Chapter 111: These Workers Are Poisonous!
The umbrella company's base in the Taipingzhou District was, in reality, little more than a run-down factory building. Its large sign, printed in bold block letters, hung crookedly above a rusted-out door—more like a hollow declaration than a legitimate business name. The outside was flanked with half-collapsed garbage bags stacked like makeshift barricades. If the workers hadn't taken it upon themselves to clean the area up recently, the factory's entrance would still resemble a landfill.
Inside the office, Arthur sat at his desk, scratching his head so furiously it looked like he might draw blood. Though things had technically been going smoothly—smooth to the point it was suspicious—it didn't feel that way.
It felt like the calm right before a storm. The kind where Yorinobu Arasaka choked out his old man in a high-rise penthouse, only to start an all-out corporate war ten minutes later.
Arthur slammed a document down on the desk, his expression one of utter disbelief.
"Damn it! Why do we still have so much stock in the warehouse?! We're selling like crazy in Little Chinatown! I should be rolling in cash, not counting coins to buy more raw materials!"
He reached for the warm beer at his elbow and took a long swig. Across the room, Gloria, dressed in her usual sleek office attire, sighed and came over to stand behind him. She began massaging his shoulders, only to realize that his cybernetic body made it about as effective as squeezing a metal pipe. Frustrated, she gave him a sharp smack on the back of the head instead.
"Sell it slow," she said with a smirk. "It'll move eventually. What's the panic?"
Arthur groaned. "You don't get it. I built this business on a low-inventory model. Agile supply chain, just-in-time production. We were supposed to be lean and flexible!"
He gestured wildly to the pile of sales forecasts and spreadsheets scattered across the desk.
"This isn't a ship anymore—it's a goddamn barge! If demand shifts even a little, we'll sink under our own weight!"
Gloria raised an eyebrow. "You're really overthinking this. The numbers aren't adding up because your workers are insane."