Chapter 109: Recruitment Exam

"Heh—"

Lifting his head from the bustling crowd, Tian Sheng couldn't help but yawn.

With thick dark circles under his eyes, messy hair like a chicken's nest, and wearing an old-fashioned jacket... if not for the admission ticket he wore while standing outside the exam hall's gate, people would likely think he was some homeless man from who knows where.

In fact, because his appearance was rather suspicious, the security guards nearby had been watching him covertly; that vague, lingering gaze pricking his skin was something even Tian Sheng, for all his dullness, could detect.

Awkwardly lifting the bottled water he held, he took a swig, then helplessly shifted to a spot farther from the crowd to prove his harmlessness.

Making his personal appearance look like this was never his intention; he simply had no time for image management.

To cope with the recruitment exam for the Bureau of Anomalies, he had studied hard every night these past days. Except for his daytime work hours at Fuli Academy, almost all his time was spent reading and solving problems, leaving him with no energy to attend to life's trivial matters.

The recruitment exam for the Bureau of Anomalies was an important opportunity for most magicians seeking stable employment.

As long as one had no criminal record and a clean background, every magician could attempt to pass the exam and enter the Bureau of Anomalies, thereby becoming an official and enjoying conditions and environments far superior to researching spells among the common folk.

As a law-abiding civilian magician, Tian Sheng, though his spellcraft was average, still harbored the desire to join the Bureau of Anomalies.

During this period, even his sleep time was encroached upon. Even though he knew the exam was today and had gone to bed early last night, the sleep debt accumulated over many days could not be made up in a single day.

Whenever such moments came, Tian Sheng would deeply miss the student he had been years ago: back then, he could pull all-nighters for many days straight, then sleep once and wake up refreshed; now, he simply lacked the energy to squander.

Gently wiping the tears squeezed out by his yawn from the corner of his eye, he looked toward the exam hall's gate and couldn't help but smack his lips: "I'll have to catch up on sleep properly for the next few days."

Although the exam hadn't even started yet, he was already imagining the carefree days after everything ended and he walked out of the exam hall.

No wonder his mind was restless; he had truly put in so much effort preparing for today's exam. With such hard work finally nearing its end, it was natural to feel a strange excitement.

Driven by this excitement, he had arrived at the exam hall gate early in the morning, waiting there before the hall even opened.

Of course, he didn't seem to be the only one with such thoughts; quite a few people had gathered at the entrance waiting.

Some were muttering to themselves, probably reciting from memory; others stared fixedly at paper handouts in their hands, who knew what last-minute cramming they were doing; still others had spread out books and problem sets right there, racing against time to confirm key and difficult questions.

Heh, a bunch of underachievers.

Loitering at the edge of the crowd, watching this scene, Tian Sheng felt the daily hardships of exam preparation somewhat alleviated, and a strange sense of lofty superiority arose within him.

A strange smile appeared on his face; as if sipping some precious beverage, he took a sip of the bottled water in his hand.

Unfortunately, no one present could understand his feelings; his strange behavior made him look even more suspicious, causing the security guards to become even more vigilant.

So, with only half an hour left until the exam began, when the exam hall gate finally opened, the other candidates around were admitted normally, while only Tian Sheng was stopped at the entrance.

After security guards questioned him back and forth and his information was verified repeatedly, Tian Sheng finally entered the exam hall amidst their apologies. By then, only fifteen minutes remained before the exam started.

Carrying the bottled water and stationery case, he walked briskly until the security booth at the entrance was no longer visible in his line of sight; only then did he suddenly turn around and flip the bird toward the direction he had come from.

After flipping the bird, he felt it wasn't enough to vent his anger, so he gritted his teeth and stuck out his pinky, then inverted his thumb, then flipped the bird with both hands simultaneously toward the distance... until passing candidates around him began staring at him with strange looks, Tian Sheng finally withdrew his hand and continued walking as if nothing had happened.

If he really got hired, he would definitely find a chance to come back and give them a piece of his mind. He thought secretly in his heart.

Of course, that could only be a thought for now.

The venue for this recruitment exam was not at the Bureau of Anomalies' headquarters but was set up at a training institution under the Bureau, located not far from the city center; even driving here would take over half an hour. This meant that if he came here specially in the future, he would spend an extra half hour on transportation costs, which would be completely not worth it.

With these chaotic thoughts swirling in his mind, Tian Sheng followed the crowd into the exam hall, recalling his exam room and seat number, searching the corridor for where his exam location actually was.

The teaching building housing the exam hall was somewhat old; the style of its interior decoration showed it had been built some years ago. Such buildings were not uncommon in Fuli Academy where he worked; walking through it made him subconsciously recall his usual work.

Similarly old buildings, similarly lively environment; suddenly, his previously somewhat resentful mood inexplicably calmed down.

At the same time, he once again remembered his recent worries.

Starting several months ago, he always felt as though he had forgotten something.

This process was hard to explain, but from some day onward, he suddenly couldn't recall clearly what he had done the few days prior.

He vaguely remembered that those days he should have gone to work normally at Fuli Academy, then encountered a crisis: a gray magic organization had infiltrated Fuli Academy, planning a very brutal terrorist attack that killed many people.

Yet, though it should have been an unforgettable experience, he always felt it was as unreal as a dream.

In his memory, he seemed to have been hiding in a storage room the whole time, only daring to emerge after the terrorists were subdued by the later-arriving magical girls and the Bureau of Anomalies.

However, his subconscious kept telling him: things were not like that; everything was not that simple. His experience should have been far more exciting than this.

This left him utterly puzzled.

He knew very well what kind of person he was: cowardly, seeking pleasure. If he really encountered a terrorist attack, he would definitely hide in a concealed place until the very end; that was the action most consistent with his character.

He would never recklessly expose his own life to danger; that would be too unwise.

This was the contradiction he felt: the behavior in his memory completely matched his character and fully aligned with his interests; everything was so reasonable, so why did he still feel it was so fake?

Why did he feel that, during the terrorist attack at Fuli Academy, he should have been a character who made some contribution?

Was it simply a case of chuunibyou delusions at work?

Thinking about these questions in his mind, he momentarily failed to notice the scene ahead, and suddenly felt his shoulder bumped.

He turned his head and saw a young man in a Bureau of Anomalies uniform beside him, with an exam hall badge hanging on his chest; he seemed to be the proctor for this exam.

"... Ah, sorry."

Provoking a proctor inside an exam hall was not a wise choice; thinking about his exam results, Tian Sheng quickly lowered his head and apologized: "I was just spacing out and didn't watch where I was going; I'm really very sorry."

His apology was very straightforward, but after he finished speaking, the other party did not reply.

That young man, after bumping shoulders with him, for some reason stopped, stood still, and just stared at him silently without uttering a word.

This made Tian Sheng immediately feel his scalp tingle; he wondered if the other party held a grudge against him. Being held in a grudge by a proctor before an exam was very bad news; if the other party was truly petty enough, he feared he would be given a hard time during the exam.

He had prepared for this exam for so long; how could he tolerate his efforts being nullified by external factors?

Better to explain a bit more and see if he could obtain the other party's forgiveness.

Thinking this, he began to recall in his mind, pondering exactly how he had provoked this man in that brief instant, but he could find no possible factor at all.

Was it because his dazed look in the exam hall left a bad impression? Or did the other party simply dislike physical contact?

Just as he was utterly puzzled, the young man before him suddenly moved again.

He still did not speak, nor did his expression change in any way; it was as if Tian Sheng was completely invisible in his field of vision. Without giving him another chance to say anything, he turned around and walked away with his back to Tian Sheng.

This left Tian Sheng momentarily stunned, unsure whether he should chase after to explain.

If he chased after, what if the other party found him annoying instead? If he didn't chase after, would he miss the last chance to apologize?

This choice was not easy, so it made his forehead break out in sweat. Just as he was worrying about it, he suddenly felt an itch on the tip of his nose; instinctively, he reached out to scratch it, but saw only a tiny black shadow suddenly break free from his hand and fly forward.

Tian Sheng's dynamic vision was not poor, so he could vaguely make out that it was a moth.

Under his gaze, that moth flew straight ahead, finally landing behind the strange man within his line of sight; after hovering for a moment, it simply slipped into the man's collar.

This caused Tian Sheng's mind to completely freeze.

What was going on? What happened? Did I see it wrong?

A string of questions popped into his mind, causing him to instinctively rub his eyes and look again, only to find the moth was nowhere to be seen.

"... Is it a technique?" Tian Sheng muttered to himself, "Forget it, it's better not to talk to such a strange person anymore."

He came here for the exam, not to meddle in others' affairs. No matter how strange this proctor looked, it had nothing to do with him at all.

Perhaps the other party's bizarre behavior just now and that moth were merely a warning? Or a prank? Forget it, who cares.

Shaking his head, Tian Sheng stopped thinking further and continued forward along the direction he had come from. Soon, both he and the young man wearing the Yice Bureau uniform left this place, disappearing at opposite ends of the corridor.

This somewhat secluded corridor returned to silence once again.

Of course, saying it was silence was not quite accurate, because if someone stopped here to listen quietly, they would hear a very faint noise.

Tian Sheng also failed to notice that the direction from which the young man emerged was actually quite unusual.

The young man had walked out of a safety exit in the hallway, and the faint noise came from the shadows of that safety exit; if one approached closer, one could even hear a strange "rustling" sound faintly emanating from within.

The faint sounds of friction and collision were swallowed by the darkness, yet noticed by no one.

(End of this chapter)