Surviving Restructuring

“Busan District Three! You have five minutes remaining!” Jae-Hyuk shouted as he checked the screens on the right.

Almost at the same time, Ji-Eun delivered her briefing. “Emergency! Shark spotted in Busan District Nine, at three o’clock!”

“Where?”

She pointed to a screen where a trial was still underway. “Here!”

Then, a dark silhouette drifted beneath the waves. It was indeed a shark.

“They’re still in the middle of their trial, so I don’t think they can run. What do we do?”

“Call in the piranha swarm. Tell them to slip away while the two fight.”

Thinking about piranhas smaller than a human taking on a shark twice their size, Ji-Eun raised a doubtful brow. “They’re huge, though! The shark’s only a bit smaller than the boat. Can the piranhas even handle that?”

In fact, Eun-Ho had only suggested it because he’d just seen it on another screen. “I saw it in District Seven. When piranhas encounter a threat, they cluster and overwhelm it. It should buy enough time for them to escape.”

“Oh! Okay, then. I got it!”

Then came the full-field pressure campaign. He’d guide the survivors if they could choose a trial, and send solutions if they couldn’t. If the danger still persisted, he countered it immediately. As a result, they kept their lives and his stats increased.

“Everyone’s in from District Nine!”

[Number of actual survivors have significantly exceeded simulation predictions.]

[Resistance stat has been increased(+35).]

[The parameters required for skill activation are being accumulated.]

[Your strong rebellious spirit accelerates data accumulation. ...74%, 75%.]

There was another accumulation for skill activation.

[The Choco Chip from the Sales Department asks what on earth they’re watching.]

[The Tomorrow’s Detective King from the Sales Department narrows their eyes, certain this must be a prerecorded broadcast.]

Eun-Ho had expected observers to complain about just watching, but they surprisingly weren’t bored. In fact, they were thrilled.

Message windows popped up like fireworks everywhere he looked.

[The Brain from the Bureau of Investigation marvels at your octopus-like multitasking.]

[The Brain from the Bureau of Investigation clicks their tongue, calling you a talent worth stealing.]

[A donation of 1,000 Welfare Points has been made!]

[The Crow from the Bureau of Management slaps their forehead at your quick thinking!]

[A donation of 1,000 Welfare Points has been made!]

One by one, the survivors cleared the trials assigned to him.

[Trial has been completed!]

System windows announcing successful clears bloomed across hundreds of packed screens. Fresh waves of blue swept across the barren landscape, slowly transforming a screen once dominated by gray cities, blackened seas, and withered yellow vegetation.

“Jae-Hyuk! That one’s the last, right?!” Eun-Ho asked.

“Yes! Gwangju District Two is done too!” Jae-Hyuk replied.

[Number of actual survivors have significantly exceeded simulation predictions.]

[Resistance stat has been increased(+12).]

Every trial under his jurisdiction was complete.

“Seung,” said Harona.

“Yes, Lady Harona?” Seung replied.

“So is it true that every trial’s done and not one person died?”

“I-I believe so.”

Harona exhaled a stunned, wavering breath. “Are you kidding me? How am I supposed to believe this?”

Whether that pigtailed gremlin believed it or not, Eun-Ho’s side was finished.

[The parameters required for skill activation are being accumulated.]

[Your strong rebellious spirit accelerates data accumulation. ...99%, 100%.]

The data accumulation for a skill activation was the biggest reason why he had been doing this.

[All the parameters required for trait activation have been collected.]

What would it be?

He forced down the rising anticipation and waited calmly.

Ding!

[Congratulations!]

Then, a notification chimed, followed by a bright, almost celebratory voice.

[Based on your entrepreneurial organizational aptitude, fierce resistance spirit, and humanistic conviction preserved even in ruin, an exclusive skill associated with the Unique Trait Rebel has been unlocked.]

The pompous explanation only made his suppressed expectation swell like a balloon. Then, a message appeared.

[Puppet Master(Lv. - ) has been unlocked!]

Puppet Master? So am I a villain?

Whatever it was, one thing was now painfully clear: this system had a very specific idea of what he was. He hurriedly checked the skill description.

[Puppet Master(Lv.1)]

- Form and command a subordinate organization.

- For each subordinate with greater than ninety percent loyalty, you will deal 1% increased damage.

