Watching the Manager's back disappear down the corridor, Malkuth took his advice and began redesigning the employee training plan together with Hod.
But before they'd even gotten far, the Manager unexpectedly returned.
"Um… Manager? Is there anything else you want to add?" Malkuth asked, confused.
"Oh, nothing about the employees." Zhou Zhuang waved it off. "I don't really understand training details anyway. In my memory, 'training' is basically: employees work like crazy, then after the shift they magically get promoted like they're brand-new."
He pointed at Hod.
"I came back to ask Hod something."
Hod was a little surprised to be singled out, but she still asked gently, "Manager, what do you need?"
Zhou Zhuang scratched the back of his head, then got to the point.
"About recruitment—how does our company handle hiring employees?"
Hod found the question a bit odd, but since it was within her responsibilities, she answered dutifully.
"Manager, the company has two recruitment methods."
"The first is an exam-based competitive selection. This is usually aimed at residents of the Nest, and the positions are mostly clerical."
At the keyword clerical, Zhou Zhuang's face visibly started to malfunction—like he'd just remembered his favorite "suffering target."
Hod immediately realized he'd misunderstood and hurried to clarify.
"Manager, I should remind you—'clerical' here isn't the kind you saw in the game."
"Normally, company clerical staff handle document sorting and archiving, and assist with business operations."
"Because a company can't consist of only combat personnel and no operational staff."
"As for the ones you saw in the game… if we have to categorize them, they'd probably be reserve employees."
"They might, with a senior's help, pass through the company's promotion procedures later—or eventually be selected by you and injected with LOB, strengthened into formal employees."
Zhou Zhuang nodded.
That made sense. In the game, Lobotomy Corporation had no real competitors. The headquarters was buried deep underground, and even its business partners were basically "angel investors."
"Then that's the first method," Zhou Zhuang said. "What's the second?"
Hod continued.
"The second is survival-of-the-fittest recruitment, aimed at the Backstreets."
"Most employees recruited through that route end up as the kind of 'clerical' you couldn't directly control in your game—meaning, our reserve employees."
"Although the two methods target different groups, we don't restrict people's choices."
"Someone from the Nest can choose Method Two, and someone from the Backstreets can choose Method One—if they're confident in their ability."
Zhou Zhuang hesitated. "So when you say 'survival of the fittest,' you don't mean…?"
"Yes, Manager," Hod answered calmly.
"An unregulated multi-person brawl. No rules. Knock people down."
"As long as you can stay conscious until the number of passers falls within the quota, you pass."
Zhou Zhuang stared at her.
This cold delivery didn't sound like Hod at all—it sounded like Malkuth, who was on the side scribbling and revising in her notebook while letting out little "hehe" laughs.
"Wow, Hod," Zhou Zhuang said bluntly. "Isn't your character supposed to be the 'I want to be a good person, reduce employee burden, help them lower stress' type?"
"What you just said was like… half of Malkuth."
Malkuth immediately protested from the side, grumbling, "What do you mean half of me?!"
Hod blinked, surprised.
"Is that so, Manager? So in the game version… I cared about employees that much?"
Zhou Zhuang found that reaction odd.
"Then why did you oppose Malkuth's report earlier?"
Hod answered matter-of-factly:
"Because Malkuth's approach is draining the pond to catch the fish, Manager."
"If we did it her way, aside from Faust, your other employees would eventually have to be cleared out."
"Employee training can't be designed just to scrape through a single day of work."
Zhou Zhuang suddenly understood.
"Oh—so you weren't opposing training intensity in general."
"You were opposing Malkuth's one-day instant-broiler plan."
"Meaning the morning training for Anna and the others was yours… and Malkuth thought it was too slow, tried to switch to her plan, and that's why you stopped her."
Hod's gentle expression made Zhou Zhuang feel like he was seeing her again for the first time.
But he still pushed forward to what he truly cared about.
"Hod—if I want to recruit some specific people into the company, is that possible?"
"Don't worry, they're not just pretty faces."
Hod thought for a moment, then nodded.
"Of course, Manager."
"But I can't guarantee they'll agree to join."
"And if they do join, they still need to undergo the company's tests."
That last part made Zhou Zhuang go blank.
"Huh? Then why didn't Anna and the others need a retest?"
Hod shook her head.
"Anna and those four are a special case, not within normal consideration—just like how you personally went out to recruit them. A special case within a special case."
"And if we truly tested those four… Manager, you understand."
Zhou Zhuang looked dejected—his dream of a "Thirteen Idiots" roster was starting to collapse.
Then Hod's eyes narrowed playfully, and she leaned in slightly like she was sharing a secret.
"However… it's not impossible."
Zhou Zhuang snapped up. "What's the method?"
"Do you know what external hires are, Manager?"
"Oh, I know." Zhou Zhuang nodded vigorously.
"When something goes wrong, they take the blame. When nothing goes wrong, they do the work."
"In my previous life I was basically that kind of person."
"There is no one—no one—who understands external hiring more than me." (He even mentally played the 'accordion' meme.)
Hod smiled and explained:
"We can bypass the company's testing system by attaching the people you want to recruit to the external hire system."
"Those with ability can handle outside issues for the company."
"Those without ability can accumulate experience under others' guidance."
"And once the timing is right, they can rely on their contributions to skip the system and convert directly into full employment."
Zhou Zhuang still looked uneasy.
"Wouldn't that cause problems?"
Malkuth couldn't take it anymore and cut in:
"Manager, come on. The company is yours. Who's going to grab your pigtail and report you?"
"At worst, people who enter this way might get gossiped about by other employees."
"But so what? Does it matter?"
Zhou Zhuang's eyes lit up.
"Right—I'm the boss."
"Okay then. No problem. Who's going to grab my pigtail?"
"Exactly," Malkuth and Hod said together, exchanging a grin.
"Alright," Zhou Zhuang said. "Hod, I'll leave their names with you. The company can find their locations, right?"
"It can," Hod replied. "But we don't currently have manpower to send out the invitation letters."
Zhou Zhuang's expression became extremely familiar—like he'd just recognized an old mechanic.
"Are we talking about the invitation letters I think we're talking about?"
Hod pulled out a letter from behind her back.
It looked almost exactly like the Library's invitation—except the gold-embossed title on the front read:
Lobotomy Corporation.
Zhou Zhuang took it. The back even had the L Corp logo—its central "L" glowing with a faint green luminescence.
He opened it.
Inside, it read:
"Dear Angelica, our company sincerely extends you an invitation…"
Zhou Zhuang flipped the page.
Below were various rules and clauses—plus a pile of City taboos and miscellaneous forbidden content.
Too many words. He didn't read.
He looked back up, bewildered.
"Hod… how did you know I wanted to recruit this person?"
Hod answered evenly:
"The invitation letter automatically writes the name you miss the most."
That instantly made Zhou Zhuang understand.
And then his mind ran straight into a headache spiral—timelines, "White Nights and Dark Days," and the Pianist incident, and how the "daytime" in the trailer implied the Pianist could appear on any white day after that phase ended—maybe the first day, maybe later.
Zhou Zhuang sighed, rubbing his temples.
"Ugh… my head hurts."
"It feels like I'm about to resonate."
....
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