Let's Be Workhorses Together!

Smack.

"Finish this quota, and you can get off early."

With a sudden extra thousand flyers and posters in his hands, the middle-aged man with artificial hair so realistic it could pass for genuine pointed outward and encouraged him. "Young man, a little hardship will only help broaden your path in the future. Keep it up. I admire people like you who refuse to settle for comfort."

"Yes, boss."

"No problem, boss."

With a series of honest, flattering responses, plus eyes that revealed a few traces of innocent naivety untouched by the ways of the world, Bai Yu effortlessly earned the gym owner's approval.

He had become a new workhorse whose philosophy on life was deemed reasonably acceptable.

As long as he stayed within the work area of this enormous mall and handed out every flyer in his hands, the task would be complete.

Waiting for him would be an ordinary part-time wage—perhaps with a little extra thanks to the one or two flattering remarks he had made earlier.

At the thought of earning a full 10,000 yen in living funds in a single afternoon, with no restrictions on his personal freedom, all he had to do was put in a little labor, wander around the mall, and hunt down college or high school students who also gave off an innocent, clear-eyed air. Bai Yu could not help humming softly.

His gaze followed the free-moving footsteps wandering through the mall as he searched for lone, lost travelers convenient for him to bare his demonic claws at. Before long, he locked onto a clear-eyed girl in a gray-and-white sailor uniform that did not look like cosplay.

Bai Yu made his move without hesitation.

"Hello, classmate. Interested in swimming and fitness?"

Opening with "classmate" could quickly close the distance between strangers, even if he dressed like a delinquent and somewhat resembled Kujo Jotaro, the handsome man who liked peace and quiet. It gave people a rare sense of familiarity.

"N-No, thank you. I only came to look at... no, to buy something else."

"?"

The hunter's brow lifted slightly, curiosity brewing in his eyes.

"Sorry."

Avoiding a certain burning gaze before her, the sailor-uniformed girl shrank into herself, turned her head, and hurried off in another direction. She seemed to be muttering something like "gomennasai" under her breath.

Hiss, that was the scent of awkwardness.

Bai Yu stepped back, turned around, and looked in the direction his prey had fled.

That way was clearly an accessories shop. The goods on display could not be called luxury products, but they were slightly above the average person's spending range—things that would not draw much attention anywhere, yet would not seem overly outdated either.

Sneaking around, shrinking back, with a guilty posture and uneasy eyes—those were not emotions one showed after making a normal purchase.

If accessories could not provide the emotional value of decoration one needed, then it would be better to spend the money on dirty books.

Of course, for him right now, that was only a pleasant fantasy.

Bai Yu withdrew his gaze from the blazing afternoon sun beyond the automatic doors that had swallowed the girl's figure and returned to his part-time work.

He had already let one prey slip away. He had to make sure to seize the next one!

Smack.

"Here's your pay. Ten thousand yen."

The sudden weight of ten thousand-yen bills in his hand made the gym owner's burly frame look damn handsome at that moment.

"Thank you very much!"

Bai Yu carried the humble posture of a wage slave through to the end.

Immerse himself in the role, feel the role—but never let the role become him.

He eagerly took off the shop T-shirt he had been wearing, shedding the skin called workhorse. As he counted the bills with a rush of satisfaction, he did not forget to ask about tomorrow's job.

"Boss, should I come at the same time tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow? You don't need to come tomorrow."

"..."

"Huh?"

Bai Yu was stunned!

He had clearly worked so hard to play a subordinate who obeyed every order. Had he still failed to capture the essence of being a wage slave?

What part of him had not worked hard enough?

Was it the pitiful humility of wagging his tail for favor, the simple-minded bowing and scraping, or his absolute obedience whenever asked...?

Bai Yu deeply reflected on himself, standing straight and stiff at the shop entrance.

"? Bai, why are you still here?"

The boss, who was pulling down the shutter, spotted Bai Yu and suddenly remembered something. "Ah, I almost forgot to tell you. Tomorrow, go work as a security guard at the accessories shop next door. It belongs to a friend of mine. He has this feeling that someone has been eyeing his treasures these past few days. You can go over and help keep watch."

"My work here is already finished. You were only hired temporarily, so there isn't that much work."

"As your master, I see that you possess exceptional talent, so I'm specially pointing out another bright path for you. Do not disappoint your master's expectations."

"Thank you very much!"

Bowing his head to cruel life, Bai Yu lowered it without hesitation.

The next day, the sun slowly climbed above the treetops.

Rubbing his eyes and yawning, Bai Yu put on the uniform provided by the shop. Wearing a pair of sunglasses that made him look exceptionally aloof, he straightened his legs and stood before the accessories shop display counter, becoming in-store security and saving himself decades of detours.

Compared with his previous job, Bai Yu only wanted to ruthlessly press the fast-forward button on life with this one.

Compared to hourly jobs, quota-based part-time work had the greatest disadvantage of stripping away freedom, while also extinguishing a wage slave's motivation.

Being forced to clock in on time and not being allowed to leave before the time came was just too annoying!

Bai Yu stood as straight as a pine tree before the shop. The upside of having spent years doing under-the-table part-time jobs was that situations like this did not torment him too much.

He knew how to slack off at work.

At that moment, Bai Yu was using the ability of the Life Corridor to revisit a light novel he had read before in his mind. The plot had become somewhat outdated and cliché, but it was still passable as a way to kill time.

"Welcome—"

From time to time, a warm greeting slipped from his mouth. Besides making customers feel at home, it also demonstrated his diligent attitude toward his post.

Bai Yu thought it was great.

After the reading in his mind became a little more enjoyable, Bai Yu relaxed the muscles he had been holding in his face, replacing his expression with a smile of another meaning. He started walking, pretending to begin his patrol.

His eyes faced forward, hands clasped behind his back, chest held high. His imposing stance, as though he ruled the world, was enough to make anyone with ulterior motives flee in terror! Yet behind those black sunglasses lay a pair of slacking eyes, idle and faintly weary.

Customers who did not know the truth thought he was a fierce tiger descending the mountain. In reality, someone was roaming the fantasy world of the novel in his mind while letting out delighted otaku hums of "meow meow meow."

A flawless slacking technique!

Bai Yu thus wandered through his sea of consciousness while circling the display counter like an ox turning a millstone. He even managed one step per second, using his footsteps to keep time while calculating the wages he had earned so far.

Just as he was concentrating on this, a girl who had been lingering in the shop for a long time, pacing back and forth in hesitation, finally could not endure it any longer. After what seemed to be a fierce internal struggle, she still risked being pounced on by the tiger and took a currently fashionable hair clip displayed in the center of the counter,

then slipped it into her shoulder bag.

Click.

Justice might slack off, but it was never late!

The sound of the net closing had landed before the girl long ago. The alert and cunning hunter had merely deliberately exposed a flaw. The innocent, naive prey mistakenly believed she had found an opportunity and foolishly reached for the tempting bait, only to face the inescapable fate of being caught in the net.

Led astray by vanity, she would probably lose either her money or her freedom in the end.

Or perhaps both.

"Miss, is there anything I can help you with?"

A clear young man's voice rang out, stirring the air and lifting two strands of cherry-pink hair by her temples.

Ichinose Honami shuddered violently. Her fingers froze over the shoulder bag whose zipper she had just closed, and her eyes held unprecedented sorrow.