Variables and the Singularity
With the security chief as the last, Owen's followers had all but vanished. Now, the only one left in the company following Owen was his lone secretary. As they ascended to the chairman's penthouse office, the mute sniper let out a whistle.
Kashi shook her head. "My father could give Owen a massive middle finger, but he can't reclaim the chairman's seat."
Of course, if the core personnel led by the security chief went berserk, the damage would be considerable. But considerable damage wasn't a decisive blow.
"They were planted in those white elephant types to begin with."
"White elephants?"
"You know, the ones too valuable to give away but too scary to use yourself."
"Ah, like a chicken-rib."
"Chicken-rib?"
"It's a Chinese idiom."
"Amon, you sure know your way around Japanese and Chinese culture, huh?"
Amon held up the katana he'd received from one of the chairman's aides. "Their cultural sphere excels at cold weapons, so it just kinda rubbed off naturally."
"Fair enough. Anyway, the virus-infected ones are a minority. Taking over the company with just that is impossible. Remember when we first infiltrated? We had to fight our way in."
The virus was lethal, but the company's forces were still largely intact. In contrast, the forces remaining by the chairman's side were just a handful of executives and one director. Most executives were non-combatants, so there weren't many reliable fighters. The former chairman lacked the physical might to seize the company.
"So have some confidence. I wouldn't have made it this far without you guys."
"It's also because you mustered the courage."
At Amon's words, Kashi playfully punched his shoulder, looking a bit embarrassed. As he'd said, it all came down to Kashi's resolve in the end.
This was why, in the future where Kashi and her friends were wiped out, the chairman hadn't activated the virus. Even if he wanted to help, once Kashi decided to flee, any aid would be meaningless. Even if the company fell into chaos from the virus, if Kashi ran, no one in the company would side with her or even stay neutral. In that state, the company would take a serious hit but still have enough strength left to annihilate Amon's party. In other words, the chairman's help would've been pointless.
So, bitterly, he'd chosen the path of family prosperity by siding with Owen. As a father, it was heartless, but as the family head and former chairman, it was a rational choice.
In other words, in this timeline, the chairman had chosen Kashi.
For one simple reason.
"Because giving up leaves no choices left."
At Kashi's words, her comrades nodded in their own ways. Having forged their bonds, they pressed onward up the floors.
Along the way, Kashi foresaw the battle with Owen.
"Owen's mine, along with Amon and Sonia."
The Owen she knew wasn't just some bookworm glued to a desk. As much as she hated to admit it, Owen's talents were the real deal.
"That guy's always been smarter than me, and his compatibility for procedures was way higher too."
In centuries past, strength came from tempering a single talented individual over decades. But in modern society, strength was measured by how many procedures you could undergo.
In that sense, Owen was born with a gift. He'd received far superior gene therapies and magic engravings than Kashi, with only minor allergies as side effects.
"Not security chief level, obviously, but he's gonna be seriously strong."
Future sight was powerful. Kashi, unarmed, had crushed armed assassins with it. Unless you were overwhelmingly faster or had superior firepower, someone who knew all patterns had the edge. Even if Owen's computer showed incomplete futures, it was undeniably potent.
"Think high school running back—that'll give you the idea."
Her comrades nodded at her words. That alone hinted at Owen's physical prowess. American football was a sport swarming with monsters who could flip armored cars on a whim or leap four meters in a single bound. The fact that he'd played there spoke volumes about his capabilities.
"His secretary's yours."
The water buffalo beastman Torso, mute sniper Bens, ogre Vox, and androgynous utility mage Hen all nodded. For reference, his secretary was also a high school classmate who'd played football.
"Status?"
Though they'd fought their way up from below, Amon's party was practically at full strength. Thanks to farming gear from the Shawnlie Group last time, Amon and his comrades' equipment had been massively upgraded. In raw power alone, they matched a top-tier corporate special forces unit; with experience factored in, they rivaled a megacorp security team.
Sweeping the guards below wasn't solely due to the former chairman's help. They had the skills for it too.
"Shield's good to go."
"Plenty of explosive compounds left."
"Saved a ton of mana on the lower floors."
Just like before entering a boss room in a dungeon, everyone reported in. Kashi naturally glanced at Amon and Sonia.
"I ain't dead yet."
"Ammo and divine power are good."
Satisfied with their responses, Kashi nodded.
"Let's go."
Owen was encountered sooner than expected. To reach the chairman's office, they had to exit the elevator, traverse the hallway, and cross a vast atrium. Owen had emerged from the chairman's office and was waiting in the atrium for Amon's party. His secretary stood beside him, while he sat in a chair at the center.
The moment he spotted Kashi, he muttered darkly with gloomy eyes.
"Even to the end, Father only loves you."
Owen lamented. He resented his father for planting the virus in the company for 20 years just for Kashi's sake.
But Kashi denied Owen's thinking.
"Father loved you to the very end."
As proof, the former chairman had given Owen countless chances. When Owen failed to awaken his precognitive powers, the chairman had slashed his own wrist to keep fueling him.
