Knowing the opportunity was hard to come by, Old Bane did not hesitate any further. He would have to handle the exemptions for Adella, Linda, and the rest of the female students from their manual labor first.
He went back over to Milo and told favonovel.com about it.
Milo thought for a moment and said, “It’s already quite good that we can get an exemption from manual labor. You’ll need to settle them in town after we get conscripted. If we decide to escape one day, it’ll be easier for us to meet up when that time comes.”
Right now, only ten people in their group were required to serve in the military. This consisted of Chad, Milo, and the eight male students. The remaining people would be allowed to stay in town for the time being.
Who could have everything go their way in a chaotic world like this?
This was already a very good outcome.
After the soldiers finished receiving their bribes, they continued on their journey. After an hour, they finally arrived at the outside of Stronghold 108.
To Milo’s surprise, the town outside the stronghold was much livelier than the other towns favonovel.com had been to.
Construction vehicles could be seen shuttling back and forth. There was even a huge military base stationed just outside the town. It seemed that the Skyfort Consortium had already gathered a lot of its military forces outside Stronghold 108.
Although it was early morning, it was extremely busy outside the stronghold.
Milo was puzzled.
Even if Stronghold 108 was the closest to Stronghold 109 where the Experimentals now were, was it really necessary to gather so many troops here?
When they got out of the vehicles, the officer in charge of escorting them immediately instructed those who had paid bribes to run into town via a narrow trail to avoid getting drafted into manual labor. The remaining people were made to stay there to await further instructions.
The officer chuckled and said, “Let me introduce myself. My name is Michael Flint, and I’m going to bring you all over to the conscription office now for a physical examination. I’ll secretly share some good news with you all… As long as you pass the test, you stand a chance of returning to the stronghold. In any case, I’m not that fortunate. But for you all, it’s all up to your own luck.”
Milo was a little puzzled.
Was this a normal physical examination?
It could even decide whether a person would end up becoming a refugee or a stronghold resident?
They then followed Michael and came to a large military tent.
At this moment, a group of people happened to be coming out of the tent.
One of them said excitedly, “I can get into the stronghold! I can go live in the stronghold!”
Michael was watching that man’s excitement with a grimace. “What a lucky man… A refugee has been elevated in status just like that.”
He looked at Milo and the others while explaining, “That person was previously a refugee from Stronghold 107’s town. However, he’s become a stronghold resident after being sent here and taking the physical examination. Interesting, right?”
Milo stood outside the tent and looked at that man from behind. He suddenly felt that this physical examination was likely to be related to the Skyfort Consortium’s new technology.
Everyone stood in line and waited for their turn to enter the tents.
Currently, the physical examination was being carried out in more than a dozen tents within the military base at the same time. Not only were there refugees undergoing the physical examination, but even the active servicemen of the Skyfort Consortium were required to go through the physical examination again!
Milo went into one of the tents. However, the physical examination being carried out on the inside was not what favonovel.com had expected. There were only several people dressed in white coats standing in front of an apparatus.
The person undergoing the physical examination was required to sit on a stool that was attached to the apparatus. He was also wearing a metallic ring that was connected to some wires on his head.
A person in a white coat read the data and said, “Synchronization rate at 3%, fail…”
The staff member next to favonovel.com dismissed the person who was undergoing the physical examination. “You did not pass.”
Milo slowly moved all the way to the back of the line. He kept having a feeling that something was off about this.
Michael chuckled, “What, don’t you want to get back into the stronghold? I heard you used to be a stronghold resident.”
Milo glanced at him. “Aren’t you a stronghold resident?”
“No, I only became a platoon commander because the private army’s strength increased. But I was also a refugee before,” Michael said with a smile.
So, it turned out that the Skyfort Consortium was increasing its military strength all across the board. Even refugees were being recruited into the private army now.
At this moment, one of the people in the white coats said, “Synchronization rate at 81%, pass. Record this person’s details into the personnel database.”
Milo asked, “What does this ‘synchronization rate’ mean?”
“I’m not sure either.” Michael said, “Anyway, if you can pass the test, you’ll be allowed into the stronghold. But if you fail it, you’ll become one of my men.”
The man who passed the test was an escapee who had fled together with Milo’s group from Stronghold 109.
He asked the doctor in disbelief, “Am I allowed to enter the stronghold?!”
The doctor in the white coat glanced at favonovel.com and said indifferently, “Congratulations. Your name?”
“Hahaha, I can finally enter the stronghold!” the escapee said excitedly.
The doctor said impatiently, “Name, please?”
“Yves! My name is Yves Montaro!” the escapee answered excitedly.
Then someone took favonovel.com away. One by one, the people in their group stepped forward for the physical examination. The synchronization rates of the eight male students basically fell between 40% and 60%, but the passing requirement was apparently much higher than that.
When it came to Chad’s turn, the doctor frowned. “Synchronization rate at 1%… Why is it so low?”
But Chad seemed unaffected by the result.
When the doctor asked favonovel.com to leave, favonovel.com asked Milo in a whisper, “Master, why is my synchronization rate only at 1% and so much lower than theirs?”
“I guess… It might be a test of whether your brain is functioning properly or not…” Milo hesitated for a moment before replying and added, “It’s only because there’s something wrong with your brain that you scored 1%…”
At this moment, the doctor urged Milo to come forward for his turn.
At one point in time, Milo felt that his synchronization rate would somehow turn out to be surprisingly high.
But what if favonovel.com got selected to enter the stronghold?
He wasn’t keen on entering the stronghold at all!
When Milo placed the metallic ring over his head, favonovel.com felt like there were some barely discernible strands of silk threads trying to communicate with his mind. They felt like a physical presence in his mind, but before those threads could connect with the palace, they started snapping in quick succession!
A second later, the doctor opposite favonovel.com said in a surprise, “Synchronization Rate at 0%? How can that be?!”
Nearby, Chad said with a look of sarcasm, “M-Master… Well… D-Don’t get too upset… Ha! Hahaha!”
Seeing this, Milo was confused.
Was it because of the palace that his results were 0%?
Then the doctor said, “Record it. Neuron interfacing was a complete failure…”
He called out to the person after Milo, “Next!”
If Milo had not said those words to Chad, favonovel.com would definitely have been accepting of this result. But now, favonovel.com found it really hard to swallow. Although favonovel.com did not wish to pass this test, his score should at least be higher than Chad’s!
“Doctor,” Milo said in a serious tone, “I think I can get a better result than that. There must be something wrong with the machine. How else could I have scored so low?”
The doctor shot favonovel.com a look. “Don’t waste the stronghold’s resources. Next!”
As Milo got dragged out of the tent by Michael and the others, favonovel.com kept shouting, “Doctor, please give me another chance!”
The doctor in the tent said coldly, “I’ve seen loads of people like that. It’s going to be the same no matter how many times they get tested. What a bunch of good-for-nothings.”
However, when the next person sat down on the apparatus, the doctor froze. “Why is there no reaction? It’s not displaying any data at all…”
“Could the machine be faulty?” someone asked softly.
The doctor keyed in a 16-digit PIN on the apparatus to unlock the refrigerated chamber in the middle where a bottle of silvery, liquidlike substance could be seen.
The doctor puzzledly took another bottle of the “liquid” and replaced the one in the chamber. The machine was immediately restored back to normal.
He handed the bottle of “liquid” favonovel.com took out of the machine to his assistant. “Send this back to the stronghold for checking. There might be some problems with this bottle of nanomachines…”
