"This is hell…!"
Zhou Zhuang clutched his head as he stared at Lain's HP readout.
"You—you damn— …How the hell did you nearly die just working with the old bonehead?! Is this what 'barely qualified Level-1 stats' looks like?! The result was only Good—one more failure and it would've dropped to Bad!"
He let out a short, humorless laugh.
"Lain, you were one step away. If that last check hadn't succeeded, you'd be dead."
The system status panel made it brutally clear: Lain's HP and SP were both hanging by a thread—one last tick away from either going insane or dying.
Zhou Zhuang propped his forehead with his left hand and gripped the mouse with his right.
He'd thought Anna and Faust's clean successes would set the tone.
Instead, it was almost a peak you couldn't repeat.
Energy was only at one-third. Still far to go.
And if the Bloodbath triggered a meltdown later…
Then overtime was basically guaranteed.
I wanted to clock out early…
On the monitoring screen, Lain slumped in a chair in the central room, slowly recovering HP and SP under the reactor's healing effects.
First priority: train up the two who can actually carry.
Zhou Zhuang looked at Faust and Anna, eyes hardening.
"Looks like today you two are my lifelines."
Just as Anna was watching Lain, her wristband vibrated. She raised her arm to read it.
"Level-1 Employee Anna, proceed to O-02-56 for Insight work."
At the same time, Faust received her own order.
"Level-2 Employee Faust, proceed to O-03-03 for Communion work."
They exchanged a quick nod and hurried out in opposite directions.
Before leaving, Anna told Sif, "Sif—watch Lain's condition. Take care of him."
Sif answered loudly, swearing he'd keep a close eye on Brother Lain.
Anna turned and headed for the B-sector door.
…
Zhou Zhuang watched the live performance data as it came in.
"Looks like Faust isn't doing great with One Sin… Two mistakes already in this short span."
Guess she doesn't have much 'sin' to confess. Probably ends at Good.
"Anna's doing better—only one mistake so far. But we still don't know her final result."
He exhaled.
"This is the advantage of having HP in the early game. Mistakes aren't instantly fatal—you can tank a few hits and survive to the end of the session."
His mood improved slightly as he watched the two carry, but the worry didn't leave.
They still had to train their stats—this wasn't the only set of Abnormalities they'd ever face.
If they got skewed too hard and ran into something like the Bloodbath again, they'd be pulling overtime until they went mentally unstable.
Work concluded.
As expected, One Sin ended at Good.
But Anna's result was unexpectedly… Excellent.
"Nice. While meltdowns haven't started yet, let them get one reactor rest—then roll straight into the next cycle."
…
After finishing her session, Anna finally understood what Faust meant about appearances not determining danger.
The moment she entered, she nearly bumped the Abnormality—she hadn't noticed where it was.
A flash of a blood-red mouth—gone in an instant—made her heart lurch.
But the work still ended smoothly.
Faust's earlier run probably made my second time easier, Anna thought.
Now, the important thing was checking on Lain.
She sprinted back to the rest area.
Back in the central room, she noticed Faust—who'd gone to O-03-03—now had two thin lines of blood running from her nose. She looked drained, but she was still meticulously writing in her notebook.
As for Lain…
The Lain who'd been unconscious when Anna left was now awake, animatedly gesturing as he spoke to Sif.
Judging by all that arm-waving, he'd recovered almost completely.
"Sif, why can't you get it through your head?! This time was an accident—I came back, didn't I? And listen to what I'm telling you: if you end up in O-03-03, you have to tell it that thing."
"LAIN!"
Hearing Anna's voice, Lain clamped his mouth shut and turned toward her—
—and was met by two hands coming straight at his head like drills.
"AAAAAA—Boss, no, no, no! I was wrong! I was wrong!"
Lain howled as Anna's "double-drill" head torture sent pain through his skull. He didn't even know what he'd done, but instinct said: apologize first.
"Oh?" Anna smiled sweetly. "Then tell me—what were you wrong about? Say it, and I'll stop."
"Uh… I… didn't report to you immediately?"
"Looks like you still don't understand your mistake."
Anna increased the pressure for a moment… then released him.
"I'm angry because you didn't do what I told you."
She glared.
"Do you know how worried me and Sif were when we saw you come back like that?"
"Heh-heh… Boss, it was just an accident. I really did listen to you."
"You listened and still ended up like that?!"
Anna's fingers twitched like she was about to drill him again.
"Don't—don't—please! Boss, I really know I was wrong!"
In desperation, Lain yanked Sif in front of him like a human shield.
Then his expression sobered.
"I just wanted to leave myself a lifeline for later. This time, I wanted to see where my limit was."
"After this, I've got a rough idea of my capabilities. That's valuable experience—something Sif can use as reference."
He pointed at the "shield" in front of him.
"With Sif's timid personality—and the way he won't move unless he's pushed to the edge—he'll be worse than me."
Anna nodded grimly.
"Yeah… if it looked like that for you, then for Sif, he might've already…"
She didn't finish.
But Lain and Sif both knew exactly what she'd left unsaid.
Silence spread between the three.
Beep-beep. Beep-beep.
Anna's wristband buzzed again.
This time, the assignment was the one she already knew too well:
O-03-03.
"I'm going to work," Anna said quickly. "Lain—teach Sif. I'm not asking you to fix his personality overnight. Just make sure he gets the idea."
With that, she headed toward Sector A—and met Faust coming the other way. Looks like Faust had received another order too.
Anna felt the wristband's electric sting intensify.
The prep time is shorter…
So the work pace is speeding up.
With that thought, she broke into a run toward the containment unit.
When she arrived at the familiar cell again, Anna looked up at the old skull—and, just like her first time, began speaking words weighed with sin.
....
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