"Thorne Duskwalker."
At the sound of his name, Thorne looked up from his phone and immediately stood up to follow the worker. She gave him a polite nod before leading him down the hall.
"D-55,"she said calmly, as she stopped in front of the said door. Thorne couldn't stop himself from accessing her. Impeccable clothing, a ponytail, cute earrings and has few strands of cat hair on her shirt. A real stickler to the rules but goes drinking on Friday nights and has a white cat.
" Mr Duskwalker? "
Thorne shook his head." Sorry. I sort of blanked out there." Then he pushed open the door and stepped inside.
The office was simple. Incredibly clean too. And empty. A bit small but not cramped with a bookshelf a desk and two chairs; one in front and the other behind. The owner was a straightforward person.
Sitting on the chair was the person himself. A man of about 42 with straw blonde hair and grey eyes. He wore a grey suit that had not a speck of dirt and a silver watch. His face was cold and expressionless. Thorne noticed that the first thing he looked at was his worn sneakers and he instantly felt ashamed of them. (They were bright pink. )
"Good morning," the man said, though less like a greeting and more like a judgement.
"Yes..." Thorne felt tingly all over. A terrible feeling that always occurred to him when he felt judged. He cleared his throat. "I'm here to receive my results in the Job Application Examinations."
Job Application Examinations or better known as JAEs is a series of examinations people of ages 17 and above can take in order to find and get a job that suits them best.
The exam was divided into three: knowledge, application and service. Thorne was terrible in the other two but he was pretty sure he did well in service. So maybe he'd be a servant or a waiter?
Thorne had only written these exams nine months after he turned 17 just to get his pestering hamster friend off him. But he couldn't blame the guy. In three months, he would be eighteen and the government would stop funding his housing and whatnot. So in three months, he would be homeless starving if he didn't get a job.
"Thorne Duskwalker, am I right?" the man asked, though Thorne was sure the man knew exactly who he was.
He nodded. "Yessir."
"My name is Martin Wayne and I'm in charge of giving you your results." He gestured to the chair in front of the desk. "Please sit."
Thorne sat on the chair and almost instantly regretted it. It was uncomfortable and he found multiple cramps in even the most impossible places.
Martin opened a drawer and brought out a green file from it. Thorne felt his heart glow. In JAE, blue meant applicant, red meant fail and green meant accepted. He thought himself incredibly lucky to earn green.
Martin dropped the folder on the desk but didn't open it. Instead, he placed his elbows on the desk and entwined his fingers.
"Mr Duskwalker," he said colder than before, "you dropped out of high school last year so you don't even have a graduate certificate. You have no talents and your skill is that you can talk to animals, which could get you a job in some nature reserve or whatever except you dropped out of high school and you're terrible at biology. But somehow, people like you get jobs and other perfectly capable people don't. Do you have anything to say?"
Thorne scratched the back of his head. He took his time to go over everything Martin said and back. Finally, he understood.
He asked," Did someone close to you fail the exam?"
In JAEs, failing the exam didn't necessarily mean you were bad at all the tests. Jacob Woss, a manager overseeing the board of New York had said, "50 percent of these exams is based on the applicants' performance. The other 50 is on whether they get chosen or not." This meant that even high school dropouts could get a job at a big company if the employers found something useful in them. Which also meant that even a person with a postgraduate degree could or could not get a job.
According to the government, this was to make sure that geniuses and prodigys aren't left without opportunities to develop the empire. Likewise, it also made sure that idiots didn't bring it down to dust.
Martin's eyebrow twitched but he kept quiet.
He carefully opened the folder and scanned through it. Then with a visible huff, he gave him a sheet of paper and a card.
"Here. You've been assigned to work as a servant in The Evadolon. You'll meet your employer in Sweet Cafe tomorrow morning by 10am. Please looked presentable and show them this paper and card when they asked."
Thorne mouth hung open. The Evadolon? The Flat of the Rich? Sure he was just a servant but only the best of the best were even able to smell that position. How did he get it?
"Thorne Duskwalker."
Thorne snapped out of his thoughts and nodded. "Yessir. Thank you sir."
When he stepped outside the room, the worker was waiting for him with a little smile on her face.
"You got in?"
Thorne nodded. "Yeah."
He stepped outside the large JAE building and didn't stop himself from doing his victory dance. And didn't care that passers-by where looking at him and laughing.
He was going to work in The Evadolon. The Evadolon!