The tug-of-war over office space and the soft exclusion of new blood by the old guard

The meeting room door closed behind them, completely shutting out the slightly relaxed atmosphere that had arisen from the compromise reached.

Lynn returned to her office.

The White Bone Hall remained as spacious and solemn as ever.

He picked up the tea that had gone cold from the table, brought it to his lips, and then put it down again.

Gwen Stacy followed behind him, holding a Data Pad, her expression even more serious than in the conference room.

"Director, what about the Personnel Department...?"

Gwen Stacy's voice was low, carrying a hint of barely perceptible unease.

"There isn't a single empty office on this floor of the White Bone Hall."

Lynn looked at her without saying a word.

One job, problem solved.

A new problem has arisen.

This was expected.

Personnel appointments are political issues; once the general direction is set, those below cannot openly oppose it.

However, office space is a logistical issue, a matter of resource allocation. There are many intricacies involved in this.

"Pull up the office area layout map for each department," Lynn instructed.

Gwen Stacy immediately operated the Data Pad, and a detailed Three-Dimensional Structure Diagram of the White Bone Hall was projected in front of Lynn.

The Director's Office occupies the most central position.

Adjacent to it on the left and right are the auxiliary offices of the Stability Maintenance Office and the Technology Integration Department, respectively, to ensure rapid coordination between the two core departments and the Command Center.

Further out are the Liaison Office, the newly established Internal Affairs Inspection Office, and other second-line departments.

The entire layout is clearly defined, resembling a visual chart of a power structure.

Lynn's gaze fell on the room next to his office, the one with the sign that read "Stability Maintenance Office - Mobile Combat Readiness Room".

The location is excellent, and the size is ample.

What is this room used for now?

"It's Director Hela's tactical simulation room and personal equipment storage room," Gwen Stacy replied quickly. "Usage frequency... not high."

Lynn pointed his finger at the room in the air.

"Draft a coordination letter, in the name of the Director's Office, requesting the Stability Maintenance Office to vacate this room and use it as a temporary office for the newly appointed Special Envoy."

"Yes." Gwen Stacy nodded, but there was no sign of relief on her face.

She was well aware of the kind of response she would receive to this letter of coordination.

Half an hour later, Jean Grey's official appointment document was distributed to various departments through the Liaison Office.

This newly appointed "Multiverse Crisis Response Special Envoy" has, in name, become a senior official of the Management Committee.

At almost the same time, Jean Grey herself also submitted her first formal application.

The application was simple: I wanted a private office in the core administrative area of the White Bone Hall, so that I could report to the Director at any time and deal with any emergencies.

The application was written in a humble tone and with sufficient reasons.

But the suggested location she included was the "Mobile Combat Readiness Room" right next to Lynn's office.

According to procedure, this application first needs to be transferred to the competent department in the region— the Stability Maintenance Office.

Gwen Stacy submitted the application to Lynn for review.

Lynn glanced at it, then signed the document with the words "Proceed according to the prescribed procedures" and sent it away.

He kicked the ball to Hela's feet in a proper manner.

The response from the Stability Maintenance Office came faster than expected.

The application was rejected in less than ten minutes.

The above is Hela's concise and elegant reply.

"Turn down."

The reasons are clearly stated and irrefutable.

"This area is classified as Class A safety depth, but the addition of High-Energy Reactive Entity office does not meet building load-bearing and emergency evacuation safety standards. The assessment indicates the risk level is too high."

Every word violates the provisions of the Management Committee's Safety Regulations.

This is an open strategy.

You can't say she's wrong, because every word she says conforms to the rules.

Gwen Stacy took the rejected application and went to Lynn again.

"Director, the opinion of the Stability Maintenance Office."

Lynn took it, glanced at it, and her expression remained unchanged.

"Since the Stability Maintenance Office has security concerns, let's go with the second option," he said calmly. "Transfer the application to the Department of Technology and see if we can coordinate a technical support office from them."

On the other side of Lynn's office is the Core Server array maintenance area of Department of Technology. There are also several spare offices there.

Gwen Stacy sighed inwardly, turned and left to continue following the procedure.

She knew that this was simply a matter of moving the ball from one foot to the other.

The Department of Technology's response was slower than that of the Stability Maintenance Office.

It took a full hour.

The application was also rejected.

Minister Wanda's reply was more detailed and technical than Hela's.

"Approval denied. Simulation calculations show that the applicant's biomagnetic Magnetic Field characteristics are extremely unique. Prolonged close contact could cause irreversible interference to the stability of the underlying data on the Core Server due to the unintentionally emitted high-energy particle stream. To ensure the security of the ' S.H.I.E.L.D. Protocol ' system, it is not recommended to establish an office in this area."

The report also included a lengthy energy interference model analysis, spanning over ten pages.

The data is detailed and the logic is rigorous.

Equally flawless.

The Stability Maintenance Office talks about security, Department of Technology talks about technology.

The two heads of core departments have reached a rare and highly tacit united front on the issue of excluding newcomers.

They didn't even bother to hide it.

While rejecting the application, the two departments also jointly submitted a "thoughtful" supplementary proposal.

It is recommended that the new Special Envoy's office be located at the Delta-9 Forward Observation Station, which is situated at the edge of Negative Zone.

The reasons are: the location offers a wide field of vision, making it easier for Special Envoy to monitor the dynamics of the Multiverse and utilize their professional expertise; at the same time, its distance from the Core Zone minimizes the potential impact of its energy on internal facilities.

Official documents circulated within the internal network of the White Bone Hall.

There were no arguments, no conflicts.

Only cold, hard procedures, and the suffocating, subtle form of exclusion behind them.

They were going to send this new "Phoenix" to the most remote frontier.

These documents were eventually compiled onto Jean Grey's temporary terminal.

Inside the Isolation Pod, Jean Grey stared at the rejected applications displayed on the screen, along with the ironic "supplementary recommendations," her smile long gone.

The air around her began to distort slightly, almost visible to the naked eye.

A golden-red light flickered uncertainly deep within her eyes.

But in the end, she took a deep breath and forcibly suppressed the power that was enough to incinerate the entire White Bone Hall.

She remembered what Lynn had said to her in the office.

"Here, we don't talk about divine power, we only talk about rules."

Qin closed her eyes, and opened them again after a moment. The light in her eyes had completely disappeared, leaving only a cold calm.

She opened a blank document template and her slender fingers began to tap rapidly on the Virtual Keyboard.

Soon, she completed a brand new request report.

The letterhead of the request pointed directly to the Management Committee Director's Office.

The document's title stunned Gwen Stacy, who was busy with official business, the moment she saw it.

"Request Report Regarding the Application for Self-Raised Resources Construction of Office Area"

Gwen Stacy didn't dare to delay and immediately set the report as the highest priority, sending it directly to Lynn's desk.

Lynn opened the file.

"Self-Raised Resources?"

His gaze lingered on those four words, and he didn't look away for a long time.

He was curious to know: where would a being of Multiverse scale obtain her so-called "Self-Raised Resources," and what would they be?