Ch.6363. Happiness of the Nest

Owen’s reign ended in just one month.

Officially, Owen was declared dead.

Requetio Corporation slowly returned to normal.

A month had passed since then.

Kathy’s father returned as the president, and Kathy became a director of the company.

Of course, Kathy could have directly inherited the position of president.

She had sufficient justification and power.

But Kathy preferred to remain as a director.

She wanted to experiment with her abilities in various ways.

It was a choice made because she needed someone who had fewer responsibilities than the president and could cover for her if she failed.

However, being a director didn’t mean her power within the company was limited to that level.

Naturally, after everyone had seen her reclaim the company herself, no one would doubt her authority.

With a bit of exaggeration, it wouldn’t be an overstatement to say the president was now her puppet.

Now the real power behind Requetio, Kathy was wrestling with piles of documents in her office today.

“Nyaaang…”

Making an incomprehensible sound, Kathy melted onto her desk.

It was a posture lacking any dignity for a director with an office larger than most homes.

A short distance from her desk, Amon was leaning against the sofa, polishing his sword with a satisfied smile.

“Do you like it that much?”

“Of course I do. TNC-101 alloy body with magic stone steel core, elemental metallurgical reinforcement method…”

This was Amon’s explanation that she heard several times a day.

Kathy listened to it all with a wry smile.

‘Seeing him so happy makes it worth buying.’

The first thing Kathy did after being appointed as director was to upgrade her colleagues’ equipment to the highest specifications.

She generously provided treatments and equipment that in other companies would only be available to security directors.

In Amon’s case, since he didn’t receive any treatments, she compensated with equipment.

Using some loopholes to get him military-grade gear that civilians couldn’t even dream of.

The sword”s” that Amon was lovingly caressing were the finest swords currently made by humans.

They were so good that the smile never left Amon’s face as he looked at them.

“Hehehe…”

Not only that, but the clothes Amon was wearing were also of such high performance that even ten mouths wouldn’t be enough to list all their features.

Like a true equipment enthusiast, Kathy watched Amon with a wry smile.

Then suddenly, a question occurred to her.

She finished processing the document she was working on and immediately voiced her question.

“Come to think of it, didn’t you take down a Megacorp before?”

“That’s right.”

“And you traded the rights fee and various other things in exchange for handing it over to Three Dollar Meat.”

“Yes.”

“But why was the rights fee so small?”

Kathy had heard about the deal Amon made.

Meat and rights fees.

Plus a few other conveniences.

But no matter how she looked at it, she couldn’t understand.

That’s it?

Is that all he got for handing over an entire Megacorp?

She might not have understood before, but now as a Megacorp director handling money herself, Amon’s contract seemed ridiculously weak.

It was suspicious enough to make her wonder if he had been scammed.

But Amon denied Kathy’s suspicion.

“I know. But there’s a reason.”

“What reason?”

“Huh? Couldn’t you just look and see?”

“Why would I look into your past without permission? I only look at the future.”

“Aww. Thank you. But I can’t tell you. Sorry.”

“Well, I’m sure you know what you’re doing.”

Kathy nodded and returned her focus to the documents.

The Amon she knew might be kind, but he wasn’t a pushover.

There must be reasons why he reduced the contract so much, and why he was hiding the real deal with Three Dollar Meat.

She continued processing the documents, typing on some and signing others directly.

Like a capable career woman, she handled calls through her earpiece while working simultaneously, and her work finally ended just after 6 o’clock.

She immediately stood up and said to Amon who had been waiting.

“I’m done.”

“You finished early today?”

“I have plans today, so I took care of some things yesterday. Let’s go.”

“Alright. Let’s stop by the lobby first.”

Amon put the sword he was holding into his pocket.

The sword slipped into his pocket like magic.

The two grabbed their coats and headed to the company lobby.

When they arrived at the lobby, Sonia, who had finished her lecture for the day, was waiting for them.

