We took the emergency stairs instead of an elevator, since Eirlys said it'll be faster.

I had not much to complaint or praise, the Sonder Interactive Inc's stairs were… Prettay ♪. So to speak.

We were on top of the roof, above the 50th floor, and descended 8 stairs to the 42th floor.

The walls the stairway were a smooth slate-gray with evenly spaced vertical LED strips glowing a soft white.

Each landing had a tiny abstract mural with minimalist brush strokes, representing things like "momentum" or "spark" or whatever concept some designer got paid half a million to capture.

The handrails were brushed aluminum with a temperature that stayed strangely neutral, neither cold nor warm, like it wasn't real metal, which, I supposed they added something in the middle?

By the time we reached the heavy double doors marked [42 – D.A.VR DEVELOPMENT & PATCHING], I was sweating in a very unglamorous, very mortal way, since I feel overwhelmed by the sheer size of this facility..

Eirlys pushed the door open, and I stepped into the garden of Eden.

The entire floor felt like stepping into a sci-fi movie set, except nobody here cared about making it look photogenic… And I say that because this place seemed absurdly expensive.

The ceilings were high, with cable trays and fiber bundles exposed but arranged neatly with color-coded lines.

Rows of servers hummed against the far wall behind glass, blinking with tiny red and blue signals like a horizon of anxious stars.

I'd assume those wasn't the Darkmon Adventure VR main server? Because no way they'd keep the server here, probably just a branch… Like uh, a server that powers the main server, yeah. Perhaps one of these days Sonder Interactive Inc. might achieve quantum computing.

The open floor was a grid of cubicles, each decorated with plushies, collectible figures, and two to three monitors per desk, quite pretentious, I might say.

My first reaction was to lean down and check the PC specs… But sadly, I couldn't find it, all screens are wired somewhere… What? I don't- I don't get this, at all.

So I just stared at Eirlys, who was unlocking the door to a room of hers, I'd assumed, and got back to admire the place.

There was a giant screen that was already on before we entered this half-lit floor, despite no one being around since it's after-hours.

The screen spanned an entire wall, showing scrolling mob&NPC statistics, player reports, live activity charts, everything labeled with acronyms I didn't quite understand at first glance. After all, a company's supposed to mislabel stuff at times to confuse dataminers like myself.

A smaller vertical screen listed active patch tickets, most of them high priority, a few had big red exclamation marks… Probably a game problem they plan to get on the next morning.

And in the corner: a lounge.

I'd imagine it being a cozy corner for bros to hang out, but it was more on theme with the company, since everything was angular and modern.

Egg-shaped chairs suspended from steel frames, a ring-table embedded with wireless chargers, aself-serve mini fridge stocked with energy drinks and vitamin water, and a coffee machine with more buttons than a Japanese toilet.

Eirlys pointed at the cluster of lounge chairs and said,

"Sit down, Cory. And don't touch anything you don't understand."

I obeyed instantly, because I know for a fact I'm not about to pay for any damages done.

"UGHHHGHDGHJDG~! OH MY LORD IT FEELS GOOOOOOD"

After so much walking, the chair swallowed me the moment I sat down and I groaned so loud a Midwestern father somewhere is probably jealous.

Plush cushions, ergonomic curve, a headrest that automatically adjusted itself. It made me feel smaller than I already did, god, imagine having sex on this here seat, it'll be mindblowing.

From where I sat, I could see Eirlys's personal room. That suggested to me that she was either one of the head of the department, or she was pretentious enough to nepo herself into a room instead of working in the open floor like others despite she contributing more or less the same as any other employee.

Her desk wasn't messy, but the amount of stuff on there told a lot of stories from where I'm sitting. I saw glimpses, but there were definitely stacks of documents, a few USB drive.

With my curiousity piquing, I stood up and followed her in.

