Getting Approval from Otherworld Clients - Chapter 21

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 21.
Love—what even is that?
Oil up the joints,
will you?
My blissful state of having nothing to do didn’t last long.
“Everyone, did you rest well? We’ve got a new project coming in.”
“Ugh, I could use more rest, honestly.”
“…Get to the conference room.”
For once, I actually agreed with Seo Gwan-yul—I wanted more sleep!
But what choice did I have? I was just another wage earner.
So I shuffled obediently toward the conference room.
“Ha ha, but you should’ve seen what we ordered for dinner last night~.”
While the team lead set up the laptop, Seo Gwan-yul’s junior colleague chattered on without pause.
“Yeah, that sounds tasty.”
Kind-hearted Hena answered a few times before fading into an automated response bot with no soul left.
…Somehow, the team lead looked even more exhausted than before Wolf came back.
Poor team lead, juggling an MZ-generation team member—hang in there.
Pascal cut off the bleached-blonde chatter and switched on the projector.
“Let’s start with the design brief.”

Related to the creation of an Anomalous Function
Branding for a new invention
– Output :
A) Main – Logo, slogan
B) Variation – Digital banner, digital billboard poster
– Direction :
Active proposal solicitation from the agency
‘Anomalous Function…?’
This brief was shrouded in mystery. What kind of product was it, anyway?
Hm, I’m weak with science and engineering. The sudden onslaught of technical terminology made me nervous.
“Next, let’s look at the global research findings.”
– A society fixated on efficiency. Automated processes are highly developed.
– Entertainment and arts industries are virtually nonexistent.
Wait—if there’s no entertainment or arts industry, what do people do in their free time?
I’ve become the kind of person who can’t live without Netflix and short-form videos!
‘Maybe design survives because it has practical value.’
Right—design belongs more to the capitalist realm of sales than to hobbies and leisure.
The same product looks different in performance depending on its design.
“The client meeting is in an hour. …Go rest a bit.”
Whether or not Seo Gwan-yul’s words struck a chord, the team lead officially granted us break time.
Everyone’s got a soft heart underneath, which is why this kid’s gotten so spoiled!
‘Lying down really is the best.’
One hour of rest, granted to me.
I decided to head to the Nap Room and sprawl out for a bit.
Partly to escape the chattering Seo Gwan-yul. …Actually, thinking about it now, I feel a little bad. I should listen to what he has to say later.
‘I can’t fall asleep again.’
After the project wrapped, I’d been so wound down that I’d slept a solid twelve hours straight. I practically hibernated.
‘Maybe I should just continue watching that series from before.’
So I dimmed my phone’s brightness, plugged in my earbuds, and quietly watched Netflix, thinking.
‘What strange beings are waiting for me this time around?’
But I wasn’t worried anymore.
Ha ha, humans are creatures of adaptation, after all!
Touring an exhibition with all sorts of aliens on a spacecraft turned out to be great training.
I’m confident now that no matter what bizarre life form I encounter, it won’t faze me!
Rustle—
As the hour was almost up and I was about to head back, I realized someone else was in the dimly lit Nap Room. I heard the sound of someone stirring.
‘If I bump into a coworker right after waking up, it’ll be awkward. I’ll wait a bit longer before leaving.’
So there was someone else using the Nap Room at this odd hour besides me.
Creak—
A figure quietly opened the door and left, backlit by the fluorescent glow from outside.
‘Oh, that person….’
The silhouette was quite familiar.
……silver hair, my direct supervisor, after all!
…There he was! My boss with his usually neat hair now disheveled like a crow’s nest, just waking from a nap!
‘So there’s a human side to him… or rather, a werewolf side.’
Now that I thought about it, Pascal always looked busy, whether there was a project or not. No wonder his dark circles never faded.
‘Maybe managerial positions come with extra duties.’
Then again, he’d mentioned assigning personal evaluation scores, so there would naturally be additional work managing the team members.
‘So team leaders really aren’t made lightly.’
A promotion to managerial rank? No, absolutely not. Design work is where the real fun is.
A position packed with nothing but responsibility and paperwork? Too much of a burden—I’d rather decline. …Not that they’d offer it anyway!
I made sure to wait before heading back to my seat.
Pascal, who’d arrived first, looked impeccably composed, as if he’d never left.
“Did you rest well? Let’s head to the client meeting.”
I wanted to joke about whether he’d slept well too, but a superior is always difficult to approach.
I’m not Seo Gwan-yul, and I don’t have the nerve to joke around with a werewolf.
So I walked in silence toward the door where darkness swirled.
.
.
.
When I opened my eyes, an unfamiliar conference room came into view.
The acrid smell of oil and metal greeted me first.
Then came the sound—
[Hello, everyone from Banta Design Agency. Pleased to meet you.]
‘A mechanical voice?’
A cold, uniform tone flowing through a speaker. When I turned my gaze toward its source—
[Thank you for taking the trouble to visit. Please have a seat here.]
A steel frame structure resembling human skeletal anatomy.
Upon it, cables and pistons twisted together into a grotesque form.
Every time the lens-like camera eyes moved as if blinking their shutter, there came a creaking sound.
“…….”
…It was a robot straight out of the uncanny valley!
