Chapter 12 Night Walkers

Of course, the main problem still lies in the fact that monsters aren't machines. Most monsters can't be fooled by cloned lab rats. A considerable number of monsters don't even regard clones as humans. For instance, ones like the 001 pen won't activate at all. If there's a special notice, then temporary workers must definitely be used.

Therefore, a large number of security drones are also deployed on the technical department's floor to prevent all kinds of loss of control, both literal and figurative, allowing the general manager to snap his fingers and physically delete any trace of an incident at any time and place.

What Li Pan is now worried about is that on his first day of work, he encountered a deletion failure. Heaven knows what kind of mess the technical department has gotten into that resulted in a total wipe of the staff. This company isn't connected to the external network; hackers can't break in, so nobody knows the situation. If Li Pan blindly stumbled in and the security drones failed to recognize his face, he could be shot on the spot. The company probably wouldn't shed a single crocodile tear, they'd just grab someone off the street to replace the general manager.

Moreover, Li Pan tried to make a call to test the waters, and even the janitors refused to take on jobs in the technical department, which clearly indicates that some kind of 'loss of control' has indeed occurred there.

As a result, Li Pan thought it over, weighed the risks against the rewards, and concluded it wasn't worth making such an effort. Might as well just chill and let it drag on for three days until the head office dispatches a technical department manager to clean up this mess.

After all, let whoever wants to deal with it deal with it. He's not taking the blame.

By wandering around the head office building from top to bottom, familiarizing himself with the layout and terrain of the entire office building, getting to know the routes to each department, and then clacking away at the daily memo for a page, Li Pan's second day on the job could pretty much come to an end.

Actually, from what he's seen so far, working as a temp at the monster company doesn't seem so unreasonable if you disregard the 'price of monsters' and the at least three-year apprenticeship rule. It kind of makes sense.

After all, with so many monsters crammed into this office, each with so many attributes, so many prohibitions, and all kinds of hidden rule conflicts between them, and the rotten people in this company only using numerical codes and color distinctions, with the elevators and corridors being so weird and the desk phones being so useless, it's literally like being set up to die with no compensation.

As a newcomer with limited authority, one can only look at those memos scribbled with deletions and corrections, relying mostly on guesses, with main experience dependent on being mentored by older employees. One wrong step and you could be doomed. Just surviving is already an immense challenge.

But how can the boss trust you to handle things if you can't memorize all the details of these monsters, knowing them inside and out? If by any chance you cause a disaster or overturn the cart, the entire company, no, even the residents of Night City, could end up suffering the consequences.

However, none of these are excuses. Now, whenever Li Pan thinks about how he only makes two thousand five hundred a month, he gets heartburn and loses all motivation to work hard. Time to clock out and leave when the workday ends!

"Bye, I'm off!"

'Take care'

Mr007 held up a sign, still tapping on the keyboard with gloved hands.

It was far more driven than Li Pan, a true model of aspiration for a full-time position, and being a monster, it could take advantage of special arrangements and live in the company premises—an equivalent of a single-person mansion in the city center!

In any case, while Li Pan patrolled the office area today, Mr007 also took care of updating the records and reports in the cold storage and constant temperature zones. You know, having a dead apprentice as a temp really isn't too bad, at least you don't have to worry about it dying. And honestly, although temps have no access to the technical department's restroom, they can move freely within the monster warehouses in the red and yellow zones. It's practically a hellish joke.

Thankfully, there haven't been any issues with the warehouse. After all, it's a key area that is strictly guarded on a daily basis. If there were any safety hazards in the routine, the company wouldn't have been able to operate for so many years while stubbornly adhering to such an outdated set of regulations.

Looking at it this way, the company's total wipeout is probably related to new or yet-to-be-registered monster containment tasks. However, Li Pan didn't find any related files on the former general manager's computer. If he wants to understand the reasons, to find out what these old employees were doing before they were wiped out, he might really need to meet with the board of directors.

As Li Pan rambled on in his thoughts, he followed the crowd to the subway station. The subway was as dirty as ever. Honestly, how do you manage to wash away the blood and flesh while leaving the spit stains, grime, and graffiti inside the cars??

Just as Li Pan was looking at a succession of news stories about explosions, gunfights, and celebrity scandals, waiting for the death lottery results, he suddenly felt something brush against his chest, something that leapt into his embrace.

He was not accustomed to logging into the deep net while outside, so he just used his visual system to browse the web and hadn't handed over body control to the system. He reacted immediately.

Hmm? A pervert on the train, no, a thief?

Of course there were still thieves these days, perhaps one of the oldest professions of mankind. However, now they like to call themselves Cyber Hunters. Criminals always keep up with the times after all. They also targeted public security networks, engaging in a battle of wits, developing various specialized prosthetic bodies, multi-identity disguises to interfere with surveillance monitoring, short-range electromagnetic interference to disable prosthetic system alarms, and things like nerve enhancement for short-term acceleration. There was even a tiny hacking system that could covertly turn the oblivious, those daring to wander outside while immersed in the virtual network, into electronic puppets.