Inside the hotel room, Lin Yu observed the other candidates as they waited together for the interviewers to arrive.
The St. Regis Changsha Hotel was the most luxurious hotel in the city.
It was a five-star establishment that provided private Rolls-Royce shuttles for its guests.
Lin Yu did not know much about hotels; this was simply information he had looked up online the previous night.
He had come here following the instructions given to him by a foreign professor named Kelsaw over the phone.
As soon as he stepped into the hotel, a server greeted him with a smile.
“Are you here for the school interview? Please follow me.”
He was then led to this room by the beautiful server, who wore a business skirt and 10-centimeter high heels.
Inside the room, there were exactly five chairs for the five interviewees—one for each person.
Most of the others had already arrived.
Since he was the last one, he naturally took the final seat.
On the chair lay a form and a pencil; the paper required him to fill in basic information like his name and age.
The server provided refreshments: bread and a cup of hot milk.
Not long after, the door to the inner room opened, and a tall, thin young man stepped out.
He was a handsome foreigner wearing a fitted black uniform with fine silver trim along the collar.
His golden buttons and cuffs gleamed, and a badge was embroidered on his chest with silver thread, depicting a black sickle.
“Jiang Keke,” the man said, his Chinese sounding a bit stiff.
“I am the examiner, Clarence. Please follow me.”
He smiled slightly, revealing teeth as white as snow.
A girl stood up abruptly, trembling slightly as she followed the examiner inside.
The door closed behind them, and the remaining candidates exchanged glances, unable to hide the tension on their faces.
Before long, the door opened again.
The examiner made a polite gesture, and the girl walked out, her expression full of unconcealable disappointment.
The first person had not even lasted 10 minutes.
The second person followed immediately and came out just as quickly.
However, the look on their face was one of anger rather than disappointment or frustration.
‘Why would they have that kind of expression?’
Lin Yu wondered, puzzled.
The third person went in soon after.
Rather than an interview, it felt more like the examiner was practicing his swordplay; he was cutting people down faster and faster.
The third candidate did not even last 3 minutes.
When they were sent out, their eyes were vacant.
Lin Yu watched them, stunned, but then he saw the examiner beckoning to him.
“Lin Yu.”
He followed the examiner into the inner room.
The space was small, with only a blonde girl sitting at the table.
She wore the same uniform, though hers consisted of a skirt.
“Hello, I am Christina, also an interviewer for today.”
Compared to the man, the girl’s Chinese was significantly more fluent.
“Hello,” Lin Yu said with a nod.
Christina opened her laptop and looked at Lin Yu.
“Then, let us begin.”
Lin Yu nodded.
He had prepared for this interview for a long time.
“Aliens, transmigrators, espers, gods, and ghosts—which of these do you believe exist?”
Christina asked softly.
Lin Yu froze.
He had prepared several English responses in his head to handle the interviewers’ questions, but…
“Aliens, transmigrators, espers, gods, and ghosts—which of these do you believe exist?”
Christina repeated the question, noticing Lin Yu’s dazed state.
“Aliens…”
“There is no need to use English. You can just answer in Chinese,” Christina explained with a slow smile.
He suddenly understood why the previous candidates had those expressions on their faces.
“I suppose aliens and espers,” he said slowly.
“Why?”
Christina remained smiling, her face offering no feedback.
“Compared to gods, ghosts, or transmigrating, the existence of aliens in the vast universe sounds… more scientific.”
“More scientific…”
Christina recorded his answer diligently on her computer.
“What about espers?”
Christina asked again.
After thinking for a long time, he sighed internally and chose to tell the truth.
“I quite like Marvel superheroes and Japanese anime…”
“Heroes? Do you want to be a hero?”
Clarence interjected from the side.
‘Do I want to be a hero? What kind of question is that?’
Lin Yu shook his head.
“No,” he answered decisively.
Upon hearing this answer, a hint of disappointment appeared on Clarence’s face.
“Then, for the second question: tell us your views on gods,” Christina asked again.
“They are fantasies created by ancient humans based on their fear and lack of understanding of the unknown…” he answered tentatively.
“Self-consolation,” Christina added.
“That is essentially what I meant,” Lin Yu said, nodding.
“Then, the third question: how do you think we should understand this world? Is the world idealistic or materialistic?”
Christina asked.
Lin Yu shook his head.
‘Is this from the high school politics curriculum? But I was a science student…’
“Sorry, I was a science student,” Lin Yu sighed.
