Trash in the Apocalypse

Chapter 268: Army Recruitment

The day of army recruitment came together with the release of the auction house plugin. People who were interested in the auction house hurried towards the second floor of the Guild Hall to shop around. Bernard hired several staffs to work as auctioneers, and though the staff have no prior experience, they were still active and excited to work there.

Survivors who were interested in joining the Black Haven Army gathered at the designated empty plot of land and waited nervously.

Most of the people that gathered here were already experienced people who fought a bunch of regular carriers on their own. They came from small and big factions and was tired of the unstable life they were living. Some were even from the Frontier and National Police. They realized that, at least with Black Haven, they would have a lot of benefits that would help them and their loved ones survive.

The recruitment standard was very simple. As long as someone is able to fight, they can join the recruitment process.

With the bars so low, some women even decided to try out and were waiting whether they would be kicked out or not.

Everyone became quiet when a dozen people walked towards them. It was the higher-ups of Black Haven.

Due to being the most powerful faction in town, every high ranking personnel of Black Haven was popular. Their faces, attitude, and the way they speak have become the talk of the town for some time. Some female-only circles even had secret pieces of information on what they prefer for their group's members to capitalize on and try their luck and get into the group.

But with the tight relationship of the old members of the group to each other, no one has married themselves to the group. The best chance was with latecomers, for example, Felipe who frequents Veronica's Pub at night and his son. Marrying someone who works for Black Haven has also become a trend to survive.

Jun stood in front of the crowd and stared at them. He studied everyone's faces and would sometimes, stare at a few individuals that had black nametags above their head.

Since there are many reasons why he would get hated on, he ignored those people and continued with his plan.

"Around 200 people? I guess that's good enough for now," he said then took a deep breath. "Everyone is gathered here because of the recruitment notice you saw. If there's anyone here who didn't know that and just happened to join the crowd, this is the time to take your leave now."

Jun waited for a bit and saw no one move after his reminder.

He continued. "Now, everyone has been drafted to become the first batch of Black Haven's private army. We expect great things from all of you, so please don't give up and strive hard. King, come forward."

"Yes," King said while he stepped forward, gazing at the crowd.

Jun said. "King would be your Director. Its a rank and he is someone who reports to me. He could be said to be of equal ranks with a General. But with our army model, we would be using a business model for that. He will explain everything you need to know later on, but for now, he would be doing a set of programs to filter out everyone. He will be your direct superior during this recruitment and if you guys are lucky, even in the army. He would decide who fails and who passes. Good luck to you all!"

After his speech, Jun left with Adrian's and Nik's group. Bernard was following them around as he had new reports to present to Jun.

The various livelihood personnel recruitment was doing great. Some of the people on their mid-thirties were convinced to become farmers while those who were in the mid and late twenties were recruited as fishermen. The latter would be taught the Waterstriding skill while the former would be taught the Reinforce skill.

With the Waterstriding skill, those people recruited to become fishermen could easily move underwater and catch fishes, while the recruited farmers would have stronger body due to Reinforce, properly circulating energy inside their body. They might even have better health after getting their bodies cleansed after a few sets of energy circulations.

After getting Jun's approval, Bernard left the group and continued to work with other business.

Meanwhile, Jun plans to visit the fish ponds whether they could really harvest infinite fish from them. Gilbert was already waiting for them at the Lakeside Marina with basic fishing boats on the ready.

King stood in front of the crowd with a raised chin and straight body.

He was proud to be selected as the first Director of the first batch of recruits and he plans to do his best to nurture everyone to become an unstoppable force who would protect this town and its people.

He already examined the recruitment process given to him earlier and he strictly plans to adhere to it.

After everyone finished signing an attendance sheet, he announced the start of the recruitment process. There were 238 people who wanted to join the army.

"We are doing a set of physical tests, so we could filter out those who don't have enough strength in themselves. It's not because we don't like weak people, its because we care for you. If you don't have good stamina, there's a chance that you might die when fighting for a long time. The first part of the recruitment process would be running. We will run around the outskirts of the town for three laps and anyone who can't finish the course would be out. This will test your endurance. Let's go!"

With everyone basically having enhanced stats, this part of the exam would test an individuals willpower to endure exhaustion and physical training.

Humans are not simple humans anymore. They can do a lot of things which were deemed impossible, coupled with enhanced stats and various strange skills, humans might even create miracles.

King led the run as he jogged and set the standard pace. It wasn't extremely fast nor was it considered slow. The pace was just right enough to cause your heart and body to feel the tension of moving around.

For those who fought and hunted regular carriers daily, they were able to run comfortably at the same pace. However, to those people who only hunted for fun and to scavenge enough resources to live another day, the pace would slowly take their breath away.

The long parade of runners attracted attention from everyone. Some who didn't even know what was going on joined the group and jogged with them, thinking it was some sort of marathon for fun.

After circling around town and finishing one lap, King noticed that the group behind him was slowly getting thinner. Even the people who closely followed behind him was starting to decrease in numbers. The good news was their numbers were still high and most of them were only breathing roughly.

King continued running forward perfectly fine without any signs of slowing down. It was because of the skill, Reinforce.

With Reinforce activated as he ran, he was able to feel his body lighten up and strengthened at the same time. It was one of the benefits of joining the Elite unit and getting access to the skill library.

King wasn't cheating. He didn't ban any use of skills and everyone just thoughtlessly ran after him without even using the basic Sprint. Anyone who was Agent Rank 1 and has enough agent points could browse the Virtual Library of Black Haven. 

The more time passed, the more people disappeared behind him. Even then, he could still see people pushing themselves forward, wanting to finish the test.

When the third lap ended, the number of people who finished the test was a few dozen above one hundred. They were even confused when King didn't stop at the empty plot of land they started and continued running for another half of the course and only stopping at the nearby cemetery. 

"Congratulations on passing the first test. Now, we'll be moving to something that requires real skill; hunting practice. Listen here, the names I would call out would be teammates..."

King took out the attendance sheet and proceeded to randomly assign teams. He would group people up and have them sign beside their names, so he would know who passed and who didn't.

With this method, he was able to come up with fifteen teams, with one team only having nine people.

"The first group would enter and must get back here after clearing the first zone. This tests whether you can fight or is too scared to fight."

The test only wants to find out who can fight and who can't. The cemetery carriers were just regular ones and experienced survivors should have no problems with dealing with them.

Back at the people who didn't manage to pass, the female staffs of Black Haven were tending to them and invited them to join the Scavenger unit. They can apply for the army once they have better stats and physical ability.