Did she really get recruited by the Lobotomy Corporation?
The intelligent AI's strange and bizarre attitude, the mischievous AI Dean, the terrible working environment, and a group of screaming monsters.
But in X's impression, she was recruited, and she was quite happy at the time—only to be abducted in the end.
She was tied up, but the good news was that the Corporation that recruited her was the one that abducted her. She didn't miss her first day of work.
However, X slowly hesitated to answer this question, indecisive, seemingly suggesting to the other party that there was some unspeakable possibility: like being threatened, being held captive, or being unable to reveal the situation clearly due to fear of a certain entity.
[...]
[… Is it hard to answer? Then let's change the method.]
It was just synthesized audio with severely degraded sound quality. Forget melodious, it couldn't even be classified as unpleasant; it belonged to the category of Noise, a jarring sound. But strangely…
X could still hear a sense of care, or perhaps gentleness, within it. She didn't know where this thought came from, but she felt it was absurd, utterly ridiculous.
Besides the bizarre interaction with her own AI Secretary, the third ridiculous thing was that the intelligent AI also possessed needs and urgent desires. She truly didn't know what the AI designers were thinking.
Did the Lobotomy Corporation'sAI designers intend to create a ██ sex-robot to satisfy some perverse desire of their own? Pfft, that was truly nauseating.
What X despised and scorned the most was people like that, who secretly embedded contraband when designing AI to satisfy their personal desires. AIs should be proper AIs; how could they be so improper?
This was still the L Corporation, the Wings of the World's intelligent AI. How could it… how could it do these things to the Manager?! This was utter chaos from top to bottom. Thinking that the leader of the Lobotomy Corporation was 'A' made X feel that whatever the subordinates of the Lobotomy Corporation's leader, those numerous intelligent AIs, turned into was not surprising at all.
This was absolutely a failure of education, a serious dereliction of duty!
And just as X was silently cursing the Lobotomy Corporation's leadership in her heart, pointing and criticizing them, the strange, mysterious 'B' on the screen started questioning again.
The secret data flickered with electricity. It looked unstable, like an old TV set that should have been retired, receiving poor signal, occasionally showing a colorful screen.
But the voice still came through, even though it was a hoarse, unpleasant synthesized sound, and the utterance was unclear due to the poor tone quality.
[X… Do… Do you feel satisfied with your current work?]
This was also a rather sharp topic. Speaking ill of things within the Corporation wasn't good, especially for someone in the position of Manager to comment on their job satisfaction.
Would Angela hear this? Will she be unhappy?
X thought for a moment, carefully recalling her actual feeling about work. There wasn't much concrete substance to it. It wasn't agonizingly painful, nor was the work particularly easy. It was just… vague, a feeling she couldn't describe specifically.
If she wanted to describe the specific feeling, it was better reserved for the evening. Perhaps… slightly… a bit sweet?
Honestly, X hadn't vented her emotions for a long time, and the pressure had been accumulating. Frustration mounted, and while the intelligent AI's behavior wasn't exactly proper, it could even be said to violate the will of the person involved.
In terms of actual effect, it wasn't too bad. At least having genuinely experienced it, X realized… these similar behaviors weren't as terrifying as she imagined, or perhaps not as unbearable.
X originally thought she couldn't accept such things, but unexpectedly, she didn't hate it. The actual process wasn't that painful.
In the AI Secretary's embrace, X felt warm, with an inexplicable sense of peace… She didn't know if she was sick, if there was a psychological issue, or for some other reason.
Am I too reliant on Angela?
But I'm clearly afraid of her, aren't I?
Even when facing punishment, X wasn't so unreceptive. If punishment were to be calculated, she should have been punished at least four times over. In just one morning, she had been punished twice.
And this was only during the time when she should have been eating breakfast. It's hard to say… Maybe the intelligent AI treated X as breakfast to consume, since AIs don't need to eat like humans to gain the energy they require for existence.
But the intelligent AI certainly drew spiritual sustenance from her.
This didn't mean X would forgive the AI Secretary's rude behavior at dawn. Angela had truly gone too far this time. She shouldn't have stored so many of her indecent photos, nor should she have done… those things with her on the chair.
At least, she should have taken it to the bedroom, right?
The Manager's office was a place for work. During work hours, one should maintain a professional demeanor. Doing such absurd things in the Manager's office was extremely improper.
X tried to sternly criticize the Secretary, but clearly, criticism was ineffective. The highest authority in the Corporation was the Secretary, while the Manager was merely a decorative piece, similar to an ornament.
But at least it truly allowed X to vent some pressure. Although it caused her blood pressure to spike halfway through, the pent-up frustration was somewhat released, along with those dissatisfied emotions.
Despite the fatigue, she felt a slight sense of satisfaction, a kind of comfortable feeling, like being filled in by cotton padding, the pleasure of being supplemented.
So, putting aside the immediate anger and reckless words, and disregarding Angela's utter lack of remorse or sympathy for her outrage, X actually held no real resentment.
X was not a vindictive person. In another aspect, she was quite forgetful. She wouldn't dwell on every critical word. If she held onto every slight or negative attitude, then as Manager, X would have long since developed some kind of ailment from the Deans' attitudes.
The Deans had frequently shown X their grimaces. Looking at the bigger picture, in any Corporation, how could subordinates treat their superiors like that? In fact, for the entire City, hierarchy was very important; every position was a tier above another.
Ah, that's right. The Deans' superior was Angela, not her… Thinking about it, X found it reasonable. She was like a superior of a certain relative status, and on top of that, the Deans' original superior, Angela, now had her added on top.
