Even though the Training Department staff had specifically sprayed perfume for these newcomers, some still sensed a strange, lingering odor in the air.
Fortunately, none of that mattered.
No one in the crowd paid attention to such trivial details; excitement and restlessness still dominated everyone's thoughts.
"I never dreamed it would actually happen! We really made it!"
"Yeah! Escaping that hellhole—the Backstreets—and joining a Wing of the World! I'm unbelievably lucky!"
"Shh! Don't disturb the interviewer. If he gets annoyed and fails us all, I swear I'll fight you myself!"
"..."
Yes. No one cared.
Watching the noisy group before him, Arthur sat casually in the armchair at the very front of the hall. Dressed neatly in a suit, he served as the interviewer for these unfortunate souls.
Even if there were only one interviewer receiving them… even if they had been locked in here for over an hour after the emergency alarms sounded… they still wouldn't care.
Arthur sighed inwardly and glanced toward the familiar brain-shaped logo mounted on the wall not far away.
After all, this is Lobotomy Corporation, one of the Twenty-Six Wings of the World.
This place possessed the world's incredible Singularity technology. To outsiders, joining a Wing represented the highest possible achievement—a chance to take part in shaping the future.
In this world, becoming an employee of a Wing was considered a lifelong dream.
But Arthur never shared that dream.
He was merely an ordinary transmigrator, having arrived in this world three months ago—inhabiting the body of a clerk who coincidentally shared his name.
Arthur had awakened in the Clerks' Dormitory, inheriting the identity of the original employee.
Back in his previous life, he had owned the game Lobotomy Corporation in his Steam library. Though he had never fully completed the Abnormality Codex, he understood most of the world's underlying truths all too well.
On the surface, Lobotomy Corporation was a company dedicated to producing clean, pollution-free energy, eventually becoming the largest energy provider in the City.
But beneath that façade, it performed work eerily similar to the Foundation.
It contained and managed anomalous entities known as Abnormalities—and the energy it produced was extracted directly from them.
Anyone who understood even a fraction of the energy extraction process would know one thing for certain:
This was not a safe job.
If Arthur had not already been bound to Lobotomy Corporation from the very moment he transmigrated—unable to resign except through death—he would have thrown his employee ID into the nearest gutter long ago and fled as far as possible.
Still not over? This overtime is getting ridiculous…
Arthur felt the leg he had propped up on the table beginning to go numb. He scratched his head, irritation flickering across his face.
This interview should have ended long ago. The prolonged external lockdown could only mean one thing—
Another Abnormality breach.
This was not Lobotomy Corporation Headquarters, so there was no need to participate in that damned cycle of resets.
That alone should have been the most fortunate thing that had happened since he arrived in this world.
Precisely because this was only a Branch Facility, the Abnormalities stationed here were irregular assignments from Headquarters. At present, there wasn't even a HE-class Abnormality or above in the entire Branch.
"Sigh…"
Arthur opened his communicator, which he had shut off as soon as the alarm began.
"Hello? Moses? Hill? What happened? Why hasn't the situation outside been resolved yet?"
"Arthur?" The voice on the other end wasn't the owner of the device. "You're from the Training Department, right? Go tell Sephirah Hod that we'll probably need to recruit another batch of newcomers."
"What happened this time?"
"F-01-02 breached containment. It… uh—how should I put it? It self-destructed in the Information Department lounge. Hill happened to be there at the time."
"Three clerks are dead."
"You mean Scorched Girl?" Arthur frowned. He remembered the childlike Abnormality who sold "matches" in her containment unit. "Didn't your department read the updated handling manual I compiled?"
As a transmigrator, Arthur had painstakingly written down everything he remembered about the Abnormalities into a reference guide. Though incomplete, it was more than sufficient for handling the Branch's limited roster.
"…That manual hasn't been approved by Headquarters," the voice replied stiffly. "We still have to follow the official safety guidelines."
"Heh. Even by standard procedures, your response time was slow," Arthur said casually, easily seeing through the attempt to shift blame.
The Branch's security personnel had undoubtedly trained at Headquarters—but training and actually standing in front of those grotesque Abnormalities were two very different things.
The other side fell silent for a moment, as if restraining something. A few seconds later, the voice returned, low and tense.
"Arthur. Just do your job. Don't think you can criticize me just because you're the most senior clerk here. We're all the same."
"Sooner or later, we're all going to die in this hellhole."
"Alright." Arthur cut him off. "Get to the point. When will the lockdown be lifted?"
"Ten minutes. …And remember what Sephirah Hod said about personnel replenishment. Communication terminated."
Arthur returned the communicator to his pocket and stared up at the orange-tinted ceiling.
"Three more…"
He found it unsettling how indifferent he had become to death in just three months.
But what choice did he have?
Within a month, most of the newcomers standing before him would be dead as well.
Lobotomy Corporation did not care about the lives of its clerks, nor did it uphold lofty ideals like protecting humanity. From the very beginning, its sole objective had been singular:
Produce more energy.
Here, clerks were no different from D-Class Personnel—consumables replaced once broken. Whether at Headquarters or a Branch, the outcome was the same.
Even Arthur had survived these past three months only by relying on his knowledge of Abnormalities to narrowly evade death time and time again.
If he were ever unlucky enough to encounter a truly dangerous Abnormality breaching containment…
"—New clerks, please proceed to Training Department Room D3 to complete your onboarding process. Clerks assigned to general duties, please take Elevator One to return to your dormitories."
A pleasant female voice echoed through the hall as the sealed gate finally opened.
The crowd stirred. Those who had been whispering now turned their gazes toward Arthur.
They still believed this might be part of the interview.
Arthur didn't bother overthinking it. He stood, straightened his suit, and forced a polite smile for his juniors.
"Everyone," he said calmly,"Welcome to Lobotomy Corporation."