World Occult Usage Guide

In his top-floor office in the Capitol, Lin Anzheng observes every face in the atrium through the screen in front of him.

Most of them are local residents of the capital Kinsasha and surrounding towns, with a small number being foreigners who fled from Ivory Coast to Bantu by boat.

The three applicants just experienced the second subdivision of the recruitment fair. The mysterious individuals from the World Tree will use a privileged channel to enter the recruitment fair first, and will be divided into three categories: ordinary people, mysterious individuals, and those who are about to awaken.

Ordinary people accounted for only about 70%, mysterious people about 10%, and those about to awaken reached an astonishing 80 or more.

Only the last group of people were brought to the central courtyard; the first two groups entered different passages.

Ordinary people are vetted by Meyer, while all the mysterious individuals are trained by Misuru's training department—they don't have a "failed interview" system.

As for those who are about to awaken, Lin An decided to use the St. Anilov Foundation's personality test of one hundred questions to roughly estimate their spiritual medium tendencies, and then use the [Edit] function of the Mysterious Tree Diagram to assist them in their awakening.

With the great battle against the tyrant of the Southern Continent imminent, Lin An not only needs to improve the fusion level of the "Lady with the Lamp," but also needs to collect more functional items and media.

The expansion of the chakra limit over time not only means an increase in the number of mystics, but also a further increase in the radiation limit.

Lin An vaguely sensed that as the mysterious tree diagram expanded, the third [button] showed signs of unlocking.

He took a sip of his coffee and turned his gaze back to the job applicants in the atrium.

The competition for positions at this job fair was fierce. Lin An estimated that more than a thousand people would eventually be selected for awakening, but the entry limited him to selecting only forty or fifty of them for editing.

In other words, Lin An will select about 40 elites from this group, whose starting point will be the disaster-level prototype.

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, this group will be among the first core members of the World Tree's Scouts.

The remaining mysteryrs will be assigned to the Firewatch codename unless they prove outstanding in the future.

By scanning the applicants through electronic eyes, Lin An had a preliminary list of candidates.

Dreadlocks, tattoos, a nose piercing, and a backwards baseball cap—where did this rapper come from?

I don't want to hear the "believers" mix in a freestyle verse while singing the lyrics to "The Lady with the Lamp"...

Lin An silently opened their calculation results. Very good, it was "God of Agriculture" and "Lord of the Earth," the two least outstanding mediums. He silently lowered their recruitment priority.

Others, such as those with grass in their mouths, chewing grass, or with things stuck in their arms, were also disqualified. If these mentally unstable people are not intervened in, their pollution levels will rise rapidly after they awaken.

There is no such thing as an internship period at World Tree. Lin An simply hopes that the employees he has put effort into cultivating can survive for three months.

It sounds cruel, but he doesn't have the energy, resources, or manpower to provide one-on-one guidance and monitoring. Among these newly recruited mystery workers, some will inevitably die or go insane due to the radiation from "Commerx" and will have to be "dealt with."

However, compared to unguided free agents, joining the World Tree obviously significantly increases the survival rate, which is why so many mystics come to apply.

While observing, Lin An picked up the files compiled by the administrative department and removed some applicants who were under the age of 18.

Although the rich imaginations of underage mystics may grant them the powerful favor of "Comers," the fluctuating emotions of teenagers and even children are quite dangerous, making it difficult for them to stably control the mysticism.

To reiterate, Lin An hopes his employees survive for more than three months.

When Lin An turned to a file, his movements paused slightly.

Kantubi K. Nehru, male, 48 years old, veteran.

He picked up the file, his electronic eye swiveling around, focusing on a robust young man who looked no more than twelve or thirteen years old, and his lips twitched.

Dude, can you at least use a little logic when you're lying about your identity?

Are you putting on a skit for me?!
Just as Lin An was about to remove the boy's spot, he glanced at his test results and found that the "Judge" had the highest percentage at 45%, followed by the "Seeker of Knowledge" at 14%.

It was rare to find a candidate who fit the Missina series of entries. After a moment's hesitation, he placed the boy's file in the "pending" pile.

If the job fair ends and the number of "presiding judge" positions is not yet filled, the teenager will be able to obtain core qualifications.

Just then, Lin An noticed the young man and discovered that there were two other outstanding job applicants standing in the area monitored by the electronic surveillance system. He found their files based on their characteristics.

Kofi Serge, 35, a native of Kinsasha, is unemployed.

Despite how this person filled out the file, Lin An looked at his well-fitting yet bright pink suit and his rather expensive-looking flannel beanie, and a word flashed through his mind.

