The Joke of Fate

On the supertower of the Ghost in the Shell Department, bristling with pipes, neon lights flickered as figures made of data walked in and out. It was still a scene of bustling activity.

But today was a little different. The natural-person receptionist at the entrance, the sweeping robot, and the brain-machine-modified people sitting in massage chairs and enjoying brain cleaning kept whispering to one another, their expressions more or less strange.

There was only one reason. Today, their department head, who had been in office for three months and appeared no more than three times, had come to work again—and he had brought a beautiful female secretary.

The old gatekeeper, who had served four consecutive department heads of the Ghost in the Shell Department, stated that among those four, he was the only one who had brought a female secretary.

Rare. Extremely rare.

If this had happened before, the department's hotheaded elements would probably have already blocked the department head's office again. But now, they all expressed the same sentiment: Can't afford to provoke him.

They had gone out for a meeting, and all three department heads had ended up dead.

With such a ferocious record, it was unique not only in the Ghost in the Shell Department but even among the Six Departments.

Even stranger was that the higher-ups of the Six Departments maintained an extraordinary silence. Three department heads—two dead and one injured—and yet no one showed any anger.

Strange. So damn strange!

That was why the workplace atmosphere today was so subtle.

Meanwhile, in the department heads' conference room, Motoko Yagami was reporting to Gaogong.

The tall head of the First Combat Department had a figure that was both sexy and valiant. Her aura was like a drawn sword, making anyone who saw her feel a