Cyberpunk, but urban

"And why did you choose to end your life this way?"

The heavy and incoherent mumbling continued, and Ye Lan watched it all in silence. Countless bite-like wounds appeared on his body out of thin air, and large chunks of flesh and blood disappeared from his body as if they were chewed and swallowed.

"…Even if this is your answer, my appetite will never stop…"

"…But if your answer is not a statement of the present situation, but a resolution for the future…"

"Everything may begin to change slowly..."

As if the container and the girl inside had reached some kind of consensus, the containment room suddenly became quiet again, and the biting of Ye Lan also stopped at the same time. The girl, whose spirit had become stable, looked at Ye Lan with a smile and asked him: "Are you willing to bear the consequences of my changes?"

Hope seemed to be rekindled in her lake green eyes. Ye Lan, covered in blood, looked directly at her and said to her, "It's an honor."

boom!

A report was spit out from the machine nearby, with a huge "Excellent" occupying the entire page. After bidding farewell to the Greedy Queen, Ye Lan turned and left the containment room.

[The "Finisher", the predecessor of the Book Hunter, will eventually be buried in the "Library" under the rule of the "Pale Manager".]

After releasing the "death rattle" of the Black Finisher, Ye Lan also saw the words at the end of the Pale Dusk. The two sentences at the beginning and the end announced to him a possibility of the future, which was the sad ending that Angela in Ending A in "The Ruined Library" would achieve.

However, Ye Lan didn't even have time to sigh at this, as the new handwriting blurred everything in front of him:

[To manipulate the mysteries of the world at the palm of one’s hand is the supreme privilege of the “leader”, “spies” and “henchmen”.]

The pale midnight began abruptly.

"Ye Lan, the derivative of the midnight test is right behind you, don't look back, return to the lounge quickly."

A's order was issued, and the fake "henchman" who was fished out of the well was behind him. Ye Lan, who was covered in blood, knew that he was no match for A without A saying it, and immediately ran to the main lounge.

The minion with the strange metal mask did not chase Ye Lan, but raised his arm covered by the mechanical claws, and injected the orange potion directly fixed on his arm into his body. The minion leaned forward and lowered his head. After a short period of accumulating strength, he charged like a rhinoceros, put his steel claws in front of him, and rushed straight towards Ye Lan.

"Grass!"

Knowing that the charge of the minions injected with R Company's serum was completely unstoppable, Ye Lan could only turn around and use a thin blanket to protect himself. He was then knocked out of the corridor by the charge of the minions and slammed heavily onto the old sofa in the lounge, smashing the sofa into broken wooden boards.

The regeneration reactor started working smoothly and began to treat Ye Lan's wounds steadily.

But the minions would definitely not give Ye Lan time to rest. In just less than a minute, the minions rushed all the way to the other end of the corridor and injected the second dose of potion.

The blue potion entered his body, and a map of the entire Lobotomy Corporation headquarters popped up in front of the minion. As if taunting Ye Lan who was huddled in the lounge, the minion slowly and randomly selected eight unsuspecting employees and marked them one by one in front of Ye Lan.

Ye Lan took a deep breath and then slowly exhaled. He walked out of the lounge with scars on his body and stood opposite the minions at the end of the corridor.

"Since you are going to use the lives of my colleagues to force me out, are you ready to face my wrath?"

"Ha ha……"

The fake minion laughed sinisterly, mocking Ye Lan, who was covered in wounds and completely unable to fight against him.

"EGO shows..."

A deep, then sharp voice came out of Ye Lan's mouth, and a large amount of dark matter that seemed to be tangible was diffused from his armor and the weapon in his hand. These dark matter engulfed Ye Lan's body, and blood-stained bandages gushed out from them, and then covered Ye Lan's body layer by layer. A huge mouth split Ye Lan's body, and the wings covered with dim yellow pupils also changed from a single wing to a complete pair of wings.

Snapped!

All the lights in the company went out...

Snapped!

Those dim yellow pupils lit up with a brilliant light that could penetrate the darkness...

Snapped!

The sound of the medicine bottle breaking was heard...

Snapped!

The sound of a body falling to the ground could be heard...

When the lights in the company came on again, Miss Angela announced to every employee that the work for the day was over.

