Afternoon.


    The marble floors contributed to the reputable image that of Kranian Industries - rich, and topnotch. Even though their external surroundings held no touch of symmetrical fake garden parks that Skycorp had, one would be awed inside the establishment. Everything was squeaky clean; the marbles had a smooth coating that provided a faint mirror.


    The bright lights above them bounced against the marble floor, hence, intensifying the illumination within the confines of the room.


    Brigzid demarcation lines on the floor, the traffic-yellow one that sticks almost permanently. Scrubbing it for removal could be very frustrating.


    "What''s that for?" Lance asked the operator who was bent over, sticking the yellow lines.


    "This is to maintain the order of things, boss. The lines would remind anyone here the cements should be within the assigned demarcations."


    Lance nodded. Evidently, Brigz had seen clutter of unkempt cements of raw material pallets. Working tables were moved out of ce as operators conducted their inspections. Apparently, Brigz knew the general overview of things transpiring inside the production area, while operators had fixated their focus on their task at hand, neglecting what was beyond their responsibility.


    Brigz portrayed leadership traits among his colleagues.


    "That''s smart, Brigz," Lance said. It''s the third day of the second week. The air was filled with motivated employees,ser-focused on aplishing targets.


    "How are we with the dys?" Lance asked Brigz, finishing up as he rolled the stickers in its ce. Brigz ced the cutting tool and the roll of yellow stickers inside the toolbox. Brigz, even though a Commoner, had a proper arrangement on the production floor, also manifesting inside his toolbox. The tools were neatly arranged, as if he would know immediately if something wascking.


    "Strangely, boss, we are catching up. Last week, we had three pallets dyed. Now, we only have one."


    "Have you encountered problems that caused line stoppage?" Lance asked.


    "Yes, boss. All predicaments were solved immediately. The manual was a great help, boss." Brigz held an authentic smile and it meant his appreciation. "This is a great lesson for this team, moving forward."


    Commoners barely smiled, due to their dire need for survival every waking day. And of course, the uncertainty of food and water shortages due to theck of money.


    They can''t afford hospitalization, hence, they need to be healthy all the time. How can one be healthy if they are always eating processed food? As the Commoners would say, strengthen the mind to fend off sickness, otherwise face hunger and thirst for a month.


    "Are you surprised?" Lance asked.


    "Yes. Even my boys are surprised, too. This is a good approach, boss. What about you? What say negan?"


    "I''m fine, no worries. He told me that he already informed Doctor Zee of our dys. So, expectedly, he wille."


    "Are you scared?" Brigz asked.


    "Nope. I have a lot of things to be scared of, but not Doctor Zee and especially not negan or the Kranian management." Lance responded.


    "You are somethin'', boss. Really, something," Brigz said. "The boys are talking about what you said the other week. Are you gonna pay their overtime?"


    That exined the asional squinting of the operators toward Brigz and Lance as they stood on the clearing facing the stretch of the lined-up equipment.


    "Yes, I am a man of my word. You go ahead with overtime only if necessary. But to my calctions, there will be no more overtime in the seeding days because you managed to solve problems without even my intervention."


    "They also initiated process improvements on their own to increase efficiency, boss, withoutpromising the quality of work," Brigz reported.


    They could work without negan''s supervision. The crew was trained to initiate process improvements. Only two things made this possible, either negan trained them to be assertive with process improvements, or just because if they were behind the target, the management would deduct their sries due to damages, eventually, driving the crew to assert shortcuts. Lance believed thetter.


    "Speak of the devil, boss!"


    The elevator slid open and their attention shifted to the movement of the emerging people.


    As expected, Mister negan, the ass-licker, ushered Doctor Zee to the production floor. He had been very active-looking the moment he entered the area. He even showed Doctor Zee the phases of production, however, thetter showed indifference to the smooth-talking Supervisor. Although, the Doctor had curt nods as negan conversed with him.


    ''His mouth never stopped talking,'' Lance thought, just observing the ass-licker licked the ass of Industrialist tier 4.


