The collaboration with Evelyn Reed was like two master assassins agreeing to share a target. Their work was brutally efficient, precise, and utterly devoid of warmth. They set up in a neutral conference room, a sterile glass box between their floors, and began to dissect the KPI Death Match.
Leo, with his Corporate Espionage skill, pulled the raw data—server loads, project timelines, inter-departmental communications. Evelyn, with her auditor's purity, stress-tested every data point, ensuring their arguments were built on an unbreachable foundation of fact.
The contrast in their methods was stark. Leo would draft a paragraph designed for maximum political impact, a dagger of a sentence aimed at the heart of the corporate structure. Evelyn would then systematically strip it of all rhetoric, leaving only the cold, undeniable logic.
"This wording is too aggressive," she'd state, pointing at a line Leo wrote: ...a chaotic scramble that incentivizes sabotage. "It's accurate," Leo would counter. "It's an accusation. It can be dismissed as biased," she'd reply. "Change it to ...a competitive framework that de-incentivizes collaboration. It's less dramatic but factually irrefutable."
It was a slow, grinding process, but the report they were building was becoming a weapon of terrifying precision.
Yet, as he worked with Evelyn, the System's secondary quest—Earn Loyalty, Not Fear—was a constant, glowing reminder in his vision. Evelyn was a powerful ally, but she was a temporary one. Her loyalty was to her own code of efficiency, not to him. He needed his own people.
That afternoon, he called a private meeting in his office. Not with his whole team, but with the two assets he had been cultivating: Ben, the grizzled cynic, and Anna, the ambitious analyst.
They sat before his desk, their expressions a mixture of apprehension and curiosity. They had performed their tasks flawlessly in the previous battle, but he knew their loyalty was still transactional. It was time to change that.
"The current competition is not what it seems," Leo began, his voice low and direct. "It is not a meritocracy. It is a chaos engine designed by Harrison to make us tear each other apart. Winning by the stated rules is impossible."
He let the stark honesty of that statement hang in the air. He wasn't giving them a motivational speech; he was letting them in on the secret of the game.
"I have formed a temporary alliance with the external auditor, Evelyn Reed," he continued. "We are preparing a report that will expose the fundamental flaws of this competition. We are going to break the game."
Ben's eyes narrowed, processing the audacity of the move. Anna leaned forward, her ambition piqued.
"This is where you come in," Leo said, his gaze shifting from one to the other. "I did not bring you here to assign you tasks. I brought you here to offer you a future. When this is over, the old departments will be gone. A new, unified Strategic Division will be formed. And I intend to be the one who builds it."
He turned to Ben. "Ben, you are the best risk auditor in this company. You see the flaws no one else does. I don't want you writing reports. I want you to be the architect of the new division's entire risk and quality assurance framework. You will answer to no one but me. You will have the authority to veto any project—including my own—if you find it to be structurally unsound."
Ben stared, speechless. For his entire career, his cynicism had been treated as a character flaw. Leo was offering to make it his primary weapon.
Leo then faced Anna. "Anna, your ambition is your greatest asset. You have a killer instinct this company tries to suppress. I want you to unleash it. I don't want you analyzing markets. I want you running our counter-intelligence and competitive strategy wing. Your job will be to dismantle our rivals, legally and ethically, but without mercy. You will be my sword."
He had seen their true potential with his Business Instinct. Now, he was offering it to them, not as a promotion, but as a destiny. He was giving them the one thing they craved more than job security: the power to become the most authentic, effective versions of themselves.
A long silence filled the room. Ben and Anna looked at each other, a silent communication passing between two people who had worked together for years. They had seen Leo operate. They knew his ruthlessness, his coldness. But they also knew, with absolute certainty, that he won. And now, he was inviting them to win with him.
It was Ben who spoke first, his voice rough with a new, unfamiliar emotion. "When do we start?"
A notification, the one Leo had been waiting for, shimmered in his vision.
[System-Level Quest Updated: Earn Loyalty, Not Fear] [Progress: 2/3 Core Subordinates Recruited] [Ben Carter - Status: Loyal] [Anna Chen - Status: Loyal] [Your vision has forged a bond stronger than fear or respect. You are no longer just a manager. You are a leader.]
The foundation was laid. Now, it was time to build his kingdom.