Dead End: Hell of Customer Service

Chapter 7 - Termination of Speaking Right

The silence within the opulent room was more suffocating than the dust-choked air of the spiral staircase. The man behind the executive desk exhaled a cloud of cigar smoke that smelled of expensive vanilla—a sickening contradiction in the midst of a rotting world.

Mark Miller did not move. His hollow eyes were locked onto the man’s throat. In the periphery of his vision, a crimson system notification pulsed incessantly, demanding execution.

[System Order: EXECUTE TARGET NOW]

[Status: Priority SSS]

[Delay Penalty: Erasure of Self-Awareness in 60 seconds...]

"Mark, wait!" Sarah screamed from the doorway, her voice trembling. "He said that contract is a suicide note for humanity! We have to hear his explanation!"

The well-dressed man offered a thin smile, as if Sarah’s plea were nothing more than insignificant background noise. "The System is afraid, Mark. It fears I will tell you that you aren't saving the world. You are building a much larger prison for—"

WUT!

Without warning, Mark lunged. The effects of ‘Cold Machine’ mode made his body move with terrifying efficiency. He felt no burden from his shattered ribs; he saw only a target that required elimination.

"Mark, stop!" David tried to grab Mark’s sleeve, but with a single shrug of his shoulder, Mark threw David aside, sending him crashing into a mahogany bookshelf in the corner.

"Miller! Wake up!" David roared, clutching his stomach.

Mark was already at the massive desk. His hand, gripping the iron beam, was raised high. The man behind the desk did not flinch; he only met Mark’s gaze with a look of pity. "Have you become a slave to the algorithm so quickly, Mark Miller? You, who were the only hope to break this chain."

[System: "Target is attempting 'Social Engineering.' Do not listen. EXECUTE!"]

Mark slammed the iron beam toward the man’s head.

CRACK!

The wooden desk splintered in two, but the man had shifted a few inches with a fluid, graceful motion. "You’re quite fast for a low-level operator. But remember, Mark, I’m the one who wrote the policies you’re following now."

Mark did not reply. He pivoted, his fractured right leg sending a dull signal of pain—instantly suppressed by the system—as he launched a kick toward the man’s chest.

"Stop this, Mark! You’re killing our only hope!" Sarah ran forward, trying to wrap her arms around Mark’s back to restrain him. "You aren't a robot! You’re Mark Miller! You’re the one who saved us in the pantry!"

"Sarah, let go," Mark finally spoke. His voice was flat, toneless, like an automated recording. "Interference with the task will result in collective sanctions. Move away if you wish to remain alive."

"I don't care about sanctions!" Sarah sobbed, her fingers clawing at Mark’s tattered shirt. "Look at yourself! You’ve lost everything!"

The refined man stood, straightening his tie. "Listen to her, Mark. Your blind loyalty to the system is the reason Earth is being liquidated. The Auditor, the System, the Administrators... they are all part of the same board of directors. And you... you’re just the janitor they’ve labeled a 'Hero'."

[System: "Warning: 30 seconds remaining. Commencing consciousness erasure if target is still breathing."]

A searing heat suddenly exploded at the base of Mark’s skull. The system began burning his nerves as a final warning. Mark let out a low groan, his eyes turning bloodshot as the capillaries burst.

"Move... Sarah," Mark hissed. He drove an elbow hard into Sarah’s midsection, sending her sprawling to the floor, coughing.

Mark charged again, this time at maximum velocity. His iron beam whistled through the air, cutting through the cigar smoke. The man tried to parry with his bare hands, but Mark’s system-augmented strength was too immense.

SNAP!

The man’s arm broke, yet he did not scream. He only looked at Mark with a sorrowful smile. "The contract... Mark... read the fine print beneath your signature..."

Mark seized the man’s throat with his left hand, fingers still mangled. He hoisted the man upward until his feet dangled off the ground.

"Task... complete," Mark said coldly.

"Mark, no!" David screamed from across the room.

With one brutal motion, Mark drove the jagged end of the iron beam directly into the man’s heart. Warm blood sprayed across Mark’s face, a stark contrast to his ice-cold heart.

[Target Eliminated.]

[Loyalty Bonus: +500 Points.]

[Consciousness Erasure Aborted. Congratulations, Senior Operator Miller.]

Mark released his grip. The man’s body slumped to the floor, leaning against the wreckage of the desk. The luxurious room slowly began to fade, dissolving back into the ruined, dusty office—an illusion finally dispelled.

Sarah knelt on the floor, staring at Mark with pure horror. "You... you actually killed him. Without a second thought."

Mark stood motionless in the center of the room. The ‘Cold Machine’ effect gradually receded, and the overwhelming agony returned, hitting him ten-fold. He fell to his knees, vomiting black blood onto the carpet, which had now reverted to cold, old concrete.

"System..." Mark wheezed, his voice human once more, laced with suffering. "Show me... the contract. The fine print... at the bottom."

[System: "Access Denied. Your authority level is insufficient."]

Mark laughed bitterly between fits of bloody coughing. He stared at his hands, crimson with the blood of the man he had just murdered. David approached cautiously, his face a mask of doubt and fear.

"Mark... what have you done?"

Mark didn't answer. He watched the man’s corpse, which was beginning to dissolve into shards of digital light. In the dying glow, Mark spotted a small scrap of the contract left behind—an anomaly the system couldn't erase.

Mark crawled toward it, reaching for the paper with trembling fingers. He read it, and his heart nearly stopped. At the very bottom, written in ink visible only to eyes stained by the blood of monsters, it read:

“All points collected by the Operator serve as capital to construct the 'Gateway' for the entities who will harvest the remaining population.”

Mark jolted. He wasn't saving up for freedom. He was collecting points to fund an even greater apocalypse for those left alive outside.

Suddenly, the sound of applause echoed from the darkness of the stairwell. The Auditor reappeared, but this time his form was more solid, nearly resembling a man encased in black steel.

"Magnificent, Miller," The Auditor’s voice was now crystal clear, devoid of static. "Quarterly target met. And the capital for the 'Gateway' has reached 80%. You are the finest employee we have ever had."

Mark glared at The Auditor with overflowing rage. "You... you used me to kill them all?"

"Used is such a harsh word, Mark," The Auditor replied, stepping closer. "We prefer to call it... corporate synergy."

Suddenly, the floor beneath them began to shake violently. Outside the office window, Mark saw the sky split open, revealing a colossal gate beginning to unseal—a gate funded by every drop of blood Mark had spilled.

[System: "New Mission: Welcome the Board of Directors. Location: Rooftop. Time: 10 Minutes."]

"Mark," Sarah whispered, pointing toward the sky. "What is that?"

Mark crushed the contract in his hand until it was nothing but dust. He stood with the last of his strength, staring at the gate in the sky with eyes full of vengeance.

"That," Mark said in a terrifying, raspy voice, "is the target that’s going to make me forcibly resign."

Will Mark press on to the rooftop to welcome the devastation, or will he find a way to tear up his contract before the gateway swings wide?"