After bidding farewell to his family, Xiao Lin flew straight to the city where the Earth Division was situated, and he saw Mao Tianying at the airport. This man had been waiting with his car, ready for a long time, and enthusiastically helped Xiao Lin with his luggage. In fact, Xiao Lin did not have much baggage to begin with.
After raising some queries while on the road, Xiao Lin found out that he was the last freshman to return to school. The student union had repeatedly sent people to press on the matter. The student council president had also stepped in to defend him, lest his credits be deducted for his postponement of returning to school.
Gu Xiaoyue had already left some time ago and did not choose to travel with Xiao Lin. Xiao Lin felt some regret at this, as he still had many things to say to her.
Mao Tianying seemed to have thought of something and suddenly said, “Oh yes, Wang Yuelan is waiting for you at the division. She will probably take the same transport back with you.”
“Wang Yuelan hasn’t returned yet?”
“Didn’t you know that she’s from the student union? By entering the student union, a person gains a lot of authority. They have the freedom to adjust their course schedule, free access to Earth, and so on. Do you know her?”
The two of them chatted the whole way, and soon the topic turned to the Pacific incident.
Mao Tianying’s authority may not have been great, but as the person in charge of liaison between Earth and Dawn Academy, he was privy to a lot of information. He also revealed more of the so-called inside information to Xiao Lin.
For instance, how it was determined that the debris collected on the ocean belonged to the Atlantean era. It was actually determined by the Judge Academy. The reason why many academies paid so much attention to the incident was not only to research the truth behind the mysterious monsters, but also due to the mystery of the Atlantean civilization.
In addition, the academy had gotten hold of many relics, and discreetly brought them back to the academy. Those that left Earth were actually worthless to them and were abandoned by them.
As for the battle with the Guardian of the Sea God in the Pacific Ocean, there were not many witnesses due to the terrible weather. The few local witnesses were basically ‘properly handled’. Xiao Lin wisely chose not to delve into the details on how they were being handled.
Even so, the government on Earth still vaguely received traces and clues through certain channels. Although all academies had done a good job of hiding information in the area, there were always things they did not foresee. Coupled with the sudden nature of the incident, there were definitely traces left behind. Of course, they could not treat the government’s handling as casually as how they handled individuals, and the academies attached great importance to this. After some time, the deans even had to go to the Supreme Council to make a ruling on the matter.
The final results were not something that they would be able to know.
In the end, the incident did not have much impact on Earth under the deliberate concealment and cover-up of many of the incident’s aspects. After the torrential rain had passed, people simply resumed their normal lives.
However, the people who came to investigate were puzzled. The torrential rain at that time was very strange, and they also felt a very strong aura, only for it to disappear suddenly. The only thing they could do was crack their heads on these mysteries moving forward.
Xiao Lin listened intently, and from time to time, he cooperated by expressing his surprises. It looked as if he had nothing to do with the matter, and Mao Tianying never had the slightest suspicion. Although Xiao Lin lost contact during that time, he was only a new student with a Black Iron-rank. He did not think that Xiao Lin had the ability to get involved.
The observatory was located in a very remote area, and it was inaccessible to normal people. Although this was done deliberately so the Earth Division was not disturbed, Mao Tianying repeatedly complained about the desolation around him. He had to drive for several hours just to purchase a pack of cigarettes.
When they arrived at the observatory atop of the mountains, Xiao Lin wanted to take a break and have a drink. He opened the office door and found Wang Yuelan sitting behind the table. The room smelled thick with coffee, and it seemed like she had been waiting there for a long time.
“Sorry for being late,” Xiao Lin greeted.
“No, we’re specialized at waiting for you.” Wang Yuelan did not have a good look on her face, as if she was bothered by something. She opened her mouth, then closed it and looked at Mao Tianying.
“Fine fine fine! You both chat then, I shall not intrude!” Mao Tianying immediately left with a wry smile, closing the door on his way out.
“I wanted to see you two days ago, but something came up...” Xiao Lin guessed that Wang Yuelan could not find him two days ago, so she came here to ask him personally. He was contemplating his excuses.
Wang Yuelan was already holding a document folder and she strode over to him. She handed him the folder and stared at him intently, enunciating each word as she asked, “Xiao Lin, how did you actually enrol into the academy?”
Xiao Lin was a little flummoxed by the question. “The same as everybody else, of course. After receiving the courier delivery from you all, I tore open the strange admission letter. After that, I fainted, and woke up to find that I had been taken to Dawn Academy.”
“Yes, that’s right. That is standard procedure,” Wang Yuelan nodded, and suddenly retorted sharply, “but looking through the enrollment records for your batch, I didn’t find your records at all!”
Xiao Lin froze. “What do you mean?”
Wang Yuelan squinted her eyes, and said, “It means that among the admission letters that were sent, yours was not there at all. How did you enrol into the academy then? In fact, something felt off to me. If your records were there, why did I not have any recognition of it at all? After all, the freshmen files were personally compiled by my own hands.”
Xiao Lin took the folder. He opened it and it contained printed freshmen files. Naturally, this folder only contained files of pre-enrolment. The files of students that had enrolled belonged to the academy’s central computer system, which even Wang Yuelan had no authority to access.
The file recorded all the information of each freshman before enrollment, such as family background, address, even daily and personal habits, and so on. After all, the academy needed to have a general understanding of the freshmen. They did not want to recruit any nefarious characters. These were the daily tasks of the admissions department.
These files were arranged meticulously from top to bottom, alphabetically according to surname. There were a total of several thousand names. In addition to the current freshman year of over 1,000 people, the list of members who were eliminated from the admissions test was also among them. Xiao Lin refused to believe it and started to go through the column with the ‘Xiao’ surname.
After a long while, he raised his head, feeling a bit dazed. There was no trace of Xiao Lin’s name in the records, not even for another student bearing the same name. It was as Wang Yuelan had said; he was not in the records at all.
“There must be a mistake in your files!” Xiao Lin shook his head in denial.
Wang Yuelan said irritably, “You are questioning my job. I printed this file from my computer, and the database comes directly from the academy’s central management system. Also, after the freshman files were sorted, I reported them to the head of admissions, and the department head would hand them over to the student council, and even to the dean for review. Do you think there’s room for mistakes?”
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