With Farad's warning, X moved more boldly in the Inner world.
When he woke, he immediately checked his left arm—
In the Inner world, O-05-76's saw had carved into it.
But now his fingers found no wound. No pain. Only a faint muscular weakness, like overuse.
X let out a long breath.
That night's exploration told him two things.
First: not every Abnormality's Inner domain had a "cute, humanized" core form like One Sin.
For example—O-05-76, the one that had tortured him through endless restarts in the real workday.
Its Inner world wasn't a monastery or forest.
It was a sealed room so oppressive it made the lungs feel tight.
The walls and ceiling were packed with cameras—countless models—along with innumerable metal keyholes of varying shapes and sizes.
And if you forced yourself to peer into those dark keyholes—
Each one held an eye on the other side.
A dead, gray-white eyeball staring back at you.
Exactly like the eye in the keyhole on the Abnormality's real form.
There was no gore like the corridors outside, but the terror of being watched by endless unknown gazes was worse—because it attacked the mind directly.
Even after waking, the image of those keyhole-eyes clung to him.
Fortunately, he wasn't alone in that room.
There was a blind man.
The moment X heard him ramble about "finally not seeing" and "it's all hallucination," X guessed the key.
And when he saw that the man's eyes had clearly been punctured with a fountain pen, the conclusion became certain.
Don't look at it.
That was how you resisted O-05-76.
Second: Farad was right.
In the Inner world, X was unbelievably hard to kill.
He had watched employees wearing armor with 0.7 physical resistance get turned into mince in two seconds.
Yet when X was hit directly by the saw in the Inner domain—after triggering some mechanism—he only felt like bone had taken a brutal strike.
No dismemberment. Not even a true "serious injury."
He had endured a full second under those saws and come away with something closer to "strained and bruised."
That was terrifying in its own way.
"…Well. Whatever. I'm fine."
His left arm still felt weak, but it didn't stop him from moving normally. He decided not to obsess.
He checked the time. There was still plenty.
After thinking, he reluctantly got up.
"I didn't write yesterday's diary. I should go fill it in while it's early."
Day 14.
Manager's Office.
"Did the program take effect?"
X had barely written the first character of his diary when B's green logo appeared.
"I thought you'd wait a day or two before showing up again."
X paused, then snapped the diary shut.
"I haven't used it yet. Yesterday was… busy. I didn't have a chance to ask Angela anything."
"No? Doesn't matter."
More text appeared.
"Time for the second secret."
"Ask yourself: how much do you truly understand about this company?"
"…Understand?"
X thought carefully, then shook his head.
"No. Even after meeting the Observation Team Sephirah, I'm still basically ignorant."
As he spoke, a flash of insight stitched together threads he'd been ignoring.
He felt as if he'd caught a hidden wire running through everything.
"B," X said, lifting his head, "your second secret isn't 'don't trust this company,' is it?"
A pause.
"…Correct."
For the first time, B's output visibly stalled. Even the green logo flickered.
X's "buzz-in" had been too accurate.
But after a beat, the text resumed—slower, heavier.
"There was a time when everyone in this facility worked toward the same goal…"
"But not anymore."
"This company is darker than you can imagine."
"Fortunately, even now, there is still one person here worthy of your trust."
"That woman—Farad."
"She may still lie to you."
"But I can guarantee she has no intention to harm you."
"…Is that so?"
B's guidance was skilled—step by step, it pushed X toward a pre-built trap. And with Farad as an apparently independent "outside" reinforcement, the message became even easier to accept.
But X never stopped thinking.
"Starting with a program to seed suspicion toward Angela… and now coordinating with Farad…"
X spoke slowly.
"B, your goal from the beginning has been to earn my trust. Am I wrong?"
"And the first two 'secrets' were just groundwork for the last."
X's gaze locked on the green logo.
"The last secret—the one you're desperate to deliver."
"Why go this far, B? What is it?"
The logo stayed silent.
"You feel contradictory," X continued. "In our conversations there's an urgency—like you're frustrated I don't understand—mixed with worry, like you're terrified someone important to you will suffer."
He stared as if trying to see through the cold projection and into the one pulling the strings.
"Who are you?"
Silence.
For once, B did not answer at all.
"I know," X said quietly, lowering his head, "that between graduating university and entering Lobotomy Corporation, there's a clear blank in my memory."
No response.
"If you really were my friend…"
X's voice dipped with pain.
"Then I want you to tell me everything."
"To be so familiar… and yet unable to recognize each other—whether for you or me—it's agony."
He raised his head again.
"Please," he said, the sharpness gone, replaced by genuine pleading.
"Tell me."
"The truth about this place. The truth about the company."
"The truth about the missing part of my memory."
"And… your truth."
"What… are you?"
-------
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