Chapter 42

“I’m telling you, you damn idiots…! Can’t you let the car behind go before the front car moves out?! What do you have in your heads instead of brains? A goldfish?!”

“……Did everyone see that? This is why we need to verify the preceding team’s departure before we properly conduct the next team’s inspection. The locking mechanism’s magnetism sometimes forcibly tries to hold the back wheel of the front car and the front wheel of the back car together.”

The forty cops created a rather grim atmosphere, making it look like they were all on high alert without a single person showing a relaxed demeanor.

If one were to see this scene right after entering the gateway, even if they were company employees, they would likely act cautiously… Yet, looking at it from the perspective of an insider, it was nothing but a chaotic mess, making me chuckle faintly.

On one side, our Night Shift team leader, NS3-1, was shouting his lungs out, while on the other, Helena was bustling about, trying to raise awareness among her poor team members who’d been called in as soon as she arrived.

Creak—! Creak—!!

Scrape…

And it wasn’t just that; the cops dragging away the scattered debris from the incident and vehicle parts on the checkpoint floor continuously expressed their true feelings over the exclusive communication channels with words like ‘Fuck’, ‘Shit’, ‘…I want to go home’.

Some personnel were out at Gate 3, directing the queued vehicles outside the gateway to go to another checkpoint….

Excluding those who personally witnessed the accident upfront, the expressions of the visitors behind were really not good.

It seemed they assumed that the enraged riot police had shattered the vehicles into pieces… but that wasn’t it. We were also in chaos trying to manage the situation.

And… if you’re wondering how I know all of this and am observing it, the answer is simple.

“Damn… this is a real mess, a complete shitshow! When I was getting implants in my head and studying cyborg hardware, it was honestly exhausting… yet seeing something like this is quite rewarding!”

“……What do you like about this, you idiot? Even if we don’t get the bill, our job evaluation scores will still drop. …Don’t even dream about bonuses.”

“……Seriously, is this for real…?”

The engineers were casually chatting without any special caution despite seeing me on my first day.

Anne and I, together with the Night Shift team members NS-CE1 and NS-CE2, were monitoring the surveillance camera screens with the split monitors in the engineer-exclusive control room… or rather…! We were watching them attentively.

…Of course, after understanding the current situation, those two were mostly indulged in voyeurism while I was closely examining the data I received. Anne was busily looking around to see if she could teach me anything.

[Police Work Regulation Article 1, Clause 6: Unauthorized access into controlled areas during duty will result in exclusion from the security system’s authentication list.]

…So this means that if you break this rule, the turrets installed everywhere will spring to life.

[…Article 2, Clause 1: If damage is done to civilian or corporate assets due to personal negligence and insurance cannot cover it, part of the compensation will be deducted from the salary.]

……Oh dear. I had heard something similar to work insurance was left, but they really seem to meticulously determine liability.

That was when I finally understood the weight behind the lamentations and curses echoing through the channel.

Well, with two delivery trucks wrecked and drivers and passengers promptly taken to the medical area… the estimated damage would be… hmm….

“Um… Senior? Is it okay typically for salaries after this scale of an accident?”

“……I think cup ramen is a pretty decent complete food…? If you live in the dormitory, you can save on fuel costs….”

I recalled the parking lot scene where motorcycles overwhelmingly outnumbered cars compared to the scale they were built for. …It feels like I got a slight glimpse of how hard Helena worked.

“These guys… seem to only be speeding up their cleaning! They’re already done…!”

“Then… we’ve got the first and second day crews? Good work!”

“Ah. Yes….”

As I quietly studied, the Night Shift team declared the incident properly handled and finished work.

With a sudden salute, two unknown engineers exited the room.

If Anne hadn’t been there, I’d have been curious where the concept of handover had gone, but seeing her nonchalantly waving her hand, this seemed to be the norm.

Click….

“♪~~ ♬~ ♩ ♪”

“?!”

As soon as the control room door closed, Anne jumped up and began to hum a tune, startling me.

