The following morning, Nobody returned to Nathan Industries.
The headquarters was already busy.
Sunlight poured through the enormous glass windows, illuminating the reception area and the rows of employees moving through the lobby. Somewhere nearby, a printer was running continuously while the receptionist answered another phone call.
Nobody stepped out of the elevator and looked toward the upper floors. He sighed. "Honestly, I was starting to get used to this."
The System appeared beside him.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Daily Plot Environment]
Current Situation:
Stable..well almost
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody stared at it. "Stable?"
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Yes.]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
"That’s suspicious."
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Why?]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
"Whenever you say something is stable,something usually explodes five minutes later."
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[System does not cause explosions.]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody smiled. "Not directly." He continued toward Aiden’s office.
Yesterday’s conversation was still fresh in his mind. Aiden had been suspicious of Eclipse’s revised contract,but he hadn’t discovered anything significant. Nobody’s own investigation through the bank had also turned up nothing useful.
That was what made the situation uncomfortable. There was clearly something happening. Yet there was no obvious evidence.
Nobody reached Aiden’s office and knocked.
"Come in."
He opened the door. "Yo."
Aiden looked up from his desk. "You came."
Nobody walked inside. "You said you found something."
Aiden immediately shook his head. "Don’t get too excited."
Nobody stopped. "That sounds like a disappointing opening."
Aiden gave him a tired smile. "I didn’t find some giant secret account or hidden transaction."
"Then what did you find?" Aiden picked up a folder from beside his computer. "I noticed something small in the revised contract."
Nobody walked closer.
"How small?"
"Small enough that I almost ignored it." He placed the document on the desk and opened it to a marked section. "I was comparing the revised version with the first draft."
Aiden pointed toward a paragraph. "This section wasn’t in the original."
Nobody leaned forward. "What does it say?"
Aiden read the clause carefully. "It’s about responsibilities related to operational disruptions."
Nobody frowned. "That sounds normal."
"Exactly." Aiden tapped the page. "That’s why I didn’t notice it at first." He turned another page. "But look at this."
Several lines had been highlighted.
"The wording gives Eclipse the right to temporarily intervene if they determine that Nathan Industries is unable to maintain certain business operations."
Nobody stared at the clause. "Temporarily intervene?"
"Yeah." Aiden’s expression became serious. "That’s the part I don’t like."
Nobody looked at him. "How broad is their authority?"
"That’s unclear." Aiden pointed toward another sentence. "They used vague language here. It doesn’t clearly define what qualifies as an operational disruption."
Nobody slowly nodded. "So if they decide something is wrong... They could potentially claim this clause applies." Nobody looked back at the document. "But that’s not proof they’re planning anything."
"I know." Aiden closed the folder halfway. "I’m not saying this proves Eclipse is plotting against us." He sighed. "I’m saying it’s strange."
Nobody smiled faintly. "That’s enough to keep an eye on it."
Aiden nodded. "That’s what I thought." He leaned back in his chair. "I wanted you to see it because you noticed the financial side wasn’t showing anything unusual."
Nobody looked at the contract again. "Good catch."
Aiden smiled.
"I almost missed it. That’s why two people should look at suspicious paperwork."
Aiden laughed. "You’re becoming surprisingly useful for someone who spends half his time making jokes."
Nobody placed a hand over his chest. "That hurts."
"You’ll survive."
"Probably."
The two laughed briefly. Then Aiden’s expression became serious again.
"There’s something else."
Nobody raised an eyebrow. "What?"
Aiden turned the document around. "Look at the wording here."
Nobody read the paragraph. The clause appeared ordinary at first. But one particular phrase stood out.
"At the discretion of the participating party."
Nobody’s eyes narrowed. "That’s pretty open-ended."
"Exactly." Aiden tapped the phrase. "They could interpret it in almost any way."
Nobody leaned against the desk. "Did your legal team notice it? They noticed the clause."
"And?"
"They said it was unusual, but not necessarily illegal."
Nobody nodded. "That makes sense."
Aiden looked frustrated. "So we’re stuck."
"Not necessarily." Nobody pointed at the document. "You don’t have to prove they’re planning something."
Aiden looked at him.
"You just need to make sure Nathan Industries doesn’t give them an opportunity to use the clause."
Aiden remained silent. Then slowly nodded. "You’re right." He closed the folder.
"We’ll reject that section." Nobody smiled. "Simple."
"I wish business was always that simple. That’s why I prefer fighting monsters."
Aiden stared at him. "Did you just say that seriously?"
Nobody smiled innocently. "Nobody said am just kidding. Who am I to even fight monsters."
Aiden shook his head. "You really are strange."
Before Nobody could answer,the office door opened slightly.
An employee stood outside. "Mr.Aiden?"
Aiden turned. "Yes?"
