Volume 1 - CH 1

「Huh.」

One evening, in the hot water supply room of April Corporation, an IT company in Chiba City, Chiba Prefecture.

I shouted as I pressed the hot water button on the electric kettle.

The hot water button is unlocked, but hot water won’t come out even when the button is pressed. The power supply is on without any problems and there is enough hot water.

Oh no, we have a guest over and I have to make tea.

As I was struggling, Takahashi-senpai who looked into the hot water supply room called out to me with a strange look on her face.

「kaege-san, what's wrong?"」

「Takahashi-senpai~, the hot water from the dispenser has stopped running.」

I, Akira keage, dropped my shoulders as I said to Takahashi-senpai as if I was hanging on to him.

The water dispenser broke and the hot water stopped running. If this were a normal employee, it would just be bad luck but not in my case.

「Oh, you broke it again?」

「I didn't break it~, it broke when I was using it normally~.」

I reply to Takahashi-senpai's word "again" with a lowered eyebrow.

I was famous within the company for breaking things anyway. It's been a year and a half since I joined the company and what I've destroyed in that time both physically and in terms of data, can’t be counted in one hand.

It was still cute when it was a water dispenser and I caused a lot of trouble in the company when I broke the toilet in the office.

Takahashi-senpai sighs as he walks into the hot water supply room and checks the water dispenser.

「Hmm it's on, the hot water's still on and I think the ...... hot water button is faulty. I'll arrange for a repair and you can make tea using the electric kettle.」

「Yes, sorry. ......」

Bowing to Takahashi-senpai, I filled the electric kettle next to the hot water dispenser with water and turned it on. A quick red light comes on, thank goodness.

Boil water, make tea, and serve tea to the guests in the conference room. When I'm done serving tea, I'll report to my boss, Chief Ikeda.

「Chief Ikeda~」

「What did you break again,  kaege-kun?」

When I approached the Chief with a troubled look on my face, the always-smiling Chief Ikeda also became troubled. That's right, every time I break something the Chief has to clean up the mess.

I can hear other employees whispering behind my back as I bow to Chief Ikeda.

「As expected of the『God of Destruction』, the hot water dispenser was sacrificed this time? 」

「That water dispenser was the one I bought last year. You're the only one who could destroy that.」

「The other day when you brought tea to a customer, the saucer broke.」

My heart sinks further and further into that mindless insinuation.

「God of Destruction」 is a nickname I've been told behind my back. I've been breaking things at every opportunity since I was a student, so that's what I was told when I was a student but to be given the same nickname even after I've become a working adult is a real bummer.

I look up, bow my head again and apologize to the chief. We’ve had this exchange many times already.

「I'm sorry ...... I didn't do anything ......」

「Well, I mean it's actually broken.」

At my appearance, even Section Chief Ikeda couldn't hide his sigh. That's probably true, How many times have we had this exchange already?

Laughing once more as if he was troubled, Chief Ikeda waved his hand in a flutter.

「Well, keep an eye out in the future. Something tangible will break someday」

「Yes..…」

I reply obediently to the Chief and return to my seat. I thought I was going to spend today without breaking anything, but now I've taken up extra time again.

My work is inevitably slow because in my time I have to apologize and bow my head in this way. It's my second year with the company, and it's not every day that I'm given an important job but no matter what I do I have to do a lot of work to keep up with the other employees.

Inevitably, I've been working a lot of overtime and it's 9 O’clock at night again.

「Huff......」

I was working on the development of a payment-related system for HIF Corporation, a travel-related business and testing the operation of the database. When the testing was complete, I straightened up.

And there, Takahashi-senpai passed behind me. He already have his jacket on and bag in the hand. He’s about to go home.

「Thanks for your help, Ms.kaege.」

「Ah, Takahashi-senpai, thank you for your hard work.」

I bowed my head as I greeted Takahashi-senpai. When the seniors leave, I still can't leave. I didn't even have time for dinner yet today.

「You're working late again today? 」

「I can't help it, I've broken a lot of things I've got to do some work to get it back ......」

I reply to Takahashi-senpai's words of concern for me as I bow my head once more.

In fact, the damage to the company was ridiculous because they were breaking so many things. I have to work to get that back somehow.

However, I've been working overtime a lot lately and I'm getting tired. I haven't been sleeping at all lately. No matter what you do, people make mistakes when they get tired, so you have to do it in moderation.

Takahashi-senpai laughed as he placed his hand on my shoulder.

