Surviving Restructuring

“Mr. Eun-Ho said you should come to the office when you wake up,” Sol-Ah had told Yeo-Jin.

“Me? Why?”

“No idea. He said some kind of event was starting.”

It was 7:00 AM. Yeo-Jin had been busy since early morning.

“Ugh, this is such a pain. Seriously, they always make me do everything.”

“Then stop smiling about it. It’s creepy.”

“Hehe,” Yeo-Jin replied with a smug grin. “Maybe it’s just because this big sis here is too talented.”

Back when she was a senior in high school, she had never once left the house at seven in the morning. If this had happened back then, she would have fainted from shock. However, now, she had gotten used to it.

It’s not like I sleep well anyway.

Besides, she was technically the head of the PR division in the Labor-Management Cooperation Team. As the person responsible for the team’s public image, waking up early for work was only natural. That was what she told herself as she rushed over, barely wiping the sleep from her eyes.

However, when she arrived, the office was completely empty, without a single ant wandering around.

“Huh? Why isn’t anyone here?” She looked around the office. “Did Mr. Eun-Ho call me over and then fall asleep?”

The office, usually crowded and noisy, felt strangely spacious today. The air felt unnaturally cold. For the first time in a while, a chill crept down her spine.

Back during the restructuring period, when she had run around completing endless trials without sleep, she had felt it often. However, ever since she ended up on the same team as those loud adults, the sensation had disappeared.

“Ugh, not again...” Feeling uncomfortable, Yeo-Jin rubbed her arms and thought that maybe she should hurry them along. “Send a message.”

However, instead of the usual blue interface, the message window flickered and turned blood-red.

[Unable to deliver message to ωΙ ΦΘζΩΠφ─]

“What?”

The text warped like a cipher, and an incomprehensible system broadcast followed.

[You are now under Standby Order.]

[Access to the Team system has been blocked.]

“Huh?”

Another series of message windows appeared.

[Subject: Min Yeo-Jin]

[Reason: Disrupting workplace atmosphere]

[Department Transfer: Personnel Bureau Labor-Management Cooperation Team → Undetermined]

[Office Relocation: Wailing Castle → Primordial Skyscraper]

At first, she didn’t even understand what she was reading. She didn’t know what standby orders or undetermined assignments meant.

“Is this a bug?”

Maybe the messenger system had glitched.

Thinking that, Yeo-Jin opened her Eye system. “Access channel.”

[Fail!]

[You have no access to the system.]

“What?! What about Team Messenger?”

[Fail!]

[You have no access to the system.]

That failed too.

“Then the bulletin board! Open the bulletin board!”

[Fail!]

[You have no access to the system.]

She couldn’t access the bulletin board, the Hall of Fame, and even the anonymous board where she used to roam around under a mask.

[Invalid access has been detected.]

[Connection attempt has been blocked.】

Yeo-Jin felt her panic rising. “What’s wrong with this thing?”

It was like being stranded alone in a rural mountain village with no Wi-Fi and no internet. No, worse, like drifting alone on a tiny sailboat in the middle of an endless ocean.

Then, another window appeared.

[Countdown has been initiated.]

The moment she saw it, her breath caught in her throat.

[10:00]

Is it starting again? Is the green circle going to appear again? Will I have to fight to survive all over again? Will I lose another friend?

“Haa!” Her breathing grew shallow. “W-what do I do?”

It felt like she would collapse. The fear she had buried deep inside, masked by her nonstop schedule and noisy teammates, rose to the surface. Her legs started to tremble. She barely managed to grab onto a chair to keep herself standing.

Swoosh—!

The door slammed open so violently it sounded like it would break.

“Min Yeo-Jin.” Eun-Ho stood there with a frightening expression, his gaze sharp. “Come out.”

Unbelievable, she thought.

