Chapter 3: Guilty (3)

Bill, who works at a food factory, woke up to a loud alarm.

“Damn… Already?”

Waking up was painful.

Every single day was torture.

Sometimes, he would lie down and imagine never waking up.

“Hey, get ready! If you’re late again, the foreman’s going to get in trouble.”

“Damn…”

It was a group dormitory.

The only personal space was a small locker in the corner.

Bill, who came to his senses, made up his bedding and ran to the shower room on time.

He waited in the long line in front of him with empty eyes, then placed himself in front of the shower head pouring out cold water.

Hansan Food’s hygiene and safety are in your hands.

If a hygiene-related accident occurs, you, the workers, can be held responsible, so please pay special attention to this.

“Damn. If you’re going to say something like that, at least change the shower head…”

Even the ice-cold water didn’t flow out coolly.

Bill twisted his body and tried to let the water dripping down from the fixed shower head wash his entire body.

“What’s for dinner today?”

“Beans and water.”

Bill, who had entered the cafeteria, stood at the back of the long line, holding a bowl.

“Well, at least there won’t be any bugs in it.”

Tom, who was his coworker, nodded with a smile.

“I’d rather have crackers. They’re too hard to eat, but at least I can feel what I’m chewing on.”

“Those sawdust crackers? I hate sawdust more than bugs. Damn, bugs are at least organic, right?”

“I don’t hate farmed bugs either. At least they’re clean.”

“You know we’re not in a position to expect cleanliness in our food. We should just eat whatever they give us.”

“Fuck… I don’t even expect it, so I wish they’d at least give us a generous portion.”

The amount of bean porridge the machine poured into our bowls was ridiculously inadequate.

“Damn, if I pee once, it’ll all come out. How am I supposed to work after eating this?”

“There are plenty of people who would eat it and work.”

“Oh, you’re so cold and realistic.”

But that was true.

There were still many people waiting outside the restaurant.

They had to finish their meals as quickly as possible and rest for a few minutes before work began.

When meal time was over, they all had to go to work.

“These rubber gloves, I’ve been asking for a week to change them, and they’re still the same.”

“Well, that’s what all the bosses are like.”

Bill put on the gloves with holes in them, sighed deeply, and went inside the factory.

“Now, just smelling this makes my head hurt…”

The countless cons that poured out from the agricultural fields were processed into processed foods by their hands.

Even this cheap grain was too expensive to be provided to them for free, but they could still secure at least some calories by buying corn at the company store with their paychecks.

Bill started working half-consciously.

It was too complicated for machines, and too simple for humans.

No, even that wasn’t an accurate description.

Almost everything humans could do could be replaced by machines.

Using such advanced machines to process food was simply an inefficient choice compared to using much cheaper humans.

It was a task that required not only physical strength but also mental strength, forcing humans to cut off their own humanity and fill their hearts with mechanicality.

However, it was something Bill had become accustomed to.

After all, it had already been seven months since he had started working here.

He continued working mechanically, with an empty mind.

“Attention everyone! I know you’re busy, but this is really urgent!”

The foreman, who had become lost in thought, ran over and shouted.

Bill, whose concentration was broken, glared at him with an arrogant expression.

However, the atmosphere was not good.

The guys who should have been sleeping were crawling in at this hour, dead.

“Why are the night shift guys…”

“High-ranking officials are coming. I’ll take care of these guys later, so first, take care of the clothes of the guys who are working!”

It was an unreasonable request.

Bill muttered in a small voice.

“I don’t need a break to fix my clothes or anything, damn it…”

Rail left without any consideration for their circumstances.

However, Bill could not bring himself to express his dissatisfaction out loud.

It was a 12-hour shift.

Considering that meal times and work preparation time were not counted as working hours, there was hardly any time to rest, let alone sleep.

They had to drag people who were desperately trying to adjust their conditions, so they were not going to live even if they were alive.

“Now, you guys start cleaning! Quickly! Clean it up cleanly, without a single spot!”

The people who were dragged out cleaned every corner of the factory for dozens of minutes.

However, expectations were different.

Not only the foreman, but even the factory manager was crawling out in proper suits and assessing the situation.

“Oh, they’re here!”

“Already? Damn it, everyone, get your minds together! Just don’t talk nonsense. I won’t ask you any questions or anything!”

The factory manager shouted in a booming voice.

“Who the hell would come here…”

Bill and Tom looked up and looked at the entrance of the factory.

A car that looked incredibly expensive just by hearing it stopped in the factory parking lot.

“You crazy, close your eyes. Never make eye contact.”

Tom, who had seen him first, hurriedly lowered his head.

Bill reflexively lowered his head, but soon became consumed by curiosity.

“Who the hell are you?”

Bill whispered a question to Tom, who was working next to him.

The factory manager in a suit bowed his head.

“You can take a look around as much as you want.”

“Hansanwoo.”

“Damn, why on earth is that guy here…”

To begin with, he was a person whose face was never seen by ordinary citizens of Stella City unless it was on TV.

