Clank—!
Silence fell over the room as the Squad Leader left the room.
All the squad members stood in silence while staring at the door. Each wore a different expression on their faces.
In the end, it was Mia who broke the silence.
“…What do you guys think our clearance rate at the gate?”
Each gate had a clearance rate. The rate was based on the level of the gate. The speed at which it was cleared, how it was cleared, and how the members performed. In their case, they didn’t feel that their completion rate was very high.
“I’m not sure.”
Joanna shook her head while sitting back on her chair.
She had mixed thoughts about the entire situation.
But at the same time…
Slowly raising her head, she looked towards the others.
“…If I had to guess, it won’t be very high. Besides the Squad Leader… and Mia, none of us were helpful at all. In fact, you can say that we lowered the clearance rate significantly.”
There was a short silence after that.
None of them could argue with her words. She was right. The Squad Leader and Mia were indeed the only ones who had actually done something.
“Actually…”
Hesitating, Mia spoke up.
All heads raised towards her.
“…Ehm. So… well, actually.”
She seemed to struggle for words, and Nora’s brow furrowed.
“Just spit it out. What are you trying to say?”
“I…well, so.. I actually didn’t do too much.”
Mia scratched the side of her face.
“The only thing I did was just move the planchette. The Squad Leader did all the work. In fact, I almost ambushed him too.”
“What…?”
The faces of everyone present changed.
None of them had been there, so they didn’t fully understand what had happened. But after a few minutes of listening to Mia’s explanation and watching the replay of the dive on the monitors, they all instinctively drew in a sharp breath.
Especially when they paused at the part where he noticed something amiss in the room.
Something about it… felt creepy.
Especially the dead look in his eyes as he handled the entire situation from start to finish. Like it was nothing more than a minor inconvenience. From the way he left his room without hesitation to confronting the so-called ’possessed’ head-on.
He looked completely detached from it.
“Does he really have no powers…?”
Replaying the video over and over again, they had a hard time associating the man in the video with the Squad Leader of the rumours.
That…
Niel’s face turned complex as he blankly stared at his own computer. He recalled how it was the very same Squad Leader who had told him to wait before voting. In the end, he didn’t listen, and the entire situation turned out like this.
He had really bailed them all out.
But that wasn’t the most important thing. Staring at each other, everyone understood something.
Their Squad Leader…
He was far from incompetent.
***
“This should do, right?”
I looked at myself in the mirror. I wasn’t wearing anything fancy. Just a plain white shirt and some black pants. I thought about styling my hair, but gave up when I realized that I didn’t have anything to style it with.
’Maybe I should go buy some gel at the store… I do need to buy some chips for Mirelle.’
I’d normally not care enough, but since I was going to go to the store regardless, it wouldn’t cost me much to purchase it.
“Okay.”
I patted my cheeks while staring at my reflection.
“This is just a work dinner. If she tries to get me to drink, I’ll drink just a little bit, but I won’t exaggerate. The Guild will also foot the bill, but I shouldn’t order anything crazy. Just go there, listen to her ramblings, and leave.”
A plan formulated in my mind as I turned my attention away from the mirror and onto the door.
This dinner with the Team Leader.
I was going to survive it!
*
“Please just kill me.”
I thought I’d be ready for anything. From a sudden gate appearance to even a bunch of anomalies coming from out of nowhere to haunt me.
When I arrived at the location, I was pleasantly surprised by the place. It looked like a nice modern establishment with nice tables and enclosed rooms. The moment I arrived, and I told them my name, they brought me directly to the said room.
For a moment, I actually had my hopes up.
Maybe this was going to be a pleasant dinner?
But that thought only lasted a few seconds.
The last thing I expected when I entered the room was a table overflowing with alcohol. Bottles from various brands were scattered around — whiskey, vodka, and all kinds of strong drinks.
Sitting behind the mess was the Team Leader, casually waving at me.
“You’re here!”
This alcoholic!
“Here, try this…”
Sitting up, the Team Leader walked up to me and passed me a can of beer.
“This is some good stuff.”
So she said.
I forced a smile and nodded.
“…Sure.”
I opened the beer and took one small sip.
’I’ll make sure to drink this as slowly as possible.’
I glanced around the room. Apart from the table overflowing with alcohol, several sofas lined the far end, and a large TV hung from the ceiling. I made my way to the nearest sofa and sat down.
At the same time, I turned my attention towards the Team Leader.
She wasn’t dressed much differently from me. Just a plain white shirt tucked neatly into skinny black pants that showed off her figure. The top buttons of her shirt were undone. As she held a beer can, she slouched into the seat beside me and casually draped her hand over my shoulder.
“…..”
I wanted to move away, but my instincts told me not to.
She was most definitely the female version of the Section Chief.
“Do you know what’s the best thing about this job?”
An unexpected question. Turning my head in her direction, I shook my head. Was there anything good about this job?
“The pay…?”
“Pftt.”
The Team Leader dismissed me with her hand.
“There are many other jobs I could be doing for better pay. I could be a model or an actress. I’d definitely make more.”
“….”
I wanted to argue, but I really couldn’t.
It really did seem like she could be either with her looks.
“The best thing about this job is this moment!”
The Team Leader brought her hand up to show the bottle in her hand.
“Eh…?”
“It’s the moment when your day ends and you can drink as much as you can so that you can forget about everything that happened during the day!”
With a laugh that went along the lines of ’Hehehe’, she brought the beer to her mouth and took a nice, good sip of it. With a ’huaaa!’ she then leaned her head back.
“Nothing beats this feeling!”
She really did seem to be enjoying herself.
But…
“Can’t you also do this as an actress? I’m sure if you earn more money, you’d be able to buy drinks and forget about everything like now.”
“Eh?”
The Team Leader paused.
She looked at me.
I looked at her.
“….”
“….”
The room fell silent for a moment before she pursed her lips and brought the drink closer to her lips. However, from the noticeable shake of her hand, it was clear that she was starting to realize this herself.
In the end, she shook her head and put on a serious expression.
“This job… with all the messed up stuff that we see, it is necessary to forget. Can’t say the same for the actress one.”
She looked really serious as she said those words.
I’d have normally believed her if not for the fact that her eyes were dead.
’She’s definitely regretting her life choices…’
I cleared my throat and tried to say something.
However, before I even had the chance to, she beat me to it.
“Enough of that.”
She tossed me a paper on my lap.
I looked at the file in front of me and then looked back at her.
“This is…?”
“That’s your evaluation score for the recent gate.”
With an ambiguous smile, she nudged her head.
“Open it. It’s quite interesting.”