Chapter 7

The Owner of the Other Hand Appears

“How to get a job at Eden?” In the study room, 485321 took a sip of the juice Juan had brought back and said thank you before continuing, “You need to maintain the top grade in your class for five years, and the school teachers will recommend you. If you don’t qualify for a recommendation, it’s fine. As long as you pass Eden’s exam with full marks, you still have a chance.”

“You see, I told you, to work at Eden, you need to study well! What was your rank again? Sixty-eighth.”

“There are only seventy-four students in total!”

485325 screamed hopelessly while holding his head.

“Your score is even worse than mine. How are you going to work at Eden?”

“It’s not necessarily true that you have to have excellent grades to work at Eden.” After taking another sip of juice, 485321 said calmly.

“Eh?” The scream abruptly stopped, and 485325 looked at the young man with glasses across from him, his expression a bit dazed.

Meanwhile, Juan’s expression hadn’t changed; he had maintained a serious listening demeanor.

The glasses-wearing youth—485321—smiled as he observed the two across from him.

To be honest, he had no impression of 485345. Being focused on his studies, he only recognized a few people who lived close to him in the school dormitory. As for the others, he had little to no impression of them, including 485325.

He recognized 485345 mainly because of the high-quality green crystal this morning.

Socialized upbringing could only guarantee basic education and living conditions; to buy a light brain and more learning materials, one needed more points. There were various blank entries on online encyclopedias that needed to be filled in, which was his primary source of supplemental income. The photos he took from 485345 today were also uploaded to this platform.

Thinking of this, he directly shared what he had learned:

“The position I’m competing for is a researcher. First, I’ll be recommended by schools at all levels. If I pass the exam, I can become an intern researcher. If I can stay on after the internship, I’ll be a junior researcher.”

“But Eden doesn’t just need researchers. Just like outside, Eden is a smaller and more closed world. Researchers need to eat, so there will be cafeterias and dining halls there; the most important job at Eden is to give birth to newborns, so besides professional researchers, they also need caregivers; since there are flowers and plants inside Eden, they will need gardeners…”

“For twelve years, in addition to selecting researchers from schools every year, Eden has recruited cooks twice, caregivers six times, a gardener once, and even once hired a heavy vehicle driver.”

485325 was dumbfounded: “So you’re saying that if I want to work at Eden, I can also learn to cook, take care of kids, landscape flowers, or even drive a truck?”

After sipping his juice, 485321 modestly nodded: “That’s correct, but even for those jobs, Eden only accepts the best.”

485325 jumped to his feet: “I had no idea! I thought you had to study well to have a chance at entering Eden!”

The glasses-wearing youth glanced at him: “Our research-oriented school teachers do say that, but at culinary schools, nursing schools, and driving schools, the teachers say something different.”

Opening and closing his mouth, 485325 eventually sat back down heavily.

“You never mentioned this to us,” he muttered.

With a slight smile, 485321 raised his juice cup: “You didn’t ask me to share it either.”

“I’ve seen the advertisements. This is the signature juice from a very famous juice shop in the East District. I’ve wanted to try it for a long time. Thank you for treating me,” he said to Juan.

485325 quietly mumbled, “I reminded him to bring a gift for you. The juice shop was also my choice, and I even picked the juice.”

When you need something from someone, you naturally have to bring a gift—after all, having spent many more nights out than other classmates, 485325 prided himself on being more worldly than the rest.

Unfortunately, the one benefiting from it was the guy next to him.

However…

This guy also treated himself to juice, using points exchanged for green crystals. He usually wouldn’t splurge on such expensive juice.

Having never really hoped for a job at Eden, 485325 quickly let it go.

Sipping his juice, 485321 smiled as he watched the two across from him, finding it amusing how one was changing expressions constantly while the other remained unchanged.

Then, he dropped a little bombshell:

“As far as I know, Eden isn’t recruiting cooks, gardeners, or truck drivers this time. They are hiring caregivers, but the assessments have already ended. However, they are looking for tutors from teacher training schools. I’ve seen the recruitment notice, and they don’t have any requirements about the graduating school; it doesn’t have to be a teacher training school. The interview is tomorrow morning at eight, the same time as the researcher interviews. So, do you want to give it a try? We can go together!”

