A Glitch in the Collective Conciousness: Chapter 2 (Patreon)

Chapter 2

It was getting tiring hearing the busy signal tone from my phone. I knew getting people to onboard my plans was going to be hard but things were proving to be far more problematic than I had anticipated. I had to take a step back and think things through before plowing forward.

My idea of getting a factory up and running to make my products was already hard enough to pitch as it is given my lack of background in engineering but it further hampered by the reputation I accidentally earned. At least being called mad was a step up from mediocre.

As it stands, getting associated with me wasn’t ideal. It wasn’t as toxic as a corrupt and incompetent official or someone that made enemies with the royal family but it was getting there. Still, it’s far better than I had expected. The emperor hadn’t made any damning comments about me but he also hasn’t given any statement supporting me; not bad but also not good.

There were still people that would support me, people that were willing to lend an ear. I still have followers and allies that had not fully abandoned me as the list of prospective investors in my laptop could attest to. This however brings me to another problem of mine. Turns out, sorting through all the contacts was harder than it looks.

Frustrated from it all, I decided to turn my focus on the codes I’ve been working on. The echoes of my typing echoing in my room and the silent hum of my air conditioning reminded me of one of the consequences of my now toxic reputation.

Glancing to the side, I stared at the empty desk once occupied by my, or rather Odysseus’s, secretary lay empty along with so many more desks of the people that supported the humanitarian projects that are now effectively defunct. The letters of resignation sitting beside my laptop were demoralizing but it was a reminder that I have no one working for me.

I pushed away from my laptop and spun around in my office chair. I can write a simple VI to sort through all the calls but it wasn’t enough. It was just a stap gap which could become obsolete real quick once a real person gets hired. I could turn to AI but that brings another problem.

Writing code all by myself is hard and mind numbingly boring. I could do it… but as I stared at the lines after lines of code filling my screen, I realized that it would take days, time that I might not have. I needed things quick. Beeside, why should I waste days trying to write a custom AI to be my secretary when I could just… hire one?

I kinda need people so that I could have people to talk to as well. I wouldn’t want to actually go insane or sound insane from the lack of social interactions. My own Cortana would be cool but people with actual opinions are nice. There’s also the fact that an wouldn't have a physical body just yet which would even take on more time. Maybe I was lazy but to hell with it.  I admit, I want eye candy and by god I’m going to get myself eye candy.

I have an entire office space rented out, and funded by Schneizel which is a thing I need to change soon, and it’s empty. That needs to change. I didn’t need all the chairs filled out however, I just needed someone to fill the roles as my secretary.

Pushing myself back to my computer, I saved my progress and tossed it inside a folder for later use once I have actual time. Stopping myself from jumping to another project as soon as I found the popular search engine and this world's version of linkedin, a fact that it exists was a welcome relief with all the flip phones around, I started working on my job listing.

As the old secretary didn’t leave any notes behind and sorting through all the computers would be a pain for my profile, I had to call customer support. It took me a couple of minutes and a very annoying series of calls as I got passed up higher in the chain of customer support who decided that they weren’t paid enough for this to confirm that I am indeed Odysseus eu Britannia but I got my account in the end.

-x-x-x-

The actual process of getting back my account took longer than it took me to get my job posting. I had considered just making this a public listing but I decided against it. There’s simply too much trouble shouting about it in the greater public..

One, having it be associated with me might intimidate those that are competent but would be too scared to work with someone high profile. The other thing is that everyone and their mother would apply for this job. I already have problems sorting through all the calls I made earlier, no need to drown myself in applications. There’s also the fact that those I would apply could become ears for another person in politics and I’d rather not have a rat onboard the ship I’ll be sailing.

Still, the job listing wouldn’t be entirely foolproof. The fact that I’m going to my once vacant office everyday now could tip people off that I’ll need some workers. The location of the building alone would hint at the job I’m offering as well as the salary and benefits. Still, it was “competitive” enough that it wasn’t overly generous but good enough that there should be some bites.

It didn’t take long for some people to bite at the offer. I had to scramble to make a voice changer as I foolishly forgot that my voice would be quite recognizable. I did manage to schedule several interviews from the prospective once.

I also had to make a spelling and grammar VI to check for errors and kick those with horrible resumes but I was going to make this VI anyways so it wasn’t time wasted. Maybe a VI to filter through the pictures? Let’s put a big maybe on that .

Considering the job listing was made over at the internet, which while familiar was still strange and alien to my eyes. There were so many niches I could fill, so many gadgets I could make, so many games that could be done. This was just too exciting. I was getting ahead of myself however. I need to focus and get myself a secretary.

With the interview set, I just had to take an exam to filter out the undesirables. Problem was that I didn’t know where to start with that. I could get a personality exam made up but for the actual secretarial task, I might need the opinion of an expert and I just know exactly who to call. Do I really want to call them though? I wanted to hire someone on my own specifically so I could be independent but I’m not yet ready.

