Chapter 2

Half an hour later.

I came back from the restroom to find my leather ergonomic chair gone.

In its place was a cheap, wobbly plastic stool with a cracked leg.

My three large high-refresh monitors had also been hauled away.

The only thing left on my desk was a dusty, refurbished laptop from a decade ago.

The young developers in the department looked at each other in silence.

The entire room was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

Toby, a chubby programmer who was my closest friend at the office, shuffled over.

"Marcus, Kyle ordered them to cut off all your tech access."

"He even kicked you out of the core developer WhatsApp group."

"Don't let pride ruin you. Just go apologize and play nice."

I patted Toby on the shoulder, signaling him to go back to work.

Apologize?

The corporate world is a concrete jungle where only the strong survive.

Whoever holds the keys to the core tech is the real boss.

Kyle strutted over, Chloe clinging to his arm.

"Marcus, starting today, you're transferred to the Archival Data Entry department."

"We have a hundred boxes of paper files from ten years ago rotting in the basement."

"I want them all manually typed into the system within three days."

Three days? A hundred massive boxes of files?

He was literally trying to work me to death.

Toby broke into a cold sweat. He couldn't help but speak up.

"Mr. Vance, that's over a hundred thousand pages of data!"

"Even with OCR scanning software, it would take at least two weeks!"

Kyle whipped his head around and glared at Toby.

"Shut up! Did anyone ask for your opinion?"

"This is a special assignment for senior employees. AI recognition makes too many mistakes; it has to be manual."

"If you don't finish, it's a breach of contract, and you won't get a single dime of severance!"

The entire office went dead silent.

Everyone could see exactly what this was.

Textbook constructive dismissal and corporate bullying.

I pulled the broken plastic stool over and sat down calmly.

"Are you sure you want me down in the basement typing files, Mr. Vance?"

"Who's going to handle the daily maintenance of the main servers?"

Kyle scoffed.

"Oh, you mean clicking a mouse and running basic diagnostics?"

"I can get an intern to do that."

"Stop trying to make yourself sound irreplaceable."

I nodded and opened the ancient laptop.

"Fine. Since it's an assignment from leadership, I'll cooperate."

"But let me make one thing clear."

"If the main servers crash, it has nothing to do with me."

Kyle snorted.

"You really think the world revolves around you, don't you?"

"This company runs perfectly fine without you. Now get your ass down to the basement!"

I stood up and walked toward the elevator without looking back.