Ben and Wilber

After entering the doors, we walked through another set of corridors. Kyle then suddenly stopped at one door and pointed to the nameplate on it.

"Washroom."

We continued down the corridor and stepped into a wide space with several vending machines at the corner. There were also tables and chairs to rest at.

"Canteen."

Not leaving us any time to look around the canteen, Kyle led us down another corridor and into another large area.

"Recreational area."

In this fashion, he introduced the necessity store, where we could buy objects from cooking apparatus to international ingredients, as well as the security room and the 'brainstorming room'. In that room, a bunch of researchers were gathered together, some speaking in serious tones but lower voices, and some shouting their arguments out loud, in the most passionate and aggressive 'conversation' I had ever seen.

As Kyle closed the door, the voices immediately faded.

"Don't mind them. There isn't much entertainment on this planet."

There was even a 'stress area', where there were several doors with descriptors on them.

Kyle opened the 'soft' room to show me an entirely padded room filled with soft toys, plushies and pillows. In contrast to that, the 'break' room was filled with smashed pieces of machinery.

"This is where all the broken equipment end up."

Skipping the other rooms, we then made one large round back to my room. Kyle then opened his personal terminal and sent me a map of the area.

"I wish you luck in your ...research."

With that slightly condescending sentence, Kyle then left us.

[That guy! What's his problem!]

Consoling Sazzy once more, I entered my room and headed over to the full body suit. Then after putting it on, I traced back our steps to head to the brainstorm room. If there was one place I would gain a lot of information, it would definitely be there.

Opening the door, I tried my best to be as inconspicuous as possible and sat at the corner while listening to the arguments being thrown around.

"Even though Jasmine milk has been used in so many products, it can never be a substitute for Fairy tears! In the first place! They come from two entirely separate cuisines! Just because there is a substitute in another cuisine doesn't mean it will act the exact same way in our already tried and tested product! It's just a waste of resources!"

"You would never know if you never try! Besides, hasn't a livestreamer from Jolt managed to mix two different ingredients from two different cuisines! If she can do that, why can't we substitute in Jasmine milk to ours! It would make our products cheaper!"

"Just because she can make something successful in small batches doesn't mean it's possible to scale it up! At most she is creating a novel dish! If you want to make it an industrial product there are more factors to consider other than costs!"

Hearing the argument of the two shouting researchers, I could feel myself shrink in the corner I was in.

Then I heard a noise next to me and saw a researcher sit down beside me.

"I haven't seen you around here, so I guess you might be a new intern or a new partner. My name is Wilber, nice to meet you."

He stretched out his hand, and to not draw too much attention, I reached out my hand as well. After we shook hands, Wilber sighed as he looked at the two arguing researchers.

"You have probably been briefed, but due to the increase in pollution, more funding has been cut to the research teams in order to clean the products. Tom over there, who has been arguing to replace fairy tears with Jasmine milk, is hoping that the profits from switching to a cheaper alternative would save his research funds from being cut too much. He has been exclaiming that his research was on the brink of success."

Wilber pointed to the researcher on the left, who was wildly waving his hands with a desperate look in his eyes.

"Ralph on the other hand disagrees because he believes it will be a waste of funds to try to change the ingredients. He also worries that this change will lower the quality of the products and decrease their sales. He's the product manager, by the way, so if anything happens to the product sales he's the one who is going to get an earful from the higher ups."

Wilber then points to himself, with an ear splitting grin on his face.

"As for me, I am the health officer here. My duties usually are to ensure nobody here goes insane, as well as to integrate newcomers into the company!"

Slinging an arm over my shoulder, Wilber pulled me closer to him and gave me a half hug.

"Welcome to the company!"

While he was introducing himself, the argument between Tom and Ralph had ended with a stalemate and the both of them took a couple seconds to cool down before they left the room linking arms.

Making a confused expression, I then heard Wilber laugh from beside me.

"Tom and Ralph are long time friends, and usually have conflicts like these in the brainstorming room. They then usually go to the canteen to eat after releasing all that stress. Loser treats the winner. But since they had a draw, I guess they will each buy their own food."

Just as Wilber finished his explanation, the brainstorming room's conversation increased in volume as more people started talking once the two loud researchers left.

Another researcher then walked over to where we were sitting.

"It sure was another entertaining show today! I almost wish they would do this everyday instead of every week or every two weeks. I also hoped Tom would win the argument so I can get my funds back."

The researcher stood in front of us, laughing at the 'show' that had just ended. He then noticed that I was sitting beside Wilber and stopped laughing.

"Oooh! I didn't know we had a newcomer recently! Welcome to the company! Everyone here's a little insane but don't worry, you'll soon fit right in!"

The researcher laughed at his joke? as Wilber pointed and introduced him to me.

"This is Ben. He's the company's joker and my assistant health officer. He may not look like it, but he graduated top in his class from some famous university."

Ben scoffed at Wilber's words.

"Some famous university? You also graduated from there. Not that it matters, since everyone here, even the security guards, have graduated from there."

Ribbing each other, the two then laughed out loud before they dragged me out from the brainstorm room and to the canteen.

The three of us then sat down on one of the chairs with food in front of us. I ordered a meal that the both of them assured was the best in the entire planet.

While eating, I searched for an opportunity to talk about the pudding creation process.

"Ah that? That's one of the most popular products created by our company. Let's see, if I'm not wrong, its recipe is usually some Jasmine milk added with eggs. Then while mixing the two of them evenly, we would slowly add some clam powder. When the mixture turns a nice and delicious looking white cloudy mixture, we then pour it into molds and expose it to a certain wavelength of light. The light would help the mixture turn into a half solid masterpiece that will bounce around on the tongue before melting."

Ben was practically drooling as he described the process of making pudding by hand. This gave Wilber an opportunity to stuff a spoonful of food into his throat, making Ben's face turn red and for him to start coughing.

"You're drooling. Anyway, that's the handmade recipe for pudding. In the company, most of the work is done by this big machine. The Jasmine milk and the eggs are poured and mixed in this large bin, which will then direct the mixture through a pipe where clam powder is gradually mixed in. They are then dropped into molds and are left in this light oven to solidify. We would love to show you the process, but that requires us to head over to the manufacturing division, and our two divisions don't really get along too well."

Wilber avoided Ben's spoon by ducking his head.

"Too much work politics and fighting over funding. It's better if you don't head over there either."

Watching the two of them fight like children, Sazzy sighed beside me and stole a 'taste' of my food.

[Is this the 'geniuses are all insane' phenomena that is heard everywhere.]

Diverting my eyes away from their fight, I scooped the food into my mouth and was delighted with how the meat melted on my mouth, and how the sauce perfectly fit with the herb-like taste of the meat. All this for a very cheap 5 UC.

I scooped the last spoon into my mouth and cleaned the plate. The moment I lifted my eyes, I could see the two rascals spotting identical smiles that stretched from ear to ear.

"It tastes good right!"

Nodding my head, to their pleasure, they then basically swallowed their food whole. We then went to insert the dirty bowls into a dishwasher that would wash all the dishes and then reload them back into the vending machines.

"Now that we've had lunch, I guess it's time to sell our souls for cash!"

Both of them exclaimed as we removed ourselves from the canteen.