Chương 66: Late Arrival

C-52 was taken to the side registration desk. The black-clad security guards separated the crowd gathering around him. Vann stood beside the registration desk, a faint blue light glowing from one of his ear cuffs. He was clearly confirming something with the higher floors. The viewing line in front of The Boundless Martial Diagram had been paused. The sounds in the central exhibition hall dropped lower. The young Tier 1s, who had just been asking one another, "What did you see?"

could not help looking toward the side registration desk now. C-52 stood there, still holding an empty plate in his hands, his face terribly pale. Vann lowered his head to look at the control panel and asked several questions. Rowan held his tray as a new prompt jumped out on his wristband. [C-39, cold-drink replenishment, west side of the outer ring.] Rowan withdrew his gaze and carried the tray westward.

After the viewing was paused, the crowd that had originally gathered in front of The Boundless Martial Diagram scattered outward a little. Some took the opportunity to grab drinks. Some lowered their voices to discuss the figure that had just appeared. Several young consortium heirs were called to their elders' sides, each wearing a different expression. Julian was among them. His face had returned to calm.

He stood beside an agent from the Yggdrasil faction, the cuff of his black formal suit pressed perfectly flat. Rowan placed a pale-golden cold drink onto the silver tray beside him. His service route happened to pass near that side.

"... southeastern wall segment..."

"... joint examination zone..."

"the low-implant restriction will be re..."

"Before the formal notice, don't stir up unnecessary trouble." A few fragments leaked out from their lowered voices, then were quickly swallowed by the surrounding noise. Rowan collected an empty cup into his tray. Southeastern wall segment. Joint examination zone. Low-implant restriction. The Republic Military Combat Department's special recruitment practical exam? Just as he was about to extract a little more from those few sentences, Julian suddenly raised his eyes. Their gazes met in midair.

Julian's face was expressionless. He merely lifted the empty cup in his hand slightly.

"Another one." His voice was not loud. The Yggdrasil representative beside him also stopped speaking. Rowan lowered his head and took the cup.

"Of course." He placed the old cup into his tray and replaced it with a new cold drink. Rowan knew he no longer had the chance to keep listening. He withdrew with the tray. Rad had said before that Julian had not come looking for trouble lately because he had been busy etching his second Source Rune, and because he had to follow his family to events like this exhibition. Now it seemed that those might not be the only reasons. Just then, a side door opened.

A young man in a dark-green formal suit walked in from outside. His hair had been combed, but the joint-training emblem of the Yggdrasil Life Alchemy Academy on his cuff was fastened a little crookedly, as if someone had only reminded him at the last moment before he left home. He first glanced at the paused viewing line, then at the side registration desk.

"It isn't over yet?" The regular guide in charge of the late-arrival roster glanced at him.

"Name."

"Simon Grant." The guide lowered his head to verify.

"Do you want to be added to the final viewing round?" Simon looked toward the dark scroll in the center. The Boundless Martial Diagram had already fallen silent again. Simon thought for a moment.

"No need. Just register my attendance." The guide raised his head and looked at him. Simon added, "My family required me to show up. I've shown up." The guide did not know how to respond for a moment. Rowan happened to be passing by with the tray. Only then did Simon see him.

"Rowan?" Rowan paused half a step.

"Simon." Simon looked at his uniform, then at his tray.

"You're working part-time here?"

"Five hundred an hour." Simon nodded.

"That's acceptable." His tone was very serious, as if he were genuinely evaluating whether this income was reasonable. The viewing line still had not resumed. Vann was standing beside the side registration desk, listening to the instructions in his ear cuff with his head lowered. The cold-food group, beverage group, and guidance group had all been temporarily held in the outer ring, waiting for the new visitor-flow arrangement.

Rad held a beverage tray and was blocked near the edge of the service corridor by the rearranged crowd. Noah stood beside Simon with the late-arrival roster in his hand, his face a little paler than before. He had originally been responsible for guiding the viewing queue, but now that the process had been interrupted by C-52, he could only temporarily assist the regular guide with roster verification. Rad saw Rowan and shifted half a step this way.

