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The sterile office smelled of stale coffee and recycled frustration.
Auron stood in front of a towering stack of forms — contracts, applications, permissions — all barriers to progress.
Here, logic wasn't enough. The rules twisted and looped, designed less for clarity and more to confound.
He could solve equations in seconds, unravel complex patterns in moments, but bureaucracy was a beast of a different kind.
Each form was a maze, each rule a trap.
*Why so many redundant steps?* Auron wondered.
Every signature demanded, every document notarized, every stamp verified — it was a relentless cycle.
The walls of the paperwork prison closed in.
He realized intelligence here meant patience, yes, but also strategic navigation.
He began mapping the system, identifying shortcuts and loopholes hidden beneath layers of protocol.
He reached out, building alliances with the few sympathetic clerks who understood his plight.
Slowly, Auron transformed frustration into a game of strategy.
The paperwork prison was no longer a trap — it was a challenge he could master.
*"Sometimes, the greatest battles are fought not with power, but with persistence and wit. "*