Naturally, the thought in their minds would be: Another stupid superior has arrived.
X could understand that, and even if she sometimes didn't want to accept it, she had to accept it now.
At least for the time being, her relationship with the Deans wasn't bad; it wasn't as hostile as it was initially. The Deans weren't bad people; they just initially harbored doubts about her competence as Manager.
And thinking on the positive side, the Deans wouldn't give her the cold shoulder anymore. Even Yesod spoke to her a bit more gently, though it still couldn't be called "gentle." But that was already much better than before.
This was the fruit of her own efforts, the trust she had earned from these AI Deans. Although they hadn't completely trusted her capabilities yet, they at least acknowledged her as a Manager.
And the Corporation was continuously developing under her efforts. All the sacrifices had some value.
Thinking this way, life wasn't actually that bad. It wasn't too bad to get by.
"Yes, I am very satisfied with my current job. It's very good here. The Secretary is extremely thoughtful and trustworthy, and the Deans are all diligently managing their duties."
Putting aside a few minor flaws, what X said was mostly the truth.
Angela was very gentle at times, and the Deans were indeed diligently managing their departments. Although Netzach might be a bit lazy, it wasn't that she didn't want to try hard.
Netzach was just a bit pessimistic, holding slightly negative thoughts. But if someone gave her hope and was willing to help, she would change herself and strive to ensure her employees' safety.
Everything was getting better, X firmly believed.
But this time, it was the other party's turn to fall silent. The mysterious person calling himself B seemed utterly disbelieving of X's response.
[......]
[… Really…?]
His voice was filled with doubt. He might be questioning the truthfulness of X's words, or perhaps questioning whether the Corporation had used some despicable and flawed tactic to achieve such a result.
Although it was just a massive green Lobotomy Corporation logo icon, X still felt his focused gaze within it. The person named B was watching her, as if scrutinizing something.
And after about a second, the person named B seemed to give up arguing. He didn't want to debate with X about whether the Corporation was good or not.
[Alright, I cannot judge whether you are speaking the truth.]
[X, you are the Manager of Lobotomy Corporation, but honestly, you don't know anything about the Corporation, do you?]
He retorted, stating the fact that X was practically ignorant about the entire Corporation, as if he understood the situation better than X herself. X was an outsider, while he was an insider.
Explaining complex matters or issues to an outsider is often very difficult. It requires maximum simplification. The important thing is to make the other party understand their own predicament and situation.
This was similar to worrying about friends and relatives who had fallen into a multi-level marketing organization. No matter what, neither good advice nor harsh words would be effective.
And since all those tactics had been tried without success in making the other party turn back, he could only… still hope… and try to pull the other person out of the endless Abyss.
This was a path of no return…
[I will try to explain to you as briefly as possible… X…]
Looking at the woman before him, whose expression was almost dazed and lost, the mysterious person called B seemed to let out a sigh of regret. But this wasn't the time for sadness; time was short.
This wasn't the time for reminiscing…
But just as the mysterious person named B prepared to explain, he paused with astonishment. The already unstable signal became even more erratic, and the flashing electronic display took on a chaotic, punk-like hue.
It was even more severely disturbed than the previous flat signal screen.
The synthesized voice became even harder to recognize and distinguish, more intermittent. Finally, it seemed he was urgently trying to adjust, only managing to utter a complete sentence.
[......]
[… Hacking the network for so long is very dangerous… See you later.]
The connection cut out. The massive green Lobotomy logo on the screen flickered and vanished in a chaotic blur. The monitors returned to normal, cycling through scenes of corridors, hallways, employee breakrooms, Deans' offices, and Abnormality Containment units.
It all happened in a literal blink, so fast that X almost thought she'd hallucinated or had some bizarre dream, but she was certain of that sensation.
She realized that someone had hacked the Lobotomy Corporation network, infiltrating its systems. This was terrifying, involving a cascade of critical security and defense issues for the Corporation.
It proved there was a massive flaw in the Corporation's network firewall. If any information leaked, the consequences would be catastrophic.
After all, Lobotomy Corporation was one of the Wings of the World. A Wing's data was invaluable; even a fragment smuggled out was enough for a massive blackmail scheme or to give other predatory Wings a chance to bite down hard.
As a Manager, X possessed the fundamental professional standards of her position. She couldn't ignore this.
She should tell Angela immediately and report the situation to the Corporation.
Yet, X hesitated. It wasn't because of some naive excuse like "that person didn't seem bad," she hadn't even seen them, but rather a sense of familiarity, as if they had known each other long ago.
Besides, the party had gone to such lengths to hack a Wing of the World's network just to say a few words and ask a few boring questions? It was… too bizarre.
It was a foolish, highly unprofitable transaction.
X first ruled out the possibility of it being a Fixer. Fixers worked for the money, and clearly, the person calling themselves B wasn't after cash. Someone capable of infiltrating the central system of a Wing was no ordinary person.
Someone like that wouldn't lack money.
This was the Manager's office, not some stray pet shelter. Angela had said the Manager's office was the safest place in the entire Corporation. How could someone capable of breaking in here be motivated by something so vulgar?
There had to be another objective. She should observe more; she couldn't afford to alert the enemy.
Thinking this way, X found a rational excuse not to expose B. She would observe for a bit, and once she caught the "big fish," she'd tell Angela and claim the credit. That wouldn't be bad, right?
Even if it wasn't great for a Manager to keep things from the Secretary, it was all for the Corporation. What if alerting them let the big fish get away?
X took a sip of strawberry soda, trying to soothe the unease and invisible pressure in her heart.