There were three framed photos on the table

One with her and Hailie smiling at a theme park, it seems like it was only two of them on a private sisters' trip and it was Eirlys who pushed Hailie around. Although… The wheelchair seemed different, so it could be one of those electric wheelchairs Hailie can control with her hand.

Another photo showed a younger Hailie in the hospital hugging a stuffed penguin while having bandages all over her forehead. She was throwing up a peace sign at the camera, presumably held by Eirlys.

"Why was she in the hospital?" I asked.

"She hit her head." Eirlys answered absentmindedly as she was clicking around her desktop.

Yeah, no shit Sherlock.

And the last photo showed a family photo, with Eirlys, Hailie, Mr, and Mrs Sonder.

"I've never seen your mother before…" I said, holding the photo frame up.

"She doesn't like making a public appearance." Eirlys said.

"She's hot."

The moment those words left my mouth.

Eirlys paused, the clicking noises stopped, then she mechanically and slowly turned her head over at me.

Only then did I realize what I said.

"Uh…" I fake coughed, "I mean it in a female to female way."

That didn't help it, because Eirlys' expression just got worse.

"I MEAN! UHHH, I meant it as like, you know, I'm just praising a fellow woman, like, yas queen, get it!"

Eirlys facepalmed and got back to her work.

She typed something rapidly, scanned a set of reports, then left the room, back to the open office.

She pulled down a ceiling-mounted projector with a smooth mechanical click. The lights dimmed, and a circular holographic interface bloomed in mid-air.

A video call happened.

A grid of faces appeared, though only maybe a dozen cams were on.

Ninety percent of the squares were just named rectangles with muted microphones and little "offline avatar" icons, like anime characters, pets, initials, stock illustrations, LinkedIn-style corporate faces.

Most of the people who were actually visible were in their bedroom or in their pajamas.

One guy was clearly sitting on his bed under a blanket. Another was cooking noodles while trying to look professional. A woman in the top-right tile was rubbing her eyes like she'd literally woken up seconds before joining.

It's barely even 9PM, guys! Keep yourself together, geez.

And then I noticed that almost every name were… Japanese, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Indian, Korean, Indian, Chinese, Indian

A few European names scattered here and there, but the vast majority: Asian. I don't know why it even surprised me at this point, the cheapest labor with the highest skill ceiling? Duh.

Someone cleared his throat and asked,

"Uh… Eirlys? Sorry, but, um… who is the girl sitting behind you?"

One hundred pairs of eyes (or profile icons) pointed at me; a random loser-looking ass girl with bags under her eyes and unkempt hair (though brushed) in a blue dress were staring at them.

She's an assistant." Eirlys glanced over her shoulder. "Don't worry about it, she helped me with bug-finding."

And the meeting started… Only then did I realize how human these people were.

I've always thought that a top company would have top dogs… But no, apparently, it's just having 1000 small dogs to overwhelm 1 top dog.

The meeting were just like my college presentation group project meetings with lingering silences, people forgetting to unmute, omeone talking while still muted for ten straight seconds, another person unmuted with LOUD background noise and instantly panic-muting, a guy who kept nodding even though he clearly wasn't listening, a few voices participating while everyone else hid in their little rectangles of safety.

Eirlys didn't seemed to be a big shot in this company either, she acted as if she was just one of the guys... She helped briefed the situation and pulled out statistics whenever someone brought it up as if she was just another intern printing papers.

Probably because she was the only one who could make it to the office, while no one else is required, since it's after-work.

I never realized how "human" these guys are… Sounds obvious innit? But yeah, I just… Never thought of it until now, these guys were sleep-deprived, overworked, messy, human people.

Complaining about being called in this late, scratching their heads, rubbing their temples, asking questions that didn't matter, falling silent for long stretches after someone made a point.

It looked like every online meeting I'd ever seen.

I stood up and went over to the coffee maker while Eirlys' eyes followed me.

This is going to be… Easier than I thought. Let's just get this over with.

Next chapter will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.