I wish the voice modulation module would at least substitute that with some metal-scraping noise.

“Ah! I’m sorry, junior… or rather, Miss Anastasia! I’ve been working alone for too long….”

“…Huh? Isn’t saying names here definitely dangerous…?”

Before I could finish my sentence, Anne took off the visor she was wearing and shook her hair loose. My eyes were naturally drawn to her hair’s tips that swayed side to side like keyrings. …Oh wait, she was wearing those while having glasses on.

“The command structure didn’t bother to install monitoring cameras in the control room, so it’s really okay!”

“…….”

Once, I glanced at the main crew that stopped sending visitors off to a different gate and seemed to have just started working again through the camera, and I couldn’t let myself be so relaxed, especially since I felt a bit guilty toward Helena.

“……If visitors stop coming, Lena comes in here to rest comfortably, right?”

“In that case…!”

With a loud bang, I took off my visor, and having worn it for several hours, stretched my now stiff neck.

Although I felt like I had been cleverly tricked into a convenient excuse, even putting aside work training, since this was only my second time meeting Anne, I wanted to talk face-to-face without any barriers.

Following her invitation, I took a seat beside her, and I gazed at her shyly fidgeting fingers.

The impression I had of Anne Grisha so far was… a woman like a soft, fluffy cloud with various expressions…?

The warmth she had subtly revealed before had completely vanished, showing me she just looked happy to have made a new acquaintance, leaving me unsure of how to respond.

“I’ve heard the level of difficulty in this hiring interview was almost hellish…. I’m so glad Miss Anastasia passed…! You’re not purposely showing courtesy to a junior like me because you’re more skilled, are you…?”

“…I really know nothing and have only lived on intuition and recklessness. And… you can feel free to call me by my name.”

…What a response, she seems so harmless it’s hard to feel any animosity, which made me relax unconsciously.

I had a light thought of maybe teaching the word Ahsa to Anne, who was cautiously mumbling it under her breath.

“Ahsa…? Would you like to eat something more…?”

“……No, I just want to rest a little. Yes….”

What should I say about this… exhaustion from overusing abilities or characteristics?

Despite buying chocolates and drinks from the vending machine in the hallway multiple times, my fingertips were still trembling.

…As expected, it was never going to be easy to make corporate money.

I had to learn every process from scratch and cram it into my head, leading to unusually high physical waste, but even considering that, a cyber engineer had quite a bit of work to manage.

I even considered that taking off my visor was part of improving a comfortable work environment.

At least thanks to being somewhat talented in this area, I felt relieved that from tomorrow I could reduce the frequency of using my abilities and rely on the control room’s vending machine operation instead.

Knock knock….

There was a knock at the control room door.

Checking the monitor… Ah, it was Helena and the engineers from the Night Shift who were next.

It was time to escape from a job that didn’t even take a lunch break, despite letting us leave at 2 PM during the bright day. I should have noticed when there weren’t any dining floors in that elevator… it was a grave oversight.

“Yes~ I’m coming out…!”

Before I could hide my face again, Anne and I exchanged a glance, which was as if to say how hard we had all worked today.

So now it seemed like we just had to go back and rest… but then, my dear team leader uttered something unexpected.

“Ahem…! Engineers, how was your day at work? As the team leader, I’d like to hear about it… how about sharing a simple meal and a few drinks?”

The members from the Night Shift entering the control room nodded appreciatively as if they were impressed. It seems you need to be at that level to be a good team leader!

…Of course, this was just roundabout way of suggesting we eat together comfortably.

“Um….”

Drinks… I don’t particularly have memories of usually enjoying them, but it seems alcohol is still the best way to bridge the gap as times change.

But Helena still didn’t know that thanks to Anne’s friendliness, we had already built a decent relationship.

…There’s no helping it. Since it’s a regrettable opportunity to decline, let’s go ahead and experience not just police culture but also drinking culture.

Believe it or not, I’m rather confident in my drinking capacity, so if I spin the glasses well, a sincere conversation space will be established.

My plan is perfect! ……Probably.