Day46, end.

Chapter 3. Abel (Part 1)

"It looks like you've decided to move on."

In the lounge of the Construction Department where Ye Lan had stayed yesterday, an old man who was about fifty years old, holding a gentleman's cane, wearing a gray striped suit jacket and a rosewood suit vest, was standing there.

There were deep wrinkles on his face, and his beard and slicked-back hair were meticulously groomed. A pure black tie was tied at his collar. Whether it was the creases and lines on his clothes or his leather shoes that were polished to a shine, he maintained extremely demanding etiquette.

Standing opposite him was Supervisor A, who stared silently at the old man in front of him, waiting for the gentleman's next words.

"Your body and mind have long been destroyed and weathered by the ruthless reality. Do you really have the confidence to continue?"

Supervisor A did not say anything, but just looked at him in silence.

The old man and Supervisor A remained silent after not getting his answer. After a moment, he seemed to have compromised and continued, "Well, anyway, you must have many questions about what happened here, right? For example, 'Who is this old man in front of me? Why does he have the same voice and face as me?'"

"You can't see yourself without external help. Just think of me as a mirror that reflects you. ... To be precise, a broken mirror. This old man is a piece of the broken mirror. His name is Abel. He is drowned in anger and stubbornness, waiting to be forgotten by the world. I, like you, decided to move on, but I didn't see any improvement. I tossed and turned every night, and even had nightmares."

The conversation between the two people, or rather, between Supervisor A and one side of his personality, is still going on, but today's work cannot stop because of their conversation.

When Ye Lan woke up in his dormitory, all the scars on his body had recovered under the treatment of the regeneration reactor. At this time, there was not even a scar left on his naked body.

Walking into the bathroom, I smiled in the mirror. Today is the 47th day of this cycle, and there are only four days left until the launch of the Seed of Light.

Four days. After four days he can escape from this endless cycle.

Drip!

The ornament on the sink jumped out of the light curtain again, and central's face appeared in front of him again.

"Bad news. Our attempt to enter the city via aircraft has failed. The only message sent back by the agents carrying out the mission was 'There are no stars above the city. What are those shining things?'"

"Is there worse news?"

Ye Lan asked central with a happy smile. Central's words today were the first time he had heard them in countless reincarnations. His time had actually moved forward one day.

"Indeed, there is worse news. A new abnormal situation has occurred in the area outside the city called the ruins. We will not be able to provide you with an evacuation channel in the short term."

The old lady's face revealed sincere regret in the light curtain, but Ye Lan, who had just traveled to this world more than ten years ago, couldn't understand what she was thinking in her heart, and he couldn't understand it now.

After finishing the conversation with her, Ye Lan hummed a weird tune, walked out of his room in a happy mood, and met Sephirah Netzach from the security department in the elevator.

"Hey, isn't this our best employee? Your miserable appearance yesterday scared everyone."

The Sephirah, whose shell still had traces of enkephalin, patted Ye Lan's back vigorously, talking about his performance yesterday: "You actually defeated that minion by yourself! Haha, after hearing the news yesterday, I was so surprised by you that I went to Hod to ask for some enkephalin again."

Without making a sound, Ye Lan moved the mechanical hand that had been patting his back away from behind and asked him, "Didn't you quit?"

As if he could see Ye Lan's concern, this guy who used the psychotropic drug enkephalin to escape reality blinked his mechanical eyes, and pretended to be heroic while knocking his shell loudly, and said to Ye Lan: "Hey, let's celebrate. Even if it is a test of being salvaged, it is still a claw. Besides, there is no beer here, so we can only have some enkephalin. Don't worry, it's really only a little bit, I won't escape anymore."

"I hope so..."

Ding, the sound of the elevator arriving at the station rang out, and the two walked into the restaurant together.

"We are the first people to have access to the 'Well of Humanity'. We have existed for a long time, but over time our existence was forgotten and denied - and now only a few can feel our presence."

In that lounge, the conversation between Abel and Supervisor A continued. However, rather than a conversation, it was more like Abel talking to himself, or perhaps the supervisor talking to himself.

