By the time Shen Yu's main body reached the Conference Room, it was already packed. Holding the Little Knight, he followed Wu Ke to a seat at the very back.
Their department head stood below the podium, constantly leafing through her Memo.
All the employees whispered among themselves, a babble of voices rising and falling. Their department head remained silent, however, making no attempt to order them quiet as she had before.
Unable to contain himself, Shen Yu controlled his duplicate and asked Angela:
"Angela, what are we going there for?"
Angela kept walking as she answered:
"Manager, Malkuth violated your orders today. You must understand that this is the gravest of errors. We must discipline her."
Discipline? Shen Yu couldn't help frowning. Given that Malkuth valued her work even above her own life, publicly condemning her mistakes would be nothing short of a psychological death sentence.
"Angela," Shen Yu said through his duplicate, "Malkuth and the Control Department have been under enough pressure today. Perhaps we should give them another chance."
Angela stopped and turned to look at the Manager.
"Manager, we must impose punishment before matters become serious, lest they cause even greater harm."
"Besides..." Angela suddenly opened her eyes and looked at X. "This meeting concerns your future as well."
In the original script, Core Suppression was a prerequisite for the seed of light to germinate. After enduring those harsh trials and reaching the end, his only fate as the Manager was to fade away.
But I have the Little Knight and Godhome.
Once I raise my level of existence to that of an ancient god in Godhome, or reach a level where I can beat the crap out of an ALEPH, I'll dismantle your damn TT2, release the seed of light, then smash through the wall and leave.
At that point, even Jesus won't be able to keep me here.
Shen Yu's main body chuckled and looked toward the passage on his left.
As the click of high heels sounded at the entrance, someone called out a warning. The entire Conference Room instantly fell silent.
Angela walked in slowly. She swept an expressionless gaze over the room, mounted the podium, and addressed Malkuth below.
"Malkuth, you should have maintained order before our arrival."
"I'm sorry." Malkuth bent forward, her central mechanical eye trembling as she stared at the floor, her mechanical arm rubbing against her Memo.
Then Angela turned and opened the meeting records.
"In accordance with company regulations, we have convened this emergency meeting today to discuss Malkuth, head of the Control Department," Angela said evenly. "According to the records, Department Head Malkuth committed several serious derelictions of duty today."
At the words "derelictions of duty," Malkuth's mechanical body actually shuddered. Angela continued nonetheless:
"First, she failed to adjust the Control Department's Suppressors, rendering them completely ineffective at suppressing Abnormalities.
"Second, and most importantly, she violated the Manager's orders by dispatching employees to suppress a trial without authorization. Had the Manager not directed operations properly and provided timely assistance, every employee in the Control Department would have been wiped out.
"Third..." Angela turned to look down at Malkuth. "This sudden meltdown was caused by Quincy, an employee in your department."
Malkuth looked up at Angela in shock and immediately challenged her:
"Impossible! Every employee in my department is outstanding. They would never make a mistake like that!"
"Unfortunately, that is the truth." Angela braced her hands on the desk, looked at the assembled employees, and slowly began:
"I know there is a rumor circulating in the company: if you drink the soda produced by [F-05-52] (Soda Machine) after a bad work result, you can escape the company."
"But I have some unfortunate news for you." At Angela's command, two employees slowly carried in a white box and placed it on the stage.
One of the employees bent down and slowly unlocked the box.
Almost everyone present craned forward, staring wide-eyed at its contents, their hearts pounding.
The instant the white box opened, they saw that it was filled with sea salt. In the center lay a human body dressed in the purple E.G.O. Delicious Soda, with a name tag on one side of his chest that read "Quincy."
A radiant smile bloomed across his face, but his body had shriveled from dehydration.
In the deathly silence, Angela slowly explained:
"When you drink the soda produced after a bad work result, you are not transported to a ship at sea. Instead, Big Shrimp stuffs you inside Soda Machine.
"You then suffer severe meme contamination and enter a beautiful dream of sailing from which you will never awaken."
At this, Angela opened her eyes slightly and swept her gaze over the crowd.
"We extracted that Abnormality's employee records from his brain using machinery. If he had truly escaped, how could we have obtained those records?"
Once Angela finished, the excited pounding of their hearts instantly subsided, giving way to gloom. Some even slumped over the desks and chairs and began to cry.
At that moment, Shen Yu remembered a saying:
"No employee has ever truly escaped this company."
As for that dream he'll never wake from... since it's a dream, the Little Knight should be able to break it with the Dream Nail. Since I can make up the S-rank evaluation later, there's no need to restart.
Angela paid the others no heed. Instead, she looked at Malkuth and slowly continued:
"Malkuth, the consequences of your impatience are growing steadily worse. Even with your work schedule filled to the brim, you still neglect one thing while attending to another..."
"I believe we may need to replace the head of the Control Department."
With a clatter, Malkuth's Memo fell to the floor. Having made her announcement, Angela turned and headed straight for the door, with Shen Yu's duplicate following her out.
After she left, the Control Department employees turned to one another and began talking, their voices once again flooding the Conference Room.
