The system is very abstract, fortunately I am also.

Chapter 481 The Real Tragedy of the Working Class
It's hard to tell whether playing such a fitting song at this moment was intentional or accidental.

Yes, the driver is smiling.

It was definitely intentional!
"You're going to get bad reviews if you keep doing this, Master..." the boy said resentfully.

You can't judge a book by its cover. Although Lin Li is very young, he could probably be called a driver instead of a young man.

Lin Li: "You can't give bad reviews OvO."

Boy: "..."

That's true. This time, we didn't place the order through a platform, so there's no such thing as a review.

It made me even sadder.

The boy's face was slightly sorrowful as he listened to the music still playing in his ears, some even turned up to the maximum volume. He sighed and said:
"A senior colleague once told me that wages are like menstruation, they come once a month and are gone in a week. Some people are different, so they can go away in three days."

However, it's normal for the period to be long or short. What's most worrying is when the period is irregular and unpredictable, which is a very dangerous sign.

Finally, if one's life becomes strong enough that one can go ten months without menstruation.

"It hurts, it hurts so much."

Lin Li: Oo?

Lin Li glanced at his buddy through the rearview mirror, amused.

That's quite insightful.

In the past, beggars would say "please have mercy," but now they just say "okay, okay, good."

The oxen and horses wheeze, but only the oxen and horses say, "Received, received."

Luckily, I'm blessed with good fortune and won't have to go through this in the future.

Besides, my girlfriend is very rich, so even if I'm down on my luck, I can still be a freeloader. Yay!

"Earning a salary of three thousand but doing the work of thirty thousand, perhaps this is the hardship of a working person."

Therefore, Lin Li, who had no real empathy, only expressed his feelings verbally.

"Uh...no, not really..." Upon hearing this, the man with the buzz cut on the left smiled and touched his buzz cut.

"Why work so hard for a salary of 3,000? Who would honestly do the work of 30,000? My salary allows me to slack off without any guilt. My main principle is to have a clear conscience when it comes to my salary."

Also.

Lin Li felt that what he said was right.

“However, if you can only slack off without feeling guilty, you’re still not good enough,” Lin Li said seriously. “I have a friend who can make his boss think he’s working hard even when he’s slacking off, and he’ll occasionally get a small bonus.”

"Holy crap? There are experts like that? How did they do it? Do you have any experience to share? Coach, I really want to learn this!" Several boys asked in surprise.

"He doesn't have much experience or skills to speak of; he's just seriously slacking off. It's mainly because the nature of his work is different," Lin Li said casually.

"Hey buddy, what does your friend do for a living?"

Lin Li: "Deep-sea fishing."

"Far--"

The three men: "..."

Indeed, if a boss touches someone too much, they might actually seem more hardworking.

"What the hell kind of fish is your friend catching?" the boy in the middle asked, his lips twitching.

Lin Li: "Cod, herring, squid, tuna..."

I didn't actually ask you to answer that question!
Seeing Lin Li's serious expression, the boy's lips twitched uncontrollably faster, and then all his unspoken words turned into a sigh.

Sigh, even though I'm on my way home from get off work, I feel just as tired as when I'm working overtime.

Looking at the sincere smile on the young man's face and his expectant eyes as he looked on for more conversation, the boy suddenly understood why it only cost five yuan per person for this trip.

You get what you pay for!

Perhaps his purpose in bringing people along wasn't to make some money on the side, but rather because he was worried about being bored on the way back with no one to keep him company.

They even offered to raise the price to ten yuan per person. How about you, driver, compensate us five yuan each?

"Aiping, I'm a little tired. I'm going to sleep for a while. Wake me up when we get there..." Seeing that Lin Li still had the desire to communicate, the boy decided to rest here forever.

Lin Li smiled upon hearing this, turned off the music, and stopped talking to the three of them, focusing instead on driving.

Because someone was sleeping, the rest of the journey was uneventful.

Twenty minutes later, we arrived at Xiujin Garden.

"Just park it at the entrance."

"it is good."

After Lin Li's car came to a stop, the man with the buzz cut on the left thanked Lin Li and then shook his sleeping friend next to him:
"Yiyang, we're here. Wake up, wake up, we're home."

The boy in the middle seemed to be really asleep. Hearing his companion's call, he just frowned, turned his head to the other side, and shook his head slightly annoyed: "You go up first, I'll sleep a little longer."

"We're home, not at the company. If you sleep any longer, you'll be sleeping with Xu Chen tonight."

Boy: "Zzz..."

The man with the buzz cut sighed helplessly, leaned close to the sleeping boy's ear, and began to chant:
"Notice: Team building on Saturday. Meet at the company gate at 6:30 am. Attendance is mandatory. Those who are absent will be considered to have taken a day off and will have their attendance deducted. The budget is 200 yuan per person, which has already been deducted from next month's salary. Each person needs to prepare a performance and perform on stage. After the event, please forward the performance video to your WeChat Moments. Do not block others in groups. Department heads are responsible for checking."

