I! Anomaly Cleansing Agent!

After receiving a reminder from the Twin Fish Director, all the participating cleaners suddenly couldn’t help but have an epiphany.

These few freaks with “talents,” no matter how intense their antics got, were only colliding above the table, never invading beneath it. And indeed, below their own chests, they hadn’t suffered any attacks.

Seriously… if you could do that, why didn’t you say so earlier? With not a little resentment, they glanced at the Twin Fish Director who had his eyes closed. More than two-thirds of the cleaners, unable to bear the exam environment which was worse than torture, hastily squeezed under the table, escaping the increasingly fierce battle above, their faces full of relief after narrowly surviving.

However, once they had crawled under the table, since they couldn’t see the “tree” behind the Twin Fish Director anymore, they naturally couldn’t continue drawing on their test papers, regardless of how splendid their “trees” were. Their scores were thus permanently fixed at their current levels.

…

Alright, the first batch of worthless zeroes has been weeded out.

The Twin Fish Director’s black and white distinct eyeballs circled the room outside the dream bubble, noting down all the cleaners who chose to hide under the table. Sitting cross-legged on the podium, he picked up his pen and began drawing egg after egg on the animal skin notebook.

A cleaner’s ability limit is defined by their talent, while their lower limit is determined by the courage to face danger head-on and the perseverance to never give up in adversity.

If one lacks the courage to fight even in a perfectly safe environment where death or real injury isn’t possible, then no matter how good their talent, they probably won’t get a chance to realize it.

You must know, the Clearing Bureau has countless enemies, and various anomalous items have all sorts of abilities. No one can guarantee they will never run into trouble, even someone as strong as one of the twelve directors might encounter situations that seem impossible to escape alive.

If one doesn’t even think about fighting when already told it’s absolutely safe, how could they possibly have the guts to fight for survival when they truly step onto a path of no return? People like this will never amount to anything, and even if they somehow rise by sheer luck, dying would just be a matter of time.

Hmm… well, those who hid under the table will get 1 point, giving them all 0 points seems too absolute.

Looking at the useless ones hiding under the table, some of whom hadn’t completely given up but were stubbornly peeking out occasionally to glance before continuing to draw while lying on the chair, the Twin Fish Director hesitated slightly, then revised the scores again.

Those who stayed hidden under the table still got zero eggs; these wimps weren’t worth looking forward to. But the rest who were still peeking around deserved a meager 1-point attitude score勉强.

Though they lacked the courage to fight for survival, knowing they wouldn’t die and could hone their talents yet still dared not take a risk, as long as they didn’t give up outright, there was still hope. They could improve their courage through more life-and-death crises.

But that’s a story for another day. The remaining third sitting on the chairs, screaming in pain while gritting their teeth and continuing to draw, are the future pillars of the bureau. Regardless of how long they hold out or what they draw, everyone deserves a passing score of 30 points.

With satisfaction, the Twin Fish Director glanced at the remaining cleaners and completed the basic scoring amidst their miserable cries, then retracted his gaze and waited for the others to fully display their talents.

Under the immense pressure of the pioneers’ “talents,” the brains of the over a hundred remaining cleaners could no longer entertain any extra thoughts, all furiously scribbling away as if trying to burn themselves out.

In less than three minutes, all the cleaners who hadn’t hidden under the table had finished their exams, showcasing their unique individual talents.

Rusty chains, pore-less masks, fox heads with blue flames burning in their eye sockets;

Sewn-mouth dolls, decayed mazes, music boxes with two skeletons embracing in dance;

All sorts of strange images, suppressed by shadowy mist and flying feathers, struggled to emerge from the test papers, protecting the cleaners who had drawn themselves to exhaustion, floating aimlessly in the turbid yellow flow like unfortunate souls fallen into a sewer.

Apart from these cleaners whose talents were insufficient and barely managed to hold on without being swallowed, about twenty elites displayed abilities that, though far inferior to the flying feathers and gray mist, were comparable to the turbid flow. Leon’s left-side horned man was one of them.

“Hmph, I underestimated you.”

Hugging the neck of the centipede he drew, the horned man glanced at Leon next to him, who was covered in cracks from the gray mist and burned pitch-black by the flying feathers, almost losing his human form, and couldn’t help but sneer, mocking him openly:

“…”

Isn’t there a possibility that I’m not enduring because I simply don’t feel pain? [Through the creator’s detailed explanation, as well as my own observations and归纳 summaries, I obtained a large amount of information about “the space between talents.” The dual-colored badge “Materialist Soul (Bright Red)” has been activated.

Due to a complete understanding of the operational rules of “the space between talents,” resistance to this anomalous item has increased dramatically, and I can now shield against deep-level influences.]

After turning off the popup panel, the flesh on Leon’s face rapidly disappeared, replaced by a pore-less mask. He turned his head, gave the severely injured horned man a sidelong glance, then responded relatively politely:

“Not bad, neither are you.”

“?!”

Listening to Leon’s calm reply without a single tremor, seeing his body crazily eroded by various “talents,” already more monster than human, the horned man’s pupils couldn’t help but contract violently.

With his own “talent” protection, merely having to endure the aftermath of two or three “talents,” he was already in excruciating pain with all his muscles tensed. How could this guy remain sitting there like nothing happened with over forty other people’s talents fiercely wrestling inside him?

Looking back at him, expressionless—probably expressionless—Leon twisted his head back, sat upright in his chair without any reaction, leaving the horned man speechless.

This kid… is getting way out of hand!

Not a single mistake in content from 69 Book Bar!

And the big-talking woman next to him is the same. The talent displayed by that yellow-clad woman is only slightly inferior to “Angel” and “God of Death.” So her previous claim of confidently poisoning everyone and helping this kid win first place might not have been mere boasting.

So… even if I can’t completely eliminate this kid, I must do something to suppress his score as much as possible! “Twin Fish Sir!”

After warily examining Leon and the woman, the horned man called out loudly to the distant podium:

“I’ve finished my paper, can I move around a bit?”

Huh? After hearing the horned man’s words, the Twin Fish Director lifted his eyelids, glanced at him, then said with interest:

“How do you want to move? Tell me.”

“I want to sit closer to others.”

Glancing sideways at the severely injured Leon beside him, the corner of the horned man’s mouth twitched slightly, then with malicious intent, he grinned:

“When my ‘talent’ approaches others and increases pressure on them, their ‘talents’ similarly approach me and add extra pressure… doing this shouldn’t be considered a violation, right?”

“Not at all.”

Glancing at the person next to him who had lost all human resemblance but was still relaxed sitting in his seat, the Twin Fish Director’s gray eyebrows couldn’t help but twitch. Then he nodded slightly: “Enduring the pressure brought by others’ ‘talents’ is part of this exam. You can go near whoever you want, I have no objections and even welcome you doing so.

Also, there’s one thing I can reveal to you all. The specific ranking of this assessment will be determined by how long you last. Only when there’s only one person left will this assessment officially end… That’s all I have to say. Do what you want.”

(Chapter Complete)