X probably didn't expect that there could be such a bizarre anomaly among the Corporation's Deans, and she was speechless for a moment.
Could an AI really just slack off like this? She had always thought that even if an AI had a terrible personality, they would at least take their work seriously.
"Hello, Dean Netzach. I'm the newly appointed Manager, X.
Hasn't Angela ever chewed you out for this? You see… it's really something else."
X also sat down on the sofa, making small talk with this Intelligent AI whose vibe was unmistakably different from the other Deans.
"Ha, of course not… Because… because my job is to be a piece of trash ~ Hic ~. Want a sip? Manager."
Netzach popped open an ampoule of Enkephalins to drink. This was clean energy produced by the Corporation, but it could also be used like some kind of pharmaceutical to relieve mental stress, though using it too much came with some subtle side effects.
"..."
As the Manager, X couldn't possibly take drugs that affected the psyche, so she naturally waved her hand in refusal. Rejected, Netzach didn't mind at all and downed the entire pharmaceutical herself, though it looked more like an injection method.
"Anything else... Is there anything else? S-sigh, even if there is, let's talk about it later. You understand… I'm kind of busy right now."
The lazy, green-haired woman lying on the sofa narrowed her eyes, still basking in the euphoria brought on by the drug, completely indifferent to Manager X.
X had no idea why a Corporation AI could smoke or drink this kind of stuff, and even have drinks. Angela clearly didn't have a sense of taste, yet the Department Deans possessed all these redundant functions. She really had no idea what the designer was thinking.
As the atmosphere grew tense, X hesitated whether she should speak up and remind Netzach to care about the Corporation's image, or perhaps keep Angela from seeing. If caught, Netzach might not necessarily get punished, but she, for sure, would be.
—— Remind Netzach? ——
—— Condone Netzach ——
[ The simulation has started —— ]
[Day 2 —— The Addict's Carnival]
[Today you chose to open the Safety Department, but you never expected the Safety Department Dean to be an addict. You don't trust her abilities and hold a skeptical attitude toward her.]
[Your Dean was late, and right in front of you, under your very eyes, she started doing psychoactive drugs. She didn't take you seriously at all, as if openly challenging your dignity as Manager.]
[After hesitating over and over, you finally couldn't take it anymore and decided to stop her. You lectured the Safety Department Dean, severely criticizing her unmotivated behavior, and went on a tangent about the Corporation's greatness and the value she needed to fulfill as a Dean.]
[The Safety Department Dean listened seriously to everything you said, but still didn't react at all, just staring blankly at you. Those dim blue pupils locked onto you for a long time, a gaze that made you shudder slightly.]
[You felt uneasy and wanted to leave the meeting room, but for some reason, the meeting room door wouldn't open.]
[When you turned around, you found that the Safety Department Dean had already gotten off the sofa at some point and was right beside you.]
[You wanted to call for help, but your mouth was covered by the Safety Department Dean. You saw her expression clearly: serious, terrifying, yet faintly revealing a sort of anger… She was mad.]
[She pinned you down onto the sofa, scolding you and the Corporation while punishing you… She thought you were arrogant and ignorant, unworthy of saying those things.]
[Your psyche has collapsed...]
[Achievement unlocked —— You still don't have the qualification, not qualified at all!]
[Warm reminder: Psychoactive drugs affect judgment. Please do not provoke 'people' indulging in the effects of drugs. An AI's physical strength is far greater than an ordinary human's.]
[Please choose this result's reward:
Fortitude (+1)
Prudence (+1)
Temperance (+1)
Justice (+1)]
X fell silent. Silently, she chose [ Justice ], and then chose to say nothing while condoning the Safety Department Dean Netzach in her Enkephalins-induced haze.
It wasn't that she didn't want to deal with this addict, but right now, she simply couldn't handle Netzach. A Corporation Dean could lift her up with a single hand, and if she provoked the Dean with her words, although the exact consequence after being punished was unknown, a psychological collapse meant a direct game over.
