Ch.5959. Variables and Singularities

Tom was a manager in the External Intelligence Department of Requetio Corporation.

He had been promoted to manager after his predecessor retired.

But Tom wasn’t happy about it.

Because the previous manager’s retirement hadn’t happened in a normal way.

Not just Tom, but no one in this company took the manager’s retirement at face value.

That was because the manager had been someone who opposed Owen’s appointment as president.

This wasn’t something that happened only to the manager.

Firing, honorary retirement, demotion.

The methods varied, but everyone knew this was a purge.

People who had conflicts with Owen when he was a department head, or those who had sworn loyalty to the former president.

In some cases, people became targets of the purge for no reason at all.

One couldn’t feel safe just because one purge had passed.

Even those who remained sometimes became targets for no reason, and some were purged like used pawns even after proving their usefulness.

Of course, this was common among Megacorps in this world.

But the former president rarely fired people once he hired them, and those who were promoted were seldom demoted or fired.

This was because people the president personally handled rarely caused problems.

Moreover, even when they did cause problems, the president usually forgave them, and those forgiven repaid him with even greater achievements.

But Owen’s company wasn’t kind at all.

Unlike typical Megacorps, it didn’t give multiple chances, and employees’ lives were snuffed out like insects depending on the president’s mood.

This was common sense in this world, but it was unfamiliar to people who had been working at this company.

Tom, the External Intelligence Department manager, hated this thin-ice atmosphere of the company.

But there was nothing he could do.

He was newly married, with a wife and children to feed at home.

Tom silently continued doing his job.

But even for him, there was an order he found quite disagreeable.

– <Track the location information of Kathy Requetio and her colleagues.>

It was clear to anyone that this wasn’t for a good purpose.

If you compared a Megacorp to a kingdom, bloodshed between heirs was common.

Even after taking the president’s seat, thoroughly purging opposing forces was basic etiquette.

When that order came down, Tom sat in front of his computer with a sour expression.

While feeling sympathy for her on one hand, Tom did his best to track her down for his own safety on the other.

Having firmly believed that a one-sided purge would take place, Tom couldn’t help but be surprised when Kathy stormed into the company.

‘Why this suicidal charge?’

Most employees were gleefully gathering their equipment, happy that achievements were rolling in.

But not Tom.

The Kathy he knew might be bold, but she wasn’t crazy.

Even though the company was at its weakest due to the bold personnel reorganization, it wasn’t weak enough to be breached by mere mercenaries.

No matter how much internal discontent toward Owen had peaked, the possibility of them siding with Kathy was infinitesimally low.

That’s why Tom thought Kathy might be trying to make the building her grave.

But after seeing the departments and teams that had rushed ahead for the achievements get completely wiped out, he changed his mind.

At the point where Kathy annihilated them, Tom had to acknowledge her.

‘There’s something here.’

A reason to boldly storm the building.

At least the colleagues who went ahead wouldn’t have been careless.

Before facing Kathy and her colleagues, Tom glanced behind him.

Behind him were the employees of the External Intelligence Department.

Morale was at rock bottom.

They seemed frightened by the news that other departments that had gone ahead were wiped out.

The manager looked at his subordinates and thought of his children at home.

Then, he made a decision.

‘Fuck it. If I fail, it’s treason; if I succeed, it’s revolution.’

As soon as he met Kathy’s party, he immediately surrendered.

He even volunteered to escort them all the way to the president.

Kathy’s colleagues were bewildered by Tom’s sudden joining, but only Kathy accepted him as if it were natural.

“That’s wise, Director Tom.”

“I’m a manager…”

“No. You’re a director now.”

Along with her words, which might seem arrogant at first glance, something began to be deleted in Tom’s mind.

Confirming this, Tom was certain.

That his bet had been a huge success.

*

Starting with Director Tom, more and more people began surrendering to Kathy’s party.

Those who were quick-witted, those who were dissatisfied with Owen’s methods, those who valued legitimacy.

They had entered with just 7 people, but somehow the number of those following Kathy had grown to hundreds.

But Kathy didn’t drag all of them along.

“Please maintain the floors we’ve occupied.”

This was war.

A civil war taking place inside one massive building.

While taking the King’s head was important, maintaining the occupied floors was equally important.

That’s why Kathy had those who surrendered to her hold their positions rather than bringing them along.

Only 6 colleagues were always by her side.

With just those 6, she conquered the company.

It didn’t matter even if they didn’t surrender.

She respected those who chose neutrality between Owen and her.

As long as they didn’t actively attack her, she tended to leave them alone.

– “But those who maintained neutrality shouldn’t expect the same treatment as those who defected.”

Despite this, those who wanted safety chose to remain neutral till the end.

Thus, three factions emerged in the company.

Owen faction, Neutral faction, Kathy faction.

At first, the Owen faction was the majority.

Then as Kathy’s party gained momentum, the Neutral faction became dominant, and by the time Kathy occupied half the company, the Kathy faction prevailed.

