Saving the World Under a Darkened Secret Identity (40,000 Words Saved)

Ji Xian is an overworked grunt in the Ability Bureau's logistics department. Every day, he cleans up his coworkers' messes at work, then goes home and takes on a second job:

To keep the world's timeline stable, he plays the role of his "coworkers" after they turn evil and slaughter one another in parallel universes where everyone gets a bad ending.

Today, he's a tyrant who bathes a city in blood. Tomorrow, he makes a guest appearance as a thrill killer. The day after that, he has to grip a leader by the chin and say, "It's time someone else took your place."

Then one day, a transmission malfunction in a parallel world leaves Ji Xian wearing a secret identity drenched in blood. With his back to the mouth of an alley, he recites the breakup line he's rehearsed eight hundred times.

"Even if you saved me, I still won't join you in destroying the world."

He turns around dramatically in the bitter wind and rain, only to find the person who should have been his "evil partner" standing there: his blond coworker in the flesh, holding a milk tea.

They stare at each other. The other man's eyes go round. "...Who? Destroy the world? Me?"

Ji Xian is just about to brush it off, when the world's will finally sends its warning.

"Beep. No going out of character, okay, dear?"

"..."

Thinking about the angsty, tragic scenes of his upcoming villain arc, Ji Xian's last shred of hope finally dies.

*

Later, the Ability Bureau discovers that their counterparts in parallel worlds are all villains, and that reality is gradually being corrupted.

Forced to spend his nights taking on secret identities and spilling spoilers everywhere, Ji Xian spends his days patching up everyone's fates and turning them into happy endings.

The future star of the Operations Department clings to his leg and wails, "Brother Ji! That lunatic who dragged his half-dead partner for a stroll across a mountain of corpses definitely wasn't me!"

Ji Xian, who had just acted out a partner-on-partner brawl in front of him the day before, ruffles his head like a dog's and says righteously, "I believe you. It's all a misunderstanding!"

The goddess of the Medical Department angrily comes to book an appointment with a therapist. "There's no way I'd become a psycho who likes human experimentation!"

Ji Xian, who had just used his secret identity to act out a madwoman attacking the whole world in front of her, wipes away a bead of cold sweat. "Of course not. Everyone in the Ability Bureau knows how gentle you are."

The bureau chief suffers heart palpitations when he sees a familiar signature on a plan to destroy the world. "This handwriting really is mine..."

Ji Xian silently hands him some tea. "You even write in your year-end reports that you're doing it all for peace and your ideals. How could you possibly become a villain?"

Over time, his coworkers gradually realize that before every crisis, someone has already laid the groundwork and dealt with potential problems. Whenever trouble arises, someone always knows about it in advance and is there at a moment's notice, practically the MVP of the whole bureau.

Their trust in a certain logistics worker skyrockets.

He's the hope of the Ability Bureau, a first-rate counselor, the king of cleaning up messes, and the ancient Egyptian god of head pats!

Ji Xian, who has unwittingly become the bureau's precious treasure, takes a tactical sip of water and stares pensively at his next role assignment.

How can he reasonably tell everyone that the mastermind who single-handedly brought about the destruction of the world in a parallel universe...

Was none other than himself?

Theme: I haven't thought of one yet