Paid Shitting, Get Lost
No need to think about it.
Paid Shitting, get lost.
Passing the Buck replaced Paid Shitting.
The three entry slots were rearranged: Flattery (B-rank), Fall Guy (C-rank), Passing the Buck (B-rank).
Lu Ping still harbored hopes for Fall Guy.
Flattery, Fall Guy, Passing the Buck.
Lu Ping ran through the combination in his head.
Flattery made the higher-ups like him.
Fall Guy made every pot come crashing down on his head, then passively increased his physique by a tiny bit.
Passing the Buck let him shove troublesome matters onto someone else.
A triangle.
When a pot came flying, he kicked it away.
When the higher-ups got upset, he kissed their asses to win them back over.
Fall Guy's effect couldn't be completely canceled out. He'd still have to take the beatings coming to him.
But at least he wouldn't be beaten half to death every time.
And if getting beaten also increased his physique by a tiny bit, didn't that count as passive cultivation?
That was ten thousand times better than "earnings unaffected while using the toilet."
The text continued to scroll.
[You still chop vegetables, tend the fires, and scrub pots in the back kitchen.]
[You play the obedient grandson by day and doggedly study that lousy book by night.]
[One day, the fat steward discovers that two chickens are missing from the storeroom and flies into a rage.]
[Fall Guy takes effect.]
[The fat steward immediately seizes you, intending to punish you under the household rules.]
[You promptly inform him that the menial responsible for chopping firewood stole and ate them.]
[Passing the Buck takes effect.]
[The pot lands squarely on that menial's head.]
[His legs are broken, and he's thrown out of the back kitchen like a dead dog.]
[You don't even blink.]
[Age twenty-two, four years of service.]
[Congratulations! You have obtained an entry: Paid Water-Drinking (C-rank)—time spent drinking tea or water each day counts toward effective cultivation time.]
[Would you like to replace an equipped entry?]
[Currently equipped: Flattery (B-rank) / Passing the Buck (B-rank) / Fall Guy (C-rank).]
Lu Ping skimmed the entry's description.
Time spent drinking water counted toward cultivation time.
The catch was that he had to know how to cultivate.
He couldn't even draw Qi into his body yet. He could drink water for a lifetime and it would still be for nothing.
No replacement.
[You decline to replace an entry.]
[That year, another of the fat steward's pots comes crashing your way, and you successfully kick the buck away again.]
[That unlucky bastard is thrown straight back into the mine.]
[Age twenty-three, five years of service.]
[Congratulations! You have obtained an entry: Nameplate (D-rank)—when worn, it can actively display your name and position within a radius of ten zhang.]
No replacement.
Displaying "Lu Ping, odd-job worker" in the mine's back kitchen—was he afraid he wouldn't die fast enough?
[You decline to replace an entry.]
[When the third pot comes crashing down, you deftly pass the trouble on to another kitchen helper.]
[The next day, that kitchen helper disappears.]
[Age twenty-four, six years of service.]
[Congratulations! You have obtained an entry: Failed Clock-In (D-rank)—a late arrival is recorded once at random each month, regardless of whether you arrive on time.]
A negative entry. All the more reason not to replace anything.
He already had Fall Guy. Add Failed Clock-In to that, and...
From then on, whenever he was late, the fat steward wouldn't need an excuse. He could just beat him to death.
[You cling to life in the back kitchen for four whole years, relying on Flattery and Passing the Buck.]
[You feel not a ripple in your heart for the three people who took the blame for you.]
[In this godforsaken place where people devour people, guilt is too great a luxury.]
[Those who could afford such feelings have long had grass several feet high growing on their graves.]
[You, a corporate drudge from Blue Star who grew up under the red flag, have successfully adapted to the rules of this world.]
[You also seem to have realized how much you've changed.]
[Age twenty-five, seven years of service.]
[The back kitchen steward embezzles a large sum of silver from the gang leader.]
[The truth comes to light.]
[The steward panics.]
