IBACT Chapter 4

Guilty (4)

“Th… That…”

“No, I mean, I am an outsider, but you shouldn’t lie so brazenly, right?”

I could feel that he, John, was afraid. I felt a bit sorry, but it was necessary.

“Mr. John. Don’t come in starting tomorrow. Here’s your severance pay.”

I took out a thin envelope from my pocket and threw it to him. No, I scattered it in front of him.

“Th-this is…”

“You’re resigning for personal reasons. Don’t ask the company for severance pay or re-employment separately. And don’t spread around how much is in there. Understand?”

“N-no! I worked so hard… so hard to get in here.”

Though it’s a production job, it’s still part of the Hansan corporation.

In this world, even if an ordinary poor person works hard their whole life, it’s difficult to even be treated like a working machine like this.

You need to have no criminal record and be in decent physical shape. You shouldn’t be involved with gangs, and you need to pass difficult tests.

Considering that the poor in this city cannot live without committing crimes, it wasn’t an easy feat.

“Please, just one more chance! I’m actually on the night shift… they suddenly called me to clean, and I had no choice!”

He cried out loudly. Becoming unemployed in an instant couldn’t have been easy to accept.

“Because the CEO of Hansan was coming! Somehow, um… to show a cleaner appearance!”

I hid my aching heart thoroughly and smiled cynically.

“And?”

“S-so, we just came out voluntarily to finish up! Of course we didn’t receive any overtime pay…”

“Voluntarily came out? Listen, should I have someone check the CCTV in your dormitory? Why are you trying to cover one lie with another, huh?”

“If I get kicked out like this, how am I supposed to live? I have a wife and children at home. CEO, please forgive me just this once.”

“Hah, really. You’re making this annoying.”

I ran my hand through my hair and easily grabbed him by the collar.

“Mister. I guess you’re not scared because I’m just talking. Should I really shake you down?”

“Urgh…”

“I can investigate everyone down to your in-laws’ distant relatives, and if I find just one person connected to other corporations or gangs, I can send you away on sabotage charges. You think I can’t do it?”

“P-please…”

“Take that and get out. I put in enough, so don’t make a fuss.”

Finally giving up, John wiped his falling tears and picked up the envelope I had dropped.

He must be feeling desperate now. He probably didn’t think there would be much money in that ordinary envelope that he had to crawl like a dog to collect.

An envelope containing a few bills might seem like pocket money or a bonus at most, not enough severance pay to start a new life.

He probably thought it contained about a hundred dollars at most.

“Get out. Let’s not see each other again.”

“J-just one more…”

“I said go.”

But that was a trick. I had inserted a card between the bills and put in hundreds of times more money than he thought.

A perceptive person might have felt something off about “the CEO of Hansan” “specifically preparing an envelope” to throw, but the people here now were just looking at John with pitying eyes.

After he left, I looked around the factory again with greedy eyes.

Now that I had created a scapegoat to control the atmosphere, what remained was the slaughter.

“I’m sorry. Some overzealous guys just…”

During the commotion, the workers who had been inadvertently working overtime all slipped out of the factory.

But the factory didn’t stop. I leisurely walked around here and there.

“Damn, why the hell is that guy here making trouble?”

From a distance, I heard one of the factory managers whispering to the factory director.

Since my secretary had just shown how she could acquire authority and control over anything in the factory, it might have been a prudent choice.

If there was anything confidential to discuss, common sense in this world dictated using brain-wave communication connected to machines, but electronic communications always carried the risk of wiretapping.

“I heard he fought with our company’s CEO. Watch what you say. You never know when he might be listening.”

It was a very small voice, but my ears were sharper. I realized that things were going according to plan and let out a sigh of relief.

“Let’s see… these rubber gloves. There’s a hole?”

“We’ve placed an order, but it hasn’t been delivered to the site yet…”

“This is really a mess. I personally respect Mr. Jang Guhan, but the people working under him don’t seem up to par?”

I could see the factory director’s face distorting.

If I came here and deliberately started causing trouble, the CEO of Hansan Food would have no choice but to hold the site manager accountable, if only formally.

But if specific problems were found, the severity of that accountability would inevitably change.

“Really, he’s too nice. The site is falling apart, but he can’t even fire everyone…”

Someone had just had to leave the company because of my words, so they couldn’t take my words lightly either.

And now, it was time to get to the main point.

“…There’s no implant there?”

“What do you mean?”

“The people working in that position. They must wear reinforcement implants on their arms when working. Isn’t that right?”

The factory director’s words trailed off. Like the trouble I had been causing since I arrived, it was an excessive criticism that didn’t match reality.

In a country where public authority functions properly, such rules might be somewhat observed. But at least on this continent, such rules were not followed.

This is a factory that makes cheap food that the poor would eat. It wouldn’t be strange if food was made in factories much more dangerous and dirtier than this.

Stella City had Stella City’s rules and its prices, after all.