"The legal department wants to know if you’re available for the contract review this afternoon."
Aiden glanced toward Nobody. "Tell them I’ll be there."
The employee nodded and closed the door.
Aiden looked back. "They’re getting serious about this."
"Good." Nobody pushed himself away from the desk. "Keep everything documented. "
"I will."
"And don’t let the Chairman pressure you into signing anything quickly."
Aiden nodded. "I won’t."
Nobody walked toward the door. Then he stopped. "Aiden."
"Yeah?"
"That clause..."
Aiden looked up.
"Keep a copy of the original version."
Aiden’s expression changed slightly. "You think they’ll deny the previous wording?"
"I don’t know." Nobody shrugged. "But if they’re changing the contract this carefully, it wouldn’t hurt to have proof of what they originally sent."
Aiden nodded. "Good point."
Nobody opened the door. "I’ll see you later."
"Thanks for coming."
Nobody walked into the corridor. The door closed behind him. For several seconds, he simply stood there.
The System appeared.
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[Contract Analysis]
Suspicious Clause Detected
Risk Level:
Moderate
Evidence of Malicious Intent:
Insufficient
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Nobody stared at the window. "Insufficient again."
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Correct.]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
"You really don’t have anything useful?"
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Available information remains limited.]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody sighed. "Because of that higher being."
The System didn’t respond.
Nobody looked down the corridor. "Fine." He started walking. "We’ll play their game slowly."
........
Meanwhile,inside Eclipse Corporation...
The Chairman sat alone in his office. The city stretched beyond the enormous windows. A thick folder rested on his desk. The revised contract.
He opened it and stopped at the same clause Aiden had noticed. A faint smile appeared on his face.
His secretary stood nearby. "Sir, the Nathan Industries team has requested clarification regarding several sections."
The Chairman didn’t look up. "Which sections?"
"The operational authority clause."
His fingers stopped moving. For the first time, the Chairman’s expression changed. "They noticed it?"
"Apparently."
The Chairman closed the folder. "How much do they understand?"
"They believe it’s simply an overly broad contractual provision."
The Chairman leaned back. "Good."
His secretary waited. "Should we modify it?"
The Chairman considered the question. "No."
"Sir?"
"Changing it now would draw more attention." He picked up his wine glass. "Let them question it. But if they refuse?" The Chairman smiled. "Then we’ll give them another explanation." He looked toward the city. "People rarely reject something simply because they don’t understand it."
His secretary nodded. "And if they continue investigating?"
The Chairman’s smile disappeared. "Then we adapt." He took a slow drink. "The important thing is that they haven’t discovered the real objective."
His secretary remained silent.
The Chairman looked at the contract again. Seventy percent of the plan had already progressed. The revised agreement was only another piece of the larger operation.
Nathan Industries was suspicious. Aiden was watching. Nobody was watching too. But neither had enough information to see the entire picture.
The Chairman smiled again. "Let them investigate." He closed the folder. "They’ll only find what we allow them to find."
...
Back at Nathan Industries, Nobody reached the elevator. As he waited, the doors reflected his face. His phone vibrated.
A message from Aiden appeared.
Aiden:
I spoke with the legal team.
We’re not signing that clause.
Nobody smiled. "Good."
Another message appeared.
Aiden:
But I still can’t shake the feeling that there’s something bigger behind this.
Nobody stared at the message for a moment.
Then typed a reply.
Nobody:
You’re probably right.
He pressed send.
The elevator doors opened. Nobody stepped inside.
As the doors slowly closed, he looked at the contract folder still visible through the glass wall of Aiden’s office.
It was only one suspicious clause. Nothing more. Not enough to expose Eclipse. Not enough to accuse the Chairman. But sometimes...A major conspiracy didn’t begin with a huge discovery. Sometimes, it began with one sentence that didn’t belong.
The elevator began descending toward the lower floors.
Nobody leaned against the wall and stared at the changing numbers above the doors. "One suspicious clause..." He rubbed his chin. "...and somehow I feel like I’m about to get dragged into another giant mess."
The System appeared.
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[Observation]
Current Suspicion:
Increasing
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Nobody sighed. "Yeah. I noticed." His phone vibrated again.
Aiden had sent another message.
Aiden:
I’ll keep investigating, but for now let’s not make any accusations.
Nobody smiled. "At least he’s thinking carefully."
The elevator reached the lobby. The doors opened and the ordinary noise of Nathan Industries immediately surrounded him again.
Nobody stepped outside. For a moment, he simply watched the employees moving around. Everyone continued with their daily lives.
Nobody knew that somewhere above them, a single sentence in a business contract might eventually become the beginning of something much bigger.
Nobody slipped his phone into his pocket. "Alright." He walked toward the exit.
"Let’s see what happens next."
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