Two weeks have passed since Masaru and I asked Yamazaki for help. Everything went as he predicted, the client brought Kimoto back to us, asking for a refund. Too bad for them, they couldn't get the full price back. The company has decided long ago to change the rules by decreasing the refund a client can get. Speaking of which, a candidate usually costs 4,500 "Divine Dollars". It doesn't matter who I asked, no one has a single clue why it is called a dollar. Why not peso? Lira? Yen? Why especially Dollars? Next time I'll find out this whole thing is sponsored by the White House. American economic colonialism conquered even the heavens, damn it. Let's get back to the finances. At this point, everyone calls it just a dollar. To transfer one's soul, we use special artifacts, every use of them costs $500, we commit to pay for the first usage, every next usage should be paid by the client himself. With that said, the company makes $4,000 profit from a single soul. This then is divided between the company and the consultant. Our bosses are really generous, the consultant gets $500 from the award as a bonus to his monthly salary… the rest goes into the company's budget. It may look like robbery, perhaps it indeed is, for the effort we put in, but the basic salary is solid. With $3,000 being the basic salary, completing just a couple of orders gives you a bonus of $1,000. Occasionally, we're lucky, and we get many orders, then the bonus can get up to $2,000 or even $3,000. Assuming we had bad luck and either we got not a single order or we couldn't find any candidate, the basic salary is still more than enough for us. Apparently, the rent in this world isn't as high as in the material one, I can afford a 105 m² apartment for $750 (including additional costs). A house itself, let's say, two floors and 5 rooms, would cost probably around $1500 for the rent, maybe $70,000 to buy it. A monthly supply of food costs around $400. A usual meal in a restaurant costs $10, a gourmet one would be around $50. You could buy a car and spend around $500 for the fuel, but I rather use the excellent public system we have here. Every day I take the subway to go to work and back home. It's faster and has more lines than an average subway system in the material world, better than the Japanese one, for sure. In contrast to the material world, this one has fewer nuances since it's not based on any material world. Building 10 lines of subway, one on another? Pf, easy. Although it leads me to a few questions, not to the world itself, rather to its citizens. Almost everyone here works, the unemployment rate is near zero percent. From art to bakery and construction, everyone does what it suits him the most. But why? I can't understand it. Why bother, if you'll get a basic 20m² apartment and $500 for food per month for free. Anyway, that's upon them, if they like to work, I can't complain. It's probably even better for me. People can train old or gain new skills here, and we might get interested in them. Besides, in general, the world became a more familiar place this way. Seeing how we are not alone here and that people live their lives, you can meet them, talk to them, become friends with them. It makes your life easier and more colorful. Like, damn, I imagine if my life here would be just work from 08:00 to 16:00, with an empty world outside the company… lame and depressive.
…
It's 10:20, three hours until the break, but the day is already unbearable. Masaru is as always splitting nonsense and bothering me. I had to escape from him and from the work for a small moment. Otherwise, I'd commit murder, even if everyone here is basically immortal. For the break, we have a big cafeteria downside that provides us good meals for $10 and various drinks. But it would not be practical if we'd have to wait until our 13:00 break to take tea or coffee to drink during our work. That's why we have a small kitchen next to our office hall. It also has a refrigerator, a microwave oven, a couple of coffee machines and a device that looks almost the same as a microwave oven, but is supposed to create small meals. As I entered the kitchen, I found Ogawa staying next to the window, sipping his coffee. His attitude as usual, bored and depressed. To be honest, I don't know anything about Ogawa except his attitude and name. He doesn't seem talkative or interested in becoming friends with anyone here, but I'd like to learn more about him, so I decided to start a dialogue. Who knows, maybe I'll succeed? For now, I'm thinking of inviting him for a meal in the cafeteria… come to think of it… I don't remember ever seeing him in the cafeteria before.
"Ogawa, do you want to join us for a meal afterward?"
"I'm fine, thanks." — an unpleasant and awkward pause was created after his response. I thought about how to start a new dialogue, but nothing came to my mind. For a moment, I caught myself acting the same as Masaru to him, so I stopped my attempts. The last thing I want is to bother others.
