Surviving Restructuring

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Harona’s slender fingers tapped nervously against the polished wooden desk, one leg bouncing relentlessly underneath. Her face was tightly scrunched, while her lower lip was being chewed to shreds. Anyone could see that she was a bundle of nerves.

On any other day, her quick-witted subordinate would have stepped in to calm her down. However, today, even he had lost his usual composure.

He must have chosen by now. He must have. He has to have chosen, she thought.

“He would have chosen,” Seung replied.

“You think so too, right?” she pressed.

“... Probably,” he muttered. Instead of reassuring her, Seung only paced around the office, just as restless as she was.

“But he must be curious about how his hometown has changed,” she said.

“Do you think he’s the sentimental type?” Seung asked, skeptical.

“Ugh, probably not. But maybe he picked somewhere familiar, just to lower the risk,” she said.

“Well... That does sound plausible.”

Harona was a wreck. Usually, she would have snorted and said something like, “Whatever. He’s just a rookie. Whether he comes or doesn’t, who cares.”

“Would sending him a message sound too desperate?” she asked, genuinely considering sending Eun-Ho a direct notice to pick her department.

“A message? From you? Personally?” Seung asked, eyebrows shooting up. He looked utterly dumbfounded. For an administrator to contact a trainee waiting to choose their assignment wasn’t just undignified. “You know that’s against regulations, don’t you?”

“I know,” she grumbled.

“You know and you’re still—” He tried to let out a long sigh but barely swallowed it down, choosing to spill words instead. “You’re already under scrutiny as the best restructuring supervisor, plus you produced the Sales Department’s Employee of the Year. Everyone’s watching you, so absolutely not. There’s no way you’re doing that!”

“Ugh, who said I was actually going to do it? I was just saying!” Harona shot back, shaking her twin ponytails in irritation. “Why did it have to be now of all times...”

If only Eun-Ho hadn’t gone and won the Employee of the Year for the Sales Department, she wouldn’t be this sensitive over a single OJT assignment.

“Why did he have to be that good at sales?!” Harona snapped.

The news had spread like wildfire and caused far more commotion than expected. Since the award required approval from the Director of the Sales Department, it even reached the ears of foreign department heads. Finally it reached the Director of the Management Bureau, who had personally scouted Eun-Ho long ago, at the cost of a portion of his authority.

“Eun-Ho... That child’s name is being whispered in strange places,” the Management Bureau Director had remarked.

Naturally, the Director wouldn’t be thrilled that other nations had begun eyeing the talent they had nurtured. Besides, the Sales Department was practically the beating heart of the organization. There was no way they would let a hard-earned talent be snatched away.

“He’s the only rookie the Director ever personally marked. We’ve been ordered to bring him in,” Harona said.

“But—” Seung stopped when Harona shot him a sharp look. Whether he voiced it or not, the implication remained.

Then another thought came to her, a worst-case scenario she desperately wished she hadn’t imagined, based on something she had overheard. “And Ju Gwang... I heard he’s after Eun-Ho too.”

Seung stiffened. “What?!”

“If he ends up under another Adminitrator...” Harona continued through clenched teeth, “then the Sales Department might honestly be the safer option.”

After raising the rookie this far and even submitting reports to upper management, losing him to a rival wasn’t just giving away the meal she cooked. It was being held at gunpoint and offering a bullet to her enemy, telling him to do his best.

A chill ran down her spine.

“... No. I can’t let that happen. Absolutely not,” she muttered, shaking her head as if to banish the thought. Then she made her vow. “Remember this. During this OJT, we make him remember our department. Clearly.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Seung said.

“And!” She lifted a single index finger for emphasis. “Show him we’re not the desperate ones.”

They had to show that every employee dreamed of getting into their Bureau. Not only was it the fast lane straight to an executive position, one could also hold real unrivaled power as long as they produced results. Such was the image they meant to project. If they acted desperate to recruit a rookie, they would end up competing with those dimwitted Audit or Sales Departments.

“But will that guy even be tempted?” Seung asked.

“He’s more calculating and goal-driven than anyone. We need to emphasize what he stands to gain. Management is the elite track. The elite track,” Harona said.

Seung nodded without hesitation. “Understood.”

He also remembered the earlier conversation he had with the Director.

“The Management Bureau is the core. You must understand the field to accomplish great things.”

“Yes, sir!” Seung had answered.

None of that had been a lie.

“If he happens to feel sympathy after seeing how his people live in such miserable conditions, that’d be ideal,” Harona said.

“Ah, so he might choose us out of concern?” Seung asked.

“Maybe. But that doesn’t look very likely,” she muttered. She flicked her hand to pull up a screen, only for it to vanish just as quickly.

Ding!

A bright notification chimed through the office.

[A new trainee has been assigned.]

[Please check the details!]

“What?! Details! Show the details!” Harona shouted.

A new window snapped open, and on it appeared the name they had been waiting for desperately.

[Lee Eun-Ho]

- Department: Personnel Bureau (temporary)

- OJT Evaluations

- Investigation Bureau: F

- Audit Bureau: S

- Sales Department: S

...

