After Shen Yu dealt with the ticking time bomb in Central Headquarters, he began his work for the day.
Employee duties:
Visit D-02-107 Bodi's Containment Room and pet the dog-Instinct.
Work log: The fur was smooth, but Bodi wasn't as cute as Little Knight. I couldn't understand those employees. Maybe it was the effect of [Hornet's Protection], but whenever I thought of Bodi's musclebound form, I just... um...
Enter T-02-43 Spider Bud's Containment Room, then beat up spiders-Repression.
Work log: According to the management guidelines, someone with Prudence Level I like me should trigger an instant-death mechanic after finishing work.
Maybe it was because Little Knight and I had beaten Spider Bud up in the mental space before, but Spider Bud behaved very well now. Stayed overhead the whole time, even wrapping those eyes in silk thread.
The little spiders felt pretty satisfying to hit. Maybe we could turn it into a company sport.
Explain company rules and regulations to Little Red Riding Hood-Repression.
Log: Just like in the game, Little Red Riding Hood really disliked Repression Work. Every time I used the Call Sign Device to speak into her headset, she came running over to try to smack me.
But with the blindfold blocking her vision, and Little Knight there, she couldn't hit me. Right, next up was rule 9,516: As an exemplary employee...
Visit the Snow Queen's Containment Room and carve ice sculptures-Insight (improve the environment of the Abnormality's containment unit).
Work log: 1. Couldn't talk, but was so fucking demanding. Kept stuffing information about ice sculptures into my head, then making me find suitable pieces to carve in a pile of ice chips.
2. The Containment Room was freezing. Maybe I could stuff Flame Sparrow in there someday.
Manager duties:
Anglerfish escaped again, but Little Red Riding Hood's counter didn't drop. Good. Looks like my plan was right.
But that tree has already grown its second flower bud. I'll have to find time to chop it down.
The Old Lady and Spider Bud created afterward had fairly normal output. The expected drop in production didn't happen. Maybe they could recover on their own.
In the future, when I take Little Knight out to devour Abnormalities, I can leave a little behind and pursue sustainable development. Except for things like that tree and the giant baby.
I had Angela massage my shoulders. Surprisingly, she didn't refuse. But I kept getting chills down my back. Better stick to having her run errands from now on.
"Wu Ke, take this document to the Security Department." Malkuth handed him a stack of documents.
"Sure." Wu Ke nodded to the department head, took the documents, and jogged off, thinking as he went.
The Security Department... the company's only surviving Level V employee was there, right? His name was Ron or something.
Suddenly, Wu Ke remembered something. He stopped dead and stared in horror at the containment unit ahead.
O-03-89 [Data Deleted]
"Phew." Wu Ke exhaled, freed one hand to wipe the cold sweat from his forehead, and decisively turned around to take a detour.
Along the way, Wu Ke patted his chest, silently thanking his lucky stars.
Good thing I remembered in time. One look at that damn thing would drive any employee below Level V insane.
He had asked those Level V veterans back when they were still alive, but they couldn't describe it at all. They always said things like words and language weren't worthy of conveying it.
And if a low-level employee like him received orders to visit that Containment Room, there was only one possible outcome-becoming a little snack.
Out of courtesy, Wu Ke knocked on the Security Department's half-open door and stood up straight.
With a creak, the reinforced door swung open, revealing a man wearing Pink Slime Armor that gave off a sickening stench.
His face was sallow, his cheeks sunken enough to outline the bones beneath. His pupils were dilated and unfocused amid bloodshot eyes. His thin lips hung slightly open, murmuring unintelligible words as green liquid trickled from the corner of his mouth.
He swayed unsteadily, holding a half-full bottle of green liquid in his left hand. A bloodstained Amethyst Silver Necklace was wrapped around his wrist. His right hand was tightly bound in thick yellow cloth strips.
Wu Ke involuntarily stepped back, glancing out of the corner of his eye at the ALEPH-Class E.G.O. sealed beneath the cloth-CENSORED (Data Deleted).
"What, you want a look?" Ron's mouth twitched. The glass bottle clattered to the floor, and he grabbed the cloth with his left hand.
"No, no. These are documents from the Control Department. I'll be going now." Wu Ke shoved the entire stack at him, then immediately turned and left.
Ron looked down at the scattered documents and tried to pick them up, but they began twisting and swaying in his vision. The edges of the top sheet started dissolving, then melted and warped like molten plastic, curling into filthy CENSORED.
Then more documents began changing color, one after another. Some curled and shriveled like dead leaves; others blackened around the edges like burned old photographs. The white papers scattered across the floor turned into writhing fragments of ashen gray and dirty black.