This was the first time X encountered an unexpected situation outside of her Secretary. The Safety Department Dean was completely unsafe, even though this was supposed to be the most 'Safe' place.
After a few minutes, X's distressed expression seemed to be misunderstood by Netzach, who was lounging on the sofa enjoying her high. With a serious expression, the Dean began to explain herself to the Manager, seemingly justifying her slacking behavior.
"You look a bit confused? Manager, you know… a place like this, the people here… none of us came here to make friends. I mean, nobody even wants to stay here in the first place. Can you understand what I'm trying to say?"
X nodded, signaling that she was listening. The woman with dark-green hair who looked remarkably like algae was already drunk, and saying anything right now was useless. All she could do was play along and wait for her to vent the pent-up frustration in her heart.
While much of what she said was true, since nobody at the Corporation actually wanted to stay here… X couldn't just blurt that out loud. Netzach was a Corporation AI, but X herself was not.
A Corporation AI cursing its own Corporation is naturally fine… As for X herself, uttering reckless words would likely get her punished by the Intelligent AI.
"Netzach, do you dislike your job that much?"
X asked. The Safety Department Dean had already propped her feet up on the conference table, lounging limply across the sofa in a sprawling posture. Two ampoules of Enkephalins were already empty, leaving a bit of green liquid splattered across the desk.
"That's right, I really hate my job, and I genuinely want to quit. But there's no way I can do that, right? Working in a ghost town like this was never what I expected."
—— Yeah, you can't quit, but you'll do far worse things to me ——
X cursed inwardly at the hyped-up junkie before her. The algae-headed Dean truly had no way to quit, but she could do other things, far worse things, and vent her frustration over being unable to resign straight onto X.
To Manager X, the woman in front of her was yet another hazardous element right after Angela. If a few more like her showed up, X didn't think she could peacefully get through every single day. This was a truly terrible reality.
Even though she felt humiliated and gritted her teeth, she had no choice but to swallow it because she couldn't beat her… If she hadn't been completely outmatched in strength, X would have already rolled up her sleeves, given the person in front of her two slaps, grabbed her by the collar, and interrogated her.
You want to quit? I want to quit even more! You're taking your anger out on me, but who am I supposed to vent on? Whoever wants to be this damn Manager can go ahead.
Unfortunately, she couldn't, so X just sat there gracefully on the sofa drinking tea, acting as a human dumpster for the Safety Department Dean Netzach to bitterly complain to and dump massive amounts of negative energy into.
"Even though you don't really understand me yet, I understand you… Manager, if you ask me, having no choice but to work here makes me feel utterly sick. I never wanted to take responsibility for anyone else's death…"
"Whoever put me in this position must have screwed up big time."
When saying this, Netzach's dim green pupils were staring straight at X. Her golden eyes collided with those green ones, but X quickly turned her head away to avoid the gaze.
For some reason, that lingering gaze felt filled with resentment, making her deeply uncomfortable. X had no idea when she had ever offended the Safety Department Dean; this was supposed to be their very first meeting.
"I'm so helpless… X, can you understand how I feel? Even as we speak right this second, people are dying… No one will remember them. Nobody will even remember that they died here."
"Look at me, Manager. Don't look away… I'm the Safety Department Dean, and not a single place around here is safe. That's what terrifies me the most."
X was forced to watch as the sullen-faced Safety Department Dean shoved yet another ampoule of Enkephalins into her body. The reagent containing the green liquid emptied out in an instant.
X could hardly imagine whether Netzach's brain was still clear under that kind of dosage, or if it was completely fried by now, leaving her to simply babble and act crazy.
—— If only Angela were here ——
Angela had real authority; only Angela could make the rebellious Department Deans obey. X finally understood: she, the Manager, was just a fox borrowing a tiger's might, leaning entirely on Angela's prestige. Without Angela, barely any of the Deans would listen to her.
If Angela were here, this algae-head wouldn't have the guts to get high like this.
