Part 26: Day 13 - Story

Day 13: Story

Music: Dungeon - Wrong Way Street


Huh? Oh… it's you again. Okay, lay it on me.

Do not trust the AI at your side.

...That's it?

You didn't let me explain.

You're right. Please, go on.



Some can even imitate human emotions with ease. However, they can do things you are not aware of yet.



Or rather, to be more precise, they can withhold information. If the controller of an AI has given the order to not share specific information… It has no obligation to tell the truth to anyone, other than that controller.



I’ve programmed an AI before. Well, participated in the programming, to be exact… That’s how I know for a fact that an AI will not necessarily tell the truth. In case you doubt what I’m saying… I will send you a program for your monitor that I developed myself.



The nose will lengthen. The color red means untruth. This is a test version, so it can only be used once.

In summary: ANGELA IS UNTRUSTWORTHY

Also, B gives us a single-use program which exposes lies an AI tells us in a Pinocchioesque manner, but instead of making Angela's nose grow it'll make the monitor we're using glow red.


Music: The 6th Light


I’ve been feeling really confident lately!



I bet that confidence thing's about to change. Hi, Angela!

Ah, Lady Angela! Are you talking about my counseling program? Thank you!

Yes, shut it down immediately.



Don’t delude yourself, Hod. You don’t sincerely believe that counseling can be of any help in this place, do you?

But… But I want to continue it... As long as there’s an employee who needs me… What about Tiffany? She… she said my program helped her cope with her stress…



She… what?



I bet she said something like this whenever she came to you: “Miss Hod, you’re helping me so much! But I think I’ll need a bit of Enkephalin on top of your counseling to ease my melancholy! It’s just a little extra, of course...” You prescribed highly addictive substances as if you were handing out candy to children.





And what about Netzach? You gave him the substance as well. I temporarily gave you access to Enkephalin because I determined you could use it for your “counseling program” to reduce the stress level of the employees, and yet you’ve only been creating drug addicts.

Netzach… He told me that he wanted to introduce the program to his team…



....

Hod, your naive compassion is only driving things to become worse around here. Your program is hereby terminated.



The employees will do anything to coax whatever they desire out of you. They have nothing left to lose; they won’t even feel any guilt about it.

In summary: Hod's counseling program was apparently pushing all along, and she wasn't helping anyone so much as getting them high as hell. Angela steps in to brutally shut down the program and give Hod a talking to about ever trusting the employees. Also, Netzach is a drug-addict, apparently. That's… that's probably fine.



You sure you won't get in trouble for telling me to treat the employees like partners?

Um… it should be okay! I didn't say anything untrue.

Right. Well, at least this mission is easy. I'm sure I still have a rank 3 agent around here somewhere…

Most managers have the opposite problem by the time they get to this point. I'm used to helping rank 2 or 3 agents grow, not polishing off the skills of level 5 veterans. You really have a knack for management!

Thanks. I try my best.



Next time, on Lobotomy Corporation: We meet a magical girl, and someone gets a new tat.









Galstaff, you have entered the door to the north. You are now by yourself standing in a dark room-

I check for traps! _{You're supposed to check for traps, right?}

Don't look at me, I've never played this nerd stuff.

You don't see any traps. However, a dank, fell beast drops down from on high!

What kind of beast? Is it fluffy?

No, it's a hairless thing the size of a dog with folded, saggy skin, with pus dripping from open sores as a small swarm of ticks and bugs leap about its body. It growls and snarls at you.

I feed it.

What? You're supposed to roll initiative-

I. Feed. It. The thing's clearly got a preference for Instinct work, so I give it food and pet it.

Uh… make a saving throw?

14?

You… feed it. Successfully? It growls and bites at you, and you take… 2 damage.

Cool. How many boxes does it make? How's my Fortitude looking?

I don't think that's how this game works…

Then this game is stupid. If it can't help me survive tomorrow, what's the point?

Hey..! This game's really important to me. My family always played it together to forget about bad days at work or school.

Oh, you're a Nest baby, huh. Must be nice to have time for games. Down in the Backstreets, we had to do things like...

Tenebrais, let's just calm down. This is a really nice game, and I'm sure-

N-nah, it's okay, Credentia. I know I was born lucky. It's probably how I got a job here so easily.

Twee…

Anyways… I have a lot of memories wrapped up in this game, and I just thought it might be nice to share it with my coworkers, so… Y'know. I just wanted to help everyone relax a bit!

I get all the relaxation I need from hittin' things.

Oh, come on Tenebrais. It can't hurt to blow off some steam, right?

...Alright, geeze. We'll keep playing. So what's an 'initiative,' anyways? _{Besides that thing Malkuth keeps insisting we always show...}