Complete food

"Cail!"

"Jose!"

"Valita!"

"Ekpmephtil!"

Oh, god. How do you even write that name?

"I am [DATA EXPUNGED] and this is our Sephirah, miss Malkuth. She gives the orders. We follow them. This curious pointer floating around is the manager's presence. If it tells you to perform a work on any containment unit, you do it. If you have any doubt about the management of our department abnos, you may seek my guidance. I am only your senior for about four days, so there is not much catching up to do."

The funny looking employee with emerald twin-tails rose their arm.

"A question!"

"Shoot."

"What happened to our predecessors?"

"As you have surely learned from the basic instruction, we extract energy by working on Enkephalim-based creatures. We only require positive interactions. Negative Enkephalim cannot be utilized, so try to outdo your predecessors and be careful with the managerial tips."

"Sir… er… did you dodge my question?"

"No. I am about to give you a tour around the department. You will see how Marette is faring nowadays."

I didn't fancy the idea of losing another co-worker to Spider Bud, so I just showed them the cocoon on the ceiling through the unit's window. The horrors will drill into their brains and speed up their learning. I opened my notebook and tore some pieces of paper.

Do not step on the spiders.

Do not perform insight work: no cleaning or speaking inside.

Do not panic if the spiders bite you. You don't want to piss of the mom.

With the help of Malkuth, we pasted those tips on the side of the door. We repeated the same process with each remaining abno. Things like:

Do not share sins too hardcore with this skelly or your memory will be gone... along with your wage. That last bit was Malkuth's own addition.

Feeding it your feelings helps your peace of mind.

Do not mess with the bird. Fear the birb. Respect the birb and let its glorious beak thrust your sinful skull.

Do NOT mess with the bird. It will be the last thing you do.

If you are desperate to die, do mess with the bastard. You have everyone's support. Make sure it feels good!

This mirror changes who you are. If you hate yourself, this will satisfy you momentarily before you seek new changes.

Love yourself. If you can't, know that you won't love whoever the mirror will turn you into.

Whatever you do, do not use this mirror repeatedly. Unless you want to become a human husk, in which case you are invited to commit such stupidity. Stupid, stupid Marette.

"Um, captain, this Marette…"

"You already met them. After losing all of their prudence, they stepped inside Spider Bud's unit and was turned into a cocoon. They produce good energy, so we are prohibited from attempting to rescue them."

"What?! That's too cruel!"

"It was cruel for both Laurence and Marette. They didn't know of such a rule before they fell prey to the spiders. You, however, are different. If you end up a cocoon, it will be entirely your fault."

The looks my new colleagues gave me made me realize how much I had changed since I became an employee there. How much would I change over the next days? I wondered.

"Listen up, everyone! The manager has already assigned your first tasks! Jose and Valita will confess low level sins to O-03-03 while performing Insight Work! Cail and Ekpmephtil will take turns chatting with O-02-56, Insight Work as well! Now, move out!"

Hurried by the ever energetic Sephirah, the employees began their Prudence training. They needed to learn the value of words before understanding the importance of silence. The greatest danger they faced in our department was Spider Bud. Once they raised the level of their virtue, working on T-02-43 would become a simple task.

Take me, for example. I learned to ignore the spiders nibbling on my skin and even managed to pet them! After ending my work, the spiders placed something over my nose. It tickled, but I allowed it to happen.

The manager had produced some tools from the abnos by utilizing their PE-Boxes, but he didn't assign any yet. I should send him a letter to check whether they remember they have to hand them out in order to benefit from them.

EGO armor and weapons. However, those were not the only types of product abnormalities can yield. The squared glasses on my nose was an EGO gift. Red Eyes. They felt good. I could see better in the shadows with them. Being able to see what was in front of me helped me feel more confident. I would perform even better with those on. I gave the spiders a grateful nod, for words were forbidden within the chamber.

Suddenly, trumpets.

The manager utilized the summon call to gather everyone at the Main Room. The clerks trembled in fear, murmuring something about bugs. After being gifted my new lenses, I felt the necessity to defend the red-eyed creatures, but the concerned voice of Malkuth explained the situation first.

"This is an Ordeal! When abnormalities are too uncontrollable to be contained inside a chamber, they freely roam the corridors and the rooms of the departments! We need to locate them as fast as possible and defeat them!"

"D-Defeat, miss Malkuth? How?"

I bonked Cail's head with my baton.

"You use these. As hard as you can. Where should we go?"

"We are facing the Complete Food. The Amber Dawn Ordeal. Our records describe them as hungry brown worm-like creatures with teeth at the front that roam the corridors in groups. If you stay here, you will be safe!"

A collective sigh of relief portrayed the feelings of the clerks. One of them gave out a screech-like plea.

"We need to go save Pepe! He got surrounded by those beasts before the meeting call!"

Malkuth clapped her metallic hands to retrieve our attention.

"Employees. Move out as a team. Fight in group and seek support from your teammates. You will do fine!"

"We will, boss. So, teammates of mine. We are about to experience some pest-control, but please refrain from bringing that skill into Spider Bud's unit, okay?"

My joke only got to one of them. The rest were too tense to relax their shoulders. I patted my own with my baton. I was actually looking forward to beating something.

Summary of the Control Team's first suppression of a Dawn-level Amber Ordeal: total failure. Employees 00104, 00105 and 00106 died. Cail received a coordinated barrage of attacks from the insects that just left a clerk's corpse. They got eaten alive. Jose got cornered against Spider Bud's door. After it opened, they fell backwards and squashed a spiderling. Valita fought valiantly against the monsters, but they followed the managers' orders too precisely: when Punishing Bird entered the corridor looking for prey, Valita faithfully beat it with their baton.

The rest of the invading insects were defeated by employees [Confidential ID] and 00107.

A few recommendations for the manager to consider: please, properly distribute EGOs to your employees in order to increase their survival chances. Also, when dealing with stressful situations, press that pause button, take a breather, consider the possibilities and proceed in a way that minimizes the number of victims.

I took off my glasses and left them on my quarter's desk. Although I just requested a better distribution of EGO equipment, I didn't enjoy wearing that gift. It felt… wrong. Almost as if… I were no longer myself whenever I used it. I would rather turn into an abno, get my EGO extracted, turn back to normal and wear my own stuff. What a silly wish. As if that could happen.