"I'm fine as long as I can drink coffee, and since I'm not that hungry and can wait until I get back to home, what makes going down to the cafeteria useless and just a waste of time and energy. It has nothing to do with you." — Ogawa perhaps thought I was offended by his response, he might look act like this, but in reality he cares for everyone.
"That's a relief! Well, if you change your mind, you know where to find us." — as my cup of coffee was ready, I took it and got back to my workplace. Nothing unusual happened today. There was that one order for a medical expert in physiotherapy, found one random guy and sent him right ahead, sweet $500!
…
Finally, almost 13:00. I was about to shut down my PC down and hit the way to the elevator, when Ogawa appeared in front of me. He was unpleased with something. Have I done anything? Maybe he also had a similar order and I took his candidate away?
"If you don't mind, can I come with you to the cafeteria?" — few, a relief, I thought he was mad at me…
"Sure. We were about to go. Saru, how long have we already waited for you? Come on."
…
Today's menu was a fried duck, accompanied by french fries, some kind of sauce and a standard salad. Masaru decided on the vegetarian dish today, spaghetti pesto. Ogawa… huh? Ogawa got only a cup of coffee.
"Hey, Furuyachi, why won't you get spaghetti too? I doubt you'll survive while only drinking coffee."
"We can't die. Furthermore, once again, don't call me like that, Saru."
"How mean, yet you all call me a monkey."
"That's different, it's not our fault your name has that character." — I said, cutting this topic off, — "Whatever, Ogawa, you might be right, we can't die here, but we still feel hungry."
"You are right, but I am not hungry. As I said to you before in the kitchen, I can wait until I come back home. Coffee is the only thing I need."
"It seems you really love coffee?"
"I despise it. But I can't live without a sip of coffee every half an hour. It helps me to concentrate and ignore my negative thoughts. Call me an addict, I don't mind because I really am one." — he sipped his coffee, making it look like a dot at the end of a sentence.
"But you could ask for a recovery? It's easy to stop an addiction here in this world. If you don't know anyone, just ask Yamazaki. He knows someone for sure."
"Yes, but I don't want to" — Ogawa took another sip and continued — "I feel like if I stop drinking coffee, I'll stop being myself. You don't have to understand me, I don't understand myself either."
"Ogawachi, you hate to work, don't you? Why did you sign the contract? I doubt that you were tricked like Kazuchi" — said Masaru and then began to lick his plate, it's been 10 minutes since we sat here and he already finished his first plate.
Ogawa was about to take Masaru's plate and slap his face with it — "No, I wasn't." — after taking one more sip, he tilted his head and put his hand under his right cheek — "I don't know. I dislike work, but I also dislike doing nothing. I thought, at least the salary is big enough to not worry about things. Maybe that was the case" — then Ogawa turned his head to Masaru's direction and asked him — "What about you? You don't seem to enjoy working as a consultant here, either."
"You are certainly right. Well, as you said, the salary is tempting. But I have zero regrets, it's fun here."
He then stood up and went for his second plate of spaghetti. Upon his return, we saw 3 small packages of chocolate pudding next to his second plate of spaghetti pesto –– "Here you go! One for everyone."
Usually, I'd yell at Masaru to shut his mouth off for even a minute, but strangely, his hyperactivity had its benefits: Ogawa became more and more talkative thanks to him, although most times he just asked him to shut up.
When we finished eating, Ogawa made himself another cup of coffee that he took with himself to the workplace. Before splitting up and going back to our workplace, I said to him –– "it was to hang out a bit, don't you also think so?"
"I came mostly for the coffee. Both coffee machines were out of coffee beans…"
"…"
"But you are right, it was fun to hang out. I might do it often from now on."
Ogawa is not a bad guy, I was certainly right. His way of speaking might be offensive to someone, but his intentions aren't like that. From that day, we periodically went to the cafeteria or to the kitchen together, having small talk to get a little distracted from the work, and sometimes even met outside the company. Soon enough, we started to search for desks where we could sit together. Work life for sure has become more fun after this, at least I had support against that hyperactive monkey Masaru…