Read the Contract Before You Sign

What if a few clicks of a mouse could wipe an entire world off the map?

Somebody would welcome that as tremendous power. Most ordinary people, though, would find a force like that terrifying—a burden they wanted nothing to do with.

I'm one of them.

And a nobody from the arts, a designer of all people!

…So how did it come to this?

A world on fire spreads out before my eyes. I let out a low groan as I look at it. I did this. I close my eyes and reach back for the point where everything went to shit.

I'm an unemployed bum with thirty staring me in the face. That's right—a pathetic half-employed loser who still can't earn his own keep at this age. I graduated from art school and spent years lurching in anxiety between underpaid subcontractors and contract jobs with no future in them. After I quit, the spring of my twenty-ninth year found me barely keeping food in my mouth on the occasional freelance gig an acquaintance happened to toss my way.

At this rate, I'm finished….

With the crisis of turning thirty closing in, I tore through JobKorea like I was hunting lice, searching for a real job. Somewhere in the middle of that, I found a strange ad banner I never would have noticed on an ordinary day.

Never heard of them.

I clicked the banner, and a job posting from the company homepage came up.

Alongside a blurb introducing them as a foreign design agency, the page showed a perfectly respectable set of company facilities.

Oh. They've got some scale to them.

The agency portfolio even included an idol album from a major entertainment company, and that went a long way toward earning my trust. I used this one as a reference. The design on it came out really well. Figuring a foreign firm wouldn't pay badly, I licked my lips and, feeling light about the whole thing, sent off the documents and portfolio I already had prepared.

…If I'd had any slack in my head back then, I might have noticed that JobKorea didn't have a single review.

Word that I'd passed the document screening, along with the interview instructions, arrived before long.

"This should be about the spot…."

Dead center of downtown Seoul. I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠followed the company location from the email and found nothing between the buildings but a narrow vacant lot. Just as I was wondering whether I'd misread the address, my phone buzzed.

Bzzzt—

"?"

A long message from a number I didn't recognize. Written out at length were directions from the spot where I was standing to the company building. A flicker of doubt—how did they know where I was?—passed through me, but I didn't dwell on it.

They probably saw me wandering around from some building nearby. Whatever.

I followed the winding instructions, and just as a faint wrongness began to creep in—

"Oh…."

The respectable headquarters I'd seen on the company site appeared, and the knot in my chest loosened. Through the revolving door I found a lobby of reasonable size, and an access gate where employees badged in.

"How does an interviewee get in…?"

Wasn't it normal for a place like this to have someone at a counter? There was no one to ask. I was fiddling with my phone, wondering whether I ought to call the number that had texted me, when a card reader beeped and I looked up.

A woman with a neatly tied ponytail was badging through and coming out of the gate.

"…!"

She looked a little startled to see me, then soon put on a gentle smile and spoke.

"What brings you here?"

"I have an interview today. Would you happen to know how to get in through the gate?"

…This time, she definitely flinched.

A troubled look crossed her face for a moment, but she soon returned to a kind expression.

"Ah… I see. Anyone who isn't an employee can get a visitor pass from this kiosk."

She even walked me through the kiosk without being asked, and thanks to her I ended up with a visitor pass on a lanyard.

"Thank you for your help. I hope I get the job, and that we get to work together."

I was a little moved at the thought that someone this kind might be a colleague. Telling myself I had a good feeling about this company, I was about to step hopefully toward the gate when—

"Just a moment!"

The woman with the ponytail pressed her business card into my hand.

"Actually, today's my last day. Um… if anything comes up that you're unsure about, please feel free to contact me."

……

Hope turned to omen in an instant. A quitter, the moment I showed up for an interview—and she pitied me enough to look after a complete stranger she had no connection to.

If someone on their way out goes this far for a total stranger… this is a black company, isn't it?

The nightmare rose up of being ground down for a mouse-tail paycheck at a subcontractor that didn't even pay overtime, and my mouth went bitter.

…I haven't even gotten the job yet. I'll worry later. I just have to make up my mind before I sign anything.

The interview was right in front of me. For now, I had to focus. I settled my thoughts, stepped through the gate, and traded a small bow with the security guard at the information desk.

I froze.

……Wait.

A moment ago, hadn't there been no one there?

"……."

Hmm. Maybe they'd stepped out to the restroom.

……Right. That had to be it.

Ding—

I took the elevator up to the interview location I'd been given and found myself in front of the CEO's office.

The interview is in the CEO's office? Not a conference room, with the people who actually do the work?

Once again the place reeked of a shitty comp— no. Pretty words. Kind words. The scent of a black company drifted sweetly down the hall.

Perhaps this entire floor had been allocated to the CEO. The corridor was lined with all sorts of ornaments that looked like private property.

The CEO isn't a designer, then? These aren't so much refined as classical.

Marble statues, an antique silver dagger, even relics that looked Korean. Handsome, but not a modern eye. Doing my best to ignore the bad feeling, I knocked.

"Yes, come in—!"

I opened the door on a low, cheerful male voice.

"…!"

A classic handsome man was sitting there, like an actor out of a twentieth-century black-and-white film, and the sight startled me.

A foreigner? No—mixed, maybe…?

A fine face whose age and race were strangely hard to place, and an old-fashioned black suit. Somehow, he matched the ornaments in the corridor.

