One minute after Carl arrived on the Arasaka Chief Executive Officer floor.
"So tired... Now that I've relaxed, I can feel it. I'm really exhausted."
Carl threw herself onto the specially customized sofa in the room, letting out a groan of satisfaction and pain.
She stretched her nearly stiff limbs, then turned to complain to the others in the room. "You have no idea how I've gotten through these past few days. Every time I opened my eyes, it was work. Every time I closed them, I got six hours of sleep at most, and everything in between was crammed with matters that could never be dealt with;
"Sometimes I even had to be like Hansen, standing in front of a giant screen and forcing out that 'everything's fine' expression for the whole city to see. Seriously, I'm so tired I've gone numb. I really don't understand how Hansen used to go on screen every day to promote himself. After just a few days of this, I feel like I'm falling apart."
"Six hours?"
Maki did not even raise her head. Her slender fingers casually swiped an electronic document she had just signed into the "Processed" queue. Already quite skilled at handling paperwork, she glanced at Carl.
"You should know that, according to internal company statistics, that's already an excellent amount of sleep reserved for director-level employees. Many lower-level workers do not even return to their apartments several times a week. Going home once a month is normal."
"Don't treat this kind of systemic exploitation as some perfectly normal thing."
Carl stared at Maki. "So is that what your sleep schedule is like too?"
"Of course I'm different." Maki lifted her chin slightly, a faint, barely noticeable pride in her voice, like a bird displaying its feathers. "I get two