Ch.109017 Work Record – New Recruitment Period (8)

While riding my bike across the wasteland, I heard Ms. Eve’s voice in my ear. It was a somewhat refreshing voice.

“I don’t know what to say. But… yes, it feels good. You always find the right words, Arthur.”

“I just heard it from someone else, that’s all. By the way, about that cult leader’s lover. You said they definitely wouldn’t let us in because of the doctrine’s malfunction, right?”

“That’s right. But the hologram we saw must have been the doctrine itself. The way it spoke was definitely him. He spoke rather plainly for someone high up in Hollow Creek.”

“And the way he spoke was different from the cult leader’s lovers. Instead of coaxing and threatening…”

Ms. Eve was able to continue those words without having to calm herself with deep breaths this time. To demonstrate this fact, she cut off my words and continued herself.

“He said that my death was all his responsibility, that the responsibility would never disappear, and that he would never accept an apology. Yes. The doctrine wasn’t a stupid person. He must have known what would happen.”

“Eventually you must have given up, Ms. Eve. No longer visiting the doctrine’s villa, no longer running into Hollow Creek people…”

“I probably vanished from LA to completely escape from Hollow Creek. Even Creek can’t find people who disappear like that.”

Perhaps that was the completion of an escape. It was giving the terrified Ms. Eve of that time what she wanted as she tried to flee Hollow Creek.

At the same time, it was finalizing a healable wound into a scar. Among ways to solve a problem, it was terribly the worst. It would create as many new problems as it solved.

Did the doctrine have any choice other than the worst? All he had left was a single hologram. I couldn’t deny that it might have been the only method possible with that two-dimensional body.

“Arthur. Can I say something stupid?”

“Hasn’t that always been my role between us?”

“Don’t be funny. You were in charge of saying smart things. Stupidity has been mine from the beginning. Don’t you remember the beer?”

Her words brought back memories of that day, making me laugh. It was the moment when the cold, blunt, and sharp senior became the surprisingly immature Ms. Eve.

“Until then, I thought you were a scary senior. What are you bringing that story up for?”

“Just… yes, just. Next time I visit the doctrine, I’m thinking of telling him how I’m living. Since he’s connected to Hollow Creek, even if not in detail, at least roughly. What do you think?”

The doctrine might not be an enemy. The doctrine might just be trying to do what he could. Perhaps from that time until now, he had been trying to help the last runaway who came to him escape.

There was only one way to avoid the worst outcome. To let the doctrine know. To tell him that Ms. Eve’s escape was already over, that she would reject Hollow Creek’s reach, and that she was living well.

I also came to understand what the doctrine meant when he muttered about what needed to be taken responsibility for while looking at me. It was literal. If I was going to take away what he needed to do, I should also take his responsibility.

I gladly decided to do so. Instead of adding commentary to what Ms. Eve had recalled, I decided to just add a frivolous remark or two.

“Then… at least leave out the story about me messing with the kids. We live in an age where reality can be censored and truth can be manufactured.”

It took two hours one way from leaving Los Angeles to reach the doctrine’s villa. That meant four hours round trip, and the sky that had been dim when we left was now the color of cigarette smoke.

Ms. Eve’s laughter came through the communication after hearing my rather pointless remark followed by a serious one. Sometimes things like the color of the sky or the gray of the wasteland don’t really matter.

“That turned out to be a silly thing to say. But… yes, I can do that much. And honestly, even I can see that there’s not much to talk about right now… I might call you to go somewhere at random times, is that okay?”

“Anytime when I’m not working. We left early in the morning, so it’s still morning. We could start from now…”

Just as I was saying this, a call message appeared in my vision. Of course, it was from Nightwatch. There were non-urgent meeting matters, so we were to gather at the company by lunchtime. I sighed.

“Ah, boss. You weren’t like this.”

“There’s plenty of time until Christmas, Arthur. Should we go straight to the office?”

To think that was the first thing that came out of my mouth when I received the contact. I don’t think I can introduce myself as a workaholic anymore. I changed direction from heading into the city and headed toward the office.

I parked my bike in the office parking lot, took off the bulletproof plates, and went up to the office wearing only the inner combat suit. Vola was leaning against the wall talking with Director Yoon. Seeing me, she let out a laugh.

“Looks like you’ve been on a job since morning?”

“I didn’t fire a single shot, so I can’t say I’ve been on a job. So, what’s the sudden call about?”

We gathered around the sofa where Director Yoon was sitting. There weren’t assigned seats, but everyone had their usual places. It had become familiar now.

