Surviving Restructuring

“Hello, Chairman.” The chief secretary, her ebony hair neatly tied back, bent at the waist in a flawless bow. As always, she drew out the schedule tucked to her chest, prepared to provide an update. “Regarding the matter of scouting the Personnel Bureau Director—”

However, the chairman’s tone was unusual, and so was the content of his request. “Send me the list of those awaiting personnel appointments.”

“There is someone I have in mind.”

“If you mean the employee-level Team Leader you mentioned before, I will summon him at once.”

“No. I will bring him myself.”

It had not even been an hour since he had left the office after saying that. And now, he was asking for the list of those waiting on appointments. It could only mean one thing: his scouting attempt had failed.

No way. That’s impossible, the chief secretary thought.

The thought itself was absurd.

Everyone’s desperate just to exchange a word with him!

As the one who served the chairman most closely, the chief secretary knew better than anyone how eager the executives were to catch his eye.

When the chairman mastered a new skill, the executives hurried to learn it as well, trailing behind him like devoted followers. When he developed a taste for a new dish, they scrambled to import entire crates to present to him. When he showed interest in a new hire, that individual became the object of envy and jealousy across the company.

He had been refused? A newly appointed, wet-behind-the-ears team leader had rejected the chairman’s offer? On what grounds?

Despite the tangled confusion in her mind, the chief secretary responded as though she harbored not a single doubt, “Understood.”

She did not ask, even when curious. She did not flare in anger, even when indignant. That was her creed.

“Ah, before that.”

“Yes, Chairman.”

“I hear public sentiment is unfavorable. Is that true?”

She answered calmly, “It is true. I will present a report.”

Having anticipated the question, she had prepared accordingly. There were posts from the free board, the anonymous board, and even interviews conducted through her staff with a few particularly volatile teams.

“No, there’s no need for that. I don’t need the report. Show me the raw data.”

The materials the secretariat compiled were always refined and processed into language suitable for the chairman’s eyes.

“But the volume is quite extensive. Are you certain—” She faltered at the chairman’s razor-sharp gaze, lowering her head. “Understood.”

Without another word or signal, a screen appeared.

Fwoosh—!

───────────────

[Hot Thread] Anyone See the Hall of Fame?

For context, I’ve got eighty years of video editing experience. I watched everything the Labor-Management Cooperation Team uploaded. I don’t want to believe it, but it doesn’t look doctored, damn it.

Key points are:

The Personnel Director ambushed the Labor-Management Cooperation Team.

Disobedient employees were used as test subjects.

The Arena was being operated.

Zoom in on the Arena footage and you can see contestants’ bodies twisted unnaturally. My guess? They used failed experiments in the Arena.

Thread’s open. So feel free to fight it out here.

───────────────

“Posts of this nature are appearing continuously.”

The chairman scanned the screen rapidly, unconsciously twisting his cane. “And the comments?”

The chief secretary bit down on her lip and scrolled. “Yes.”

└How can anyone think this is fake? Are you blind? It’s obviously real.

└What the hell is the arena? Do they drag you there if you miss your targets?

└Is this even a company?

└The Personnel Director ambushed the Labor-Management Cooperation Team (and got wrecked)

└That team actually does good work. What was the Director thinking?

└Is this even a company?

└Work ourselves to the bone just to end up as lab rats? Screw this.

└You’re only realizing the company’s screwed now?

The anonymous board was a place where thoughts were dumped unfiltered.

└Heard the Labor-Management Cooperation Team risked their lives to expose this.

└That Team Leader’s probably marked for execution.

└We should crowdfund to help him escape, yeah?

└I’d chip in, seriously.

└Send Lee Eun-O to the Chairman’s office!

└Send Lee Eun-O to the Chairman’s orifice!

└It’s Lee Eun-Ho, not Lee Eun-O, you idiots.

The chairman read every single line. Meanwhile, the chief secretary wished she could close her eyes.

“Next.”

Swoosh—!

“Next.”

Swoosh—!

“Next.”

He absorbed the employees’ complaints and crude denunciations in their rawest form. “Where’s the public affairs director?”

“I will summon him.”

The public affairs director, who managed the company’s internal and external image, was called in.

“Tell him to bring the division chief as well.”

“Yes, Chairman.”