Boy: "(；☉_☉) What!!!!"

The boy, who had just seemed out of it, now stood up with his eyes wide open, looking extremely frightened.

I sat up in shock while on my deathbed, and realized that I was actually the ox or horse.

"Really? Just posted? Are you crazy? Did the company's mother die again?" He looked at the man with the buzz cut, but only glanced at him before frantically pulling out his phone without waiting for an answer.

"It's fake. You were still half asleep. I only said that to wake you up."

Seeing his colleague's reaction, the man with the buzz cut sighed with a mixture of helplessness and desolation.

"Holy crap—that scared me to death—" The boy breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this, patting his chest repeatedly and looking at the buzz-cut man with a hint of reproach:
"Next time I'm half asleep, you can just slap me, don't say such hurtful things..."

"Okay, okay, I got it, I'm off."

"Xu Chen, I'm leaving now. See you tomorrow. Thanks, bro."

"Bye-bye." Lin Li, who was already happily taking out sunflower seeds from his pocket to eat, waved goodbye with a smile.

I didn't expect these calves and horses to be so interesting!
I'll raise a few to keep as pets when I have time.

……

After dropping the remaining boy off at another location, Lin Li drove towards his own residential area. Wu Min had just called to urge him to come home.

Lin Li frowned slightly.

[Complete at least 10 requests from citizens of an unfamiliar empire while piloting a mech (0/10)]

On the system panel, the task progress is still 0 at this moment.

When Lin Li first heard that the three people had two destinations, he even felt that if the system were a person, it might be able to directly calculate the progress of two tasks.

But unexpectedly, after delivering all three items, none of them counted.

A trench system.

Where does the problem lie?

Is it because my attitude towards serving them was inappropriate, and I shouldn't treat passengers like toys for amusement?

Or is it that only orders given by the platform can be considered as commissions from the Empire?
At the time when the mission can be triggered, Qu Wanqiu's "role" is that of a passerby who stops cars on the roadside.

After a moment of contemplation, Lin Li's brows relaxed slightly.

The key is to find the key problem.

I think I've already found it.

This is a mission for the entire female world. Before Qu Wanqiu, Bai Bufan had made a similar joke, and he had also had his driver's license for a while, but he hadn't triggered the mission.

After all, in an all-female world, there are only women and mechs. Well, now we might know there are also "black bugs." As for men? What are they?
The same was true for other all-female world missions before, which had nothing to do with men other than themselves.

Therefore, in the system's eyes, it should have been carrying three lumps of air.

After figuring this out, Lin Li knew the angle for subsequent experiments and probing of this mission.

However, the second thing to consider now is not whether to take orders from female or male customers, but how to take orders more appropriately in the future.
The car issue is easy to resolve. Although Wu Min will be leaving for work again in a few days and will take the car with her, renting a car is convenient these days. If it weren't for the inconvenience of revealing the source of the money, which requires keeping it from Wu Min, and the potential complications of buying a car, Lin Li might have simply bought one for himself.

But whether I rent or buy a car, as someone who has just obtained a driver's license, I am not qualified to register as a ride-hailing driver on any order-taking platform.

It would be difficult to replicate the experience of hailing a ride from a crowded spot tonight, since many people were out celebrating the New Year and it was hard to get a ride, which gave me the opportunity.

However, there are always more solutions than problems.

We'll see if we can contact some ride-hailing drivers who already have cars and accounts, and use their money, just like when we did the food delivery tasks.

It was already 2 a.m. when Wu Min got home. After seeing that Lin Li had returned safely, she chatted with him for a while, asked him what he was doing that night, and then went to her room to sleep.

But Lin Li can't rest tonight.

After chatting in the group and having a casual chat with Chen Yuying for a while, Wu Min said goodnight to each other and let her go to sleep when she got sleepy. Wu Min should have fallen asleep by then.

Lin Li's gaze turned to the system.

The system is updated incrementally every month, and refreshes the "comeback" opportunity once a month, and this month is no exception.

After the update at the beginning of October, there are a total of four buttons on the other world interface: "Return", "Terminate", and "Current Reset Price: 200 System Currency". These three buttons are now working properly.

In addition, there was a button that appeared in early October but had no text and was dark and could not be pressed.

The button became lit up in November, but there was still no text on it.

This month, in addition to the appearance of a fifth button that was dark and had no text, this button finally started displaying text—

"Select and switch regression nodes".

I didn't dare to press it before because I didn't see the text, but now that I see the text above clearly, it's different.

After determining that pressing the button wouldn't cause any immediate change, Lin Li had a thought.

Sure enough, a sub-interface appeared after pressing it.

The sub-interface has a selection bar, similar to a game's save screen:

"Unnamed History Node 1 (Currently Selected Node)"

"None", "None", "None", "None"

There are five slots in total, but only the first one is lit up and shows that it is selected; the other four are dark and unselectable.

