World Occult Usage Guide

Chapter 24 The Foundation's Interview (Part 1)

Twenty minutes later, Lin An sat down in a postmodern chair.

The room is about 100 square meters, with a smooth, white floor and a simple, spacious, and floating decoration.

Forty-odd chairs were arranged in a circle, with a distance of three or four meters between them on all sides.

The room was dark, with walls covered by a screen. A cinematic high-definition projector projected images of the starry sky, the universe, and the solar system in a loop. Colorful lights shone on the faces of those waiting, creating a dappled effect of light and shadow.

The surround sound music was calming.

Quiet conversations and footsteps could be heard from time to time, and people were constantly being led to their seats.

Some of the waiting passengers sat up straight with nervous anticipation, while others peered around, trying to strike up a conversation; still others were nonchalant, even scrolling through their phones, the glare drawing frequent glances from passersby.

However, since entering the foundation, my phone has been unable to receive any signal.

The reservation time had passed, and the forty-odd chairs were almost full.

The image suddenly changed.

"Hello, welcome to the St. Anilov Foundation. I am X, the guide for this test."

An AI-synthesized voice sounded, and a dozen androgynous faces were projected onto the surrounding screens, allowing everyone to see its face clearly from their own angle.

X had long, white hair that made it impossible to tell his age, and a handsome and beautiful face. He seemed almost unreal because he was so perfect, but Lin An found him very approachable.

“Z—”

After the artificial intelligence finished speaking, the floor next to each chair sank, and a metal pillar rose up from below, on which a helmet-like device was placed flat.

"Please pick up the 'testing instrument' beside you and place it flat on your knees. I will now explain how to operate it. First, turn on the top restraint switch..."

Wow, this is so high-tech!

Lin An had imagined countless scenarios for joining the foundation, but he never expected that the actual scene would be that everyone would have a VR device and enter an anonymous closed test.

He had originally been looking forward to the English version's storyline of "young boys and girls lining up and touching the talent crystal ball one by one".

The United States is so boring.

Lin An put on the VR headset, inserted his black card, adjusted the device according to the steps, and pressed the power button.

X's voice rang in his ears, echoing in his head just like the system, exceptionally clear.

"Data read, permissions approved. Hello, temporary staff member Lin An, I will guide you through a series of aptitude test questions. Please don't be nervous, just answer honestly and calmly."

"Ok."

"Please wait while the first question loads."

A thought flashed through Lin Anxin's mind.

"Brother Tongzi, are you still there?"

A mechanical voice immediately sounded.

"Here I am."

After waiting a few seconds, Lin An confirmed that X could only respond to audio, did not have the advanced function of reading brainwaves, and could not hear the system's voice, so he continued with his thoughts.

"System, if I am hypnotized by some means, or fall into a state of confusion, can you answer the AI's questions for me?"

"No, but I can wake you up and keep you awake."

"Okay, let's do it."

After giving the system instructions, Lin An turned his attention to the first test question on the VR interface.

The AI's genderless body stepped aside, and a lifelike monster appeared before Lin An, baring its fangs and brandishing its claws. It had a goat's head and a human body, which was terrifying. A hoarse growl echoed all around, and the monster tore a small dog apart in a bloody manner.

The video played for thirty seconds, then X pressed the pause button.

"Please answer what mystery is depicted in the image. You have two minutes to think and organize your thoughts."

“Goat-men,” Lin An said without hesitation. “A hybrid of goats and humans. It’s said that some people have seen this creature in the Beltsville woods of Maryland. Locals believe that goat-men feed on dogs, but it’s just a fabrication by shepherds.”

The "time" button on X's chest turned, and it nodded in a human-like manner, without making a comment.

"The answer has been recorded. Now, please continue answering the questions."

Five more monster images appeared, and Lin An provided the perfect answer.

Is this a test of how much I know about mystery?
The first question was a little-known folk tale from the Eagle Kingdom. Lin An dared to say that, apart from him, no one else in the test could answer it. The following questions, on the other hand, were all very familiar to everyone.

The only difference is that, except for the first question, none of the other questions are based on legends from the United Kingdom.

The St. Anilof Foundation may want to assess an individual's knowledge of the world's mysticism, or give more opportunities to test-takers who are not native to the area.

The six questions correspond to the six main continents of Titan: Upper East, Lower East, Middle East, South Middle East, West East, and South East.

Lin An guessed correctly; these questions were used to test knowledge of occultism.

However, their difficulty decreases from high to low, with the first question being the most difficult and the second question gradually becoming easier. The question bank is also categorized according to the cultural background of the test takers.

Generally, test takers only need to answer one question correctly for the back-end monitoring staff to know their knowledge level.

When Lin An answered the first question correctly, the monitoring staff immediately pulled up a new question bank to prevent him from advancing too early and disrupting the test's rhythm.

There used to be people who passed the first question.

This is quite normal. They might guess correctly by chance or happen to know the answer, but once the question bank changes, they struggle and only barely pass very late in the game.

However, the device Lin An was wearing lit up green again, which meant that he had answered another question correctly.

