Not Making Money, Why Work This Damn Job

Staring at the square subtitles that had suddenly popped up before his eyes, Chen Jue froze.

He assumed he had smoked too much, and the smoke had messed with his vision.

Subconsciously, he reached out to rub his eyes.

But after rubbing them, Chen Jue felt even more bewildered.

Because after the three lines of notification text vanished, a character attribute box, similar to those in MUD text games, automatically popped up!

Character: Chen Jue

Strength: 0.76

Physique: 0.89

Spirit: 1.05

Skill: [Stone Skipping Lv0 (1/100)]

Available Free Attribute Points: 0.00

(Character Evaluation: An ordinary corporate wage slave; your body is currently in a state of severe sub-health.)

"What is this?"

"A system?"

"A cheat?"

"Have I been reading too many novels? Am I hallucinating?"

Chen Jue frowned, thinking he was under too much pressure and had developed some kind of mental illness.

Having worked at the company for four years and moved to this Huaye Building two years ago, Chen Jue had heard plenty of stories about people in the nearby industrial park suffering mental breakdowns from overwork.

The pressure on office workers is immense, and with the intense competition of recent years, there had even been cases of people jumping off buildings after being forced into layoffs.

Afraid that something was wrong with his mind, Chen Jue hurried to the restroom in the small garden, took off his glasses, and splashed his face with cold water.

He intended to shock himself with the cold water to clear his head.

Yet, no matter how much he splashed, rubbed, or washed his eyes, that character attribute box remained hanging in his field of vision.

"Damn it!"

"This thing isn't going to stay there forever, is it?"

"If it does, won't my private browsing sessions come with a built-in mosaic?"

Chen Jue waved his hand in front of his face and finally tried using his thoughts to control the 'X' in the top right corner of the box, eventually managing to close the panel.

Afterward, he tried opening and closing it a few more times.

After tossing it back and forth a dozen times, Chen Jue finally managed to accept the objective fact that a character attribute panel had suddenly appeared inside his body.

"What's the use of this panel?"

"Can I add points to myself?"

"And this [Stone Skipping] skill—it looks wrong no matter how I see it." Chen Jue stared at the panel, studying it for a moment.

There were no prompts, just a solitary, empty panel.

Setting aside the skill and free attribute points for a moment, the three dimensions of Strength, Physique, and Spirit were just like those of characters in many RPG games.

However, this was the first time Chen Jue had seen attribute values precise to two decimal places.

Besides that, there was a short character evaluation at the bottom.

He vaguely remembered seeing the words "sub-health" in his high school biology textbook.

"How do I obtain these free attribute points?"

"Doesn't the system give out a few free points when you first start the game?"

"Do I have to pay-to-win?"

Chen Jue stared at the panel and searched all over, but couldn't find a top-up button.

It seemed this panel wasn't produced by Tencent.

Click.

He pulled out his lighter and lit a cigarette.

Hiss—whoo.

Looking at the words "sub-health" in the evaluation, Chen Jue felt he needed a few more cigarettes to calm his nerves.

After pondering for a while, he still couldn't figure out the purpose of the panel.

But recalling the reason he had activated the panel just moments ago, Chen Jue went back to the edge of the small garden's pond and picked up a few pebbles.

"Thump~"

"Plop~"

The first two pebbles failed to skip, sinking straight into the pool the moment they were thrown.

Does it really have to skip to trigger a reaction?

Chen Jue stared blankly at the two ripples spreading across the pool, then glanced at his summoned Attribute Panel, only to find no notifications.

He had no choice but to squat down, search carefully, and pick out a flat, smooth, thin stone.

Adjusting his stance and finding the right angle, he threw it with all his might.

"Snap~"

A spray of water erupted as the stone successfully skipped four times across the pool, leaving a beautiful trail of ripples in its wake.

At that moment, the attribute box finally showed some activity!

[Ding~]

[Action meets requirements]

[Skill [Stone Skipping] Proficiency +1]

After three lines of notification text scrolled by, a green "↑" arrow appeared next to the newly awakened [Stone Skipping Lv0 (1/100)] in his skill bar, and the proficiency progress bar ticked up to (2/100).

"So, as long as I complete a stone skip that meets the requirements, I can gain proficiency?" Chen Jue felt a surge of interest as he looked at the prompt on the panel.

This was way more fun than working!

He pinched out his cigarette butt, squatted down, and continued searching for suitable stones.

After a few minutes and dozens of attempts, he successfully completed nine skips.

Watching the [Stone Skipping] skill proficiency on his panel continuously flash green with "+1" after "+1," Chen Jue felt his body and mind being liberated.

"This thing is seriously stress-relieving!"

Chen Jue couldn't help but sigh, feeling as if he had rediscovered the childhood joy of playing at the reservoir in his hometown.

However, after throwing stones dozens of times, Chen Jue felt his right forearm and wrist beginning to ache.

Having sat in an office for years with a lack of exercise, he hadn't performed such continuous, strenuous movements in a long time.

At the same time, the commotion from his stone skipping attracted a uniformed security guard.

"Hey buddy, which company are you with? If you keep throwing stones into the pool, I'm going to have to talk to your boss!" the guard said with a dark expression.

