DOOMED TO BE A VILLAIN

***In the lobby of a particular building…***

"Hey…" a blonde woman dressed in receptionist work clothes tapped another woman dressed the same as her.

"Hey, did you hear that the boss is coming back?" She began to tell the other receptionists who had been attracted to the conversation.

"What boss…? Isn't Mr. Arnold in his office on the 137th floor right now?" Another receptionist asked, confused.

"...Not him, but the real boss… the founder of Imperium Technologies, Davies Lake…" The first receptionist dropped the hot piece of news and looked around for their shocked reactions, which came as expected.

"What!!!" one of the gossipers exclaimed.

"The same Davies Lake that invented the first powerstone engine at the age of 8, invented an artificial powerstone harvesting machine at age 9 and founded Imperium Technologies before the age of 10," another of the gossipers listed in awe.

"I heard he also received at least one S-grade blessing when he went for his Cataclysm ceremony," Another one of them stated.

"He's probably a mega now after activating his blessing… I wish I was that lucky…" Another one said dreamily.

"Hmmm mm… He's coming here… today," The first receptionist said, once again drawing all attention to her.

"NANI!!" all the listeners exclaimed.

"But no one's even seen or heard of him in the past 12 years…"

"I wonder, did something happen to him to make him stay away from society?" One of the gossipers asked.

"I don't know… his parents did die when he was 6 years old, but you can never really tell with geniuses." The first receptionist answered with a thoughtful look.

"The real question here is… How do you even know all this." One of the listeners around asked.

"Hehe…" The first receptionist chuckled,

"I may not have had enough resources to activate my blessing, but my ears can pick up any interesting piece of news from miles away." She said as she proudly rubbed the tip of her nose.

"EEEEHHHHH" All the listeners hailed,

"Elsa the storyteller, tell us how you got this story?" They requested her, as she smiled while rubbing her nose.

"Okay, okay… I'll tell you guys," Elsa said jubilantly as she gave in to their request.

"There I was, picking some files from Mr. Arnold's office like he had requested me to when suddenly a call came in, interrupting our work…" Elsa paused to look around and was pleased to see everyone engrossed in her story, so she continued.

"Mr. Arnold seemed less than pleased to be called at that moment and picked up his phone to hang up the call, but he froze when he saw the caller ID…"

"Who called? Did you see? Someone asked.

"I'm getting there…" Elsa said and didn't answer the question as she was trying to build up their anticipation.

*DING*

The sound of an elevator reaching the ground floor disrupted the ongoing conversation as they all looked to see who was coming from the elevator.

As the door opened, a tall beefy man who seemed to be in his mid-50s stepped out of the elevator wearing a black suit. He seemed hurried and tensed and was less than pleased to see his workers crowded around each other, talking, instead of at their stations, working.

"What are you doing loitering about instead of working!"

"To your stations now!" He yelled at the gossip crew, who quickly began to move back to their working stations.

"And you, Elsa… Just follow me." He said as he turned and began to walk quickly towards the door.

"Yes, Mr. Arnold…" She quickly responded as she followed after Mr. Arnold.

Meanwhile…

A Black Plexus LFA sports car had just pulled up in front of a skyscraper with the letters, IT, drawn boldly on the side of the building.

As Davies turned grabbed the door handle to open the car doors and let himself out, he heard Miya say in his head,

[Protagonist aura detected.]

'What!? Where?' Davies asked quickly, stunned at this discovery.

[I can't pinpoint the exact location, but somewhere in that building] Miya said as she directed his eyes to the skyscraper that stood proudly in its location.

'... But… that's mine…' Davies said to himself as he looked at the headquarters of Imperium Technologies.

'... Are you trying to tell me that the first protagonist I'll meet in this world, probably works for me…' Davies chuckled to himself.

[Well, better get moving, you won't find him sitting in here] Miya reminded him to get a move on.

Davies unlocked the doors and pushed his door open before getting out while Daniel got out as well. Davies had just started moving towards the doors of the building when they were pushed open to reveal a tall beefy man who revealed a bright welcoming smile as soon as he saw Davies.

"Sir Davies, Welcome back…" He said with a smiling face and welcoming gesture as soon as he got close enough to Davies who walked towards the doors with Daniel just behind him.