The public affairs division chief, who was one rank below the director, was brought too.

The public affairs director had barely stepped through the door before his knees were slammed into the floor. “I heard you were looking for me, Chair—guk!”

The chairman raised the cane he had been idly handling.

“C-C-Chairman! Please calm—aaaagh!”

The cane struck the division chief by his side, his back, and his collapsing shoulder.

“How is the bulletin board being managed?”

Thwack!

“What the hell are you doing?”

Crack!

Beaten like a dog in midsummer, the division chief vomited blood. “I-I’m sorry—kuk!”

Even though the blows only contained raw strength, it was enough to bend his spine sideways, shatter his bones, and rupture his organs.

“Chairman! It’s my fault! Please, calm—”

“Is this how the director trained you?!”

“Keugh!”

The division chief kept screaming, but not for long. The public affairs director had no chance to defend himself. He could only watch as his subordinate died before his eyes.

Instead of berating the director directly, the chairman beat the subordinate. It was a method he often used when managing executives. Being punished was painful, but watching someone suffer because of them was far worse.

Glancing at the blood caked on him and the flesh clinging to his cane, the chairman gestured. “Clean it up.”

Fwoosh—!

A bright green light burst from the chief secretary’s hand. The healing light restored the dying man and erased the carnage as though nothing had happened.

“C-Chairman...”

Once he confirmed the bloodied division chief had returned to pristine condition, the chairman jerked his chin toward the door. “Leave.”

“Yes! Yes, sir!”

Afterward, the chief secretary replaced the bloodstained carpet with practiced efficiency, escorted the two men out, and ensured there would be no loose tongues.

The chairman reclined on the sofa, examining his reflection in the polished cane. “I have not felt this way in a long time.”

It had been a while since he had administered such discipline, and yet it did not feel refreshing.

To find the answer, the chairman straightened from his slouched position. “There is something you must do for me.”

***

“Oppa! Where did you go?”

Yeon Bo-Ra came running toward him, the fabric of her light-purple jumpsuit—top and bottom stitched seamlessly together—fluttering as she hurried across the room.

“Oh, I had a visitor for a moment,” Eun-Ho replied.

She tilted her head. “A visitor?”

He swept his gaze across the construction site behind her. “How’s the construction? Going well?”

The once-empty plaza was now packed with buildings and materials, which told him all he had to know.

“No problems!” Yeon Bo-Ra said brightly. “It should be wrapped up in three or four days.”

“Move that up.”

Now that the chairman had started moving personally, “no problems” was no longer good enough.

Yeon Bo-Ra nodded with a dependable expression and immediately sprang into action.

“I’ll finish it within two days,” she said without hesitation.

She shifted soil as though it were a conveyor, transporting materials like shipping containers. She raised towering supports to help with the castle walls. She was indeed a true talent of this era.

Just as Eun-Ho turned away, thinking he could entrust it all to her, Min Yeo-Jin came running over. “Mister!”

“Oh, Yeo-Jin.”

She hastily pulled up a screen. “The bulletin board!”

───────────────

[Chat] Company Announcement Just Dropped

They’re reviewing the issue and forming an official task force under the Audit Bureau to investigate thoroughly. If you report anything related, you get points and immediate action.

───────────────

“They’re responding faster than I expected,” Min Yeo-Jin said. “They’re clearly drawing a line and saying it wasn’t the company’s fault.”

“Seems like it.”

An official task force meant they planned to present it all as the Personnel Bureau director’s personal corruption. It was a clean severing of the tail. After all, the director had long since crossed the river to the underworld. The company stood to lose nothing.

In any case, public sentiment flipped almost instantly.

└The TF handles grievances too? For real?

└So the Personnel Bureau director did all that behind the company’s back? What a lunatic.

└Stop watching fake videos, idiots.

“The tide’s turning!” Min Yeo-Jin said.

The company had turned the two disasters that had struck the Labor-Management Cooperation Team, the arena, and the illegal experiments into events of the past. Not only that, they also washed their hands of it.

“Post something,” Eun-Ho said.

“What? If we try to insist it’s the company’s fault now, it won’t do anything—”

“No.” They had to ride the wave, the very wave the company had worked so hard to create. “Say we’re glad they listened to our voices.”

“What?”

