Page 323 of Light Leech

“I dunno, du–”

A trio consisting of two men fronted by a woman in tasteless business attire pushed past me to surround the man.

He flipped them off and winked at me.

The woman spoke with an intense positivity and a smile from cheek to cheek. “Corporate would like to thank you for your cooperation with an employee appreciation gift!”

One of the men removed a black jewelry-sized box from his suitcoat and placed it on the man’s abdomen.

He sat up. “Is this the severance package?”

The woman giggled. “No, silly, we at corporate value every employee and—“

“Then why are you wasting my time with this guk?”

“We understand your concern and want to know that you are heard–”

“Cut the guk.” He opened the box and held up a small trinket with the word Correction on the end of a chain. “What is this, a keychain? Who makes these anymore?””We have also sent out an appreciation email to you for everything you have done to help this company progress.”

“What’s my name?”

“Dear employee, we have–”

He stared at me. “I used to work in sales for a Pharma company and dealt with HR guk like this all the time.”

He tossed the keychain up to the woman, who smiled as it dropped at her feet. “Thank you for the employee appreciation–birthday–Christmas–charity–reward–festival gift, but you can piss the zeg off.”

One of the men retrieved the keychain and touched it to the back of the man’s skull where his neurospace port would have been. He vanished in an instant.

She waved at me before pivoting towards the next lonesome competitor. “Thank you for your contribution!”

Her companions followed with dead faces, as if they were fading from the simulation.

I left my rest, feeling an unsettling ache that only dissipated as I focused on something besides the man and the corporate reps.

Ralia was easy to locate. She spoke louder than everyone and led her group as they surrounded smaller groups like a hungry amoeba.

I raised my hand out to catch her attention but dropped it as she waved at me without ceasing her conversation.

I stepped back from the crowd and placed my hands on my head as I scanned them. To the right, my horde continued their labor with minimal growth. To the left, the unsuccessful loners ran from the corporate reps who continued to collect them. I turned back to Ralia.

The office went silent and my vision blurred into a smeared cascade of lights that removed the illusion around us. We returned to the endless hallway within the neurocore but were not yet prompted forward.

I spotted Ralia not far ahead of me. Her followers had since disappeared, along with the crowds that surrounded the other competitors. I searched for my converts wondering if I could even identify them outside of the office setting.

No luck.

Everyone else appeared as confused as I was, like children looking for their parents after wandering off in the heart of a city center.

I was never great at estimating the size of a crowd, but after a quick count, I supposed the remaining people fit the thirty six who would be admitted to the next round.

“We made it,” I said to Ralia.

“Kind of obvious, isn’t it?” She grinned. “Doubted yourself again?”

I shrugged. “Kind of hard not to when put up against scholars.”

She shook her head. “None of these shacs get it, you plug? They’re a bunch of Violet and Indigo nepos whose life experiences consist of memorizing useless information. You have had more experience than any of these pompous pricks in the last few years of your life than they’ve had in their entire lives. The race and the debate war we just had to prove how worthless their degrees are. You know how much I paid for my education? Time, that’s it. Time they wasted earning money for another pompous shac to teach them information you can get on your own. All information is free, you just have to know where to look and whom to ask. Look who you’re talking to right now. That should be enough evidence for you that you’re smarter than everyone else here.”