"No way! Please!"
Owen must've been so shocked that day he holed up in his room and missed it, but according to Kashi's memory, the chairman had been carted off with anemia that day. And it didn't end there.
"Even if you never awaken to precognition, you're still my son."
The chairman had said it sincerely to him right after the ritual. Owen claiming his father's love cooled immediately after was flat-out wrong. Afterward, the chairman kept trying to talk to his son, but Owen rejected every attempt. He fled like he couldn't even face conversation and went independent.
"You can't dump the blame on Father after deciding you didn't deserve his love."
"Shut up! What do you know?! That's just how you felt! Father knew I'd betray him and stopped loving me!"
"Isn't that weird? If he didn't love you, he could've sidelined you right then—why keep you around until that day?"
At her point, Owen's body flinched. For a split second, the memory flashed in his mind: strangling the chairman's throat. Even as his neck was crushed, that monster hadn't lost his composure. But those eyes, somewhere sad, had caressed Owen's cheek.
Owen shook his head to dispel the thought. If it was true... he'd be too pathetic.
"No. You don't know anything. You have no idea how Father treated me."
"I lived under the same roof as you once."
Their gazes clashed in the air. In the tense standoff, Kashi backed off first.
"Haa... What does the truth even matter now."
Perception was subjective. Had Owen rejected his father first, or had the chairman's love cooled first? Did the chairman hear of the betrayal in precog and stop loving him, or did his love fade and then the visions come? Did their mother go mad first and break Owen, or did Owen break first and drive her mad? In a family that saw the future, causality was utterly meaningless.
Owen gave a bitter smile too.
"Knowing the future doesn't give you the right to choose it."
Emotions toward an initial vision shaped feelings, and those feelings altered the future in turn. Precog was never a blessing.
But Kashi refuted him.
"No. The right to choose a future belongs to those who never give up."
Owen was rational. Too rational—he'd abandon anything with high failure odds. His computer reflected that personality, never even offering those futures as options. He couldn't choose them from the start.
But the former chairman and Kashi were different.
"Father said future sight should remain just a tool."
That's why the chairman, knowing unhappy futures, never gave up and kept acting. Keeping chicken-rib types like the security chief or managers around, giving chances despite foreseen betrayal—all attempts to change things. And that opened unique choices for him alone.
Kashi was the same.
"It's not the computer's problem—it's yours."
To Kashi, the choices Owen missed weren't due to computer incompetence; Owen always compromised under the banner of rationality.
"If the computer was really faulty... why have all your investments succeeded so far?"
Owen knew the answer. He was confident in investments. It was the talent his parents always praised.
Compared to clashing with Kashi now...
"No."
Owen gritted his teeth. But Kashi pressed on.
"You know it."
But Owen denied it.
"That I have an inferiority complex toward you? Ridiculous. I'm different from you. I've proven it all this time."
"Yeah. That's why I don't get it. You were smarter, had a better body. So why let future sight make you feel inferior to me?"
"That's why I don't have any inferiority complex!"
"Sure. Whatever you say."
Kashi sighed and gripped her spear tighter. The conversation was over. By any measure, Kashi had dominated the psychological warfare. Owen's eyebrow twitched as he drew his spear.
As the two drew weapons, their comrades and the secretary did the same. The secretary shed his overcoat, and his body began to swell. His upper body transformed into a massive wolf.
"Werewolf procedure, huh."
Torso muttered. His comrades naturally glanced at him.
"What."
"You didn't get something like that?"
"That's beastkin discrimination."
The tank, asserting he'd been a water buffalo since birth. Amon nodded—it wasn't a question he'd had high hopes for anyway.
The secretary's procedures didn't end at werewolf. His right arm, hidden under his suit, was fully mechanical, and tattoos across his body glowed purple, enveloping him in frost.
"Feels familiar."
Amon nodded at Sonia's murmur. It reminded him of the full-armored gorilla from their childhood encounter. The difference? The secretary retained his sanity.
Hen confirmed with Kashi.
"Just to be sure... the secretary and the virus?"
"He's only been with the company ten years."
"No good then."
Sighing, the party members assigned to the secretary lured him elsewhere. Seemingly what Owen wanted too, as individual fights split them up—the secretary obligingly followed.
As the secretary and party members started fighting a bit away, Owen activated his magic engravings.
"Body enhancement, hemostasis, breathing assist, dynamic vision boost, neural aid..."
"Basically super fast, super strong, and super tough. Right?"
"...And a few spells cast without incantation."
"That's a pain."
This was the true power of magic engravings: chantless casting of specific spells. Warriors used only body enhancements, but Owen seemed to have mage talent too.
A warrior's physique and a mage's mind.
Amon grumbled at the sight.
"Just live a normal life with that talent."
"My thoughts exactly."
Sonia agreed with Amon, and Kashi said incredulously,
"You guys are on that level too!?"
Amon didn't back down.
"Honestly, with future sight, you're in our league now."
Kashi didn't deny it. With that, the three charged at Owen.