The new recruits all entered at the same time.
There were ten in total.
They filtered into the room without a word, the soft thuds of their footsteps the only sound that came out from them.
Some moved with confidence, others with some hesitation. All of them wore the same black suits with the Guild Emblem near the top of their right chest.
They took in the setup. Rows of enclosed desks, each with multiple monitors and a single, waiting headset.
Seth didn’t look up from his laptop.
He sat before the monitors in a separate desk.
However, he could feel the confusion in their faces.
The Section Chief gestured vaguely.
“Take your seats. This will be a new testing method that we’ve adopted.
The recruits complied.
One recruit, tall, broad-shouldered, bushy brows, sat first, his body barely fitting in on the desk.
“…..”
Pausing, a young woman with clipped silver hair and sharp, piercing blue eyes looked at the man before moving to another seat.
“H-hey! That’s mine!”
It just so happened that another hand had reached for the seat. It belonged to a bubbly-looking girl with shoulder-length brown hair and a fairly endowed body.
“…..”
Joanna slowly turned her hend and stared at the bubbly girl.
Then, her gaze lowered, and her eyes narrowed.
“…..”
Mia stepped back, somewhat frightened by the woman’s face. In the end, she took the seat next to the bulky man.
The interaction was brief, but it was all caught by Seth, who was undecided between shaking his head and sighing.
His eyes swept over the ten of them.
He closed his laptop and stood up.
“Alright,”
His voice was calm, and so was his expression.
“I can understand the confusion that everyone has regarding the current situation, so I’ll explain it for all of you. I won’t be repeating myself.”
Seth carefully moved towards an empty desk that had been set up with everything in advance, and he pointed at it.
The tension in the room unknowingly rose.
But only for a brief moment.
“….All of you will be playing a game.”
Following his next words, the faces of the new trainees changed.
“Did you say we’re going to play a game?”
“I didn’t hear wrong, right…?”
“That… That… Games? We are… going to play games?”
There was understandable confusion in the room.
Seth raised his hand, and the noise ceased.
“Yes, you will be playing a game. It is one that has been set up to train the trainees. There will be two teams of five. Each team will communicate through the headsets. The cubicles have been put in place in order to stop you from looking at each other. The game is a rather simple one, and all you have to do is clear it.”
Seth calmly explained the rules of the game to all the trainees.
They all listened in silence, but…
“Is this real?”
One of the trainees, a man with short brown hair and blue eyes, turned his attention towards the Section Chief.
He stood up from his seat.
“I rejected several offers from King Grade Guilds, with offers that were a lot more lucrative than this, expecting to have a good career, and yet, I come to see this? What sort of nonsense is this? Since when did recruitment turn into… into this?”
The trainee pointed at the weird setup in front of him.
He found the entire situation to be a joke.
He was someone who had graduated in the top one hundred in Newton Academy, one of the most prestigious Academies in Andora. Hell, he had even gotten a direct offer from the BAU.
The only reason he had rejected such offers was that this guild looked the most promising.
And yet…
“I don’t want to take part in this nonsense. It’s a massive waste of time. I’d rather—”
“The door is right there.”
The Section Chief pointed at the door while yawning. He looked completely unbothered by the trainee’s protests while leaning back on his chair.
On the other hand, the man who stood next to the Section Chief just smiled.
“It’s just a game. It’ll at most take ten minutes to play. Since you joined this Guild, you naturally know about us. We’re not going to let you do something that we don’t believe in. Just play the game. It’s—”
“I’d rather not.”
The trainee cut the Section Chief off, prompting the Section Chief to raise his brow.
Before the Section Chief could get any word out, the trainee grabbed his bag and stood up.
“I’ve seen enough. If the Guild has sunk so low that it’s training its recruits with video games, non-virtual ones at that, then I know exactly what kind of standards this place holds. As per the clause, I’ll be terminating my contract due to dissatisfaction.”
And with that, the ex-trainee left the room.
Silence ensued shortly after as the Section Chief looked around.
“Well, is anyone else unsatisfied with the current arrangement? If you wish to leave, then you can do so now. I won’t stop you.”
A brief silence followed his words.
But then—
“I wish to leave. I don’t think my goals align with the goals of this Guild.”
“The same goes for me.”
“Me too.”
Before the Section Chief knew it, three more people stood up.
Staring at them, the Section Chief felt a small pang in his heart. All three of them were highly sought-after recruits they had to fight tooth and nail in order to recruit.
And just like this, they all left.
’No, I can’t let them leave. This would be too much of a waste.’
The Section Chief was just about to stop them when a hand pressed against his shoulder.
Turning back, he saw the Guild Master stare at him with a smile before shaking his head.
“But—”
“…Let them leave.”
The Section Chief really wanted to disobey his order, but in the end, he could only sigh while holding onto his chest. He was really feeling the pain.
Thankfully, it only stopped at four.
There were still six recruits who decided to stay.
Four girls and two boys.
“It looks like we’ll have to make some adjustments to the teams.”
Seth took over them, seemingly looking completely unbothered by the situation. To some extent, he was unbothered. He had already foreseen something like this happening from the start.
The real issue came from the man standing beside the Section Chief.
Just who in the world was he?
…And how did he manage to convince the Section Chief to let them go?
’He doesn’t look like the Guild Master, but it could be a disguise?’
Seth’s eyes narrowed.
In the end, however, he stopped caring and focused his attention on the remaining recruits as he loaded up the game for all six of them.
The loading screen soon showed up, looking completely different from the past.
It looked quite good now.
“This game requires teamwork and communication. Since there are six of you, you’ll be split into teams of two. I’ll announce the pairings shortly. Once your names are called, initiate a server and join the game.”
Seth paused while looking at the trainees as they followed his instructions.
“When all teams are ready and hit start, the session will begin. Your objective is simple: clear the game, and don’t react.”
Pausing once more, Seth’s eyes narrowed.
“The moment you do… You lose.”