"Good to be back… Hugo." Davies simply said as he walked past Hugo Arnold, the current acting CEO and Chief Financial Officer of Imperium Technologies.

Arnold paid it no mind that he was almost basically ignored and followed after Davies with a smile as he tried to get upfront and lead Davies inside the building.

"If you had given me an earlier notification about your arrival, we would have prepared a welcome for you, sir," Arnold said as soon as he caught up to Davies who was almost at the doors of the building.

"The evening welcome party should suffice, I suppose… shouldn't it, Daniel?" Davies stopped and turned to Daniel, who nodded in affirmation.

Davies then turned towards Arnold, " Just make sure it's interesting enough to be worth my time." He said as he smiled and pushed the main doors of Imperium Technologies open and walked inside.

'What now, Miya?' He asked Miya.

[I can't sense anything strange on this floor…] Miya replied.

'Tch… nothing.' he clicked his tongue as he looked around at everything and everyone, carefully observing them just as much as they were observing him.

[I hope you're not going to go to all the floors and ask me to search for the protagonist] Miya suddenly asked.

'Of course, not… this building has 140 floors… I'm not that jobless.' Davies replied to her, as he turned towards Arnold.

"Hugo… My office?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.

"This way please…" Arnold requested as he took the lead and went towards the elevator, with Elsa, Davies, and Daniel following closely behind him.

They entered the elevator and Arnold went to the elevator button pad and put his finger on a finger scanner that was on the control pad. A light shone green from somewhere on the panel as 4 hidden buttons revealed themselves.

The numbers 137, 138,139, and 140 were on the buttons. The button '137' looked no different from the normal buttons on the pad but the '138', '139', and '140' buttons were goldenly layered.

"We dedicated the top 3 floors to you, Sir Davies" Arnold explained as he pressed the '138' button and the elevator began to move upwards.

"Oh… Nice… I would have given you a promotion for that thought, but there aren't any higher positions, Haha." Davies commented and laughed lightly as they waited for the elevator to reach the 138th floor.

"I'm flattered, Sir…" Arnold replied humbly.

*DING*

The elevator sounded and its doors began to slide open to reveal a very wide space that could contain about a hundred people.

Davies stepped into his office and looked at the extremely luxurious set up with furniture, both for work and relaxation spread out around.

"Wow… there's even a refrigerator and a game console set up here… and a nice view…" Davies said as his eyes surveyed the room while he walked to the glass walls and looked outside at the magnificent view.

Suddenly Davies turned sharply and faced Arnold,

"Now let's get down to business…" Davies said with a serious smile on his face as he begins to walk towards a sofa that was close to where he stood.

"So… What's been going on around here?" He asked as soon as he sat, hoping for any signs that could point him in the direction of the protagonist as he still didn't know who that was.

"We have been following your vision and have grown magnificently in the years you were away with our worth now reaching…" Arnold began to explain.

"Stop…" Davies cut in.

"I know what the numbers say and that's not what I asked for… What I want to know is what has been happening in the company… here," Davies explained,

"Like anything interesting happening or something worth noting?" Davies further elaborated with an expectant look on his face.

"Well… everything has been going well inside the company…" Arnold said again.

"Seriously… nothing I should know?" Davies asked, a bit disappointed at not getting a clue to find the protagonist.

[He's a pretty high-up official… it figures that he won't know much about some minor issues in the company unless they affect the company majorly] Miya commented.

"... We do need to fill up a vacancy for the position of the Chief Operations Officer," Arnold said after some thought.

"...Oh? … And this isn't something I should know?" Davies asked with slight irritation.

"Sorry sir, it must have skipped my mind." Arnold quickly apologized for his blunder.

"But what happened to the former guy…?" Davies asked, his interest now piqued.

"... H-He died…" Arnold replied hesitantly.

"How did he die though?" Davies asked immediately, as he noticed Arnold's hesitant reply.

"...Asphyxiation…" Arnold said almost in a whisper.

"He was killed. And isn't this information something I should know…!" Davies concluded and asked loudly.

"...No sir, he wasn't killed… he died of suffocation from…"

"From what!!!???" Davies asked with an annoyed tone, his voice rising.

"…Suffocation from Boobs."

"..."

"I wish I died like that…"

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CHAPTER 3: SUFFOCATION FROM BOOBS.