Manager

      “Hello, Manager. Um… may I ask what you’re doing?”       “Hello, Angela. Just trying to tie this stupid tie.”       “Did you really take Yesod’s words so close to heart?”       “No, it’s not because of him. I’m just trying to remember how to do it. But I… just… can’t… do it! Oh, common…!”       Actually, I was thinking about my meeting with Yesod, and suddenly I remembered the proverb about welcoming by dress and seeing off by brains, and decided it wouldn’t hurt to look a little more presentable. For now I decided to limit it to a buttoned-up coat and tie. And then I remembered why I didn’t like to wear it, but a suddenly awakened donkey’s stubbornness prevented me from giving up on this idea. As a result, I spent most of the post-breakfast period agonizing over this unfortunate closet item. And I continue suffering…       “Oh, for the all sakes! Angela, where’s the nearest mirror?”       “Mirror?”       “Yes, a mirror! I don’t have one in my room for some reason, and I can’t tie this rag without them, for the life of me!”       “I’m sorry, sir, but all mirrors are forbidden in this complex.       “What? Why is that?” — I wondered.       “I’m afraid I can’t tell you the exact reason, but the prohibition was approved by the Founder himself.”       Something is not right here. Why did “A” ban mirrors? Does he have some kind of phobia? Or is there something else going on here? That’s strange. Well, anyway, it doesn’t matter now…       “Okay… well, the hell with mirrors, but… how am I supposed to do this thing without them? Oh, man…”       I have no idea why, but I couldn’t just give up on it. But I didn’t want to keep banging my head against the wall either. Hmm, maybe…       “Angela, can you help me?”       ”…Yes, of course.” — she hesitated for some reason, but she came toward me. As her delicate fingers deftly tied my tie, I couldn’t help but stare at her face. It’s hard not to look at something that’s right in front of you. One thing you can’t deny is Angela’s beauty. Because of the filter, though, it seemed that I had a human-sized porcelain doll in front of me, but even this did not spoil the impression. It’s a pity that beneath the beautiful cover there is a terrible tragedy.       “You are welcome.” — she finished quite quickly, and at the end she even corrected my coat, and then she took a couple of steps back and looked me over (I only now noticed that she sometimes opened her eyes). — “Hmm… you know, I think you look better now.”       “Yeah? Well, then, I’ll keep it that way. I’ll have to ask you to tie my tie every morning, though…”       “That’s alright, it’s not a burden to me.” — she smiled in response. I wonder if it’s true…       So, okay, what’s the situation right now? Today is the sixth day. Of the anomalies, we have the Jesus Skull, the Shrimp Machine, the Stretched Faces, the Music Box, and the Fairy Pack. So far everything has gone surprisingly smoothly, but today the first Ordeals is about to came, and I’m a little nervous because the EGO situation still leaves a lot to be desired. On the other hand, I’ve managed to train my workers, and considering that the first ordeals shouldn’t be too strong, I still have a decent chance of success.       While I was thinking about today’s plans and reviewing documents, Yesod came in.       “Manager, I have here a report on…”       “Dear Sir, aren’t you forgetting something?” — I interrupted him.       “Eh? What do you mean?”       “Yesterday’s topic, sir, yesterday’s. Or is your memory so small that you cannot retain one little conversation?”       “Er…” — he’s obviously pausing, trying to understand what I mean. — “Good morning… sir?”       “Oh, you remembered! Now get out of my office and start again, only this time in a normal way.”       “What?! But sir…!”       “Shush! If you don’t know how to behave properly, I’ll teach you. Come on, we don’t have all day.”       “But…” — Yesod turned to Angela, obviously hoping for her support…       “Don’t forget to ask for permission to come in.” — but she decided to play along. Unexpected, but pleasant. She didn’t seem to be happy with his manners either.       Yesod, obviously, not expecting such treatment; he wanted to say something, but changed his mind and came out. After a few seconds, he knocked and looked inside.       “May I come in?”       “You may.” — I nodded. Yesod came in, and for some reason he looked like a beaten dog.       “Good morning, sir.”       “Hello, good sir. What business do you have?”       “I brought a status report on the biometric monitoring system, sir. In short, there was a critical failure a few days ago that rendered it inoperable. It’s not difficult to repair, but we need your permission to make repairs.”       “Curious… And why am I aware of this problem only now?”       “Um… we only discovered the problem yesterday and didn’t finish analyzing it until the end of the work day.”       “The problem was a few days ago and we only discovered it yesterday? How interesting!” — Yesod was grim and clearly wanted to switch places with me. — “Were you able to find out what caused it?”       “Unfortunately no, sir.”       “Well, I’m not like it… Okay, here’s your permission.” — I handed him a piece of paper that I red and signed. — “I want this problem solved in the shortest possible time. You can use anything you want, but make sure it’s working in five days! If you need extra permission, come yourself or send someone else.”       “Can I use a help from the other Sephiroths?”       “If you can arrange it with them, go ahead, but if they’re busy, don’t bother them, understand?”       “Yes, sir.”       “That’s fine. Is that all, or are there any other matters to be discussed?”       “No, sir. May I go now?”       “You may. Oh, and one more thing: let’s not forget such trivial things as politeness anymore, okay?”       ”…I’ll try, sir.” — he replied with a stone face. — “Have a good day.”       “And you too.” — I glanced at him, then stared at the folder he’d brought. You may have realized by now, but I don’t like Yesod very much. There’s something I don’t like even more, though…       “Angela.” — I turned to her when I finished reading report. — “Who oversees the performance of all the systems of the complex?”       “It’s me, sir.”       “And why didn’t you tell me about this problem before?”       “I notified Yesod of the system malfunction as soon as I discovered that it was giving out incorrect data. I assume that was indicated in the report you just read.”       “That’s not what I’m asking! I’m asking why you didn’t tell me about it.”       “I’ve decided to not bother you about it because this circumstance is not critical.”       “Not critical? The functionality of the system through which I could track the condition of my employees is not critical?”       “It does not affect the performance of the staff, and you can safely work without it. So, yes, it’s not critical.” And then it was my turn to go into a stupor. As I stared at Angela like at idiot, my brain tried to digest the information I had received.       ”…Does this mean that if some thing makes my life easier, but I can, in theory, work without it, then I don’t need it, or what?”       “No, it means that if you can work without some, as you put it, “thing”, then it is not critical, which means that its condition is a secondary issue, i. e. it does not require any urgent intervention.”       Oh, yes, how could I forget: the main thing is the Scenario, and the rest — no matter.       ”…Angela, I thought your job was to make my life easier, not harder, right?”       “Sir, you don’t have to worry…”       “I’m sick of your “you don’t have to worry”! This thing,” — I waved my report folder, — “could make my life a lot easier! Or, if you don’t care about that, it could increase the efficiency of energy extraction, simply because knowing the current state of your employees and therefore their readiness to work contributes to decision-making that won’t make them die or go crazy! Is that so hard for your advanced brains or processors or whatever you have?”       “Sir, calm down!” — I thought Angela’s voice made the room feel cold. Oh, I think I’ve made her angry… — “Please don’t belittle my intelligence, I understand everything you just said. The problem is that our resources are limited, which means we can’t solve all our problems at once, so we have to take it one step at a time. However, you should not forget that our — and yours as well! — primary task is energy extraction, and as long as we’re able to do the bare minimum necessary, we’re fine. So don’t worry about anything and just do your job, and I’ll take care of the rest.”       Oh, man… damn, she’s right. I hadn’t thought about the fact that we didn’t have the resources to solve all the problems.       “All right, I’ve been overreacting… You’re right about that, but even so, it doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t at least know about the problems. And anyway…” — I looked at the folder again. There was something in that report that was bothering me, but I couldn’t figure out what…       “Sir?” — I guess I was too much on my mind.       “I want a complete inspection of the entire complex, and a report on all problems, including those that you think are “non-critical”. How long will that take?”       ”…Wait a minute, sir.” — Angela suddenly left instead of answering. Soon she returned with a pretty thick folder.       “What’s this?”       “This is the last report on the current status of the entire complex. You see, the inspection you requested happens every five days. The last one was yesterday. All of the identified problems are highlighted in red. I hope you’re satisfied with that?”       I feel like an idiot. What’s more, I am an idiot! It doesn’t make any sense for Angela to throw a spanner in my works, so if there are any problems, she’ll at least plan to solve them. I’m not sure it will come to fruition, but… damn, I’m confused!       “I… I will review it later.”       “As you wish, sir.”

