" [Living in Heaven -> Blurb] Zhang Jizhi cultivated in seclusion for a hundred years, then attained enlightenment in a single day. Hearing celestial music ring out without end, he entered Heaven's Gate! After ascending to immortality, he paid his respects to the Jade Emperor. The emperor pulled out a labor contract and beamed at him: "Every department in Heaven offers generous benefits. We work eight-hour days, and we help cover your social insurance and housing fund. There are employee perks for every holiday, too. Come on, sign your name here." And so Zhang Jizhi began living the life of a heavenly office worker. X The times are advancing, and Heaven is advancing too, operating in a different way. As the youngest immortal to have just ascended to Heaven, Zhang Jizhi finds all sorts of minor tasks landing on his desk. He helps Siming descend to the mortal world to retrieve the Book of Fate he accidentally dropped, and a modern urban legend disappears. He registers an account online for the slacking King of Hell, then takes on netizens who support Sun Wukong crossing out names in the Book of Life and Death. He loses his hair researching how to change mortals' stereotypical belief that immortals spend all day dating. Zhang Jizhi gradually settles into life in Heaven and discovers the down-to-earth side of the immortals. For example, his supervisor, Lord Wenqu, is actually from Sichuan and occasionally lets slip a few authentic Sichuan dialect phrases. The Jade Emperor, with his peerless immortal form, is often troubled by how bright he is, since the other immortals can't look directly at him. The goddess Changxi cries buckets while watching romance dramas, and is always coming up with fanciful ideas and itching to try them out, leaving everyone exhausted. As Daoist immortal culture becomes popular again, someone online poses this question: [What's it really like to be an immortal?] An utterly ordinary netizen surnamed Zhang drops by: [Thanks for the invite. I'm in Heaven, working nine to five.] Reader's Guide: A story about the male lead joining the strongest organization. No romance. Also known as: Ascend to Heaven, enter the underworld, cavort in the mortal realm, and be the little immortal I am. The source material comes from various myths and legends. No guarantees of accuracy, so read at your own risk. [Cultivation novel blurb] Cultivation + no romance + infrastructure-building + ensemble cast + doomsday players + the faintest hint of cosmic horror Dong Zhixuan transmigrates into the body of a destitute sect leader whose entire sect has only two people, and still can't scrape together a single Qi Refining cultivator. Fortunately, the sect leader's seal, which its previous owner could never use, is home to many souls supposedly escaped from an infinite-flow game. After successfully rebelling and getting all the survivors out, these obscure souls were left with only fragments of their spirits, trapped in a tiny world of their own. On the advice of a certain newly ascended Lord God surnamed Lin, Dong Zhixuan tries making puppet bodies for the souls to inhabit, so they can serve as NPCs. He then tricks people from Blue Star into helping him revive the sect by turning it into a game. And so... the epoch-making full-dive virtual game, "Ascending Clouds," is now in its hot closed beta! The most realistic sights and sounds! Top-tier graphics with full ray tracing! NPCs with vivid personalities and pasts so thrillingly tragic, their every word draws players in. Even better, get a closed-beta account and the official team will give you a login pod! From then on, while everyone else cultivates, explores secret realms, and searches for hidden caves, Dong Zhixuan pulls at his hair as he works on the version 1.1 update. While everyone else recruits disciples and prepares to send a challenge letter, Dong Zhixuan stays up all night updating the battle event on the official website. While other sect leaders are adored by their followers, Dong Zhixuan gets chased around by his own "inner disciples" calling him a shitty game designer. While other disciples try everything to wring cultivation resources from their sects, the players launch a petition on the forums: raise the NPC affection cap and expand the gift options! They want to build enormous mansions for these vivid, lifelike paper people! As the world's secrets are revealed layer by layer, Dong Zhixuan and his fellow transmigrators discover that this is no ordinary cultivation chronicle. Five continents, seven kingdoms, ninety thousand miles of world! In the east, the Golden Crow's wasteland. In the west, phoenixes sing in Kunlun. Zhulong opens his eyes, changing the sun and moon. A hanging corpse dangles upside down from the heavens. An "immortal" comes from beyond the horizon, refining billions of living beings in a single furnace. The sect leader widely acclaimed as the most outstanding in ten thousand years stands with his hands behind his back. Facing the immortal, he calmly proclaims to all the sects, schools, and factions under heaven: "I command three million Sword Immortals. Even the Great Encompassing Immortals show me respect!" * There are two kinds of everyday posts on the "Ascending Clouds" game forum. One kind goes like this: [Aaaah, have you seen the new NPC from the Punishment Hall? Holy crap, she's so gorgeous! Who cares if she's cold? Who doesn't love a gorgeous, powerful, tragic heroine? The game is virtual, but our darling Bai is real!] [For the Medicine Hall elder, I'd water another hundred mu of fields! If the sky falls, the elder's face will hold it up; if the earth opens, the elder's gentle personality will keep it together. Admit it, Medicine Hall players have the best deal!] The other kind goes like this: [WTF, what kind of idiot game designer starts a closed-beta event at 4 a.m.? Why the rush, is he trying to get himself reincarnated? The daily rewards are so stingy and there are so many damn tasks. If I knew where he lived, I'd go over and slap him twice!] [Let's take stock of the insane stunts the Ascending Clouds dev has pulled lately. Like this post and we'll pool money to buy him a coffin.] [This post has been featured] [I'm done. When is Ascending Clouds going public? When's the anniversary? When are they doing a livestream to thank the players? Not that I have any ulterior motives. I mainly just want to meet this developer, whose household registration book has only one page, in person.] After browsing the forums for the day, Dong Zhixuan decides the players have too much free time. It's time to launch a mixed-pool gacha for popular NPC keepsakes. What? A pity guarantee? We don't have that sort of thing in Ascending Clouds! Ovo Reader's Guide: Cultivation and leveling up in the doomsday-player style + ensemble cast + a nontraditional cultivation world. A long, no-romance story. A lot of it is made up by me. I'll try to make it all fit together, but don't look too closely if I can't. Theme: Even after ascending to the clouds, never forget the common people or where you came from.