Taking a look at the pile of resignation letters as well as the list of contacts I managed to cobble up, I decided to swallow my pride and called in Schneizel. Grabbing the phone and pressing physical buttons took quite a while compared to the touch screen of my time but I finally got my call as the dial tone rang.

“Come on… pick up, pick up.” I muttered as I glanced at the night sky of Pendragon. While I did hate the brutalist structure of this hive city, it did reduce its light pollution footprint by a margin plus it made office spaces and apartments that has sunlight access more premium.

Finally, the call went through and I was greeted by a pissed Schneizel. “G-god damn it Odyssues, is this really the appropriate time to call?” my brother asked. He did sound a bit out of breath but I chalked it off as just him being tired from all the day's work.

“I’m really sorry for this but can I borrow your secretary for a bit? I need his help,”I asked. I then heard someone sputtering and coughing in the background. “...Is everything ok there?”

Schneizel took a deep breath before sighing and asking, “... why?”

This might have been probably a bad time but there’s no way out now. “I need an expert when it comes to secretarial work to help me design a test to weed out the candidates I have for my new secretary.” Schneizel had the right idea when it came to having a right hand man to support him and I wanted my own Kanon.

“Ah yes, right. Your staff left...” He muttered out before I heard the rustling of clothes from across the line. “You know, you could just ask me for one right?”

“I know but I kinda didn’t want to bother you that much? Hey, I already have a list of candidates and I just needed this tiny bit of help before I got out of your hair,” I replied. I’d also rather not have a right hand woman with split loyalties. Was I being a bit paranoid? Yes. Was being paranoid around people in Code Geass a bad thing? No.

I was met with silence for a bit before finally Schneizel answered back. “... fine. Kanon, you take over from here.”

I then heard the familiar voice of Kanon speaking through the line though a bit hoarse, “Hello?”

“Yo Kanon, how’s it going?” I greeted back, leaning back on my chair as I opened up another empty document file to write things down.

“Good evening your highness and I’m doing… fine,” The man replied a bit peeved but totally understandable at the time. “Now, I assume you're looking for a competent right hand man, right?” He then asked

“Well, right hand woman but more or less yes.” I answered back.

I heard Kanon sigh at the end of the line before he replied, “Ok, here’s what I need you to do for your exam, your highness…”

-x-x-x-

Sipping my hot cup of coffee, I leaned back on my swivel chair and watched from the safety of my main office as the applicants streamed inside the conference room I retrofitted to become my exam room. While I did my best to hide the seals of my office and coat of arms, from the look of awe and excitement however, it was clear that some had an inkling on who they might be working for but I didn’t let that deter me.

With my drones flying around, I had eyes everywhere with the VI’s to identify movement. It was a bit overwhelming but this could serve me well when I toss this to an engineering team that I would eventually hire to fix things or rather who my Secretary would hire as I’ll be offloading a lot of office work on them while I do my tinkering.

“Good morning everyone, I hope you’re all having a good day,” I greeted with my voice scrambled, “As a reminder, all three tests for the job application will be done today so if anyone wants to back out now, the door is open.” None however chose to stand. I smiled but now I wonder how’d they react to the real test.

“Good, the exams will start as soon as all papers are handed out. No one reads the papers until the signal is given,” my voice rang out from my drones as more of them

I watched eagerly as they took their seats and were presented with the task Kanon and I made for them. It was the first of three tests and it might just be the greatest filter of them all, the written test. At the sight of the drones carrying stacks upon stacks of paper, I already had some bowing out. Unfortunately they didn’t even try but what use would I have for such people?

Looking down at the hefty pile of paper in my other hand, I was a bit apprehensive at the test that Kanon whipped up for me. At several inches thick, it did look a bit too much but the man assured me that this was just at the edge of what a competent Secretary could do within an hour and indeed the applicants were given an hour but it wouldn’t be enough. Every last question is possible to answer but the question is which one they’d answer first.

“You have an hour to finish the task at hand to the best of your abilities, begin!” and with that, pens started flying the pages. As the examiners filtered through the exam, one thing was to be clear and that it was just barely at the edge of being possible. Yes, someone like Kanon could finish this exam but they were outliers. This wasn’t just an exam to test one’s competence but how they’d react given such a task.

I could already hear muttering of dismay and complaints already and I made note on who those are. The number of candidates were already dropping fast but not fast enough. Now the question is, how many would remain?

A/N:

Just did this quick one to take my mind of some stuff. Will be doing Neon Cogs a bit later. Also, seems like the story is veering off towards the making your own Company story cause I kinda need the secretary. She'll be playing some big roles later on and is there as a way to temper some of the SI's eccentricities and stupidity.  Like it? hate it? leave a comment