Eun-Ho wasn’t sure how he was supposed to control people. The description alone didn’t suffice.

I can scale my attack power as long as their loyalty is high?

It was a benefit he never even imagined.

Ding!

He was still happily turning over the possibilities when another notification dropped.

[Goddess’ Scales have responded to its owner’s advancement.]

Hm? Wait...

Earlier, there had been a similar message.

[The Nameless Goddess takes interest in the antics of the keeper of the Scales.]

He opened the Scales’ description.

[The Goddess’ Scales]

- A set of scales crafted by an unknown goddess. You may choose one of the two weights to borrow her power.

- Usable only once and the item vanishes immediately after use.

- Available Skills: [Redistribution(Lv. - )], [Empathy(Lv. - )]

Eun-Ho had first received it after completing the hidden trial, Justice Served. Then, later, after clearing the follow-up trial Implementation of Sustainable Justice, the Scales had upgraded.

[You have received an additional notice!]

[A hidden trial, Implementation of Sustainable Justice, has been activated.]

Back then, it had two glowing cubes as weights, each representing a skill Redistribution or Empathy. It had been too precious to use lightly, since choosing one meant losing the other forever.

After the upgrade, the red and blue cube tops now had six tiny dots each, representing six uses. That alone made the Scales invaluable. Both Redistribution and Empathy were powerful, battle-shifting abilities.

[Puppet Master(Lv. - ) has been activated!]

Huh?

[Skill effect of Redistribution(Lv. - ) has been modified.]

[Skill effect of Empathy(Lv. - ) has been modified.]

[Redistribution(Lv. - )]

- Redistribute all abilities of your organization members at your will.

- Redistributed abilities remain for twenty-four hours from cast.]

[Empathy(Lv. - )]

- Swap positions with any chosen target.

- Can only be cast on organization members.

Wait a second... If it works like this, my options just multiplied, Eun-Ho thought.

***

It was 6:30 PM and a long day had finally come to an end. Leaving the still-shell-shocked Harona behind, the group headed straight for one place.

[Welcome to Gourmet Journey of the West!]

It was the same cafeteria where he had bought the Lasagna Meal Combo that morning.

“Finally! I’ve been waiting for this,” Jae-Hyuk said, practically bouncing.

“You wanted it that badly?” Eun-Ho asked.

“Yes! Of course!”

Eun-Ho had come because Jae-Hyuk begged, but truthfully, he was curious about the taste too.

“You haven’t actually eaten it yourself, right?” Ji-Eun asked.

“No. I just bought one of each type this morning, so I didn’t have time to try them.”

He had expected to run into contract survivors and knew their circumstances wouldn’t be great. However, he hadn’t known which survivors he’d meet, hence he’d bought one of everything. The chef had only received the Lasagna Meal Combo because Eun-Ho had seen him devour pasta on the broadcast. Luckily, it worked better than expected.

“It’s gotta be good, right?”

“For sure! Just watching Chef eat it made my stomach growl, and I’d already eaten.” Eyes shining, Jae-Hyuk marched into the cafeteria. “One Lasagna Meal Combo, please!”

[Order Failed!]

However, that hopeful order shattered against the wall of reality.

[Today’s Lasagna Meal Combo is unavailable due to running out of ingredients.]

[Please choose another menu item!]

“What?!”

“They can run out of ingredients? That’s a first.”

It wasn’t even peak dinnertime yet and they were already out. That meant, either the supply order went wrong, or the place had been hit with an unexpected flood of orders.

Then, Eun-Ho recalled the barrage of comments earlier.

[The Hawk Eye from the Bureau of Investigation wonders what on earth it tastes like to make everyone lose their minds.]

[The Real Man from the Sales Department asks if they can bulk-order the lunchboxes.]

[A number of observers are curious about how the lasagna tastes!]

[The Real Man from the Sales Department declares that they are buying some the moment the broadcast ends.]

Ah, is this my fault?

The influence of the Eye was much bigger than he thought.

Then, I’ll need to make use of this.

Thuuud—!

He was just about to console the crestfallen Jae-Hyuk when a deafening crash yanked at the back of his neck. Tables shattered, chairs flew, and people screamed.

“Stop! I said Stooop!”

