"Yes, Leader!"
After saying that, Inoue Tetsuya blinked. Wait!
He seemed to have heard the words "overtime pay."
So-called overtime pay is money earned for working outside work hours.
The definition is simple, but in practice it's very flexible.
For example, if you extend your hours because you didn't finish your own tasks, that counts as voluntary overtime.
If the company doesn't question your ability or attitude, that's already good.
And a proper company usually has a strict overtime system.
The place where Inoue works now is like that.
To get overtime pay, first you must submit an overtime request in the company system.
After the group leader approves, pay is calculated based on actual overtime hours and sent with next month's salary.
With someone like Hanada Shizuka, would he dare submit a request?
So…
Beep beep.
His phone rang.
He flipped it over. Salary card received: 90,450 yen.
Wow. Not a small amount.
After all, his monthly salary isn't even 300,000.
"It arrived?"
"Mhm."
"Go shopping at the mall after work."
"Thank you, Leader!"
Hanada Shizuka looks nice, but dresses old. Good figure, but dresses old. Became department leader after only three years, but bad temper.
Suddenly, Inoue felt Leader Shizuka wasn't actually that bad.
He left the office happy, then quickly calmed down.
"I've really gotten used to being a corporate slave. Is this overtime pay? This is scolding pay. If I take this money, next time she scolds me I won't even have the nerve to talk back in my head."
Being a corporate slave isn't scary. What's scary is the corporate-slave mindset. Workplace brainwashing. Hanada Shizuka is a pro. He must not fall into her trap.
At this moment, his other phone rang. Another deposit notice, plus a site message from Spirit Domain—
[Dear Black Widow, hello. Your mission from the day before had an omission. One of the evil spirit's eyeballs was identified as an E-rank spirit item worth 100 spirit coins. The coins have now been credited to your account. Please check.]
...
Inoue Tetsuya: "..."
So not only can you loot the spirit master's corpse at the scene, monsters also have loot value.
"E-rank spirit item, 100 coins… that converts to another 1,000,000…"
No wonder people like doing missions.
Bounty is one thing. Evil spirits themselves come with drops!
Suddenly he had an illusion. Cheating Sato, guilty-conscience Hanada Shizuka, super trustworthy Spirit Domain.
Ever since he decided to make money, the whole world seems to be stuffing cash into his hands.
...
6 p.m.
The aftereffect of conscience awakening.
Leader Hanada, with her delicate features, didn't ask him to work overtime.
Walking out of Shinjuku Building—
"Ding-dong~"
[A day of work ends. Today was truly a fruitful day.]
Prompt: Your spiritual power, spirit, physique increased.
...
"Ding-dong~"
Prompt: You successfully slacked for two hours. Extra permanent spirit attribute.
Prompt: You successfully took revenge on a workplace senior and extorted over 80,000 yen. Obtained [Junior Overturns Senior].
[Junior Overturns Senior]: When confronting a workplace senior older or higher status than you, there is a chance to gain extra rewards.
...
Prompt: You successfully obtained overtime pay from your boss Hanada Shizuka. Critical effect triggered. Your assets +90,450 yen.
"Ding-dong~"
Prompt: Because this is your first overtime pay in life, critical doubled. Extra overtime pay total 180,900 yen!
...
Inoue Tetsuya was now sure. His off-work system really works like this: cultivate during work, then settle rewards based on what happens during work.
As long as he works normally, he gets three rewards: spiritual power, spirit, physique.
Since it's daily settlement, the amount isn't big. But if it accumulates until age eighty, drawing a Tokyo version of One Man Under Heaven wouldn't be a problem.
Next are bonus rewards. The trigger condition is special events.
Known special events: being scolded by boss, being gossiped about, overtime, receiving overtime pay, and… extorting coworkers.
Honestly, he didn't extort Sato. That eighty thousand was clearly forced into his pocket because Sato felt guilty.
But if these special events reach extremes, there can be further rewards.
For example: being the last overtime worker. First time receiving overtime pay.
"Actually extorting a coworker also counts as extreme. Corporate slave revenge, plus an extra layer of extreme. So the system rewarded a skill."
Attributes, money, skills. Truly worthy of being a system.
With assets suddenly jumping to 460,000 plus 100 spirit coins, Inoue eagerly looked forward to payday.
"Later I'll pay autumn rent in one go and feel proud for once. And the uniform. Must handle it today. Buy a 100,000 set first, leave 60,000 for emergencies."
He was happily thinking when suddenly a cute baby voice sounded beside his ear.
"Inoue-kun."
He turned. Nanako in uniform, small bag on her back, hurried up.
"Oh, it's Senior Nanako." He bowed.
Nanako is twenty-four, one year older than him.
"Inoue-kun, I…"
"Oh, sorry Senior, I left something at my desk. See you tomorrow!"
"Eh, Inoue-kun!"
It really did seem important. During off-work time the elevator was full, so he turned and ran upstairs instead.
Nanako looked puzzled.
She shook her head, turned away, and quietly revealed a chilling smile.
...
"Ding-dong~"
Prompt: Evil spirit detected. Be careful!
[Matsushima Nanako]: Spiritual power level D!
...
That's right.
The office is on the 23rd floor. Even if certain "study materials" got exposed, it wouldn't make Inoue run upstairs to get them.
It was because the system gave an evil-spirit judgment, forcing him to speed up.
"No wonder Sato seemed strange this morning. So he was haunted by an evil spirit!"
After learning Nanako was an evil spirit, Inoue asked in his mind, "What's my spiritual power level?"
"Ding-dong~"
[Inoue Tetsuya]: Status off work, spiritual power 100%, level E.
[Junior Overturns Senior]: Triggered. If you fight Matsushima Nanako, your spiritual power will gain an extra 10%.
...
Nanako is an evil spirit. A D-rank evil spirit.
Inoue is E-rank.
Without comparing cup size, Inoue isn't Nanako's match.
While running he asked again, "Since I'm E-rank, how did I punch a D-rank evil spirit beast to death the day before yesterday?"
Two seconds later, a voice sounded in his mind: [There is a kind of kill called last hit.]
"..."
Damn. He got it.
It wasn't that the cheat gave him a weaker target on first activation.
It was that Black Widow had already beaten that octopus thing to low health, and Inoue delivered the finishing blow.
D-rank evil spirit Nanako clearly came with bad intentions.
After the system's reminder, Inoue immediately felt faint killing intent in the air.
What to do?
Of course go back and work overtime.