The aftermath of Leo's email was a profound, suffocating silence. Alex Thorne did not respond. He simply sent his one-word "Approved" sign-off for the proposal and became a ghost. His easy laughter vanished from the hallways. The friendly chats by the coffee machine ceased. He did his work with a grim, tight-lipped efficiency, his eyes never once meeting Leo's. He had been utterly, completely, and quietly defeated.
But the social energy he had injected into the office didn't just disappear. It mutated.
The whispers started within a day. They were insidious, impossible to trace back to a single source, but Leo knew their origin. With Calm Mind (MAX), he was an antenna for the office's social frequencies, and he could feel the shift.
The narrative Alex was weaving was brilliant in its own way. He didn't deny the "data error." Instead, he framed it as an honest mistake made during a late-night push to meet a deadline. And Leo? Leo hadn't just corrected it. He had used it. He had "leaked" it to management through a passive-aggressive email to make Alex look incompetent.
"He's not a team player," a junior analyst whispered by the water cooler, a conversation Leo's senses picked up from across the room. "Brilliant, yeah, but would you want to work for him?" another replied. "He'd throw you under the bus for a rounding error."
The story was compelling because it fit the image Leo himself projected. His cold efficiency, his lack of small talk, his intimidating presence—they were the fertile soil in which these rumors took root. His own team was the most affected. Anna, who had just started to see him as a competent leader, now looked at him with a renewed fear. Ben's professional distance grew colder, the [Ally] status in Leo's System view now tinged with a pulsing [Distrust].
Leo's phone vibrated.
[Status Effect Applied: Uncooperative Atmosphere] [Description: Rumors regarding your ruthless tactics are affecting team morale. Subordinates will fulfill direct orders but will no longer offer proactive assistance. Your Charisma stat is effectively nullified within this department.]
The old Leo would have been infuriated. He would have wanted to confront the liars, to present the evidence of the late-night file modification, to fight back.
But the System had taught him a crucial lesson. In the corporate world, perception often mattered more than reality. Fighting the rumors with facts would only make him look defensive and petty, confirming their narrative.
So he did nothing. He chose silence.
When Maria Liu's office sent out a department-wide email praising the "flawless execution" of the Nightingale Phase Two proposal, he didn't forward it with a self-congratulatory note. When his team members avoided his gaze, he didn't try to force a conversation.
Instead, he worked. He took on the single most difficult and tedious task in the project's next phase: a complete overhaul of the department's archaic data archiving system. It was a thankless, high-risk job that everyone else had avoided for years. For three days, he barely spoke, his focus an almost physical force. He didn't delegate. He simply executed.
On the fourth day, he sent a single, department-wide email.
Subject: New Data Archive Protocol - Effective Immediately
Team, The legacy archive has been deprecated. The new system is now live. It is 400% faster, fully searchable with predictive tagging, and has automated weekly backups. A full user guide is attached. Expected time-savings per analyst: 3-4 hours per week.
LeoZhang
The effect was instantaneous. Ben, who wrestled with the old system daily, stared at his screen in disbelief, his distrust momentarily forgotten in the face of a solution to his biggest headache. Anna ran a test query that used to take ten minutes; it now took five seconds. The whispers didn't stop, but their volume lowered. It's hard to vilify the person who just single-handedly solved your most annoying problem.
He hadn't fought the rumors. He had made them irrelevant. His results were speaking for him, and their voice was a thunderclap that drowned out the whispers.
A final notification for the quest appeared on his phone.
[Quest Complete: The Meritocracy Gambit] [You have successfully weathered a campaign of social sabotage by demonstrating that overwhelming competence is its own form of influence. Your rival has been neutralized.] [Reward: +1000 EXP, +10 Wisdom.] [New Title Acquired: Silent Strategist] [Effect: When you choose not to respond to a social or political attack, your perceived composure and focus are increased.]
Alex Thorne submitted his resignation the following Monday. He was transferring to the marketing department on another floor. The duel was officially over. Leo had won.