[He needs a scapegoat.]
[The Fall Guy entry begins to show its power.]
[The steward digs out all the account books from the past five years and pins every discrepancy on you.]
[He tells the gang leader that you've been in the back kitchen for five years and handled a good deal of silver, and that every period with problematic accounts matches the days you were on duty.]
[The gang leader is half convinced.]
[But the steward produces three "witnesses"—three workers he has bribed in advance. They all tell the same story, insisting that you stole the silver.]
[If the steward gets his way, you will surely die.]
[Options appear.]
[A: Use the Passing the Buck entry to shift the blame onto another worker, then use the Flattery entry to pledge your loyalty to the gang leader.]
[B: Expose the details of the steward's embezzlement directly to the gang leader, using evidence of the steward's crimes secretly collected over the past few years as leverage.]
[C: Admit that you embezzled the silver, then take advantage of the chaos to steal a roast chicken from the back kitchen and run.]
Option C had that same familiar flavor.
Steal a roast chicken and run—run where?
Roam the cultivation world with a roast chicken?
Lu Ping spent two extra seconds looking at option B.
Exposing the fat steward outright sounded righteous, but the risk was too high.
The fat steward had spent years building his position in the Black Tiger Gang. His connections and foundation were far beyond anything a mere odd-job worker like Lu Ping could match.
Even if the exposure succeeded and the fat steward fell, what about his people?
What about the gang members who wore the same pair of pants as the fat steward?
He was a lowly slave without any backing. If he stirred up a hornet's nest, even if the gang leader protected him, the man couldn't keep an eye on him twenty-four shichen a day.
Option A.
Passing the Buck plus Flattery—a double safeguard.
Lu Ping chose A.
[Passing the Buck takes effect.]
[The blame is perfectly transferred.]
[Another worker is targeted by your Passing the Buck entry.]
[As the gang leader investigates, every suspicious detail in the accounts and every piece of "evidence" inexplicably points to that worker.]
[Even a hundred mouths couldn't clear him. The more he explains, the more tangled things become.]
[The Flattery entry activates.]
[You kneel before the gang leader, tears streaming as you speak.]
[You say you've worked in the back kitchen for five years without slacking off a single day. You eat whatever the steward gives you and have never dared take a fraction more.]
[You say you're just an odd-job worker who doesn't even know what an account book looks like.]
[You say the gang leader is wise and mighty and will surely uncover the truth. This humble one is willing to guarantee it with his life.]
[The gang leader pats your shoulder.]
["Good lad."]
[That very night, the worker who was framed is dragged into the back courtyard and beaten to death.]
[The fat steward isn't held accountable. But the way he looks at you changes.]
[In that look, there's wariness, hatred, and a tiny bit of... fear.]
Lu Ping stared at the last passage.
Another person had died.
Because of him again.
Slave Number Nine in the mine, the person whose rations he had stolen during the collapse, and now another scapegoat he had kicked the blame onto.
The list was growing longer.
As Lu Ping looked at the text, the version of himself in the simulator felt somewhat unfamiliar.
[Age twenty-five to thirty-six. Your position in the back kitchen gradually stabilizes. You're still an odd-job worker at the very bottom, but at least you're no longer the kind who could be beaten to death at any moment.]
[You spend every night studying the Body Tempering Instruction. Eleven years pass as though they were a single day.]
[You still can't understand it.]
[But you've carved every character you can recognize into your bones.]
Entries kept appearing over the years, popping up one per year. Lu Ping skimmed them, and most didn't even make him want to look for another second.
[Age twenty-six: Padding with Invoices.] No replacement.
[Age twenty-seven: Weekly Report Literature.] No replacement.
[Age twenty-eight: Replacing the Water Cooler Jug.] No replacement.
They were all garbage, all D-rank entries.
It seemed Lu Ping had used up all his good luck in the first two years.
Then came age twenty-nine.
[Age twenty-nine, eleven years of service. Generating entry...]