“Say we’ll continue to uncover internal corruption from here on out.”

If the company was scrambling to clean up its image, we can take the credit, Eun-Ho thought.

“Then...” Min Yeo-Jin said slowly.

“The more the company works, the bigger our achievements become.”

She gave him a thumbs-up. “Insane! Mister, you’re the best!”

“Oh, right,” he added. “Promote the union inauguration ceremony too.”

“Huh?”

“The reactions are hot right now. We should use it.”

“Oooh, I like it!”

That took care of the battle for public opinion. Eun-Ho exhaled slowly as it was about time to nourish himself a little.

Lee Eun-Ho: The chairman has come.

Lee Eun-Ho: You’ll have to move.

***

A brilliant light burst forth in the once-overgrown Wailing Forest.

[Congratulations!]

[The Castle Wall construction has been completed!]

“It’s done!”

“Unnie! Look over there!”

“The wall’s wider than I expected.”

“Ah, the castle grew larger than planned, so the wall expanded too,” Yeon Bo-Ra explained.

Along the forest’s undulating hills, a wall reminiscent of the Great Wall stretched endlessly. Several times taller than a person, it radiated solidity. Eun-Ho felt an unexpected sense of relief as he looked at it.

From the wall, a dome spread outward, encasing the entire territory. Like half-melted glass stretched thin, it was semi-transparent, reflecting sunlight in rainbow hues.

[Exclusive defensive barrier has been generated.]

[Base defense of 500 has been applied to territory enclosed by the Castle Wall.]

“Base defense of five hundred?!”

“So most attacks just won’t even register?”

The wall bisected the Wailing Forest, a towering gate at its center.

[The Castle Gate construction has been completed.]

[You may designate authorized entrants.]

“Incredible,” Eun-Ho murmured.

The door appeared to be made from heavy iron fused with ancient wood.

Then, a series of notifications chimed again.

[The Wailing Castle construction has been completed.]

[You have acquired the authority of the Castle Lord.]

The last few messages seemed visible only to him.

Castle Lord? Eun-Ho thought.

[You may assign spaces within the Castle and grant special effects to designated areas.]

[You may add desired functions using Team Benefits or Welfare Points.]

Grant special effects to Castle spaces?

He had expected something modest, perhaps a bedroom with a rest bonus or a dining hall with minor buffs. “Check special effects.”

[Displaying assignable special effects.]

Fwoosh—!

Against a backdrop straight out of a Disneey medieval fantasy, countless cards filled his vision. A three-dimensional cross-section of a cubic room was depicted in each.

Wow.

The first thing that caught his eye was essentially a gym.

[Training Room]

- Want to train your Stamina? Stop mindlessly running drills! Treadmills, bench presses, leg presses, power racks are fully equipped. Just bring your body!

- Increases Stamina stat growth speed by 200%

There were other practical facilities as well.

[Swordsmanship Training Hall]

- From dummies that withstand Sword Aura to controlled breathing of qi, everything you’ve dreamed of is here. Stand tall as a master swordsman through systematic training!

- Increases sword-related skill growth speed by 150%

He even spotted a dark, grim-looking prison.

[Prison]

- Troubled by troublesome dissidents? Lock them up! Equip the provided shackles and confine them behind bars to reduce target Agility by 90% and Strength by 90%.

- Capacity: 0/10

There were far more options than he expected. He had to scroll sideways for quite some time.

[Armory]

[Banquet Hall]

[Dining Hall(Breakfast)]

[Dining Hall(Dinner)]

[Dining Hall(Tea Time)]

...

Just then, he noticed something. “What’s this?”

Among the flamboyant, brightly colored cards practically begging to be installed first, a dull gray card seemed to hide in the shadows.

[Secret Room]

Even the name sounded suspicious.

Hmm.

In any case, he had to choose. He currently had sixty million Welfare Points. Though he had nearly exhausted his Team Benefits, the recent construction and defeated enemies had brought him another five thousand.

I’m not going to hoard this to live for a thousand years.

Guk Ryang: He’s not the type to let this go.

Guk Ryang: A bloodstorm is coming.

[Would you like to upgrade the Wailing Castle?]

However, remembering what Guk Ryang had said earlier, he decided to spend it boldly. “Upgrade.”

[Please select upgrade options!]