The pebbles in the small garden were paid for and brought in for landscaping; if everyone threw them into the pool like Chen Jue did without restraint, they would be ruined in a few days.

The property management of the park had issued notices about this several times.

Moreover, the stones thrown into the pool had to be retrieved by the guards and cleaning staff themselves.

Wasn't this just asking for trouble right to their faces?

Realizing he was in the wrong, Chen Jue hurriedly handed a few cigarettes to the guard.

After apologizing several times and promising it wouldn't happen again, Chen Jue slunk away from the rooftop garden and took the elevator back to his company.

Huaye Building had 28 floors in total. Taisheng Finance occupied the 23rd floor, sharing the entire level with a medical aesthetics firm across the hall, with the annual rent alone reaching 1.8 million.

The four large, three-dimensional characters at the entrance looked quite impressive, and they even kept a good-looking clerk at the front desk to hold down the fort.

Unfortunately, the company was poorly managed, and its annual profit couldn't even match the rounding error of the medical aesthetics firm across the hall.

That medical aesthetics firm was said to have already listed on the STAR Market; their office here in Hang City was just a branch, as their headquarters had already moved to Shanghai. Their strength was immense, far beyond a makeshift outfit like Taisheng Finance that was on the verge of collapse.

Looking at the company entrance he had passed through for over a thousand days and nights, Chen Jue couldn't help but lament how time flew. His four years of youth were like a stone skipped into the vast ocean of Hang City, failing to stir up even a single splash.

He swiped his badge and opened the door.

The young girl at the front desk was chatting loudly on voice message with her best friend, asking about new "internet-famous" shops nearby so they could check them out after work.

For small clerks like them, the salary wasn't high and the job turnover was high, so they never worried about finding their next gig.

There were plenty of people jumping from job to job within the same building, unlike Chen Jue, who was in a highly specialized technical role.

He walked quickly back to his workstation, just as the door to the conference room, which had been closed all day, swung open.

Several shareholders and the boss, who had been arguing until their faces were red, walked out one by one with grim expressions.

Among them, a slightly chubby boss with a short crew cut and a round face pulled a long face and beckoned to Chen Jue: "Chen Jue, come to my office for a moment!"

Hearing this, Chen Jue stood up immediately and, under the surprised gazes of his office colleagues, followed the round-faced boss into his office.

Inside the impressively decorated general manager's office, Chen Jue sat on the leather sofa, feeling somewhat uneasy.

As for the round-faced boss, after taking a few phone calls, he pressed a few buttons on the tea maker, and while talking about business, he served Chen Jue a bowl of Kung Fu tea.

Makeshift financial outfits all loved this routine.

Like some of the small financial intermediaries downstairs, they would rent a storefront, set up a tea table, and start doing business.

He could brag until the sky cracked, spending his days doing nothing but sitting around drinking kung fu tea, and the moment he caught a client, he'd fleece them for all they were worth—his tactics were nothing but a series of calculated traps.

As for the round-faced Zhou Yong sitting before him, he actually possessed genuine ability.

Because Chen Jue knew that the entire business framework of Taisheng Finance had been built by this General Manager Zhou.

The other shareholders and the chairman were essentially just there to provide capital; they didn't contribute any effort and lacked any real management skills.

"Chen Jue, you've been with the company for four years, and your work performance has been quite decent."

"The company's development hasn't been smooth these past few years; as the one leading the charge, I've let everyone down."

"How about this! I'm about to go out and start something new, establishing a company with my own capital, and I plan to take a group of people with me. Are you interested in continuing to work under me?" Zhou Yong picked up a cup of tea, took a sip, and his eyes darted around, scrutinizing Chen Jue.

Chen Jue felt a bit unnerved under that gaze. Although he was middle management, those in technical roles were always introverted by nature and not particularly skilled at socializing or dealing with people.

Therefore, being asked so bluntly about his future after resignation made Chen Jue's heart race with panic.

Fortunately, his mind worked quickly; he pulled up the Attribute Panel that had just awakened, using the text on the interface to temporarily block the General Manager's scrutinizing gaze.

"Awesome!"

Looking at the mosaic of subtitles before him, which shielded him from the other man's stare, Chen Jue felt his confidence stiffen slightly. After taking a few sips of tea, he asked, "General Manager Zhou, will the salary and benefits remain the same after moving over?"

"Well... the new company has just opened, so before the performance picks up, it will definitely be a bit lower than here. I'll set it at seven thousand for the time being."

"But don't worry, I can guarantee that within a year at most, I'll raise it back to your current level." Zhou Yong began painting a grand picture right to his face.

Damn it! I've been eating these empty promises until I'm nearly thirty.

No house, no wife, and if I don't have money, you want me to take out loans and max out credit cards just to work for you? Are you playing games with me?

If it doesn't make money, then what the hell is the point of working! Chen Jue grumbled incessantly in his heart.

The new book is uploaded; I hope everyone will vote, follow, add to your collections, and support me with a triple-click!

As for the update schedule for the new book, it depends on my state!

If I'm in a good state, I can write ten or twenty thousand words a day—ten chapters are no problem!