What if, what if… its code malfunctioned and it suddenly went haywire? What if it were some Terminator-like thing that wanted humanity’s end? What if it had hidden machine-gun arms?
I wasn’t careful enough!
Until now I’d only seen tentacle monsters, bull creatures, and aliens—I hadn’t anticipated this.
…This was a different kind of fear!
“Wow~ another new one this time….”
Seo Gwan-yul, whose eyes met mine, chuckled midway through his sentence.
Why wasn’t he even flinching? Must be because he’d chased aliens and seen all sorts of strange things.
So what, what! Is he making fun of me?!
‘You know those realistic character costumes at Disney Land? They all have robots like this inside them, right?’
Seo Gwan-yul suddenly said something random in a quiet voice. …Yeah, I think I’ve seen something like that in short-form videos before.
But how could anyone think of Disney Land after seeing something this grotesque? He was remarkably optimistic.
……Thanks to him, I felt slightly better.
‘I’ve got the experience of clearing a haunted house alone at an amusement park back in high school. This feels a bit unfair.’
During a field trip in high school, I’d made a bet with my classmates and won.
Thanks to that, I’d gotten expensive amusement park meals with all sorts of premium add-ons for free.
But they don’t know about my glorious past, do they? This is different, though.
‘My actual life could be at stake here!’
Think about it—an ordinary person suddenly in another world seeing all sorts of bizarre things. Isn’t this a normal reaction?
I mean, those web novel protagonists who fall into another world and suddenly become calm, composed overpowered characters are the unrealistic ones!
The Client, glancing at me like that, spoke.
[It appears that organic beings show a preference for forms with an exterior shell.]
He connected the tip of his finger to a port embedded in the desk.
Beep-beep-beep—
A light connection sound rang out, as if exchanging some electrical signal.
Then mechanical arms like those found in car factories appeared.
Clang-clang, moving rapidly, they assembled a metal shell onto the robot.
[A shell exterior does prevent dust accumulation, which is efficient. However, the difficulty in immediately confirming component status is inefficient.]
Once assembly was complete, it had become a far more familiar-looking humanoid robot.
…I’m still a little afraid he might pull out a machine gun due to a program error.
[The meeting has been delayed two minutes and forty-five seconds because I put on the exterior shell.]
So you really do prioritize efficiency.
But I was the one who asked you to wear the shell—why are you making me feel guilty about it!
“Thank you for your consideration. Now, let me move on to the work at hand.”
Pascal settled into his seat and began.
“Looking at just the design brief, the new invention seems to be something that doesn’t exist in our world, so it was a bit difficult to understand. Could you explain this part in more detail?”
The Client tilted its robot head curiously as it spoke.
[That’s surprising. I thought it would be a concept more familiar to organic beings.]
[We’re calling this the ‘Heart’ project and have been working on it for that reason.]
The Client reached into a port again and projected a hologram.
Visual materials appeared, structured to explain the project with ease.
…the resolution is no joke.
[Our species creates new robots within predetermined designs. Everything from population numbers to software is standardized in the most efficient manner possible.]
Identical robots unfolded across the hologram in a row.
[Because we program them for maximum performance, all individual units ended up with identical software. This means the security vulnerabilities are the same too.]
One robot figure enlarged, and its internal circuitry appeared symbolically.
All the other robots showed the same circuit configuration.
[As a result, a virus has been spreading at an accelerating rate lately. We considered creating various programs to prevent it.]
[But that approach would reduce the performance of certain units, making it inefficient.]
The image showed a virus spreading among the robots.
The virus probably wasn’t an actual biological one, but to help us organic beings understand, it took the shape of a sphere with spikes protruding from it.
[So we’ve decided to randomly grant each individual unit symbolic characteristics. This is the ‘Heart’ project our government is conducting.]
Now the hologram showed hearts being implanted into the robots.
The implanted hearts grew larger, surrounding the robots like a protective shield, deflecting the invading virus.
‘But if it’s a government initiative, couldn’t they just install it on all robots at once?’
I didn’t understand why they’d bother commissioning branding work for it.
I asked, puzzled.
“Why wouldn’t the government just update the software across all units at once?”
[Yes, that’s an excellent point. Each unit’s software assesses gains and losses for itself based on survival efficiency.]
[Therefore, they judged that installing this inefficient Anomalous Function would be pointless and refused.]
[So branding and this process of persuasion and understanding are necessary.]
Ah, I see.
Quite a profound scientific world.
‘I’ve handled plenty of unusual projects since coming to this agency, but this feels like the most distinctive one yet.’
It’s my first time branding such an abstract concept.
But what could be different about it? I’d just do some impressive Logo Design like always, right?
…or so I thought.
But the project kept rolling toward an outcome I never saw coming!

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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