“I don’t know…”
The two examiners were silent for a moment before nodding.
“Thank you.”
Clarence, whose Chinese was poor, gestured for him to leave.
Just like that—after preparing for over two weeks—his interview was over in less than 2 minutes.
Feeling somewhat exhausted, he took a deep breath, stood up, and walked out.
***
At dusk, the twilight filtered through the thick glass windows of the hotel room, casting long, pale yellow shadows across the carpet.
The tense atmosphere of the daytime interviews had not yet completely dissipated.
Only Christina and Clarence remained in the room.
A few resumes were scattered on the table, and the warmth in their teacups was gradually fading.
Christina gazed absently at Lin Yu’s thin file, a trace of fatigue and confusion etched between her brows.
Clarence leaned back in his chair, staring silently at the city lights beginning to flicker outside the window.
*Creak—*
The silence was broken by the sound of the door being pushed open.
A figure walked in slowly with steady footsteps, carrying the traces of a long journey.
“I hope I am not too late.”
It was an old man.
His hair was almost entirely white, and deep wrinkles were etched into his face like knife wounds.
However, his posture remained upright, and his eyes were exceptionally bright against his aged features.
“Professor Kelsaw,” Clarence said, immediately standing up with a respectful gesture.
Christina also looked up, as if she had found her pillar of support, though the confusion in her eyes remained.
The professor nodded slightly.
His gaze swept over the scattered documents on the table before landing on the faces of the two young examiners.
“How did he answer?” he asked warmly.
Though the three were of different nationalities, they spoke Chinese with natural fluency.
Christina and Clarence exchanged a look, seeing the same emotion in each other’s eyes.
She took a soft breath and turned Lin Yu’s record toward the professor, her tone somewhat helpless.
“Professor, if we look at it strictly by our standards,” she paused, searching for the right words, “his answers… were practically zero.”
“Oh?”
Professor Kelsaw raised an eyebrow with interest, pulling over a chair to sit.
He signaled for her to continue.
“For the first question regarding the possibility of supernatural existences, he chose aliens and espers. His reason was that the existence of aliens is ‘more scientific.'”
“A young man with a normal mind.”
A mysterious smile curved the professor’s lips, as if he were remembering something from long ago.
“But in our world, normal people are the most abnormal.”
Christina sighed, her finger tapping the record of the second question.
“Second question: his views on gods. He believes they are fantasies created by ancient humans based on fear and misunderstanding… ‘self-consolation.'”
“Completely different from our philosophy,” the professor noted, nodding.
“Then, what about the third question? Regarding the perception of the world.”
Christina almost let out a bitter laugh.
“He said… he was a science student, so he didn’t know.”
The calm smile on Professor Kelsaw’s face froze momentarily.
He leaned forward slightly to confirm, “What about his Divine Sense? What were the results of the Survey?”
Christina raised a hand to rub her temples.
“From the moment he entered the hotel, Clarence used Survey to check him repeatedly. However, Clarence could not capture even a single trace of the ‘wave’ unique to those with Divine Sense.”
A brief silence fell over the room.
Professor Kelsaw leaned back against his chair, looking up at the ornately decorated ceiling.
He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly.
“I understand your doubts.”
He looked back at the two young examiners, his gaze becoming solemn and beyond question.
“But even so, we must pass his interview. Furthermore, his overall student evaluation will be set at Grade A.”
“Grade A?!”
Christina and Clarence spoke almost at the same time, their faces filled with disbelief.
They looked at each other, wondering if they had misheard.
“Professor, that doesn’t fit the regulations,” Clarence argued in his accented Chinese.
“New students are usually evaluated starting from Grade D. Even if they are exceptionally talented, they start at Grade C at most. Without practical missions or observation… how can we directly assign him a Grade A student rank? Besides, he hasn’t even awakened his Divine Sense yet. This…”
“This is the Principal’s wish,” Professor Kelsaw interrupted.
“We are currently on a mission, not just simple recruitment. According to the school’s intent, we must bring him to the school, even if we have to ‘invite’ him.”
The two examiners looked at each other again, both seeing immense shock and a hint of unease in the other’s eyes.
The Principal’s wish?
A Grade A student without Divine Sense?
Christina’s voice carried a faint, imperceptible tremble.
“But Professor…”
“Say no more. After repeated confirmations by the system, he was indeed rated as Grade A among all the new students. In fact, he is the only one. Only the Board of Directors and the Principal likely know the reason why.”
After those words fell, the room descended into a suffocating silence.