"Tonight had better not drag on too late." Rowan looked at him. Rad lowered his voice.

"We still have to go back to school tomorrow to collect the Mana Primordium." Noah's fingers paused at the edge of the roster.

"Mana Primordium?" Rad casually said, "Yeah. You get one after passing the last monthly exam. Say what you want about Westpoint Magitech High School, but the benefits are decent."

"Free?" Noah asked very softly. But his gaze had already landed on Rad and Rowan. Rad did not think too much about it.

"Of course it's free. Otherwise, why would I climb out of bed first thing tomorrow morning?" Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. Noah pressed his lips together.

"Northwind also has resource applications." After saying that, as if he felt the sentence had come out too urgently, he added,"The process is just different." Only then did Rad react. He glanced at Noah and did not continue. Simon, however, did not notice the change in Noah's tone. He simply thought for a moment after hearing "Mana Primordium."

"Before graduation season, Primordiums will be very tight."

"Even Yggdrasil is short on those?" Rad asked.

"It's not that they're short," Simon said.

"It's that everyone thinks they're about to need one." Noah's fingers pressed against the edge of the roster again. Rowan sorted several empty cups into the tray. He did not continue this topic. Westpoint Magitech High School giving them Mana Primordiums was a benefit, but also a form of binding. Very few people could truly change their fate with such a thing. But for students from the bottom, free was free. Spending less money meant being able to breathe a little longer.

Rowan raised his eyes to look at Simon, as if he had suddenly thought of something.

"Simon."

"Mm?"

"If a small creature grows a conductive fungal membrane on its body, do you think it's natural aberration or artificial experimentation?" Simon had already been preparing to put away his thin terminal. At those words, his movements stopped.

"What do you mean?"

"You've seen it?"

"I've seen it."

"Do you have an image?" Rowan swept a glance over the surroundings. Vann was still at the side registration desk, and the attention of the black-clad security guards had also been drawn to C-52. The nearby crowd was all discussing the response from The Boundless Martial Diagram in low voices. No one cared about a few young people stuck at the edge of the service corridor. Rowan used the AR interface on the side of his wrist to pull up a cropped image.

A small patch of fungal membrane glowing with faint blue light, and a lump of malformed tissue that looked both like an eye and like a pincer-shaped exoskeleton. Simon leaned closer and looked for two breaths. His expression finally changed. It was the focused look of someone caught by a difficult problem.

"This doesn't look like ordinary aberration."

"Why?" Rad asked. Simon looked at the image, his speech slightly faster now.

"Most ordinary aberrations are uncontrolled proliferation. The tissues grow chaotically, and their functions often conflict with one another." He pointed at the conductive fungal membrane.

"This isn't."

"Conductivity, detection, clamping... the direction is too clear. It's like it was filtered for a specific use." Noah could not help glancing at it as well.

"Filtered?"

"Artificial selection, or long-term directional induction," Simon said.

"It could also be the byproduct of some technique. A fragment alone isn't enough to be certain." At this point, he finally moved his gaze away from the image and looked at Rowan.

"Where did this come from?" Rowan put away the image.

"Saw a little of it during a mission." Simon looked at him. Rowan had already withdrawn the image and did not continue scrolling. Simon glanced at him and understood that he would not get an answer to that question. Rowan placed the empty cup back into the tray, as if casually adding another sentence.

"If there are similar things in the military exam ruin, it'll be very troublesome for Tier 1s going in, right?" After those words fell, Noah also raised his eyes. The ease on Rad's face faded a little. Simon looked puzzled.

"You heard about the joint examination zone?" Rad frowned.

"What news?" Simon tucked his terminal back into his cuff.

"I don't know the specific details. Don't ask me for the exam map, entrance, or mission content. I don't have those things." He said it very bluntly.

"But it's already spreading in the upper circles. The southeastern wall segment of Sector 4 will be designated as a joint examination zone. It won't just be the Seventh Abyssal Hive conducting its own exam anymore." Rowan's eyes shifted slightly.

