However, after the challenge was passed, A did not immediately issue an order to end the work.
His conversation with Abram continued...
"Carmen is right here. She is neither alive nor dead! How can you bear to abandon her and walk into an uncertain future!?"
"Being imprisoned in this never-ending cycle is our inescapable atonement!"
"But do you want to just walk into tomorrow and the future like this?! Do you want to escape your regrets and sins like this?!"
But A was no longer defeated by his words. He had the conviction to bear both regret and sin, and the trust placed in him by everyone in the company prevented him from falling.
"..."
His broken side, the idea of redeeming himself through endless reincarnation, and the desire to end his life together formed the personality Abram, who laughed.
"Since that's the case,"
"This is the last door that didn't appear in those stories."
"I can't open it."
"This door...is only open to those who have no regrets."
Do you really think you can open this door?
A cold smile played on his lips, but A could see hope in his eyes.
It was a door that seemed both illusory and real, standing within their secret room. A first notified the employees that work was over, and then, under Abram's expectant yet envious gaze, pushed open the door.
"You did it, you did something I couldn't do."
Ignoring the gradually fading noises from Abram beside him, A stepped through the door and walked forward amidst the endless light.
...
...
"Damn it, Yezi, let me tell you, I used to be secretly jealous of you, thinking I could have won the best employee award too."
The employee Ye Lan saved approached him after work, excitedly grasping Ye Lan's hand and saying, "That was Supervisor Geburah! Even if it was just a fake, it was still the legendary 'Crimson Mist'! You actually managed to take her down single-handedly, it's truly... truly amazing..."
"Really what?"
Hong Jie's voice came from behind the employee, startling him so much he almost jumped up from the ground. Having suffered too many frights today, the employee immediately ran away upon seeing Geburah. He still had to go to Hod for psychological treatment later, and he didn't want to create unnecessary pressure between Ye Lan and Geburah.
"You ran pretty fast." Sister Hong threw away the cigarette butt stuck in the small opening in the box and said to Ye Lan, "We really owe you a lot today."
"No problem, it's not the first time I've dealt with you in that state." Ye Lan found a place to sit down and started chatting with Geburah.
Geburah lit another cigarette and said to Ye Lan with a self-deprecating smile, "Ha, back then, I was consumed by rage and lost all reason. I actually abandoned everyone I had to protect and engaged in a futile battle with those anomalies."
A disciplinary staff member passing by handed Ye Lan a sandwich stuffed with Thuringian sausage and yellow mustard, saying, "Thank you for supporting us today. This dinner is on me."
After waving goodbye to the employee, Ye Lan said to Geburah, "But you certainly won't let anger destroy your reason anymore, right?"
"Yes, it feels really good to let go of the past..."
To be honest, it is indeed a strange thing to see a box containing a brain smoking, but Ye Lan can seamlessly regard them as character portraits in a game, so it is not too strange.
The two continued chatting near the disciplinary department for a while, when an employee from the research and development department ran over.
"Um, is it convenient for me to talk now?"
The employee, dressed in a black uniform with gold honeycomb stripes, scratched his head and awkwardly struck up a conversation with the two.
"The R&D department? What does that hunchbacked Binah want with you?" Geburah flicked his cigarette ash, his mechanical eyes looking at the employee in front of him with displeasure.
"I know you have a 'conflict' with Binah, but he came to see me, right?"
Ye Lan ruffled the top of Sister Hong's box like she was rubbing a child's hair, a gesture that stunned Geburah and the poor employee.
"Hey, hurry up and tell me what's going on. If she comes to her senses later, we won't have time to talk."
Ye Lan nudged the stunned R&D employee, urging him to tell him what had happened. Meanwhile, Geburah was already blinking, and his actions wouldn't be able to shock the box spirit for long.
The employee seized the opportunity and explained the situation in the shortest possible way: "Oh, the minister asked if you're free to attend the tea party later."
Then, Ye Lan only had time to tell him that he would be there in half an hour before he was chased by a mimic Geburah that appeared out of nowhere, running down the corridor they were in and all the way into the restaurant.
Half an hour later, Ye Lan appeared at Binah's tea table as promised. Sephirah from the R&D department was quite surprised by Ye Lan's current situation. After learning from that employee what terrible things he had done to Geburah, Binah thought that if he could be turned into a human stick and thrown over by Geburah, she would be in a good mood.
As it turned out, Ye Lan's limbs were all intact, with only a few bleeding wounds on her body.
"Don't look at me like that. Sister Hong isn't some kind of murderer. At most, she'll slash me a couple of times and then she'll be over it. Besides, I can dodge, right?"
"It's really strange that you, this 'best employee,' are odd from head to toe. If we weren't all just prisoners in this jail, I would have already taken a group of people to try and crack open your brain."
Looking at this top employee who seemed oblivious to the surrounding tombstones, Binah's curiosity about him intensified. In addition to watching Carmen being turned into a "bucket" day after day, she now also enjoyed testing Ye Lan.
"Haha, that's not a funny joke, Garion."
Perhaps out of a desire for revenge, or perhaps because tomorrow was the final challenge for the Construction Department, Ye Lan completely abandoned the idea of hiding things from him that he shouldn't know, and called out Binah's name in front of her—Garion.
"How could you..."
"Let's keep this secret as a celebration gift, and tell it when everything is over. After all, secrets are all the more fascinating, aren't they?"
After saying that, Ye Lan left Binah, whose face was contorted with laughter, behind and went back to her dormitory.
Day 48, the end...