Josh calmly listened to the old man's recorded voice. It was a bunch of nonsense, but soothing nonsense nonetheless. From time to time, he could hear muffled coughs that he tried hiding.
With the new recorder, Josh's speed increased a lot. In fact, it returned to being the number one on the floor. Still, it was about 20% slower than the peak speed he had shown in the past.
This much was to be expected since a recording could only be that close to the original. The next step was to make new allies. Two fodder characters would sometimes show up: the paper monkey and the food monkey.
As long as he could make the paper guy his ally, he would have a direct way to the Literary Association since his department also handled the mailing for submitting new manuscripts.