Those Years of Living on Borrowed Money

Peng Jiechou's year-end bonus: a Life Assistance System!

It's a rather unusual year-end bonus, and one that would naturally make people envious.

The company leaders came up with a way to prevent envy from causing discord within the company. They told everyone that the Life Assistance System would be useless to anyone but Peng Jiechou.

Who would have thought that would really work!

It all started before the year-end bonus, when the company held a fundraiser for Peng Jiechou. Once the fundraiser was entered into the System, the Life Assistance System would naturally only work for Peng Jiechou when she activated it and became its Host.

Peng Jiechou earns twenty thousand a month, yet still struggles to get by. But she's a generous person at heart, and perfectly capable of looking after herself. Even with huge debts hanging over her, she won't casually accept help she hasn't earned.

The Life Assistance System has four worlds where she can earn little pieces of gold. The gold will actually be mailed to her, then the System will exchange it for the corresponding payment.

The worlds she must experience are a cyberpunk world, a future apocalypse, a future interstellar world, an ancient farming world, and the modern real world.

When she enters the cyberpunk world, she meets a cyberperson who likes to keep his identity secret. From starting a business to going bankrupt, from being supported to being misunderstood, she ends up a homeless drifter on the streets of the cyberpunk world. His lonely figure beneath the neon lights is one of the reasons Peng Jiechou discovers this "poor soul" and decides to help him...

She chose someone without having met him, but then met him without recognizing who she'd chosen. She has no idea that he had simply changed a great deal since the last time.

When she enters the future apocalypse, she encounters a brother and sister who need help escaping the apocalypse and finding a way out. There are another forty or fifty people behind them. Just like in the previous world, Peng Jiechou initially can't find the person she'd chosen to help. The siblings she meets ask for her help, and she takes on the role of helping them break through the apocalypse and escape.

Items obtained: an oxygen mask and a sandproof windbreaker.

Entering the future interstellar world...

Entering the ancient farming world...

Entering the modern real world...

The cycle repeats without end, with new worlds for her to choose from. She only wants to earn a hefty commission to pay off her debts. By the time her career is stable and thriving, she meets someone she likes through her work. She's always been drawn more to strong people, and this person appears at just the right time, making her a true winner with both love and success in life...!

Though they meet when her career is thriving, the person she likes appears at just the right moment, like icing on the cake!

Please note before reading:

[An excerpt from the story]

Peng Jiechou, utterly confused: You're so great. Why would the company assign you to me?

The Life Assistance System: It's because you're capable. Because of that fundraiser, your boss knows you have debts to repay. And because of your outstanding work ability, assigning me to you was the right choice...

From then on, Peng Jiechou's life was like a cheat code had been activated. She didn't literally rise to the top, but her life really did undergo a spectacular reversal!

A few things readers should know before reading:

1. This story is entirely fictional. Any resemblance to real people or events is purely coincidental. Please don't apply the protagonist's situations, which are written to serve the plot, to real life. Thank you for your understanding.

2. The eldest son of her first debtor's family is not the female lead's love interest. Her love interest appears after her career takes off, and the male lead appears much later.

3. Blurb written on April 18, 2024.

Theme: Set out with hope, and good things will come.