The coffee incident had earned Leo a sliver of cautious respect, but it also painted a target on his back. Mark no longer bothered with fake pleasantries, communicating only through curt emails and pointed glares across the cubicle farm. For the rest of the week, Leo was assigned the most tedious, mind-numbing tasks: cross-referencing decade-old spreadsheets, archiving irrelevant files, and formatting documents no one would ever read. It was a classic corporate tactic—bury the newcomer in grunt work until their will to live slowly eroded.
Leo didn't mind. He treated each task like a low-level grinding quest, methodically clearing his queue with quiet efficiency. The System occasionally rewarded him with minor stat boosts—a point in 'Focus' for finishing a four-hour data entry task without error, a point in 'Patience' for not strangling Mark with his own ridiculously loud tie.
On Friday afternoon, the atmosphere in the office crackled with tension. The weekly performance report, a massive compilation of sales data, market analytics, and progress metrics, was due at 3:00 p.m. for the department head's review. It was Sarah's responsibility, and she was already on edge.
"Leo," she called out, her voice sharp with stress. "I need you to compile the final data set. All the source files are in this folder. Just copy and paste everything into the master template. It's simple, but it has to be perfect. Don't mess this up."
"I'm on it," he said.
As he began the task, Mark strolled by his desk, a smirk playing on his lips. "Don't get any bright ideas, intern. That report is the boss's holy scripture. Just do what you're told."
Leo ignored him, focusing on the task. The work was tedious but straightforward. For two hours, he meticulously copied data, aligned columns, and checked for inconsistencies. At 1:30 p.m., he finished, saved the master file on the shared server, and sent Sarah a confirmation email.
At 2:30 p.m., a choked gasp came from Sarah's cubicle, followed by a sharp curse. "No, no, no! It can't be!"
Heads popped up over the cubicle walls. Sarah was staring at her monitor, her face pale. "The file's corrupted! The weekly report is gone!"
Panic rippled through the office. Mark was instantly on his feet, rushing to Sarah's side. "What happened?"
"I don't know! I just tried to open it, and it gave me an error message. It's just… garbage data!" she stammered, pointing a trembling finger at a screen full of nonsensical symbols.
Mark's head snapped toward Leo, his eyes alight with accusation. "It was the intern. He was the last one to touch it. What did you do, kid?"
Every eye in the department swiveled to Leo. He felt a familiar cold dread, but this was different from the coffee trap. This wasn't about social embarrassment; this was his professional competence on the line.
"I saved it correctly," Leo said, his voice steady thanks to his Poker Face skill. "I confirmed it was working when I finished."
"Well, it's not working now!" Sarah shot back, her voice nearing a shriek. The 3:00 p.m. deadline was a guillotine, and her neck was on the chopping block. "All that work… gone."
Right on cue, his phone vibrated.
[Emergency Quest: Digital Collapse] [Description: A critical data file has been sabotaged, and you are the prime suspect. Failure to resolve this crisis will result in a catastrophic loss of reputation and potential termination.]
[Objective: Recreate the entire weekly report from scratch before the 3:00 p.m. deadline.] [Time Remaining: 00:28:47]
Less than thirty minutes. It was an impossible task. The original compilation had taken him two hours of careful, focused work.
[System Support Activated: The pressure of an impossible deadline has forged a new skill in the crucible of corporate crisis.]
[New Skill Acquired: Fast Typing (Lv. 1)] [Effect: Increases Words Per Minute (WPM) by 200%. Reduces clerical error rate by 90%. Allows for the seamless transfer and formatting of data at supernatural speeds.]
Leo stood up. Arguing was a waste of precious seconds. There was only one path forward.
"I'll fix it," he said.
A wave of scoffing and disbelief rippled through the onlookers. Mark laughed out loud. "Fix it? Kid, it took the whole team a week to gather that data. It's over."
Leo ignored them. He walked back to his desk, his movements calm and deliberate. He closed his eyes for a second, feeling the new skill settle into his mind, his fingers tingling with a strange energy. He opened the source files folder.
Then, his hands descended on the keyboard.
The sound that followed silenced the entire office. It wasn't the normal, rhythmic clatter of typing. It was a storm. A constant, high-frequency torrent of clicks that blurred into a single, continuous hum. His colleagues watched, their scorn turning to bewilderment.
On his screen, windows opened and closed in a blink. Spreadsheets were created, populated, and formatted in seconds. Data from a dozen different sources flowed into the master template as if being poured by an invisible force. His fingers didn't seem to be moving individually but were a blur, a phantom dancing over the keys with impossible precision and speed. His face, locked in his Poker Face skill, was a mask of absolute concentration, betraying nothing of the frantic race against time happening on the screen.
Sarah, Mark, and the others gathered around his desk, their jaws slack with astonishment. They were witnessing something that defied logic.
With ninety seconds to spare, the final chart snapped into place. Leo's hands stopped. The sudden silence was deafening.
He created a new file—Weekly_Report_V2_FINAL—saved it, attached it to an email, and sent it to Sarah and the department head.
"The report is ready," he announced to the stunned quiet of the office.
His phone buzzed softly.
[Quest Complete. You have turned a crisis into a demonstration of overwhelming competence.] [Reward: +150 EXP, +1 Dexterity Stat.] [Reputation with Supervisor 'Sarah' has changed from 'Suspicious' to 'Intrigued'.] [Reputation with Colleague 'Mark' has changed from 'Contempt' to 'Wary'.]