The filthy scene everyone imagined never appeared.
Instead, what stretched out before them was a sleek, high-tech room—cold metal, clean light, and an impossible sense of distance, as though the space itself had been folded and stitched into place.
Anna and the others were struck dumb by the sheer whiplash of the reversal.
Zhou Zhuang watched his adorable employees freeze like statues and nodded in satisfaction. Vanity prickled at the back of his mind, pushing him to speak in a tone that sounded far more "superior" than he actually felt.
"What are you still standing there for?" he said. "Do you like the smell of toilets? If you do, the company can consider assigning you to restroom cleaning."
Anna and the other three snapped back to reality instantly, and hurried across the threshold as if the door might close and spit them back out.
Zhou Zhuang turned toward Angela, who stood calmly nearby, eyes half-lidded as usual.
"Angela… how about you take them in first?" he suggested. "Handle the dorms and whatever else."
"Hm?" Angela asked. "May I ask why, Manager?"
Zhou Zhuang scratched his cheek, embarrassed.
"I want to use the remaining safe time to… actually look around the City properly," he admitted. "Since I woke up, I've been running around nonstop doing company missions. I haven't really gotten to know this new world at all."
He coughed lightly.
"Of course—if we don't have enough safe time, pretend I didn't say anything. You know… one thing is one thing."
"No, Manager." Angela's voice stayed gentle. "I did not mean to criticize you."
"If this is what you wish to do, I am willing to observe this world with you."
"You mean… you'll go sightseeing with me?" Zhou Zhuang blinked. Then he glanced at the four recruits beyond the door. "What about them? We can't just leave them standing behind the door waiting for us to come back."
"Do not worry, Manager." Angela's tone was absolute. "Someone will come to arrange their destination."
Zhou Zhuang sighed, half relieved, half resigned.
"Alright. Then I'll trouble my reliable secretary to keep indulging my unreasonable requests."
"Yes, Manager," Angela replied.
As the door slowly closed behind them, Siv frowned.
"Wait… Supervisor Zhou and his secretary aren't coming in with us?"
"Probably because their task is finished," Jin Shiyong replied smoothly.
Siv glanced at him, still wary. Jin Shiyong noticed, but only shook his head as if it amused him. He didn't seem bothered.
Lien picked up the thread immediately. "What do you mean, 'task finished'?"
"Exactly what it sounds like," Anna said, stepping in before Jin Shiyong could elaborate too much. "Their job was recruiting us, then delivering us into the company. Everything after that probably isn't within their duty."
"Correct." Jin Shiyong clapped lightly, the sound crisp in the sterile room. "For someone born in the Backstreets, you reason well."
"To be precise, Supervisor Zhou's obligations only included employee recruitment. Bringing us into the company at all… is extra service."
Siv's eyes widened. "That's… so arrogant?"
"Oh?" Jin Shiyong tilted his head. "Siv, you've misunderstood something."
He spoke in an easy, almost instructive tone.
"He is a departmental supervisor of a Wing. I don't know his exact age, but just looking at his appearance—he can't be much older than we are."
"And to become a Wing supervisor at such a young age? That means ability far beyond you, me, and over ninety percent of the City."
"Normally, the management class of other Wings wouldn't treat us with even a fraction of Supervisor Zhou's friendliness."
He paused, then added with a faint smile, sharp enough to sting.
"Do you remember his secretary? That kind of indifference—ignoring us like roadside weeds—is the normal attitude. We are, to them, something they can step on without a second thought."
Hearing that, Anna and her two companions gained a clearer understanding of just how lucky—how absurdly lucky—they had been to meet Zhou Zhuang at all.
After a moment, Siv looked around the hallway again and asked Jin Shiyong quietly, "Then how long do we wait before we meet whoever is responsible for us inside the company?"
"Not necessarily a supervisor," Jin Shiyong said. "It could be a senior employee assigned to receive us."
He hesitated, then lowered his voice.
"And you might not be used to it, but you should learn patience as quickly as your boss does."
"Otherwise, you'll suffer badly. That is my advice."
He glanced forward. "They should be here soon."
"Who—" Siv began, confused. Jin Shiyong didn't look like he had friends here.
