An unusual recruitment plan

"Manager," Angela reminded him, "I can check the containment unit surveillance at any time. There is no point in doing this."

"No, no, I was just swatting a mosquito." The manager gave an awkward laugh, pulled over a chair, and sat down.

"Manager, I am only your assistant. If you are certain of your decision, I will not interfere excessively. However..."

Angela abruptly opened her eyes. "If your behavior becomes so abnormal that it threatens the company, we will have to carry out a lengthy correction, and you will risk dismissal."

At that, X took a deep breath and looked over the entire company, scanning every containment unit in turn. After considering what lay ahead, he finally reached a conclusion.

Then I'd better act a little more abnormal.

"I'm done." Shen Yu rubbed his face and complained to the Little Knight, who had settled down in his arms:

"Why did you slash Old Skull? That one's among the few genuinely friendly abnormalities in the company. Sure, the holy light and aura are a little like Radiance's, but you shouldn't have just attacked."

But the Little Knight couldn't speak and simply stared ahead with blank eyes, slowly swinging the Nail as though recalling how it had felt.

Shen Yu then went to the employee lounge, set the Little Knight down beside him, and collapsed onto the sofa.

While resting, Shen Yu happened to notice an employee wearing Penitence watching him with pursed lips.

The other Control Department employees were also shooting him looks from time to time.

The worst offenders were a Level IV Employee wearing TETH-class Red Eyes and a Level II Employee wearing ZAYIN-class Delicious Soda.

They stared so hard at his HE-class E.G.O., Frost Shard, that Shen Yu could practically feel their jealousy taking physical form.

Shen Yu understood perfectly. At this point, even a Level IV Employee like Harvey only had HE-class E.G.O.

For a currently Level I employee like him to be wearing equipment like this was bound to provoke jealousy.

But why don't you mention how you swing your E.G.O. around like clubs, without drawing out any of its potential? What a complete waste.

Besides, I'm already this exhausted. What's wrong with wearing HE-class E.G.O.?

As far as Shen Yu was concerned, he was genuinely working two jobs now.

One involved physical labor as an employee; the other involved managing those outrageous abnormalities as the manager.

This left him extremely prone to mental exhaustion. He had intended to perform Insight work on Old Skull to improve his mental attributes, but the Little Knight had immediately blasted the abnormality and thrown in several Nail strikes for good measure.

From what he had seen so far, a bad work result would get him attacked by an abnormality. Attacks like holy light couldn't be avoided, but against purely physical, melee attacks, he could try using the Little Knight to evade them.

If he wanted to take on Godhome, increasing his health was the top priority. But that was a major problem right now. The company's containment units were distributed as follows.

Control Department: [Old Skull], [Bodi], [Old Lady], [You're Bald]

Intelligence Department: [Spider Nest], [Soda Machine], [Land-Dwelling Anglerfish], [Heart of Aspiration]

Training Team: [Nameless Fetus], [Singing Machine], [Snow Queen], [Shelter from March 27th]

Security Department: [Plague Doctor], [The Parasite Tree], [Data Deleted], [The Train to Hell]

Central Headquarters: [Little Red Riding Hooded Mercenary], [Big and Might Be Bad Wolf].

The fastest way to improve was to work with high-risk abnormalities.

But with his current Level I Fortitude, his chances of succeeding at work with [Little Red Riding Hood] or [Snow Queen] were extremely low.

As for abnormalities like [Singing Machine] and [Nameless Fetus], he couldn't go anywhere near them.

[Data Deleted], however, was an oddity, offering extremely high success rates to low-level employees. Unfortunately, those employees would go insane the instant they saw the abnormality, making work impossible.

And he happened to have [Hornet's Protection], which made him immune to fear levels. Perhaps...

Just as Shen Yu was considering this, someone approached.

"Hello, I'm Wu Ke."

Wu...? Shen Yu nearly choked on his own saliva. He coughed, opened his eyes, and looked ahead.

A brown leather jacket lay over a pristine white shirt, paired with dark jeans and pointed leather shoes. Beneath brown sunglasses, a perfectly measured smile revealed a mouthful of white teeth.

At his waist was one badass Loloch handgun! It could easily shoot down a helicopter! (Note: taken from the equipment description.)

Yet the most eye-catching feature was that bald head, shining like a light bulb!

At the sight, a voice involuntarily rang out in Shen Yu's mind.

Bald heads-are just-awesome!

"Uh, hello." Shen Yu reached out and shook his hand, glancing at the Level II marking on his name badge.

Apparently noticing his gaze, Wu Ke pushed up his glasses, turned, and sat down beside Shen Yu. With a couple of chuckles, he explained:

"Don't let my low level and low-grade E.G.O. fool you. The whole company depends on me to watch its back."

Shen Yu sat up at that and asked tentatively:

"Can you manifest E.G.O. too?"

"Huh?" Wu Ke looked utterly baffled.

"What the hell is E.G.O. manifestation? Have those old-era novels rotted your brain? I mean, without me, everyone in the company would go bald."

At this, Wu Ke's smile widened again. "See those bald high-level employees? They ended up like that because I wasn't here. You ought to thank me properly for keeping your hair."

Just then, a Level IV Employee in emerald-green E.G.O., with a long crossbow wrapped in vines on his back, was listening to some clerks chatting in the distance. He rubbed his bald head, shot a displeased glance toward Shen Yu, and gave a quiet snort.

"Hmph. Birds of a feather. What a waste of that E.G.O."

The bald Level IV employee eyed the E.G.O. forged from ice and snow with displeasure. He had only gotten his hands on HE-class E.G.O. after fighting his way up to a high level.

If all but one of the previous Level V employees hadn't died, how could this WAW-class E.G.O. ever have fallen to him? Yet now a Level I employee was wearing HE-class gear right off the bat.

Hmph. What, can you somehow work miracles with E.G.O.? The bald Level IV employee looked at Shen Yu with scorn.

"All right, then, Mr. Wu Ke. Why are you interested in an ordinary guy like me?" Shen Yu asked the bald Level II employee before him helplessly.

"Because you aren't ordinary."

Shen Yu's heart tightened at that. Could he be some hidden powerhouse?

"This is the first time I've seen anyone get a bad result working with Old Skull. Sure, there's an element of chance, but getting just one point? Your luck is truly something else. Don't worry, I'll watch your back from now on."

Shen Yu: "..."

Realizing he wouldn't get any rest, Shen Yu stood up, said goodbye to Wu Ke, and left the lounge with the Little Knight in his arms.

Although the company could still barely function, he had to resolve the problem posed by that "golden duo."

Otherwise, he could work himself to death doing overtime, only for those two to come out and force an immediate restart.

Fortunately, according to the files, one of them could communicate normally and had a strong desire to deal with emergencies.

With the Little Knight here as well, perhaps he could try out that idea. If it failed, restarting now would still be better than doing it later.

As Shen Yu's main body was about to enter the containment unit, his duplicate X, back in the office, found an excuse to send Angela away and then cut off surveillance for that unit.

Carrying the Little Knight, Shen Yu found the elevator, went to Central Headquarters, and entered the newly opened containment unit. He addressed the abnormality inside:

"Ma'am, would you be interested in joining Lobotomy Corporation?"