Chapter 1: Private Secretary Su Jin

(Author’s note: I’ve posted character images in my author drop-in thread in the book community, including images of the Sovereigns. Feel free to take a look if you’re interested!)

【Time remaining until the end of this world: 36,524 days.】

A faint fragrance of perfume hung in the room, mingling with the lingering warmth between the sheets.

A cold electronic voice sounded in Lin Ye’s mind.

Eyes closed and brow faintly furrowed, he waved a hand through the air as though swatting a fly.

“So annoying.”

The moment he lifted his arm, a soft, sleepy murmur came from the woman in his embrace.

The movement seemed to rouse her a little. Her lashes fluttered, but she didn’t quite open her eyes. Instead, she nestled closer against him, resting her forehead on his chest and tightening her arms around him.

Lin Ye glanced down.

She was fast asleep, her long, silky hair spread across the pillow, a few strands clinging to her fair cheek. Perhaps because she’d been up too late the night before, traces of weariness still lingered beneath her eyes.

It was his third day in this world.

Three days ago, he’d been an utterly ordinary person.

And *Echoes of the Abyss* had been his favorite game.

It was a Lovecraftian apocalypse game built around the descent of Outer Gods.

In its setting, the old gods awakened from the mists of history, while Outer Gods slumbering in the depths of the universe turned their gaze toward humanity.

To descend into reality, the evil gods lured countless humans into performing sacrificial rituals, using hundreds of millions of lives as fuel.

Seven forbidden zones lay scattered across the world, and human civilization struggled between madness and despair.

Survivors built cities and searched for a way to live beneath the shadow of corruption, monsters, and gods.

It was a world so cruel it could leave a person breathless.

And now he’d somehow transmigrated into it.

More absurd still, his new identity was the one and only biological son of the Upper City’s finance director in Skyvault City.

A rich, spoiled heir in every sense of the word.

In a normal novel, a character like him existed to make the protagonist look good: arrogant and overbearing, bullying people on the strength of his family background, surrounded by lackeys and stirring up trouble everywhere, only to be casually dealt with by the real protagonist in the end.

But Lin Ye had no complaints whatsoever.

He was even a little excited.

He now slept in a soft, enormous bed, opened expensive wine whenever he pleased, and owned enough clothes to go three months without wearing the same outfit twice. He had a driver and bodyguards whenever he went out.

Even the woman in his arms, whose beauty and figure surpassed anything he’d imagined in his previous life, had already spent two peaceful nights sleeping beside him.

After so many years as a poor man forced to live without indulgence, he’d finally made it into high society. Why on earth would he turn his back on the good life to go worrying about the apocalypse?

So, on his third day after transmigrating, he couldn’t even be bothered to pay attention to the system that had suddenly appeared.

“More than thirty thousand days? That’s a hundred years away. Who’s that supposed to scare?” Lin Ye pulled the woman closer, entirely unapologetic. “I’ve fought the good fight for years. What’s wrong with enjoying myself now?”

The girl in his arms was Su Jin, his private secretary.

His newly acquired father probably knew his son wasn’t cut out to run a business, so he’d simply paid to set up a company for him, giving him something to occupy his time.

The body’s original owner had never cared much about what the company did, how much money it had on the books, or how many employees it kept. As for its actual business…

Lin Ye still hadn’t quite figured that out himself.

Whatever it was, his secretary could handle it.

He was about to close his eyes and get a little more sleep when the mechanical voice, silent for a moment, rang out again.

Unlike the earlier, unhurried countdown to the end of the world, this time a pale red warning box appeared in the center of his vision.

【Regional disaster warning triggered.】

【Time remaining until the destruction of Skyvault City: 30 days.】

【Disaster type: Aberration Crisis.】

【Note: Only basic system functions are currently available. Full system functions will unlock once you successfully make it through the crisis threatening Skyvault City with destruction.】

Lin Ye’s eyes snapped open.

“What the hell?”

Now he was wide awake. He sat bolt upright almost at once.

No wonder the damn system had done nothing but display a few basic stats during the three days since he’d arrived.

No quests.

No shop.

No skills page.

Not even the standard beginner’s gift pack.

At first, Lin Ye had assumed it was some kind of minimalist system, or simply a defective one that could only show his attributes. That was why he hadn’t bothered looking into it.

As it turned out, the system wasn’t lacking functions.

They just hadn’t been unlocked yet.

“How does an Aberration Crisis come out of nowhere?”

The end of the world was a hundred years away. He could afford to ignore that.

But Skyvault City had only thirty days left. That concerned him very directly.

Three days.

His good life had barely begun three days ago.

Was his three-day trial already over?

The soft bed, the beautiful secretary, a life where he could spend freely without checking his balance—he hadn’t even had time to get used to it all.

And now the system was telling him the whole city would be destroyed in a month?

You wouldn’t work a farm donkey that hard.

Some of the laziness left Lin Ye’s face as he began to think seriously.

“Wait.”

He spoke under his breath.

Skyvault City wasn’t particularly large, but the fact that it had managed to establish itself in this world meant it was no pushover.

It had Sequence 4 powerhouses defending it, and more than one at that.

Supernaturals at that level were capable of dealing with the vast majority of corruption incidents head-on. An ordinary cult ritual or aberration disaster couldn’t possibly destroy the entire city in a month.

Unless the source of the disaster was far beyond anything Skyvault City could handle.

And the system had specifically called it an “Aberration Crisis.”

Lin Ye tapped his fingers lightly against the side of the bed and narrowed his eyes.

“Could some evil god with nothing better to do have turned its gaze this way?” he muttered.

It was a real possibility.

From what he knew of the story, the various evil-god Sovereigns were quite active at this point.

Even so, Lin Ye wasn’t particularly worried.

