NTNH Chapter 3: The Human World Underworld Office ┃ A Grand Movement to Break the Old Ways

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Shang Que was acting so naturally, so seriously, that Yu Zhengdu momentarily felt as if everything before him was completely normal.

What should have been an utterly terrifying atmosphere carried an inexplicable sense of comedy. Yu Zhengdu felt like he ought to at least show some polite fear, but he simply couldn’t bring himself to be scared. He stared at Shang Que for a long while before finally asking, “What kind of organization are you guys?”

“To put it simply…” Shang Que thought for a moment before replying, “You could think of us as the Underworld’s office in the human world.”

Yu Zhengdu was stunned. “The Underworld?”

“Mm, exactly the one you’re imagining right now.” Shang Que tilted his head. “Let’s talk inside.”

The two of them entered Shang Que’s office. As soon as Shang Que sat down at his desk, his expression suddenly changed. “Wait a moment.”

With that, he dragged over his keyboard and started typing furiously. The rapid clacking of keys filled the room. Only after a while did his expression ease, though he still cursed angrily, “Damn it, someone killed me while I was AFK!”

“…” Yu Zhengdu replied emotionlessly, “That’s so despicable.”

Shang Que turned to him. “Do you know how to write cheat codes? I want to hunt them down to the ends of the earth.”

Yu Zhengdu slowly suggested, “You could just send one of your ghost employees to scare them.”

Shang Que: “…”

After quickly closing the game and pretending nothing had happened, Shang Que said, “Let’s get back to business.”

Yu Zhengdu sat up straight, showing that he was all ears.

“To put it simply, our company is the Underworld,” Shang Que said bluntly, wasting no time. “The very same Underworld as understood in the human world—the realm of the dead, responsible for overseeing reincarnation, judging the deeds of the deceased, and determining their fate in the next life.”

Yu Zhengdu was so shocked that he hiccupped. Out of the corner of his eye, he glanced around the rather plain-looking office, suddenly doubting the validity of Shang Que’s words. However, his hand still instinctively pointed downward. “The Underworld… isn’t it supposed to be underground?”

Shang Que crossed his legs gracefully and said, “This matter dates back about fifty years…”

Since Pangu created the world, chaos has been divided into three realms: Heaven, Earth, and the Human Realm. Heaven is the divine realm, Earth is the ghost realm, and between them lies the human world. Additionally, there exist the Six Paths of Reincarnation, but that is a different matter.

The existence of the Three Realms and Six Paths is primarily sustained by spiritual energy and faith. However, as time passed, spiritual energy gradually diminished. In modern times, the Heaven and Earth realms, which required vast amounts of spiritual energy to maintain, became unstable and shaky. Nevertheless, they managed to hold on due to the lingering faith of humans.

“Until fifty years ago…”

At this point, Shang Que paused, making it clear that what followed was bound to be an extraordinary piece of history.

Yu Zhengdu unconsciously leaned forward slightly, his tone also tinged with excitement. “What happened fifty years ago?”

Shang Que gazed deeply at him and said, “Fifty years ago, a sweeping campaign took place across China to eradicate old traditions and beliefs. All so-called ‘monsters and demons’ were purged, and human faith in ghosts and deities completely collapsed. For the already crumbling Heaven and Earth realms, this was like pulling the last support from beneath them…”

With faith obliterated, Heaven and the Underworld collapsed as well. The once-mighty realms of gods and spirits, which had thrived on human offerings and possessed unparalleled powers, were completely destroyed. Yet, while the Underworld vanished, humans still lived and died. As a result, the souls of the deceased lingered in the human world, and reincarnation became a matter of pure chance. The Six Paths of Reincarnation were thrown into utter chaos.

For a time, cases of virtuous people reincarnating as animals while wicked ones were reborn into wealth and privilege became common.

“To solve this problem, the only solution was to reopen the Underworld. But since the original realm had collapsed, the only option left was to rent office space in the human world and continue operations from here.” Shang Que smiled, leaned forward, and gently patted Yu Zhengdu’s hand reassuringly. “But don’t worry. Our company is fully licensed, pays taxes annually, and won’t delay your salary.”

Yu Zhengdu: “…”

The amount of information he had just received was overwhelming. He remained stunned for a long moment before finally asking, his voice somewhat dazed, “Are you saying that the fall of Heaven and the Underworld was caused by that campaign?”

Shang Que pondered for a moment before replying, “Not exactly. That campaign was simply the last straw that broke the camel’s back.”

Yu Zhengdu remained dazed. “Did you know I got a perfect score in my Marxist philosophy course?”

“Marxist philosophy?” Shang Que nodded, his expression full of admiration. “Lingxi showed me your transcript. Very impressive.”

Yu Zhengdu let out a long breath, feeling relieved. “Good thing I’m about to graduate. If I had to take that course again now, I’d probably fail.”

Given how his belief in materialism had just been shattered into pieces, he doubted he could even look at a scientific development exam properly.

As a ghost, Shang Que had quite a good temper. Perhaps he didn’t want to scare off the programmer they had worked so hard to recruit, so he remained patient with Yu Zhengdu and explained the nature of their company. But that was as far as he would go.

“You take some time to process this. We’ll discuss work tomorrow,” Shang Que said, effectively dismissing him.

Yu Zhengdu stumbled to his feet, still in a daze. Before leaving, he turned back and asked, “If this is an office for the Underworld, then you must be…?”

He looked at Shang Que’s face—so mesmerizing it could bewitch people even without supernatural powers—and found the idea unbelievable. “The King of Hell?”

Shang Que looked at him with disdain. “Of course not.”

