### Chapter 1: A New Job

### Chapter 1: A New Job

Zhu Ning woke up to the sound of knocking on her door.

"Open up! Don't pretend you're not here, I know you're in there!"

Her first instinct was to reach for the knife under her pillow before realizing she was no longer in the post-apocalyptic world.

Ten days ago, Zhu Ning was fighting zombies in the apocalypse. She had just infiltrated her mission site when she heard the countdown of a bomb behind her.

Five, four, three, two, one—

With a loud explosion—

The bomb detonated, and Zhu Ning didn't have time to find cover. She only felt a sense of weightlessness. When she woke up, she found herself lying in an abandoned garbage room, with acid rain falling that day, turning the sky a bleak yellow.

Her abdomen was in excruciating pain, with a piece of metal embedded in it, covered in blood.

Driven by the will to survive, Zhu Ning used all her strength to crawl to the automatic medical vending machine and spent all her savings on a potent healing agent. After stopping the bleeding, she followed the original owner's memories back to her residence.

This was a wasteland where eighty percent of the land was contaminated, and humans could only survive within high walls to fend off the monsters outside.

At least there were high walls; she didn't have to face danger directly.

In her previous world, zombies had taken over, and every day was a struggle for survival, never knowing if she would see the next sunrise.

The wasteland had advanced technology—potent healing agents, gene enhancers, and nutritional supplements.

And... a system.

When she first woke up, she bound herself to a purification system. In her previous life, she had nothing, and when she got the system, she thought her fate had changed, looking at the interface several times.

Name: Zhu Ning

Age: 19

Education: Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical Engineering

Status: Fifth-Class Citizen

Talent: Unknown

Mutation Direction: Unknown

Mutation Level: Unknown

Physical Strength: Unenhanced

Mental Value: 100 (average person's value is 20)

The rest of the fields were grayed out, requiring activation, except for her high mental value. In other words, it was a brand new interface without even a newbie gift pack.

The system promptly issued a main quest: Purify the contaminated land and rebuild humanity's home.

What? Why not just send her to her death?

As the saying goes, don't draw too big a pie. When faced with an impossible task, you just want to be a couch potato. Zhu Ning had no will to live and even thought this world was fake, and the system was nonsense.

Let it all end, then.

For ten days, Zhu Ning lay around, barely leaving her place, surviving solely on nutritional supplements. Unfortunately, reality seemed unwilling to let her do so.

"Zhu Ning, open up!" The person waiting outside was losing patience. "If you don't open up, I'll break in!"

Zhu Ning, feeling utterly hopeless, got up to open the door. Outside stood a short old lady, only 1.2 meters tall, suffering from dwarfism. She was the building manager, Aunt Wei.

Aunt Wei struck the ground hard with her cane. "Rent."

Rent? Even in such a dilapidated place, rent was required?

"How much?" Zhu Ning asked.

Aunt Wei looked at her strangely. "Twelve months' rent is twenty-four thousand."

"How much?" Zhu Ning suspected she had misheard; her total savings amounted to only seven hundred new coins.

"Twenty-four thousand," Aunt Wei repeated.

Zhu Ning took a deep breath. The wicked wasteland—did they require a year's rent upfront here?

"If you don't want to rent, move out. Plenty of others want to." Aunt Wei tapped the ground with her cane, her dark eyes fixed on Zhu Ning.

Zhu Ning realized she had acted oddly. The original owner had lived here for five years; how could she suddenly forget the rent?

"I'll rent it," Zhu Ning said. "Can you give me two more days?"

"Until the end of the month, at most," Aunt Wei asked, "Are you having another episode?"

Another episode?

From these few words, Zhu Ning sensed that the original owner was mentally ill, something everyone seemed to know. Her amnesia about the rent was considered normal.

Zhu Ning decided to play along. "Yeah, my head has been hurting lately."

Aunt Wei believed her and didn't ask further.

Zhu Ning: "I'll definitely pay the rent by the end of the month. Please don't show the place to anyone else."

Zhu Ning still hadn't figured out many things about the original owner. If she were evicted, she would have nowhere to go.

Auntie Wei gave her a meaningful look. "Don't turn my house into a haunted one."

Zhu Ning frowned. On that day, covered in blood, she had stumbled home and accidentally bumped into Auntie Wei, who might have thought she was a failed suicide attempt.

Before leaving, Auntie Wei said, "Take care of the bills at the door."

Bills? Zhu Ning peeked out, and there were various payment notices plastered on her front door—water and electricity fees, property management fees, administrative fees, taxes.

Zhu Ning tore off a thick stack of payment notices and did a quick calculation. She owed about eight thousand new dollars to various administrative departments. Eight thousand in bills, twenty-four thousand in rent, and future expenses.

Starting with debt, she wanted to die and live again.

She brought the bills back inside. Having been idle for so long, she no longer thought about her main mission. Avoidance was shameful but effective; the system hadn't given any prompts for days.