“He chose us!”

“Yes, he did!” Seung exclaimed.

It was Eun-Ho. Eun-Ho was coming! Clenching his fist, Seung could practically taste victory.

“Good! Perfect!” Harona shouted with fierce determination. “Now all we have to do is reel him in!”

***

“Should we go in?” Eun-Ho asked, as Ji-Eun and Jae-Hyuk arrived.

“Yes! Let’s go in, Eun-Ho!” Ji-Eun said.

Jae-Hyuk breathed out, stiff as a board. “Alright... Let’s do this, Hyungnim.”

Eun-Ho pushed open the door on behalf of the two nervous people.

Creak—

The moment they entered, a massive window came into view. Outside, a giant tree planted in the garden spread its branches wide, glowing fresh and green in the daylight.

When they looked around the room, they could tell the owner’s taste was more conservative than expected. There was a tall wall of bookshelves, several old-fashioned sofas, and a low table. Across the center, a three-meter-tall broad wooden desk stretched.

It was a perfectly ordinary executive office, almost like the study of a high-ranking family, except for the girl sitting on top of her oversized desk. Her legs dangled in the air because they did not reach the floor.

“You’re here?” she called. “Lee Eun-Ho?”

Her voice shot through a mountain of paperwork like an arrow—high and thin, but not light in the least. The room’s owner was entirely composed, as if she’d known they would come all along.

“And Kim Ji-Eun and Choi Jae-Hyuk too. Did the whole trio choose together?” she asked.

Jae-Hyuk snapped to attention and saluted like he was back in boot camp. “Y-yes, ma’am! This is New Employee Choi! Jae! Hyuk! Reporting!”

“Hello, Miss Harona. I’m Kim Ji-Eun. And the person behind you is?” Ji-Eun asked politely.

“... Choi Seung,” the man replied.

Ji-Eun bowed deeply as she introduced herself, her gaze shifting to the man standing behind Harona. Meanwhile, Eun-Ho silently observed the room.

A desk and a single chair. So this is a one-person office. Then the man next to her is probably functioning as an assistant or aide.

After taking a moment to look around, he finally said, “Long time no see.”

Harona leaned back comfortably on her red velvet, quilted chair, arms crossed. “So, it seems like you were somewhat curious about your hometown.”

“If I say I wasn’t curious at all, that would be a lie. But more than that, I preferred working with someone I’ve already seen in action.”

“Hmm? Meaning you liked me, is that it?” she teased.

He answered simply, “I saw how decisively you handle things.”

“Oh? When?” she asked.

He confirmed it without hesitation. “During the Memory Auction.”

Harona lifted her eyebrows and lowered them again, clearly pleased. “Well, I am good at my job. You made a smart choice.”

Though her biggest strength is something else entirely, Eun-Ho thought.

He had already figured her out. She was a superior who responded well to negotiation and deals, but there was no need to spell that part out.

“I saw your face so many times that I’m kind of sick of it already...” Harona said smugly. She tilted her chin upward and crossed her legs, dripping arrogance. “I was hoping to get a look at a new face, but too bad for me.”

“A new face?” Eun-Ho asked.

“You know, that genius player. The kid with the freakish talent.”

At her offhand remark, Ji-Eun and Jae-Hyuk visibly stiffened.

“... She wanted Wei?” Ji-Eun whispered.

“H-Hyungnim... what do we do?” Jae-Hyuk muttered.

“Are you sure you’re disappointed?” Eun-Ho asked.

“Hmm?”

Although Harona spoke as if she had received a gift she did not particularly want, there was a limit to bluffing.

“You seemed awfully happy for someone who’s supposedly disappointed,” said Eun-Ho.

“... What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked.

Eun-Ho remembered that her eyes had sparkled like a child unwrapping a present. Her breath had hitched and puffed through flaring nostrils. Even her twin ponytails bounced like rabbit ears.

Changing her tone wasn’t going to hide any of that. Besides, they had heard everything from outside the door.

“He chose us!”

“Yes, he did!”

“You sounded like you were over the moon,” Eun-Ho said.

The girl, who had been pretending to be calm, pressed her lips together only to open them again. “How much of it did you hear?”

Her mouth twitched, and the tips of her ears had turned bright red.

“Mm... Maybe starting from “He chose us!”

A short silence followed.

“Damn it.” Her twin ponytails stood up like bristling fur as she muttered, “Your hearing’s too good.”

Behind her, Seung quietly averted his gaze, which only confirmed it.

We don’t have to let her push us around anymore, Eun-Ho thought.

They weren’t her toys anymore. With that thought, Eun-Ho took a few unhurried steps deeper into the office.

Thump.

“Thank you for the very enthusiastic welcome,” he said.

“I wasn’t that enthusiastic.” Harona mumbled.

Thump.

“You have a nice office. It’s quite spacious,” he said.

“I said it wasn’t that enthusiastic—”

Thump.

“Did you pick the furniture yourself?”