At this rate, Owen was in danger.

The security chief was very displeased with this situation.

“Tsk. Stupid traitors.”

Security Chief Cayden clicked his tongue.

Of course, Cayden himself was aware that he had betrayed the former president.

But he wasn’t criticizing the loyalty of those who surrendered to Kathy.

He was criticizing their stupidity.

‘Of all people to follow, they choose that woman…’

In Cayden’s view, Kathy hadn’t proven anything.

Compared to her, Owen?

He had successfully completed numerous deals, big and small, within this company.

And he did it alone, without the former president’s help.

His genius was comparable to the former president’s, and he eventually drove the former president out of his position.

In contrast, the security chief saw Kathy as just a tomboy miss.

She spent the freedom given by the former president not within the company but outside with worthless mercenaries.

In the security chief’s view, Kathy had achieved nothing and never would.

“Inexperienced youngsters getting cocky.”

The security chief rose from his seat.

He had hoped it would be handled at the subordinate level, but Kathy and her colleagues were doing better than expected.

At this rate, it would be a stain on his face as security chief, so he decided to move personally.

“So it wasn’t just a whim after all.”

At first, after they stormed in, he thought it was just youthful vigor that couldn’t be contained.

But by the time they had broken through about half, even the security chief had to acknowledge that there was something there.

But-

“Whatever it is, I’ll crush it head-on.”

Whatever tricks the mercenaries were using, he was the security chief.

If he set his mind to it, he had the combat power to face not just mercenaries but an army.

In terms of combat power alone, he was confident he could easily handle about ten Horde squads.

Whatever strategy the mercenaries brought, he was confident he could crush it head-on.

He guarded the passage with his greatsword and grenade launcher.

Soon after, Amon’s party appeared before him.

The security chief attacked them immediately without any introductions.

“I don’t know what tricks you’re using, but-“

This is as far as you go!!

He swung his greatsword, fired his grenade launcher, and stomped the ground to explode it, pushing them back.

While fighting Amon’s party, the corners of the security chief’s mouth curved upward.

‘They had reason to be confident!’

He had to admit it.

Amon and his colleagues’ combat power was excellent.

Comparing them to the security team, each one was at least at the level of a manager.

Especially the young man named Amon showed potential to reach the security chief’s level if given the right equipment and procedures.

But, that was just potential.

Their skills fell far short of expectations.

“Playtime is over.”

The security chief’s neural accelerator activated.

Dodging bullets and ignoring magic coming from behind were basic states for the security chief.

Once he started using the device, the chief left afterimages behind and began to ravage Amon’s party.

The tanker was cut down with his shield before he could even react, and the sniper became a lump of meat just by colliding with the chief’s shoulder.

Then he pulled the pin from a grenade on the ogre’s waist and threw it toward the mage.

Only Amon and Sonia’s eyes could follow the chief among the group, but before that, his sword had already cut their necks.

Finally, Kathy still seemed unaware that her colleagues had died, staring only at the chief’s afterimages.

“Farewell, foolish miss.”

The chief swung his sword.

After taking Kathy’s head, the chief picked it up and turned around.

And the moment he stepped on the stairs to report to the president, his instinct rang an alarm.

He looked around to identify the source of this chilling sensation.

Soon he realized that the source of this sensation was Kathy’s head in his hand.

“?”

As he was staring at the head, suddenly Kathy’s face began to change.

The security chief knew that face well.

“Hams?”

Even though he called his secretary’s name, there was no answer.

He turned his gaze to look at the corpses of Amon’s party, which had been wiped out.

Somehow, all the equipment and clothing they had been wearing had changed to those of the security department.

“What the…”

While the security chief was confused, noise appeared on his screen.

A headache came.

‘Wait… why did I fight them?’

Thinking about it, Amon’s party was still stopped in the middle.

It seemed odd that the security chief would come down to deal with them.

Was it the president’s order? His own will?

His thoughts wouldn’t connect.

There was noise again, and when he came to his senses, the former executive director who had left the company was looking down at him from the top of the stairs.

The security chief was wary of the executive director who suddenly appeared.

“Why are you here?”

The man who had written his resignation without hesitation to follow the former president had appeared without any warning.

While the chief was raising his guard against the director, the director spoke.

“Poor man.”

“…?”

“Despite betraying the president, you don’t have Owen’s trust. No, maybe it’s natural not to trust someone who has betrayed once.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Did he not tell you anything about the Requetio family?”

The security chief couldn’t follow the director’s story.

The director continued his monologue, taking the chief’s confusion as an answer.

“Well, it’s not meant for you to hear, but since it will take some time, let’s chat. The president didn’t trust you. From the beginning. Yet do you know why he kept you as security chief?”

The chief’s answer wasn’t necessary.

“Because you were useful to him.”

With those words, a download bar appeared in the corner of the security chief’s visual interface.

<Downloading>

The bar was already filled to 30 percent.

‘Since when?’

Why hadn’t he noticed this?

