Strategic Analysis Office

“Ah! Did I just laugh in a really weird way?”
“Hm? …It’s nothing.”
“Hehe, what a relief!”

Yang Hayun had gone back to her usual beaming smile.

…Though her crazed one was already lodged in my head.

Still, thanks to her kind explanation, I had a rough grasp of how the company worked.

Now I see why the elites are so desperate to get into this place.

Depending on your investment results you can pull in a performance bonus, the base pay is fat, and promotions are decided on ability alone. Exactly the package to make bright university students on the elite track salivate.

For me, on the other hand, that same setup was extremely dangerous.

If I get cut here, it’s the absolute worst.

If I were let go from this place, I’d be a man who could walk in neither the light nor the shadows. The moment I stepped outside Songnang the Hero Association would haul me in, and after that I’d end up either as Cha Huigyeong’s toy or living out my days as the Association’s dog.

Hide out inside Songnang instead, then? That wouldn’t be easy either. This neighborhood is dangerous enough that Scorpion begged me over and over to keep the employee badge around my neck. Without that badge on me… I’d probably become food for some other Villain on the spot.

But if I turned in the best results in the Strategic Analysis Office instead?

I’d get the performance bonus, and I could dig up the truth about my father’s death.

That was the ideal.

“…Taeseung, are you feeling sick?”
“Huh?”
“You suddenly went all serious… Ah! If it’s the bathroom, it’s over that way.”
“It’s nothing like that! I’m just… a little tense.”

She was watching me with worried eyes. Going silent in the middle of a conversation was bound to strike her as odd. I cleared my throat and took a look around the office.

Is it break time right now?

The staff were all either buried nose-first in their monitors analyzing something, or eating. Up on the screens behind them was the Hero Gamble site, sure enough. The employees had to be playing it the same as we were.

— Beeeeeeep—!

In that instant, a blaring alarm went off through the entire office.

“Eeep?!”

Yang Hayun’s shrill scream went up, and I swept my eyes quickly over our surroundings. What was that? Had a Hero attacked or something? Judging by the other employees’ reactions, nobody looked like they were evacuating.

— Claaap!

Just then Kwon Hyeri appeared, clapping her hands to pull every eye to her.

“All right, lunch break is over! Villain deployment begins. Everyone focus!”

At the team leader’s shout, a new picture came up on the giant screen. It showed the middle of downtown, where a jet of water burst out of one building, smashing through a window on its way.

On another screen, an announcer was delivering urgent news.

Shortly after, a man appeared on the screen. Red suit, relatively young-looking. I’d seen that look somewhere before.

“The opponent is E-rank Hero ‘Flameman’! A fire-type awakened!”

One of the staff shouted. At the same moment, a new betting entry went up on the Hero Gamble site I’d been looking at.

└ lolololololol

└ what bastard put Flameman up against a guy who sprays water lolol

└ and this still isn’t rigged? this still isn’t rigged?

└ round up the Hero Gamble degens inside the Hero Association lolol

└ Flameman’s about to get dogwalked;

└ didn’t he get his ass kicked last time too and take 2 weeks off

└ yeah lolol at this point has he pissed off the association or what

…A Hero shows up and instead of cheering they’re mocking him.

Reading the comments dragged a sigh out of me. It was bad enough that the pot had gone rushing toward the Fire Alarm Villain in a heartbeat. Now this, mockery right out in the open.

Beside me, Yang Hayun let out a sigh of her own.

“Ah… this one’s lost. Flameman’s ability is fire-type, but his control isn’t good either.”
“Really…? You know your stuff.”
“I know pretty much every Hero worth knowing. The Fire Alarm Villain, on the other hand, looks like he fires a water cannon… the matchup means he can’t lose. The odds are small, but this is how you inch your way toward a performance bonus!”

— Ding.

Without a moment’s hesitation, she bet a hundred thousand won on the Fire Alarm Villain.

“A hundred thousand won?”
“Yes. I’m pretty sure he wins no matter what, but… winning barely pays anything anyway, and if he somehow loses the risk is way too big, right? You should put a little in too, Taeseung! Scaling in and scaling out is the basis of investing!”
“…”

— Ahem.

Yang Hayun planted a hand on her hip as she said it. There was something funny about invoking scaling in and scaling out over a round of Hero Gamble… but I didn’t let it show. She was giving me advice in her own way, after all.

And for my part, I didn’t think Flameman was going to win either.

I can’t lean on the Gift every day either… maybe I’ll just put in three hundred thousand or so.