He was the one who had called her in the first place, and now he showed up late as if nothing was wrong. Also, he was a complete workaholic who pushed his team members to exhaustion. Besides, whenever he picked up a blade, he turned into something like a demon.

“Why are you only showing up now after calling me?” she snapped. “You’re late!”

“Which is exactly why we need to hurry,” Eun-Ho replied calmly. “Come on.”

For some reason, just seeing his face made her feel strangely relieved.

What a weird man.

“Let’s go! Hurry!”

Yeo-Jin jumped to her feet, a small smile forming at the corner of her lips.

***

“All forty-three members of the Labor-Management Cooperation Team have been successfully placed under standby orders,” the secretary reported.

The old chairman gave a slow nod. He removed his bowler hat and hung it up. For the first time in days, the gesture felt noticeably lighter.

“And their reaction?” the chairman asked.

“They appear to be quite shaken,” the secretary replied. “The members who were outside reportedly panicked and fled back toward the forest.”

“They won’t even be able to use the office return skill,” the chairman smiled faintly. “If they have to walk back through that forest, the ten-minute limit will be long gone.”

A thin, unpleasant smile spread across his lips. They had dared to speak of salary negotiations and other insolent matters. By now, they had likely realized how much comfort they had enjoyed within the sturdy fence of the company, and what kind of catastrophe it meant to lose access to the company’s system.

He planned to make those vermin who foolishly believed the company belonged to its employees understand their place. Up until now, he had been forced to hold back because of a contract tied to the investment funds. However, once the payments were complete, the contract could be broken without hesitation.

“What about the investment funds?” he asked.

“The fourth installment has been completed,” the secretary replied. “The deadline for the fifth installment is in two days.”

“Two days...” For the chairman, restraining himself against an opponent he could crush with one hand felt like torture. However, in two days, he could finally crush that rat’s neck. “At last, I’ll be able to act myself.”

“But Chairman,” the secretary said cautiously, “the penalty clause is—”

“The penalty was the full amount of the investment, wasn’t it?”

“Yes, sir.”

The next restructuring zone was District Nineteen, where the astronomical investment would be spent. It was land on an entirely different scale than anything before, a project that was expected to generate immense profits.

“If we move the restructuring up by a month, we’ll recover the investment several times over,” the chairman said. “And if necessary, we’ll just pay the penalty from that profit.”

It would cause some short-term losses, but that wasn’t what mattered. The chairman’s sharpened instincts as a businessman told him something clearly, That man is dangerous. If left alone any longer, he will rot everything around him like a cancerous tumor. Even at a loss, he has to be cut out.

“You’ve definitely blocked their access to the company system, correct?”

“Yes,” the secretary replied. “The bulletin boards, messenger system, and even the Eye interface have been shut down.”

They had sealed off his sight, hearing, and voice just like locking someone inside a grain chest.

Even so, the chairman remained cautious. “They’re unpredictable. Tell the entire secretariat to monitor them.”

“Yes, sir.”

He wanted them to feel the overwhelming difference in power. He wanted them to tremble in terror, like someone abandoned alone in a dark, endless void.

“If necessary, you may also use personnel from the Personnel Bureau. I’ll inform them myself.”

“Understood.”

It was the first time since the company’s founding that the nearly one thousand personnel of the secretariat had been mobilized. Even the Personnel Bureau, which was several times larger, could be used at will. Under normal circumstances, such unprecedented use of manpower would have been unthinkable. In fact, it only happened because the chairman was acting as interim director for the vacant Personnel Bureau director position.

“So the entire company is being mobilized against a single man named Lee Eun-Ho,” the chairman rose from his seat. He stared out through the wide window, overlooking the sprawling company complex below. “Still. It’s better to be thorough.”

He gazed upon the kingdom he had built with his own hands with affection and greed.

“Understood, Chairman. And where shall we assign the standby personnel?”

“Bring them here.”

“Pardon?”

The chairman’s eyes gleamed as he surveyed the empire below. “Set up their desks in front of my office. Watching them come and go should be rather entertaining.”

