Chapter 401

The Northwest Republic's first civil service examination drew the attention of many.

Though they did not understand what this so-called "civil servant" actually was, many people still signed up.

No one was stupid. With a little thought, they could infer that "civil servants" were officials who handled the territory's everyday affairs. By past tradition, officials were promoted by the lord—usually selected from among the lord's subordinates or appointed from the lord's relatives. Directly selecting them from among the common people, as the Northwest Republic did, was rare.

Rare, but not unheard of.

After all, the Republic's foundation was weak. There were not many high-ranking officials, and not many relatives or subordinates either. In the end, there simply were not enough people to promote into all the necessary positions.

This was everyone's opportunity.

Thus, in the brief span of three days, almost every capable person in the Four Towns region signed up. Many even made a special trip to Void City through the teleportation array to register.

When the numbers were counted after registration closed on the third day, the total had exceeded ten thousand, leaving the staff responsible for the tally dumbfounded.

"Do we even have that many positions for them to fill?" Philex asked after receiving the report, stunned for quite a while.

Madam Tig, the governor of Void City, pondered for a moment and shook her head.

"Then roughly how many openings do we have?" Philex asked again.

"We did count that. The manpower we're currently short of... the urgently needed positions number around three to four hundred."

"Let's round up—five hundred. That means selecting at least one out of every twenty..." Philex sighed. "I have a bad feeling this is going to cause trouble!"

Though she had never experienced anything like this, she only needed to imagine