My Gift can’t be controlled. Before all this, I checked the Hero Gamble site or the news regularly, so betting was easy enough, but… with a job to hold down, using it that way would be impossible.

Three hundred thousand for now, and I’ll think about it after.

Every little bit adds up. There’s no leaning blindly on the Gift, after all. Better to bet like this now and cash in big later, once I had information on a fight…

— Bzzzt!

“…!”

Right then my vision blurred and my eyes went stiff and heavy. The sign that the Gift was starting. Before long, the future came into view.

What I saw wasn’t the Hero Gamble screen but a subtitle on a news broadcast.

…Flameman won?

Along with the news headline, I could see him striking a victory pose. His suit was soaked clean through with water, but that dauntless expression was Hero incarnate. Which meant he had won, upending everyone’s predictions.

Right after that the Future Observation ended and my sight came back to normal.

“Haah…”
“Taeseung, you really aren’t well, are you…?”
“Huh…? No, no. I’m fine…”
“Tell me right away if you’re sick! The benefits here are good, so they’d treat you immediately. There’s got to be an awakened with the right kind of Gift on site too…”

I waved a hand to fend off her worried look. My eyes were a little stiff from the Gift’s aftereffects, but I was fine. The betting was more urgent than that.

“Hey, rookie! Do some copying for me over here!”
“Lunch is over and you’re still lazing around?”
“S-sorry!”
“I’m coming right now! …Taeseung, if you feel sick, make sure you tell somebody!”

— Scamper!

Yang Hayun got called away to Team 4 of the Strategic Analysis Office. Errands from everybody else pouring down on me, too. Lunch break was over before I knew it, so from here on I was obviously going to be too busy to breathe.

…Ah, screw it.

I shut my eyes tight and pressed the bet button.

I’d blown my entire fortune, a million won, in one clean stroke. If my Gift had failed, I’d probably be thrown out of the Strategic Analysis Office just like that, and my life would have a hard time ever seeing daylight again.

No taking the card back anyway.

— Thump-thump-thump-thump—

My heart was hammering like mad, but the milk was already spilled. I’d walked into a Villain organization to dig up my father’s death, after all. I had no choice but to trust my own ability a hundred percent.

“Rookie! What are you doing standing there!”
“Y-yes! Coming!”

I left the tablet PC where it was and ran straight out. The war of errands, started up all over again. As I ran back and forth every which way, the bet slipped out of my head before I noticed.

Mid-run, I stopped dead at the announcer’s report. Across Strategic Analysis Office Team 5, eyes went round as well. Someone hurriedly worked a remote and turned the volume up.

On the giant screen the announcer was talking with someone who looked like an expert.

The news feed switched over to a close-up of Flameman, drunk on victory. The shot of him smiling into the helicopter camera. A fine sight, worthy of a Hero.

…And the very sight I had seen through Future Observation.

“Aaaargh! My money!”

— Flutter-flap!

The documents I’d barely managed to copy and print went flying. Was it because anyone could see the fight had already been decided? The reactions around me were anything but ordinary.

“What the hell just happened!”
“No way! He lost to Flameman?”
“Wait, wasn’t that a guaranteed win?”
“The month-end evaluation is right around the corner, how am I supposed to cover this!”

Assistant Manager Kang Taejun in front of me was tearing at his hair worst of all.

“Fuck! My month-end evaluation!”
“Ah…”
“What are you looking at? Enjoying the show? Fucking hell, go make some coffee!”
“Y-yes, sir!”

Kang Taejun screwed his face up and chased me off to the break room. A moment ago I’d wanted to collapse from exhaustion; now my steps toward the coffee were light. Looked like he’d taken a big loss on Flameman.

Serves you right.

Honestly, it felt like sweet justice. He’d used me as an emotional trash can earlier just because I was the rookie… and I found myself hoping he’d keep pouring his money down the drain and get cut at the month-end evaluation. They do say it’s never the work at a company that wears you down, it’s the people.

“Oh? Taeseung!”
“You came for coffee too?”
“Yes… everyone’s on edge. I worked so hard making them coffee and they all just scowled…”
“…”

Shoulders drooping, Yang Hayun dumped coffee mix into a paper cup¹.

I’m pretty sure that’s just because the coffee doesn’t taste good… The words came all the way up my throat, but I barely swallowed them back down. Her lower lip was already out to here as it was.

“I lost a hundred thousand won too, you know? I really thought it was a hundred percent win…”
“A hundred thousand isn’t that big a loss, though. Spreading your bets was a good strategy, just like you said.”
“How much did you put in, Taeseung?”
“Uh… me?”