There are two buttons below the selection bar.

Both are lit up, but one has text while the other does not. As for the text button:

"Add a random node".

After observing the changes in the system this month, Lin Li pondered for a moment and then came to some speculations.

A node is either a location or a point in time.

However, if it's a point in time, that seems a bit too overpowered and too extraordinary. The system has never demonstrated the ability to travel through time before, so this point should refer to the location where I "returned".

And there's even a "historical node" option in the selection menu, which means... this month's alternate world should be one that I've visited before.

Based on the order in which I went, the most likely scenario is that it will be the first post-apocalyptic world.

If it's a post-apocalyptic world, then this "Unnamed Historical Node 1" is the node where I last went to the post-apocalyptic world at the end of October to test the mech, and left near the shelter.

Lin Li focused his mind and clicked "Add Random Node".

"Unnamed Node 2"

Sure enough, there was an additional node in the selection bar.

Unfortunately, there was no information provided; clicking it only presented two options: "Select" and "Delete".

There was no cooldown for "Add Random Node". Lin Li tried a few more times and "Unnamed Node 3", "Unnamed Node 4", and "Unnamed Node 5" appeared in the selection bar.

After five nodes appear, clicking "Add New" will display the message "The current node limit has been reached. Please delete the old node before adding a new one."

This is roughly how interface research works.

Without hesitation, Lin Li immediately went to the bathroom to prepare.

The preparations were very comprehensive. After all, everything he had just done was just speculation, and he still couldn't be 100% certain that he had returned to the post-apocalyptic world. He couldn't be too vigilant or lack the necessary security measures.

After completing the preparations, Lin Li clicked "Return".

A flash of white light, and the scene before my eyes changed.

The city was in ruins, with crumbling walls and a faint stench permeating the air.

Several wandering zombies noticed Lin Li's sudden appearance. After a brief assessment, they twisted their bodies and charged towards Lin Li with low growls.

Lin Li smiled with relief, showing no panic, and put on the title of [Breath of Demons].

As expected, the zombies that rushed over, just like before, stopped after closing the distance to a certain point, as if they had suddenly lost their target. They stopped in a daze, then either stood there in a daze or started wandering aimlessly again.

After searching my memory, I realized that this was indeed the place I left last time. The only difference was that the surroundings were more dilapidated and desolate.

I wonder how much time has passed in this world now.

Lin Li still harbored some expectations.

However, what I'm looking forward to is not the change in this zombie world.

To be honest, this world doesn't hold much appeal for Lin Li.

What's exciting is that, according to the pattern, I'll be able to go to the cultivation world again next month and meet Grandpa Shan Qing and Senior Deng Wen.

They are still very fun and kind to him, bringing him a lot of benefits. Lin Li sincerely hopes and looks forward to reuniting with them.

However, the earliest it could happen is next month.

Let's focus on the changes in this post-apocalyptic world for now.

No longer do we need to be as cautious as before, relying solely on the [Breath of Demons] title effect to avoid fighting the zombies.

A scholar should be viewed with new respect after three days of separation.

Now, there are quite a few times when I need to be impressed.

The combat mech materialized, and with a single spin of its plasma blade, the heads of the surrounding zombies were instantly mangled.

I originally wanted to cut it in half, which would have looked cooler, but the zombies were too short, so the mech would have to crouch down to sweep them away if it wanted to do that.

Actually, Lin Li could easily deal with these zombies without the mecha, given his current strength, but it's always better to save trouble if possible.

Then, based on his memory, Lin Li piloted the mecha and flew towards the location of the shelter.

The distance wasn't particularly far to begin with, and with the mech's flying speed, they arrived at their destination in less than three minutes.

Nothing has changed from before; there shouldn't have been any dramatic events like being massacred after leaving.

Lin Li remembered the entrance to the shelter he had come out of, so he landed his mech on the ground not far from the entrance, which had been deliberately hidden.

"Hello, I think someone is watching me right now. Are Hu Fei, Ye Jing, and Shi Dongchen here?"

"I am Lin Li."

"Please let me know that I've arrived."

After speaking inside the mecha, Lin Li waited quietly.

He wasn't made to wait long; the entrance door was opened in less than five minutes.

Hu Fei, not being very bright, peeked out, looking somewhat uneasily at the completely unfamiliar mecha: "...Big Brother?"

Lin Li smiled, stepped out of the mecha, removed his mask, and nodded: "It's me."

"Big Brother!!!"

Upon seeing that it was indeed Lin Li, Hu Fei became even more excited and rushed forward, attempting to hug Lin Li, but Lin Li dodged him.

Hu Fei wasn't angry; he just sobbed as he recounted:
"Big brother!! Sister-in-law has been taken by Shi Dongchen!!"

"That heartless bastard..."

"Sister-in-law... sister-in-law... ahhhhh TAT (choking up) (tears streaming down her face) —"

Lin Li: "(；☉_☉)?"

(End of this chapter)