***

      Let’s talk about working with anomalies. Employees come to the containment cell and, by performing certain manipulations on the anomalies, make them produce Enkephalin. Enkephalin is a luminous green substance, capable of producing a large amount of energy, while in its processed form it can be used as a super-effective medicine, capable of healing the most serious injuries and restoring mental equilibrium with equal ease. It’s also a powerful drug, but that’s beside the point.       It is worth noting that I am now talking about positively charged Enkephalin, and there is also negatively charged Enkephalin. Anomalies produce Enkephalin in a gaseous state: the positive one is collected by a special air system, while the negative one decomposes almost immediately, managing, however, to cause physical and/or mental damage to the employee, depending on the anomaly. Positive Enkephalin, however, also affects the employee, improving his characteristics depending on what he does. That’s how employees are enhancing… well, or so I understood Angela’s lecture.       However, there is another working point in all this — the so-called Qlipoth Overheating. Each detention cell has a Qlipoth Containment System (abbreviated as QCS), thanks to which the anomalies mostly sit quietly and peacefully and don’t go to rampage. Unless they get pissed off, of course. So, when anomalies are dealt with, there is… well, a kind of tension or something, which tends to build up and causes the QCS to fail in certain holding chambers, which causes the anomalies to become restless and eventually have to be pacified. This failure is the Qlipoth Overheating.       In practice, it looks like this: I have a special scale in my office that fills up as employees do their work. When the scale fills up completely, an alarm sounds and an Overheat warning pops up to me, after which I direct employees to the “overheated” cells to work. Once they get to work, the problem is considered solved. It’s annoying, but that’s about it. What’s this all about? The thing is, there’s a light bulb on this scale that wasn’t on until that day. So, after another Overheat, it came on. Purple. How convenient it is to know what trouble lies ahead.       And here’s another Overheat. And, as I expected, in the corridors appeared… um… two glowing purple things. The things were faintly moving, shimmering, and didn’t show any activity. I thought the game called these things “Fruits of Understanding”. Well, they looked more like some kind of fat maggots to me, and even then, remotely.       “Angela, what is this?”       “It’s the Ordeal Anomaly, sir.”       “I see… what can you tell me about it?”       “Only that they should be suppressed.”       “And that’s it? Can you tell me what they do or what they’re dangerous for?”       “They do damage to the employees. They are dangerous because they can kill or destabilize staff.”       Gee, thanks for the explanation, without you I never would have guessed it in my life! Humans in general are stupid creatures, not even able to prove Fermat’s Theorem, and here is such a complex existential problem that I’m about to die of overexertion!       “How self-critical.”       The only reason I didn’t choke on my tea was because I didn’t have time to sip from the mug.       “Did I say that out loud?”       “More like mumbled to yourself, but I heard it.”       Oh, fu…       “How often do I do this… mumble to myself?”       “That’s the first time I can remember.”       Oh, thank God, if he’s still alive… Okay, I definitely wasn’t mumbling now, but damn it, I hadn’t noticed that habit of mine ever before. Well, great, it hadn’t been a week and I was already starting to go a little crazy! Damn, this is so embarrassing…       “Sir, if you want, I can pretend it didn’t happen.” — was it just me, or did she read my worries on my face? No, I don’t think so. Probably not. I hope so.       ”…I would be very grateful.”       Okay, I’ve overgrown larvae crawling around in there. What do I do with them? Oh, I know…       “Attention, all personnel! In sectors M-2-2 and Y-1-1, detected, hmm… Unidentified Threatening Entities. I order you to ignore them, not to contact them, not to approach them, and to stay away from them. For the especially clever I’ll explain: if you see a big, incomprehensible, purple thing in the corridor, don’t go near to it and walk around it in a wide arc. That goes for office workers, too. Yes, I’m talking about you, Zeta-12 and Lambda-3! Put your weapons away and get back to work. And once again, for those of you who are particularly bright: stay away from those things! I remind all personnel that if you die during the work day, your cremation will be at the Corporation’s expense. Thank you for your attention.”       “Uh, sir? Why didn’t you send your employees to suppress the Ordeals?”       “Why should I?” — I pretended to be surprised. — “They’re just lying there, doing nothing, so why bother? Then we’ll decide what to do with them, somewhere at the end of the day.”       And since by the end of the working day they will explode, the problem will be solved by itself. Of course, when they explode, they can provoke an escape of some anomaly, but I have no escaping anomalies, so there is nothing to worry about. So I peacefully continued the day.       I’d forgotten that when these things explode they do mental damage to the entire department they’re in, but no one went crazy because of that, so I just shrugged.       “See, Angela, problem solved, nobody died, and everyone is happy.” — well, except me, of course. Angela left my comment unanswered.       In general, the day ended without any casualties or serious incidents. After supper, I decided to read that thick report. I had some vague doubts…       I ran through the report, focusing on the red marks. Well, according to this report, it’s not as bad as I thought. Apart from a faulty biometric monitoring system, there were no major breakdowns in the complex. However, I didn’t like the odd malfunctioning here and there. Again, nothing serious, but… maybe I’m just being paranoid, but something bothers me… oh, right, it says where things are broken, but it doesn’t say when they’ll be fixed. Anyway, it’s just a report on detected problems. Still, I need to clarify…       “Okay, Angela, give me a plan for repairs, and I’ll calm down.”       “Wait a minute, please.” — she went out and soon returned with the requested folder. Well, let’s see… everything looks right. Okay, let’s assume that I can at least be calm about this.       “Yeah, everything seems fine, so I’m calm.”       “I’m glad you’re satisfied.”       For the rest of the evening, I decided to dig around the desk some more. I had already managed to sort through half of all the papers, but so far I hadn’t found anything that I considered interesting or useful. In fact, I had ordered all the papers I had sorted out to be put away in the archives or disposal at Angela’s discretion. I have no idea why domestic incident reports should be kept in the Manager’s office, or why domestic incident reports are needed at all, but I decided that they should not clutter up my desk.       “Sir, if you want to put all these documents away, you can have me do it.”       “Thank you, of course, but I can handle it myself.”       ”…You know, it would be nice if you could trust me more.”       Oh, Angela, if I could trust you, that would be wonderful. Eh, dreamy-dreamy…       “You know what they say? “Trust but verify”. Sometimes it’s better to double-check once than deal with the consequences later.”       “Yeah? Hmm. I think I understand. But I still wish you’d doubt me less.”       “Well, I’m sorry I’m such a mistrustful person. Okay, that’s it for today. Good night.”       “Good night…”

***

      The seventh day began the same way as the previous and subsequent days: with the alarm clock. Then the obligatory morning rituals with a visit to the temple of hygiene (AKA the bathroom). Then breakfast of dry rations. Then the office, Angela with tea, the ritual of paperwork, and, of course, the infamous plot, where would I go without it.       “The energy output continues to rise. You are more capable than expected. The higher-ups are watching you. “A,” the Founder, is among them. Do you know anything about the Founder?” — I wish I didn’t: at least then I’d sleep better.       “He’s a far-sighted.” — yeah, like Ivan-the-Fool (T.N. Lucky fool Russian folklore character which make not-so-clever things but somehow still win from it), — “A farmer sowing seeds in fresh soil. Maybe he would like to see you in person. If that happens, your dreams may come true.”       “Or not. Angela, what kind of agitation is this? If you’re trying to inspire me to work feats, you’re not very good at it.”       “I’m sorry, I just admire him. To be honest, he’s my creator.”       “And you decided to share your admiration with me?”       “Yes… actually, I don’t really have a lot of non-work-related topics of conversation.”       “And you chose the first one you could think of?”       “That’s right. I thought you might be interested in it.”       “I see. Well, frankly, listening to the praise of upper management is below average. It’s somewhere out there,” — I waved my hand in an indefinite direction, — “so high and far away you can’t see it over the clouds. And we are here, trapped in this bloody dungeon… You know, it’s been a long time since Malkuth came to see us! Is she all right?”       “She’s fine. Right now she’s in the Information Department, discussing the latest project with Yesod.”       “Hmm? Oh, I see.” — I glanced at the screens and spotted this couple. They were standing in the hallway, talking about something. I zoomed in and turned on the sound (I’m amazed at the local video surveillance system: not only does it produce a very clear picture, even at high resolution, but it also transmits sounds!)       ”…and yet I don’t think you pay enough attention to the people in your department. They behave too informally!”       “You’re as pedantic as ever. If they take a few liberties, there’s nothing critical about it. They still produce consistently good results, so I don’t see a problem.”       “For now that may be true, but what if they go out of the line?”       “They won’t, don’t worry, I’m looking after them well enough. But you should ease up on your guys a little bit, because I’ve noticed that they’re more stressed than they should be.”       “Nonsense! They just haven’t gotten the hang of it yet. Newcomers, what can you take from them. And the Manager’s good, he couldn’t send more experienced people…”       “Hey! He transferred guys from my department to you, by the way! It’s not the Manager’s fault we have staffing problems.”       “Whose fault is it then? He’s the one who hires talentless people!”       “For the sake of reference, I hire people from the list provided to me, but since the budget for hiring them is severely limited, I can only hire people who are not the most qualified. So if anyone is to blame, it’s the upper management, who has squeezed out money for normal staff.       “What? Manager? Were you eavesdropping?” — Malkuth was surprised.       “And watching. You go on, go on, I’m very interested.”       “Ah… Uh… Actually, we’re done now, yes! I just remembered that I… I didn’t print out some… instructions, yes! Sorry, Yesod, I have to go.”       “Yes, I have some things to do too. By the way, Manager, eavesdropping on other people’s conversations is indecent!”       “As well as discussing others behind their backs, but for some reason that doesn’t stop anyone. Anyway, if you have any complaints about me, you’re welcome to come up to my office and say them to my face.”       “I… I hear you, sir.”       “Yeah… Okay, Angela, what’s next on the schedule?”       According to the schedule, there was a routine that had already become customary: sorting out documents (damn, why do I need to know who hung out with whom yesterday and who broke whose bed?), a little preparation, work itself, and the evening chores. Oh, yeah, there was also the Ordeal. This time it was red. The essence of the event is that some clowns appear out of nowhere and try to release anomalies, stealing energy in the process. I still don’t have any anomalies escaping, so I didn’t make any preparations for their appearance like “send people to watch at cells with dangerous anomalies”. And, in principle, I didn’t lose anything, except the time it took for my gavs to come running to these clowns. There was no need to talk about them at all.       Anyway, the day went on as usual. As usual… It seems I’m beginning to get used to the local realities…

***

      “Let me ask you: what would you do if one of your employees, working with an anomaly, could reach a quota of energy, but it would cost him his life? It’s an elementary question, so I’m sure you’ll give the right answer.”       “I’ll save the employee first, and then I’ll collect the energy.” — I answer, not really thinking about words. I probably shouldn’t be smart, but Angela didn’t seem to care what my answer was.       “Hmm… You know, that’s not a bad answer, but, unfortunately, there are quite often situations where you have to sacrifice something…”       …Oh, man, I’m being lectured on philosophy and corporate ethics by an AI, ' I thought to myself. Out loud I said:       “Angela, please, spare me your propaganda speeches on the themes of “the goal justifies the ways”, “the goal is above all”, “our cause is right”, “five-year plan in four years”… I went somewhere not right… in short, Angela, don’t bother me with that! I’m already, in your own words, breaking all the records of productivity, what more do you want from me?”       “So that you will continue in the same way.”       “I’ll do my best not to fail. Or do you think I’m not motivated enough?”       “I just wanted to make sure you understood the importance of your job.”       “You better remind me of responsibility even more often, that definitely will cheer me up. Seriously, Angela, don’t you have any more pleasant things to talk about?”       ”…No, sir, I really have no more pleasant things to talk about.” — she said after a short pause.       ”…What, really, really?”       “Really, really, sir.”       Well, how could she have, if she’s been in that dungeon complex all of her life…       “Has anything good ever happened to you?”       “Once there wasn’t an incident here for 30 days…”       “Has anything good ever happened to you personally?”       There was an awkward silence. It didn’t last more than a minute, according to the clock on the monitor, but it felt like an eternity.       “You know, sir, I once had… a friend. He… he was kind to me.”       I think I know which friend she’s talking about.       “And what happened to him?”       “One day he left, but then he came back, and then he… did something that couldn’t be ignored…”       “You don’t have to go on.”       Yes, I know exactly who and what she’s talking about.       Benjamin…       “Okay, enough of the sad stuff, the work day is about to start. What are the Sephiroths stalling…?”       So, the day went on as usual: the Sephiroths reported ready, the work went on as usual… and then all my employees died.       Unexpected, isn’t it? I didn’t see it coming either.       What happened? What happened was another Ordeal. This time it was orange. The Orange Ordeal is a bunch of giant carnivorous maggots that show up in the corridors and try to eat all the people there. Weak individually, but dangerous all together. That’s how it was in the game. It’s the same here, except for one little detail: in the game, they appeared exclusively and only in the corridors, but here they appear in both main halls. You know, the ones where the employees hang out between jobs.       There was no way I could have foreseen such a set-up. I naively thought that everything would be exactly like in the game, so I didn’t even think about the fact that there was no objective reason why those freaking bugs couldn’t get into the main halls. As a consequence, I wasn’t prepared for that in any way. And the employees weren’t prepared as well. So when those things literally grew out of the ground and immediately started eating everyone, everyone, including me, got a little confused. But the creatures were not confused and immediately ate the weakest fighters. Well, then they took the rest of the people down, taking them by sheer numbers. The valiant staff had noticeably thinned out their ranks, but they were clearly not strong enough.       The only one left alive was Stew, who at that moment was working with the ever-memorable shrimps, but as soon as he emerged from the cell, the bugs, as if sensing their prey, were immediately at him. The poor guy didn’t stand a chance.       I gave commands, of course, trying to rectify the situation, but, as you understood, to no avail. The time freeze did not help. And now I was sitting there, staring at the screens, trying to understand what just happened.       “All the employees are dead.”       “Yeah.”       “You may not care, but our employees do…”       “I do care, Angela, if only because I just lost my job at the very least, and at the very most… ah, screw it. It was a pleasure working with you.”       “Where are you going?”       “To my apartment, to wash and put on clean clothes, and then I’ll wait for the execution squad, or whoever eliminates the guilty Managers.”       “You don’t have to worry about that, nobody’s going to eliminate you.”       “Yeah? Well, I’m going to my room anyway. All right, good-bye, Angela.”       “Good-bye, sir.”              As I was riding up in the elevator, I heard a familiar hum, and then everything went dark…

***

      I woke up suddenly, as if someone had switched me on. I wondered how many more times I was going to be “turned on” like that.       I was in no hurry to get up: there was plenty of time, nowhere to hurry, no desire to get up, but there was a desire to think about life, the universe, and everything.       The deaths of all those people I managed, strangely enough, did not evoke any particular emotional response in me. It was unpleasant, yes, but nothing more. What disturbed me more was my failure in general. It was… frustrating. Everything was going so well, and then boom! — and that was it, a failure. And because of what? Because of some bugs, which are actually not the most dangerous thing that could have happened here. Or was it my carelessness? No, I had no way of knowing it could turn out this way… had I?       And yet, it’s not the kind of thing that I could get dunked on because of a little thing like that. Yeah, it’s only a little thing compared to the other Ordeals, but still… Hmm, if I’d taken more dangerous Anomalies and gotten their EGO, maybe I wouldn’t have blown it. Speaking of EGO: is there anything left after restarting the time loop, or what? If not, that’s very sad, but if so, I don’t have to worry much about failures.       