And now, whether he liked it or not, he was already on board the thieves' ship, a save file created. If it was going to be deleted, it would eventually be his turn; he had to take action to protect himself.
Li Pan immediately picked up the phone, asking questions while running back and forth, searching through the surrounding file cabinets and the database for the inventory list of Warehouse 7.
Before joining the company, he had been led by Big Bear on a tour around Warehouse 7. He knew the warehouse was quite large, with a total of six floors, both above and below ground, all temperature-controlled storage areas, sealed containers, offline internal networks, and entry and exit requiring security command cards. Outside the yard, there were also automatic defense cannons, intelligent mines, and decommissioned armed robots.
Although there weren't CSI-level full-time private security guards, because the company had stuffed an extra share of money into the pockets of the neighborhood NCPA substation, the cameras near the warehouse street had been linked to the police station's monitoring subnet. There were patrols day and night, and once the alarm was raised, a police task force would be deployed within three minutes.
What surprised him, though, was that according to the company's records, despite such security measures, the place only stored one monster; the rest were empty boxes, old junk put there to satisfy the tax authorities during their inspections.
"To avoid rampages and loss of control, all monsters must be kept separately in a specific environment. I should check the status of the warehouse immediately."
"What kind of damned thing is stored in Warehouse 7 that requires my personal visit? And what's up with these computers? Not one of them can be started up?"
Li Pan was at a loss for words. This unlucky company had just deleted all the employee records in one go, so naturally, all the mission reports were gone. And within piles of internal files, any information related to monsters had been blacked out by Xiaohei, making it all a blur.
Fuck, we're in the Cyberpunk era, and the only things working in this company are the fax machine, paper shredder, landline, and coffee maker, seriously fuck.
"The company server is now urgently offline, and cannot be used until the system resets. After company facilities have been damaged, you may call a cleaner/time reset after working hours for a reboot. Everything will return to normal when you come to work tomorrow.
Please note, cleaners only provide services to Blue and Yellow Zones."
Li Pan was stunned. "Blue Zone? Yellow Zone?"
"Blue Zone is safe, no monsters or low-security risks. Yellow Zone is controlled, monsters are contained as regulated. Red Zone is dangerous, monsters at risk of losing control or have already lost control."
"...Hey," Li Pan suddenly thought of something, squinting his eyes, "that damn emotional bias assessment, that wouldn't happen to be something you guys cooked up, would it?"
The echo from the phone responded,
"I don't know."
Li Pan was speechless, "What do you mean you don't know? Aren't you the company's dedicated system intelligence assistant and you don't know?"
The phone,
"I am the office landline/Mind Whisper, in some instances also referred to as 'Soul Communication,' 'Subconscious Dialogue,' 'Mind Whisper,' 'Psychic Medium.'
When dialing an employee's internal line, if the employee is unresponsive, I can answer on their behalf, but I can only report intelligence that employees are able to gather and analyze from the mission scene."
This thing is not even as good as a system. A smart assistant at least knows how to search online...
The phone continued,
"The company needs a restart, I need to work overtime tonight to inspect the status of all 42 warehouses across the city, it's recommended to start with Warehouse 7, entering the Red Zone one by one to check the status of the monsters, ensuring they do not go out of control."
Li Pan scoffed,
"Fucking hell! With a monthly salary of just 2,500, you want me to risk my life!"
"I am the fourteenth manager of Subsidiary 0791."
"Two thousand five hundred!"
"This city, formerly known as Neo Tokyo 13."
"Two thousa... huh? Are you saying the destruction of the old city is related to monsters? Was the company not blamed for its own demise..."
Li Pan suddenly realized, an uncontrolled monster was also the company's fault. And the real corporate wars, the change of power, had only occurred in 0791, that is, when Takamanohara was replaced by the Ye Clan for the first time. Besides, honestly, the Ye Clan didn't mistreat the local natives, heck, they even issued relief funds and loans. The main purpose of the company was still to make money.
But then he immediately came back to his senses,
"What the hell does that have to do with me? The current situation clearly is the mess left by the previous generation! If you have the guts, bring those who deleted the files back to clean up their own mess!
Threaten me? I'm earning two thousand five hundred a month and you're asking me to save the world?
Go talk to Duchess Camilla from the Ye Clan or Lord Oda from Takamanohara, they've invested hundreds of millions of billions in Night City, maybe they care."
Then the phone said slowly,
"I know that salary isn't the key issue, the key is the contract, only by following the contract can the rules be activated. And my manager's authority is based on a temporary work contract, recognized by the file cabinet.
I also know they don't care. When the great flood arrives, it's always those at the top of the mountain who survive first. Even if they've invested hundreds of millions of billions in Night City, to them, it's just a drop in the bucket; they could reinvest thirteen times over and still afford to play.
But a monthly life of two thousand five hundred is all I have right now."
"Fuck!"
Li Pan hung up the phone angrily and glared at the memo in his hand.
'Delete/Delete, Appraisal, Blue, a means of communicating with the subconscious, the subject of communication unknown, some believe that it is a Mind Whisper they hear, others think that it is some sort of artificial intelligence communicating with us on the other side, and some believe it's akin to hallucinations of a split personality, I think, maybe it's one's own conscience.'
Conscience my ass.
Li Pan crumpled the memo into a ball and threw it in the wastebasket.
After thinking for a bit, he called the cleaners to come and mop the floor. Then he got up and left the company.
Regardless, he still wanted to check up on Big Bear.
Maybe he hadn't been deleted by the company, but rather had just been killed by the Whirlpool Gang.
If that were the case, his family would at least have a chance to apply for an interest-free compensation loan for work-related injuries.
Of course, the hope was very slim.