He was the scoundrel of the Hansan family and a public enemy who ran rampantly through the city.

He was already a person with a deep-rooted hatred for the company.

Among them, he was a member of the Hansan Group, which was the most powerful and disgusting.

He may not have known the entire group, but at least within Stella City, he wielded absolute power.

“No matter how much I think about it, it doesn’t seem like he came in with good intentions…”

“Wait, that guy. Why isn’t he coming in?”

But the man stopped outside the factory and didn’t come in.

Hansanwoo’s mean laughter momentarily brushed past Bill’s eyes.

“CEO Hansanwoo is truly honored to come to this shabby place.”

“Oh, right. I came here for personal business.”

“Our Hansan Foods factory is, as always, in perfect operation.”

“Right…”

“As expected, it must be a bit inconvenient to come inside, right? You can see it well enough from the outside, so this is about it.”

The factory manager sighed in relief, perhaps interpreting my wandering gaze in another way.

However, I had no intention of letting it go easily.

Regardless of my real intention, at least within the company, my visit had to be seen as mean and sinister nitpicking.

There weren’t many things I needed to touch on, but if I did, it would arouse suspicion later.

So, I needed to start with something small.

“No, I’m going in. Hat.”

“A hat… right?”

“Shouldn’t there be a sanitary hat? Am I going to just walk into a food factory in this condition?”

The factory manager’s face turned pale.

It was only natural.

Hansan Group’s headquarters was in Korea.

And a unified Korea would have a social system closer to a normal dystopia than cyberpunk.

A normal dystopia where a dictator oppresses all citizens and destroys humanity within perfectly functioning rules and order.

Naturally, Hansan Foods, which internally followed those rules, also had strict hygiene and safety regulations on paper.

“Well, I’ll show you right away!”

However, Stella City was different.

This was a free city.

A city within American territory but not under American rule, a buffer zone in the war between corporations and nations.

Naturally, companies that came here were not required to follow the strict laws of Korea or any other country.

The rules and laws within Stella City had long since been rendered meaningless by numerous companies.

“You’re already getting angry.”

Naturally, not only the managers but even the workers did not respect such rules.

“T-prepare right away!”

This was a kind of declaration of war.

Since I had declared that I would follow those rules, everyone below me had to follow those meaningless rules.

The factory manager who had made me wait for a moment returned with a feeble face.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I checked, but… we have it in stock.”

“No, you don’t even have a sanitary cap for me? What am I going to eat at Hansan Foods like this?”

“We’re a factory that mainly produces cheap food products. We don’t have sanitary caps that we can put on all the factory employees right now…”

I knew that.

In factories that produced processed foods that were a bit more expensive, much stricter rules would have been observed.

However, Stella City did not embrace the poor.

The argument was that if food could be eaten at such a cheap price, it was natural to accept such treatment.

“Well, okay. Let’s get started…”

Still, it was a bit frustrating that there was no stock at all.

It wasn’t that they were just going to work comfortably for a day or two, but that they had no intention of following the hygiene rules in the first place.

However, I didn’t forget my purpose.

Today, I had to shake up this factory.

It was so much so that anyone could tell that the factory wouldn’t be able to operate for several months.

“There are a lot of people? Your expression doesn’t look good.”

“T-That…”

The factory manager’s expression darkened.

“Okay. I’ll tell you myself. You, sir?”

“Hey, hey, you mean me?”

“Oh, right. You, sir, in blue. Come here.”

I waved my hand and called one of the employees as if I were calling a dog.

“You. You’re not supposed to be working right now, are you? You have to be honest.”

I gently pressed his shoulders with my hands and smiled mischievously.

“Th-that, well…”

“Yeah, you can take your time. But, I don’t think that was that difficult of a question. Huh?”

I was observing his reaction.

I could see his pupils slightly leaking out.

It was probably where the factory manager was.

“It’s our normal working hours!”

“Oh my, you’re so confident. Great.”

“Thank you!”

“Puhahahahaha…”

I was laughing happily, but then my complexion suddenly changed and I turned my head with a cold voice.

“Signature. Scan this work schedule.”

“Understood.”

My secretary/guard started stealing information in an instant.

It was a bit excessive to call it hacking, but it was just an act of searching for information that she could view with her authority using the computer in her brain.

“John. 54 years old. Your company’s human resources program records you as a night shift worker.”

The factory manager came rushing over.

“Oh, no, that’s…”

“Shut up.”

If even the factory manager were to lie to me here, the damage would be greater than I expected.

“Check the information of everyone here. Compare it with the number of people who should be here.”

She continued to dig into the information with unfocused eyes.

“Check the number of people inside the factory, excluding those who are not registered as workers. According to the investigation, the number of workers assigned to this factory is 187% of the normal number of workers.”

I scratched my head.

“What if you lied? John. Are you really crazy?”

It wasn’t a very pleasant situation to see someone who was the same age as my father trembling at my words, but I had to do what I had to do.

“Company, should I go out?”