"You must be tired, coming all this way, Leehyun! I saw your portfolio and couldn't wait to meet you. Ah, I'm Blaire—please, just call me Blaire!"

Between the teeth of that refreshing smile, a snaggletooth showed.

……No. At that size, wasn't it a fang?

"Honestly, interview is just a word for it—I'd like to hire you on the spot. How long has it been since we had a human applicant! Humans have quick hands, and they're delicate."

…Human?

……

Something about the way he spoke was off. The strangeness I had been forcing myself to ignore since earlier was just beginning, little by little, to lift its head.

Knock, knock.

There was a knock. Then the door opened, and someone who looked like a secretary appeared, carrying drinks.

Except the secretary had no head.

Only a body in a butler's uniform, politely offering me a regular iced Americano with a straw stuck in it…….

……

I'm going to lose it. Cold sweat. I open my fists and close them. My feet are shaking.

"Oh, you can do everything from brand design to UX! And ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠your planning is excellent, too."

Ask me something. Please, just ask me something. Grill me until it's obvious I don't belong at this company. I'll let you tear me apart. I won't even complain!!!

"Let's see… the brand design team is short-staffed these days. I'll place you there for now!"

With a hand gone damp from cold sweat, I pinched my thigh. Survival instinct cooled my head a notch. Right. This life-form in front of me was talking with a certain amount of common sense. It even seemed friendly toward humans.

Then maybe.

……If I refused like a normal person, they might actually listen.

"Sir, I'm sorry, but there's something I need to say."

"Yes? You don't like the team?"

"It's not that… I just don't think I'm the right person for this company."

"Whaaat—?! Where else are you going to find special talent like you, Leehyun!"

"But…."

"The projects we run here are quite decent. There are a few humans on staff, so daily life won't be inconvenient. The species-tailored benefits are pretty excellent, too!"

The CEO's clingy torrent poured out for more than thirty minutes. I coaxed him, soothed him, and made my refusal unmistakable.

"Ah— such a shame. It's been a while since I found a candidate I liked this much! If you change your mind later, contact us anytime."

Whew. Done.

I let out a sigh of relief, bowed politely, and scurried out of the CEO's office.

Tadatadatada—

This is insane. This can't be real!

I tore down the corridor toward the elevator. I wanted out of this place, even one second sooner.

And then—

Crash!

……

A white torso hit the floor and shattered. I could see every fragment break apart, one by one, like slow motion. It was almost as if—

……it had caught on my bag strap and fallen.

"……."

At the noise, the door of the CEO's office burst open. I could only stand there, blank.

"Oh dear, are you hurt anywhere? Hmm, it's a bit of a shame, but the statue's broken. It's all right—Michelangelo picked it up dirt ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠cheap at a drinking party, back when he was a nobody."

"I will have to bill you, though. It's booked as a company asset!"

……What?

Mi… Michelangelo?

At that staggering claim, the jobless bum swallowed. I could feel cold sweat beading on my forehead.

"Let's see… I'll appraise it as low as I possibly can. Converted to won, about 390 million KRW?"

……

The world in front of my eyes goes distant…….

He really did seem to have knocked the price down, but where was I supposed to get money like that? I'd already wrung myself out to the soul borrowing for the deposit on my one-room. A jobless person like me was never going to produce that kind of sum in the first place….

Seeing my face go pale, the CEO seemed to grasp the situation, and he added another thought.

"Hmm. If you need to, you could sell something of value that you already have, Leehyun. The human body is treated as a rarity in certain worlds. A kidney, say, or one eyeball—things you can live without."

The tone was regretful, as if he were trying to solve this for me somehow. The content only made it worse.

"If damaging your body frightens you… ah, humans are very popular these days. Pet humans—oops, companion human adoption is the trend, so you could be placed for a set period! I happened to be interested myself!"

…He swapped "pet" for "companion," as if he cared about human rights. It was still language that scraped human rights off the floor.

"……."

I was so stunned I couldn't even work my mouth, and my face went whiter still. Looking at me like that, the CEO grinned, as if he were about to make a confidential proposal.

"The methods I mentioned might not fit human cultural standards. In that case, how about we try another way?"

"…What would that be?"

"How about joining our company? You do good work, Leehyun, and you earn us extra compensation equal to the damage you've caused."

Every time a project ended, he explained, the client evaluated it, and if the score was good, ancillary fees came in to the company. He wanted me working as an employee and pulling top-tier evaluations.

"I won't be stingy with the salary, either! Wages are paid in another world's currency, so converted to won it'll come out quite high. Around eighty million."

…It was an absurdly generous offer. Higher than the starting pay my high school classmate had bragged about, after three years of studying for a CPA license and landing a job at an accounting firm.

Seeing the light in my eyes as I wavered, the CEO snapped his fingers. A sheet of paper appeared in the empty air and drifted there. What he had produced was an employment contract of about a year—its terms demanding that, since time was money too, I bring in additional compensation totaling 390 million KRW before the year was out.

……And stapled to it were conditions that could kill a man.

"Haha, but there's always a what-if, isn't there? Let's put a contingency in place for when the client evaluations don't go well. Leehyun, you're right-handed, aren't you?"

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

"There's not much of the first quarter left, so let's keep it simple. You'll need time to settle into the company, after all!"