It was Soshyan's idea to expand the scope of the conscription, as he felt the need for stricter selection given that the Chapter's gene-seed was so scarce.
And stricter screening means a higher elimination rate, so in order to ensure that there are still sufficient numbers after elimination, expanding the screening base is the only way.
However, he himself was a little unsure about this idea, because the environment at the bottom of the hive created the character of the people living there.
They may be strong enough, but they often have flaws in their quality and character - it is difficult for a noble person to survive in such an extreme environment.
In addition, the war group has always tended to recruit soldiers from the higher classes of the planet. Even in barbaric worlds, they are the descendants of chiefs or warriors.
It is also unknown whether the sudden change in the Chapter's recruitment tendency will have an impact on the Chapter's tradition.
But with Sol's encouragement, Soshyan decided to give it a try.
And he set up the registration point in an area that is difficult for ordinary people to reach, such as Gray Cliff Town, in order to conduct the first screening.
The results were less than satisfactory.
As of the last day of registration, there were less than twenty lower-level candidates in the hive city who had actually arrived at these registration points.
The vast majority either give up halfway or die on the way.
Perhaps out of curiosity whether the residents of the lower levels of the hive were really so weak, Soshiyang personally came to Graycliff Town to preside over the last day of registration.
But from noon to evening, no candidate arrived.
He was deeply disappointed and decided to leave.
But at this moment, three gray heads emerged from the edge of the town.
"who!?"
The guards surrounding the town left, placed their guns in front of them, and yelled:
"A sacred ceremony is being carried out here right now. Anyone waiting here should get out of here right now!"
The scoldings of the guards made the three little men, who were dusty and could barely see their appearance, flinch, but they did not move.
Judging from their height, they should all be young boys. Their clothes were almost torn into strips. Two of them were carrying climbing equipment that was almost falling apart, and the other was not.
"Didn't you hear what I said!!"
The guard stepped forward and pointed the handle of his gun directly at one of the heads.
But as soon as he lifted it into the air, he could no longer move an inch. When he turned around, his entire body was shrouded in a huge shadow.
"S-Sir--"
The guards knelt down one after another.
The giant in power armor let go of the gun in his hand, letting it fall into the dust, and then slowly stepped forward.
With his back to the setting sun, the shadow cast by him was like a dark cloud, shrouding the three teenagers in it, and his dark eyes shone like gems in the shadow.
The huge sense of oppression made these boys who had never seen an angel tremble.
"Are you here to participate in the screening?"
No one answered, they seemed stunned.
The mind is not firm enough.
Soshyan's first impression of them suddenly turned a bit sour, but he didn't give up yet.
"Are you here to participate in the screening?"
He asked a second time, and now even the guards kneeling on the ground looked at the three boys.
It's not a good thing to have an angel ask the same question twice.
Fortunately, before Soshyan finally put them on the elimination list, a boy stood up and nodded vigorously.
"Yes, yes! Sir!"
His voice seemed very weak and hoarse, but compared to the tired eyes of the two people around him, his eyes were still clear.
Physical exhaustion did not affect his spirit.
Soshyan made a tick in his mind.
"May I have your name."
"My name is Bahram Tate, from Frost Salt Town, I am 13 years old."
At this time, the two people behind Bahram finally plucked up the courage and whispered:
"My name is Hao Mo. I come from Iron Hook City. I am the fourth-ranked thug in the Scorpion Gang. I am, uh... 14 years old this year, probably."
"Sir, my name is Vayu. I am also from Iron Hook City. I am the best shooter in the Scorpion Gang. I can hit a jar five hundred meters away with my gun. I am 13 years old this year."
Soshyan did not even glance at them, which discouraged the two teenagers.
He just looked at Bahram silently.
There was silence between the two of them. In the sky, the roar of the thunder eagle landing gradually increased, and the last time to register was about to end.
"Can you tell me how you came here?"
Bahram nodded.
"We chose the shortest but relatively dangerous path, and we had to go through the forest of gibberish——"
In fact, as they live at the bottom of the hive, they know very little about the Chaotic Forest, the third largest forest in the Soames hive. The only thing they know is that few people can spend the night alone in this mountain forest. Saw the sun the next day.
"I knew then that it wasn't going to be that easy."
Hao Mo suddenly interjected a sentence and smiled, but after seeing that Soshyan's expression was still expressionless, he immediately touched his nose awkwardly.
"That's right."
Vayu also intervened and nodded, but he was not so ignorant and just talked to himself.
"It's really not that simple."
This sentence had many meanings, and Bahram could not respond to him with a smile, even a simple smile.
The actual situation was actually worse. In order to hurry, it was already dark when they entered the forest.
However, there is not much difference between day and night in that place, because there is always darkness deep in the forest, and the trees will twist their tops into one to block the sunlight.
Beneath the canopy, the soil is as cold as stone.
But that night was extraordinarily dark, there was no moon or stars in sight, everything looked black, white and gray.
Everything looks the same except the blood.
When saying this, the three teenagers rolled back their sleeves, showing off the scars on their arms.
The scars were all fresh, and some were still bleeding.
"The old man said that those who enter the forest must leave scars as a price."
Soshyan looked at the scars and knew that they were not scratches, but marks carved by the sharp teeth of some kind of animal.
"The scar itself is as much a test as the cold and the dark. It's not just the thorns or rocks that crave blood, but the wolves too."
Soshyan knew that the wolves the other party was talking about were a native creature in the Somus mountains, called mountain black wolves.
That's not some folklore or prophecy, it's real, and there are still a group of them in the zoo on the upper level of Soames Hive.
They are apex predators, cunning social predators, and quite ferocious.
In the mountain forests of Soames, they are definitely at the top of the food chain, especially when facing a group of teenagers——