The security chief put aside his curiosity and activated the antivirus in his internal neural network.

The antivirus detected something and displayed a red warning, but when the director gestured, the warning disappeared and the download continued.

Not knowing what was being downloaded, but assuming it wasn’t good, the security chief shot at the director.

But the bullets passed through the director’s body and only destroyed the wall behind him.

“Meaningless. Attacking a phantom that only you can see won’t harm me. But to prevent Miss’s colleagues from getting hurt by stray bullets…”

Snap!

As the director snapped his fingers, the security chief’s body froze.

After that, every time the director made a gesture, the cyberware installed in the security chief’s body stopped working.

The security chief couldn’t understand.

“Impossible… it shouldn’t be connected to the internet.”

To guard against the possibility of hacking, the security team doesn’t use the internet during combat.

Even if they do, they only use the security team’s dedicated intranet.

It was certain that even the world’s top three hackers couldn’t hack their neural network.

But the director in front of him had done it as if it were natural.

To resolve the chief’s curiosity, the director shrugged and spoke.

“Twenty years. That’s how long the president has been tinkering with the neural networks of subversives like you in this company.”

Equipment upgrades, internal intranet security checks, neural virus checks, and so on.

Citing numerous reasons, the president provided cyberware to subversives and subtly modified their neural networks in the process.

It was a slow change that took place over decades, making it impossible to notice.

And the one in charge of this project was the director, the president’s only confidant.

The security chief’s pupils shook as he heard the truth.

“Don’t tell me Owen’s rebellion was…”

“Ah, that’s not it.”

This project had been carried out before foreseeing Owen’s rebellion.

Not everyone with the possibility of betrayal became a target of this project.

More precisely, it was a measure taken for those who had the possibility of betrayal but whose abilities were too outstanding to let go, those who were too valuable to give away but too dangerous to keep close.

There might be world lines where this project played no role and was forgotten, but not in this world line.

According to the former president, if Owen had trusted the chief and told him about the future vision, he might have been prepared.

The problem is that there is no world line where Owen trusts the security chief.

“The president emphasized the importance of the singularity. Owen seems to have interpreted that singularity differently. As something that brings the best results and fixes the world line. But that’s not what a singularity is. A true singularity is someone you can trust and rely on in any world.”

As those words ended, some data was uploaded to the chief’s neural network.

Data name: Trojan Horse.

As the data was uploaded, the security chief’s vision distorted.

Once again, the employees’ corpses began to look like those of Amon’s party.

But this time, it didn’t end there.

His body began to move on its own.

Even though he was aware that he was being deceived, his body recognized the employees as Amon’s party and moved to eliminate them.

There was no will of the security chief there.

He trudged down the stairs.

From behind the descending security chief, the director’s voice was heard.

“Amazing. I didn’t expect the download to take this long. Indeed, there was a reason the president valued you.”

With those final words, the director’s voice was no longer heard.

The security chief went down and picked up his weapons.

The equipment that the director had deactivated was partially reactivated.

Employees who had sided with Owen till the end died at the hands of the security chief.

The security chief wasn’t the only one continuing the slaughter.

As if the director’s hand had touched others as well, various people attacked the employees.

The director’s attack didn’t end there.

Security devices inside the company, like turrets and drones, suddenly turned against the employees.

They mercilessly turned those who hadn’t surrendered to Kathy into sieves.

‘This… is pointless…’

Ironically, Owen’s strategy of enhancing the company’s security in preparation for Kathy’s future vision had backfired.

But Owen’s incompetence couldn’t be blamed.

His opponent had run the company for decades and had received a proper handover.

But Owen had been president for less than two months and hadn’t received a proper handover.

It was too much to expect that from Owen, who was busy stabilizing his regime.

Thus, powerful combat personnel, including the security chief, wore themselves out clearing the company.

Eventually, they reached Amon’s party, battered and broken.

[Kathy Julia Requetio confirmed.]

A brief sentence appeared on their interface, and they knelt before her.

Like death row inmates awaiting execution.

Kathy didn’t hesitate to raise her spear and swing it toward their necks.

Slash.

With them, those who followed Owen disappeared from the company.

Watching this, Amon grimaced and said.

“This is why I hate hackers.”

Regardless of direct combat power, what a hacker could do with sufficient time and authority was beyond imagination.

This was also why Amon didn’t receive cyberware procedures.

No matter how strong the cyber procedure one received, if caught by a hacker, one would be toyed with and killed regardless of compatibility.

“That’s why I only got magic tattoos and gene modifications,” Kathy agreed.

Sonia and the hybrid mage also nodded.

Gazes naturally turned to those in the party who had received cyber procedures.

Especially to the sniper, who could be said to have more metal than flesh in the party.

The mute sniper made a sour face and said.

[Kathy, I really won’t betray you, so trust me.]

“We’ll see about that.”

[Please spare me, Madam President.]

They burst into laughter as they moved forward.

All that remained ahead was Owen.