EM CH26

Chapter 26: The Exam Begins

Zhao Ran listened to the voice message twice through, having no idea where Yu An got this confidence. Had the kid still not gauged the strength of the other interns?

Before he could reply, another text popped up from Yu An: “What rank do you want me to get?”

Zhao Ran paused slightly, not overthinking it, and chuckled as he replied: “Naturally, I want you to take first place…” The key was that it wasn’t a matter of whether he wanted it or not; it wasn’t a bad thing for the kid to have this confidence, and Zhao Ran didn’t want to dampen his spirits.

Yu An: “A bit difficult. Let’s negotiate a reward.”

Like bargaining with his own kid before final exams, Zhao Ran played along and asked: “What do you want?”

Yu An replied with only a single word: “You.”

Two light knocks sounded on the office door before it swung open. Subordinate Xiao Qi walked in holding files, spotting the team leader chuckling at his phone. He had been in high spirits recently; it had been a long time since he spent the night drinking himself to oblivion in the office.

“Team Leader, the big boss wants you in the conference hall.” Xiao Qi quietly tidied up the messy desk. A pair of severed hands hopped down from Xiao Qi’s shoulder: Lipu in tiny sunglasses and Kaopu in a silver-and-black punk ring landed before Zhao Ran, their fingertips curling dejectedly.

Seeing the two of them, Zhao Ran’s temper flared. Reclining in his swivel chair, he turned with a cold sneer: “Your fingers have certainly grown stiff, haven’t they? You still know how to come back.”

Xiao Qi kept his eyes lowered as he smoothed out the documents: “They were hiding in Yu An’s backpack and failed the exam security checkpoint. Otherwise, they had no intention of returning. Confiscated along with them were three handguns.”

“Where did the guns come from?”

“An incident occurred in the South District this morning. Members of the Cartel were smuggling soil from a site previously used to store experimental waste and got caught by the patrol team. Someone in the Cartel was armed and clashed with our people. Yu An was there at the time.”

The Cartel was an underground syndicate in Hongli City that primarily operated transport lines. Relying on the backing of the influential families above them, they dared take on shipments that standard courier networks wouldn’t touch, boasting that as long as enough money was paid, even the Statue of Liberty could be delivered next day.

“He didn’t get hurt, did he?”

“No. He swept the Cartel’s guns and ammunition into his own bag and took off. We don’t know what their boss will say yet.”

“Sounds like low-level lackeys taking private gigs. I’ll deal with it later. First, I’ll go see what the big boss wants.” Straightening his tie, Zhao Ran rose and walked toward the door. The two little hands followed reluctantly in a hurry. Kaopu was visibly downcast, while Lipu walked on its index and middle fingers, rubbing its thumb across its eyes as if weeping, scrambling up Zhao Ran’s ankle and vanishing into his pale strands of hair.

The conference hall was spacious and grand, furnished with genuine leather sofas for senior executives to meet in comfort, flanked by coffee, champagne, fruit, and pastries. Curved wrap-around screens were mounted across the interior walls, with the big boss’s seat stationed at the very front.

Zhao Ran arrived last. Stepping through the doors, he was taken aback by the packed room. Virtually every senior executive of Underground Railway had gathered here, mingling in groups of twos and threes with drinks in hand.

An ominous premonition crept in.

“You’ve arrived.” The big boss was dressed in his signature vintage robe as usual, though for today’s special occasion he had added a touch of modern flair, sporting a pair of fine gold-chain spectacles. He rested a hand on Zhao Ran’s back. “The company hasn’t held a proper annual gathering in a long time. Using the intern assessment meeting as an opportunity, let’s all enjoy some lively excitement.”

On a sofa close by, a burly, tanned man holding a tumbler turned his upper body, flashing a provocative grin at Zhao Ran. Pinned to his chest was the Underground Railway Rapid Response Team badge, with the name “Duan Ke” engraved below.

Zhao Ran pulled the corner of his lip.

“Heard you took on a top-student technician?” Team Leader Duan looked back with a smirk, stroking the short patch of beard on his chin. “With your level of education, can you even communicate with him?”

