Chapter 2: Wait, I'm a what now?!
"Is that an excuse I'm hearing from you, Mr. Xander?" she replied, her eyes narrowing until they were nothing more than freezing slits of amber.
"N-No, Manager, it's just—" I wanted to speak up for myself, to point out that I was doing the work of three people and that her expectations were beyond unreasonable.
I wanted to tell her that I wasn't a machine and that I was doing my absolute best.
However, her growing cold gaze made me swallow every word I wanted to say. I knew from experience that it wouldn't end well for me to argue with her, especially when she was in this kind of mood.
I merely resigned myself to her unruly treatment, bowing my head and staring at the scuffed surface of my desk.
Honestly, it wasn't like any of this was new to me. I had known her since our high school days, and the power dynamic hadn't changed an inch since we were teenagers.
She had been the queen of the school back then, and I had been the same quiet, overlooked boy she enjoyed looking down upon.
Being treated like this by her was a familiar pain, one that I had at least grown used to over the years.
While she continued to go on and on about how incapable and useless I was, her voice a constant stream of critiques and insults, I allowed my eyes to wander behind her.
I looked out at the rest of the department, watching my colleagues as they meticulously avoided making eye contact with either of us.
Even now, in the face of her blatant verbal abuse, no one stood up for me. Not a single person offered a word of support or even a sympathetic glance.
It was another thing that never seemed to change in my life; I was always alone in the firing line, a convenient target for someone else's frustration.
After a grueling and harsh day of being treated like a punching bag, one might think that I could finally head home, crawl into bed, and get some much-needed rest. It seemed like the only fair conclusion to such a miserable afternoon.
But I was wrong. The world rarely worked out in a way that felt fair to me.
Hours after the rest of the staff had clocked out and headed to their warm homes and comfortable lives, I was still sitting in my office.
A fat stack of paperwork sat on my desk, the white pages glowing ominously under the single lamp I had left on.
I let out a long, pitiful sigh that seemed to echo in the empty room, lowering my head into my hands in a fit of pure dismay. The silence of the office was heavy, pressing in on me from all sides.
"Just why am I always on the receiving end?" I muttered to the empty air, my voice sounding thin and exhausted.
I picked up a document, the text blurring before my eyes as I struggled to focus. I used my other hand to support my head, feeling the weight of the day's fatigue deep in my skull.
"Honestly, it would be nice to be the one in charge for a change. Even if I wasn't some high-level boss, at least a position where I wouldn't have to be bossed around by women like her would be a dream." I lamented at my own shortcomings, wondering where exactly I had gone wrong.
Was it a lack of ambition? A lack of backbone? Or was I just destined to be the person that others stepped on to reach higher ground? It was a depressing thought, one that I tried to push aside as I prepared for the long night ahead.
Putting the document back down on the pile, I reached over and turned on my computer to begin what I could only call the overtime of the week.
But just then, something strange happened. Instead of the usual login screen, my monitor suddenly began to emit a flashing, blinding beam of light.
It wasn't the soft glow of a screen, but an intense, searing radiance that filled the entire cubicle.
The light grew so powerful so quickly that I had to shut my eyes tight and use both of my arms to shield my face, fearing that my retinas might actually burn from the sheer brilliance of it.
It felt as though the very air around me was vibrating, a hum of energy that made the hair on my arms stand on end.
When I sensed that the light had finally vanished and the warmth against my skin had cooled, I slowly peeled my eyelids open once more.
I expected to see my messy desk and the dark office, but instead, my breath hitched in my throat.
"Where the fuck am I?" I muttered in absolute disbelief.
I wasn't in my office anymore. I wasn't even on solid ground. I found myself floating in what looked like an all-encompassing, void-like space.
There was no floor, no ceiling, and no walls—only an endless expanse of swirling darkness and distant, flickering mists that defied any sense of logic.
I flailed my arms for a moment, trying to find purchase, but there was nothing to grab onto. I was suspended in a vacuum, a speck of dust in an infinite nothingness.
"Hello? Is someone there?" I shouted, my voice sounding strangely clear despite the lack of any surroundings.
[Welcome, Dear Successor.]
The words didn't come from a person's mouth; they appeared directly in my mind, vibrating with a resonance that felt ancient and terrifyingly powerful.
[Congratulations. You've been chosen as the next Devil God.]
Suddenly, a series of holographic screens emerged before my eyes, glowing with a faint, otherworldly violet light. They hovered in the air, displaying symbols and text that I couldn't immediately comprehend. I stiffened, my entire body locking up as I felt completely stupefied by the declaration.
'Devil God?' I thought to myself, the words repeating in my head like a broken record.