Chapter 1: 8:00am (Just Another Day)

Ding! Shadow the Hedgehog marched out of the lift and strode into the office at exactly 7:59am, sparing no time to get to his desk. By his calculations, he would arrive at his desk in twenty seconds, spend a further thirty logging into his computer – although he wished it was much shorter – and ten to open up the code he had written yesterday to pick up from where he left off at exactly 8am sharp.

It was the start of another day of work for the Quant Trader at HedgeHog Fund, Mobius' largest hedge fund. He sat down, preparing himself for his calculated daily routine. There would be no distractions, no errors, no nothing – and, with ten hours of productive work, he should be out of the doors at exactly six in the evening. He took out his thick-edged jet-black laptop, turned it on and prepared to type in his credentials –

"Morning, Shadow!"

"Morning," replied the ebony hedgehog as his fingers danced away at the keyboard; his voice was clear yet monotonous and final, with no interest of continuing the conversation. The sound of his fingers hitting the keys were almost like a gatling gun as black dots rapidly filled in the password bar.

It wasn't until then did he realise who he was talking to. Irritation coursed through his arms as his laptop approved his sign-in. No, he wasn't going to let a blue rat derail his calculated routine and ruin his workday.

For a moment, his colleague was at a loss of words – they were all stuck in his larynx, unsure how to come out in response to the neutral, unfriendly greeting. But he was here for a reason – while his mischievous side thought otherwise, he knew better than to disturb for no reason the stern, yet immensely competent and respected employee, one of the best the firm has hired in years.

"Shadow—"

"This better be worth my time," interrupted Shadow, this time sounding more like a robot pre-programmed to return those sounds whenever there was a risk of distraction.

"Well, it is," replied Sonic, smiling awkwardly. "Sorry for the late notice, but we have someone coming in today for their final round of interviews. You've been assigned his buddy for the day."

The black hedgehog twisted his head to face Sonic so quickly that he felt his neck snap. He hated surprises, and this certainly wasn't a part of his plan to get everything done and get off work by six. He's got more code to write, more reports to produce, and more presentations to make; he certainly has no time for someone who might not make it, let alone meet his own level of expertise and competency.

"Here's their CV and supporting application materials," said Sonic, handing him a hoary-coloured USB stick. "He's coming in at nine, so you've got an hour to look through those and to get to know him better."

"Excuse me, Sonic," he said, trying to suppress any passive aggression in his voice. "I appreciate the opportunity, but I do have a lot on my plate today. Might there be any chance that you, or someone else, could take this on instead?"

"I'm afraid I'm quite busy as well – Project Ring is about to wrap up, and there's lots of quality-checking to do before we submit everything to our clients. It is also the case that management has delegated this responsibility to you, Shadow," replied Sonic, trying to sound apologetic but not really meaning it. "I'm sure you'll understand that it would be a hassle for them to shift things round last-minute – oh, and, before I forget, the USB also contains today's schedule for the candidate, including their interview times and rooms. Make sure he gets there on time and keep him in good spirits while you're with him."

Shadow excelled at everything about the job. Except behaving and especially speaking professionally. He found it pretentious and inefficient, and it drained his mental energy trying to put on this façade. The whole world would work a whole lot quicker if they cut the pleasantries and got straight to the point. For example, what he just said could have been summarised as: "No, I'm busy."

And that's exactly what he said. The words flew out of his mouth, past all those filters in his brain he would normally employ effortlessly, before he even knew it.

"Shadow, no one else can. Just see it as a favour for the firm, alright? Mobius has gone through—"

"A financial crisis recently, and trust in hedge funds are low. We're short of talent and every candidate counts," he interjected, repeating those very words that management has been brainwashing them with over the past year.

"You got it. Don't forget about the meeting with management at the end of day to discuss the candidate! Thanks!"

"Thank you, Sonic. Please allow me to peruse these documents independently," he forced out of gritted teeth, as the blue hedgehog paced away speedily, partly to get to work, partly to get away from Shadow. Let's take a good, good look at this candidate…how good, or awful, could he be? he mused sardonically. A few rapid and agile clicks, and he got to the folder he needed to see. He hissed.

Why are there so many damn files? How flippin' extra IS this candidate? How insecure and desperate do you have to be to throw in all these useless files that your interviewers wouldn't even bother looking at… oh, for Chaos' sake! Shadow hissed again, letting his bad habits and anger get the best of him. I have to be with him the whole day? The WHOLE damn day?

"Shadow, could you lower the volume a bit? Thanks!" called Sonic.

"Sorry."

Shadow looked out of the window, allowing his mind to wander – which tended to happen when he was churning through tasks that didn't inspire him. A recession did happen recently, and while HedgeHog Fund was still easily the best and most reputable hedge fund out there, they, too, struggled to re-attract talent after waves of ruthless layoffs and the best candidates searching for jobs fled to the esteemed National Reserve Bank, whose reputation (and pay) sky-rocketed after their team of economists, led by the esteemed Prof. Dr. Ivo Robotnik, stopped this historic crash with radical and unprecedented policymaking. Recently, HedgeHog Fund picked itself up with some fresh, lucrative client deals, such as the internally-dubbed Project Ring, which Sonic was on, or Project Ultimate, which Shadow was on, allowing them to expand their capacity. Few other places were hiring, sending waves of desperate candidates – many of whom severely underqualified – to apply here. For a moment, under the grey, neutral sky, Shadow felt truly grateful that he survived the layoffs, one of two recent hires to do so.