Right now, X actually found herself missing her Secretary. At least the Secretary knew how to put up a facade, maintain surface-level respect, and only teased her out of a weird sense of humor, rather than pulling a long face and cursing her straight to her face like an idiot.
"I will prove my capability, Netzach. Give me a chance, will you? I can sense your prejudice against me... But I am your Manager, and I will take responsibility for you, and for all the employees of our Corporation."
"If you don't want to take responsibility for the deaths of the employees, then let me bear that burden instead. Angela will hold me accountable, not the Safety Department Dean Netzach. All casualties must be the result of my poor command."
X wiped away the spilled Enkephalins on the desk and tossed the empty reagent into the trash can. Such pharmaceutical substances were hardly worth encouraging, but sometimes... how should she put it, if one wasn't driven to a certain extreme, who would willingly drown themselves in absurd drugs?
"Ah... That really doesn't sound like something you'd say, Manager. To be honest, not half an inch of this place is safe. Just like you said, you'd probably get tortured to death by your own conscience."
"I won't be like that. I'll do everything in my power to save the employees' lives... because the employees are the Corporation's precious assets. But the loss of assets is merely a regret; it's not truly painful."
X took a sip of canned tea. The tangerine-peel oolong tea tasted no different from tree bark, much like how the employees were essentially just biological components. They looked the part, just with a few superficial differences.
"Sigh, is this what Angela taught you? Whatever... Manager, just don't tell Angela that I stole the Enkephalins. A decent person like you definitely wouldn't do that, right?"
"Of course I won't. But Netzach, Angela probably already knows about this..."
X looked towards the conference room's security cameras. No matter where you went, cameras were indispensable.
The Corporation's cameras were everywhere, leaving zero room for privacy. From the moment Netzach pulled the Enkephalins out of her pocket, Angela was bound to have noticed. After all, the Intelligent AI's work efficiency was extremely high, and the surveillance had no blind spots, never missing a single detail.
And as if answering X's premonition, the Intelligent AI, who had likely been lingering outside the conference room doors all along, walked in.
[Manager, it seems you and Netzach are getting along so... well? Did you have a pleasant chat? It's almost time for work, and you still have pending affairs to handle. Let's go, Manager. Netzach will need some time to sober up.]
"Mhm... Understood, Angela."
X obediently hid behind Angela, leaving the 'overbearing' algae-head who had been bullying her earlier to be handled by a Secretary a thousand times stronger than herself.
In truth, Angela didn't really care much about Netzach sprawling on the sofa like a drowned corpse.
Her attention was primarily focused on X. Having long been privy to the Safety Department Dean's vices, she was used to it and didn't care to scold her anymore.
Netzach was a dispensable trash-heap, but if she corrupted X and dragged her down into some addict's habits, that was unacceptable.
Before leaving, Angela even nudged Netzach off the sofa. The muddy, algae-like head had an intimate encounter with the floor before immediately receiving two light kicks.
[Oh, and Netzach, if I ever catch you embezzling the Corporation's Enkephalins privately again, and Tiphereth A brings me a proposal regarding this, I will seriously consider passing it.]
[Manager, Enkephalins are generally only supplied to employees. If you require psychological treatment, we have much safer, harmless treatment methods, as well as better ways to relieve stress.]
Angela uncharacteristically opened her eyes. Her amber-gold gaze looked down at the writhing Netzach on the floor as if gazing at garbage, though X felt this was more of a warning to scare the monkey by killing the chicken, rather than Angela genuinely hating that kind of behavior.
How much Enkephalins Netzach abused didn't matter; Angela simply wouldn't allow herself, as the Manager, to do such a thing.
Yet for some reason, she inexplicably felt a sense of relief just having Angela by her side. Was it because the other Deans weren't safe either? If a Dean was going to punish her, X would rather take it from Angela.
—— I must be out of my mind ——
X found it absurd, because at that very moment, she had actually found herself looking forward to Angela's punishment.