The director had a somewhat proud expression. That expression at the end of the year. It seemed our priority for official business selection had risen. We had made a good impression on Bellwether when recovering Chance.

If not that… no, that’s not it. I hadn’t done anything in the suppression of the Bellwether coup, and that wasn’t included in the performance records. I didn’t count what wasn’t my share. I kept silent without being ordered to.

“I think Nightwatch needs to proceed with new recruitment as well. It’s quite a critical weakness that we can’t perform our duties if just two people are missing, and the 4th quarter official partner company announcement priority changes came out…”

Nightwatch was originally ranked 46th. Or was it 47th? It was probably around there. I checked the priority change table announced by Bellwether’s personnel management team in my vision. Nightwatch was 23rd.

23rd out of 107 companies. Now we could definitely say we were on… some kind of track. Now we needed to prepare to run faster. That was thinking the Bellwether way.

“We’ve risen more than expected. I think Arthur’s loan to Lone Star Rangers had an impact, and above all, we’ve caught quite a lot of troublemakers for them.”

Osgard Company, the Battering Rams vigilante group, the Non-Human Liberation Front terrorists, the Undertakers, and Chance. If we were to count all the Bellwether troublemakers we’d handled, two hands wouldn’t be enough.

“Anyway, with our priority up, I’m thinking of expanding our scale a bit… honestly, hiring new people isn’t a simple matter. I called you all to get recommendations first.”

That’s why Vola was here first. She was a seasoned mercenary. At the very least, she would know the average quality of mercenaries. Vola output a sigh before speaking.

“But there aren’t any outstanding guys among the unaffiliated these days. Since we’re not a big enough company to train people from scratch, we need someone with some foundation already…”

Unaffiliated wasn’t the same as freelancer. Freelancers could contract directly with major corporations, while the unaffiliated didn’t even have a company to represent them. They had minimal say.

They tried to get into any company. Being part of an organization always makes people feel secure. As a result, it was difficult to distinguish between skilled and unskilled people.

Director Yoon was the one who could make that distinction. Bringing in Vola, flipping Tina’s car with a sniper shot and then using the collected information to pressure Van to bring him to Nightwatch… and bringing Ms. Eve and Mr. Enzo here as well.

Ms. Eve knew this fact, so she naturally asked Director Yoon.

“Haven’t you been keeping an eye on some people? I thought you were the type to suddenly appear, hand out business cards, and make recruitment offers.”

“The problem is that Lone Star Rangers is taking them all. They had to purge their entire general affairs department because of their connection to the coup. They’re struggling to fill in their numbers now.”

I felt a tightness in my throat at the fact that I had instigated it, but that was the only way. When someone resolves to make a stupid choice, there’s no way for me to stop it.

The only time to stop it is before it begins. That’s why I willingly took on the role of negotiator between Fitts & Morrison and Noah Verami. I wanted to show that dialogue was possible.

Director Yoon rubbed between his eyebrows and offered a second-best option. It was definitely Plan B.

“I’ll be looking more closely at unaffiliated mercenaries, but I’d like the three of you to check if there’s anyone in your networks who could join Nightwatch. Ah, Arthur. The company you collaborated with last time…”

Bringing Kanun here would… satisfy Noah’s ambition, but it would be murder. They were mercenaries who weren’t properly controlled yet even with the skilled senior Jimon.

That’s separate from wanting to be friends and wanting to get close as people. I shook my head without hesitation.

“They’re rookie mercenaries, so no. Even when catching Smog Crawlers in the ruins, I had to handle the garden cleanup and take down the boss, and still had to accommodate support requests from Kanun employees.”

“I see that won’t work. If we bring in such people, we’d have to train them from scratch. To accept someone without experience, they’d have to be like you, Arthur.”

I had only worked in Bellwether’s security team for half a year, but before that, I had trained for several years to become part of the security team. At least eight years.

Morning classes at school were always named basic security team training, advanced training, and practical training, and only in the afternoon did we receive regular curriculum classes. It wasn’t a bad youth.

If I went to Pasadena, I could find Bellwether’s affiliated middle and high schools with my eyes closed, and with this enhanced body’s hearing, I could probably hear the gunshots breaking through their soundproofing.

Nationalists called us child soldiers, but we were students. Firearms were stored in the school warehouse and could only be issued for training purposes, and we received our personal handguns only at graduation.

Even in security failure situations, the security team stationed at the school never called on security team aspirants. Rather, we were the ones who were dissatisfied with that fact. We were treated like children.

