A well structured story with good world building and character development. Kellerman's downfall through his obsessive commitment to efficiency is darkly ironic and painful to witness. Even when he hits the lowest point in his pursuit for efficiency, and stands in the ruins of what extreme efficiency has created, he finds himself incapable of change; analysing his own experience of remorse for efficiency improvement.

I'd love to know what inspired this story.

There is one sentence that felt a little strange: "Kellerman finally looked at her, his eyes beating rhythmically." Eyes beating is not something one would usually consider. It feels a little jarring and out of place. Perhaps you could explain what is meant by this line.

Finally, using AI images is perfectly ok in The Ink Well, but we do require that you state which AI programme was used to create them. On this occasion, I am curating your piece, but future stories need the image sourcing to be more specific :-)