Lin An hadn't reached his boss's office door when a huge gray wolf blocked his path.
The wolf seemed like an old Wolf King ostracized from its pack, its body covered with bloody wounds, one leg even bent at a gruesome angle.
Its green, slit-like pupils stared at him maliciously, the lowering of its body suggesting it could pounce at any moment, its drooling fangs interlocked, emitting a low threatening growl.
Lin An feigned nonchalance and continued walking down the aisle between desks.
With just a glance, he could easily spot the concealed hostility in the eyes of a middle-aged man.
Their programming team's leader, Mr. Liu.
Antler Software Company was like a skinny camel still bigger than a horse. Even after Suxin Software poached their top algorithm experts and several producers nearly gutted the company's art department, many chose to stay.
The reason was that the company still had a fairly vital game and a marginally sustainable gaming forum website, both projects at least sustaining positions like the server and maintenance teams.
Their main strategy was akin to muddling along in a job carrying them into easy retirement.
Although the young boss seemed inexperienced, he appeared to be planning on transitioning the company into an outsourcing firm to revitalize their game development capabilities, causing many to waver in their loyalties.
It's said that a small temple attracts many demons, a shallow pond many toads—such an almost-defunct company always had those who fixated on inexplicable office struggles.
The young boss seemed to favor the new employees recruited after he took over, among whom Lin An was the most eye-catching.
After his cataract surgery, Lin An became sensitive to certain images and the emotional tension they evoked, and he started self-learning some artistic painting skills.
Especially as the company owned many proprietary software and model tools, painting just became a matter of refining and tweaking.
But this was just an attempt; his career plan was still to become an algorithm expert.
However, Mr. Liu felt that if the young boss could revive Antler Software's brand, Lin An might be assigned to the game development project's planning team.
From planner to chief planner, then to producer—Lin An was on track to soar right along with the young boss in revitalizing the company.
Mr. Liu wanted that, too.
When one's career plan so perfectly aligns with the company's growth, once the company gains momentum and you have impressive projects under your belt, that's reaching the pinnacle of the industry pyramid.
Unfortunately, the young boss didn't seem as interested in him, this 'old retainer'; he was respected but not truly valued as his attitude suggested.
Lin An had no idea about Mr. Liu's multitude of thoughts.
If not for the recent trouble with his eyes, he would have already been inquiring about positions at other companies, prepared to jump ship.
Especially now, when he had suddenly discovered that these so-called hallucinations might be related to how others looked at him.
Though he didn't know how useful it was, the inner fear had indeed started to recede a lot.
He didn't expect this phenomenon to be helpful, just prayed it wouldn't affect his life.
With the threatening wolf in front and the probing eyes of black cats behind, heaven knows how he clenched his teeth, maintaining his composure, taking steady steps to the young boss's office.
Life was already so difficult...
The romantic notions of adventuring through the world, sword in hand, from his student days, had been ground down bit by bit, mired in the quagmire called life that he couldn't escape or gain freedom from.
Lin An wasn't that ambitious.
"An, our good fortune has arrived," the young boss excitedly pulled Lin An to sit on the couch next to the tea table in his office, poured him a cup of tea, and spoke animatedly.
"Mr. Chen has bought the rights to a novel about a Wizard, planning to develop a AAA game masterpiece!" The young boss said with exaggerated admiration, "Mr. Chen is truly young and promising~~"
"Giggle~," the young woman covered her mouth and chuckled softly, her narrow phoenix eyes squinting like a fox as she laughed, "Mr. Lu is exaggerating too much. I'm just following the trend. Wizard-themed games are selling especially well internationally now, and many people in the country have already started projects on this theme."
Lin An held the pitifully small teacup and took a gentle sip, almost scalding himself with the hot tea, feeling goosebumps all over his body from his boss's eunuch-like tone of voice.
He really didn't know why the boss called him in, he was just an average programmer who was dragged down the wrong path by his boss into doing art design, with outcomes that were, at best, just okay.
Lin An was aware of his own abilities; while he devoted a lot of time to learning outside of work, he really wasn't a big shot.
"An, hurry up, show Mr. Chen that drawing of the dog with three heads, let Mr. Chen get a glimpse of our company's foundation!"
The young boss's call made Lin An's heart tighten, and he became alert as he saw the huge black cat lying across from him on the floor suddenly lift its head and stare at him.
The three-headed dog he had drawn was not like the numerous Cerberus images that could be easily found online.
It was something he saw while recuperating in the hospital after a surgery, basking in the sun in the hospital courtyard.
The three-headed dog was even larger than the black cat in front of him, coiled atop the roof of the hospital's emergency room building, its long snake tail wrapped around the outside wall, looking exceptionally ferocious and horrifying.
Sometimes, as a worker, you clutch at any opportunity to climb up. After the company's artist ran off, the young boss, desperate to meet a deadline, promised a cash reward of 20,000 yuan to anyone willing to take on an urgent project and handle it well.
At that time, Lin An had just spent all his savings in the hospital, and with the deadline for his mortgage payment looming, he couldn't care less.
He put the drawing in front of the young boss and seized the opportunity successfully.
The outcome was good; he wrapped up the project, received the bonus, and even got a raise.
But there were repercussions; he gradually started being used as an artist by the boss, and now, it might even expose some problems.
Those hallucinations...
They seemed to be more than just hallucinations!
"Gone," Lin An said with the stereotypical dull expression of a programmer, scratching his head, "To have the system run '3D Max' smoothly after a reinstall, I accidentally deleted that image from the desktop on my C: drive."
"Ah?" The young boss was stunned for a moment, his face filled with regret, "What a pity, such explosive work is gone like that. I still remember the snake tail of that big dog even now."
"You don't know, Mr. Chen, An's drawings may have average technique, but they really capture the essence. They truly made me feel as if that Cerberus was alive!"
"Snake tail?" The young woman raised an eyebrow, her phoenix eyes looking at Lin An with interest, and she nodded with a smile as she stood up, "Well, alright then, I should take my leave as well."
"You're leaving so soon?" The young boss stood up in some panic, nervously rubbing his hands, "Mr. Chen, our company really has the capability to undertake outsourcing. Won't you consider it? We can negotiate on the price."
The young woman smiled slightly, elegantly standing up, her hands holding the baby stroller, "I was just passing by this time, spending the holiday walking around with my baby, enjoying some parent-child happiness. I'll officially visit when my holiday is over, and we can discuss cooperation then."
The young boss's eyes lit up immediately, "Great, great, as long as we can sit down and talk, Antler Software Company will definitely give you a satisfactory response, you will be pleased."
And so, the boss practically bent over backward to send the young woman out of the building.
But Lin An stood rooted to the spot, feeling chills running down his spine.
The huge black cat!
It hadn't left!
It didn't disappear with the woman's gaze!
Its green eyes keenly watched him, its long, fluffy tail swinging in mid-air and then gently caressing Lin An's face.
"Meow?"
Meow my ass, I didn't see anything, I didn't see!