Nick decided that this would be the best moment to find out more about Happiness Through Taste ;).
For the first time in several days, Nick left the wall of the city and moved closer to the four people.
The two assistants were walking behind the two leaders of Happiness Through Taste ;) and writing down some occasional directives.
"Have you talked to Jeanny?" the CEO asked.
The CZE shook his head. "She hasn't been to the office in a while. She says she's too busy."
The CEO frowned. "Again? Why is she missing this time?"
"Family emergency," the CZE answered evenly.
The CEO's good mood seemed to vanish.
Then, he stopped and turned fully to the CZE. "I don't think she has the Happiness Through Taste ;) spirit."
The CZE frowned and fell into thought.
He seemed to struggle with something, but in the end, he only sighed. "Sadly, that might be possible. I heard some of her colleagues talking about something she said. Apparently, after the last monthly Tasty Retreat :P, she said that all of our Funny Hours xD are just there to bind the employees more to the company so that they don't leave due to our, alleged, low salaries."
The CEO seemed to get legitimately angry. "Why did you not tell me earlier? You know how important the Funny Hours xD are to the Happy Family :). Anyone who's not living the Happiness Through Taste ;) Spirit is a danger to the Happy Family :)."
The CZE seemed a bit saddened. "I wasn't sure if it was true since I just overheard her colleagues talking. They might've just tried to banish her from the Happy Family :)."
The CZE sighed. "Sadly, it seems I was naïve."
"I can confirm that," the CEO said. "You keep trusting your employees too much. Yes, we are the Happy Family :), but we also have to protect our Tasties from bad influences."
The two of them continued talking as they approached a gigantic gate leading to a big cave.
Nick was floating after them.
'Even if they weren't involved in this entire thing, I would still hate them,' Nick thought with annoyance as he kept regretting that he had ears.
One of the two assistants quickly ran past the two leaders and opened the gate for them.
The two leaders kept talking while they entered the company grounds.
Nick easily entered the company with them.
The inside of Happiness Through Taste ;) was surprisingly colorful.
While the majority of the city was grey and black, the hallways in here had bright colors everywhere.
The walls were a bright yellow with several paintings of green, red, white, and blue candies covering them.
Every single one of the sweets had a bright smile plastered on its face.
The furniture was uneven and looked like candy that partially melted.
Slogans and motivational posters were also covering the walls.
Nick wanted to take a deep breath, but he was currently in his mist form.
After looking around for a bit, Nick looked at the CZE and CEO again.
Surprisingly, their expressions had changed.
While they had seemed troubled and annoyed earlier, they now appeared happy.
Bright smiles were on their faces, and Nick could tell that the smiles were actually genuine.
It was not easy to show a genuine smile on command.
The two assistants behind them were also smiling, but their smiles didn't seem completely sincere.
"Could you pretty, pretty please finish the data sheets from the meeting?" the CEO asked his assistant with an endearing voice.
Nick could see unease and embarrassment in the assistant's eyes, but she did her best to hide it.
The next moment, she held up one of her thumbs while winking with one eye. "Okey Dokey, Daddy!"
"Thankies!" the CEO said with a bright smile.
Then, the assistant quickly ran away like an embarrassed girl who had just handed her crush a love letter.
Meanwhile, the CZE just nodded to his assistant, who walked away without saying anything.
"Big Bro, let's go to the Happy Thoughts," the CEO said.
Nick could also see some discomfort in the CZE's eyes, but he was extremely good at hiding it.
"Count me in, Lil Bro!" the CZE said, trying to sound positive, but his voice was far quieter than the CEO's.
The next moment, the CEO jumped onto some kind of board on the side of the hallway.
Nick hadn't even noticed that board before since it seemed unimportant.
The next moment, funny wheels came out of the board, which connected to a tiny rail on the ground.
Then, the board exploded forward with incredible speed.
"WHEEEEEE!" the CEO shouted.
Nick saw a couple of employees looking at the CEO.
A few of them seemed embarrassed, but a couple of them looked at the passing CEO with envy.
Sadly, only Adults and Parents were allowed to ride the Funny Board.
Teenagers, Kids, and Babies had to walk.
The CZE silently grabbed another board, stepped onto it, and also rode down the hallway.
"Wheee…"
His shout wasn't nearly as enthusiastic as the CEO's shout, but Nick could tell that the CZE actually had a little bit of fun while riding the Funny Board.
Nick floated after them, doing his best to suppress his hatred and rage.
He absolutely hated this company.
Everything they did went against his personality.
None of this idiotic happiness nonsense was genuine.
It was especially bad due to the contrast to the outside.
In the city, the poor people were surviving by harvesting maggots from the corpses of starving children, while here, everyone had to smile and shout idiotic phrases.
One also had to remember that it was this company that produced the chocolate, and the chocolate was the reason why everything was so dire out there.
'This company is a rotting carcass wearing a smiling mask.'
Nick kept following the two of them.
After a bit, they arrived in front of an uneven elevator. A goofy and wonky hand, wearing a glove, pointed at a number.
The CEO pressed a big button, and the sound of a fart came out of the wall.
The CEO giggled a bit, and the hand moved through the numbers of uneven size.
This was the Endorphin Elevator.
The two stepped inside and rode the elevator to one of the highest floors.
As soon as the elevator opened, Nick saw the most ridiculous hallway.
Everything was covered in objects that looked like molten candy.
One of the assistants from earlier was sitting at a desk beside a big door, writing something on a sheet of paper.
"Welcome back, Daddies!" she shouted with a bright smile, looking at the two leaders.
"Thank you, Honey!" the CEO shouted back.
The CZE said the same thing, but he was much quieter than the CEO.
A moment later, the two of them opened the big door and walked through.
The door behind them closed, and almost immediately, the entire vibe changed.
The smiles on their faces vanished.
The CEO looked serious and annoyed, while the CZE seemed stressed and exhausted.
The hallway was also the polar opposite of the previous one.
This one was completely grey, and everything was uniform and straight.
"You have to work on your acting skills," the CEO said with a cold voice. "You're not convincing anyone."
"I know, sorry. I'm doing my best," the CZE said with another sigh.
Then, the two of them walked in silence towards one of the meeting rooms on this floor.
After they entered, they sat down and grabbed a sheet of paper that was already on the big table.
The atrociously sweet atmosphere had completely vanished, replaced by one of cold and efficient corporatism.
Nick was also in the meeting room, and he slowly managed to calm down.
Going through the company's building had been far more mentally draining than he had ever imagined.
Over the next couple of hours, the two leaders kept discussing several numbers.
Most of the things they were talking about were unimportant to Nick.
After some time, a third guy showed up.
The two of them greeted him casually, and the three of them talked about a couple more things.
The newest guy seemed rather serious, but as soon as he joined, the topic changed to the corporate culture.
Apparently, this guy was the designer and enforcer of the company culture, and he was also responsible for hiring and firing personnel.
The CEO brought up Jeanny again and told the third guy to take care of it.
The third guy just wordlessly nodded, and after talking a bit more, he left again.
'This might take a while,' Nick thought as he kept listening to pointless things.
Well, the topics were not pointless to the company, but they were pointless to him.
Nick just wanted to know who their backer was.
'I just have to wait until something happens.'
'At some point, one of the Extractors or Manufacturers will try to do something, and eventually, they will talk about their backer.'
'Now, I just have to wait some more.