Side Story 2. A Story from Somewhere

Late at night. The two men in suits entered the tent bar as always and ordered drinks. The owner, as always, provided their preferred alcoholic beverages to the two men, who were regulars and the top contributors to the store’s sales, and the men drank the alcohol like water.

“Alcohol after work is always good.”

The man with a long, flowing beard let out a happy sigh. The fish-like man chewed on the corn snacks that came as a side dish and scoffed.

“What work? You just made your subordinates do it.”

“I’m the boss, so I can do whatever I want. The company name even has my name in it, doesn’t it?”

The bearded man laughed heartily, took out a business card from his wallet, and placed it on the table. The Fish-man shook his head as if that boast was pathetic and refilled his glass.

“Oh, you’re really having fun, aren’t you? Even though you don’t know how long we’ll have to keep doing this.”

“They say if you can’t avoid it, enjoy it. What can we do? That’s the Chairman’s directive.”

“It was definitely ‘if at least one person achieves a full clear’…”

“That’s right. Though it’s already been over a year.”

The two men fell silent for a moment while drinking. Including the development period, they had been tied to this company for at least several years. The Fish-man spoke first.

“People are starting to suspect. They’re wondering if a full clear is actually impossible.”

“We gave them all the hints. It’s the humans who can’t grasp those hints.”

“About those hints, I’ve been thinking about them carefully.”

The Fish-man rubbed his temple with his index finger and said.

“Isn’t it something that’s absolutely impossible for an ordinary human mind to conceive?”

“That can’t be. That bast… *ahem*. Since Director N-nim personally selected the conditions, humans shouldn’t be unable to do it. Among us, he knows the most about humans.”

“Damn it. And I can’t just ask him directly. Oh, right, has the person who achieved the full clear still not appeared?”

The bearded man openly frowned.

“Their account was immediately deleted. Damn it. It’s like someone’s messing with us.”

“Then just find out who it is. The data should still be on the server, so if we hack the IP and find out where they live-“

“The Chairman dislikes that~ if we do. Why would you even bring up something the board decided to overlook?”

A scrawny man appeared at the table where the two were sitting. The man, so tall he almost touched the ceiling, was entirely black from his skin to his clothes. The bearded man and the Fish-man openly frowned, but they couldn’t bring themselves to tell him to move.

“What brings you here?”

“I just dropped by to console our President and Vice President. Hehehe. Come on, a drink for me too.”

“There’s no alcohol for you here. Order it yourself.”

Despite the Fish-man’s sarcasm, the black man paid no mind, grabbed a bottle by the neck, and chugged the alcohol straight from the bottle. As if he had already had a drink before coming, the black man was quite tipsy. The bearded man stroked his long beard, which reached his sternum, and tilted his head.

“Unexpected. That you’d have reason to drink so much.”

“I drink too, you know~ How much I suffered trying to find the person who achieved the full clear this time. *Sob sob*, in the end, they didn’t even show up.”

At the grown man pretending to cry, the bearded man and the Fish-man composed themselves. They were drinking to relieve their fatigue, not to get entangled with that madman and have their mental strength drained. The Fish-man chewed on a squid leg that came as a side dish and scoffed.

“You can’t find them? That’s not even funny. Aren’t you just not looking?”

“No way!”

The black man waved his hand dismissively and was startled.

“The Chairman is looking for the full clear person so much, how dare I slack off? He even put up a bounty of 200 billion!”

The bearded man twisted his beard into several strands and tilted his head.

“I’ve felt this before, but isn’t the amount too small? We ‘personally’ created this after all, isn’t a hundred million unit too little? It should have been in the trillions.”

“Are you crazy?”

The black man’s expression turned serious.

“That’s what I managed to haggle down from the Chairman. And even that only passed the board because it’s being paid under a borrowed name, not directly by the company.”

“So the Chairman’s generosity only extends to 200 billion, huh?”

“……You haven’t even drunk much, but you’re already drunk.”

The bearded man hastily stopped the heavily sarcastic Fish-man. The black man in front of them was both a director and the Chairman’s direct secretary, conveying his will exactly. They, who had merely been ‘appointed’ to the positions of President and Vice President, were beings who could disappear at any moment with a single snap of the Chairman’s fingers.