The other, of course, was Sonic. Shadow glanced over, and his moment of gratefulness disappeared fleetingly. His eyes brimmed with envy as he saw his colleague type away at his keyboard, excitedly quality-checking and editing code. He then shifted his attention back to his laptop. As he continued browsing through the candidate's materials, trying his best to stay focused, he couldn't help but remind himself of the horror stories he heard from others who had accompanied the lucky candidates that made it to the final round: those who cracked under pressure in the gruelling interviews and cried, those who were sent away having been exposed as putting lies on their application, those who begged clingingly for an offer from anyone they saw…

Shadow grimaced. He hoped it wouldn't come to this. Academics-wise, this candidate wasn't bad at all, with a decent number of exam prizes and scholarships; his CV was quite convincing and his covering letter persuasive. But he knew from experience that academics don't say much – you could have average grades and still outperform in your job, or you could, like Shadow, graduate at the top of your cohort with even more prizes and scholarships. Just look at that blue hedgehog over there, happily working on his project… his grades were mediocre. Just another of those corporate junkies who played too hard at university. Perhaps it was unrealistic to expect a candidate as qualified as himself, so Shadow adjusted his expectations downwards to hope that the candidate would at least be a decent guy that didn't light up his short fuse.

It took him less time than expected to browse through the candidate's documents. Following his CV and covering letter, Shadow also looked at his transcript, certificates of prizes, reference letter one, reference letter two, reference letter three… Shadow got the facts down, but he felt far from fulfilled. These 'facts' could turn out to be lies and exaggerations, and said nothing about the candidate more generally as a person.

Why not find out? he thought, his mouse hovering to CyberSpace, his default browser. He typed in the URL for EmeraldNetwork, the nation's largest social and professional networking site. The first step would be to look beyond the surface, starting from the candidate's professional and non-professional social media profiles. EmeraldNetwork quickly found the target he was looking for, and he swiftly scrolled through the page, looking for inconsistencies and errors, however minor, such as: typos, grammatical mistakes, missing experiences… he even looked at the profile URL to see how professional it was. Nothing amiss here.

"Shadow, are you stalking the candidate?" asked Sonic, who was passing by on his way to a quick coffee break.

"None of your business," spat Shadow, before hastily adding, "It is important for me to understand who the candidate is beyond just the materials you gave me."

"Haha, alright, but listen." The azure hedgehog stopped in his tracks, and slowly trudged over to his colleague. He felt uncomfortably near, as if about to speak some dark secrets. "I think you're amazing at your job, but you're really going to have to up your professional game, Shadow. You can't afford to make snide or condescending remarks like that. You certainly can't be making them to our candidate today – it might put him off and cost us a valuable hiring opportunity."

Shadow swallowed, his throat heavy. "I apologise, Sonic."

"Appreciate your understanding. See you later!" The blue hedgehog walked away towards the coffee station.

Shadow sat, momentarily dazed; was his lack of professionalism really going to cost him? Surely, if he was competent – which he was – management wouldn't give two thoughts about his occasional surly attitude. Surely.

Anyway… shaking off these uncomfortable thoughts, the midnight-coloured hedgehog went on to ChaosBook, a social media site which was a bit more personal. The candidate's ChaosBook profile was well-protected, with nothing showing on their timeline but their profile photo, which looked meek and professional enough. The post had zero comments but one like, by a 'Blaze the Cat'. Perhaps the candidate didn't use personal social media much.

He then ventured into InstaGame Land, a social media site focused on sharing videos and photos. Jabbing in the candidate's name led to a private profile, although they did have a considerable number of followers and those who he followed. He even looked at Flicky, a platform where users can post short messages (known as 'Flicks') about anything, and SnapChao, a platform where users take selfies and share it with friends.

He glanced at the bottom-right corner of his laptop, where his digital clock showed 8:53am. It was time to review the day's schedule:

9am-10am. Building Tour. Location: Chaos Tower, Floor 0 (Room: Lobby).

10am-11am. Candidate Shadowing 1. Candidate shadows recent joiner (Shadow the Hedgehog).

11am-12:30pm. Candidate Interview 1. Location: Chaos Tower, Floor 4 (Room: Planet Wisp)

12:30pm-1:30pm. Candidate Lunch. Location: Chaos Tower, Floor 2 (Sweet Mountain Canteen)

1:30pm-2:30pm. Candidate Shadowing 2. Candidate shadows recent joiner (Sonic the Hedgehog).

2:30pm-3:00pm. Candidate Interview 2 and Briefing. Location: Chaos Tower, Floor 3 (Room: Green Hill)

3:00pm-3:30pm. Candidate Interview 3 and Briefing. Location: Chaos Tower, Floor 3 (Room: The Ark)

3:30pm-4:00pm. Break. Location: Chaos Tower, Floor 1 (Sweet Mountain Café)

4:00pm-5:30pm. Candidate Interview 4. Location: Chaos Tower, Floor 7/Penthouse (Room: Iblis)

5:30pm-6:00pm. Candidate Discussion and Feedback. Location: Chaos Tower, Floor 7/Penthouse (Room: Solaris)

He glanced again at the bottom-right corner of his laptop. 8:57am. It was time to see for himself who this candidate really is.