Chapter 3

...

When Oscar rotated to the tech department, they rolled out the red carpet like he was royalty.

"Feel free to come and go as you please, Oscar," said the Tech Manager with a flattering smile.

Oscar crossed his legs and nodded smugly.

The next day, the whole company went into meltdown. The system crashed hard, and all electronic devices were paralyzed.

Everyone gathered in the technical department.

"What is going on?" Judy demanded sharply.

The Technical Manager, Steven Colombo, looked rattled. "Madam, I'm still figuring it out."

"I pay you a fortune for what?" Judy growled. "You know how much this is costing us? Fix it now, or you're fired!"

Steven broke out in a cold sweat. Just then, Oscar strolled in, humming a tune and grinning ear-to-ear.

"Madam, I just did another solid for the company," he said. "Saw the server was low on memory, so I wiped out the extra config modules. No need to buy new gear now."

There was a round of gasps, and I smirked inwardly. This idiot had caused a major disaster without even realizing it.

"You can't touch the date on that server!" Steven exploded. "Once deleted, it can't be recovered, and the entire production environment will crash!"

Oscar caught Judy's darkening expression and started to panic. But then, he jabbed a finger at me. "It's all Casper's fault. When I was shadowing him before, he taught me to do it this way."

"What the hell are you talking about?" I stared at him in disbelief.

"I saw you operate it like that, and you told me it was system optimization!" he insisted.

My blood boiled. "That was just the antivirus software prompt!"

"Enough!" Judy roared.

The scene fell silent, so quiet that one could hear a pin drop.

She barked, "Who do you think you are? How dare you wreak havoc in my company?"

I was shocked because she was pointing at me.

"This is all Oscar's doing," I argued. "It has nothing to do..."

"Casper Lancaster, gross negligence on the job!" she cut me off. "You're fired, effective immediately! Oscar Kaufman, for his outstanding performance, is promoted to full-time status and appointed as my executive assistant!"

This was straight-up insanity. I clenched my fists tightly, the anger in my chest about to erupt.

Oscar beamed, "Thank you for your trust, Ma'am. I'll keep giving it my all!"

"See? We need more employees like Oscar, not backstabbers who'd tank the place." Judy shot me a pointed glare.

"Fine! I'm out!" I sneered.

Truth be told, I had wanted to quit for a long time. Who wanted to stick around this dumpster fire? Not me.

Leaving the office, I booked three plane tickets.

In my previous life, my parents and I had never gotten to enjoy life before we were burned alive. This time around, I would take them on a tour of the country's beautiful landscapes.