A woman swung a massive hammer, veins bulging on her neck as she screamed, “You bastard! What did you do to my sister?! She was already terrified being separated from us, and you—”

A broad-shouldered man roared back, refusing to back down, “What was I supposed to do then?! I was gonna die!”

“That doesn’t matter! Damn it, why would you make her do a trial like that?! You could’ve earned donations another way!”

“It was necessary! A necessary sacrifice!”

Eun-Ho caught the words trials, donations, and sacrifice. He understood what happened right away. They’d gone for shock value, designing a trial to maximize engagement through someone else’s suffering.

The woman’s face crumpled into pure despair. “How could you!”

People who had simply been trying to enjoy their dinner flinched, mouths opening in anger only to shut again. Their faces twisted not with fury, but with a bitter, weary resignation.

Instead of stepping in, they whispered among themselves.

“He probably didn’t have a choice.”

“Yeah. Who knows what happens if you fail a trial.”

“Hey, did you know about the Department Transfer penalty? People say that’s basically deletion.”

The mood said everything: some were an inevitable sacrifice. Even though the man had used a close someone as fodder to earn viewer donations, everyone quietly framed it as a small sacrifice for the greater good.

Watching that all-too-familiar reaction, a cold shiver shot down Eun-Ho’s spine.

“I missed something,” he murmured.

“Huh?” Ji-Eun asked.

“The real purpose of this OJT.”

Ji-Eun tilted her head in confusion and asked, “Isn’t it to help us adapt to the company?”

Adapt, sure. That is true enough. But the depth of that adaptation was the problem.

“They want to turn us into people like them,” Eun-Ho said quietly.

“Sorry, what?”

This OJT wasn’t onboarding, but corrective conditioning bordering on indoctrination. These were people who erased others without a second thought, putting price tags on human lives based on usefulness—athletes, celebrities, anyone deemed valuable. In fact, they had already treated the surviving trainees as assets to be squeezed for performance metrics.

Most are still convinceable, but some have already crossed the line.

More and more people were crossing lines that could never be uncrossed. Only those who used others like tools and discarded them just as easily would survive and rise.

“Which means I’ll have to get more involved,” Eun-Ho said.

Now that he understood the true goal, Eun-Ho could not sit still and watch. He had to act before the rest of them turned into monsters too.

***

It was finally the morning of the final OJT day. Retracing yesterday’s memories, he headed to Harona’s office.

“Haaa...”

It was the same trials and the same morning routine, but Harona’s eye bags were darker, and her cheeks were hollow. The reason was the bombshell Eun-Ho dropped the moment he arrived.

“Are you serious?” Harona asked.

“I am,” Eun-Ho replied.

“You’re saying, you really want to go yourself.”

“I’ll go down there personally and—”

“But you’re an administrator right now! All you need to do is sit still and assign trials! Why would you go looking for trouble?!”

“That’s why—”

“And besides, it’s impossible!”

Harona fired complaints rapid-fire, barely pausing to breathe. She kept reminding him that what he wanted to do was impossible. They could not just send a trainee to the surface alone. Were they supposed to follow him around, cleaning up after him? Her objections crashed over him without giving him space to reply.

Eun-Ho finally lifted a hand, blocking her tirade long enough to say, “I acquired a skill that’s basically teleportation. It won’t cause trouble for you, Lady Harona.”

“Huh?” Only then did she actually process his words. She frowned, baffled, and asked, “But why? Let me just hear the reason first.”

He obviously couldn’t say because he had to expand his influence. Therefore, he said, “My body just itches if I sit here doing nothing.”

“What?!”

“I won’t be a burden. Honestly, it might even become a better revenue model.”

Besides, yesterday, didn’t she say, “What a waste. If your face were showing, you would have gotten double the donations.”

Harona’s thin brows shot up. She was probably thinking the same thing he was. Performance scores had plummeted ever since full-time and contract staff were separated.

Then, because of him, the observer count had surged back like a tidal wave. This was the perfect opportunity.

Eun-Ho stared at the screen. “Let’s see... Where should I go? Ah, this district has the most survivors. Let’s go with this one.”

Harona could only stare wordlessly.

“Ji-Eun, please handle the surrounding screens. And Jae-Hyuk, monitor trials and timers,” instructed Eun-Ho.

“Uh, alright!” said Ji-Eun.

“Got it, Hyungnim!” answered Jae-Hyuk.

Alright then! It’s time to go back home.