*****A few moments later, Nicholas reached the second floor.The waiting area of the HR department was already occupied by roughly ten other applicants.Some sat stiffly with their documents clutched so tightly that the edges had become wrinkled, while others paced restlessly from one end of the room to the other, repeatedly muttering interview answers beneath their breath as though afraid a single forgotten sentence would determine their future.A few occasionally wiped the sweat from their palms onto their trousers despite the cool air drifting from the ceiling vents.The atmosphere carried the unmistakable pressure of people whose livelihoods depended on the next few minutes, making the entire waiting area feel unusually heavy.Seeing that the interview had yet to begin, Nicholas quietly released a small breath.'Looks like I made it,' he thought to himself, but almost immediately, he paused, another thought surfacing without warning.'Wait... why was I actually worried about bein

*****“Brother?” Nicholas wondered, staring blankly at the fatty for a second, genuinely unsure how to react to the man’s sudden familiarity and overflowing excitement.However, the Fatty completely failed to notice Nicholas’s reaction.Instead, his grin widened even further, stretching so broadly that his cheeks looked ready to split.Then, as though they had known each other since childhood, he dragged his chair noisily across the floor until it was practically touching Nicholas’s.“Brother, let me tell you something,” he whispered excitedly, lowering his voice in the most obvious gossiping tone imaginable while pointing dramatically at the three men still surrounding Adam.“You see those three? They obviously have zero self-respect, but what impresses me is that they aren’t even trying to hide it.”As he spoke, he cupped one hand around his mouth like a professional informant exposing a national secret.Nicholas’s lips twitched slightly, witnessing this.The Fatty, meanwhile, glanc

Still in the waiting area, Fatty Benny had somehow accomplished what none of the applicants had been able to do since they arrived: he had united the entire room against a common enemy.Unfortunately for Benny, that enemy happened to be himself.Before he had started talking nonstop, nearly everyone in the room had been consumed by anxiety over the upcoming interview.Some had been nervously reviewing notes, others had been silently rehearsing their answers, while a few had looked as though they were already imagining the humiliation of being rejected.The pressure had been suffocating.After all, Noble Aura Cosmetics was not exactly an ordinary company, and the security position had attracted far more applicants than there were available spots.Nobody wanted to walk out of the building knowing they had failed.But then Fatty Benny had opened his mouth, and… somehow, he had refused to close it.At first, the applicants had only been irritated.But then their irritation had turned into

*****In the following second, the hearts of many of the applicants began to pound furiously, realizing that the people they had been waiting for had finally arrived.The nervousness that had briefly disappeared because of Fatty Benny’s ridiculous antics returned in full force, only this time, it felt far heavier than before.The interview was no longer some distant event they could prepare for while pretending to be calm. It was here.Walking one step behind the guard supervisor, flanking him on both sides, were two other guards dressed in equally crisp uniforms.From the ranks displayed prominently on their shoulders, it was obvious that both men were lead guards, senior personnel responsible for overseeing the other guards assigned to a particular shift.The moment the applicants recognized the ranks on their uniforms, the entire waiting area fell deathly silent.It was almost comical how quickly the atmosphere changed.Only moments earlier, several people had been casually using t

*****After the supervisor disappeared from the waiting room with Adam and his three newly acquired “subordinates” in tow, nearly everyone remaining inside was consumed by a crushing wave of regret.The realization hit them so hard that some looked as though they had just watched a fortune slip through their fingers and vanish around a corner.‘If only… if only I hadn’t been skeptical, I would have been one of the people whose path was paved for them.’‘Why?! Why did I believe he was nothing more than a braggart?!’‘I had absolutely nothing to lose! I should have swallowed my pride and shamelessly clung to him like those three!’‘I was secretly looking down on those three for being shameless, but who is having the last laugh now?!’The thoughts tore through their minds one after another, leaving many of them so miserable that they genuinely wanted to bury their faces in their hands and cry.The three men they had mocked only moments ago had somehow transformed from pathetic bootlicker