"Do you know the Triangle Law?" Xu Xiaoyou asked.
Aphrah assumed a thinking posture. "The Triangle Law..."
"Right. It has nothing to do with this."
Aphrah: "..."
The woman on the stage finally got to the point.
Her expression turned solemn, and the sudden shift made the new employees below a bit uncomfortable.
"We here at Section C value one thing above all else. Remember it well. When dealing with collection targets, you must never show any mercy."
"Paying back what you owe is the natural order of things. Do not sympathize because of their past experiences, and do not let their family situation move your heart. Doing so will only hurt you in the end."
"In every loan we issue, the interest rates, repayment dates, and the price of failure are clearly written in the contract. If they take a loan from us without assessing their own risk and ability to repay, then they are simply stupid—utterly, hopelessly stupid."
"Do you understand?"
After the previous round of brainwashing, even if they realized something was off, these new employees didn't have much of a reaction and responded in unison.
Xu Xiaoyou sighed.
Until this moment, these new employees probably hadn't realized that Universal Heavy Industries wasn't some excellent model enterprise; it was a blood-stained predator, a massive shadow looming over this steel forest, sucking the lifeblood of the people as nutrients for its own growth.
The emphasis of Universal Heavy Industries wasn't on 'Heavy Industries,' but on 'Universal.'
Its shadow draped over countless hive cities. Naturally, its scope wasn't limited to heavy military industry; while various armaments were their primary focus, they were merely the foundation of their rule over the hive cities.
Outside, the city was filled with buildings and heavy traffic. Beneath the shadows of holographic billboards, violent crimes occurred every second.
The Universal Tower was so massive, situated right in the center of the city as a landmark. Peering out from any corner of the city, one would often find the sunlight swallowed by its silhouette.
Everything people saw in their daily lives had the company's shadow behind it.
Its roots had long since burrowed deep into this steel forest.
Once the nutrients of this hive city were thoroughly drained and it lost its value, it would be discarded.
The same applied to people.
Aphrah didn't know what the girl beside her was thinking and waved a hand in front of Xu Xiaoyou's eyes.
"Senior? Senior?"
"Sorry, I just spaced out for a moment," Xu Xiaoyou said with a smile.
The woman on the stage seemed to be playing a video, causing a stir among the audience.
Xu Xiaoyou had no interest in watching and kept her head down, lost in her own thoughts.
Seeing this, Aphrah opened her mouth to say something but didn't know how to start.
She had been quite rude in the elevator earlier, hadn't she? Running away with her head down like that.
She should probably apologize to Senior Xu Nian. He was so gentle; how could she have thought of him as a bad person?
Those people in the security department were all so muscular; Senior Xu Nian must have been transferred here for technical reasons, just like her teacher, to work on mechanical cybernetics research.
It had to be that!
Thinking this, the girl looked up earnestly, but the light that had just sparked in her eyes died the moment she saw the scene on the large screen.
Xu Xiaoyou noticed that many gazes had suddenly fallen upon her, and she looked up in confusion.
The footage on the screen showed a dim room. The incandescent light overhead flickered incessantly, and a burly figure tied to a chair struggled non-stop, as if sensing the approach of a terrifying presence.
A figure stepped out from the darkness, taking a pair of pliers handed over by someone nearby.
Under the flickering light, the young man had deep-sunken eyes, a gaunt face, and heavy dark circles. 'Feeble' was the first impression he gave anyone.
He wore a white shirt with a suit jacket draped over his shoulders, which hung loosely on his thin frame.
The corners of his mouth were slightly curled, and his face was splattered with blood.
The young man walked up to the struggling burly figure and suddenly drove a small knife into the man's palm.
"Mmph! Mmph..." Stimulated by the pain, the burly man's body shook violently for an instant, leaving nothing but terror in his heart.
The man felt a hand placed on his head, stroking it gently.
"Hey..."
A slow, low voice sounded—faint, like that of a terminally ill patient.
"Mr. Chen, you should know that paying back what you owe is only natural, right?"
The burly man nodded frantically.
"No, you don't know."
"AHHH!"
The burly man felt the nail of his index finger being clamped and ripped away. The agonizing pain nearly made him faint.
Cold sweat poured down his face. Only then was the cloth covering his eyes removed. Upon seeing the young man's face, he shook his head, and tears actually welled up in the eyes of this grown man.
The young man's silhouette was blurred in his pupils, his expression twisted and malicious, like a pale devil.
"If you knew, you wouldn't have gone to the casino yesterday to gamble away your last bit of money."
"Calling you scum is an insult to the word. Selling your wife and daughter to a moon shop just to get gambling funds... You're truly beyond saving."
"Let me go... let me go..." the man wailed.
"Let you go? Hahaha..." The young man laughed, pressing a gun to his own forehead. "Please, if I let you go, who's going to let me go?"
"I'm in a tough spot too. I'm just a debt collector, and a lot of people are watching me. Someone might send three fixers to finish me off tomorrow."
The young man smiled. "Wouldn't you agree?"
As another fingernail was torn off, the intense pain caused the man to lose his mind. His eyes bulged, and his heavy breathing sounded like a wild bull.
He let out a mad roar and stood up, actually breaking free from his restraints and charging toward the young man.
The chairs and other items in the room were knocked over in the chaos.
In the brief scuffle, the young man failed to dodge in time and was slammed against the wall. Judging by the muffled thud, the impact was severe. Just as the man's fist was about to land on the young man's face, several figures wearing animal masks stepped out. Moments later, they pulled the man away and pinned him to the ground.
"Lunatic! Xu Nian, you're a goddamn lunatic! You know how much evil you've done. Do you think you'll have a peaceful end? No one will let you off!"
The man shrieked on the ground until his strength failed. Then, a gunshot rang out, and his vision was gradually dyed crimson.
Everyone in the room was stunned. The young man merely shook his head in annoyance, as if he hadn't yet recovered from the collision. He looked listlessly at the others in the room and put away his gun.
"What are you all standing around for? While he's still fresh, check if there's anything else of value on him. Though, given this guy's habits, there probably isn't much. Just send him to the Fresh Meat Restaurant as a piglet."
"Oh, and you, stop recording. You're ruining my reputation."
At the end of the footage, the young man's hand reached toward the camera.
Long after the video ended, no one spoke.
The entire hall was silent.
Xu Xiaoyou was silent, too.
Rate on N.U.
