Part 88: Day 40 - Story

Day 40: Story

Music: Smokey Lounge Jazz Combo


People here don’t drink coffee in the morning?! There’s no better way to get energized than drinking a fresh cup of coffee before you start the day man~! What’s with the look on your faces?



Aww, isn’t this a shame~ I wasn’t expecting some massive welcome party, but I didn’t think you guys would be so heartless. Well, of course I understand. You’re all probably wondering why a talented man such as myself applied to join such a shabby company, huh? It’s totally suspicious and nonsensical, I get ya. Well, everyone has their own agenda…



Given that every other time we see "..........." in this sort of context it's A saying something he doesn't remember, I'm moderately certain this is an error and A should be speaking here.



This line is also a hint, of course.

I think I heard about you from Carmen.

…Speaking of which, it was Carmen’s speech that really brought me here. Where is she right now?



Miss… It’s Daniel…

You can sit down here. The person that sits next to you will explain the details of your work.

What, so you knew I was coming?



Geez, I thought you were being sarcastic. May I request one thing before I join you officially? Could we get a coffee machine here? I want everyone to know how good true freshly brewed coffee is.



I vaguely remembered Carmen had told me about him a few days prior. That one of the elites would stop by to apply to our company. “He’s a bit pompous, so don’t believe everything he says,” she said to me. I asked how she was able to recruit such an elite. Carmen answered nonchalantly, as if I had asked about something trivial.



“Don’t you know that by now?”

Music: Strange Dream


I’ve waited a long time for a savior. Someone who could free me from my inertia and wake me up inside. Why did I never come to the realization that I myself could be my own savior? Would you be so kind as to remember my mistake? It’s very valuable to me.



Do you still not understand the reason why I didn’t stop you? I’m referring to the real reason why I watched you without immediately putting you through the replacement process like Tiphereth.



I know the word “death” means nothing to you now, but to them, it held meaning.

That’s weird, Lady Angela.



That’s rich, coming from the one who would gladly force a Containment Unit open just to garner a little more energy, isn’t it? Yet here I was, clumsily going with your flow as I assisted you… However, don’t go thinking that this was entirely my loss. I know now that you don’t really care about our condition. I know now that you weren’t the one I should have been obeying.



You clearly know what I mean. I’m not going to let you do whatever you want now.

You’re such a loser. In the past and even now.



However, although you may want to believe that nothing has changed… It is in fact that many things are changing.

It rests on you now to resolve the mess you made, Chesed. Let’s, as they say, bury the hatchet with any hard feelings between us. There is one thing I want you to know, though.



Music: Smokey Lounge Jazz Combo


I’m still unsure if I can truly fight back against the fear I may face in the future. But I’ve decided not to run away, at the very least.







In summary: Chesed tells Angela off, and says he's figured out who he should listen to now. Angela maintains that she knew this the entire time and only let him do it so he could learn the lesson on his own because she is a perfect AI who makes no errors, before calling back to something Carmen said to Daniel long ago. Chesed asks us for his marching orders, and with Those who are Faithful and Trustworthy acquired, the Seed has made it to 60%.

Music: Arachnitopia Theme Piano


Oh, I was recalling the sound of your footsteps. While there were clichés, you sometimes made the results more exciting by acting in unexpected ways. Still, the endings were all the same, no matter how the process went. Do you want me to share some memories through a hologram? It’s simply too good for me to watch alone.



I didn’t know that a human’s mental capacity could be so weak back then. You did alright the first couple of times, but then, one day…

Well, at that time, it was a little funny. I’m sorry. You made it so far, but you weren’t able to escape from that absolutely useless sense of guilt and hung yourself. Well, you were stopped immediately though.

Then, at this time, you were not fully prepared. That’s when I started to realize that it didn’t matter if you were mentally whole or not. What mattered was that you needed to find “realization” about something to stop this endless cycle.



>I'll continue watching.


