*groan* "Urgh... It feels weird, having a good night's sleep for once... And it's all because my previous day was completely uneventful..." Soren commented awkwardly, as he stared at his phone, as its clock displayed 6:00 AM and thought back to the rest of the previous day, which passed by rather uneventfully. Most of his day, after getting his ID, was spent exploring the various available floors and although most of the floors were as he expected, he certainly wasn't expecting to floor B3 to have a massive gym, aside from the recreation rooms, which was a pleasant surprise, since he would need to exercise to keep his body healthy, especially now that he'd be diving into the game for hours and hours on end.

Since he had woken up, he decided to clean and dress himself up, as well as giving a small update to his friends about his situation. After going towards the floor B1, where he'd grab something for himself to eat and trying out some of their coffee, then chose to spend a bit of time exercising and attempting to socialize with a few employees, until the clock turned towards 8:30 AM. Since the time for his first shift was nearing upon him, Soren swiftly made his way towards floor B8.

'I don't think I'll be able to get used to such a view...' Soren commented inwardly, as he was staring at the rows of beds through the window, like he was staring at a human experimentation facility, before shaking his head to remove those negative thoughts and making his way towards his post. Unfortunately, he had no idea where his work post was, since he had no idea of Dr.Vale's appearance, so he made way towards the end of the hallway, where a few doors were wide open and many people with white coats, were currently conversing with each other.

"Um... Excuse me, may I ask where Dr.Vale is currently?" Soren asked calmly, as he entered one of the rooms and a few of them turned their attention towards him.

"Sorry, I don't know where she might be. Do you any of you guys know where she is?" One of the men answered in a slightly awkward manner, as he turned towards the others and one of the other men answered. "I don't know either pal, but you can ask one of the chiefs on duty. I believe Chief Joseph should be available right now. He should be at the office to the left of us."

"Thank you very much sir." Soren bowed appreciatively, as he made his way towards Chief Joseph's office. Just as he was about to knock on his door, it opened itself automatically, as a black-haired man typing on his computer appeared in front of him.

"Um... Excuse me, Chief Joseph?"

"Hold on, give me a minute." Joseph requested from Soren, as he kept his eyes glued to the screen and started typing fervorously on his computer, while Soren occasionally checked on the time.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

"Alright. How may I help you?" Joseph asked, as he finished typing and turned his attention towards Soren.

"Um... I'm looking for Dr.Vale, since I'm starting my first shift with her in a few minutes." Soren explained calmly, as he showed his new company ID.

"Hmm... Soren Pascianno. Give me a moment." After checking the ID, Joseph started going through the records and before long, found what Soren needed. "You'll find Dr.Vale at the AT-Connector-227, just by going past the big door behind you. By the way, the AT-Connectors are the beds you've probably seen from the elevators, just in case you didn't know. It's pretty normal for newcomers to not know the names of those beds."

"Oh... Um... Thank you Chief Joseph." Soren bowed respectfully, before leaving the Chief Joseph's office and going through the big doors behind him, entering the big room with dozens of bed rows, where hundreds of people were currently working. Seeing the huge room, Soren couldn't help but feel overwhelmed for a few seconds, before regaining his senses and starting to search for his own post. Through a quick examination of a few nearby beds, Soren discovered that a row of AT-Connectors contained sixty of them, so through that, he quickly found the AT-Connector-227, but no one was currently there. Seeing as he still had a few minutes until nine, he spent the rest of his time browsing through the internet, until the sounds of multiple footsteps echoed in front of him.

"So, you're the new whippersnapper who joined the company? Hm... Pale skin... You could use a bit more time under the sun, kid." An elderly female voice asked, as Soren turned his head towards the source of the voice and saw an old woman, squinting her eyes through her glasses, as she suddenly grabbed Soren's head and started examining it.

"Um... Are you Dr.Vale miss?" Soren asked awkwardly, as he could feel his neck was slowly starting to hurt from the continuous checking from the white-haired old woman with the white coat.

"The one and only... I'd suggest some sunbathing in the afternoons kid." Dr.Vale stated, as she let go of Soren's head and adjusted her glasses, before continuing. "Anyways, aside from me, you'll be working with a couple others as well. Why don't you introduce yourself to Nicky and Nora?"

At that moment, Soren his head away from Dr.Vale and towards the two individuals standing next to her, a red-haired man with brown eyes, dressed in casual clothing, and a familiar brown-haired woman.

"Oh, Nora! Hey, what a coincidence." Soren greeted both cheerfully and slightly awkwardly, as Nora smugly grabbed by the head and started giving him a rough noogie and started yelling out at him. "What a coincidence, my ass. Do you realize how surprised I was when I heard I'd be working with you again!? It's been already few days when I was moved away from your post and now back at you once more. Seriously, are you stalking me or something?"

"I-I-I OWWW! STOP! PLEASE! PLEASE!" Soren desperately cried out, as he tried to free himself from Nora's crushing hold, before the red-haired man spoke next. "Nora, could you please stop? You'll be giving him brain damage before the game even has a chance to do so."

"Urgh... Fine. *thud* I'll have time later to make him spill his beans." Nora relented, as she let go of Soren, causing him to fall to the ground, while rubbing his head with a pained expression.

"Name's Nicolas Nakano. Don't mind Nora too much, she only gets violent like this when she's either annoyed or concerned." Nicolas introduced himself, as he extended his hand to life Soren off the ground.

"Urgh... Nice to meet you... and thanks..." Soren thanked him, as he grabbed his hand and pulled himself off the ground.

"Do you have something else to say Nick?" Nora stated coldly, as she starting cracking her hands.

"No, no! Nothing of the sort..." Nicolas stated awkwardly while slowly walking away, as Soren turned his attention towards Dr.Vale and asked. "Um... Is this normal...?"

"Only when she works with males... If anything, she could use a bit of femininity. Maybe then she'd be out of everyone's hair." Dr.Vale stated tiredly with a shake of her head, while adjusting her glasses.