I guarantee processed food from factories that follow all these rules would be several times more expensive than the processed food from here.

“Well… realistically, it’s not easy, so we had no choice.”

“No, you’ll die if you wear that. Are the safety devices working properly? Can I put my hand in there once?”

“Ah, no! That’s…”

“Strange, maybe it’s because I’m not interested in the food business? When I look at videos from the factory in Gyeongju, they put their hands in and check. For safety inspection.”

“That’s… the machines are different! The machines available in Stella City often don’t include such options…”

“Ah, so you’re having people do this work without even installing safety devices. Is that it?”

Even if it’s a bit gloomy, this world is still a futuristic one.

It’s a place where technology is much more advanced than in the world I was in. Naturally, safety devices must be much more developed too.

There were rules about machines stopping when foreign objects entered, and workers doing dangerous work must wear mechanical reinforcement implants on their arms, or steel exoskeletons.

It’s just that these rules weren’t commonly applied in Stella City.

If you get wrongly sucked into a machine, it goes beyond just crushing your arm—your whole body gets pulled in.

At that time, a person wearing a body enhancement implant or reinforced exoskeleton can quickly escape and continue their daily life with just an arm replacement.

“You, the man working there. I’m not disturbing you too much, am I?”

“Not at all!”

“Then tell me honestly. When was the last time someone died here?”

“I mean, they went to the hospital for an emergency but died because they couldn’t afford the surgery. Including all that. When did they die?”

The worker who was performing that task with bare hands sweated profusely at my question.

“It’s not easy! I’m a day worker, so I don’t know about accidents at night and vacations and such…”

“It doesn’t have to be exact; just tell me. There must have been people who died in this factory recently. When?”

In fact, this was information that could be easily obtained by having my secretary check the accident management database.

There was a possibility that accidents could be hidden, but it was extremely unlikely.

“About… that is… about a month ago.”

It was all too easy for people to die in such factories, and people didn’t even feel the need to hide it.

“Good. A month. So it’s been a month…”

I roughly kicked his leg. The worker’s body lurched forward.

Just before his palm was about to be sucked into the machine, I grabbed his body and pulled him back.

“Gahk!”

“So you continued working for a month in such a dangerous situation? This bastard almost died from falling on his own. Huh?”

Everyone shut their mouths. I threatened the factory director with a greatly distorted expression.

“Stop the machine! Do you think I’m joking around?”

“B-but if we stop the machine now, our quota…”

The factory director rushed over urgently. I took out a gun from my pocket and fired it into the air.

“W-what!”

Even the workers who had forcibly covered their ears had to react to this gunshot.

“You, if you don’t want to die, stop the machine! Fuck, after all this shit…”

Actually, I know. That factory director genuinely cares about this factory.

In Stella City, the treatment of ordinary factory workers was much worse than this.

It wasn’t just managers who didn’t want to follow safety rules or hygiene rules. Workers who wanted to work quickly and rest also equally disregarded these rules.

“Our sales!”

“Say one more word, and I’ll put a bullet in your head.”

In truth, all of this was half for show.

My secretary had control over most of the subsidiaries belonging to the Hansan Group. Just by moving her brain to touch a computer, turning off the machine would be an easy task.

“…Alright.”

“Safety and hygiene rules! Properly reorganize them and report to me. Don’t even think about running this place until then. Understand?”

“But…”

“I said, Do you understand!”

Seemingly terrified by my intimidating appearance, the factory director reluctantly nodded. Then, he immediately gave orders to stop all machines.

It was a clear overstepping of authority. It wasn’t an industry I was officially in charge of, and it was an action that infringed on the interests of the Hansan Group.

So I made it look like an action driven by personal anger and opinion.

If it became known that I did all this just for ‘the safety of workers,’ even though I’m a member of the Hansan Group, I would face opposition from others.

But if other Hansan Group members misjudge this as business interference due to personal anger, they will likely accept it as ‘that crazy guy causing trouble somewhere again.’

Human life is cheap. Although there was no official class system, the lives of the workers here were priced cheaper than my anger.

“Let’s go!”

My secretary followed behind me. Getting back into my car, I could relax a bit.

“…The family elders might be angry.”

“That’s a price I have to pay.”

It’s a world inside a game. I had some ‘future knowledge’ to some extent.

“Think of it as preventing one accident.”

Of course, citizens of Stella City don’t get angry when one person dies in a factory. Death was too common and natural in this city to get upset at a corporation for such a thing.

One could die from a gang’s bullet while walking down the street or from accidents at construction sites or in traffic.

Drugs, robbery, machine malfunction, assassination. Surprisingly, deaths from suicide or cancer were rare.

There were too many factors that could kill people before they could die for such peaceful reasons.

No incident occurs from the death of one person. Even after playing the game for hundreds of hours, it would be just an ordinary day in Stella City, too unremarkable to remember.

If it were just one death, that would be the case.