485325 was stunned again: “This important news… was it introduced by the teacher in the class we skipped?”

The glasses-wearing youth shook his head: “Nope.”

“Then how did you know?” 485325 still looked dazed.

“My girlfriend is from a teacher training school.” With a smile, 485321 continued to drink his juice.

After hearing this answer, 485325 was at a loss for words. However, once Juan got the answer he wanted, he stood up, thanked the glasses-wearing youth, and turned to leave.

That night, 485325 unexpectedly decided to burn the midnight oil in the library. He selected many study materials from the shelves and not only studied by himself but enthusiastically shared them with Juan.

However, Juan didn’t show much interest in the caregiving materials. Instead, he found a poetry collection and quietly began to read it.

As a result, the person reading the poetry collection didn’t sleep, while the one who planned to study soon dozed off after just a few pages.

In the late-night library, only two lamps were lit, and even the neon lights outside seemed brighter than them.

Juan read the poetry collection seriously. After finishing it, he didn’t go to exchange books but sat in his seat, staring eastward, in the direction of Eden, which was also the direction of the magic book…

Time passed like this.

Meanwhile—

Eden

In a dense forest, beneath a tree blooming with purple flowers, there was a patch of un-dried blood.

A woman dressed in a sweater and long skirt was lying there, her arm broken.

Blood flowed from her severed limb.

Five minutes ago, she was still screaming, but now she couldn’t scream anymore. She had lost too much blood, and her eyes were wide open, gasping for breath like a fish out of water.

Two fully armed staff members finally arrived and dragged her out. Along with them were two gardeners, also fully armed. Once they arrived, they began to clean the area. With their skilled hands, the blood on the ground quickly disappeared without a trace, the damaged turf was replanted, and they even trimmed the unsightly branches so that the flowering tree looked more elegant.

After completing all this, they quickly vanished.

Everything was silent, as if nothing had ever happened.

However, just outside the room—

Yes, just outside the room. If your vision could follow the gardeners as they left, you would notice that this seemingly beautiful natural scenery had an end. The green grass abruptly stopped at a white wall.

A hidden door opened just before they reached it, then quickly closed after they left.

The previously dragged-out woman in the sweater was now lying on the floor just outside the door, with several staff members in white coats looking down at her from above.

“This is the sixth one this month, right?” one of the staff members said.

“Yeah, the sixth one. Consider it lucky; she didn’t die, just lost an arm.”

“How did she end up like this?”

“She worked here for a few days, and when she found out he would eat the food she made, she got a bit carried away and tried to take it a step further, and this is what happened.”

“His temper is getting worse.”

“Bad temper could also be genetic; he has a violent factor inherently in his genes.”

“How so?”

“Let her recover for a while; if she gets better, don’t let her out. Leave her to be a caregiver.”

“Oh, at this rate, we won’t need to recruit caregivers anymore.”

As they conversed, suddenly, a loud bang came from the wall behind them. The alarm blared, but the researchers clearly weren’t new to this. One of them quickly pulled out a tablet from his pocket, and the screen showed a severed hand—specifically, a person holding a severed hand.

It seemed that they anticipated someone on the other side would see it. Not long after they glanced at the monitor, the person threw away the severed hand, and then it was unclear what he did; the tablet’s screen went black.

Switching to other monitoring cameras proved useless; all the screens were black.

The researchers fell silent at the same time…

Next, the researchers had to worry about installing new cameras. The installation wasn’t a problem, but how to install them right under that guy’s nose became an issue.

They were troubled.

Yet the one responsible for all this, “that guy,” wasn’t in a hurry at all.

Leaving the doorway, he leisurely walked deeper into the dense forest.

Until he reached a spot on the other side of this massive room, a place with a small glass skylight.

Below was a sofa, and he sat down casually, resting his chin in his hand.

After a while, he extended his left hand, and when he saw the intricate patterns on it, a smile suddenly appeared on his previously expressionless face.

A rather weird smile.

He has arrived.