Bent extended an arm around Ziye's shoulder, “Remember what we said when you first arrived at Kaga?”
Ziye choked back a response as Aix jumped in, “Back in the day, we desperately wanted you to join Dongdian, but you insisted on Lingsi. Regretting it now?”
Ziye shot them a look, “Who says I regret it? Even if I joined Dongdian, I couldn’t enter the Military Academy—my height and weight were substandard. Any other academy would be worse than Lingsi.”
Bent leaned his face close to Ziye’s, sizing her up, “Upset?”
Ziye poked his cheek with her finger, “Not a chance. If I can’t come, it doesn’t mean people from the Wolf’s Den can’t.”
Aix leaned in from the other side, “Oh, after only a few days, you’ve jumped from considering your own situation to analyzing from the legion’s perspective. Aren’t you tired?”
Ziye pushed both their faces away with a punch from each hand, “Easy for you to say. Come visit the Wolf’s Den if you’ve got the guts?”
Bent rested his chin on his hand, pondering for a moment, “I was already thinking of visiting the Wolf’s Den, even if you hadn’t mentioned it. But I start my service with the Kaga military next month, so it’ll have to wait until I’m out.”
Ziye gave him a sidelong glance, “All talk.” Suddenly realizing something, she quickly changed the subject, “You guys finished your exams, right? You report to the military next month, so you have half a month free. Can you lend me a hand? It’s pretty simple.”
The twins spoke in unison, “Name it.”
Ziye smirked, “Come see me tomorrow for the details. I need to go talk to Senior Brother Chun’er first.”
The favor was indeed quite simple: helping the Wolf’s Den recruit personnel.
This was because the recruitment team was desperately short-handed.
Halley had only recently left the military and wasn't one for much talking. He was still learning how to be an assistant and had no experience in recruiting; Nine-Year was the galaxy’s number one unreliable designer—apart from designing, every fiber of his being screamed ‘unreliable’; Little Black currently had zero experience dealing with the public.
As for Tang Wan, she was merely there for tourism.
The twins had been at Kaga for four years and knew the place inside out; being the aces of Dongdian as well as their campus heartthrobs, having them as mascots would surely smooth the recruitment fair considerably.
The next day was exam-free, so Ziye made time for the recruitment team and the twins to meet at the beautiful Flower Conservatory. She then let them loose to use their creativity freely while she went back to the grindstone, burying her head in studies.
Time proved that letting the twins help with recruitment was one of the wisest decisions.
Just as Ziye finished all her written exams, she received a message from Deputy Commander Da Tou.
“Ziye, what you did with the Kaga recruitment was brilliant! This new batch you brought in has the highest educational background the Wolf’s Den has ever recruited, and they are exactly the talent we need right now!”
Ziye raised an eyebrow; those guys were actually quite dependable.
She laughed cheerfully, “As long as they’re useful, that’s great. I was back at school for exams and recruited them on the side. You should send someone to be stationed permanently at Kaga for future recruitment in a few days.”
Da Tou nodded, “Understood. I’ll look for someone, and if he has any questions, would it be alright for him to ask you?”
Da Tou couldn't bring himself to ask Ziye to mentor the new liaison; Ziye’s schedule was even busier than his own, and at least he didn’t have exams to worry about...
Ziye agreed and, after hanging up the hypersignal, headed straight to the site to see for herself.
The recruitment site was on Kaga Space Station Three. Before even arriving, she spotted the recruitment advertisements plastered across Kaga Station’s massive light screens—clearly advertising for the Wolf’s Den.
Ziye glanced over them and saw they were surprisingly well-presented.
The advertising spokesperson for the recruitment campaign was Nine-Year.
Ziye instantly got a bad feeling—was having Nine-Year as the face of the campaign really a good idea?
Nine-Year wasn’t unattractive, and his demeanor wasn’t bad. Plus, the entire galaxy knew he had defected from another legion back then, so making him a spokesperson seemed suitable enough.
The critical point was: the entire galaxy knew Nine-Year’s personality was unreliable!
After Ziye left the design department of Mengya Group, Nine-Year’s fame had soared with the group’s development. Thirteen percent of the mecha market designs originated from his hands.
And he had successfully introduced the ‘bizarre and unconventional’ into mecha design, becoming the pioneer of wildly diverse mecha shapes.
Even the robots later produced by Mengya Group began to trend towards irreversibly peculiar forms.
In reality, for both mecha and robots, the humanoid form remained the mainstream; those who preferred bizarre shapes were only a minority. After discussions between Black Beard and Ziye, the unconventional designs for mecha and robots were categorized under ‘high-end customization.’
Thus, Nine-Year successfully propelled Mengya Group’s high-end customization to a new echelon.
Nine-Year’s fame also reached new heights.
Ziye stared at the advertisement on the light screen, silently wondering if having Nine-Year as a spokesperson would make people assume the Wolf’s Den was a place that welcomed eccentrics? It probably would, right?
While she was thinking, she arrived at the recruitment plaza.
The moment Ziye stepped off the skiff, she saw the line of people winding around the plaza—and the vast majority were young women!!!
At the front of the queue, Ziye spotted a giant light screen displaying Nine-Year’s endorsement advertisement. In front of the screen, G-series little girls were dancing gracefully, flanked by two humanoid mechas acting as imposing guards.
It seemed quite well done.
Ziye glanced at the recruitment stations of the other legions; most only had about a dozen applicants. She couldn't help but laugh—what a success!
“Xiao Yezi, over here!”
Tang Wan waved from not far away. Ziye trotted over to see the twins seated on the left side of the recruitment desk, their data pads open, occasionally typing something, occasionally speaking a few words, and occasionally looking up to offer a slight smile to the queuing young women.
The phrase ‘a momentary flash of beauty’ seemed to perfectly describe the effect of their smiles.
Ziye suddenly began to understand why so many young women had come to apply.
On the right side of the long table were Halley and Little Black. Both had bronze skin. Little Black had an ordinary appearance, while Halley was a handsome man with carefully chosen red hair.
Little Black was the epitome of blissful ignorance, treating Kaga as if it were some derelict planet, completely composed, his face radiating an aura of confidence.
These two dark-skinned men formed a stark contrast with the fair-skinned twins on the left.
Nine-Year sat in the middle, flanked by Tang Wan on one side and his pride and joy, the robotic White Tiger, on the other.
Applicants first approached the twins. The twins scanned their résumés, asked a few brief questions about the legion, made some annotations on their data pads, and then directed the applicant toward Tang Wan.
Tang Wan was primarily responsible for assessing the students' basic qualifications. After her assessment, Nine-Year took over to test professional aptitude. Finally, they moved to Halley, who performed the preliminary screening—determining whether the applicant advanced to the next step or was told to wait for results or passed to Little Black.
Next to Little Black was a large open space reserved for assessing the applicants' practical skills.
Aside from the Robotic White Tiger, which genuinely served as a mascot, the person with the least to do was Little Black, as the majority of people never made it past Halley.
Even so, in order to get up close to the handsome men and enjoy the feeling of Tang Wan sitting among such attractive company, most young women still flocked to apply without hesitation.