"Brother Zhang, the team leader wants to see you."
Zhang Anzai had just slipped into the office and reached his workstation right on the dot when a junior colleague who had just walked in said this to him.
Lin Zhao, sitting nearby, hadn't expected Zhang Anzai to time his arrival so perfectly. She also hadn't expected that even though he'd made it to his workstation just seconds before the start of work, he'd still been called away.
"What's going on?" Lin Zhao asked.
Zhang Anzai shook his head helplessly. "Nothing."
He went straight from the open-plan office into the enclosed office next door.
The team leader had always stayed close by. With the door open, or the roller shutter behind the glass partition raised, the two offices were visually connected.
That made it easy for him to keep an eye on everyone working below.
"You're here, 01." Inside the office, the team leader sat behind his computer, looking every bit the proper boss. When he saw Zhang Anzai come in, he sped up his typing, as if trying to wrap up his work.
Then he scooted his chair toward the other end of the long desk so that once Zhang Anzai sat down, a computer monitor wouldn't be between them.
"01, come on in. Have a seat." The team leader gestured.
Zhang Anzai watched the smooth little performance, unmoved.
He'd spent quite a while working at a heartless company. If he couldn't figure out what such an obvious display meant, those years would have been wasted.
He's not acting naturally enough... He's basically just mashing the keyboard. I bet the screen's still on the home page.
Zhang Anzai knew perfectly well that the team leader was putting on a show to make employees feel that their superior took them seriously.
"Your performance has been outstanding lately... You just submitted a report that got an above-average rating, right? That's very good."
The Dog-Head Team Leader unscrewed a familiar-looking cylindrical thermos as he spoke.
Zhang Anzai wasn't surprised by what he said. What else could the team leader have called him in for?
The team leaders' performance was tied to that of the newcomers under them. The newcomers competed against one another, and the team leaders competed against their counterparts.
So capable employees had to be praised, while slackers had to be criticized. It was only natural.
If he could just avoid the usual drivel—
"Your performance has been very good lately, but you need to pay attention to the key issues in our work. And the key to the key issues is the key issue itself..."—
then Zhang Anzai would be grateful.
"I've been in this team leader position for quite a long time. I think I've done a pretty good job leading the team, and every batch has produced a few outstanding employees.
"Among this batch, your performance, 01, has been quite good. And there's 02, too. You two were slacking off a bit for a while, but lately you've been getting better and better."
The Dog-Head Team Leader took little sips from the thermos, drinking water that was inexplicably always scalding, as he spoke.
Zhang Anzai automatically translated his words into meaningless babble in his head.
The longer Zhang Anzai stayed at Ancient Shadow Records, the more he felt that this guy was just like certain real-world bosses. They all had their own assortment of quirks.
For one thing, his inexplicable fixation on company titles and employee ID numbers was enough to make anyone sigh.
Back when Zhang Anzai had just joined that heartless company, he'd encountered a boss who stubbornly refused to call employees by their real names. It wasn't like a foreign company where everyone was asked to pick a foreign name; each person was given a code name or nickname.
It always felt like they were using the employees to play some kind of management game.
Fortunately, he wouldn't have to put up with this team leader for long. And even if their relationship soured, it wouldn't affect his chances of becoming a regular employee too much. As long as he shed his newcomer status and made it into one of the first five teams, he wouldn't have much to do with the Dog-Head Team Leader in front of him.
Besides, compared with the worst senior bosses at his previous company, this team leader was still a few levels below them. At least he didn't demand much flattery, and he wasn't too keen on setting traps for his employees.
"Your workload hasn't been too heavy lately, has it?" the team leader asked.
When a nasty boss asked this, it was probably a trap—a way to criticize an employee. But coming from him, it might not have any hidden meaning at all.
Still, it was hard to get used to seeing someone with a dog's head say something like that.
"Not at all. Besides, the work is all helping me improve myself." Zhang Anzai wore a professional fake smile.
"I like that attitude. Excellent employees have a higher level of awareness and a good attitude." The team leader paused, then added, "Since you're not too busy, I have an opportunity here that could help you improve. It's a small matter over in the Human Resources Department. They need you to go over and hand something off. If you don't have anything else to do, you can go now."
The Dog-Head Team Leader calmly passed off another department's request as a perk he'd arranged for his employee.
"Really?" Zhang Anzai perked up at the mention of Human Resources, then quickly suppressed his excitement.
It wasn't that he was trying to appear calm. It was just that Human Resources handled more than promotions here, so they might have called him in for something else.
"Thank you for letting me know. I'll head over now," Zhang Anzai replied evenly.
The Dog-Head Team Leader raised his thermos and nodded. "Go ahead. Keep up this good momentum."
Zhang Anzai quietly left the office, muttering, "So soon?"
He returned to his seat, tidied up the files on his computer, and transferred them to his phone.
Lin Zhao turned to him and asked, "Anzai, what did he want?"
As he typed, Zhang Anzai replied, "He put on a show of praising me, but the main thing is that Human Resources wants to see me."
"Human Resources?" Lin Zhao looked surprised.
Zhang Anzai sighed helplessly. "I wish it were a promotion, too, but I think it's probably about that player."
"Oh..." Lin Zhao nodded.
Human Resources handled the files of both company employees and players.
If the Archives Department recorded information about dungeons and dungeon monsters, then Human Resources recorded all kinds of information about employees and players.
The two departments were also grouped together, apparently under the same director, the Information Director.
After gathering his things, Zhang Anzai took his phone and some paper documents and headed over to Human Resources.
There weren't many employees here. Like the Logistics Department, it was divided into sections.
That made sense. Even if they had a lot of information to process, electronic equipment meant they didn't need a huge staff.
"Administrator 01 from Team 7? Turn right. The Player Records Section is there. Deputy Section Chief Cheng is waiting for you."
Following the receptionist's directions, Zhang Anzai turned toward the independent office of the Player Records Section's deputy chief.
As soon as he entered, his first thought was that there was hardly anywhere to step.
It wasn't exactly messy. Not a single player file had been tossed carelessly on the floor; they were all tucked into box-shaped folders. There were just so many of them, and quite a few were stacked upright on the floor.
"Knock, knock, knock." Zhang Anzai rapped on the open door, then looked at the deputy section chief working at his desk and couldn't help sighing, "People really are incomparable... Look at this boss."
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