Work continued as usual.
Issuing commands.
Directing suppressions.
Ordering rest periods.
Every day, once Lobotomy Corporation's employees stepped into their positions, they effectively surrendered all personal autonomy.
Everything had to be carried out strictly according to the manager's instructions, like precision gears turning inside a massive machine.
Even when their bodies and minds were already on the verge of collapse, once an order was given, they had no choice but to carry it out.
Even if they knew a bottomless abyss lay ahead, they could only walk forward in numb obedience.
Feeling the near life-and-death authority in his hands, X occasionally found himself lost in thought.
If left completely unchecked, what difference was there between a Lobotomy Corporation manager and an omniscient, omnipotent god?
If the god wished you to live, you lived.
If the god wished you to die, you died.
In such an environment, extreme arrogance and numbness toward death could only spread endlessly, until they swallowed a person whole.
—
Employee Miranda has died.
While X 's thoughts were drifting, the work interface suddenly displayed this message in the lower-left log.
"Manager… I'm sorry…"
Hod's voice followed shortly after.
"Miranda was killed… I should have tried harder…"
"…Who?"
X was still deeply focused on how to manage Judgement Bird, and the sudden news stunned him.
It wasn't that he didn't know who Miranda was.
The manager log recorded every employee's movements clearly—
Who performed what task, on which Abnormality, at what time; who collapsed; who died—everything was documented. No one ever died without explanation.
What truly shocked X was where she had died.
She had died inside One Sin and Hundreds of Good Deeds' containment unit.
He immediately pulled up the log. Miranda's final work record read clearly:
"Communication work on One Sin and Hundreds of Good Deeds (O-03-03)."
No matter how he looked at it, the gentle skeletal nun was the prime suspect.
But how was that possible?
One Sin and Hundreds of Good Deeds was widely regarded as the only Abnormality in the entire facility that posed no physical threat and brought enormous benefits to employees.
Even other ZAYIN-class Abnormalities like Fairy Festival and the WellCheer Soda Machine carried a risk of employee death.
She did not.
She was the default "safe zone."
A true ZAYIN.
The first Abnormality every new employee encountered—and the gentlest first step.
Even the clumsiest, most timid, least experienced rookies could find comfort with her, learning the most basic lessons of interacting with Abnormalities.
It was no exaggeration to say that almost every Level I employee's promotion to Level II involved her guidance.
She never escaped.
A "Good" work result restored the worker's sanity.
A perfect work result restored the sanity of the entire department.
And yet now—
Someone had died in her containment unit.
This wasn't just an anomaly.
It was like smashing a load-bearing wall in the structure of X 's understanding.
X immediately switched the camera feed to One Sin and Hundreds of Good Deeds' containment unit.
Miranda's body lay motionless at the center of the screen.
Through the cognition filter, it appeared almost doll-like—head torn off, splashed with red paint.
But when X shifted the camera angle and saw the fan-shaped blood splatter on the wall—
And the severed head on the floor, still frozen in a look of absolute terror—
He could easily imagine the true horror of the scene.
What if—
X 's mind began racing through possibilities.
What if she had been angry with him, and this was her way of punishing him?
The possibility wasn't entirely impossible.
She knew he could manipulate the TT2 protocol.
She knew he could rewind time and restart the day at will.
She also knew how deeply he cared about employee lives, striving every day for an S-rank with zero casualties.
"Just to make me rewind once… waste my time… a small act of retaliation…"
"No—no, that's wrong!"
X shook his head hard, as if trying to fling the thought out of his mind.
"That's impossible… she would never do something like that…"
He simply couldn't believe that the gentle nun—who listened to every sin with forgiveness—would casually use a human life as a tool of spite.
That wasn't her.
It couldn't be.
X 's gaze drifted to the fully unlocked encyclopedia entry for Judgement Bird, its observation level already maxed out.
His face clearly showed hesitation and inner conflict.
"You wouldn't really restart the entire day and abandon all your progress just because a Level II employee died, would you?"
Angela's voice sounded beside him.
She stepped closer, bending slightly, leaning her head near his ear.
"With all due respect… employees below Level III aren't even consumables in this company. There's no need to activate the TT2 protocol over something like this."
She spoke in a tone that sounded almost considerate, her delicate face nearly brushing X 's cheek.
"I'm obviously not increasing my own workload just for this one employee—"
X turned to respond, only for his nose to accidentally brush against Angela's cool, smooth artificial skin.
He jolted as if shocked, quickly leaning back to create some distance before continuing.
"I just have to figure out why this employee died in One Sin and Hundreds of Good Deeds' containment unit."
"Something this uncontrollable—and this completely against common sense—has to be investigated immediately."
"But your observations on Judgement Bird are already—"
"Enough! I know!"
X snapped irritably.
"I'm already trying not to look at the encyclopedia—don't remind me, Angela!"
"This problem has to be solved."
To some extent, self-deception wasn't always a bad thing.
At the very least, it made things hurt less.
Watching Judgement Bird's PE-box count approach 150, X felt like a chunk of his heart was being carved out.
But still—
With trembling fingers, he resolutely pressed the button.
[Restart the Day]
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