"Southeastern wall segment."

"Mm."

"How many Abyssal Hives?"

"I don't know the exact list," Simon said.

"But it isn't just a few. It's an entire wall segment, dozens of peripheral Abyssal Hives." Rad subconsciously looked at Rowan. The Seventh Abyssal Hive was only one node on the Wall of Sighs. If the selection were only internal to the Seventh Abyssal Hive, then Rowan and Julian would be the two names placed out in the open. But if the entire southeastern wall segment were merged into it, then things would be different. Dozens of peripheral Abyssal Hives.

In every Abyssal Hive, perhaps there were people like Rowan who had no way out. Perhaps there were also people who had received the news earlier than Julian and started preparing even sooner. Noah asked in a low voice,"Then won't there be a lot of applicants?" Simon shook his head.

"Not too many."

"Why?" This time, it was Rad who asked. Simon looked at him.

"Before confirming a place in the military Combat Department's special recruitment, you have to sign a risk agreement." Rad's expression immediately turned ugly. Simon said, "The military Combat Department's special recruitment has a casualty tolerance rate every year." The late-arrival roster in Noah's hand made a faint sound. That was the sound of the page being crumpled by his grip. Simon continued,"People who can walk a normal route generally won't choose this one." Rad glanced at Rowan.

"But who gives us a normal route?" After that sentence came out, the few of them fell quiet for a moment. The exhibition hall was still very bright. The silver trays on the chilled counters reflected the lights layer upon layer, as if nothing had happened. Noah's lips moved, but in the end, he only asked,"Then why don't the rich go? Their equipment is better." Simon said, "Not necessarily this time."

"Ancient ruins aren't friendly to high-magitech implants. External auxiliary mana devices, magitech armor, and over-modified mana organs may all be marked by the protective arrays." He glanced at the well-dressed consortium heirs in the distance.

"A lot of the advantages rich kids pile up with money will be cut down in there, or even become sources of danger." Noah nodded and said nothing more. When he had asked, "Then why don't the rich go?" there had actually been a trace of identification in his tone that even he himself had not noticed. But Simon's answer gently pushed that identification away. He was not truly an upper-level person.

"Besides, there's also the age restriction. True age."

"What do you mean?"

"After a crystal core, mental sea, life field, and world mana have been coupled for long enough, they leave marks similar to growth rings. The mentors call them crystal age rings." Simon thought for a moment, then added,"If you're above Tier 2, or if your true age is over twenty-five, I heard you basically won't be able to get in this time. Concealment is possible, but forgery is very hard. Ancient ruins don't rely on manual review. If you conceal too much, you'll look even more like an abnormal target."

Rowan committed that sentence to memory. He thought of the conversation on Julian's side that had been cut off just now. If the military exam had already become a joint examination zone involving dozens of peripheral Abyssal Hives, then Rowan was no longer the only variable in Julian's eyes. It was not that Julian did not want to deal with him. It was just that now, the table of the Seventh Abyssal Hive had suddenly become much larger. And Julian had to keep his eyes on more people.

Just then, Vann's voice came from the side.

"What are you all lazing around there for? Who allowed you to chat during work hours?" Rowan raised his head. Vann had already ended his communication with the higher floors, and his expression was tighter than before.

", beverage group, return to route." Rad immediately straightened.

"C-44, hand the late-arrival registration to the regular guide." Noah lowered his head and responded. Vann swept his gaze over the group.

"Don't gather here and chat." The few of them immediately scattered. Rowan picked up his tray. Before he turned away, Simon said quietly,"That photo." Rowan's steps paused slightly. Simon looked at him.

"If there are any similar samples, you can come to me." Rowan did not answer. He only nodded once. The viewing process soon resumed. But The Boundless Martial Diagram did not produce another deep response like the one earlier. The final few batches of young Tier 1s walked forward, then stepped back with different expressions. Some forced themselves to say what they had seen, some remained silent, and some could not help looking back toward the side registration desk. C-52 never returned.