The black man grinned faintly and chugged from the bottle.

“As expected, you two still have a long way to go. You’re still faaaaaar from being able to think with a human mindset.”

“Who was it that arbitrarily shoved us into human bodies?”

“Since you’re here, let me ask. When will this actually be cleared? Only when the Chairman gets bored will we stop doing this, right?”

“Well? These days, the Chairman is quite busy watching something interesting.”

The black man covered his mouth and chuckled. The bearded man and the Fish-man instinctively knew.

“He’s done something again.”

“What kind of trouble did you cause this time?”

“Oh, trouble? There’s no way I’d do that, right?”

The black man held up his hand, palm sideways, and waved it left and right.

“I’m just always doing my best for the Chairman’s enjoyment.”

“Right. So the Chairman isn’t bored yet? If he gets bored with starting a game company, he could quit anytime and return to his original position.”

“Not yet? The Chairman is always eagerly awaiting the appearance of someone who achieves a full clear. However….”

The black man openly chuckled slyly.

“I wonder when that full clear player will appear?”

‘He’s done it.’

‘I don’t know what it is, but he’s done something.’

The bearded man and the Fish-man exchanged glances. Of course, the black man quickly noticed that too and wailed loudly.

“Exchanging glances only among yourselves at a drinking partyyyy!! Oh dear, the President and Vice President are bullying a director, it’s the end of the world, truly the end of the world!”

“Tell us honestly.”

“You did something, didn’t you?”

At the bearded man and the Fish-man’s interrogation, the black man’s expression turned serious and he straightened his posture. At their increasingly serious expressions, the black man shrugged and smiled.

“I won’t deny it. But you see.”

The black man put his index finger to his lips and chuckled softly.

“All of this is for our foolish Chairman. So don’t ask, and don’t try to dig deeper. …Understood?”

As the black man revealed his presence, the bearded man and the Fish-man’s reason was momentarily paralyzed. The black man, seeing the two flinch, relaxed his expression, giggled, and ordered more alcohol.

“Ahahaha! Don’t be so scared. Who’s going to eat you? I should be praising the two top contributors who made our Chairman happy! In that sense, tonight’s on me!”

“…I would have been greatly disappointed if you hadn’t paid. For now, let’s just drink ourselves to death tonight.”

“Should we order everything on the menu for once? Oh, Director-nim. My little ones are working overtime right now, can I call them over too?”

“……Just a moment, a phone call.”

The black man made a tearful face and placed his wallet on the table. As soon as the black man disappeared, the bearded man and the Fish-man immediately conversed in ventriloquism so no one could hear them.

‘What do we do now? The Chairman’s exclusive channel is acting like that.’

‘I’ll ask the CEO-nim.’

The Fish-man flinched.

‘Your grandfather-nim?’

‘……Well, he probably wouldn’t not know.’

The two sighed simultaneously. For now, they needed to humor the black man who was groveling on the phone outside.

The bearded man crumpled his business card on the table with his hand and threw it into the trash can. The title on the business card, which had popped out slightly, read ‘President of Cthulhu Co., Ltd.’

* * *

“Those damn mermen. They cleaned out my entire salary this month.”

The black man looked at the credit card bill on his smartphone and chugged the alcohol he had brought out from the store straight from the bottle. The zombies, exhausted from overtime, devoured the alcohol and snacks like ravenous monsters. In the end, far from going through the entire menu, they depleted all the tent bar’s ingredients, forcing the store to close.

“Well, it’s not my money anyway!”

Since he held the position of a director in the group in the first place, wasn’t he in the most financially free position? Thinking something like this might happen, he swiped with the corporate card.

“I said I’d pay, but I never said I’d pay with my own money. Hehehe.”

A direct call would probably go to the President’s phone tomorrow. The black man fiddled with his black-shining card and staggered along the sidewalk.

“……Huh?”

It was his personal card.

The tipsiness that had dominated the black man’s entire body vanished in an instant.

“…….”

It was a mistake his true self would never make. The black man smiled at the fact that he had become so engrossed in his human body that he made a ‘human-like’ mistake. How much he had spent on the card didn’t even properly register in his mind.

“Ehehehe, hehehe.”

The black man let out a maniacal laugh like a madman and disappeared into the darkness.