One employee said, barely concealing his delight, "Did you hear that? We might be getting a new department head!"
"Don't celebrate too soon. What if the next one's even worse?"
"Worse? Nobody could be worse than her. I don't want to get shot over a single mistake."
"Fuck, we finally won't have to follow those damned Rules of Conduct!"
All the employees chattered noisily, rejoicing.
Wu Ke took out a USB Drive, threw it to the floor, then stomped on it several times until it was completely crushed.
Seeing this, Shen Yu patted the excited Wu Ke and warned him:
"Don't join in. She won't be replaced."
"What?" Wu Ke's beaming expression instantly crumpled, and he asked in a tearful voice:
"Why didn't you say so sooner?"
Then he bent down and gathered the fragments of the USB Drive in trembling hands, screaming inwardly, How fucking long is it going to take to rewrite all this?!
Shen Yu looked at the dazed Malkuth onstage and reminded Wu Ke beside him:
"Get some extra sleep tonight. Tomorrow's work will be tough. Oh, and you'll have a new junior tomorrow. Make sure you teach him."
Soon, the employees ignored their department head up front and left, laughing and chatting among themselves.
Malkuth turned and stared blankly at the smiling body in the box, only to hear an unexpected voice:
"Department Head, you dropped something," Shen Yu reminded her, picking up the Memo from the floor and returning it.
"You're Employee S1..." Malkuth abruptly stopped halfway through. Her metal eye shifted, as though she were desperately trying to remember.
"My name is Shen Yu." He placed the Memo back in her hand and sighed.
"Department Head, perhaps you should try remembering the employees' names, like Yesod does."
Malkuth raised her head and watched Shen Yu walk away, murmuring to herself:
"Remember the employees' names? Did he... ever remember my name...?"
By then, Food Chain from the Dusk Trial had been suppressed, and the energy quota for the 21st Cycle had been met ahead of schedule.
While all the employees cheerfully discussed their upcoming break, the Manager's icy command came through.
"Overtime."
"What the hell? Is the Manager a fucking idiot?! We've already met the energy quota. What damn overtime do we need?" Wu Ke pointed at the speaker overhead and cursed.
Shen Yu coughed a few times. Then another order from the Manager came through the speaker:
"One, the purpose of overtime is to improve employee stats.
"Two, effective immediately, Employee L5291 (Wu Ke) will be responsible for cleaning the March 27th Shelter."
"Holy shit." After looking around in panic, Wu Ke pulled Shen Yu close and whispered:
"Did that bastard Manager plant listening devices in the Control Department?"
"I don't think so," Shen Yu replied. "But if you don't get going, you'll probably be responsible for cleaning the entire Control Department."
At 11:30, work for the 21st Time Cycle finally ended.
The most exhausted person among them was not an employee, but a certain Manager working two jobs.
"Shen Yu, we're off work. Aren't you leaving?" Wu Ke shook him in reminder.
"Stop shaking me. Let me lie here a little longer, okay?" Shen Yu lay sprawled over the desk like a puddle of mud. It took another half hour before he straightened up.
During that time, Shen Yu also learned the details of his promotion from his duplicate:
[Shen Yu] I → V Fortitude: 5, HP: 20 → 96 Prudence: 5, SP: 29 → 100 Temperance: 5, success rate: 29 → 99 Justice: 5, work speed: 29 → 99
Fuck, at least all that work wasn't for nothing, Shen Yu thought. He contacted Yesod through his employee wristwatch and asked:
"Yesod, could you help me create a space Angela can't monitor?"
The moment Shen Yu finished speaking, Yesod answered:
"Employee Dormitory No. 1892. I've already modified the surveillance cameras inside. They will only upload edited footage, rather than a live feed.
"Also, you'll be the only person in that dormitory. Don't worry. I contacted the relevant department and handled it through the proper channels. It won't come under scrutiny."
"Viper, you're fucking amazing. Let's hang out next time." After voicing his admiration, Shen Yu ended the call, picked up the case of E.G.O. beside him, and walked out of the Rest Room, taking the Little Knight with him.
Yesod sighed at his words. The Manager had changed far too much after his Cogito injection. Still, it seemed... rather nice.
Carrying a wooden case marked with warning signs, Shen Yu entered the dormitory Yesod had specified and immediately locked the door. He opened both cases and changed into the WAW-class E.G.O.-Crimson Scar.
Then he checked the Frost Shard's details following the resonance:
[Frost Shard] [F-01-37] Snow Queen attunement rate: 10% → 20% E.G.O. germination: customize E.G.O. template appearance
The preparations are finally more or less complete. Next, I need to go to Godhome and get stronger. Otherwise, I'll have no way to resist this "living" company.
Shen Yu strapped the Ice Crystal Spear to his back and, with the Little Knight's help, entered Godhome once more through the Godtuner.
Within the boundless void, the Godseeker's voice rang out again:
(Lalabis) "Thou hast labored well, returning with three E.G.O. Enter the Master Shrine and shed thy mortal form."
Before you continue