「Good luck, but don't crash the data like you did the other day.」

「Ugh, haha. ......」

My senpai told me and I replied back with tears in the corner of my eyes.

The other day I accidentally deleted some of my test data by mistake. I was able to restore it immediately from the backup, but Takahashi-senpai was little angry.

After my seniors left, I continued working. I stopped tapping on the keyboard and a small sigh escaped my mouth.

「Huh. ...... why am I like this?」

Why do I break so many things? How did I get the nickname "God of Destruction” I don't know, I don't know, but I’m not breaking it.

It's me, letting out another sigh as I rest my hands on the keyboard.

「Huh. ......」

With a sigh, my eyelids droop. I shouldn't, I'm sleepy, probably because I haven't slept enough. I'm at work.

As I was fighting against sleepiness trying to stay conscious somehow, someone suddenly tapped me on the shoulder.

「Kaege-kun, kaege-kun.」

「fah」

This is Chief Ikeda. He looked anxiously at me, shaking my body

As I looked back in a hurry, Chief Ikeda spoke to me with a worried face.

「Don't worry, you're only in your second year.」

But as soon as Chief Ikeda who had been speaking to me suddenly turned his gaze to my display. The blood clearly drained from his face.

「What are you doing, kaege-kun? 」

「What? 」

The Chief tells me to get caught up and I look at the display.

What you see there is the SQL server operation console. But the SQL server I'm connecting to is not the name of the server I'm testing.

It's a production server.

「Oh, what? 」

「Hey, that's the master data on the production server! 」

As expected, Chief Ikeda was very upset by this. No, some of the other remaining employees are clearly in a panic.

HIF Corporation accepts travel applications 24/7. The production servers are also running at full capacity without a break, of course. I had messed with the master data on that server.

No, if you say you got your hands on it, it's still there. This SQL statement is the syntax for data deletion. As you can imagine, he was upset by this.

「aah awaawawa」

「Yamamoto, stop HIF's production server, roll it back immediately and contact Sasaki-san about this afternoon's data loss! 」

Chief Ikeda sends out instructions in rapid succession. The production server of HIF Corporation is also backed up, as expected but backups are taken twice a day. It wouldn't have backed up until between noon and this time yet.

In other words, it's data corruption.

Chief Ikeda's voice has changed from the cold tone it was before, and he tells me.

「Kaege-kun, now, small conference room.」

「Ah......Yes......」

This is no way to rebel. I'd like to go to the bathroom but I don't think I can afford it.

I immediately put my computer to sleep and headed to the small conference room. I stood and bowed my head in front of Chief Ikeda as he sat down with his elbows on the table.

「Haa...... really, what a thing you've done, my dear.」

「I'm sorry sir, I've been trying not to touch the master data on the ...... server but ...... the SQL statements are ......」

I apologized as I bowed deeply to Chief Ikeda who, as expected could not hide his dismay.

There's no excuse for this. Obviously, the damage to the company would be significant. As I was apologizing and slightly evasive, Chief Ikeda slammed the table as hard as he could.

「Are you telling me that the SQL statement accessed the production server database on its own? 」

「Hitto ...... no ......」

I replied to the angry Chief with a trembling body.

That's true, if I didn't manipulate the SQL statement this wouldn't happen. I'm sure it wasn't intentional but that's no excuse.

Holding his head in his hands, Chief Ikeda groaned.

「It's still okay for equipment in my company to break, I can fix it and buy a new one if I pay for it. Project production and development data can also be restored by rolling back from backup.」

The Chief is stunned and quietly angry as he hurls more and more words at me. Even the kindly section chief is upset by this and his anger is not likely to subside for the time being.

Of course, I'm on my feet the whole time. Once again, the Chief tapped on the conference room table.

「But that's not the only way to get the master data in the production database! HIF's service is running 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and if there is damage to the data, the customer's customer data will be blown away!!」

「Uh...」

Chief Ikeda, with his harsh tone, shouts loudly at me. My body shuddered once more and at the same time a mixture of nervousness, fear and exhaustion made me drift away from consciousness.

「(Oh, shit, I haven't slept ......, I'm too tired, I'm too nervous, I'm unconscious...)」

My head is spinning, I can't stand. I tried to use the chair as a support on the spot but I couldn't make it in time and collapsed to the floor.

「Oh—」

「hey, Kaege-kun? Hey, Kaege-kun? 」

The voice of the section chief rushing towards me became more and more distant.

「 (Chief, I'm sorry, Sa--) 」

No words of apology to Chief Ikeda were spoken. As it was, my consciousness went completely dark.