Little Desdy Station was a normal looking station, at least it wasn’t much worse than the other stations of the city. Charlotte lifted her right hand to cover her eyes from the light of the sun as she came out of the station and turned her attention to the people walking on the street. The major part of them wore raged and dirty clothes, with just a few of them with clean or proper ones. Her attention moved to the first building she saw at the other side of the road, the major part of its windows were broken and its walls had big cracks all around, fissures to be specific. Her brows knitted slowly as she looked to the other buildings on the street, which were as bad or even in a worse state than the first she saw.

She started to walk after a momentary pause, Olimpia was already a couple steps away. Charlotte felt the urge to ask about the place but decided not to do so. Olimpia told her to remain in silence while they were out in the street before they came out of the station. She hastened her feet to be on par with Olimpia when she felt steps approaching from behind. Turning back her head, she was startled as the one following them was the man who had previously gone to retrieve her gun from that crazy lady. He had bandages on his forehead and neck. Before she had the time to open her mouth, the man brought his right index to his mouth and motioned for her to continue walking with his head.

As the trio walked down the unpaved street full with holes, people in drags constantly approached them and asked their help. When they got a clear sight of Olimpia’s face, however, the major part of them turned around and disappeared in another direction, which left Charlotte with a bitter taste in her mouth.

More than half an hour went by as they walked in that ruined part of the city. As the buildings started to become scarce, they arrived to a sole building which didn’t have anything else for at least fifty meters around it. It stood alone with a height of more than ten meters and was in the same state as every other building she had seen until now. Olimpia walked through a door which was only there for appearance’s sake. Its metallic handle was brown with oxide and numerous holes decorated it. It creaked loudly when Olimpia pushed the frame with a handkerchief between it and her hand.

Charlotte walked in with shrugged shoulders, followed by the other man who closed shut the creaking door. She saw Olimpia going further in to the other end of the dusty room, where a bearded man in tattered clothes lied next to another door. The homeless man dragged his poor self away from the door to the corner of the room once Olimpia was in front of him, without panic or anxiousness in his expression, as if that was his duty. Charlotte turned her eyes away from the man and saw how Olimpia took a step towards the door and waited in front of it for a moment.

“Good morning, Lady Olimpia.” An emotionless and deep voice sent a shiver down Charlotte’s spine and made her head involuntarily turn to the man, who looked back at her with vacant and lightless eyes.

Olimpia pushed the door open and walked through it, Charlotte went through the room after a moment, following Olimpia’s path as she turned her head constantly to the man. Before she went through the door, she stopped and bowed to the man a little bit and took a step to the other room in a hurry.

The homeless man opened his mouth and showed two yellowish black teeth.

“Don’t bother with him, he’s a beggar and made this place his turf. He’s been here longer than I have.” Olimpia shook her head with a frown and a contorted face. “I wonder why they don’t throw him away, he’s a nuisance.”

Charlotte entered the room before hearing those words, Olimpia was already at the other end of the room, resting her back on the wall beside another door. She kept her eyes on Charlotte with the same expression until the suited man walked past the door Charlotte just crossed, closing it in the process.

Charlotte looked around the room she found herself in. It was clean, without dust or damage on its white walls, floor, or black ceiling. They looked like normal tiles but after she crouched and touched the ones under her, she felt the coldness of rugged metal. A central light shone on the windowless room, making it look like an interrogative room she had seen in movies.

“Wonderful, isn’t it?”

“Huh? What?” Charlotte looked at Olimpia as she stood back on her feet, before the room started to tremble. “O-oh?! W-what’s happening?!”

“Calm down, we’ll arrive in a moment.”

Charlotte looked between Olimpia and the man accompanying them, the two of them remained with a relaxed expression, making her face turn red.

An elevator, huh. That sure surprised me…

After the tremors slowly came to an end, Olimpia faced the door as it opened outwards without her touching anything. She walked out of the room with Charlotte behind her who was looking around the elevator, the man followed behind her in silence. They came out to a stone-like corridor, big enough for two of them to walk comfortably side by side, which she couldn’t help but compare it to a dungeon in a game. Lights of the same kind as in the last room illuminated the corridor every ten or so meters. A square white panel around twenty centimeters big and nothing else awaited them at the end of the long corridor.

Olimpia extended her right arm and let her palm touch the device. Soon after that, the wall to the her right started to slowly move without making any sound. She went in once it stopped moving, followed by the man.