“Let’s hurry.”

The group, now grown to three with Sonia’s addition, boarded the elevator again.

They took the elevator to the upper atrium where the final battle had taken place, then pressed the elevator button to go down.

Basement floor 8.

A floor accessible only to executive-level personnel.

Normally, Amon and Sonia wouldn’t have access, but this was a special case.

After passing identity verification at the basement level 8 laboratory, the three headed to the deepest part of the research facility.

On the other side of the glass at their destination, a snail as thick as a human forearm was crawling around.

Entity name: <Wise Snail>

Once Kathy’s blood relative, ruler of the world for a month, now reduced to a mere creature.

She didn’t feel any particular sympathy.

Owen’s karmic debt was too great.

From the moment he started removing people’s brains to enhance supercomputers, he was no better than his mother.

If he had been a good person, he wouldn’t have tried to strangle his father either.

Amon, Sonia, and Kathy.

As the three were watching the snail, the people they were waiting for entered.

“Sorry. We’re a bit late.”

[An emergency mission came up at 5.]

The bull-like Tanker and the mute Sniper were wearing Requetio Corporation security department uniforms.

“We’re definitely working overtime tonight.”

“Me too.”

The Ogre and the Ambidextrous Mage were also wearing company uniforms.

Not security department uniforms, but research department lab coats.

These four had found employment through Kathy’s connections after the incident ended.

Though common people may hate corporations, they don’t refuse corporate employment.

Contradictory as it may be, corporate jobs were indeed stable and safe.

And with strong connections in the company, there was no reason not to join.

The changes in their daily lives didn’t end there.

Amon’s gaze shifted to his colleagues’ fingers.

The bull-like Tanker and the mute Sniper,

The Ogre and the Ambidextrous Mage.

Each pair was wearing matching rings.

On their ring fingers, no less.

When he first heard the news from them, he was surprised briefly but adapted quickly.

From a traditional perspective, the combination of the Ambidextrous Mage and the Ogre was a bit shocking, but…

‘Well, if they’re happy with it.’

Amon decided to respect them.

Anyway, all six were gathered after a long time.

For convenience, they were called Kathy’s Expedition Team. (Kathy herself hated this name very much.)

Over the past month, they had exchanged news through Amon, who had nothing better to do, but it had been a while since everyone gathered due to conflicting schedules.

The leader of the expedition team, Kathy, brought up the topic.

“Well. Though I’d like to go straight to dinner since we’ve gathered after so long… let’s deal with the snail matter first.”

Kathy tapped on the glass.

The reason for calling these six was simple.

Partly it was to prepare combat power in case the experiment went wrong and created a dungeon, but this seemed unlikely.

The snail didn’t seem capable of much.

More importantly, it was because these people were the most trustworthy.

The snail possessed the power to see the future.

That power of the Requetio family.

Though research was still ongoing and they hadn’t fully figured it out, if this leaked, it could be fatal to Requetio, who made their living from future poetry.

So they were conducting experiments with only the minimum number of trusted personnel.

Amon shook his head to clear his thoughts.

The Ambidextrous Mage, dressed in researcher attire, stepped forward and began the experiment with the snail.

Today’s experiment was to check if the futures seen by the snail and Kathy were the same.

The Ogre inserted a thin needle into the snail’s body with delicate hand movements that seemed at odds with his massive hands.

Ziiing-

The Ogre carefully adjusted his mechanical eye with microscope functionality while moving the needle.

After finishing his work, the Ogre wiped sweat from his forehead.

“Phew. I’ve been doing only this for a month. Now there’s probably no one in the lab who’s better at this than me.”

Soon, a device wirelessly connected to the needle began displaying output on the screen.

The future the snail was seeing appeared split into eight parts.

“We can only read eight so far. With more research on the ganglia, we should be able to get more.”

“No need to rush. We can take it slow for now.”

Kathy offered encouragement in response to the Ogre’s report and sat down in a chair.