No thinking time required at all!
The monitoring staff were somewhat flustered. They kept asking Lin An to answer the most difficult questions from each question bank, but he always received a green light after a minute. None of the questions in the St. Anilov Foundation's question bank were difficult for Lin An; he couldn't even finish the test, which was supposed to last fifteen minutes.

Ultimately, with no other options, the backstage staff temporarily extended the last question, playing a full eight-minute "monster video" to forcibly delay Lin An's answer time.

After waiting for the other test takers to finish the first major question, everyone moved on to the next stage.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, looked at each other in silence, and saw shock and confusion in each other's eyes.

Who is this person answering the question?

They actually managed to bypass their question bank!

Fortunately, the next stage won't require comparing who has more extensive knowledge...

Even so, the backstage monitoring staff kept their eyes glued to Lin An's lamp, their hearts pounding, fearing that this extraordinary person would break St. Anilov's record once again.

"Welcome back, the second question has been loaded."

In Lin An's VR view, the upper body of the artificial intelligence was magnified, with both palms facing upwards, and a 3D full-body image emerged from the moment it appeared, much like a model.

"Do you think this is a normal person? If not, please point out what's wrong with him. You have two minutes to think and organize your thoughts."

They're just playing around with Mandela's record here.

The Foundation was certainly not that bored; Lin An carefully examined the "human" supported by X.

He had short hair, a mustache, and was handsome.

Strangely, despite it being a completely unfamiliar face, Lin An had a strange feeling of déjà vu.

After thinking for a long time, he shook his head helplessly.

"I found nothing unusual."

"The answers have been recorded. Please don't be discouraged, sir. These tests are only used to assess your abilities and assign you to the most suitable department. They are not a point system, so there's no need to worry about right or wrong."

The time button on X's chest flashed, and the model held in his palm took a step forward, marching in place.

"Zizzizi..."

Suddenly, Lin An noticed that black, fine particles were flashing around the man's ears, like shards of dust, falling off as he walked and quickly dissipating into the air, making him appear ethereal and elusive.

Like mist.

A flash of inspiration struck Lin An, and he recognized the man.

Isn't that the team captain?
So this is what your physical form looks like.

So, is this question testing when the test taker discovered that the captain had awakened a mysterious power?

Could it be that people with pre-existing radiation levels can detect abnormalities in advance, while ordinary people who are not yet aware of them cannot?
Lin An raised an eyebrow; this was indeed a novel discovery.

He witnessed the awakening of the [Dwarf Demon], whose mysterious level of corruption was as high as 63.2%. Anyone who wasn't blind could tell that it wasn't a normal person.

wrong!

Lin An's pupils constricted.

At the time, I didn't think about the "mystery" thing at all. I thought he was just a maverick "street artist" covered in paint!
When the dwarf demon pounced on Lin An and came into close contact, he recognized the demon's true form and activated the system!

After being exposed to radiation, he gradually explored more of the hidden mysteries of Dietrich...

Lin An was deeply shocked.

So ordinary people can also see the mysterious, but they often subconsciously ignore the abnormalities and instead use logical explanations to justify themselves.
This reminded Lin An of ancient visual models.

This model, called the "conic theory," posits that external light rays come into contact with an object and are reflected back, providing visual information to the eye.

However, in order to determine what an object is, the eyes feed back the appearance of what they see to the brain, memory is recalled, and rationality is used to perform recognition.

The brain transforms things into perceptible objects, which appear as images in the senses themselves, then transform them into thoughts, and are stored as "memories" for easy use next time.

Thus, natural philosophers proposed that the emergence of vision involved three abilities: perception, reasoning, and memory.

From the highest level of intelligence, through memory and reasoning, down to the lowest level of the five senses.

This is "visual cognition".

Philosophers believe that the eye can only see colors, and that all images seen by humans are thought conclusions transformed by the brain after processing.

Once we understand the concept of a "chair," when we see an object that resembles a chair, we know it is an indisputable fact. This conclusion is reached because our cognition is based on an intuitive understanding beforehand.

Simply put, long before we even saw a chair, humans knew what a chair looked like.

When they finally see the physical image that the image represents, they match it with their perception and conclude that "this is a chair".

However, while humans can easily combine known knowledge and imagine what they should look like, we cannot imagine knowledge that we have never seen before.

No matter how imaginative a fantasy may be, it can never truly transcend the realm of the "known".

Therefore, to understand the mystery, one must rely on the "inner sense" projected by the "Komers" deity. The level of this inner sense is precisely the concrete "radiation value".

Previously, Lin An was unaware of the effects of radiation levels. He only had a radiation level of 0.8%, which did not bring about much change.

That's the principle behind it.

At the same time, Lin An also understood the purpose of the test: the foundation wanted to assess whether the test subjects already had "radiation levels".

If the test taker answers correctly in the early stages, it means that the person is on the verge of awakening and can be assigned to the most important place in the foundation—the "Facing" department.

Thank you to "Hot Stepmother" for the reward, thank you to reader 20210423134044063 for the monthly ticket, and thank you to all readers for the recommendation votes! Your support is my motivation.
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(End of this chapter)