Besides Jack and Lucy, there were three other new recruits in the company.
The first was a boy named Ken Havel. He has slightly long hair that almost covered his eyes and noticeably have soft feminine features. He looked like the quiet nervous type.
He looked even worse than Lucy as he looked like he even apologized to walls.
The second was a girl named Mira Jin who gave the impression of a pretty tomboy. She has golden short hair, just like that of a boy's cut, cat-shaped eyes and wore diamond earrings on each ear.
She wasn't as striking as Lucy, but she had that confident seductive charm—the kind of beauty that came from knowing exactly who she was.
The last was a boy, Lyle Dross. Lyle has cold and sharp facial features and has an expression that seem to measure everyone in the room if they were worth his time. Out of the three, Lyle was easily the most imposing.
Jack, standing with them, kept the same face he had when he entered and controlled his expression as he clipped his ID card on the right side of his chest, as did the others, with the exception of Lucy.
"Lucy Lim, here is your ID." The HR officer—a man in his thirties with a calm but intimidating tone—said, holding out the card but not releasing it immediately. "Can I ask where you're from?"
"Eh?" Lucy blinked, flustered, then answered quickly, "I'm from Gunyang Province, sir."
"Gunyang…I see."
The employee said as if thinking something, before glancing at Jack too.
The HR officer then cleared his throat and stepped forward.
"Before we assign you to your respective divisions, we should clarify something. Some of you may have noticed two new faces who weren't part of the official recruitment trials."
Everyone's attention shifted immediately toward Jack and Lucy.
'Yes, who are they, sir?' Mira asked.
Jack tried to meet the gaze of others, but stopped.
"These two," the HR officer then continued, gesturing toward them, "were personally recommended by the Executive Branch. Their admission is… special."
"Seriously?" Mira uttered in offending disbelief.
"Must be nice." Ken whispered.
"Of course," the HR officer went on, his tone turning firm, "they did not go through the same grueling process as you did, so it's understandable that some of you—and even your seniors—might find that unfair. Recommendations aren't exactly celebrated here at GH Security. You'll usually have to earn your place and prove you deserve it."
Hearing the last statement, Jack almost laughed.
But his expression stayed neutral, but his vision twisted.
'Recruitment trials, huh. So these people went through something like that while we just waltzed in here. Even I'd be pissed,' Jack thought with a wry smile. Unfortunately, the smile only made a few of the recruits glare harder.
To calm himself, he then glanced at Lucy who was acting shy like usual.
Jack couldn't help but smirk.
'She isn't exactly a fraud but she looks even more afraid than me when the fraud here is just me!' Jack cried inwardly.
In fact, Lucy was in a completely different league.
After the short speech, the HR officer began calling out the new assignments.
"Recruit Ken Havel—7th Division."
"Recruit Mira Jin—3rd Division."
"Recruit Lyle Dross—5th Division." Then they added, "You receive a map of your deployment. While some of you only got to use the elevator, some of the divisions are stationed strategically around the city, so don't get lost."
Then he paused, looking at the final two names on his datapad.
"Recruits Jack Crawluster and Lucy Lim…" He hesitated, almost as if he pitied them. "You will both be assigned to the 12th Division. So prepare yourselves."
Jack almost frowned.
Judging from the reactions of everyone, that was not a very nice division.
The golden-haired girl, Mira, let out a small chuckle under her breath.
"Oh… that's that Division."
"What do you mean by that?" Jack smiled and asked, but she just smirked and walked off with everyone.
Jack's eye twitched.
'At least, I'm with someone I know…' Jack said.
As they left the auditorium, the whispers of the HR employees followed them like shadows.
Outside, David was waiting for them, looking as excited as a kid at a candy store.
"How'd it go?" he asked quickly.
"I don't know much, but I think we have been assigned to a troublesome division." Jack laughed lightly to cope.
"…"
David grinned wider.
'Why the fuck is this guy smiling?'
Jack thought, finding David smiling annoying.
'Is he one of those who bullies new employees?'
But David, despite being young, was taller and bigger than him, and even have a higher level. He punched concretes with bare hands!
"Anyways, do you know where the 12th division is?" Jack then said trying to be civil to the 16 year old teenager, maintaining the same friendly expression.
Hearing him, however, David's grin became even wider.
"12th division, huh. I absolutely know," he said, "That's the lowest-performing group in the entire company. Most people call it the blender or dysfunctional division these days. It's popular!"
Jack's eyes twitched, as he confirmed his true fate.
"So where is it?" he said flatly, with a grainy disappointment, to which David just heartily laughed.
Moments later, they arrived at their destination.
'???'
It was a small random building squeezed between a pawnshop and a laundromat.
Looking around, it was located at the border between the Upper and Lower Districts.
Thus, instead of a great scenery and gleaming towers, there were shady streets just a few walks away.
David spread his arms wide.
"Welcome!" he declared, voice echoing through the streets. "This is Division 12, The Public Safety Investigations Unit! You're our fourth and fifth member!"
Jack stared at the place, speechless.
'Great,' he thought. 'Perfect. I'm working in some shady business.'