The sudden question left me at a loss for words. Should I just say honestly that I’d bet a million won on Flameman? …But if I did that I’d obviously get called a lunatic. I was still agonizing over how to put it when…

“…???”
“They’re calling you, Taeseung…?”

The sound of a microphone coming from above the break room. What was this, a department store paging a lost child? Putting it out over the company PA.

I couldn’t afford to be late, so I headed straight out.

“I don’t know what it’s about but… you’ve got this!”
“Thanks…”

Yang Hayun balled up a fist and struck a cheering pose. Carrying her encouragement with me, I made for the Team 5 leader’s office.

The office looked out over the whole of Team 5. Kang Taejun had come ahead and was waiting, and he snapped at me.

“Why are you so late? Move it, would you.”
“I’m sorry…”
“Tch. Let’s go in.”

Had he completely forgotten that he was the one who’d ordered the coffee? Ridiculous, but I let it go. Getting stressed over guys like this only ever costs me.

— Knock-knock—

“Come in.”

Kang Taejun opened the door, and there sat Team 5 leader Kwon Hyeri. She didn’t so much as glance our way, working at something on her computer. Her hollowed-out eyes gave me a chill for no reason.

What’s with all these energy drinks?

Her desk was covered in documents and energy drinks. There was even a mountain of the cans piled up in one corner of the office. …Don’t tell me the team leader drank all of them herself?

Just as that thought crossed my mind, Kwon Hyeri picked up a document from her desk.

“Assistant Manager Kang Taejun?”
“Yes, ma’am!”

Kang Taejun answered at the top of his lungs. Glancing over at him from the side, I saw a completely different person from the one who’d been chewing me out a minute ago. A guy who’d mastered the art of office life, maybe? No wonder he’d made assistant manager, I was thinking, when…

“Today is your last day at the company. Start clearing out your things tomorrow.”

“What? Ma’am, what do you mean…”
“I told you clearly last month. That if you couldn’t show meaningful results this month, you’d be let go.”

The dismissal came like a bolt out of the blue, and Kang Taejun’s face went pale.

“But… th-there’s still time until the month-end evaluation!”
“Are you confident you can hit the target amount within a week?”
“I can do it! I still have money left, even if it’s not much…”
“This is the graph of your investment returns at this company so far.”

— Flutter.

Kwon Hyeri let a single sheet of paper fall, as if it were a bother. Kang Taejun picked it up with trembling hands. From beside him I could see the graph on the document plunging plainly downward.

“It was fairly presentable at first, but it’s been falling off a cliff ever since. You’ve done your share of flattering and floated a bribe or two as well… but you know that sort of scheming doesn’t work at this company, don’t you?”
“Ma’am… just a little more time…”
“I’ve given you plenty of time. Now go on out. Just know that making a scene only hurts you. Off you go.”

She waved him away with a cold sneer. Kang Taejun crumpled the paper in his fist. His fist, shaking violently.

Even standing in front of a man who had lost his job overnight, Kwon Hyeri was perfectly at ease.

“What are you doing? I said out, now.”
“…”
“Do you want to walk out on your own feet? Or be dragged out by the security team?”
“…Fuck!”

— Thud!

In the end Kang Taejun left the team leader’s office with a curse. Silence dropped over the room in an instant, and only the sound of Kwon Hyeri’s mouse was left. The feeling of sitting on a bed of nails.

“…”

Surely I wasn’t getting fired too?

“You get them now and then. People more interested in playing politics than in their own ability.”
“…Y-yes?”
“People like Assistant Manager Kang Taejun. I can’t stand that type. Ah — not an assistant manager anymore, though.”

She said it with a shrug of her shoulders. Did Kwon Hyeri worship pure meritocracy the same way the company’s system did? Then again, she did give the impression of someone insane about her work.

“So, the other way around — what kind of person do you think I like?”
“…Sorry?”
“Exactly what I said. What kind of person do you think I’d like?”

She gazed steadily at me as she asked. Surely she wasn’t asking a subordinate about her ideal type. Not after she’d just driven Kang Taejun out…

“I think you’d like someone with outstanding ability… rather than someone good at playing politics.”
“Correct. Because that’s the kind of person I am. It’s why I came to this company too. Which brings me to it, Taeseung.”

— Flick.

Kwon Hyeri held out a single sheet of paper for me to see.

“I think I might just end up liking you, Taeseung. What do you say to that?”

The paper Kwon Hyeri had shown me.

Written on it was my account balance.