Yu Zhengdu: “...Then who are you?”

Shang Que: “I’m the legal representative of the company.”

Yu Zhengdu couldn’t help but retort, “...You mean the legal ghost representative.”

Seeing Yu Zhengdu’s dumbfounded expression, Shang Que suddenly realized something. “Oh, you were asking about my former identity?”

He smiled slightly. “A thousand years ago, those who worshiped me called me the Ghost King of Mount Luofeng.”

As Yu Zhengdu stepped out of Shang Que’s office, he saw over a dozen colleagues craning their necks to look in his direction, their eyes filled with curiosity. A man named Kang Jin asked hesitantly, “New colleague, do you know everything now?”

Yu Zhengdu stared at them expressionlessly. “You’re all ghosts?”

As soon as he spoke, his colleagues, who had been tense, instantly relaxed and nodded vigorously. “Yep, yep.”

Kang Jin also let out a sigh of relief. “Good thing you know. Keeping up a human act all the time is really exhausting.”

As he spoke, he grabbed his own head with both hands. “I was so scared just now my head almost fell off.”

Yu Zhengdu hurriedly stopped him. “Hey, don’t do that!!!”

Kang Jin looked at him blankly.

Yu Zhengdu was shocked. “Don’t take off your head! I can’t handle that!”

Kang Jin: “...I was just trying to adjust my wig.”

He sounded a little aggrieved. “Our boss doesn’t like bald employees.”

Yu Zhengdu sighed. “So ghosts can go bald too, huh.”

If given the choice, Yu Zhengdu wouldn’t want to work with ghosts. Although Shang Que had sworn up and down that they were a legitimate company, a ghost was still a ghost!

But at the moment, he had no choice. According to Shang Que, the labor contract he had signed with Luofeng was considered a contract between a human and a ghost. This meant it couldn’t be easily breached—otherwise, the violating party could suffer severe consequences.

Most importantly, this company claimed to be in charge of managing reincarnation. It might seem sketchy, but if it was real, then Yu Zhengdu feared that if he simply walked away, they might take revenge on him a century later and reincarnate him as a chicken or a duck.

Yu Zhengdu sighed and sat back down at his workstation.

To his surprise, his class’s group chat was still active, buzzing with discussion. Looking closely, he saw that it was mostly Hou Guangzong showing off.

   [Hou Guangzong: Honestly, Xin Xing isn’t all that great. It’s not as prestigious as people think.】

   [Hou Guangzong: But there are some really talented people there. It’s a shame Zhengdu didn’t join.】

   [Hou Guangzong: Zhengdu, where are you working now? Must be somewhere better than Xin Xing, right?】

   [Hou Guangzong: @Yu Zhengdu, hey, tell us about your new company!】

   [Hou Guangzong: Zhengdu, don’t be so secretive. What’s there to hide?】

   [Hou Guangzong: @Yu Zhengdu】

Yu Zhengdu looked up at his new colleagues. Now that their identities had been exposed, they had clearly relaxed. For example, at that very moment, one of them was literally floating over to another colleague’s workstation.

"Can you help me check how to set up this formula in Excel?"

Yu Zhengdu: “…”

Fine, fine. As long as they didn’t start performing live head-dropping acts, he could live with this.

   [Yu Zhengdu: Yeah, my new company is really amazing.】

   [Yu Zhengdu: The kind that could scare people to death, smile.jpg】

Yu Zhengdu officially started working at Luofeng. After a few days, he learned more about the company.

For instance, this so-called "Earthly Underworld Office," which claimed to manage all affairs of the afterlife… was extremely broke. It turned out Shang Que wasn’t joking when he said hiring him was a cost-saving measure.

Their supposed "increase in business volume" was due to the two-child policy, which had led to a rise in reincarnation numbers—a non-profit endeavor.

Yu Zhengdu: “…”

His broke colleagues unanimously believed that their financial struggles weren’t their fault. The real problem was that human society didn’t accept underworld currency (hell money). Otherwise, their boss would probably be the richest person in the world.

Yu Zhengdu found this logic so airtight that he had no way to refute it.

As for the small amount of human currency in their company account, it came from a handful of naive customers who had mistakenly thought Luofeng was a career planning or personal health management firm.

Yu Zhengdu: Living in constant fear for his paycheck.

That afternoon, he once again went to the cafeteria downstairs for lunch alone.

The tech park where their office was located was in a remote area. Initially, there weren’t many restaurants nearby, so to attract businesses, the park had converted the ground floor into a cafeteria.

Since he was the only living person in his company, Yu Zhengdu had no choice but to eat alone every day.

Just as he finished getting his food, three girls carrying trays approached him. The one in the middle, who had a short bob haircut, waved at him.

Yu Zhengdu looked at them and felt that they seemed familiar.

The short-haired girl smiled shyly. "Hi, we often see you eating alone here."

Yu Zhengdu thought for a moment and recalled that he had indeed seen them a few times before. Sometimes, they would even sneak glances at him.

Since he had been good-looking since childhood, he was used to this kind of situation. So he smiled back and said, "Hello. You three seem to eat here often too?"

The short-haired girl and the girl on her right exchanged glances before letting out a playful giggle.

"What are you talking about? There are only two of us."

The girl on the right added, "You're so mean. Why would you try to scare us like that?"

A sudden chill ran down Yu Zhengdu’s spine, and cold sweat broke out all over his body.

___

Author’s note: Not a fake update, just fixing a small bug.

Marx: Trust me, you won’t regret it!

T/N: Please give support on my ko-fi page, thank you🍁🍁🍁