Part 20: Day 10 - Story

Day 10: Story

Music: Acid Bleeding


WHAT THE FU-?!



The light flickers on and off in the background, which adds to the effect here.

Music: story 4


There, I fixed it. There was a system error. How strange, it shouldn’t have been so easily compromised. It’s a technology originally developed during the war, now widely used for commercial purposes. It’s not that impressive of a technology, really.



If a manager like you were to suffer such a reaction, it would be very troublesome for me. So I installed a ‘cognition filter’ in your display. While the cognition filter functions, dead employees will look like cute dolls splattered with red paint. Abnormalities, even those who could ravage your mental state just by being in your sight, will be reduced to adorable toys on the screen of your office.



I cannot allow you to join them.

In summary: The facility is an absolute hellsite, and the only reason we as the Manager remain sane is because of a cognition filter that paints over everything to make it look cutesy. This sounds like it's one of the relatively new features Angela mentioned back on day 1, as our predecessors tended to go crazy without one.

Day 10 is the first real 'wham' day that the game has, timed for right about when we're supposed to be getting the hang of things. It's very effective in making it abundantly clear just how wrong things are around here.

Music: When Tv Turns Off


As you may know, having two Abnormalities breach and losing four agents is a rather significant loss of manpower.



I know the kind of place we work in. I am not regretful for the fact that I was unable to stop him. It’s that I regret having developed a personal relationship with him. I was careless with my position and let my subordinate exploit me.



James was a good joker too. Of course I had fun playing word chain. We grew so intimate that I would forgive his “trivial” rule violations. But the price I had to pay for the error I made was not trivial in any way.



We see body bags every single day. It’s a lonely place. Sometimes, you will feel the urge to share the distress and anxiety with someone else; to have a friend. But manager, whenever you feel lonely, please remember what happened to me. And try not to make the same mistake as I did. You will be able to get over the meaningless deaths that way.



People say that I am too rational. “Yesod the Cold-blooded Machine”, “Yesod the Viper”, “Yesod the Cruel and Emotionless”. A frigid being who won’t even bat an eye at the deaths of dozens of employees… I won’t deny that I deserve the reputation. However, whoever built this place has to be a much more cruel person than I am.



A vague sense of sympathy will only cloud your judgement. You are bound to make mistakes that way. Why would they place AIs with emotion to handle the facility, if they were well aware that emotion would only get in the way?



In summary: Yesod had a friend once, it was awful and he's dead now. We should therefore avoid ever having friends because in the end we're probably going to have to order them to be killed. Yesod also questions why it is that AIs with emotions were put in place here, if lacking them would make life easier. Despite being jealous of Angela, he's apparently got the makings of a decent person in there.



Our new mission is a step up from the last three… which makes it 'trivial' instead of 'pulse check.' We're still probably going to fail it tomorrow, because



Angela, I could smell that through the screen. How long have there been dead bodies piled up in that room?

It has been approximately 5 days, manager. Malkuth-

Of course. Go on.

Malkuth brought them in and tossed them about before moving on to complete her usual work.

Great. How… frequently is that room used?

This room is most often used for meetings with outside clients. A once referred to it as "the private public face of the company," referring to its dual nature of showing what we wish others to believe-

Yeah, yeah, it's important. Got it. The cleaning staff?

Malkuth requested they be sure not to touch the bodies, as it was her job alone per the Manager's orders.

Ooof course she did.

At this point, it would be dangerous to send clerks to handle this. The number of bodies would likely raise their mental corruption to beyond acceptable levels. We could assign the agents to handle things, but this would leave the facility understaffed during the clean-up.

*sighs, before looking towards stack of resumes on the corner of his desk* ...Do it. I'll figure something out.

Yes, Manager.

Next time, on Lobotomy Corporation: Ten fresh level 1 agents try to keep everything from falling apart.