Manager
Lobotomy Corporation: The Combat Manager's Ultimate Knight
Biodata
| Feature | Value |
|---|---|
| Name | Manager |
| Original Name | 主管 |
| Type | Corporate title |
| Affiliation | Lobotomy Corporation |
| Occupation/Role | Oversees Abnormality containment, employee assignments, and Enkephalin production 1 14. |
| Current Holder | Shen Yu; his light Doppelganger, X, performs office duties while his original body works as an employee 6 17. |
| Previous Holder(s) | An unnamed predecessor; Shen Yu also mentions earlier Managers 14 15. |
| First Appearance | Chapter 1 1. |
Power Progression
The documented changes below concern the Manager’s administrative clearance, not Shen Yu’s combat rank.
| Stage / Realm / Level | Chapter | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Initial Manager clearance | 1 2 | Allows employee summons and room lockdowns, but is insufficient to revoke Angela’s surveillance and dispatch privileges. |
| Departmental surveillance access | 9 16 | X can delete departmental recordings but cannot tamper with office surveillance. Angela states that, without memory synchronization, his clearance should not permit the deletion of her exclusive backups. |
| Root authority; nine departments unlocked | 43 | X enters rootAuthority = true;, concealed in A’s letter. The system restarts with nine departments unlocked, including Research and Development; access to the Script remains unavailable. |
Responsibilities and Authority
Abnormality Management
The Manager directs work with Abnormalities and maintains energy production while preventing containment breaches 1 14.
- Assigns employees to work according to their attributes and each Abnormality’s management requirements 14 15.
- Monitors Qliphoth Meltdowns, containment counters, energy output, and employee psychological stress 19.
- Coordinates suppression efforts during Trials and containment emergencies 25 28.
- Can arrange containment equipment and negotiate employment terms with an Abnormality, as Shen Yu does with Little Red Riding Hood 18.
Personnel and Equipment
- Summons employees directly to the Manager’s office 2.
- Adds employee records, assigns departments, changes E.G.O. equipment, and spends LOB Points on employee training 14.
- Issues individual orders and company-wide announcements 22 30.
- Orders overtime to improve employee attributes even after the energy quota has been met 30.
- Approves the restart of Hod’s Psychological Counseling Project 18 23.
Discipline
The office carries substantial disciplinary power, although other company authorities can also threaten the Manager’s position 17.
- The predecessor used Execution Bullets and treated employees as expendable resources, according to Terry’s recollections 2.
- Shen Yu denies Ted’s request to vivisect his employee body, orders his release, and demotes Ted to work with Wu Ke managing Bald Ball 21.
- Shen Yu orders Vic to clean the entire company alone after Vic attempts to prevent him from taking lunch 22.
- Angela identifies a department head’s violation of the Manager’s orders as a particularly serious offense 30.
Restrictions and Risks
| Restriction or Risk | Effect |
|---|---|
| Angela’s independent clearance | The Manager cannot simply remove her surveillance and dispatch privileges 2. |
| Office surveillance | X cannot directly tamper with recordings from the Manager’s office 9. |
| Emergency lockdowns | During the Amber Trial, even the Manager cannot open sealed routes to rest and food areas to relocate employees 25. |
| Correction and dismissal | Angela warns that behavior threatening the company can result in lengthy correction and possible dismissal 17. |
| Cognitive Filter failure | Direct exposure to [Data Deleted] drives the predecessor into a mental breakdown, producing chaotic orders and widespread casualties 2 10. |
| Memory loss on restarting | Shen Yu fears that beginning another run would erase his memories, making a restart unsafe for him 1. |
| The Script | Root authority does not grant X access to the Script 43. |
| Seed of Light’s intended outcome | Shen Yu understands that the original Script requires Core Suppression and ultimately leads to the Manager fading away 30. |
Background / History
Before Shen Yu
Employees remember the previous Manager as cold, efficient, and primarily concerned with collecting energy. Terry recalls emergency exits remaining closed while employees were killed, and summons frequently ending in disappearance. Even Level V employees were expendable when circumstances demanded it 2.
The predecessor’s Cognitive Filter failed during the previous cycle, exposing him to [Data Deleted]. His resulting breakdown caused confused assignments, including Insight work on Spider Bud that left employees trapped inside its mental space. The Day 20 memory repository had already been overwritten after Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf were selected, leaving Shen Yu to inherit that arrangement 2 10 14.
Shen Yu’s Dual Role
Shen Yu arrives in the Manager’s office with no responsive system to assist him. Recognizing the danger of the role’s expected ending, he begins seeking a way to survive through the Little Knight’s powers 1.
After learning to divide his light-form body, he leaves a Doppelganger named X in the office and enters the facility as a new employee. Both bodies initially share one consciousness, allowing him to manage the company while personally investigating and fighting its threats. He describes the arrangement as working two jobs and suffers considerable mental exhaustion 6 17 30.
His explanations that the Manager created the Little Knight through Cogito serve as a cover story, not a confirmed account of the Knight’s origin. Harvey accepts the story and supports the supposed plan 6 7 13.
Exposure and Expanded Access
X’s use of Hornet’s combat techniques to protect Yesod, Hod, and Malkuth gives Yesod evidence linking the Manager to employee S1111-Shen Yu. Yesod subsequently conceals the connection through edited surveillance and orders employees not to discuss Shen Yu’s techniques 25 28 29.
Later, X receives a letter from CEO A containing a hidden root-authority command. Executing it unlocks nine departments and opens the route to Research and Development, where Shen Yu seeks Cogito 43.
Key Relationships
- Angela — The Manager’s assistant. She handles arrangements and monitoring, but retains authority Shen Yu cannot initially override and can recommend correction or dismissal 2 14 17.
- Yesod — Intelligence Department head and covert ally. He discovers Shen Yu’s dual identity, conceals footage, and provides an unmonitored dormitory 28 29 30.
- Malkuth — Control Department head. She disregards the Manager’s suppression orders during the Amber Trial; Shen Yu nevertheless asks Angela to give her another chance 25 30.
- Hod — Training Team head. The Manager restarts her counseling project and supports her after Little Red Riding Hood’s treatment fails 18 24.
- Netzach — Security Department head. Shen Yu asks him to curb Enkephalin abuse and offers to guarantee no deaths in his department 14.
- A — Lobotomy Corporation’s CEO. His letter praises the new Manager and supplies the hidden command that expands X’s access 43.