After all, he was no pushover either.

He’d lost all his in-game equipment and active skills, and hadn’t been able to bring along a single artifact, forbidden item, or rare collectible. But his character’s max-level stats had been preserved in full.

Strength, constitution, spirit, resistance—all maxed out.

It was no exaggeration to say that, if Lin Ye wanted, he could slap the whole of Skyvault City off the face of the earth.

Its high walls, defenses, and protective barriers would be no more substantial than paper models before his overwhelming stats.

Of course, he had no interest in doing that right now.

“But who is it?”

Lin Ye frowned.

“An Aberration Crisis…”

He began recalling what the game had established about the various Sovereigns.

“Could it be the evil-god aspect of the Evolution pathway’s Sequence 0: Creator—the Sovereign: Zombie King?”

He dismissed the idea as soon as it occurred to him.

“No.”

Though the Zombie King had “zombie” in His name, His power to spread infection wasn’t what truly made Him terrifying.

The worst things about that being were His absolute immortality and indestructibility, and His ability to evolve without limit—even developing counters to His enemies’ abilities.

Simply unleashing a zombie horde wasn’t His style.

But aside from the Zombie King, Lin Ye couldn’t immediately think of another high-ranking being directly connected to an Aberration Crisis. There were simply too many possibilities.

Before he could finish thinking it through, he felt warmth approaching from behind.

Just as he was about to continue sorting through what he knew of the game’s Sequences, a pair of slender, fair arms wrapped around his neck.

A warm body pressed against his back, and the woman rested her chin gently on his shoulder. Her voice was still heavy with sleep.

Su Jin was awake too. She leaned against him as the morning sun filtered through the curtains, softening the delicate lines of her profile.

Her eyes were half closed, and she clearly hadn’t quite shaken off sleep, but that did nothing to hide her natural allure.

“Young Master, it’s barely dawn. Why are you sitting up so straight?” She buried her face against his neck. “You weren’t nearly so industrious last night.”

“What about last night?” Lin Ye dismissed the system interface and took the hand resting against his chest, his usual lazy tone returning. “Wasn’t I working diligently the whole time?”

At that, Su Jin finally opened her eyes.

She didn’t expose him immediately. Instead, she slowly sat up beside him and looked at the stack of documents on the nightstand, their covers still unopened.

“So putting the documents next to you counts as working, Young Master?”

She pulled out the top document and tapped its unbroken seal. “By that standard, everyone at the company deserves an award just for sitting at their desk.”

Lin Ye glanced at the document without a trace of guilt.

His hand settled on her waist, giving it a light squeeze. When he felt her body tense slightly, he pulled her closer again, satisfied.

He couldn’t help laughing.

“Even the formidable Secretary Su complains about being tired?”

“So you know I’m useful now?” She avoided his eyes and put the document back on the nightstand. “When I asked you to sign it last night, you said a little thing like that shouldn’t spoil the mood.”

“That was last night.” Lin Ye tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear, his gaze lingering on her tired face. “Today I have something important to do.”

“Get up and get ready. Come out with me.”

“Now?” Su Jin turned to look out the window.

Skyvault City lay under a pale blue-green morning mist, the outlines of the Upper City’s buildings quiet and indistinct in the dawn light.

“The company doesn’t open until nine, and the mall opens at ten. Usually the earliest you’ll go out is noon. Where are you planning to go, Young Master?”

“You’ll know when we get there.” Lin Ye smiled and pinched her cheek.

She leaned against his shoulder again, her voice softening. “But you were the one who wouldn’t let me sleep early last night. Now it’s barely light, you’re wide awake, and you want to drag me up too. That’s not fair.”

“You’re my secretary. When the boss has business, of course his secretary comes along.” Lin Ye lifted his chin, doing his best to sound strictly professional.

“A secretary handles work. She isn’t on call twenty-four hours a day.” Su Jin traced a fingertip lightly over his shoulder, a note of deliberate reproach in her voice. “Besides, I already worked overtime last night. Without overtime pay, too.”

“You call that overtime?” Lin Ye turned toward her, close enough to almost feel her warm breath as she spoke. “Funny, I remember you enjoying yourself.”

A flash of embarrassed irritation crossed Su Jin’s eyes, and she smacked his shoulder.

“Then you’d better let me sleep a little longer. I’ll go with you once I’ve woken up properly.”

“How can I do that?” Lin Ye slipped an arm around her waist and drew her fully into his embrace, looking down at her as her eyes grew wary. “As your boss, it’s my responsibility to make sure my secretary is alert at work.”

With her back against the soft bedding, Su Jin finally understood what he meant by that. She put a hand between them and tried to look stern, but a smile escaped at the corner of her mouth first.

“You just said you had important business.”

“This is important business too.” Lin Ye took her hand and slowly pressed it back against the pillow, his tone so earnest it was almost shameless. “A little preparation makes the work go faster. I’ll wake you up a little first, so you won’t be listless when we go out.”

“Young Master Lin, you always have so many reasons whenever you want to laze around.” Su Jin tried twice to pull free, then turned her face away from his approaching breath. “I’m warning you now: if this makes you late, you can’t blame me.”

“Of course I can’t.” Lin Ye bent down, grinning without a hint of sincerity. “I’m the one who started it, after all.”

He gave her no further chance to question him, turning over and pressing her into the soft bed.

Faint morning light drifted slowly across the rumpled sheets through the swaying sheer curtains. Su Jin’s quiet laughter soon broke beneath the sound of their closer breathing.

She tried to say something else, but as Lin Ye bent over her, her voice abruptly softened into low moans.

Outside the window, Skyvault City was slowly waking in the morning mist.

【Time remaining until the destruction of Skyvault City: 29 days, 23 hours, 59 minutes.】