A voice cut through the air, dry and businesslike.
"I will be responsible for the remainder of your onboarding."
The four of them turned.
A figure approached with the confidence of someone who belonged here—someone who did not need anyone's permission to command the space.
"I am Markus, the Control Team Captain."
"I do not know why the Manager chose to recruit you," Markus continued, expression flat. "But it is not a problem."
"As long as you follow my requirements, you will be able to barely reach the minimum standard of a company employee."
"Right now, my task is to allocate your necessary supplies and assign your basic arrangements."
He pointed forward without looking back.
"Follow me. Quickly."
"You do not have much time left for training."
L Nest's Backstreets.
Zhou Zhuang stared at the scene that unfolded like a natural ecosystem—only the laws of nature here were written in blood and contracts.
People ate people.
Big fish ate small fish.
Small fish ate shrimp.
And ordinary people were the shrimp at the very bottom of the food chain.
He exhaled slowly.
"Yeah… aside from a few special Backstreets, most of the City's Backstreets feel like—how do I put it—like Haiti from my old world."
"Actually," he corrected himself as he watched a brawl break out over scraps, "in a place like the City—where people can enhance themselves, where 'human-centric' tech exists—it's worse. Way worse."
He glanced at Angela.
"Angela, I'm starting to doubt that even seven full days of Light would turn City people into… what was the word… 'complete humans.' Carmen's plan doesn't look that reliable."
He rubbed his chin, then softened the judgment slightly.
"Though, to be fair, Carmen was trying to treat 'the City's sickness.' That part… might still be possible."
"Manager," Angela said, voice even, "Carmen's original intent was correct in this world."
"But from the moment she could not bear the weight of her own wish and chose suicide, what followed… was no longer truly hers."
Zhou Zhuang didn't interrupt.
Angela continued, her words calm but cutting.
"When the originator of a goal cannot continuously correct its course, that goal becomes nothing more than other people's longing projected onto the originator."
Zhou Zhuang nodded as if he'd just been handed something profound, then reflexively tried to sound clever.
"Oh. I get it."
"Longing is the greatest distance in the world."
He nodded again, satisfied with himself.
Angela did not argue with him.
They walked in silence for a while, footsteps steady against the broken rhythm of the Backstreets.
Then Zhou Zhuang spoke again, as if a thought had finally caught up to him.
"By the way, Angela… when we recruit employees later, can we do targeted recruitment?"
"As long as you request it, Manager, we can do so," Angela replied. "However, we cannot guarantee success."
"The other party may refuse our invitation."
"That's fine," Zhou Zhuang said. "That's enough."
They walked a few more steps.
Then Zhou Zhuang stopped.
His shoulders sank slightly, as if the weight of what he'd been watching finally seeped into him.
"…Angela," he said softly, "do you think I'm… hypocritical?"
"Why do you ask, Manager?" Angela stopped behind him, waiting.
Zhou Zhuang stared forward, eyes fixed on nothing in particular.
"You probably already know what I mean."
"The company system knows my past, right? My whole first half of life."
He let out a laugh that didn't contain much humor.
"And honestly… I don't feel that much about what I'm seeing right now. Because I know what kind of trash I am. I know it."
"I can watch tragedies happening around me and act like nothing is happening… but I still want to 'save' a few tragedies that haven't happened yet."
He swallowed.
"Isn't that hypocritical?"
"Manager…" Angela began.
Zhou Zhuang raised a hand, stopping her.
"Alright. Don't say it."
"I'm just feeling something for no reason and being annoying again."
He breathed out, then forced the mood back into shape.
"One thing is one thing."
"Still… people need a goal, right? Otherwise they turn into salted fish."
He looked up at the pale glow spilling across the Backstreets.
"So here's mine."
"In some far-off future—no matter how far—I want to end every injustice within the territory I control."
"I want to hammer the hearts of the people under my jurisdiction back onto the right track."
He turned slightly, as if that was enough confession for one day.
"Alright. Let's keep walking a little longer, then go back."
"Yes, Manager," Angela said with a small smile.
"I will also walk with you—slowly—and help you achieve those goals."
"And we will ensure that those things… do not happen again."
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