The secretary bowed immediately. “Yes, sir.”

However, the chairman wasn’t finished. “You said there were three of his lackeys at the protest site?”

“Yes. Kim Ji-Eun, Choi Jae-Hyuk, and Kim Yul.”

“Put one in front of the elevators, one in the main lobby...” He paused. “And the last one... yes. Stick them in the restroom right outside my office.”

“Understood.”

He would show them what happened to those who followed Eun-Ho. As the chairman savored the satisfaction of his plan, the countdown continued on the ten-minute timer.

[01:30]

Their final moments of freedom were rapidly running out.

“They’ll be here soon,” the chairman said.

“Yes. Once the time expires, they will be forcibly brought in.”

“Prepare their desks.”

“Understood.”

The chairman watched calmly as the secretary bowed deeply and left the room. At last, everything would return to its rightful place.

Alone in his office, the chairman imagined the hell he was about to unleash.

Clack.

However, moments later, hurried footsteps echoed again. The secretary burst back into the room, his face pale with shock. “C-Chairman!”

At the same time, a message window appeared.

[Alert!]

[An Objection Filing has been submitted regarding the 8291st Disciplinary Committee decision.]

The disciplinary committee had already concluded, and now there’s an objection? thought the chairman.

“Who dares challenge a disciplinary ruling personally approved by the chairman?!” he roared.

“I-it seems the union leader’s authority includes the right to file objections against unjust disciplinary actions,” the secretary stammered.

“What?!”

The secretary was correct. As if to confirm it, another system window appeared.

[Objector: Labor Union]

[Target: Labor-Management Cooperation Team Leader and All Team Members]

[Reason: unjust removal from position and insufficient disciplinary grounds]

The chairman had never seen such a screen before. Yes, in his long life, this kind of insubordination had never occurred!

“So they managed to find a loophole like this.”

Crack!

The armrest beneath his hand shattered instantly.

“Do not listen to a single word those fools say.” The chairman snarled. “If you do, I’ll personally tear your ears off.”

“Yes, sir!”

There was only about a minute left anyway.

[01:20]

Whatever objections they filed meant nothing if he simply refused to acknowledge them. Instead, he would punish them even more harshly for this audacious act of defiance!

Rrrrrrr...

Just as he resolved that, a call had come from the secretariat.

—Chairman, we have an urgent report.

“Urgent?”

—It’s from the Public Affairs Bureau. They’re saying you should see something personally.

A cold sense of unease began creeping through his chest. “Put it up.”

His intuition, almost like prophecy, tightened his expression into something monstrous.

[01:01]

The so-called urgent report turned out to be more than a single item. Rumors spread quickly that the entire Labor-Management Cooperation Team had been placed on standby, their system access cut off, their hands and feet severed. It was an outrageous move and a clear violation of employee rights.

[HOT!] Full Statement from the Labor-Management Cooperation Team

Timeline Breakdown of the Incident(Discussion Thread)

(To the Company) It’s Obvious, So Please Stop

...

Post after post appeared, condemning the decision. Each one described the situation in such detail that it almost seemed as though the writers had witnessed everything firsthand.

The chairman snarled. “Which rat leaked this already?!”

He was about to curse when he saw the headline, Full Statement from the Labor-Management Cooperation Team

“This disciplinary action is only the beginning and will soon expand to all employees?” he read aloud.

“T-that seems to be the prevailing opinion, sir. Many believe it will follow the same pattern as the previous price hike incident,” the secretary stammered, his breath fogging in the increasingly cold room. He added quickly, “Such a ridiculous conspiracy theory, but it appears a lot of employees believe it...”

Last time, the price increases had started with union members and later expanded to all employees. People still remembered that.

“And also...”

Crack.

The chairman’s chair froze solid then shattered into pieces.

