I Will Never Submit to Miss Grim Reaper - Chapter 1

?After our review, your book does not meet the signing standards. Please try to modify the content or submit to other editors?

?Hello, your book does not meet our site’s signing standards?

?Cannot sign?

?Your introduction is too confusing; I can’t understand what you’ve written. We can’t sign it?

—

Ah, ahhhh—

In the dimly lit rental apartment, I stared at the replies on the screen one after another, scratching my head in frustration.

Why!

I thought I was not a bad writer, so why did all the website editors reject my work? If this continues, I won’t even be able to afford food, let alone rent!

Just as I was at a loss, the phone next to my computer lit up, displaying a “You’ve received a new message” notification.

Someone actually sent me a message?

It must be some high school or college classmate who got rich or found out their dad is a super war god, grandpa is the head of a billion-dollar conglomerate, and they’re distributing money all over the world, so they remembered their poor and destitute old classmate.

Hoping for such a scenario, I unlocked my phone screen and opened the new message—

?Payment Reminder: Dear user, your balance is insufficient for your phone bill. We will keep the receiving function active for 24 hours. Please make the payment as soon as possible…?

The moment I saw this message, I felt like I had just eaten instant noodles with pickled mustard greens and a double happiness ham sausage, and like a single Husky who had just finished reading the news. An inexplicable bitterness and sorrow lingered in my heart, echoing in the empty valley, a long-lasting lament.

Before I could regain my composure, my phone rang again with a new message notification:

?Dear resident of Apartment 301, Building 3 of Snail Residence. Hello, your rent for this period (May 1, 2022, to June 1, 2022) amounts to 850.00 yuan and is 1 day overdue. If payment is not made within 3 days of the due date, the system will shut off water and electricity supply. Please make the payment as soon as possible?

Well, now there’s no way out.

After reading the messages, I tremblingly opened my Alipay and online banking apps.

I had 1.50 yuan in my Alipay account, and 300.50 yuan in my bank account. That 300 yuan was my last bit of stubbornness.

I am a web novel writer. My plan was to use that 300 yuan to get through the next half month, write a somewhat successful novel, and then get signed as soon as possible. That way, I wouldn’t have to worry about living expenses next month.

As someone said, “Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get.”

I wasn’t a professional writer before. After graduating from college, I found a regular job, rented a place, and wrote novels at night after work. I don’t know if it was my commitment to updating on time every day or if I genuinely had some writing talent, but my first novel was quickly signed, and I had two sources of income.

However, good times didn’t last. As the global economy entered a downturn, many businesses couldn’t survive. My boss first claimed he owed us a month’s salary and promised to pay it next time, then said the company was facing financial difficulties, postponed it for another month, and finally blacklisted a large group of us workers, dissolved the workgroup, and disappeared with my boss’s mistress. The company was also dissolved.

The money I saved from my job, which turned out to be a scam, all went into paying the rent. I had to rely on part-time writing fees to survive while planning to take a break and find a new job.

To make matters worse, just when I thought I could get by with the roughly 1,000 yuan in monthly writing fees for another week or two, the website where I wrote novels… shut down.

I was supposed to receive the payment for this month, which I planned to use for rent, and now it was all gone. I cut off all my sources of income.

Desperate, I immediately launched an emergency money-making plan. I sent out job applications in the morning, looked for any places that offered “room and board,” and constantly pestered editors at various websites. In the end, this was how the story began.

“Now, the editors from almost all the famous novel websites have given responses to my submissions, except…”

In the dim, pale light, I anxiously stared at the only editor’s profile on my computer who hadn’t replied yet.

She is the editor of the largest 2D novel website, “Honeydew Light Novels.” Authors often refer to her as the “Number One Beauty Editor of Honeydew” and say she is very dedicated and gentle with every author. So, many newcomers submit their works to this editor.

“Please, even if it doesn’t get accepted, at least give me a hint of where it falls short so I can make improvements…”

I’m willing to do anything, as long as I can get a contract…

During the waiting time, I even heard the sound of my own heart pounding, my breath quickened considerably, and my vision began to blur little by little.

“Your moment has come.”

In a daze, I heard a voice saying that.

I turned around and saw a girl in a black robe standing by my computer desk, holding a scythe, wearing a hood, and with a cold expression on her face.

What’s going on? When did a girl start living in my room?

Despite the bizarre situation, with my fading awareness, I instinctively replied, “Wait a moment, I’m writing a novel. I’ll talk to my editor after she finishes reviewing the manuscript.”

“You’re writing a novel?”

I heard the girl beside me saying, “Let me take a look.”

She grabbed the mouse and opened the document on my desktop.

“…”

The girl next to me fell silent, seemingly reviewing the novel I had written.

“Endless rambling in the beginning, no sense of anticipation, and the outline is inexplicable. Are you writing a novel? Even a chicken would write better than you.”

In less than half a minute, the girl disdainfully straightened up, “Alright, you don’t need to wait. Your book is beyond saving. Let’s go.”

“But wait.”

It was only at this moment that I came to my senses, “Who are you? How did you get in?”

“Do I really need to explain?”

The girl removed her hood, revealing a pretty face, “I’m a Grim Reaper, here to take your life.”

I was horrified, “Am I going to die?”

“You work every day for 996 days without day off, and you come home to write until late at night. This month, you’ve been sleeping less than 4 hours a day. If you don’t die, who will?”

The girl impatiently said, “Enough with the small talk, come with me, you can leave a will on the way.”

“Am I really going to die?”

Realizing what had just happened, I took a deep breath, my nerves calming down. I thought, if I’m going to die, there’s nothing to fear. My courage surged, and somehow I ended up standing right next to this self-proclaimed Grim Reaper, the beautiful girl.

“Can I make any wish? Can you be my girlfriend? For a day… no, even an hour would do. I’ve never had a girlfriend in my entire life, and while you may have a slightly smaller chest, if you were to be my first and last girlfriend, that wouldn’t be so bad…”

I hadn’t even finished speaking when the girl claiming to be a Grim Reaper seemed to be provoked by something. She swiftly swung her scythe towards my neck with a “whoosh.” The speed was so rapid, like a kitten with its tail suddenly scratched.

Huh?

In the midst of a whirlwind, I felt like my head had actually flown away.

No, that’s not right. It really did fly away… I’ve been decapitated!

“I changed my mind.”

In a daze, with only my head remaining, I saw the Grim Reaper girl slowly walking up to me. Her feet, encased in black stockings, stepped directly on my head.

“You want a girlfriend? You find small-chested girls unappealing? Hehehe…”

As she stepped on me, the beautiful, small-faced Grim Reaper girl wore a yandere smile on her face. The dim light above her head refracted into concentric halos.

“Let you personally experience this taste…”

Afterward, my world plunged into darkness.

“……”