Zhu Ning sat in front of the computer. The oversized screen was considered high-tech in her time but now was just an antique.

Too outdated—apart from District 103, few people still used such models. But because it was outdated, Zhu Ning had no trouble operating it.

She opened a job recruitment website.

Given her past "rich work experience," there must be plenty of jobs that paid quickly. If not, she could always return to her old trade.

The job listings were diverse, and some positions Zhu Ning couldn't even understand. There were tens of thousands of job openings, many indeed. Zhu Ning thought optimistically.

Someone was hiring mercenaries, and Zhu Ning's eyes lit up, almost ready to apply on the spot.

Me, professional, choose me.

Efficient, fast work, guaranteed satisfaction. But when she clicked through, a pop-up appeared, stating a requirement of at least third-class citizenship.

Damn! She was stuck at the citizen level.

In the wasteland world, all citizens undergo genetic screening after birth, categorizing them based on the results. Unfortunately, Zhu Ning's genetic screening failed, labeling her as "defective" and placing her as a fifth-class citizen.

She noticed a filter button in the top right corner, allowing the site to automatically match suitable jobs. She entered her personal information, citizen level, and educational qualifications, then clicked to filter the matches.

Whoosh—

After refreshing, hundreds of pages of jobs disappeared, leaving only one page.

Zhu Ning: "..."

On this page, ten jobs prioritized male applicants, revealing discrimination in this world. Only six jobs suited her—caregiver, maintenance worker, nanny, etc.

Zhu Ning scanned through them. Wait, this job sounds good—three hours for five thousand new dollars, plus commission?

This is... a cleaner?

Zhu Ning read carefully. The description was simple: garbage collector, sweeping trash, five thousand new dollars for three hours, commission based on performance.

The site calculated an average salary of... twenty-five thousand? What kind of trash earns twenty-five thousand? Body disposal?

An average salary of twenty-five thousand, no restrictions on age, gender, education, or citizen level? This seemed like a scam.

Federal law required job postings to be accurate; false advertising led to jail time. Even body disposal was worth a try. Zhu Ning clicked the application button.

Whizz—

The site launched colorful fireworks, congratulating her on successful registration.

Whizz—

You have been hired by our company.

Zhu Ning: "..."

Hired on the spot? No interview? A hundred percent acceptance rate, afraid someone might change their mind? But it was too late; she had a new email—an offer letter.

...

The start time was 6:30 PM, the location near the incinerator in District 103, and the company name was the 103 District Cleaning Center.

Zhu Ning paused upon seeing the company name. It wasn't some fly-by-night operation. Following the navigation, she walked into the cleaning company without security checks, guided by a robot.

The robot pressed the button for the 49th floor. The building had 360 floors, reaching high into the sky.

Ding—

The elevator doors opened, and Zhu Ning was stunned. In front of her was... chaos.

The hall was noisy, with mountains of documents piled on each desk. The employee closest to Zhu Ning was losing his temper, "Stop beating around the bush, can you do it or not!"

Two others were arguing, red-faced, "What's my fault? Blame me for the approval not coming down? Have some reason, will you."

"Which idiot started the A-level procedure, making me take the blame!"

It didn't feel like a cleaning center but more like a stock exchange. A woman in a professional suit noticed her, her hair neatly tied up, her features delicate, looking like an assistant. She ran over apologetically, "Sorry, we're quite busy."

"No problem."

"Zhu Ning, right?" The young lady glanced at her panel and said gently, "I'm Fang Ying, the center assistant."

Fang? Such an elegant surname.

"Don't worry, your first day isn't hard. Follow the instructions, and you'll manage."

As Fang Ying led Zhu Ning, she spoke quickly, "The trial period is just one day, and if you pass, you'll be confirmed the next day."

Zhu Ning sensed their urgent need for employees, similar to the speed of the offer. It was too fast.

Fang Ying led her into a conference room. "Let me introduce the salary structure. The base salary is five thousand new Singapore dollars, and you only need to work for three hours. For every additional hour, your pay increases by one thousand new Singapore dollars. Commissions are calculated per item, with different prices for different levels. Basically, you can earn over ten thousand."

Zhu Ning was dazed by the string of numbers. Money, there was certainly money.

However, based on Zhu Ning's experience, introducing the salary before the job details usually meant the work was challenging.

Zhu Ning asked, "May I ask what the job entails?"

Fang Ying, who had been as efficient as a machine gun, suddenly paused. She reined in her smile and looked at Zhu Ning with an extremely serious expression, making Zhu Ning feel a bit nervous.

Is it that difficult? What do we have to deal with?

Lowering her voice, Fang Ying asked gravely, "Miss Zhu, are you afraid of monsters?"

Huh? Just that?

Zhu Ning responded, "…Not really."

To be honest, she had seen plenty.