The text began twisting and spinning. Letters and numbers tangled together before finally turning into densely packed insect burrows, from which bizarrely shaped CENSORED crawled out.
Finally, all the documents warped into dark red and deep black ██, giving off the metallic stink of blood. An Amethyst Silver Necklace hung from one of the "██" as it rolled and squirmed across the floor, covered in blood and grime.
Ah, ah... just like yesterday. Ron's mouth hung open as he sank into his memories.
Yesterday, the roulette had selected her. He knew it was against the rules, but he had chased after her anyway, rushing into [CENSORED]'s containment unit.
Then he had watched her get torn apart alive, something other than flesh and blood spilling from inside her. After that, the Abnormality had truly begun to act.
"CENSORED" began turning into "CENSORED"...
"CENSORED" had just crawled out of "CENSORED"'s "CENSORED"... and "CENSORED" screamed like "CENSORED"... that wailing was so familiar, just like "CENSORED"...
In the end, he had taken the necklace off a writhing mass of CENSORED on the floor and all but crawled out of the Containment Room.
He should have been disposed of, but because he was the only Level V employee left, he had survived after undergoing psychological treatment that came close to wiping his memories.
Yet he could never forget that memory. It was as though it had been carved into his brain.
"Heh heh..." Ron chuckled softly as he lay on the floor, licking up the spilled Enkephalin, hoping it would let him forget that memory, even for an instant.
Holy shit, the only Level V employee is in that state? What if he screws up at work and lets that damn thing escape? No, I've got to get out of here today.
Thinking this, Wu Ke hurried back to the Control Department and addressed the department head:
"Ma'am, I'm not in a good mental state today, and it might affect my work. I'd like to request a day off."
"Are you sure?" Malkuth stopped writing and looked at him with her metal eyes.
"Today is another important day. Employees taking leave will lower the department's overall performance. Still, if you're unwell, there's nothing we can do. Would you like me to approve an 'extended leave'?"
"No need. I feel much better now," Wu Ke replied immediately, then turned and fled the meeting room.
When Shen Yu returned after finishing his Insight Work with the Snow Queen, he saw Wu Ke leaning beside T-09-82 (Shelter from the 27th of March), resting with his eyes closed.
"What are you doing here?" Shen Yu asked curiously.
"Nothing. Enjoying the scenery," Wu Ke said casually, staring up at the ceiling.
"Enjoying the scenery?" Shen Yu turned to look at the corridor's peeling paint, then thought for a moment before saying:
"Perfect timing. I'm going back to the break room to lie down for a bit. I'll let the department head know how you're doing while I'm there, so she won't worry."
"Don't!" Wu Ke immediately stopped him. After looking around to make sure no one was nearby, he pulled Shen Yu aside and crouched down with him.
"Fine, I'll tell you the truth. You know that thing in the Security Department whose name you're not even allowed to say?"
"You mean [CENSORED] (Data Deleted)?"
"Yeah, that thing," Wu Ke exclaimed. "Listen, any employee below Level V goes insane if they see it, and our company only has one Level V employee left, in the Security Department."
"Doesn't that mean we've still got one?"
"Bullshit! That guy's gone nuts from taking Enkephalin. How the hell is he supposed to work? I bet once a meltdown hits, that damn thing will escape and slaughter everyone in the company.
"You're lucky, kid. The department head's pretty lenient with new employees. Take my advice: ask her for leave and get out of here. Otherwise, just kill yourself. It's better than getting caught by that thing."
"Surely it won't come to that," Shen Yu reassured him. "Enkephalin's effects are limited. He'll recover after a while. Besides, with so many containment units, what are the odds that [Data Deleted]'s Containment Room will be the one to have a Meltdown?"
Just as Shen Yu was talking to him, an employee entered the Old Lady's containment unit, triggering the second round of meltdowns. The Security Department's [Data Deleted] Containment Room was among them.
According to the setting, whenever an employee entered an Abnormality's containment unit and activated its consciousness, the Abnormality produced an energy called Qliphoth.
Once this energy reached a certain threshold, it would destroy the Containment Room's Abnormality Suppressor, allowing the Abnormality to escape. It could also manifest some of the "fragments" produced when extracting Abnormalities.
But this was way too much of a coincidence. Out of all those Containment Rooms, why did it have to pick this one? Was my luck really that rotten?
Calm down. According to the story, as long as an employee's psychological stress stayed below 80%, they could still work. All I had to do was resolve the Containment Room's Meltdown and keep the suppressor from failing.
Then Shen Yu controlled X to open Ron's employee file and pull up the psychological stress section. The red box clearly displayed:
Psychological stress level: 99.25%
Does your company's system not issue warnings for dangerous readings at all?
Before you continue