Ye Lan is a good employee.
Male, likes women.
He's twenty-two this year, oh, maybe a few hundred thousand months to go. Although he just celebrated his birthday yesterday with his "colleagues," time keeps cycling in the company, and he can't even remember how many twenty-two birthdays he's had.
He was a time traveler who found himself in a huge training ground the moment he opened his eyes. When he was only ten years old and realized where he was, the Invisible Company, a corporate resistance organization called the Company, sent him to this training ground to begin his arduous training.
During those ten years of monotonous life, Central, the leader of the Invisible Company, personally trained him into a highly capable and well-rounded agent.
On his twentieth birthday, with the complete recovery of his past life memories, he was sent to the city and joined L Company, also known as Lobotomy Corporation, as a spy to steal Singularity Technology...
The alarm clock interrupted the young man's reverie. He reached out and slapped the alarm clock off the bedside table, then got up and went into the bathroom in his rest room.
Standing in front of the mirror, a cold face was reflected in it. The countless cycles had destroyed Ye Lan's normal emotions. Although he could still smile, unless he was in front of others, his young face would always be cold and empty.
Ye Lan squeezed some shaving cream onto his face, lathered it up, and began to groom the stubble on his face. A light screen popped up above an ornament on the sink, and Central's face appeared on the screen.
"Report your mission."
"He infiltrated Lobotomy Corporation, identified and stole the company's Singularity Technology."
"Your memory is clear, and you haven't shown any signs of brainwashing. Happy birthday, Ye Lan. Although this blessing is a day late, I'm sure you won't mind, right?"
"Thank you. We have half an hour before breakfast begins. Is there anything I need to report?"
"No, I'm here to inform you. An abnormal situation has occurred today in the extremely dangerous area known as the ruins in the city. The corridor that led you into the city has been completely destroyed."
"So, does that mean I can't go back to the company for the time being?"
"We will try to open up a passage as soon as possible, so please be careful."
After Central finished speaking, he closed the communication, and the ornament became as inconspicuous as usual.
"Ha, another notification, even the dialogue is exactly the same." The icy tap water splashed on his face, washing away the foam and freezing his despairing heart. Even a seasoned agent would break down under the ravages of time; maintaining his sanity was Ye Lan's limit.
Ye Lan had experienced countless conversations identical to this one. Although he could still clearly recall his memories of playing Lobotomy Corporation on the computer in his previous life, he dared not know how much time he had spent outside the company after actually becoming an employee there. After all, under the TT2 protocol's retrospective, every single thing had been repeated countless times.
"Angela, I know you're listening, and I know you can't answer me. Thank you for hiding my abnormality, thank you for preserving my memories."
He gazed at his reflection in the mirror, and perhaps countless painful memories flooded back; in that instant, he collapsed. The reflection in the mirror let out an angry and sorrowful roar:
"But why won't you erase my memories of what happened back to the past! Why do you make me suffer with you! Ahhhhh!!!"
Bang!
Click...
Just like in countless reincarnations, Ye Lan once again shattered the mirror in front of him with his bare hands. The time he had to break down had come to an end. With blood dripping from his hands, he left his rest room once again, as always.
Ye Lan knew in his heart that from the first time he told Angela everything he knew about the city and Lobotomy Corporation, he became the anchor point for Angela, who was in a hundred times more pain than him, to maintain herself, a companion who could share this pain.
For the Seed of Light Project, Angela's time was cruelly slowed down a hundredfold. Painful memories, a hundred times greater than Ye Lan's, squeezed and tormented her. The plan to resurrect Carmen ultimately yielded her, an AI that was only Carmen's shadow. Self-loathing led Ayin to refuse to acknowledge her and instead choose her as the manager of the Seed of Light Project.
"bite"
The elevator outside emitted a crisp, pleasant chime and stopped at his floor. The elevator doors opened automatically, and two colleagues from the training department stood inside.
"Good morning, Yezi. What's wrong today... Hey, what happened to your hand? Come here quickly, I brought some recovery medicine."
Ye Lan's lips twitched, and she put on a fake smile: "It's nothing. I accidentally broke a mirror this morning and got cut by the glass."
Having grown accustomed to Ye Lan's fake smile over the past two years, the two colleagues ignored his expression and simply stepped out of the elevator, pulling him by the arms and dragging him inside.
"You'd better be careful. If our best employee dies in the containment chamber because of this wound, our Miss Hod will be crying."
"Haha, don't worry. I won't die on this day."
When the elevator doors opened again, Ye Lan's hand wound had fully healed thanks to his colleagues' treatment. He vaguely remembered that the three of them would then chat as they walked into the restaurant, eating breakfast sandwiches while listening to Ms. Malkuth announce the day's tasks to all the employees who came for breakfast.
Then, as always, the cycle begins again...
"Ahem, is everyone here?" Malkuth, Sephirah from the Control Department, is a somewhat naive, slightly impatient, and arrogant box spirit. Ye Lan usually calls her Miss Malkuth, and then gets chased and beaten by her with the clipboard in her hand.
It could be said that this was one of the few sources of enjoyment he found in the endless cycle of reincarnation.
Ye Lan quickly finished his sandwich and sat down to listen to Miss Malkuth's instructions. However, something different happened. He wasn't assigned to Gebura's disciplinary department to mentor new recruits. Miss Malkuth didn't approach him personally until everyone else had finished their assignments, and then she said to him:
"Ye Zi, you're going to the Construction Department today. It's a newly opened department, and it's very important."
"You mean the Construction Department?"
Ye Lan abruptly raised his head and tentatively repeated, "You mean, the Construction Department?"
