Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong
Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/
Chapter 7: Entry Physical Examination
In addition to Yin Ren and Zhong Chengshuo, there were also four other examinees present.
When the evil qi leaked out from the vision examination room, two of them changed their faces—they were both ordinary looking. One was a man who was wearing a blue vest and was tall and thin. The other was a woman with curly hair wearing a red fedora.
Blue Vest and Red Fedora seemed to know each other as they exchanged slightly nervous glances.
The two of them were covered with common gadgets of things found in a small market, such as jade plaques, pendants of various colors, and suspicious wooden beads. They were all entangled in a pile and clattered with each of their movements.
Yin Ren peeped with interest. Those items exuded a small amount of magic aura, so they were most likely low-level spiritual weapons.
Cultivators who were just getting started liked to use these things. After thousands of years, this tradition still hadn’t changed much. Such spiritual artifacts were easy to start with and made lively noises when worn, which was conducive to strengthening courage.
Unfortunately, the courage of these two wasn’t strong enough. Their expressions were solemn as they whispered to each other for a while, then they retreated.
When Yin Ren turned his head, he realized something was wrong.
That was just a distraction. He himself was at the forefront to be examined first—seeing him not moving, Zhong Chengshuo consciously stood behind him. Several other people were so happy that someone took the lead that they instantly formed a line behind him.
Yin Ren: “……”
A dead Taoist friend won’t die in poverty*, right? Yin Ren slowly looked at Zhong Chengshuo, who had an innocent look on his face.
*(死道友不死贫道是) It’s a saying that means harming the interests of others for the sake of one’s own interests. || In this context, basically Yin Ren inadvertently took the lead to go first for the exam, and everyone’s happy that they don’t have to be the first guinea pig.
With Yin Ren as the leader, the small team was neatly arranged. The four people remained motionless, as if they were holding some bizarre ceremony. With no one coming in for so long, the person behind the door said in a muffled voice, “You can come in, one at a time.”
Yin Ren made sure that his evil qi was sealed without flaws before he bit the bullet and opened the door. As soon as he stepped into the room, the heavy wooden door closed behind him with a loud bang.
Behind the door was a big white wall.
The wall was covered with tiny cracks, and a piece of paper was passed in the most conspicuous area. The white paper was a little yellowed, and it said something along the lines of “Please remove your glasses, contact lenses, and all spiritual artifacts you’re carrying.”. On the side were metal lockers full of keys that were dangling from orange number plates and looked like some kind of brightly colored fungus.
Everything smelled like it had been used for years.
Passing through the narrow entrance, the space immediately widened.
There were no windows in the room. The lights were dim, and there was a dense surge of evil qi coming from the right. Yin Ren didn’t determine the source of the evil qi but instead looked straight at the corner of the wall, his face remaining unchanged.
In the corner of the wall, there was a large group of things squeezed together, which was particularly incompatible with the cold and clean space.
That thing vaguely had a human form, but it was two-to-three times larger than an ordinary human. Its soft fleshes were stacked on top of each other. Its limbs and head were swallowed by layers of fat, leaving only a few bulges, and its skin was covered with crimson cracks.
This thing was like a bulging beehive, pulling out countless amounts of pale red mucus from its body and filling the corner like honey. As the huge body converged, the mucus exuded a light, fishy smell similar to egg whites.
It wasn’t good to stare at others, so Yin Ren politely withdrew his gaze and surveyed the entire room.
A man and a woman sat in the corner, near the beehive.
They wore the standard uniforms of the staff and had identification cards hanging around their necks. The cold light shone on the faces of the two of them, revealing a complexion that resembled corpses.
In front of them, in addition to the notebooks and pens, there was a dark, flattened spoon-like thing. If Yin Ren’s modern knowledge reserve was richer, he would know that this was called an “eye occluder”
Fortunately, the staff was very considerate.
They didn’t seem to care about Yin Ren’s abnormal behavior of “staring at the corner” and planned to guide him step by step.
“Use this to cover one side of your eyes and then point out the direction ‘they’ are pointing.” The female staff member handed over the eye occluder.
As soon as she finished speaking, a white light suddenly lit up to Yin Ren’s right.
The “wall” that was overflowing with evil qi became transparent, and it was only now that Yin Ren realized the actual size of the room.
