Most importantly, it was free!
This was far too grand a gesture!
Who knew how many people were past the age limit but still had talent!
The resources this required were staggering.
As for defending a pass for a year with a sixty-percent mortality rate, that would deter some people, but even more would definitely sign up without hesitation.
And of course, that was exactly what happened.
The moment Ink Academy's online application portal opened, its server nearly crashed.
Of course, most were just passersby joining in the excitement.
One minute...
Five thousand applicants.
One hour.
The number of applicants exceeded fifty thousand.
And the figure kept ticking upward.
Perhaps few among them truly had talent, and most merely wanted to gamble on a chance, but this extraordinary spectacle still sparked countless discussions.
At the very least...
It meant that within the Human Race, there were tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of young people unafraid of death!
Three days later, applications closed.
The total number of applicants was three hundred and forty thousand.
"Five days from now, those notified by phone will advance to the next round of selection."
On the day applications closed, Ink Academy released its second announcement.
Every teacher and student at Ink Academy became busy, each screening this enormous batch of résumés.
Even Education Department and Ink Pavilion personnel throughout Jiangcheng, and even those in nearby cities, joined in.
It was a massive undertaking.
And it also gave the public a powerful boost of confidence!
Even if Ink Academy ultimately admitted only ten thousand people, based on the mortality rate, four thousand would survive to graduate.
Four thousand Fifth Awakening graduates trained by Ink Academy, standing atop the Human Race's Four Great Passes several years later-the destructive power they would bring would undoubtedly be immense.