Chapter 1: About the Thorn Bus (Youth Edition)
In early spring, the air still carries the chill of winter that has not yet completely faded.
The black-haired young man sat on a bench outside the convenience store, waiting for his companion. His pale face was covered with dark circles under his eyes, and he looked like a typical corporate slave whose energy had been drained by work.
The story begins with him being transported into the game. As a fervent fan of Project Lunar, he naturally went on to work on the sequel and the latest installment after completing their first game, Lobotomy Corporation.
Just as he was passionately leading the twelve criminals on the prison bus, eager to rush into the newly opened event called Valpurgis Night.
Not only did his computer screen go black, but he also lost consciousness without even realizing it. When he opened his eyes again, he saw Angela's face, the mascot of Lobotomy Corporation.
Angela is a self-proclaimed chief secretary.
In reality, it's Lobotomy Corporation's AI, responsible for guiding players through the story and betraying them when they achieve the true ending.
And so, the player inexplicably becomes X, the manager of Lobotomy Corporation. His daily work involves managing various monsters called "Abnormalities" in the underground facility and extracting a clean energy called "Endorphins" from them.
But as time went by, things gradually started to go wrong.
Well, there's another difference from the game: the Lobotomy Corporation he transmigrated to was unexpectedly not in the city, but somehow ended up in another world, a place completely different from the city.
The most outrageous thing is that, in order to replenish its energy, W Corporation, which possesses the famous Singularity technology known as Space Tear, successfully found Lobotomy Corporation, which was quietly staying underground in another world, through the Wrap train, which can travel between dimensions.
Unlike the game flow that he knew by heart, there was no time loop here, nor were there box spirit ministers driven to the brink of collapse by Angela's pressure. All he had was himself, driven to work non-stop by the city's depleted resources, trapped in an overtime hell.
Angela, as the chief secretary, stayed in the monitoring room with the dark-haired youth.
Watching him constantly mobilize his staff to work on the anomalies, or direct them to suppress the escaped individuals.
Looking at the increasingly dark bluish-black color under the young man's eyes, Angela felt this wouldn't do.
If this man keeps working overtime, he might just suddenly die on the spot.
After calculating the time, it had been about a month since then. It was time to stop and let him rest. So she forcibly dragged her poor old manager out for some fresh air.
The poor man who was dragged out stayed outside the store to breathe fresh air and wait for Angela to buy him a drink.
To be honest, he was also very curious about what Angela would buy for him.
A gust of cold wind blew by, adding the final straw to this overworked office worker.
X hunched his neck and buried his face in a thick scarf that some employee had donated; it was so cold.
He moved his slightly stiff neck from side to side, and as his gaze moved, X seemed to see something strange.
Wait a minute! Did I see something outrageous on the flower shop shelves?
On a shelf amidst a profusion of flowers, a strangely familiar creature was swaying slowly.
It was a large red flower that looked like the face of a stick figure that a child had casually drawn.
Now that flower is staring at me with its two bright black eyes, and beneath it grows an unusually thick vine that looks strangely familiar.
However, after the art style became more realistic, it became inexplicably a little disgusting.
X misses the cognitive filter he left at the company. Why didn't he bring it with him to save trouble? If he had the cognitive filter, this flower would have turned into an adorable cartoon style.
Instead of... Ugh.
It's you! The HE-class Abnormality, Thorn Bus, numbered O-02-98.
But why is it so big? Is it a youth version of the Thorn Bus?
And where did it come from?
Everything in the company now is based on my last save file, including the employees and the ego weapons and equipment extracted from the aliens. My save file didn't even include the Thorn Bus.
As if sensing the young man's gaze, one of the escaped anomalies began to sway from side to side, clearly becoming more excited.
Even the roots that were originally firmly planted in the soil were pulled out, revealing roots that were completely different from those of ordinary plants.
That wasn't an organ for absorbing nutrients, but rather a pale yellow bulb similar to a cactus.
Now, the flower that has completely detached from the pot is poking its little ball up, ready to come over on its own.
The young man blinked repeatedly and rubbed his eyes a few times to make sure he wasn't seeing things.
It really is you! Thorn Bus!
How did you shrink so much that you ended up being planted in a flowerpot?
Now, the youthful version of the thorny bus has squeezed out from the flower stands that the shopkeepers had filled to the brim with.
The small ball at the base even punctured and flattened an unfortunate succulent that was blocking its way.
They look very similar!
This succulent looks like a thorny bus that's causing an office worker's head to explode after being pricked by it during the bus's escape!
X slapped his face and exclaimed, "What am I thinking? That's not the point!"
The thorny bus moved surprisingly slowly, almost crawling compared to its position in the company, swaying and lurching.
X looked at the distance between the flower shop and himself and thought, "Yes, I'll make it in time."
The prison warden took out his terminal and pulled out a small, square object that shimmered with a faint blue light.
Ta-da! W Company's exclusive portable space transfer device!
The moment X pulled out the device, strange music, complete with voiceover, automatically started playing in his mind.