Why so much security…

Charlotte felt the stony wall before going in. She arrived to a big room full of white screens, people sat in front of some of them while wearing big headsets which covered their heads completely. There were more than ten tables, on which were at least three of those screens with at least a meter between them. Two or three doors communicating to other areas were on each of the walls except for the one she just came from. The walls had a metallic dark grey color which made Charlotte feel more in prison than in a work office and the room remained in a silence that made it feel wrong to interrupt it.

"This is one of the principal workstations of the Luxuria group, the main focus of the people around here is to sort out the information and look for business in which we can participate. This office is mainly in charge of the southern part of the city, but we can also help other offices if the need arises. You can do the programming test here or at my place, whichever is more convenient for you." She heard Olimpia as they walked through the room to one of the doors.

"Business? Like what?" Charlotte tilted her head as her feet continued to move.

"There're a lot. We work mainly with the pleasure industry. If someone is willing to pay enough, we satisfy their fetishes, no matter what kind." Olimpia brought a hand to her mouth as she chuckled.

"Pleasure... Hookers?"

"Dear, that's just the simplest of them all. But yes, that’s the gist of it.” She knocked a door in the middle of the wall twice and waited. Taking the door from which the entered, they were at the right part of the square room.

"The easiest… People sure has it rough, huh.” Charlotte lowered her eyes it the floor before she heard Olimpia chuckled once again.

“There’s no need to think about it. Just know that there’re a lot of people out thereand we work for everyone who’s willing to pay us. You’ll get to know more about it once you fully start working with us.”

“Okay?” Charlotte looked at Olimpia as she tilted her head with her hand under her chin and realized the soft smile she had on her lips.

“Who’s it?” A tired voice came from the other side of the door.

“It’s me, Alphonse. Open it.” Olimpia answered with strength on her voice, the smile gone from her face.

“Oh! Lady Olimpia! Come in, come in!” Sounds of things being moved came from inside the room.

*Click!

Olimpia pulled open the door and walked in, followed by Charlotte who looked back for a moment. Where’s he? After she went through the door, it closed sharply on itself, making her shoulders jump once again.

“You don’t have to be so nervous.” Olimpia spoke calmly but without the softness she had before.

“I, am not used to this kind of place, sorry.”

“Oho? Is he the boy?”

“Yes, allow me to introduce him to you. He’s Hiro, a new recruit who I have high hopes for.” She turned to Charlotte and extended her right arm to Alphonse. “He’s Alphonse, a weapon specialist working for us. He’s in charge of almost all mechanical stuff in this place, from weapons to devices which don’t require a deep knowledge on programming. You might get the chance to work with him in the future.”

“A pleasure to meet you!” Alphonse jumped from his seat at the end of the room and walked to them as he rubbed his oily hands on his greasy grey coat. He stood in front of Charlotte and extended his right hand.

Her eyes twitched as she saw the dark grey hand in front of her. “A pleasure.” Her body tilted forwards and ignored the hand.

“Anyway! I already finished inspecting it! You can take it whenever you want!” He retracted his hand as he shrugged and showed them an open smile, displaying a row of yellow teeth which clearly lacked care.

Charlotte opened her eyes wide for a moment before trying to keep a normal face. “Is, was there anything wrong with it?”

“Nope! Nothing at all, the gun is perfectly fine. I can see you cared for it, right? I searched for anything wrong with it and also if it had something additional to its functions. Nothing! There was nothing wrong with it! Ah! I bothered to add a counter for the number of bullets in it, so you don’t have to check the cartridge to know how many there are! Yes, that’s it!”

He flung to his right once he finished his words, almost skipping as he walked. He arrived to a shelf full of metallic boxes and started to rummage through it. After some time, he took away one of the boxes, opened it and brought out the gun Charlotte was familiar with. He walked back to the duo with the same gait. He held the gun between both hands and extended them to Charlotte.

“Here it is! If you need ammo just tell me! I can give you however amount you want to play with it!”

His behavior was something Charlotte was having difficulties to deal with and she so much wanted to tell him so. She just grabbed the gun, avoiding his hands completely and ignored the rest, and walked away from him.

“Did you find where it originated from?” Olimpia asked as Charlotte turned the gun around and fiddled with its mechanisms.

“Of course! It came from Gercia, as I told you it most likely was. The manufacturer is someone which charges quite a bit but his work is recognized as one of the best in that continent. Of course, I’m better than him! So I can improve whatever he does! Now!” He looked at Charlotte and jumped to her, pointing to the left side of the gun. “Look, at the side of the handle, there’s a new circle that wasn’t there before, you see? If it’s completely red it means it’s fully charged, if it’s fully grey then there’re no bullets inside! You can keep count of them in an easy way like that!”

