“Slap—slap—slap!”
A thick stack of A4 papers, dozens of pages deep and stamped with glaring red seals, was hurled viciously onto the cold metal interrogation table by a fat, greasy hand!
The harsh rustling of paper scraping against the table echoed through the small, sealed room like a death knell from the Grim Reaper.
“Saiten Aina! You’d better explain yourself right now. What the hell is this?!”
The Internal Audit Department supervisor sitting across from her had a face full of sagging flesh that quivered violently with rage.
She jabbed a finger at the pile of documents, practically spraying spittle onto Aina’s deathly pale face.
“Do you have any idea that because of your reckless, rule-breaking operations, this quarter’s books now show a hole of a full 130 million yen in bad debt?!”
“Buzz—!”
Aina Saiten’s mind went completely blank in an instant, her eardrums ringing.
One… 130 million yen?!
Are you kidding me?!
She stared wide-eyed, her bloodshot eyes straining as she shook her head frantically, her voice trembling violently.
“No… impossible! Supervisor, this absolutely cannot be! I’m just a new hire who started recently. I don’t have the authority to move that kind of cross-border capital! This is a setup! Someone must have tampered with my system backend!”
“A setup?”
The audit supervisor sneered coldly, looking at her like she was already dead, then slammed a printed monitoring log with an IP address and digital signature in front of her face!
“Look closely! Every single fund transfer key was completed using your employee ID and dynamic password! Even the final electronic review signature is yours! The evidence is conclusive now, and you still dare to deny it here?!”
“!”
Every hair on Aina Saiten’s body stood on end in an instant.
She stared fixedly at that flawlessly forged log.
In this hierarchical conglomerate, the fact that someone could fabricate the books so perfectly and pin every piece of evidence seamlessly onto her meant—
The other party possessed the [Highest Authority] to freely rewrite the underlying logic of Quansheng Group’s entire internal network!
Who…?
Who the hell is trying to destroy me?!
Aina’s brain went into overdrive.
The security level of Quansheng Group’s financial intranet was top-tier in all of Japan.
An ordinary department executive, or even a subsidiary company president, could never bypass that many firewalls to directly forge an electronic signature with my personal dynamic password at the system’s core!
Only those who completely ignored the group’s rules—or rather, those for whom the rules themselves were written—the [privileged class], could do something like this.
But why would the high-and-mighty conglomerate upper echelon go to such painstaking lengths to erase someone like me, a low-level employee who just started?
I’ve never touched any core company secrets, and I haven’t blocked anyone’s profit path!
Wait…
A name struck Aina Saiten’s chaotic mind like lightning—
[Rika Kawasaki]
Other than that crazy woman with the conglomerate heiress identity, who else could wield such terrifying, sky-covering power?!
She finally made her move against me!
She’s using this method to erase me completely from society, to ruin my reputation, and force Kazune to obediently crawl back into her bed like a groveling dog!
“No… I don’t want to go to prison…” Aina Saiten covered her face in despair.
“Prison? Hah. Embezzlement of 130 million yen isn’t just ‘prison.’ Get ready to spend ten years behind bars, Saiten Aina!”
The supervisor coldly issued the final ultimatum and picked up the internal phone on the desk.
“I’m notifying the Legal Department right now to hand the materials over to the Metropolitan Police’s Economic Crime Division…”
At that critical moment, when Aina Saiten was nearly about to bite her own tongue off!
“Ring ring ring—!”
The red secure hotline on the audit supervisor’s desk suddenly erupted with a piercing shriek!
Startled, the supervisor answered with some irritation.
“Hello? This is Internal Audit… Wh-what?! R-really, ma’am? But the evidence is already…”
Whatever was said on the other end of the line, the supervisor’s once-arrogant fat face turned an ugly shade of greenish-purple within seconds!
Cold sweat poured down his forehead.
“Yes! Yes! I understand! I’ll do exactly as you instruct!”
Click. The call ended.
The entire interrogation room fell into a suffocating silence for a full thirty seconds.
“…”
The supervisor frantically wiped the cold sweat from his forehead with a handkerchief, his gaze at Aina Saiten shifting from the earlier contempt to a complex expression.
“You got lucky, Saiten.”
The supervisor gritted his teeth, as if suppressing some deep fear.
“Head office just called. Someone… using extremely high-level authority, forcibly suppressed this bad debt and erased all the accountability procedures.”
“Huh…?” Aina Saiten looked up blankly, her brain’s CPU completely fried.
“The company won’t press charges, and the Metropolitan Police will drop the case.”
The supervisor pulled a resignation agreement from his drawer and slammed it hard in front of Aina Saiten.
“But! You’re fired, effective immediately! From this second on, get the hell out of Quansheng Group! And your file will be permanently marked with a never-hire stain. You’ll be completely blacklisted across the entire industry in Japan! Now sign this immediately, then get the hell out!”
…
Five in the evening, the setting sun was like blood.
Tokyo’s streets were crowded and bustling.
Aina Saiten clutched a small paper box containing only a few personal belongings, walking dazedly through the noisy intersection like a zombie.
Fired…
My future, my career, my very foundation for standing in this industry…
All gone.
In this cruel world, being handed an “industry blacklist” by a conglomerate was equivalent to being pronounced socially dead.
But strangely, Aina Saiten felt no anger at that moment.
Instead, a bone-chilling dread of having narrowly escaped death surged through her.
Terrifying…
Rika Kawasaki, that crazy woman’s methods, are absolutely terrifying.
In Aina Saiten’s view, the logic formed a perfect closed loop.
First, she engineered a horrific case that could put her in prison for ten years, driving her to the edge of despair.
Then, at the very last moment, she withdrew the charges like an act of charity, merely firing her and blacklisting her.
This was never about showing mercy!
Aina Saiten bit her lip hard, terror filling her eyes.
This is that woman showing me her godlike, irresistible power!
She’s warning me—whenever she wants, she can crush me like a bug!
She deliberately left me alive just to watch me lose everything like a stray dog, and ultimately watch Kazune sacrifice himself to her to save me!
“Dream on…”
A hoarse, resolute growl escaped Aina Saiten’s throat.
“Even if I have to work part-time at a convenience store for the rest of my life, or pick trash off the streets… I will absolutely, absolutely never hand Kazune over to a twisted demon like you!”
She suddenly looked up at the Tokyo Tower in the distance, already swallowed by the night.
Run!
I have to run!
As long as we stay in this steel jungle ruled by Quansheng Group, she and Kazune would be devoured down to the bone sooner or later!
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