“Naturally, it’s a bit difficult, unlike conversing with Duan-ge, which flows so smoothly.” Tucking a hand into his pocket, Zhao Ran leaned against the edge of Duan Ke’s sofa, picking up a glass of juice from the tray.

“Technicians are pretty nice too, unlike us weathering wind and rain, working along the razor’s edge.” Normally, Team Leader Duan disliked technical personnel most of all: eating from the same bowl, yet technicians got to sit around making money without shouldering half the risk, while the Rapid Response Team specialized in answering citizen distress calls to clear out Illusion Chambers, carrying an extraordinarily high casualty rate in the field.

“How could anyone match Team Leader Duan’s luck? Picking up an intern just by going on a field run to a crematorium.”

Team Leader Duan took a self-satisfied sip of liquor: “Hmph… Seeing that kid so pitiful, my conscience wouldn’t rest without lending a hand.”

“Lending two hands,” Zhao Ran patted his shoulder, “including the hand lent when he was detained by the Eagle Bureau as an arsonist.”

Team Leader Duan’s face darkened instantly.

Duan Ke was aggressively competitive, and his rivalry with Zhao Ran wasn’t a matter of just a day or two. Because the operational scope between their teams heavily overlapped, both team leaders wished to absorb the other’s core members into their own division. While they could unite against outside threats on external missions, they fought tooth and nail the moment they returned to headquarters. The big boss frequently dispatched one of them away on assignment just to earn a bit of peace and quiet.

“You two pipe down.” Reclining on a sofa nearby, a woman rested her bowl-thick, three-strand braid on the armrest, filing her peacock-green nails with an emery board as she lifted her eyelashes: “Instead of wasting breath, you’d better give the emergency medical team a heads-up early. If such a precious student gets sliced up, crippled, or killed, don’t you dare come looking for trouble with our Xiao Lan.”

Urban Patrol Team Leader Yuan Xiaoying was the premier instigator and spectator of Underground Railway. There was no drama she couldn’t stoke, having talked countless golden couples into breakups with her sharp tongue, earning her the title of City Demolition Bureau.

Clutching an antique folding fan, the big boss sat back into the sofa, taking a gentle sip from his teacup: “I suddenly made a decision. The rules for this intern assessment meeting cannot follow the old clichés of the past. So after profound contemplation, I decided to link the written exam and the strength test back-to-back. The moment they finish their papers, they exit the safe house directly to undergo the strength test.”

The moment the words fell, the executives present broke into hushed discussions. Those without interns felt entirely relaxed, content to sip their drinks and enjoy the show while on the clock, but the several team leaders doubling as interviewers could barely sit still.

“Splendid idea.” Zhao Ran barely restrained himself from leaping to his feet on the spot. “Do the students know?”

Intoxicated by his own new resolution, the big boss set down his teacup, pressed his fingertips together, and said leisurely: “They do not. But that is what makes it fun. The kids ought to experience our corporate culture as early as possible: which will arrive first, tomorrow or an unexpected accident?”

The wrap-around screens in the conference hall flickered on simultaneously, providing a 360-degree view of every intern’s performance, alongside mobile camera feeds that could switch to standout candidates during critical moments.

The written exam had already begun. Each examinee was placed alone in a small room without windows, featuring only two doors: entering from the right, and exiting through the left upon completing the paper.

Everyone’s eyes converged on the surrounding display screens.

The three team leaders competing openly and secretly began seeking out their respective interns.

Halfway through writing, Huo Yangui accidentally let out a sneeze, and a tongue of flame set half his paper ablaze.

“…” Team Leader Duan raked a hand through his hair, rubbing his chin as he turned away.

“It’s just a written exam; it can’t carry that many points.” Utterly nonchalant, Team Leader Yuan pulled out lipstick to touch up before a compact mirror, though her eyes couldn’t resist darting toward Ni Lan’s feed.

Ni Lan sat with her legs crossed, a high heel dangling from her toe. Removing a die earring, she rolled it in her palm, tossed it onto the paper, got a three, picked up her pen, and jotted ‘C’ into the brackets.

“That’s a fill-in-the-blank question.” Team Leader Yuan’s lipstick smeared straight across her cheek.

Leaning against the table, Zhao Ran propped his chin, pressing his mouth to hold back laughter, but failed, drawing glares from the other two team leaders.