The room was divided into two parts, and the space he was standing in only took up half of it. The right half of the room was separated by a glass wall and was hidden in the shadows. It was painted black and divided into twelve equal parts with white lines with the characters 1 to 12 painted on them.
A monster stood beneath each of the corresponding numbers.
The monster on the far left should be an ordinary ghost, with only a faint silver-white outline. It squatted against the wall and looked so weak that it could dissipate at any second. The monster on the far right was shaped like an irregular sarcoma. It was bound by rusty iron chains, and the evil qi it was exuding was about equal to 10 Resentment Baskets.
In the gap between the chains, it stretched out a segmented tentacle-like thing, pointing upwards.
This was indeed a vision check, but unfortunately it wasn’t checking for the strength of one’s eyesight, but rather the “astral eye’s” vision.
“Are you ready?” the male staff member asked in a hoarse voice.
Yin Ren nodded and picked up the eye occluder.
“Starting from the number 12, just point out the direction you see. Okay, let’s start. Number 12.”
The sarcoma-shaped monster moved. The original bent tentacle suddenly stretched straight and pointed at the ceiling.
This guy was in pretty good spirits. If it had a waist, it would be very straight. Yin Ren scanned it back and forth with suspicious eyes several times, trying to find the Shian employee card.
Seeing Yin Ren just looking at it, No. 12 shook its tentacles vigorously and pointed up slowly again. Although it had no face, Yin Ren felt a trace of kindness out of nowhere—it looked like it was teaching a child who didn’t know any better.
Yin Ren stretched out his hand speechlessly and pointed upwards.
The sarcoma made a satisfied grunt, and its tentacles wrapped around to form the shape of a human hand and gave him a “thumbs up”.
Although he didn’t know what that meant, Yin Ren smiled awkwardly and gave the same gesture back.
……
When asked about No. 5, Yin Ren deliberately made a laborious appearance.
Upon seeing this, the female staff member knocked on the table and made a gesture toward the glass. All the monsters changed their directions. This scene was repeated a few times to make sure that it wasn’t a fluke that Yin Ren guessed correctly before they moved on. During the entire process, the monsters were extremely cooperative and even seemed as if they enjoyed it.
…Was Shian’s treatment really good? Yin Ren couldn’t help but feel a little moved.
His left and right eyes were tested alternately. He flattened the bowl and “reluctantly” answered No. 4.
“Not bad.”
The female staff member smiled briefly, causing a few extra stiff folds to raise at the corner of her mouth. She wrote furiously for a while, then stamped something on his examination form.
The lines of the seal were dark, and the pattern was similar to that of Fang Yuanyuan’s work permit.
“Take the examination form and turn right when you go out. The next check-up items are in no particular order. Try to finish your exam before 5 PM.” The female staff nodded at Yin Ren. “You can go now and call the next one in.”
After Yin Ren went out, he saw Zhong Chengshuo.
Seeing that Yin Ren was safe and sound, the rest of the group relaxed a bit, to varying degrees. Only Mr. Zhong was staring at a certain point in the void and had a thoughtful expression on his face.
Yin Ren patted Zhong Chengshuo on the shoulder and said, “Zhong Ge, it’s your turn.”
It looked as if Zhong Chengshuo had fallen asleep while standing, as it took him a while to recover. He blinked in confusion and then muttered, “Thank you.”
Yin Ren smiled at the rest of the group. He clinched his physical examination form and sat down on a black chair. There were definitely people watching him now, so he had to maintain the virtue of being human—in such a strange and gloomy place, a human wouldn’t ever go out alone.
Also, this would give him a chance to eavesdrop on the situation.
Unfortunately, reality didn’t go as smoothly as he imagined. The door panel was blessed with some kind of technique that made the other side as quiet as if it were underwater. The wooden door closed quickly, drowning out the sound of Zhong Chengshuo’s footsteps and the evil qi.
As a result, Mr. Zhong walked out with a solemn face within two minutes of entering.
He took the examination form in his hand, and the column for his vision was blank except for two bold “0.” The writing was quite heavy, indicating the staff’s surprise. At the top of the examination form was a very eye-catching red seal that was the same style as “Professor Li’s” work permit.
It seemed that this kid was blind and stable, which was reassuring.
“Let’s go together?” Yin Ren asked deliberately.
“Sure, but they told me to go this way. You as well?” Zhong Chengshuo didn’t seem bothered by the two 0s. He pointed calmly to the side of the red chair.
