Chapter 2: Are You Happy?
"Impossible... I must have heard it wrong. There’s no way the company is shutting down just after I got promoted. I haven’t even enjoyed the benefits of becoming No. 1 yet!"
The man ignored the little girl, who seemed to have lost her mind and sat down on the wooden bench.
As he took his seat, smoke began to ooze from his body, and the sound of mechanical gears turning echoed faintly.
His towering frame—once two and a half meters tall—gradually shrank, reducing by nearly seventy centimeters until he was just 1.7 meters in height.
The scars across his body became even more visible, and his previously waist-length hair now appeared longer due to his shortened stature, almost reaching down to his toes.
The real No. 1 grabbed the collar of the little girl and dragged her toward the man.
However, the girl didn’t resist and continued to mumble to herself, still fixated on the idea that she no longer had a job.
No. 1 stopped in front of the man, her faintly glowing eyes showing hesitation, as if she wanted to say something but didn’t know how to express it.
The man didn’t look at either No. 1 or No. 4, keeping his gaze fixed on the cloudy night sky in the distance, as if waiting for someone.
After a few minutes of silence, No. 1 finally took a step forward and retrieved an envelope from her pocket, extending it toward him.
The man looked at the envelope in her hand for a few seconds before taking it.
"What is this?" He asked in a calm voice.