Chapter 1

At 3:14 pm, a new message popped up in the company group chat. It was from Bianca Larson, our boss.

"Kindly remain in the office instead of heading home this evening, so you won't have any issues coming in to work tomorrow morning. There'll be an overnight stay charge of 100 dollars, which will be deducted from your salary."

My eyes were fixed on the screen, and my fingers moved before my brain reacted.

"I'm resigning. I won't be staying tonight."

I hit send.

The group chat was silent for a full three minutes before Bianca replied, "Caleb's overnight stay charge is now 200 dollars. If anyone else is planning to quit, speak up now. I'll deal with the lot of you at once."

Three seconds later, the first message appeared.

"Understood, Ms. Larson. I have no issues with the arrangement."

The second and the third followed in rapid succession. Someone even tagged me in the chat. "Caleb Upton! Can you not cause trouble for the rest of us?"

In my previous life, these people had been just as compliant with Bianca's orders before eventually drowning in the muddy floodwaters.

At 2:00 am, the river embankment gave way. The rolling shutter couldn't hold against the current, and the water rushed into the first-floor office faster than anyone could wake up.

There were more than a hundred of us, and not a single one survived.

I watched the stream of messages pour in from all the other employees who readily abided by Bianca's demand before setting my phone down onto the desk.

Then the chat with Ryan Hayes, the HR executive, appeared. He didn't send me any text, just three scanned documents, one after another.

The first was a non-compete agreement I signed. If I left, I was prohibited from working in the industry for two years. If I broke that clause, I'd have to pay a penalty of 200,000 dollars.

Considering how my monthly salary was only 5,000 dollars, I'd have to save up every cent of my income for a little over three years to save up that much.

The second was a training agreement. The company's so-called pre-employment skills training had been valued at 38,000 dollars. If I left before serving three years in the company, I would have to reimburse the full amount.

And the third was my bachelor's degree certificate.

On my first day, Zachary Sullivan, the administration executive, informed me that the company had a policy of holding onto the original certificate for "safekeeping". Right now, my original certificate was still locked inside the company's filing cabinet.

As a fresh graduate, I had no idea that policy was illegal. I only found out much later on.

In my previous life, I'd told myself to just put up with Bianca's arrangement, but in the end, I lost my life in the flood at 2:00 am.

Ryan sent me a voice message.

"Caleb, you might feel good about yourself when you walk out of here today. But when tomorrow comes, how are you going to put food on the table? Are you going to get a job with just your high school diploma?"

I got up, the chair legs scraping across the floor with a harsh screech.

For a split second, the entire office went quiet. More than a hundred pairs of eyes looked up at me before lowering again.

I walked up to Zachary and held my hand out. "I want my degree back. Give it to me now."

Zachary didn't even look up. His fingers kept typing away as he filled in an expense report.

"Per company policy, all the employees' certificates are kept in a centralized storage for safekeeping. Employees are not permitted to retrieve them without authorization."

"It's my personal document!" I shot back.

At the neighboring workstation, Anna Wheeler leaned back in her chair.

"That's enough, Caleb. Quit making a scene. You're already out 200 dollars. What with your economic background, are you sure you're in a position to act this rashly?"

Peter Lane, whose workstation was directly across, snorted as well. He didn't even bother looking at me either as he remarked, "Maybe he's decided to start a livestream hawking goods. I hear that's a popular mode of income these days."

Anna chuckled along with him.

Zachary stood and snapped the folder shut. "Caleb, if you really want to leave the company, sure. Settle the training fee and the non-compete penalty first. Wyatt—"

Wyatt Chapman, the finance executive, answered without raising his head, "That'll be a total of 238,000 dollars."