“Y-yeah, thanks.” Her nose twitched as a strong smell scent of oil and sweat came out of him, she backed away.

“Alright, we’ll be going now. I’ll show her around and maybe she’ll come here soon.”

“Okay! I’ll be waiting for you!”

The two of them went out of the room and sighed as soon as the door was closed. They looked at each other and chuckled.

“He’s really weird.” Charlotte started.

“Yeah, but he’s a nice guy. If only he wasn’t that dirty with himself, he’d be much easier to be with… Put that gun away before an accident happens.”

“O-oh, yes. Uh, can you gimme something to clean it off? I feel it’s too dirty.”

“Come.”

Olimpia then showed Charlotte where a place that looked like a kitchen was, where she cleaned the gun of all the oil it had and then holstered it on her back under her pants. They then went out of it and Charlotte was shown some of the facilities of the office. A shooting room to practice in. A place where people could rest and had the possibility to spend the night in. And finally, a place for the augmented people would go to make adjustments to their bodies.

“There’re other areas, but well, you’re not allowed in them, at least for now.”

“I understand.” Charlotte nodded and kept her eyes locked on the surgery table in the middle of the room.

Seven people, them included were in the room. Three of them were waiting for their turn to be checked, two men and a woman, sat on single chairs beside the entry door. In the middle of the room was a doctor working on an unconscious man lying.

Charlotte stared intently and took notice of the doctor’s work as she softly talked with Olimpia, asking her various things about the place and what the doctor was doing. After spending some time in the room, Olimpia urged her to go out of the room.

“I’m sorry, something came up right now, so I’d need to go somewhere you can’t go to right now. I suggest you go back first, but you can wait for me. Whichever you prefer.”

Charlotte looked at the floor for a few seconds before muttering. “I can go back…? Hmm but I also don’t want this to be a wasted visit, so… Uhm, can I work on that programming thing?” She raised her head to look at Olimpia.

“Oh! That’s a wonderful idea. Let me contact someone who will make the arrangements.” Olimpia walked to one of the screens that didn’t have anyone working on and typed on it for some time.

Meanwhile, Charlotte waited next to the door from which they just came out and studied the place.

Really, it looks so depressing, no one is speaking and most of them look dead, if not for their breathing and occasional movements I’d believe they were just dolls.

“Alright, someone will be coming after some minutes, just show him the card for the program and he’ll help you.”

“Thanks!” Charlotte nodded before each other said their farewells.

She waited for some minutes before a man with big glasses which covered half his face approached her.

“Are you the Hiro that Olimpia talked about?”

Charlotte tried to look through the glasses to see the man’s face but they reflected things perfectly. A mirror for glasses?She tilted her face.

“Ahem.”

“A-ah! Yes, it’s me. Sorry.”

“Hmph.”

The mirror for glasses man extended his hand to Charlotte. She looked at the hand and back at the man, she saw his brows knitting together and had the thought of smoke coming out from his ears. The card! She searched in her pockets for the cards and took out the three of them, she then read each one as fast as she could and handed the man the corresponding one. He snatched it from her hand and looked at it for a moment before throwing it back to her.

“Hey!”

“Come.” He went to one empty table with three screens, sat down in front of the one in the middle and started typing on it. “You just need to do it here. You know how to use the Helm, right?”

“Helm? That thing?” Charlotte pointed to the headset beside the screen that everybody was using.

“You don’t? Damn, what is that girl thinking. Just because she’s favored by the boss, she thinks she can appoint anyone at any moment.” He muttered between his teeth.

“I can hear you, you know?” Charlotte’s brows creased as her normal voice went down a pitch.

“I do.” He looked back at her with a smirk. “You just need to do that, however you can, one day’s all you have. Figure out how. All the necessary stuff is in there.”

He stood from the seat and walked to another seat.

“I’ll be here for half an hour to answer all your questions, however meaningless they are. But after that you’re on your own.” He sat to her right and started typing things on it without putting on the Helm.

Hmph! How rude! No wonder everyone is so dull in here, with someone like him in charge no one will be on the mood to say anything!

She sat in front of the screen and tried to open one of the necessary programs but nothing happened. She then went around all the windows which were already open and programs to no avail, everything was the same, not answering to anything she tried. After some minutes trying to figure out how to make things start, she swallowed her pride and turned to the devil himself.

“Hey, it’s not working.”

“…”

“Hey, mister, uhm, supervisor? It’s not working at all.” She poked on the man with overly huge glasses a couple times before he turned his head her way.

“What? You gave up already?”

