"Security! Break this punk’s legs and throw this trash out into the street!"
The four armed security guards advanced, pulling out their electric shock batons.
Beside the desk, the spoiled young master in platinum armor, Julian, sneered with arrogance. He deliberately walked over and ground the heel of his armored boot into Tobias’s crumpled application paper on the floor.
"Look at this pathetic peasant trying to play hero," Julian mocked, crossing his arms and laughing in Evren’s face. "A broke nobody wearing fifteen-dollar clothes thinks he has the right to question Chief Examiner Bradley? You don’t even have a mana core, trash! Know your place in the gutter!"
Bradley leaned back in his leather chair, crossing his fingers and admiring his heavy gold rings as he watched the guards surround Evren.
"You wanted to talk about Apex Guild rules, boy?" Bradley asked in a condescending voice. "Let me educate you on how the real world works. The mysterious Chairman of Apex Guild is a ghost who sits atop Victoria Hill. He doesn’t manage day-to-day operations. The Assessment Bureau put me in charge of this entire thirty-story evaluation department!"
Bradley stood up, slamming both palms down onto the desk so hard the gold evaluation seal bounced.
"In this recruitment hall, I am god!" Bradley roared so loud his voice echoed through the ears of every trembling applicant in the room. "If I want a rich prodigy like Young Master Julian in the vanguard, he enters! If I want a beggar like Tobias thrown in the trash, he starves! And as for you..."
Bradley pointed between Evren’s eyes.
"One word from me, and not only will you be beaten into a cripple right here on this floor, but your name will be permanently blacklisted across every guild registry in the four sectors of Veridia Metropolis! You will never work another day in your pitiful life!"
The hundreds of applicants in the hall watched in horrified silence.
Tobias clenched his fists so hard blood dripped from his palms, but he knew that opposing the Chief Examiner meant total ruin.
Evren didn’t flinch.
He didn’t draw a weapon. He didn’t even take his hands out of his pockets.
Instead, a chilling smirk slowly spread across Evren’s face as his eyes glanced upward toward the high-definition security camera blinking red directly above Bradley’s desk.
"So let me make sure I understand you clearly, Examiner Bradley," Evren said in a calm, smooth tone. "You’re stating on official record that in Apex Guild, a fifty-thousand-dollar cash bribe guarantees an elite pass, while honest hunters who bleed in the combat trials are thrown into the garbage?"
"That’s exactly what I’m saying, you broke roach!" Bradley barked in arrogant mockery.
"And you’re claiming that even if the Chairman himself walked into this hall right now, you wouldn’t give a damn?" Evren asked, taking one slow, deliberate step forward.
Bradley threw his head back and burst into a roar of unhinged, hysterical laughter.
"Chairman?!" Bradley sneered, leaning over his desk with eyes full of pure contempt. "Even if the Chairman himself walked through those double doors this very second, he would have to bow his head and give my Assessment Bureau face! I am the gatekeeper of this guild! Without me, this empty guild is nothing!"
Bradley glared at the four guards. "What are you waiting for?! Break this beggar’s legs and throw his corpse into the alley!"
The lead guard swung his crackling shock baton straight toward Evren’s collarbone.
BANG!
The reinforced mahogany double doors of the 30th-floor executive elevator lobby were kicked open with thunderous, explosive force.
The heavy doors slammed against the wall, sending shockwaves across the marble floor.
"FREEZE! NOBODY MOVE!"
A dozen heavily armored, elite security commanders bearing the golden falcon insignia of Apex Security stormed into the hall, their submachine guns drawn and mana-shields flaring.
The four guards froze instantly in mid-swing.
Bradley’s eyes lit up with a triumphant, malicious grin.
Seeing the executive staff rushing in, Bradley assumed the building’s leadership had come down to support him.
"Director Mikay!" Bradley shouted loudly, straightening his suit and waving his hand with smug confidence. "You’re just in time! This broke F-Rank beggar snuck into our VIP evaluation hall, disrupted the trials, and assaulted our security proctors..."
Director Mikay sprinted through the doorway, his forehead soaked in cold sweat.
Mikay didn’t even spare Bradley a glance.
As Bradley reached out his hand to greet him, Mikay shoved Bradley’s arm aside with such force that the corrupt examiner stumbled backward, crashing heavily against his evaluation desk.
Mikay didn’t stop.
Holding a gold-embossed leather folder against his chest, Mikay rushed straight across the marble floor, coming to an abrupt halt two feet before the young man in the simple charcoal henley.
Before the eyes of hundreds of shocked applicants, guards, and proctors...
Mikay dropped his head and bent his upper body forward: "Chairman Evren! Please forgive our delayed arrival!"
The entire recruitment hall dropped into dead silence.