Dungeons Online

The soundless lift was one of the greatest inventions out of all that allowed the current build of the Online Hub. With how high those buildings would go and how massive they usually were, the number of lifts and stairs required to provide the necessary throughput of the crowd would normally turn any other building into a humming machine by mixing all the noises made by the different elevators. 

'I wonder how good they became,' Peter racked his brains, trying to figure out how far his local Incubator could go. 

The existence of this institution was the very reason why every single Online Hub was so massive. 

On the bottom floors, players would indulge in either the game itself or all the other services they could make full use of and spend the money they earned in the game. According to the official bulletin distributed amongst the high-managers, the better one was at managing the Hub, the less money would leave its first three floors. 

Next came between five to even twenty floors of what would appear to be an empty space. Most of the building's users believed that was where the servers of the game were held. But the truth...

The truth was greatly different. 

Above the gaming and service floors but below the staff quarters and the managerial offices were incubators. Every single Online Hub had one, and every single Incubator served the same purpose. 

To stimulate the growth of ability within the Online Hub professionals. 

For the outsiders, the career path of the Online Hub started in the agency, through which they could become agency workers. They would be then tasked with menial jobs like manning the shops and service points, clearing the place, or even cooking at the staff canteens. 

The next step of the career would be Customer Service. People working in this line of job would be employed directly by the Online Hub and work at the fronts operated by the Hub itself. Between the complaints management, tours, and guides all the way to taking care of the top earners of the Hub, an immense variety of jobs could be found there. 

The next step would be the manager. Most of the workers believed that by working hard and long enough in Customer Service, they could someday ascend to that point. But only managers and people of higher ranks knew that there was a single step that separated the crowd of Servicemen from the true nobility of the organization. 

And it was the very Incubator that Peter was currently heading to. 

"We have arrived," Kira said just before the lift stopped. Deep in his thoughts, Peter shook his head to wake himself up. "Thanks for the head'-up," he thanked as the doors to the lift opened up. 

Right now, they were at the lowest level of the Incubator part of the Hub, right above the topmost level of the area open to all the customers. But after taking as much as a single step outside the lift, one could see how starkly different this place was from the rest of the building.

There wasn't any sign of luxury in there. The entire place was composed of cubicles stacked as much as three layers up. Inside the cubicle, there was only a space for the interactive board, a small table for food and drinks, and a seat for the sap. 

The sap in this meaning referred to people called saplings by all the managers of the online Hub. Those saplings were sourced from the brightest and best workers of the customer service... Only to be put through several years-long training. 

Those people who excelled at guiding people, solving their problems, or overseeing top players would be, in a sense, demoted. Once they would enter the topmost floor of the Incubator, they would be constantly tasked with solving various kinds of problems. 

After every session of training, they would be put to a short rest, only to start another day from a series of lectures nailing down every mistake they did the day prior. With that part finished, the sap would return to the testing part and repeat the process over and over again. 

There was no given day when a Sap would be given a chance to graduate and actually enter the ranks of managers. What was even worse, there were only two other ways to leave the Incubator.

First was the most obvious one. It was also the path that the great majority of Saps would choose, overwhelmed by the amount of work and learning necessary to advance. People like them would receive a permanent ban to ever take any job at any other Online Hub. 

Then came the most desired route. By reaching the lowest floor of the online Hub, they could be rehired on demand by one of the already existing managers. Only the absolute cream of the top from many different Incubators combined could ever hope to become managers themselves. 

"Sir Peter?" the receptionists sitting at his desk raised his eyes, only to explode up and salute when he realized who just came to his place of work. "It's an honor and a pleasure to see you in good health," the man couldn't stop himself from licking Peter's ass a little before actually moving on to the actual topic. "How many people do you need today, sir?" 

"Give me forty of the technical orientation," Peter requested without even stopping at the man's desk. "Send them all to the coding bureau," Peter said before turning around and leaving for the lift. 

"Where are we going now?" Kira asked with a wide smile. 'It's rare to see Peter so fired up!' she thought, enjoying the moment to its fullest. 

"You are going to the coding bureau," Peter said, looking at the girl. "Organize those saps and make them crunch the numbers," he ordered before shaking his head. "Do I need to tell you that I'm only interested in a proper report for now?" he asked. 

"Oh, come on," Kira laughed out loud. "Do I look that naive?" she asked, shaking her head. "Cream of the top.. Forced in a demonic regime of constant learning, all to end up falsifying the reports for the convenience of a high manager," she summed up the current situation. "To think that's what would become of the scheme of hiring several thousand more people than you actually need!"