He had been taken into a temporary reception room on the side. After that door closed, the discussion outside instead grew even lower. Vann regained control of the rhythm on the twelfth floor. The cold-food group replenished the final round. The beverage group cleared the plates. The guidance group checked the final roster. After Simon completed his attendance registration, he did not go to the viewing line. A middle-aged woman in a dark formal dress called him away.

She was probably someone from his family or academy. When Simon left, he still looked back at Rowan once, his gaze still carrying a bit of the sample question he had not finished asking. Noah continued standing beside the queue. Only this time, his voice was no longer as tense as before. Nor was it as deliberately proper. When Rad passed by Rowan with the beverage tray, he whispered,"Dozens of Abyssal Hives." Rowan placed an empty plate into the recovery slot.

"Mm."

"That military exam of yours is sounding stranger and stranger."

"Why does so much have to change this year? Your luck really is something else." Rowan gave a helpless shrug.

"I'm used to it." Rad glared at him.

"What's there to get used to about something like this?" The exhibition finally reached its end. Vann stood at the entrance of the service corridor and settled the temporary attendants' pay by number.

", beverage group. No violation record." Rad's wristband lit up. He looked down and saw the payment number, and his mood finally improved a little.

"C-39, cold-food group. No violation record." Rowan's wristband also vibrated. [Temporary service payment has been settled.] [2, 000 TC.]"C-44, guidance group. No violation record." When Noah received his payment, his expression was somewhat complicated. Tonight, he had worn an attendant uniform and stood beside the viewing line, feeling as if someone had pushed him down from a respectable position. But in the end, he had indeed received money.

And C-52, the one pointed out by The Boundless Martial Diagram, had instead not appeared in the settlement queue. The temporary attendants lined up and left through the service passage. In the changing area, Rad took off his uniform while rubbing his shoulders and muttering,"Five hundred an hour is decent, but tonight my brain got more tired than my arms." Rowan placed the access badge and uniform back into the return cabinet. Rad suddenly remembered something.

"Don't forget to go to school tomorrow."

"To collect the Mana Primordium."

"Right. It's free. No reason not to take it." After saying that, Rad paused again. There were still other people in the changing area, so he lowered his voice even further.

"And that military exam agreement... if it really becomes a joint examination zone this time, are you still going to sign it?" Rowan closed the cabinet door. The metal door gave a soft sound. He did not answer immediately. Rad did not urge him either. After a while, Rowan finally said,"Let's collect the Primordium first." Rad looked at him. Then he sighed.

"Fine. You really are stubborn enough. But you really should think about it more. This year's situation feels very wrong to me."

"Do you have a better way?" Rad opened his mouth, but in the end, he only cursed.

"No. That's why it's annoying." He shoved the uniform into the return cabinet.

"Anyway, don't secretly sign that military exam agreement on your own. At least tell me first." The two of them left Starlight Tower through the rear-side service passage. The night wind in the Upper District was so clean it felt somewhat unreal. Behind them, the lights of Starlight Tower rose layer after layer, like a giant tree made of glass and magitech light circuits. Farther away were the lower regions of the Seventh Abyssal Hive, with their neon lights, pipelines, smell of oil stains, and humid air.

Rowan's terminal displayed the two thousand Terra Credits that had just arrived. Tomorrow, he would also be able to collect a free Mana Primordium from Westpoint Magitech High School. To him, that was almost equivalent to another enormous income. Just as he walked down the service ramp, his palm suddenly itched. He lowered his right hand to his side and used his cuff to cover his palm. Blood-colored granulation surfaced from the lines of his palm, forming new words. [Reward verification complete.] [Drop-off location: Old Rail North Locker No. 7.] [Retrieval time limit: twenty-four hours.] Rowan watched those lines shrink back beneath his skin. A reward of unknown origin. He raised his head and looked toward the Lower District. Old Rail North Locker No. 7. Twenty-four hours. Rowan closed his fingers and continued walking forward.