"There are only a few people. Carmen is one of them. She noticed and was convinced of our existence. She also tried to convince us. If our existence can be confirmed, then she will have the opportunity to enter the 'Well of Humanity'. She firmly believes that only through the 'Well' can we find a cure for the stubborn disease rooted in the world. So, we continued the unfinished research left by Carmen and succeeded..."

"…this discovery has led to arrogance taking root in our subconscious, and we think we can rekindle the forgotten fire of life. However, the path we take to achieve this is no different from that of Prometheus. So in the end, what have we accomplished? What have we gained? We have lost far more than we have gained."

After breakfast, Ye Lan went to the locker room and met Hod who was preparing to welcome the newcomers. As the Sephirah of the training department, she needed to provide the new employees and clerical staff with the training manual she wrote herself.

"Good morning, Hod. I saw your antenna from a distance. Is it really not a microphone?"

As soon as Ye Lan saw Hod, she was in a good mood and made a joke about the antenna on her shell. However, this joke was obviously too harsh for the weak little angel Hod.

"That... that, this, this is not a microphone! Also, don't joke with my antenna!"

"Ha, hahaha!" Ye Lan laughed loudly after hearing Hod's rebuttal, "Hod, have you noticed that you are much stronger than before? After the core suppression, you really let go of your experience at that time."

"Eh?"

Leaving Hod, who was puzzled as to why Ye Lan knew what happened at that time, Ye Lan walked into his dressing room. The thin night suit he wore yesterday was placed there. It seemed that A was going to let him start working directly with this suit today.

Chapter 4. Abel (Part 2)

"…your friends, your employees…their sacrifices meant nothing. You've seen what happened to them all. You realize that young, talented souls were trapped in machines for nothing. We failed them, and the world has forgotten us. After all that has happened, who will take their innocent sacrifices? Do you know what we've forgotten?"

Abel's accusations and questions hit A like a storm, causing him to fall into memories uncontrollably. After the core was suppressed, Malkuth's confession to him emerged in A's mind, guiding him to answer Abel:

“The faith in my heart, the faith that keeps my head held high.”

"I'm Angela, and I'm here to inform all employees that the control department has been disturbed. Today's work instructions are not credible. Please judge the content of the instructions for yourself."

Ye Lan, who was sitting in the lounge of the Construction Department that was beginning to melt, heard the voice coming from the broadcast above his head. He picked up Bo Ming's greatsword and left the lounge. The challenge of Day 47 had begun.

From now on, as energy is collected and the level of the Anti-Kabbalah Energy Meltdown rises, they will simultaneously face the adverse effects on the company when the four Sephirah Cores of the upper division are suppressed.

Although there are two new abnormalities in the Construction Department today, for Ye Lan who knows all their information, the work itself is actually not difficult at all.

Even though the creature, which was probably based on Carmen the teddy bear, didn't want him to leave the containment room, Ye Lan still easily completed the work on T-04-06 Happy Teddy with the work rules he saw in the game and the experience he had accumulated from countless reincarnations.

At the same time, the level of Anti-Kabbalah energy destruction also rose to level two, and the adverse effects of the Yesod core suppression by the head of the Intelligence Department also appeared in the company at this time.

The company's intelligence display system was declared destroyed. No matter whether it was the supervisors or employees, every screen they could see was blurry as if they had thousands of degrees of myopia, and the key point was that they didn't have any glasses to buy.

"Even if you can walk with your head held high, there is still endless despair around you. You think you look noble? In fact, you are sailing in a dead sea. Emotional thoughts are useless except for making us feel depressed. We need to be more rational. Then this false rationality will make me, you, and everyone collapse."

After being refuted by A with his conviction, Abel changed the object of his accusation. His words that could kill a poisonous snake focused on A's so-called rationality, trying to make him admit that the rationality he insisted on was nothing more than a straw wall that would fall down with a blow.

"But everything will be alright - I'm sure of it."

However, the extraordinary rationality learned from Yesod would not collapse because of a few curses. A ignored Abel's words calmly, wanting to see what else this corner of his personality could say.

"The containment chamber of Dissolving Love has melted down. I must enter her containment chamber. Angela, tell the supervisor not to arrange for anyone else to enter the Construction Department."

