The exam lasted an entire day. That evening, Chris began reviewing the papers in a luxurious room inside Bolas Fortress that had originally belonged to a colonel.
Two "NPC" clerks in black velvet coats and pointed fur hats sat at a broad desk. Their faces were expressionless as the red pencils in their hands flew across the exam papers.
These two were humanoid robots Chris had made using the players' intelligent assistant. Their movements were sluggish, their responses rigid, and they had no creativity whatsoever.
But grading papers happened to require no creativity, only precision and speed, which made these two NPC clerks perfectly suited to the job.
Chris assigned them the mathematics and language papers, while he personally reviewed the candidates' third papers.
Reading the essays took a great deal of work. Although Chris had set a thousand-character limit, most of the players had written at lavish length, far exceeding it.
There was no helping it. The players were too enthusiastic, too eager to become officials.
Only a little over a hundred people had taken the exam that day, but that was because Chris had restricted registration. Only veteran players with some reputation were allowed to participate; newcomers who had just entered the game were turned away.
He had little choice. The veteran players had already demonstrated their character through their actions during this time. Those who took their antics too far for their own amusement would not have many Reputation Points.
The newcomers had only just arrived, and there were bound to be some outrageous troublemakers among them. No matter how short-handed Chris was, he did not dare gamble with people's lives.
Of the five hundred veteran players, more than a hundred had signed up. A proportion of one in five was enough to show just how keen