Okay, I knew it wasn’t going to be easy. I have no choice but to move forward anyway, so let’s learn from our mistakes and move on. One bad thing: I’ll have to live the same events over and over and over again. That means I’ll have to listen to Angela lecture me again. Not that she was particularly annoying, but listening to the same things!… Okay, I’ll get over it. Hmm, what time is it? Oh, it’s time to get up, if I’m going to clean up in time. I just have to make sure I don’t mess up my style, or it will be weird if I ask Angela to tie my tie. I’ll also have to do without the tea I’ve grown accustomed to today. She certainly suspects me of… something, but I’m not going to confirm her suspicions outright. Right now she is not a threat to me, but you never know…       As I was doing my morning rituals, I was reminded of our last conversation. About how she didn’t have nice things to talk about. And that she’d once had a friend who’d been nice to her, but who’d done something unforgivable. The good mood was starting to turn bad, because I know exactly who she was talking about. Benjamin. Her second creator. He was the one she was talking about. He had once been one of “A” most loyal associates, having survived the Arbiter attack with him. He helped him start over, helped him mold his own Wing from the ashes… But then, when “A” was finally gone cuckoo, and the scale of the current mess passed all reasonable limits, he did what any sane person would do — he tried to run away. However, either something went wrong, or he simply could not leave his old friend, but in the end he tried to contact “A” and talk sense into him. But his messages were intercepted by Angela…       He is now a Sephiroth of the Archives Department. His personality is the best preserved of all Sephiroths. No wonder, though: his brains were put to work almost immediately…       And it is true that Benjamin, unlike “A”, was kind to Angela. He was probably the only person from whom Angela had ever seen anything good in her life.       And she personally finished him off.       Why? Because “A” had already begun to carry out his damned Scenario, and Benjamin had tried to stop him. Except that “A” didn’t appreciate this urge, and he gave Angela the order. And she carried it out. Not because she is a bloodthirsty scum, but because she is… a machine. Sensible, capable of feeling, but a machine.       Or rather, she thinks so. Correct me if I’m wrong, but if a machine has a mind and feelings, it’s not really a machine anymore. Except that “A” didn’t think so. He always said that “a machine must behave like a machine.” He always said this to Angela. And she, as a machine should, faithfully obeyed orders. She even killed her only friend when she was told to. How did that make her feel? Who cares, she’s just a machine…       You know, I think it’s no surprise that Angela ended up betraying the “A”. When all your life you are despised and hated just because you are, and they put you at nothing, and at the same time they dump the dirtiest work on you, so that in the end they just forget about you, as if you were garbage… No, her action was not right, but it was natural. If “A” had behaved differently with her, had given her the attention she deserved, or at least not been an asshole… but he was so obsessed with his Scenario that he didn’t notice he was digging his own grave.       And for what? To cure the “disease of the soul”? Well, in that case, that “hero” would do well to cure his own soul first. I think there is definitely something wrong with it, if he ordered to turn his living friend into a robot.       And I’m in that bastard’s place right now, having to clean up everything he’s done.       Once again, what did I do to get in here?       Oh, well, I will still have time for reflection and other philosophical thoughts. Now I have to go down and say hello to Angela, and then check the presence of EGO in the warehouse and arrange an unscheduled check of the complex systems, because I do not like the fact that I do not know the current state of my workers. Then follow the plan: go with the flow and try to live up to the day when I get “A” memories downloaded, and then we’ll see. Some thought scrambled in my head as I pondered my actions, but the elevator had already arrived, and it flew out of my head safely.       “Greetings, Manager. Welcome to the Lobotomy Corporation. I am Angela, your advisor and secretary. Although I am an AI, feel free to talk to me.”       “Okay, I would. I hope you’ll take care of me.”       “That’s what I’m here for.”       So, let’s see how far I can get this time. And let’s hope I don’t break down in the process…