Chapter 2

By 3:00 PM, the bizarre string of targeted attacks escalated.

I took my mug to the break room to get some water.

The silver-gray smart coffee maker stood silently in the corner.

According to the company’s internal PR, the machine was supposed to read employees' micro-expressions and automatically brew the perfect beverage to match their mood.

The second I placed my mug on the drip tray, the machine’s display screen flashed a blinding red.

Before I could even react, the nozzle violently spat out a blast of scalding steam and boiling water, shooting straight onto the back of my hand.

"Ah!" I shrieked.

The mug slipped from my grasp and shattered into pieces on the floor.

An angry red blister immediately swelled across the back of my hand. The searing pain made me suck in a sharp breath.

Karen walked in right at that moment. She looked at the mess on the floor and at me, clutching my scalded hand.

She didn't gasp. She didn't rush over to help. She just pulled two paper towels from the dispenser with an entirely blank expression and handed them to me.

"You should run that under cold water."

Karen's voice was completely flat.

"This machine is out of its mind!"

I yelled, furiously kicking the base of the coffee maker. But my foot didn't strike hard metal. It hit something with give—like an elastic, fleshy buffer. From deep inside the machine, I felt an incredibly faint vibration, followed by a sound that resembled a muffled grunt.

"Didn't you see that?"

"It just sprayed me on purpose!"

"It's just a machine, Claire."

"Stop making a scene."

Karen bypassed me with chilling indifference and headed for the water cooler.

"Maybe you were standing in the wrong spot."

I stared at her retreating back, a sickening knot of terror and fury twisting in my gut.

This was wrong. Everything about this place was so, so wrong.

From my very first day, the printer constantly jammed on my documents. The pneumatic cylinder on my office chair would randomly give out and drop me to the floor. And now, the coffee maker was trying to burn my skin off.

And everyone—absolutely everyone—turned a blind eye to it.

I was done.

Screw the surgery money. Screw their "core drive."

If I stayed here any longer, this building was going to torture me to death.

Without even treating my burn, I stormed straight into Gideon's office.

"I quit."

I slammed both hands down on his desk, staring holes into his eyes.

"Effective immediately."

"I don't want to spend another second in this hellhole."

Gideon was currently using his ridiculously expensive "fully automated smart massage chair."

Hearing my outburst, he didn't bother turning the machine off. He simply cracked an eye open, a faint, imperceptible sneer tugging at the corner of his lips.

"Quit?"

"Are you sure you've thought this through, Claire?"

"Dead sure."

I snapped back.

"There is something seriously wrong with the equipment here, and the environment!"

"I am done!"

Moving with agonizing slowness, Gideon pulled a thick document from his drawer and tossed it onto the desk.

"Turn to page twelve, section three."

Frowning, I picked up the stack of papers. It was my employment contract.

When my eyes landed on that line of fine print, my brain basically short-circuited.

"Given that Party B has access to the Company's core trade secrets and high-value AI equipment, should Party B unilaterally terminate this agreement within the three-year service period, a penalty of $500,000 shall be paid to Party A."

"Five hundred thousand... dollars?"

I looked up in total disbelief.

"This isn't even legal!"

"I'm just a data entry clerk! I haven't even seen your source code!"

"Whether it's legal or not is for the company's legal team to explain to a judge."

Gideon leaned back into his massage chair. As the rollers moved up and down his spine, the machine let out a strange, straining groan.

"You signed the dotted line, Claire."

"If you walk out that door today, a court summons will be waiting in your mailbox tomorrow."

"Considering your mother's current medical condition, do you really think your family can survive that kind of litigation?"

The strength instantly vanished from my legs, and I collapsed into the chair opposite him.

Half a million dollars.

I didn't even have five hundred dollars in my checking account.

He had me by the throat. He had completely severed all my escape routes.

"That's just the rule of the corporate game."

Gideon's voice turned deceptively soft, winding around me like a venomous snake.

"Drop this ridiculous victim complex of yours."

"Go back and finish the report. Otherwise, you're working overtime in the copy room tonight."

"Remember, Apex Core doesn't carry dead weight."

Right at that moment, the massage chair beneath Gideon convulsed violently. It let out an incredibly harsh, stifled gasp—a sound ripped straight from the depths of a human chest.

Gideon frowned and slammed his palm hard against the armrest.

"Quiet."

Miraculously, the machine actually went dead silent.

I stared at the chair in absolute horror, then looked back at Gideon.

A drop of cold sweat slid down my forehead.

I had no way out.

I was trapped, forced to return to that maliciously expectant cubicle.