How Hard can Losing Money even Be?

It was a regular wednesday morning.

Today Lucy arrived at Dog Street, Building No. 69.

She stood quietly on the sidewalk for a moment, adjusting the strap of her bag as her eyes swept across the surrounding area.

The building itself wasn’t bad.

In fact, compared to many newly established startups, it was fairly decent.

The exterior looked clean, the structure was modern enough, and the nearby streets weren’t particularly rundown either.

But...

Lucy glanced around again thoughtfully.

The location was strange. Very strange.

From a worker’s perspective, this wasn’t considered a good office location at all.

Tenda City’s layout was fairly distinct.

The university zone occupied the eastern side of the city, where students, cheap apartments, cafés, bookstores, and convenience stores clustered together densely.

It was lively, noisy, and always crowded with young people.

Meanwhile, the true business district sat almost on the opposite side.

High-rise office buildings. Financial companies. Corporate headquarters. Commercial towers.

That was where most proper companies established themselves.

As for residential districts, those spread around the central zones in between, allowing ordinary workers to commute reasonably to either side of the city.

Dog Street, however...

It sat awkwardly somewhere between the university zone and the outer commercial areas.

Too far from the student district to conveniently recruit interns.

Too far from residential areas for comfortable daily commuting. And not prestigious enough to count as a real business location either. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

It was the kind of place companies usually avoided unless rent was cheap.

Lucy looked up toward the building again.

"...An investment company chose this location?"

That alone already felt unusual.

Normally, investment firms cared heavily about appearances.

Prestigious offices, central business districts and convenient transportation.

Those things mattered when dealing with clients and investors.

Yet Autumn Investment had instead rented office space here of all places.

Lucy couldn’t quite understand the logic behind it.

Still...

Her expression remained calm.

She had worked long enough to know that bosses came in all kinds of strange varieties.

Compared to the CEO who demands their employees to stay overnight in the office without any overtime pay and even dock their salary...

A boss with weird location preferences honestly wasn’t that concerning.

At least this one respected working hours.

That alone already raised Benny’s image considerably in her mind.

After adjusting her bag once more, Lucy finally walked toward the entrance of Building No. 69.

Her heels clicked softly against the floor as she stepped inside.

Today would officially be her first day working at Autumn Investment Co.

Stepping into the office floor, she paused briefly while the silence greeted her.

The entire space was empty except for the faint hum of electronics already running somewhere inside.

At first glance, the office looked... bland.

Very bland.

There was no decorations nor any company logo.

There wasn’t even a reception desk.

It barely looked like a proper company office yet.

And yet, her eyes slowly moved across the room again.

The computer setups immediately stood out.

Ten complete workstation arrangements lined the office neatly in two rows.

Dual monitors. High-end desktops. Ergonomic peripherals.

Even Lucy, who wasn’t particularly knowledgeable about computers, could tell these weren’t cheap.

The contrast felt oddly jarring.

The office chairs and desks themselves were simple and standard, clearly chosen with budget considerations in mind.

But the computers?

Overkill.

Absolute overkill for a startup company.

It felt like someone had intentionally spent all the money on performance while ignoring everything else.

Her gaze drifted further across the office.

The space itself was surprisingly large.

Spacious enough that the empty areas between desks almost looked excessive.

Most startups would’ve squeezed in far more employees to maximize rent efficiency.

But here, every workstation was separated comfortably enough that people could practically hold conversations across them without lowering their voices.

Lucy silently took note of it.

An open layout with a wide spacing along with a weird minimal supervision visibility.

Not exactly the most productivity-oriented design.

Then her eyes landed on something strange in the far corner, it was a meeting table.

She paused as she noticed it was a very expensive-looking meeting table.

Dark polished wood. Premium finish. Large enough for formal corporate discussions.

And completely out of place.

The thing barely fit inside the office properly.

In fact, it looked like the office layout itself had been awkwardly adjusted just to force the table into the room somehow.

Lucy stared at it quietly for several seconds.

"..."

The more she looked around, the stranger the office felt.

The room was technically spacious.

Yet at the same time...

It somehow also felt cramped.

Not because of employee density but because the furniture priorities made absolutely no sense.

High-end computer systems. Oversized meeting table. Minimal office infrastructure.

It was like the office had been assembled according to impulse rather than planning.

Still...

Lucy eventually lowered her gaze slightly and adjusted her thoughts.

This was a startup company.

A newly established one at that.

And based on Mr. Benny’s age, this was likely his first business as well.

Inexperienced decisions were normal.

Besides, her job wasn’t to question the office layout.

All she needed to do was assist the boss properly and follow instructions.

With that thought, Lucy quietly walked deeper into the office and began organizing the workspace calmly by herself.