A display was placed in front of the snail.

The display was connected to the body cam attached to Amon’s chest.

Amon, wearing the body cam, entered the sparring room with the mute Sniper and the bull-like Tanker.

The experiment setup was as follows:

Show the battle from Amon’s perspective via body cam to both the snail and Kathy.

Kathy checks how many of the futures in the snail’s vision match her own.

Thud, thud.

As the combat team was warming up, instructions came from the Ambidextrous Mage.

The sparring had begun.

The combat power of the colleagues on screen was incomparable to what it had been a month ago.

This was the result of the treatments and equipment Kathy had provided.

It might seem a bit disheartening, but in this world, individual effort and time don’t necessarily lead to strength.

In the end, it’s the capital to receive good treatments and the constitution and mental fortitude to endure them that determine strength.

Of course, with training and meditation, one’s limit for enduring treatments might increase, but ultimately, constitution and talent were what mattered.

In that sense, this world was one where it wouldn’t be strange if a neighborhood thug suddenly returned as a Megacorp security director-level monster.

‘Though they’re not at director level yet.’

There’s a limit to how many parts can be treated at once.

They were still at the upper end of the department head level.

It was disappointing for Kathy, who wanted to appoint someone trustworthy as security director.

But there was no rush.

‘They have plenty of room for treatment compatibility.’

With gradual equipment upgrades, they had ample possibility to reach director level.

Thinking this, Kathy continued to watch the screen.

And as time passed and the experiment results came in…

“0% match rate.”

“Wow. That’s quite surprising.”

Amon’s eyebrow twitched at the Ambidextrous Mage’s report.

Though he said that, it was what everyone had expected.

Each prophet sees different futures, and predictions change the more they are observed.

But even so, they discovered a certain pattern.

“This snail, just like Owen, is an extreme safety-first type?”

The snail always showed results that led to a draw.

It found ways for Amon to never lose, from his perspective.

This was completely different from Kathy’s predictions, which focused on the extremes of victory or defeat.

Kathy rejoiced at this experiment’s result.

“Great.”

She had hoped they wouldn’t match, and that’s exactly what happened.

It meant they could see more futures.

And there was one more peculiar point.

[Oh… this is more effective than I thought.]

The mute Sniper was also impressed.

The snail’s method could minimize damage in any situation.

Even if one accidentally entered a route leading to defeat, the snail would guide towards a draw with minimal damage.

Of course, they say victory comes to those who don’t give up, but…

“Not all employees have strong mental fortitude.”

Everyone agreed with Kathy’s cold insight.

At least for predictions involving employees who easily break mentally, the snail might be better.

Kathy nodded with satisfaction and decided to end today’s experiment.

Splurt

As soon as the experiment ended, the snail spewed green byproduct.

“Ugh.”

Sonia grimaced and fled the room.

The bull-like Tanker, who had a weak stomach, also frowned and walked out.

The researchers, the Ogre and the Ambidextrous Mage, grumbled as they collected the byproduct.

The effects of this byproduct were still unknown.

But since byproducts created by entities often had some use, they were keeping it for now.

Looking at the byproduct, Amon muttered.

“That’s not poop, is it?”

“Entities don’t eat, you know.”

“True, but…”

Amon stopped mid-sentence and looked at Kathy with a serious face.

“I’ll run away if you tell me to eat that stuff.”

“Don’t worry. I don’t want to eat it either. I won’t make you do things I wouldn’t do. We’ll feed it to mice first, and if it’s not poisonous, maybe later we’ll try it on other employees.”

“What did they do to deserve that?”

“Do you want to eat it?”

“No, Madam President.”

“Amon. I’m a director.”

“Yes, shadow director, my lord.”

“Amon.”

“Sorry. I’ll stop joking.”

Amon silently prayed for the nameless employees.

‘But Kathy treats her employees like people and the company benefits are good. I’ll let it slide.’

Rationalizing with excuses no one would hear.