"Yes, it's the last department in our company headquarters, and it's very important. We can only feel at ease if you personally take the shift."
Ye Lan's breathing quickened, and his heart pounded. The Construction Department, a department that only unlocks upon entering the final chapter of Lobotomy Corporation, meant that if they could pass the five-day trial and release the Seed of Light, he, Angela, and everyone in the company could end this eternal cycle.
"I understand, trust me."
A long-lost light shone in his eyes; the chance to put an end to all of this thrilled him. His colleagues stared blankly as he suddenly hugged their control department's Sephirah and gave her a hard kiss, leaving Miss Malkuth completely stunned.
"What have you done?!"
About a minute later, an enraged Malkuth, holding his clipboard, chased Ye Lan out of the restaurant. The employees looked at each other, shrugged, and went back to eat their breakfast.
After all, this wasn't the first time their best employee had been chased and beaten out of the restaurant by Ms. Malkuth for flirting with her. Rather than following along to watch the show, it would be better to finish this breakfast, which might be their last meal.
After Malkuth ran a distance with her, Ye Lan stopped and let her slap the clipboard on her body, making a slapping sound.
After Malkuth vented her embarrassment at being suddenly hugged and kissed by Ye Lan, Ye Lan asked her, "What is the anomaly number that the supervisor chose today?"
"Huh? You tricked me into coming out on purpose just for this?"
"No, I really wanted to kiss you."
"Hey!" Malkuth took a deep breath to calm himself down. "The two Abnormalities today are D-03-109 and O-01-64. Two Abnormalities at once, we need to be extra careful."
"Hmm, relocate all my colleagues from the same department to other departments, and then give me a smile."
Ye Lan patted the top of Malkuth's box and headed towards the changing room.
Malkuth, who remained where she was, looked at her best employee with a puzzled expression. He seemed to have changed somewhat today, but she didn't know if this change was a good thing.
In this company, what can be considered a good thing?
...
...
Regardless, Supervisor A gave Ye Lan everything he had asked for, and Day 46 began.
[Laughing Nightmare] is an Ego suit consisting of a giant hammer with the pale face of an employee and a huge mouth, and a suit of armor with the face of a deceased employee whom Ye Lan knew embedded in the chest. The strange groans of death entwine around Ye Lan, who wore them, and the weight of death pressed down on his shoulders.
"call."
Ye Lan let out a deep breath and carried the giant hammer into the main lounge of the construction department. Today, it looked like a normal but old-fashioned manager's office, with even a bulky old computer on the manager's desk.
Ye Lan threw himself onto the sofa against the wall, waiting for A to give him the instruction to start working.
His dead colleagues enveloped his body, and those curse-like, eerie groans, as he made his final observation, sounded like clear words of encouragement. Their corpses would become his fortress, shielding him from any harm that might come his way.
"Ye Lan, it's your turn to act. Go to D-03-109. Although I don't know why you made this request, I believe you won't make it without reason. Let's work hard for our future."
The supervisor's announcement echoed in the break room, and Ye Lan got up and started working.
D-03-109, Dissolving Love.
A humanoid slime with a sweet strawberry scent, its overflowing love became a deadly poison.
Ye Lan took the necessary supplies for the observation work from the shelf outside the containment room and walked into the containment room with them and the recording board.
The humanoid slime, exuding a strawberry scent, stood obediently in the middle of the containment chamber, allowing Ye Lan to observe her body from around the perimeter. Seemingly realizing Ye Lan was observing her, the slime boldly spread her arms, exposing her entire body to Ye Lan's gaze.
Time flew by, and the energy counter on the wall beside him surged, quickly surpassing the 24-point threshold and stopping at 30. An excellent work result popped up on the machine next to him, instructing Ye Lan to leave the containment chamber.
Just as he was packing his things to leave, the slime moved. The strawberry-flavored slime ball, sensing his departure, plucked a clump of slime from its own body and kneaded it into the shape of a heart.
The Abnormalities are not mindless savage creatures; they are salvaged from the hearts of people and possess twisted emotions. This heart-shaped slime ball, overflowing with love, eventually floated above Ye Lan's head, serving both as protection and as a bomb capable of turning others into slimes.
Sighing at Dissolving Love, who was looking at him with confusion as he stopped, Ye Lan turned around and walked back. He squatted down in front of Dissolving Love's body, ignoring the rules, and put his hand into her strawberry-scented mucus.
At that moment, the entire slime, Dissolving Love, trembled. She regarded Ye Lan's touch as an expression of love. The gradually melting slime ball solidified as Ye Lan withdrew his hand from Dissolving Love's body. It seemed that for a period of time, this slime ball would no longer affect the surroundings.
"Why did you take so long? If your work results hadn't been sent back first, I would have suspected you were dead inside."
A greeted Ye Lan upon his return, seemingly because Ye Lan's mood had improved considerably due to what had happened during his work period.
"I won't say much more. Just take care of yourself. Best employee, now you need to go to containment chamber O-01-64. Once you come out, you should have passed today's Dawn Trial smoothly."
"A, be careful. I have a feeling today's test will be extraordinary."
For Ye Lan, as long as he could get through these last five days, he would be willing to tell every employee in the company all the information he knew.
Unfortunately, the script cannot be changed. Everything is for the launch of the Seed of Light. Both he and Angela can only remain silent. Even if they want to offer a word of advice, it can only end up as a dry "be careful."
Taking a deep breath, Ye Lan, having healed her physical and mental injuries in the rest room, entered O-01-64, the containment chamber of the Greed Queen.