Still, he knew that the written exam of the assessment meeting was traditionally an event designed to give technicians points, preventing their final scores from looking too grim. He could only pin his hopes on Yu An racking up higher marks on the test paper.

Lifting his juice, he looked toward the big screen. Yu An was seated before the paper, a carbon pen twirling casually between his fingers.

He could write down answers to multiple-choice and true-or-false questions with a single glance without hesitation. The short-answer section asked for basic code scripts and general theory questions; aside from the physical time spent writing, it presented zero difficulty.

“Please briefly describe the developmental process of an Aberrant.”

Twirling the pen twice, Yu An wrote with a rustle: “Larval stage, growth stage, cocooning stage, eclosion stage. Corresponding to the four growth phases of a butterfly: egg, larva, pupa, adult. This is the necessary path of Aberrant development. During the cocooning stage, the Aberrant seeks a secluded corner to weave a cocoon, revealing its true form, turning berserk, and losing consciousness and reason. Left undisturbed, the Aberrant will successfully eclose. Post-eclosion, its combat power multiplies exponentially, but it dies within six hours.”

Yet this was merely the standard textbook answer; Yu An had always harbored doubts about it. The eclosion stage felt more like a creature’s self-destruction in a moment of mortal crisis: it could eclose successfully if undisturbed, but what if someone disturbed it? What alterations would the Aberrant undergo? Regarding this point, Yu An had no way of knowing.

Finishing the paper, half an hour still remained before the exam concluded. Tossing the pen aside, Yu An leaned back against the chair, zoning out.

In his mind, he briefly recalled the photograph the interviewer had shown him. Among these ten interns, one was an undercover agent sent by a rival firm; he had to eliminate this person silently during the strength test.

However, he had no intention of wiping out the target right at the start. Letting the target roam the arena and eliminate several competitors on his behalf was a solid bargain. If one wanted to stay undercover, their scores couldn’t be too conspicuous; he would definitely choose to eliminate one or two interns, then hole up in a corner, keeping a low profile.

Feeling bored, Yu An slung on his shoulder bag, picked up the paper, and slapped it against the door: “Submitting.”

A black-suited guard opened the door, collected the exam paper from Yu An’s hands, and gestured for him to exit through the left door.

Yu An felt suspicious, but followed the guard’s direction nonetheless.

Pushing open the left door, he stepped directly into an underground corridor. A signpost stood ahead in the tunnel, bearing four characters: “Strength Test.”

“Strength test…? Wasn’t that scheduled for tomorrow…” Yu An’s eyes narrowed slightly.

Trouble. Yu An abruptly picked up his pace, sprinting toward the end of the tunnel, drawing the Arrogant Bat from his shoulder bag to grip in hand, closing in on the exit at maximum speed.

If the strength test was linked directly to the written exam, examinees who submitted early had ample time to camp outside other exits, while late submitters would fall into a severe disadvantage. Wasting time daydreaming after finishing his paper earlier was costly; he had to exercise double caution stepping outside.

During exam security, the black-suited guards had only screened out the handguns, leaving everything else intact in the backpack. That indicated firearms were barred in the strength test, but any other weapons and tools were permitted.

The rules of the strength test were simple: ten examinees entered the same space for a free-for-all brawl under an elimination format. Each examinee’s written exam room served as their personal safe house for temporary shelter, but entering another examinee’s safe house resulted in immediate elimination.

The rules included several bonus scoring opportunities for technicians: ten damaged elimination pits were scattered across the grounds, requiring circuit reconnection and minor script debugging; falling into an elimination pit also counted as being eliminated.

Underground Railway technicians were forced to accompany investigators into the field during emergencies, so maintaining composure under extreme pressure was an essential qualification.

Among the ten interns taking part in the assessment meeting, there were three technicians including Yu An, and seven investigators.

Judging by the exam questions, the written section skewed heavily toward technician expertise; for investigators, facing questions that left them baffled meant they rarely waited until the deadline to turn in blank sheets. Those submitting last would mostly be technicians.

With that in mind, Yu An propped the Arrogant Bat on his shoulder and crept forward toward the other written exam rooms.