After eating and drinking their fill, everyone filed back through the doorway into the company. Compared to when he'd arrived, Zhou Zhuang now carried a huge bag of bite-sized snacks—perfect for stuffing into his mouth later.
That's right! A manager has to stand by what he says.
…Though, to be honest, Zhou Zhuang stared at the bag and felt a little sheepish. After the meal, his own painfully awkward "square formation" stunt had fried his brain so completely he'd forgotten about it. But right before they left, the receptionist Li Na had suddenly rushed over, hugged a pre-packed bag of snacks to her chest, and shoved it straight into his arms.
Only after her explanation did Zhou Zhuang remember: earlier, while being stared down by three women, he'd made a joke along the lines of treating everyone—then immediately got himself socially executed.
Still—since it was a gift, he accepted it with delight. After that, he and the owner performed a long, ceremonial exchange of polite refusals and polite insistences, and Zhou Zhuang finally exited the restaurant after repeatedly turning back like he was saying goodbye to a long-lost relative.
Back in the familiar company environment, Zhou Zhuang set the huge bag down by his feet and stretched hard, letting out a satisfied sigh.
Ahhh… being full feels amazing.
He picked up the snacks and glanced around.
"Huh? Where'd Faust and the others go?"
The moment before, Malkuth and the employees had left only a few seconds earlier—yet they'd already vanished. Zhou Zhuang turned to the person beside him.
"Angela, do you know where Malkuth and the employees went?"
"Malkuth informed me she would go ahead and take the employees to intensify their training," Angela replied.
"But isn't Hod still behind us—?"
Zhou Zhuang pointed behind him… and froze. Hod, who had definitely been walking behind him, was gone too.
"…Huh? Even Hod disappeared? That can't be right—I literally saw her enter with me. What the hell?"
The sudden "vanishing department heads" horror vibe crawled up his spine.
"Manager, don't overthink it," Angela cut him off. "It's simply a newly unlocked company function."
Hearing that they'd just used some new internal convenience feature, Zhou Zhuang deflated.
"Man… how many 'convenient functions' does this company have that I don't know about? Every minute there's some new nonsense. I'm speechless… and also speechless at myself for being a manager who knows nothing."
Then he snapped himself out of it.
Enough. It's not even late—why am I doing emo-cloud music at 3 PM?
He hyped himself up: not knowing everything about a mysterious company wasn't something to "cold sweat" over. He'd only been here three days. He wasn't a superhero.
Feeling refreshed again, Zhou Zhuang pulled out his phone and checked the time.
3:00 PM.
Still plenty of time before his "wrap myself in a blanket" slot.
"Alright," he decided. "Let's go see what the awakened department heads are doing."
He tapped his temple like he was confirming his own plan, then said to Angela, who stood ready for orders:
"Angela, next we'll go check what the awake department heads are up to."
"Yes, Manager."
Angela gave a small, formal bow, stepped ahead, and led him toward the nearest destination.
Under Angela's guidance, Zhou Zhuang arrived in front of a massive black arched structure.
He stared at the huge archway.
Okay. Player Zhou Zhuang has unlocked a new location—Unknown Archway.
While he was still trying to figure out where this was supposed to lead, Angela had already stepped onto the platform beneath the arch. Zhou Zhuang hurried to follow.
As soon as he planted his feet, the floor began to vibrate. Zhou Zhuang looked down nervously—nothing happened—then looked up at the surrounding space as lights flared on.
So the "arch" was just the entrance to a gigantic glass transit corridor. As the scenery slid backward at a steady pace, Zhou Zhuang finally understood: they were moving.
He turned to Angela, confused.
"But Angela—why can't we just 'open a door' like Malkuth did to get to them?"
"Manager," Angela explained, "the function Malkuth used relies on a premise: traveling from outside the company to inside it. If we use it inside the company without first establishing a fixed anchor in the City, door-based transfer can malfunction."
"I see." Zhou Zhuang nodded.
Then Angela said, "Manager, we've arrived."
"Already?" Zhou Zhuang blinked. Only a few seconds had passed. The surroundings didn't look any different.
Then he noticed: at some point, the platform under his feet had turned transparent.
"W—whoa!"
He stumbled back and pressed against the glass wall, heart hammering. Seeing Angela standing perfectly still, he coughed once and pretended that hadn't happened, then sidled back toward the platform with forced dignity.
He braced himself and looked down.
Below them was a vast, coliseum-like chamber. Malkuth and Hod stood one in front of the other on an observation deck, watching the employees fight for their lives against the small monsters Zhou Zhuang remembered from the Limbus Company bus-intro sequences.
Malkuth, sitting in the "audience" like a mastermind behind the scenes, appeared to be making a whole speech. Zhou Zhuang strained to hear it.
He looked at Angela for help. Angela didn't disappoint—she took out her phone, tapped a few times—
—and the space filled with Malkuth's melodramatic voice, as if Zhou Zhuang were standing right beside her.
"You should thank the strange and wonderful knowledge in the Manager's mind. What you're experiencing is a 'fun training program' I designed based on a large-scale event from the Manager's memories. However, since the game settings can't be copied exactly, Hod and I agreed to replace the turn limit with a time limit."
Zhou Zhuang listened and felt an uncanny familiarity.
Wait. This… this is stupidly familiar.
A faint "gacha-grind liver pain" sensation rose in his chest as he kept listening.
"I think this training could become a daily exercise within the company. Ah! It's decided—this project will be called… 'Lobotomy Line 1' for now!"
"…Damn it. It really is Line 1."
Zhou Zhuang completely lost it internally, flashing back to the misery of his own "incarceration" experience.
He looked down at his employees—currently getting bullied in a messy scrum by monsters.
Turn-based changed to time-based, huh. He wasn't sure which option was more "prison," but judging from the current situation, it would already be impressive if his employees survived a single full loop cleanly.
Watching the four of them struggle under the swarm, Zhou Zhuang silently cheered them on.
Then he exhaled, done with the spectacle.
"Let's go, Angela. I've seen enough here."
He gestured for her to move on to the next location.
....
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