“I have to go out and turn right. Unfortunately, it’s a different path.”
Zhong Chengshuo nodded understandingly. “You can wait a little longer. There must be someone who’s going the same way as you.”
Having said that, Zhong Chengshuo turned around decisively and walked straight into the depths of the corridor. Despite the strange and weird environment, Zhong Chengshuo’s posture was relaxed. His figure was soon swallowed up by the darkness at the end.
Yin Ren: “……”
He didn’t understand whether he was being overly cautious or whether the hearts of humans today were too courageous. In view of Fang Yuanyuan’s emphasis on “don’t go in the wrong direction”, Yin Ren obediently waited in the chair. The tips of his long hair were slightly bent by the seat.
Yin Ren was patiently waiting for a “companion”.
Blue Vest and Red Fedora really knew each other. As soon as Blue Vest was finished, he wandered anxiously around the door until Red Fedora rejoined him with her examination results. The two didn’t deliberately hide their results. Their exam forms were stamped with black marks.
Yin Ren: “Do you want to wait together? This place is a bit eerie, so it’s better if there are more people.”
Blue Vest smiled nervously. “Let’s go. I’ve talked to the people behind me just now. They’re applying for the science post, so they aren’t the same as us.”
“Yeah, it’s the red seal of that guy that came out before and just left by himself,” Red Fedora exclaimed.
Since the “two people behind” hadn’t entered the door yet, the “red seal” she was speaking of was probably referring to Zhong Chengshuo.
She didn’t know of his brilliant results. Most people should have at least seen No. 12, but for Mr. Zhong, all he probably saw was an ordinary vision examination room.
Yin Ren struck while the iron was hot. “Can I go with you?”
“Yeah. The more people, the livelier,” Blue Vest gladly agreed.
Lord Ghost King pretended not to understand the meaning behind “more people”. They stood in a line pattern and headed towards the other end of the corridor.
“Just now, I heard you guys talk about ‘red marks’ and ‘science post’. What does that mean?” The opportunity was too good to miss, so Yin Ren asked as if he didn’t have any clue.
Red Fedora showed astonishment. “You don’t know?”
“I was involved in some kind of incident two days ago and just got placed here. I haven’t heard of these things before.”
Unsure whether Blue Vest was using it to relieve tension or if he had a teacher’s heart, when he discovered that Yin Ren didn’t know anything, he became ecstatic. “Then let me tell you. The ‘red seal’ is for the ‘science post’. The science post only accepts genuinely highly educated talents, which at least start with a master’s degree.”
Yin Ren could understand the word “talent”. It seemed that Zhong Chengshuo was indeed a scholar, as he thought.
“On the other hand, the black seal is a non-scientific post, but they possess some special skills. There are only two kinds of people in this line of work. One is that you had a strange encounter during your adventure, and the other is through family heritage from an expert.”
Yin Ren looked at the two of them again. He felt that the temperament of these two weren’t like the former, but their skills of these two weren’t on the level of a master either. However, out of courtesy, he didn’t inquire too much about it.
“You know a lot,” Yin Ren continued to test.
“I did some homework beforehand. The stamp they gave us just now is to classify us. Next, they will examine our ability and determine our post.”
“In other words, if you already have a stamp, that means you’ll be able to pass?”
Blue Vest suddenly deflated like he had hit a leak. “How can there be such a good thing as that if you don’t have the strength? Brother, don’t you know what Shian’s annual salary is?”
Yin Ren wasn’t worried about strength. Even if he was in poor condition, he could easily defeat all cultivators in the vicinity. What he was worried about was being able to control the degree of “normal”—after a thousand years, the standard of “normal” was quite elusive.
It was right to follow these two. Blue Vest and Red Fedora were excellent references. This time, he definitely wouldn’t be the first to go up. From this moment on, they were a harmonious and friendly trio of underdogs.
The underdog trio didn’t have to go far before a second, third, and fourth door appeared at the same time.
One of the doors was labeled “Physical Examination Room,” which was followed by a simple brain icon. Opposite it was a “Stress Test Room”, with a cracked heart painted on the door plate.
The last door was close to the corner. It was dark in that area, and the sign on the door was blank.
The author has something to say:
Atheists are an indispensable combat power of this institution—!
But strange things can be said to objectively exist (?
<The More People, The Merrier> by Blue Vest.
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