I had no idea that I was doing something that would ruin my life until both team A and B's leader were standing in front of me while making serious faces.
"How did you do it?"
"I've changed the time?" I was more confused because of their reactions than the real situation. "this company has a network."
You didn't try to take a look at the computers at all?
"So you are a technical member on your team? Who told you that you could do anything you want without taking command first?"
"No, what are you talking about?" I looked at them then stood up. "Why are you so obsessed with every unnecessary information?"
"Unnecessary?"
I was about to get hit with someone's fist but I continued to argue anyway.
"Yes, isn't the proper way to handle it is to ask me how I did that and to learn it so we can find a plan which we can do together? Why just talk about commands when you've already sent us to test that door? Is this your idea of professionalism? Are you sure you're not leading some low-key team just by following instruction manuals?"
"How—" He looked genuinely angry, despite the fact that I hadn't raised my voice or made my tone sharp at all.
When I stepped back, the chair rolled backward, making me bend in an almost dramatic way. That bend, though it strained my back, spared me a blow that would have disfigured my face forever.
"Try to say that again! Who do you think you are?!"
"I at least not someone who has to follow your so-called commands." I stepped far away, taking closer without much effort to Silas and Adeline. "You've sacrificed us already. Just let us do whatever we want then, treat us as if we have already been lost."
"Who gave you the permission to continue!?"
"This doesn't need permission."
"Don't make him more angry, Nathan." Silas murdered, then when he stepped to talk instead of me, Adeline did it. "Team leader. Please give us the permission to go to the other room to continue. You can follow the previous exit instructions as it is. We won't have any further problems then."
"..."
I've never imagined that she could talk in such an extra polite way, nor that she would stand out to finish the argument.
What was suspicious though, was that she too didn't wear the eyes of politeness or respect… It was just a pure cold.
"Fine. Get out of my sight before I kill him myself."
"Kill wh—" And, as if their minds were in sync… Silas quickly covered my mouth to shut me up, then I found myself being pulled to the next door by Adeline.
When we were finally there, they stopped aside, sighed, then looked at me as if I'm the problem.
"What were you thinking when you decided to make both team leaders hate you?"
"As if their hatred will affect me in any possible way."
I clicked my tongue, then took a look around to find everything as it is. The main lab again. Who knows what date it was in.
"Do you really have some kind of strong influence backing you up?"
"No." My face showed everything this time. "I'm just leaving next month so why do I have to follow commands from someone who has no problem with sending people to their death? I treasure my life in my own way."
"Leaving next month?"
"Yes. I'll return to my life" which was a perfect mixture of tragedy, slavery, and debt but surely better than this.
"You'll leave your job?"
"Of course."
"You'll leave your job here?"
"Why repeat the same thing? Yes I will. Is it a privilege or something?"
"...ah, you don't know?"
"I don't know what?"
"That the company's acceptance rate is roughly one in two hundred."
"Is that supposed to make me cling to this job with my nails and teeth?" Their faces were truly saying a lot. "I was perfectly fine with my last job. This one is too much."
"If this is what you think…— okay, let's talk about this after getting out."
Silas decided that ending this conversation was the best thing to do, so we ended it and started to look around the room in a more serious way.
When we finished, we all returned to the main computer and turned it on.
"Now, shall we try to change the date again?"
"No. I don't think that will help." I checked the date to find it three months after the first date I saw. "I think that the room will allow us to get out of it only if we find something important… hints maybe."
"But we already searched everywhere. What kind of 'important'things you mean?"
I wasn't sure whether I should tell them about the project or not. Hence, I make it seem like a pure accident.
"I was cycling around myself in the main hall and the fellow labs there for two hours before getting out of it. The only thing that changed that single time was that I did find some files on the main computer about a project. The notes there mentioned the third lab… so when I intended to go to the third lab, the place changed and guided me to the main lab."
"That's weird to hear, since the previous exploration records didn't mention anything about projects."
"Is there an exploration record for this?" This totally shocked me. "Why were you trapped there then? What does it say about the situation?"
Adeline just ran a hand over her neck before looking at Silas, then she answered.
"It's typically someone's experience here. It said that he found the exit after waiting enough time there…"
Enough time?!
Something seemed to click in my mind when I heard that but I couldn't put my hand on it, so I asked more.
"Did it mention where he was?"
"The one who read the record didn't remember any further information."
"... and they decided to follow this incomplete guide?"
"Let's forget what they did." Silas interrupted. "Let's think about it by ourselves."
Right, let's think about it.
Think again, Nathan. If someone already found a way just by waiting then everything I thought about will change.
Think, think, think—
This company needed us to find the project's file and corrupt it. But we need to find the way out of it.
How could I do both things? What would happen if I found the files first without securing an exit?
"What a damned company—" I stood up, feeling as if I finally figured it out. "It is a company!"
"So?"
"If people here could take a break when it's the break time, then of course they can leave when it is the end of the workday!"
I opened the company's network again to check the main schedule. It showed that the leave time is after 5 PM.
"So now if we modify the time to pass the leave time, will we be able to get out?"
"No, I don't think it's this simple." Adeline answered Sila's question, then pointed at the three doors in the room. "We could get out of this only if it's the way out. People are always allowed to work overtime."
"So we should find the exit, then modify the time."
"That's right."
In that case, could I ignore the system's mission and just get out? It told me that I could reject it, didn't it?
No, that may do but I prefer to take that five hundred S.P.s after enduring all of this.
"I think that the way out is the elevator in the main hall." I took out a notebook from my pocket and started to draw the floor the way I saw. "Maybe there's stairs and emergency stairs somewhere."
"Can't you just look for the floor map on the main network? Every company usually has one stored there."
Oh—right!
Floor map.
How could I forget something that simple?
"This network is ridiculously slow." I did my best to search for the map and it took me around half an hour to get it. "Now we have it, let me take a copy first."
When I took the table out of my pocket this time, both Silas and Adeline gave me a sarcastic look.
"What?"
"You have that, and yet you say that there's no one powerful backing you up?"
"Ah— can we get pass this?"
"Okay, mester 'I'm only an ordinary man' just continue what are doing."
I'm being very suspicious by doing what I'm doing, but who cares?
"Okay… the map says that the only exit here is the emergency stairs on the left labs, the main elevator on the main hall, and the stairs beside the elevator."
"This room hasn't any of them." Silas took out his phone and captured a photo of the map. "We have two options, either find a way to the main hall, or go to the labs in the left…"
They both looked at me, waiting for me to decide. And I truly didn't want them to involve with the thing I'm doing, but going with them was better than going alone.
"I'm going to the labs." I opened Tristan's file again to show them the notes. "I have to know what he meant by that."
"Who do you mean by 'he'?"
"Tristan, the research team leader." I took the work card out of my coat lab. "This one. The person I found myself taking his identity after hearing the music."
Silas took the card, looked at it. Adeline did the same, and they both gave me a strange look after.
"What?"
"This Tristan—"
"He looks like a carbon copy of you, only slightly older."
"There's a photo?!"
"Yes?"
I grabbed the card from her hand and looked at it. There was no photos there.
Nothing.
And when I told Silas to catch a photo of it and show it to me. It appeared there.
A photo, of me… with some differences.
But he was me, after all.
"How crazy—"
Was my mind playing tricks on me?
Seriously…
How bad could this become?