Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
On the edge of the exam venue, outside the warning line, there were several soldiers armed with rifles. They were yelling loudly at a group of people. “Stop!”
There were three people dressed in formal attire. One of them carried a camera on his shoulder, another held a microphone in his hand, and the last one had a notebook for taking notes.
“We are from Chang’an TV Station. This is our work permit. Our interviews were approved by the Chang’an City Government.”
The first soldier’s eyes were cold as he said, “We have received orders. Unless you have an admission ticket or a work permit, no one other than the invigilator can enter the venue!”
The female reporter smiled and became rigid. She turned her head to take out her phone and quietly called her director.
“Director, we can’t get in…”
“We have said we have the permission of the Chang’an City government… but it doesn’t seem to work.”
In the end, the reporters were stopped outside the venue. They felt helpless. They most likely would just use drones to take a couple of photographs.
However, they couldn’t return empty handed. How would they answer to their superiors when their director would not care for excuses? If they couldn’t come back with anything, it would mean that they failed in their professionalism.
“Why don’t we interview some of the candidates after the exam venue?” asked the female assistant who was responsible for taking notes. They couldn’t get into the venue to record, but no one would stop them from interviewing candidates, right?
However, after interviewing a few candidates, they were unsatisfied with the results. They all gave standard answers. For example, “I hope I do well, I feel very confident, I thank my parents.”
These weren’t bad answers, but they were not going to attract people’s attention. It was the kind of news that would be forgotten as soon as it was seen.
“Hey. How about we interview that student?” the videographer said, and suddenly turned the camera to a student in the distance riding a spider.
Behind the student was a humanoid monster wearing a black robe. There was also a centipede that was 20 feet long.
He had three familiars!
This was a student with the highest number of familiars that they had ever seen. They ran to Gao Peng.
The cameraman turned on to start recording.
“Hello, can we interview you?” the female reporter smiled. She habitually pushed her hair behind her ear. She cleared her throat to prepare asking her questions.
“No you can’t,” Gao Peng answered concisely.
Gao Peng then rode Stripey past the female reporter. The female reporter didn’t know how to react. Something felt wrong.
Silly looked at the female reporter in interest. It then swung its tentacles around and left Gao Peng’s shoulder, flying towards the female reporter, landing on her head.
This scene was recorded by the camera. The female reporter’s head felt sticky and uncomfortable. Her scalp was numb. She didn’t know what it was, but this cold touch nearly made her scream.
“What is on my head?” The female reporter asked the photographer. She sounded like she was about to cry.
“A crown.”
“A crown?!”
The female reporter was stunned. What the hell was it?
After Gao Peng was away from the reporters, he rushed to the examination room. He did not want to be on TV.
There was a long queue in front of the entrance to the examination venue. There were more than a dozen sensory machines in front. The Monster Trainer College Entrance Examination was really strict.
Gao Peng jumped down from Stripey. He walked forward and handed the admission ticket to the soldiers at the front gate, who returned it after checking and told Gao Peng to line up.
After a while, an angry female reporter walked to Gao Peng. She carried Silly in her left hand, who let out a loud scream.
Gao Peng had a headache. He did not know how to explain it.
The female reporter stepped forward and returned Silly to Gao Peng, saying intensely, “I’ll give your hat back to you!”
The candidates around turned their heads. They looked at Gao Peng in confusion.
After the female reporter left, Silly pushed itself into Gao Peng’s hands. Juice, I want to drink juice! it thought.
You want to drink juice? When we get back home I’ll turn you into juice! replied Gao Peng.
Gao Peng’s mouth twitched. He put Silly into a pocket and pulled up the zipper.
It took exactly half an hour for the line to reach Gao Peng.
Gao Peng went up to a machine for facial recognition and fingerprint verification. It removed the possibility of someone else taking the test in place of another person.
He then reached another machine and placed his familiars inside. The monster trainer also headed to another machine. If the familiar and the monster trainer were bound to each other, the machine would light up green. This was detected using a special magnetic field.
A red light suddenly appeared on another machine not far away.
Beep, beep, beep
Several soldiers gathered. Behind them were several gloomy-looking Silver Moon Wolves. They moved forward.
“Try it again,” said a uniformed officer dully. He looked at the students who stood on the machine.
On the other side of the machine was a red Long-haired Behemoth. The Long-haired Behemoth was 10 feet tall. Its hair fell down like a waterfall, and it looked like a hairball.
Suddenly, the Long-haired Behemoth screamed in anger.
It jumped off the machine and started to run.
They didn’t need the soldiers’ instructions, the Silver Moon Wolves went up in all directions and took down the Long-haired Behemoth as soon as it jumped. The Long-haired Behemoth was held down within a matter of seconds.
The Silver Moon Wolves surrounded it. They bit down on the Long-haired Behemoth’s massive limbs.
The student watching the scene turned pale. The uniformed personnel came forward and returned the student’s admission ticket to him. “Your test qualifications have been removed, go back,” he said.
The student was stunned. His eyes went red and he started to say, “No, no, I was wrong. Please don’t remove my exam qualifications.” The student squatted down, held on to the uniformed person’s thigh, and pleaded.
The uniformed person calmly lifted the student up and cleaned the dust off his pants. “You are a man, don’t just kneel down. The most important thing is for a man to have dignity.”
The student thought that things were going to get better after he was lifted up. He showed a hint of happiness in his eyes.
The uniformed person smiled and comforted him. “Go and come back next year. You can’t take this year’s exam anymore, rules are rules. There would be chaos if there weren’t any rules, and the test does not allow familiars that are not your own. Offenders are disqualified from the test. Of course, if you are sure that this familiar belongs to you, we can check again.”
The student’s face turned pale. How could he not know whether the familiar was his or not? That was his father’s familiar. He’d brought it from home in secret while his father was away at work.
Of course he knew the rules. It was just that his familiars were always weak during training. He just wanted to come here and try his luck, hoping the examiners wouldn’t notice.
It was a pity that they were much stricter than what he imagined they would be.
Dumby, Da Zi, Stripey, and Silly all passed through the machine very quickly. The uniformed personnel who was in charge of scanning the familiars couldn’t help but glance at Gao Peng.
This candidate sure had a lot of a familiars…