“No. It’s just, nothing is working.”

“It seems… What did you do?!” The man stood from his seat and went to her screen, and typed some things on the keyboard. “… You didn’t put on the Helm, at all, right?”

“Huh? Of course, I don’t know how to use it, so there’s no meaning in using it...” Charlotte’s voice lowered to a whisper as she felt the man hitting her with his eyes under the mirror.

“That’s, why. Noobs can’t do anything right. Put it on and start anew… No, try to make this mess something bearable. There’re twenty minutes left still. If you can’t do it, I’ll make you fail even if you somehow succeed.”

He stood again from the seat and waited for her to take place, watching over her actions. I’ve not felt this way since I was in school… Sigh, I’m so stupid. She sat down meekly and put on the Helm.

“This is horrible...” She muttered as she saw countless windows, files and programs open in the screen just inside her vision. She started to close everything with the keyboard and after some minutes, she felt despair. There were too many!

“You can change windows with your eyes, and somehow with your thoughts, but it’s still in a developing stage so it’s unsteady. Move your eyes and change your focus depending on what you see. You’ll get used to it eventually.”

The voice she heard was similar to the man next to her, but it had a different sound, softer and calmer than before. She didn’t know where it came from, even if she knew he was to her left, the sound came from every direction inside the Helm.

She froze.

“This can read my mind?!” She didn’t hear her voice even though she knew that she just shouted loudly, she could feel the vibrations through her body, but no sound whatsoever. “This… Can isolate sound.”

“Yes! That’s why you don’t hear anyone talking aloud!”

She turned her head to the side without thinking and a new window popped up, showing her surroundings on the screen. The man stood next to her, looking at her, or at least in her general direction. He looked the same as before, still and boring, without moving at all.

“… So, this can somehow read my mind?”

“Obviously, it can’t! It just responds based on your expression. Yes, there’re some which can read the thoughts of people, but you need a device implanted in your body to transmit the signals. I have one, that girl has it, too.”

That girl...? Olimpia? Oh, I guess he means the one on her back.

“Is there anything else?”

“No, I believe that’d be all. If anything comes up, I’ll ask you away.”

“Alright. Remember, you still have around fifteen minutes remaining.”

“No problem, I’m almost done with all this stuff.”

So that’s why it said to create a new control window, and I thought they wanted to make a new operating system from scratch… If it’s only to make a new screen with all the functionalities, I guess I have everything I need in these apps… Yeah, that’s it. A new, kinder interactive HUD, it is.

“Hmm~ Ah!” Charlotte exhaled after she stretched her hands towards the ceiling.

I finally managed to get all that stuff together. It was so messy, how long have I been here again? Surprisingly, the Helm didn’t have a clock option. She took the Helm off and cracked her head to the sides.

“Huh? What time’s it?” She stood from her seat and looked around, seeing only three people of the lot that was in the room before, which left her with a blank face.

No one replied. The room was in an extremely still atmosphere. Nothing moved, only the sound of fans could be heard. The workers didn’t even need to hit the keys on the keyboards when they had their helmets on, which made things even more eerie for Charlotte.

*Gulp

*Blop

She even heard how the saliva she just swallowed hit the bottom of her stomach, which she normally didn’t realize it was there. She took a step back involuntarily, hitting the chair with the back of her knees and sitting without much of a choice.

“This feels like I’m in a horror movie.”

Her voice traveled back throughout the room and sent shivers down her spine. She extended her hand to the Helm in an attempt to escape. Just before she grabbed it, she saw it. She saw her arm, at where the burn scar was. She snickered, brought her hand back to her chest and closed her eyes.

In the quiet yet peaceful, colorless world, she felt at ease. She stayed there without doing anything for a while.

“Hey, Prism.” She said after a window popped out in front of her without her saying anything. It read, ‘Hello’. “How long’ve I been in this place?”

After a moment, White Prism answered with her typical window, she explained that since the last time they talked, it’s had been 42592 seconds.

“Huh? Uhm, it’s almost 12 hours? Hmm, I worked there for more than eight hours?!” Her mind suddenly felt the tiredness of the day. “Really… So that’s why I felt so stiff… That Helm is really scary.”

After more time organizing her thoughts, she left the colorless space and stood from the excessively comfortable chair. She looked at it as well as at the Helm and walked to the kitchen room.

There was no one in the room, either. After sighing to herself, she looked through it and only found a sandwich in a plastic bag and coffee in a small coffee machine. Charlotte took the sandwich without hesitation and after bringing her hands together in prayer, she took it out of its bag and bite on a corner of it.