“They think this is an attempt to suppress morale before salary negotiations?! Ha!” the chairman roared, spitting out a bitter laugh. “Preliminary groundwork for salary negotiations?!”

He had never intended to negotiate salaries in the first place. What groundwork could there possibly be?

“And now they’re saying they must unite so we won’t be intimidated by such petty intimidation tactics?!”

“C-Chairman,” the secretary continued nervously, “protests are breaking out across the company!”

“Protests?!”

The accusations were absurd and complete nonsense, but there was something far stranger about the situation.

“Does this make any sense?!” the chairman thundered.

“Eek!”

“I blocked their entire system! How did details of the disciplinary action spread throughout the company in just ten minutes?!”

This wasn’t just a matter of one or two people passing along information. Every employee seemed to know the details, even the minor parts of the punishment.

The secretary hesitated because there seemed to be a reason. “W-well, that’s because...”

───────────────

Large Notice Posted in Front of the Management Bureau

Did you see the notice posted outside? It’s insane.

───────────────

└ There’s one outside the Investigation Bureau too. Is it the same content?

└ Yeah, I checked. Looks identical.

└ It’s everywhere. Audit Bureau, Sales Bureau... all of them.

It was up everywhere including the lobby of the Management Bureau building, the main street outside the Investigation Bureau, the grand auditorium of the Audit Bureau, the first floor of the Sky Tower in the Sales Bureau, and even the intersection near the cafeteria district.

Wherever employees passed by, hundreds of huge posters had been plastered up. Each one described the company’s disciplinary actions in blunt, unfiltered detail.

“In ten minutes?” the chairman murmured.

A murderous aura erupted from him in an instant. The secretary’s teeth began clattering uncontrollably. His jaw trembled and even his skull rattled.

“Was it you?” the chairman asked quietly.

“Huh?!”

The chairman pressed the tip of his cane against the secretary’s throat. “It’s just impossible unless some rat leaked the information in advance.”

The secretary’s neck swelled red and purple as the pressure tightened. Tears and mucus streamed down his face as he desperately tried to explain, “M-maybe they ran around posting them within the ten minutes—kuk!”

However, he couldn’t finish.

“They couldn’t even access office facilities,” the chairman said coldly. “So how did they make copies?”

“M-maybe someone has an ability like a human photocopier—kuk!”

“You think this is a joke?!”

Thud!

The chairman’s fury exploded, shattering the wall behind the secretary.

“I swear it wasn’t me!” the secretary cried desperately. “I’ve been at your side all day, Chairman!”

As someone who knew the chairman better than anyone, he knew his head would be next.

Ding!

Perhaps his prayer was heard.

A system window suddenly appeared before the chairman. At the same moment, the deputy secretary burst through the broken wall.

[Right of Association has been activated!]

[Employees’ voices are gathering as one.]

“C-Chairman!” the deputy secretary shouted. “A signature campaign has begun!”

“A signature campaign?!”

“They’re demanding the company reflect on its actions!”

The signatures themselves didn’t matter. What mattered was catching the rat behind this chaos and finding out what had happened.

“T-the number of signatories has already reached one hundred thousand!” the deputy secretary stammered. “No, over two hundred thousand actually!”

“What?!”

Two hundred thousand? That’s even more than the number of employees who had protested during the price inflation incident, thought the chairman.

However, that wasn’t all, as another series of system windows appeared.

[Right to Collective Bargaining has been activated!]

[The company must either accept the union’s demands or issue an official statement refusing them.]

I’ve fed and clothed those useless freeloaders who should have been crushed beneath my heel, and now they were making demands?

Crack—!

The chairman felt his blood rush violently to his head.

“C-Chairman! There’s more!”

Apparently, he had been too quick to react. The mad labor union had not finished invoking their rights.

A third message appeared.

[Right to Collective Action has been activated!]

[A mass strike has begun!]

“S-s-strike?”

They had declared a strike.

“You insane vermin!” the chairman roared.