Brain, what's wrong with you?
Brain, stop playing useless stuff! Don't let Doraemon appear here!
X suppressed his inexplicable urge to champion W Company's latest product and decided to directly recruit employees from within the company to suppress it.
The portable space transfer device is a technological marvel created by W Company and T Company by combining their own singularity.
By utilizing W Company's space tearing technology and T Company's TT1 protocol time acceleration, the efficiency of the transfer can be maximized.
Its greatest use is to protect itself as a fragile supervisor.
Looking at that thorny bus, still stubbornly crawling forward in its direction.
X quickly tapped away on his portable terminal, finally deciding on the candidate.
"I've chosen you, Cabbage!"
After selecting an employee, X pressed the small square, and the device emitted a bright blue light.
He threw the small cube device at the spiked bus with the motion of throwing a sandbag, but his thoughts wandered off again.
Thorn Bus, getdaze!
Don't jump to conclusions! This is an alternate reality! It's not Pokémon!
At the point where the device landed, the air vibrated and rippled, and space began to fold and twist.
After a slight sound like tearing fabric, a narrow crack, two meters high, suddenly appeared above the device.
A slender hand emerged from the crack, gripped the edge of the crack, and pulled hard.
A handsome young man or woman emerged, carrying a large sword.
Despite having white bandages covering his eyes, Bai Cai moved with extraordinary speed, rushing towards the still-moving anomaly like an arrow released from a bow.
X watched as the cabbage almost instantly knocked down the thorny bus of an ordinary plant of that size.
The greatsword, named Justice Arbiter, pinned it firmly to the floor. It twitched incessantly beneath the sword but never returned to its containable egg state.
Lobotomy Corporation classifies aliens based on their energy production efficiency.
From lowest to highest: ZAYIN, TETH, HE, WAW, ALEPH.
Although they are classified according to their energy production efficiency, the higher the classification of anomalies, the greater the harm they cause to the outside world.
Um?
Strangely, this tiny thorny bus was unusually weak.
Although the HE-class Abnormality wasn't very strong, and we used WAW-class weapons to suppress it, it was still far too weak.
"manager."
The white-haired boy named Cabbage looked at X not far away and asked himself what to do next.
The young man standing at a distance stroked his chin, his golden eyes looking at the limp anomaly on the ground with a hint of confusion, and did not approach rashly.
Bai Cai pulled out the sword. The anomaly that had been convulsing just moments before remained motionless, as if it were dead, even after the weapon that had been removed from its restraints.
The problem is, the anomalies don't die. Something's not right. In short, something's very wrong.
First, the supervisor, who was on vacation, encountered an anomaly outside the facility that he didn't recognize. Could it be that it escaped from a lower department?
The short boy poked the thorny bus with the tip of his sword.
The anomaly did not erupt as he had expected; it remained sprawled on the ground, looking utterly dead, making him appear like a pervert destroying flowers and plants in the street.
"Cabbage, you watch over it for now, I'll go get a container."
What container should we use to hold it? We can't just get a plastic bag from a convenience store.
X noticed the flattened succulent on the flower stand not far away. "You're the one!"
Soft music played in the flower shop, where only one shop assistant, wearing an apron, was busy tending to the flowers and plants.
Hearing the crisp sound of the wind chimes hanging at the shop entrance, she looked up and saw a young man with a cold expression push open the shop door.
As a result, the young man, who looked like a company executive, asked with a troubled expression:
"I'd like to ask about this..."
The young man held up a flattened succulent.
"I accidentally tripped over the flower stand and flattened it."
Ah, this.
The shop assistant was speechless for a moment; she never dreamed that someone would trip over a flower stand.
However, out of professional ethics, she immediately showed concern for the poor passerby.
Are you alright?
After all, this person looks like he's about to die suddenly. Could it be that he stayed up all night revising the plan until dawn?
X looked at the kind-hearted shop assistant and felt a little guilty, as if her good intentions had been wasted.
Yes, I am a dog.
Let's continue what she said. The cabbage is still waiting outside. It will be difficult to deal with it if there are more pedestrians on the street later.
X silently held his breath, letting his face turn slightly red, looking like a young man showing shyness.
Soon, X said goodbye to the shop assistant who was overly empathetic.
Holding the succulent plant and its neighbor, I realized that it was a thorny bus growing inside.
Now the thorny bus has turned into a small pancake lying on the ground, and he has bought the empty basin.
The shop assistant was dumbfounded when she saw the empty pots that the young man had bought. She had clearly checked each pot when she was arranging the flowers, and there shouldn't have been any empty pots.
Did I really stay up too late and not think clearly?
Watching the young man leave with a flowerpot in each hand, she momentarily questioned the meaning of life.
The cabbage and the thorny bus were still locked in a stalemate, so X handed the original thorny bus flowerpot to the cabbage.
"Plant it."
X paused for a moment.
"Bury it deeper."
X patted the head of the employee who looked like a pretty young girl.
Holding the flattened succulent, I walked towards the convenience store along with the cabbage.
A note from the author:
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