Is this normal? Or is it strange enough to shock nationalists? I couldn’t tell. What’s normal, what’s not normal. What’s right, what’s wrong. It was all confusing.

I clear away that confusion. It was a happy time. It was a childhood I could miss. I decided to make it so. I wouldn’t be forced by anyone. I had rejected even the demands of the person who taught me those words.

Speaking of networks, I should contact the representative from Panacea Medtech. Christmas was coming soon, so I needed to make a visit appointment. The meeting of field staff ended quickly.

Rather than a meeting, it was more like a place to speak up if you had someone in mind, so that was natural. After the discussion ended, I went down to the office parking lot, sat on my bike, and brought up my HUD.

I connect to Panacea Medtech’s Los Angeles branch. The connection is made quickly. It was the branch management AI. A well-crafted female voice outputs.

“Identity verification process in progress. Identity verification complete. Good morning, freelancer. Security clearance has been temporarily granted. How may I assist you?”

“Could you connect me to the head of Artificial Insemination Department 3? If you say Arthur Murphy, she’ll know who I am…”

“Please enter the password.”

She was a kind but fastidious person. Whether it could be called fastidious that she set frivolous passwords saying numeric passwords were easy to forge, I wasn’t sure, but of course I remembered the password.

“‘Why is it Panacea and not Panakeia? Please read it in English for once.’ End of input. Please verify, Panacea.”

“Password matches. Connecting you to Department Head Robin J. Please wait a moment.”

Despite being asked to wait a moment, the connection was made immediately. A somewhat worried voice comes through.

“Arty, why is it that when I try to send a Christmas gift to Bellwether, it says there’s no employee, not even a former employee, with the name I entered? Nothing’s happened, right?”

I briefly consider how to make ‘I died and came back to life, lived as a mercenary, and suppressed the Bellwether coup, but all the content before this sentence is censored directly by the chairman so I can’t tell you’ sound like a reasonable statement.

The silence lasted only a few seconds, but in the end, there was only one answer I could give. These colors were the most useful thing I’d been using since leaving Bellwether.

“Something did happen, but it’s black information. Anyway, I left Bellwether and I’m working at a mercenary staffing company. Nightwatch. It’s also a Bellwether partner company, but for now…”

“At least you left Bellwether. That’s what matters. Working with those people only dulls you, Arty. When you said you were aspiring to join the security team, I worried you might become a human hunter…”

That’s what they called Bellwether’s counterinsurgency department at Panacea Medtech. There are no mutants at Panacea Medtech. Employee-citizens are employee-citizens. Perhaps it was a more efficient structure than Bellwether’s distinctions.

Don’t let a witch live. Don’t let a mutant live. Even the normally reasonable Bellwether would occasionally foam at the mouth like a rabid sheep when those words circulated. Nadia’s fear was not unfounded.

And… I’m glad I didn’t become a human hunter… Somehow, a corner of my heart, probably what should be called conscience, felt a prickling sensation. I evaded the topic.

“Whether mercenary or security team, the job is pretty much the same, isn’t it? I just remembered I hadn’t contacted you since leaving Bellwether, so I’m calling now. We’re still having the Christmas party this year, right?”

“Of course. I just don’t understand it at all. They hunt down people with morphological syndrome like animals, but they provide better support than our Panacea for miracle children. What is wrong with Bellwether?”

Bellwether calmly called us returned children, while Panacea Medtech called us, who were all purchased two hours before disposal, miracle children. Honestly, I preferred Bellwether’s term.

“I know, right? I don’t really understand the mutant-related stuff either. But the reason they provide support is obvious, isn’t it?”

“It’s that efficiency mantra again. It would be fine if they just stuck to that efficiency talk, but they treat morphological syndrome patients that way, so we can’t increase our collaboration. Even though there’s no market that size… Anyway!”

From their perspective, Bellwether is also a big piece of meat. It’s just blocked by mutant-related issues. I decided to make a note of it.

“If you changed jobs, we should see each other! Your face is still the same as at graduation, right, Arty? Want to come to the headquarters?”

“I start work at 8 PM today too. I’m off on Wednesday and Thursday, so I’ll contact you on my days off.”

After that, I listened to a long lecture about how night shifts are bad for health and how I should look for a place to work during the day even if it’s a mercenary staffing company, before ending the call.

It seemed like a long time had passed since Adrian tore my body to shreds, but seeing that I was still treated like a child, I realized again that very little time had actually passed.

Only nine months had passed since graduation, and only a month and a half since I died and came back to life. To her, I was still a graduate.