“Legal illegal activities?”
The people in the Institute’s coffee shop looked confused. Someone asked, “Aren’t these two antonyms? Like a coin having both a heads and tails? Or a person being both male and female?”
“Are you discriminating against me!” A person with a neutral appearance slammed the table and stood up. “Are you mocking intersex individuals in public? And intersex individuals are already a new mainstream culture. They can enjoy the best of both men and women. It’s clearly the most perfect state. How can there still be stubborn and backward people like you in this era—”
“I’m sorry, I misspoke. I apologize for any harm caused.” The former quickly apologized.
Lawrence scratched the scales on his face and turned to the snake boss. “Boss Snake, do you know what he means by ‘legal illegal activities’?”
“Hiss… I can guess.”
“Oh? Tell me more.”
At this point, the snake boss smiled and suddenly asked, “Hiss, Lawrence, have you gotten used to life in the institute? How is the laboratory?”
“It’s great.” Lawrence casually replied, “The experimental research is going smoothly, and we have an abundance of materials recently. The more materials we have, the faster the progress in necromancy. Wait, Boss Snake, don’t change the subject. What are legal illegal activities?”
“Hiss… Look at the screen. Someone is about to speak.”
Lawrence looked at the screen and felt something strange in his heart.
He felt that the snake boss didn’t want to continue talking to him.
And he was familiar with this kind of unwillingness.
Just like when he got into middle school, his human classmates asked him why he had to work after school instead of studying or having fun at the foster home. At that time, Lawrence didn’t want to answer such questions because he knew that humans couldn’t understand his situation.
Different backgrounds, different environments, no matter how much you say, it’s useless.
But here, everyone can understand each other because they have abandoned their identities as lower races and become more noble…
Wait, is the snake boss a Blood Saint?
He squinted his eyes as if he had never seen his blood pupils…
At this moment, the voice from the screen interrupted Lawrence’s thoughts.
…
…
“In the 1659 City Public Examination, the Market Supervision Bureau in Xilang District is recruiting agents.”
The speaker was still Edmund Menken. He gritted his teeth and said, enduring the burning pain on his skin, “Fenanche hopes that his classmate can get this position, but his classmate’s abilities are not enough to pass such a popular position. So he came up with a solution.”
“First, he found a scholar who was fully qualified and even exceeded the standards in all aspects, and instructed the scholar to take the agent exam and obtain this position. At the same time, his classmate also took the exam, but naturally failed.”
“After one month of employment, the scholar voluntarily resigned. At this time, the Bureau would have a temporary quota and would select a temporary agent from the candidates. Since most of the candidates have already found jobs theoretically, there is no need to insist on finding the ‘second-ranked interviewee’ or the ‘third-ranked interviewee’. As long as they are former candidates, it’s fine.”
“So Fenanche’s classmate entered the Supervision Bureau in this way.”
Menken said, “Of course, this was Fenanche’s operation when he was still a senator. After he became the mayor’s secretary, it wouldn’t be so troublesome. He would set the job requirements based on his own candidates. For example, if his candidate is a human male, 30 years old, with a university degree and a silver-level earth magic degree, then he would set the job requirements as a male human, 30 to 35 years old, with a university degree and a silver-level earth magic degree. In fact, these conditions can be further refined to ensure that his candidate can pass the interview with a hundred percent certainty. Once they enter the interview process, this position will naturally be theirs, and the procedure is completely legal and compliant.”
“Although the Political Affairs Department is a mandatory examination, the specific screening requirements are in the hands of each department. As long as they can form a political alliance with the department heads, they can easily leverage a huge amount of power.” He looked at the ogre. “Half of the members of the Forest Gallery joined the Political Affairs Department system in this way, and many agents succumbed to Fenanche’s threats or temptations and became his accomplices.”
Menken thought for a moment and added, “Oh, maybe some people don’t understand. The Forest Gallery is a gallery opened by Fenanche, filled with his self-proclaimed works. Faction members usually choose to gather in the gallery, so Fenanche’s faction is also known as the Forest Gallery.”
Fenanche coldly responded, “Aren’t members of your Everlasting Wine Club also occupying one-eighth of the positions in the Political Affairs Department?”
One-eighth may not sound like much, but if it is dispersed among various departments, and some of them are department leaders, it becomes a huge intelligence network and political force. Andreier is considered a strong competitor to the mayor because the Everlasting Wine Club is capable of challenging the Forest Gallery.
Thud!
With a muffled sound, the stone pillar beneath Fenanche suddenly began to twist. The moonlight shining on the pillar danced like a snake, transforming into sinister chains that coiled up from bottom to top towards Fenanche!
Fenanche didn’t need to open the screen to know what this phenomenon meant. It was because the citizens were voting against him.
The ogre’s thoughts raced, but his face remained calm. “You don’t have to talk about this as if it’s a ‘tradition’ I created. A long time ago, this became an unspoken and unbreakable ‘rule’, and everyone has gone through it like this.”
“Without joining a faction, you cannot obtain an excellent ‘initial position’. If you want to be promoted, you not only need the recommendation of the department head but also the favor of the superior leader. ‘Pushing down and pulling up’ is the only way to rise. If you don’t join a faction, even if you miraculously become a political affairs agent, all that awaits you is a lifetime of grassroots tasks.””All the councilors and politicians here are both beneficiaries and accomplices of the factions. Apart from the Elixir of Immortality and the Forest Gallery, there are countless small factions in the government hall, like spider webs. If you want to climb up, you have to climb the web. This is the rule of the power game.”
“All of this is nothing more than the very ordinary, daily whims of power.”
……
In a bar in a lower district, a middle-aged beastman customer suddenly covered his face and cried bitterly, his tears and snot dripping into his wine glass, a sight so unsightly it was a blight on the city’s image.
He remembered the public examination thirteen years ago. He was the runner-up, and the first place was taken by an elf scholar who completely outclassed him in every aspect.
……
In a subordinate apartment of the Food and Nutrition Bureau of Camon City, a man in his forties was slumped in a soft chair with a bucket of potato chips. He looked at the light screen, adjusted his glasses, and recalled his ambitious graduation from university, followed by more than twenty years of wasted time, and couldn’t help but feel a bit gloomy.