Sape, also known as the Sapure, comes from the French word "se saper," meaning a person of taste, and is also an abbreviation for the group, the Société des Ambianceurs et des Personneslégantes (Association of Elegant and Refined People). The history of the Sapure dates back to the 19th century, when the Russians supplied discarded secondhand clothing to the Bantu people as a bargaining tool to indoctrinate them into considering themselves second-class citizens.

In response, a group of people rose up in anger. They refused to wear the cheap shirts distributed for free and spent a lot of money to buy custom-made clothes from various channels, dressed themselves up smartly, and went to various public places to set an example in resisting this brainwashing method.

Sap culture centers on respect, peace, integrity, and honor. In addition to wearing beautiful clothes, they believe that non-violence, proper manners, optimism, dreams, and compassion are the basic standards for defining a person as human.

Despite their expensive clothing, the vast majority of Sapur people are dirt poor, consisting of taxi drivers, farmers, carpenters, and even the unemployed.

The Sapur people may one day starve to death in a stinking ditch, and when they die, they will certainly be dressed in fine clothes.

Lin An had heard of this rebellious subculture in the South, but he never expected to see a real Sap at the job fair.

"The tendency of the divine medium is 58% 'dreamer' and 11% 'prophet'... What a consistent and thorough idealist."

Lin An left his file behind and turned to face the Sapur.

This is a girl with short, curly, flaxen hair, around twenty years old, wearing dirty, wrinkled, and sassy clothes, though judging from the material, they were once quite valuable.

Mel Ashley, a journalism student from Glasgow, was recently stranded in Bantu due to the war.

The test results showed that she had the strongest inclination towards the "God of Agriculture" and the second strongest inclination towards "Nature Sacrifice," indicating that she has a relatively ordinary, average personality.

Lin An valued her because she possessed a stable mindset.

He had previously transferred seven or eight hundred expatriates from Ivory Coast, all of whom were highly educated. He had high hopes that these talents would help him build the country. However, after two weeks in Bantu, the civilian department reported that many of them had started to go crazy.

They were clamoring to see a psychologist, saying they were trapped in a hopeless despair and were showing early signs of depression.

When World Tree employees arrived, it was said that several expatriates were being held down by Bantu people, while a few kind-hearted sorceresses were singing and dancing, performing "exorcism" for them.

World Tree employees quickly protected them and escorted them back to the property left behind by Tshisekedi, which served as their temporary dormitory.

After all, they were rare and highly educated talents. Lin An gave these dispatched personnel ample time to rest and recover. However, if they did not start work within the next month, he planned to kick them out and let them fend for themselves.

People recover from the trauma at different rates, and civilian staff observed that Mel Ashley was among the fastest to recover.

About a week later, she had a plan for a new life: to save money and then find a way to return to her hometown.

Driven by the need for money, she taught herself French, went door-to-door collecting information about the job fair, and even applied for a "privileged channel" that few people knew about, demonstrating not only her strong mental fortitude but also her excellent execution skills.

As Lin An pulled out her file and placed it on top of the Sapur, a system notification sounded in his mind.

"You have received a message from user Ranger_7. Do you want to check the user's status immediately?"

Ranger_7 is Fu Bin, currently the only ranger present in the [Central Courtyard], and Lin An checked his message.

"Forest ranger, this group has basically finished their work. A few of them who have nothing to do are whispering among themselves. Do you need me to lend my authority and give them a few words of reprimand?"

“No need, I’m going to play that video on the big screen,” Lin An replied. “Just do as I tell you, and record your viewing experience and the reactions of these job applicants.”

"understand!"

After receiving a response, Lin An took a deep breath, opened the console by scrolling the touchscreen at the end of the keyboard, typed a line of code quickly with his ten fingers, and pressed the Enter key.

All that could be seen was a large, chaotic screen, dotted with stars like the universe, beginning to undergo strange changes.

In the initial stage, it seemed as if clusters of green code were gradually coalescing, and after a few seconds, they condensed into a denser 3D outline with a clearer contour.

As the code modeling improved step by step, the central figure became clearer and clearer. It was a half-body portrait of a person, without hair or distinctive features. The facial features of an ordinary person took on a physical form as the code flickered.

When the bust makes an expression, the code flows like muscle tissue, shimmering with a bright luster.

Its form spread out on the huge dome, measuring more than ten meters long and eight or nine meters wide. Its nose alone was the size of a normal person's, and the suffocating sense of oppression made many people turn pale.

The applicants were stunned, their mouths agape involuntarily. Light streamed from the dome screen into the depths of their pupils, reflecting countless tiny electronic humanoid figures.

The electronic voice guiding them through the test sounded in 3D surround sound, and a giant human figure on the big screen curled up the corners of its mouth and smiled.

"Hello, world." (End of Chapter)