I would love to see more, but let’s stop here for today. You might see something that you’re not supposed to witness yet if we continued.

---

>Can you stop the holograms, please?


Please understand, you should know that I don’t have much entertainment that I can enjoy. Really, you should have left me something to pass the time with.

---

Routes Merge Here

In summary: Angela shows us her home videos of our past, failed selves. Apparently the cognition filter wasn't always a thing and this led to… problems. She also mentions that she's realized that even if it breaks us, the only way out of this cycle is some kind of realization.

If I didn't know better, I'd think you were showing me that because you were mad I didn't leave you anything to do.

That would be absurd, A. I am a perfect AI. While I can point out flaws in plans, I am not the sort to be unable to handle such a trifle as countless loops of boredom.

If you say so.

Music: Sea Wind


On the contrary to what people say, it appears that aging does not necessarily bring greater wisdom. Just look at this old man. Going through what feels like an endless cycle of intermittent greed; the obsession over things that have passed; pointless regret. Now trapped in a routine of staring at the iron hands of time without reason.



I noticed you wear a sad expression on your face each time one of your employees died. Just as I have become an old man, no human being is free from the cycle of life and death. As our research was to cure the disease, not to live forever.



Do you remember that one employee? The one who was nice and upfront with you? He passed away recently. When he received the letter that he was accepted into Lobotomy Corporation, he never would have expected to meet such a futile demise. If I wanted, I could have brought him back to you.





Lives are trivial here. The tenuous hold on life can be severed so easily, and yet may come back as if nothing happened. We reached a point in which we don't even need to mourn their deaths. An employee who died just yesterday may come back from my simple call, yet another employee may never open their eyes again from a single wave of my hand. That is what death means here, A.



So please, don’t punish yourself too much. I do not wish to see you suffer from such a personal and insignificant thing. For the future will bring you much more pain to bear.

In summary: Not only do clerks not count, it turns out that absolutely nobody's deaths matter at all because Hokma can apparently just bring them back or kill them off at will. Therefore, there's no reason at all to feel bad any time we let someone die-our sadness is completely pointless.



Speaking of which, I believe you mentioned that there was an agent who punched you in the face? I was wondering… who were they?

Yeah, you're gonna' have to keep wondering. I'm pretty sure you'd just kill them, and I like having them around.

I've already told you, there is no need to feel guilty over retiring an employee who is doing the wrong things. Death is insignificant.

_{Oh boy, I think I'm starting to get what this one's going to be about…}

Hm?

Talking to myself. Anyways, I figure I probably deserved it so it's not an issue.

That's absurd!

That's my decision. And it's final. Drop it, Hokma.

...Very well, A. Have a pleasant day.

………



Ah, you wish to delve deeper into the secrets of the Well?

Not really.

Perhaps that is for the best. You have already seen their effects on normal minds.

Yeah. Look. I wanted to ask you about Gebura. You fought before, didn't you?

Did we? She was a good rival before we were both encased in cold metal, but in this current body can I be said to be the same person as when we met in a delightful symphony?

Yes, yes, whatever. I was wondering if you had any insight on how to deal with her.

I would assume you would deal with her the same way as you do all of your problems. Simply hide in a room and yell furiously into the winds until someone else solves it for you, before profiting from the solution.

...yeah this was a waste of time. Bye, Binah.

Farewell.

Next time, on Lobotomy Corporation: We do exactly that.








Have you heard? Has anyone told you?

The Rumor of Gebura's Breakdown!

They say that she broke down during the fracas the other night, and hasn't been working since. Her whole system's on the fritz!

Miss Tenebrais has been having to pick up all that slack by herself! So sad~ So unfair~

I heard the manager's going to try and fix her, but there's no way he could stand against the Red Mist! She's too powerful to defeat!

A paper-pusher against a legendary champion with legendary prowess, learned in the Backstreets and honed in the Outskirts!

All of the clerks are saying the manager doesn't have a chance!

What to do, what to dooo~?