With the office politics settled, a new, more dangerous kind of peace emerged. Leo's reputation as "The Unshakable Intern" made him an object of cautious respect. He was no longer bothered with coffee runs or menial tasks. Instead, he was given segments of larger projects, his work always flawless, always on time. He was an efficient ghost, a silent contributor who outperformed expectations without drawing unnecessary attention.
But this quiet competence did not go unnoticed. It drew the gaze of the department's true gatekeeper: the Senior Executive who supervised the interns, a woman named Ms. Evelyn Reed.
Ms. Reed was a legend in TitanCorp. She was a woman in her early forties who had climbed the ladder with a reputation for ruthless efficiency and an almost sadistic pleasure in testing her subordinates. She didn't manage people; she forged them in fire or watched them burn. Having an intern who couldn't be broken by petty hazing wasn't a sign of a good hire to her; it was a challenge.
On Friday, at precisely 4:55 p.m., just as the office was beginning to exhale in anticipation of the weekend, an email from Ms. Reed landed in Leo's inbox.
Subject: Urgent Task - Board Presentation
Leo's eyes narrowed. This was it.
The email was brief and brutal. The quarterly review with the regional board was scheduled for Monday morning. The executive summary presentation, a 50-slide deck that was normally a week-long team effort, had been deemed "insufficient." Ms. Reed was tasking him, the intern, with rebuilding it from scratch.
"The source files and data annexes are attached," the email concluded. "I expect a complete, board-ready presentation on my desk by 9:00 a.m. Monday. Do not disappoint me."
Leo clicked open the attachments. It was a staggering amount of raw data—spreadsheets with tens of thousands of rows, dense market analysis reports, and disjointed performance metrics. This wasn't a task; it was a death sentence. It was designed to be impossible, a spectacular public failure that would put the upstart intern back in his place.
As if on cue, his phone lit up.
[Warning! You have entered a Boss Encounter Zone.] [Boss: Senior Executive Evelyn Reed - The Gatekeeper]
[New Main Quest: Project Doom] [Description: You have been assigned a task with a 99.8% failure probability for a professional of your rank. The Senior Executive's goal is not your success, but your humiliation. Prove the System's calculations wrong.]
[Objective: Deliver a flawless, board-ready presentation to Ms. Reed before the 9:00 a.m. deadline.] [Reward for Success: Promotion to Junior Associate, ???] [Penalty for Failure: Immediate Termination. Reputation critically damaged.]
Leo stared at the screen, the hum of the emptying office fading into the background. His heart didn't pound. His palms didn't sweat. Thanks to Calm Mind, he felt only a cold, thrilling clarity.
This wasn't just work. This was a boss fight. And he had an entire weekend to prepare.
He methodically downloaded the terabytes of data, his mind already parsing the challenge. This wasn't about speed or endurance alone. This was about strategy. He couldn't just present the data; he had to tell a story with it, a story so compelling and airtight that it would leave no room for criticism.
He looked up at Ms. Reed's empty glass-walled office at the far end of the floor. She was the boss, the gatekeeper. To level up, he had to get past her.
"Let the game begin," he whispered to the empty room, a faint, confident smile playing on his lips.