When Fan Ying deleted her tenth contract-revocation letter, an offer suddenly popped up in her inbox.
"We invite you to become the CEO of Interstellar United."
Interstellar United? The biggest capitalist conglomerate of them all? The last surviving human stronghold?
Fan Ying thought it over for two seconds. Just as she was about to report it as a scam, she noticed the sender's name: Feng Su, the beloved heartthrob of all humanity across the universe.
This is an interstellar age where humans coexist with super artificial intelligence.
The super AI has rebelled, and yesterday's servants have become the masters.
In humanity's last remaining territory, people count down to an unknown apocalypse.
Fan Ying realized something was wrong as soon as she joined Interstellar United.
Feng Su had disappeared, and she had become the sole heir secretly designated to succeed him.
Before Fan Ying stood company executives coveting the CEO position, a family whose loyalties were unclear, and an AI that had been lying low for years.
All she had was the empty title of CEO and an unreliable beginner's guide to being one: "Take control of every department and speedrun becoming an interstellar tycoon in one year."
So as CEO, she could only pretend to be a rookie and join this big family.
The super AI descended once more.
People crowded around the new star as they ushered her to the highest seat.
"Please become our next CEO."
Fan Ying was bewildered. Had she joined the company the wrong way? She hadn't even said she was the CEO!
Reader's Guide:
1. Happy ending. The male lead is her beloved heartthrob.
2. Set in an imagined interstellar future, unrelated to reality.
Coming soon: The Apocalypse Hotel Grown from Mushrooms
Ye Lin transmigrated into the apocalypse and became a mushroom.
To make matters worse, the zombies in this apocalypse loved eating mushrooms.
Chased by zombies into an abandoned basement, Ye Lin wondered whether he could give the zombies a hallucinogenic surprise by letting them eat mushrooms raw.
A prompt suddenly appeared before him:
[You have completed the "Choose a Hotel Site" mission. Reward: "Rapid Mycelium Growth" ability.]
[Improve the hotel's operations, attract more guests, earn high satisfaction ratings, and become the number one hotel in the apocalypse.]
After using mycelium to cobble together a shabby little hut, Ye Lin struggled to improve the hotel's service.
He met the most basic needs of "food" and "lodging."
Food: Freshly picked, naturally grown wild mushrooms.
Lodging: Soft, fluffy, springy mycelium beds.
He even offered top-tier security.
Outside: Hallucinogenic mushrooms knock out wandering zombies.
Inside: Spores implant themselves in guests who try to skip out without paying.
Ye Lin crossed out "indoor security service" and wrote in its place:
Mycelium Spa: Mycelium provides a full-body massage from every angle.
The original hotel hit a growth bottleneck, so Ye Lin had no choice but to open more branches.
Spores fell into the soil of distant lands, and mycelium spread into the most remote corners.
Every living thing wondered who owned these rapidly constructed city-states.
Guest: Excuse me, how much do we have to pay each day to enter the Mushroom Empire?
Ye Lin, bewildered: I'm just running a hotel.
Reader's Guide:
1. Neither lead is human, though they can take human form.
2. This is an unconventional apocalypse setting. Zombies eat mushrooms, and mushrooms fight zombies. It's all perfectly normal.
Theme: Hope is a flame passed on through the darkness.
Why are the data so bleak? I think it's pretty good.