Ed leant back with a relieved sigh as the screen faded to black. He hadn’t thought wrongly about Jeffrey. He had survived and would live to see another day. It was a close call, but Ed was glad that Jeffrey made it through in the end.

I wonder what Buddie is going to do now? Will he still reward me? He was curious about how Buddie would handle this situation, but it wasn’t the only thing on his mind. He was mostly just grateful that he had managed to succeed after trying for so long. And it was great that it was for someone who wasn’t too bad of a person either.

He wasn’t sure how he would have felt if his first successful redemption was for a cold-blooded killer. Speaking of killers. He turned his attention to Zara’s monitor to see what was happening.

As usual, they had decided to watch them together, so Buddie had shown Ed’s first. Now it was time for Zara’s and he was curious to see how it would go. Hopefully we can both succeed this time.

~

Unfortunately, it didn’t take long for him to realise that that wouldn’t be happening. Zara had shown no mercy to the serial killer she had been given. While Ed could see that there was a slight chance for him to escape, it was very unlikely.

It took all of about ten minutes for the man to die. How unfortunate.

“Congratulations to the both of you for completing your work for the day. Zara, you are now free to spend the rest of your day however you want, and you have been sent ten credits for the completion of your trap,” Buddie said.

“What about Ed?” Zara asked, hoping Buddie would reward him well for his efforts. As much as she would have enjoyed seeing someone die in Ed’s video, she was genuinely happy for him in that he succeeded.

“Ed, due to your recent accomplishments, you will be rewarded. Normally, the reward would involve waking up your bloodline, like what happened with Zara. But, since you have already done that, I believe it is suitable to give you a special reward,” Buddie said.

Oh great. Ed felt that this special reward wouldn’t be anything good. It might have been because of how Buddie stressed ‘recent accomplishments’, but Ed felt like it would secretly just be another punishment for him.

“Because of our recent expansion plans, we require people with experience in the relevant job to help out with the recruitment process. We have chosen you to be one of the representatives for your department.”

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“What would I have to do?” Ed asked.

“I will give you the full details when you begin working. For now, head to your private working room,” Buddie ordered.

“Alright,” Ed sighed. He got out of his chair and turned to face Zara. “Looks like I might be getting back late, don’t wait up for me.”

Zara hugged him and gave him a kiss on the cheek “Good luck. You’ve got this.” She cheered him on as they walked each other to the door. Zara waved goodbye and stepped through the door first, heading back to her apartment.

Ed opened the door and found himself back inside his dingy work room, surrounded by bare walls with only a computer and a chair. “Now can you tell me what I have to do?”

“Of course.” Buddie seemed to be enjoying himself with this. “You will be responsible for the hiring and teaching of five new interns for your department. You will guide them through their first traps and how the company operates. After a certain amount of time, I will judge if your choices have been successful and will either fire them or take them on as employees.”

“Shouldn’t the hiring be left to the HR department? That is their job after all,” Ed asked.

“HR is currently very busy handling other matters. They will still be handling the bulk of the hiring process, you are just here to make up the numbers.”

That makes sense, I guess. I still feel like he’s doing this to get at me. Sadly, there’s not much I can do about it. I’ll just have to suffer a little. “Also, shouldn’t you normally be the one to teach them that stuff? I don’t see the need of having me here at all.”

“I will still be here to assist you, if that’s what you’re worried about. As for why I need you to do this, the company wants to experiment with a more social touch to the hiring process, believing that a new hire would much rather interact with a living being that they can see than an AI,” Buddie explained.

“We’ve experimented with this before and it has worked well for some species, but not for others. We want to figure out what is the best method for handling humans from your Earth.”

Ed reluctantly agreed that that all made sense. Even if he knew what Buddie was getting at, there was nothing he could do about it. “When do you want me to start?” As he asked this, ten notifications popped up on his screen, similar to what he would see when a sinner’s file was sent in.

“You can begin working immediately. Just so you are aware, you are still expected to complete your regular duties on top of doing this. Make sure you don’t slack off in any regards, or you will be punished,” Buddie said.

Of course. Ed ignored Buddie’s obvious taunting and checked the notifications. As he had expected, they were personnel files similar to the one’s he received for sinners, albeit with some slight differences.

The people in them varied in age, occupation, culture, and much more. They were seemingly picked at random from all across the world.

“All ten of these are candidates for your department. Please choose the five you believe would be the most suitable for the position.