“You’re cutting me off on purpose, aren’t you?” she snapped.

“Of course not.” After a few more steps, he stopped in front of a soft, well-upholstered sofa. “May I sit?”

“Do whatever you want. I don’t care,” she muttered, trying very hard to seem unaffected. Then, she casually ordered, “Seung, bring out some tea.”

Her subordinate hurried around busily. “Yes, ma’am.”

“You’re fine with something warm, right?”

“If possible, something with stamina recovery, please. Something like warm honey water would be good.”

“What?” Harona froze.

“I got something like that from the Investigation Bureau once. But it helped a lot. For reference, the one they gave me boosted max Stamina by one percent and recovery speed by five percent for thirty minutes.”

Seung stood there in silence, face drained of color, before finally replying, “I’ll find something better.”

***

[You have consumed Warm Chamomile Tea!]

[Your max Stamina has been increased by one percent.]

[Your stamina recovery speed has been increased by five percent.]

[Your mind and body have been calmed.]

[The remaining duration is 29 minutes 59 seconds.]

It had the same effects as the Honey Water the Investigation Bureau had given him. The only new feature was the vague addition of calming mind and body. Eun-Ho doubted something that immeasurable would matter much, until it mattered badly.

“What is that!”

“What the heck!”

Snap—!

Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop—

The moment Harona snapped her fingers, rows of screens burst into existence. All he could see were hundreds of videos streaming simultaneously, without any sound.

I feel like I can hear them anyway, Eun-Ho thought.

The screams of a man whose limbs were ripped off by a creature rising out of the Han River, blackened with oil. The wet pop of an idol’s head exploding beneath a massive monster’s foot. The shrieks of people fleeing for their lives from a stampede of beasts. Every phantom noise crawled directly into their ears.

Eun-Ho, Ji-Eun, and Jae-Hyuk all fell silent. The city on the screens had collapsed and crumbled into something primordial. It became a dead, ruined place.

Scattered through the wreckage were survivors, clinging to life like desperate insects. The Seoul on the screen was no longer the home they were born and raised in.

“This looks like hell...” Jae-Hyuk whispered, strength draining from his voice.

There was no other word that fit.

[New donation has been sent.]

[The Iron Fist from the Sales Department suggests that, since things have already gone awry, why not go for a full annihilation ending?]

[A donation of 1,000 Welfare Points has been made!]

Of course, this was the kind of place where deranged observers suggested a massacre ending to people barely staying alive.

“Why are you doing this?” Eun-Ho asked, teeth grinding.

Wasn’t the restructuring over? Why do they have to torment these people even more? Eun-Ho thought.

The administrator of these lunatic observers answered calmly, “It can’t be helped. This is the best option for them too.”

“What do you mean?” Eun-Ho asked.

Harona stirred her untouched teacup with a small silver spoon. “Contract temporary workers need points to prepare for their Final Settlement. Trials and donations are essential for that.”

“So administrators get in the way and take a cut, don’t they?” he asked.

“We all help each other. Donations are management performance, after all.”

Just as he suspected, the occasional donation messages they had seen were part of an administrator’s performance metric. It also carried another implication.

“Does that mean you have to torment the survivors to build performance?” Eun-Ho asked.

“Haha. You catch on fast. The observers who stuck around this long tend to like that sort of thing,” she said.

That meant now he was expected to do this filthy job with his own hands.

“I’ll open an official channel for you. Create a scenario,” Harona said.

“Ha...” Eun-Ho sighed.

“Let’s see. I need to assign a trial somewhere. Ah, there’s one.” She selected one of the screens. It expanded, swallowing up the rest until only a single scene filled his view. “Here. The next trial goes here.”

The road was fractured like a patchwork of sinkholes. A small, unsettling green circle called a Safe Zone glowed on the unstable asphalt. It was barely five meters wide, if that.

Packed inside it were people trying desperately to survive, their conditions horrific. They had bloodshot eyes from days without sleep. Their ribs were jutting through shredded clothing, and filth was streaming down their skin in place of sweat. They were alive only because death hadn’t gotten around to them yet.

Harona watched the scene and said, “Alright. Pick one.”

Snap!

A cheerful chime followed.

[OJT trial has been activated!]

[Trial: Identify Observer Needs and Activate an Appropriate Trial.]

[Time Limit: 1 hour]

[Donation Goal: 10,000 Points]

“Ha...”

Activate a mission? Toy with these people barely surviving on ruined ground? Do to them exactly what has been done to me, over and over? Eun-Ho thought, disgusted.

[Rewards: 2 Points, 2,000 Welfare Points]

[Failure Consequence: Department Transfer(Personnel → Operations)]

He expected this, but that didn’t stop the disgust boiling inside him. Still, if he was going to do this trial anyway, he was ready to choose on his terms.

“A proposal,” Eun-Ho said.

“A proposal?” Harona asked.

“Whether it’s a proposal or a trial guide, give it to me. I’ll review it and choose it myself.”

“What? How would you even—”

“Hurry. We’re short on time.”