    Lance felt the coldness of the stares of Doctor Zee, not a hint of a smile had appeared on his face since he entered the floor. He had a gloomy mood, seemingly, a thunderous cloud hovering overhead, ready to wreak havoc on the one responsible for the dy.


    asionally, Doctor Zee and negan talk to the third-phase equipment operators. He saw negan conversing like a politician, almost portraying that he had been on the floor ever since and did the groundwork. Somewhat, the ass-licker had manipted the story to grab credit or manipte the operator that Lance had schemed behind the supervisor''s back that caused the dys.


    Whatever would transpire, fear had not visited the new TOR.


    Surprisingly, he felt fearless. He knew the stakes; the impact of serviceability to the market, and the necessity of profitability, even the colossal responsibility, nevertheless, he stood unfazed by any of it. He was surprised. Could it be because he was bound to destroy everything the Corporation stood for? Could it be because a hero should not fear his enemies, like Doctor Zee?


    His spections were close to the truth. Or it was the truth.


    The storm that negan brought came to him like a subtle raging bull. It was only his imagination, but he knew Doctor Zee was unhappy. The creases of his forehead, the deathly stares, and the sad curve of his mouth said it all.


    "Care to exin?" negan said to Lance while Doctor Zee was on his side. Zee''s stare never left the kid.


    "I know you came here because of the dys. Our half-day dy." In Lance''s calction, their dys would be minimal at the end of the day granting the increasing momentum.


    "Don''t lie to us! It''s a three-day dy!" negan interjected, then turned to his mentor, "Doctor Zee, I have told you that assigning a newbie as your coTOR is a mistake." negan raised his voice, trying hard to hide his ipetence.


    "And you are saying you are a better TOR than he is?" Zee countered. It was the first time that Zee uttered a word since he entered the floor.


    "Ahm… Of course, Doctor Zee." negan stammered, "I am well experienced and handled a lot of production lines here in Kranian. I think I proved my worth and my ability."


    "Really, now?" Zee scoffed. "For three projects as my TOR, we experienced a lot of customerints, dys, raw material wastages, and a dwindling profit margin arising from these problems. Then you are saying you are a better TOR?"


    It collided with negan like an unstoppable tsunami, wrecking everything in its path. negan was surely affected by the words of his mentor.


    "Doctor, if you let me exin. I resolved everything from the past and I am sure I can make up to you this…" He stopped as Doctor Zee held a palm up near his face.


    "You haven''t exined, Mister Berkley. You are standing in a fine line here. And it might be detrimental to your career, not only as a TOR but also as a Mech Tier Scientist." Zee said, even though his voice seemed calm, it had brought destruction.


    "Doctor Zee," Lance responded, matching Zee''s calm demeanor, "negan was right about the three-day dy. But this isst week''s report that I gave to him. As you require me to submit a report every Saturday. The reason for our dys because of my Crew training approach."


    "Yeah! I have seen them talkingte in the afternoon every day without any output!" negan interjected as he tried to step in between Zee and Lance.


    A cold stare streaked through negan''s from Doctor Zee and was instantly silenced. Lance just watched how the ass-licker would be schooled by his stupidity.


    Lance noticed Brigz and the crew had their asional gawking among them as the conversation progressed.


    "Training, Mister Berkley? That is odd. We don''t train crews nowadays. We have state-of-the-art, user-friendly equipment that needs no training. Why did youe up with this method? You are going back to the prehistoric," Zee said.


    "Well, Doctor Zee. You are right. What I am doing is old school. But we cannot dismiss the fact that the old school''s still applicable depending on the situation." Lance answered.


    "Situation, Mister Berkley? Please borate," Zee asked.


    "Yes. I have been studying from other industries or even gotints from my clients of scrap materials, these are supervisors too, mostly in SteamHaven, and based on statistical records, there is a twenty percent production dy due to theck of technical know-how of machine operators."


    Zee nodded. His gloomy mood seemed to brighten a little, but so vaguely that one can''t determine from afar. He held no smile yet but his eyes softened, the wrinkles on his forehead were lessened, and his stiff jaw seemed to loosen.


    Probably, in Lance''s perspective, Doctor Zee also heard this kind of statistical data from other Manufacturing industries.


    "Expound, Mister Berkley. I suppose what you are going to tell me right now is not only information usable to me but to Mister negan as well."


    negan flushed his cheeks and ran towards his ears to spicy red. Apparently, the supervisor was infuriated.