The third-level Anti-Kabbalah energy meltdown alarm sounded, and the adverse effects of the core suppression of Hod, the head of the training department, also spread to the entire company. The attribute maintenance system collapsed. On the screen of Director A, the digitized attributes of all employees dropped by a full 50 points. The problems that could have been properly handled by them became serious again, and many melted anomalies had to be managed by employees from other departments.

Ye Lan, who had to manage the entire construction department alone due to the threat of dissolving love, walked into her containment room. The strawberry-flavored slime girl was already turning around anxiously inside. Ye Lan had just entered, and she seemed to want to take out her heart and give it to Ye Lan. She held a slime ball that was as solid as a gem and as big as a candy bar and hung it above Ye Lan's head.

After staying in the containment room with Dissolving Love until the energy counter was full and the work evaluation popped up in the machine, Ye Lan left the containment room. The slime, which was already satisfied with Ye Lan's company, stayed quietly in the center of the containment room, waiting for Ye Lan to enter here next time.

"It's too late to settle now. You have an empty mind, lacking purpose. Every time I close my eyes, people I'll never see again whisper in my ears...they say that if I really thought everything would be alright. Then I can't say anything. Do you think you would do anything different?"

"Hope, a kinder hope. Unlike you, I have not yet despaired."

At this moment, Supervisor A was able to answer every question from Abel with his head held high. He already had all the emotions that allowed him to persevere.

The fourth-level reverse Kabbalah meltdown warning sounded as A refuted. The adverse effects caused by the core suppression of Security Director Netzach appeared in the company. The employee medical system collapsed, all regeneration reactors and mental pollution neutralization gas releasers stopped working, and the employees had to deal with the final person generated by the pale test without backup.

"What's the point of all this? I've told you so many times that you have nothing left. No matter how much you control yourself, you have to admit that you have lost the meaning of living since Carmen left. Why are you still struggling in the quagmire of meaningless reality? Look at me, look at how I continue this meaningless day, waiting for death to come!"

Abel waved his cane angrily, smashing everything in the lounge into worthless pieces. He hoped that his words would gain A's approval and make A give up everything like him.

"If Netzach can hold on, then why can't I? I have the courage to survive. You can't overwhelm me, Abel. My employees and I will get through this day. You are just a part of my mind. I will never surrender to you and give up everything I have now."

"...We have been thinking about this for a long time. Every time we find a path that we think is the right answer, the cruel reality always tells me that it is not. Since you have given such an answer, there is no reason for me to hinder your progress."

The sixth-level Anti-Kabbalah energy meltdown warning has stopped. Thanks to the efforts of the employees, the challenge of Day 47 has come to an end, and they are one step closer to the final day.

Supervisor A, Ayin proved his strength to this distrustful old man.

Chapter 5. Facing Regret and Sin (Part 1)

Day 47 ended after Supervisor A confirmed himself to Abel, and there were only three days left before the launch of the Seed of Light. Whether it was Ye Lan or Angela, the entire company had taken another step towards escaping the cycle of reincarnation.

Abel, the personality that represented Ayin's desire to give up on the plan, disappeared, and Supervisor A was left with only the last two personality fragments - Abram and Adam - to regain his complete self.

With the disappearance of Abel, the environment of the Construction Department further dissolved. When Ye Lan started working again today, there was no place for him to sit and rest in the main lounge of the Construction Department.

"I have to admit that I am actually much more fragile than everyone thinks."

A didn't know where he was, he was lying on a lawn. A familiar but faceless woman was lying beside him, telling him words he seemed to have heard before.

"I always say things like 'Leave it to me' or 'Follow me' in front of everyone with confidence."

"But I never dare to confirm what I am doing..."

"If someone gets hurt or put in trouble because of my actions... I'm going to hate myself for that, and I know that."

"And that's why I'm asking you for help..."

"No matter what I have become, please finish the work I started."

"Our human hearts are soft and fragile. Even a single shock could cause them to collapse. I am no exception... But you were able to withstand that malice."

"The only way is the one that stays the same. Otherwise it wouldn't be you, would it?"

For some reason, a feeling of sadness filled A's heart. He opened his mouth, trying to make a sound to ask the woman in front of him to stop talking. However, at this moment, he could do nothing but listen.

The woman in front of him was silent for a while, then asked him: