Pokémon Detective Case Files

Chapter 120: Admitted to the ICU

A job interview, in essence, refers to the process by which individuals, in order to make a living, completely abandon their personal dignity, turning themselves into a commodity called "labor" and actively selling themselves to the market. 🌷🍧 ➅9s𝔥ᑌ𝐗.Ⓒ𝓸𝕄 🐊♨

In this special occasion, humans are no more noble than a cabbage, and the buyer and seller will engage in sincere and sharp bargaining over the job applicant's usefulness.

Specifically, employers will go to great lengths to put on airs, nitpick resumes, criticize personality, and comment on attire, employing all means, both overt and covert, to undermine the applicant's confidence and thus lower their expected salary. If applicants are unprepared and unable to demonstrate their value in a short time, they will be met with utterly rude and abrupt dismissals.

Everyone's first job interview is a major test from society.

Bilan, who filled out her resume haphazardly on the spot and didn't even know what kind of job it was, stepped into the examination room with Archaeopteryx on her head, completely unprepared.

The result was predictable—the girl performed terribly in front of the interviewer and ultimately fell into deep self-doubt.

"Girl, you're not suited for Pokémon breeding here. While you're still young, pretty, and don't need glasses yet, go find a job at the nearby electronics factory. Tightening screws is delicate work, the pay is stable, and it's perfect for a quiet girl like you..."

The HR lady put down her materials, adjusted her wire-rimmed glasses, and so "kindly" offered her advice to the strange girl with the little bird on her head. (New 99 Bookstore →)

Yes, yes, that's how useless she, Bilan, is.

She has never attended a proper vocational college or obtained any decent certificates. Apart from being able to assign Pokémon to battles, what advantages or special skills does she have?

Azur Lane is just an unofficial assistant to Professor Oak and a top four finalist in the 10th Indigo League. What qualifications does she have to work at their prestigious ironworks?

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"Sister Lan, don't listen to those people's nonsense. Those interviewers use the same rhetoric with everyone. Real ability isn't printed on diplomas and certificates. You have to believe in yourself."

Touko gently patted the back of the stunned Bilan, soothing his senior's emotions, and winked at the detective, wanting Hugo to say something comforting as well.

However, Hugo remained unmoved, frowning as he pondered.

After thinking for a while, just before Touko was about to complain, the detective in the white coat came to his senses.

He raised his face, looked at the two girls seriously, and said, "Don't you find this strange?"

"What's strange?" Douzi tilted his head in confusion, and even Bilan turned her gaze toward the detective.

"There are still so many trainers lined up in front of us, but the interviewer, faced with an applicant like Azure who clearly doesn't meet the job requirements, didn't immediately kick her out. Instead, they went through the motions of an interview for almost half an hour, and then gave a long speech offering advice... Don't you think their actions were a bit too deliberate?"

"You mean they're deliberately stalling for time?" The girl with the high ponytail quickly realized what she was thinking and voiced her guess. ☜💥 ➅9ѕⒽ𝐮𝓧.𝒸ом 🍓🐧

"They are indeed stalling for time, but their purpose is not limited to that..."

Hugo paused mid-sentence, noticing the renewed fighting spirit in Azure's eyes, and decided to hand over the floor to his assistant.

"Azure, it seems you already know the answer."

"Yes, Director." Azure smiled. "It's actually a very simple deductive reasoning."

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At this moment, the girl's eyes were no longer empty. Her brain, honed through years of experience in the agency, worked rapidly and came to an obvious conclusion.

"Wasting time on me was just a means to an end. The interviewer's real goal was to prolong the time spent on each interviewee in order to reduce the total number of people interviewed that day."

"Why did the interviewer do that?" Douzi asked Bilan cooperatively.

"My first reaction was that these companies didn't actually want to hire Pokémon trainers. But that idea was immediately dismissed because the decision to hire or not is up to the company. If the higher-ups wanted this job fair to be a complete failure, they could just throw all the results in the trash; there was no need to pull such a stunt at the job fair."

As Bilan recounted the story, Hugo nodded slightly; this was indeed his deduction.

"So, is it because the HR manager who interviewed me had some private plans? Is it because she personally hates me? That's impossible. The trainers hired by the factory have nothing to do with the HR department's business, so there's no conflict of interest like stealing jobs. And I've only arrived in Liyong City for the first time today, I don't even know the local customs, let alone have any connection with the steel mill."

"But if that's the case, why exactly did that woman give Sister Xiaolan such a severe scolding?"

Douzi looked at the detective and his assistant, who were clearly on the same wavelength, and was completely baffled.

"It's to avoid seeing someone in the line behind me," Azure said softly.

"What that manager was really thinking was—if she could make each interviewee's interview last long enough, she could get through today's recruitment day and leave before that mysterious troublesome person showed up, thus avoiding any potential conflict."

"Avoid conflict?"

For some reason, Douzi remembered a quote from Victor Hugo—

It's best for two creatures with strong opinions but unable to convince each other to avoid meeting, otherwise they're likely to end up arguing.

But the girl still couldn't believe it. Little Blue had only been scolded by the interviewer, so how could she have deduced so much information? Could it be that she made it up on the spot to escape reality?

"It wasn't made up on the spot."

Azure read her junior's feelings from her expression. And so, just as a detective often does, she used her mind-reading skill with pinpoint accuracy—

"It only just dawned on me that the applicants in front of me, some successful and some unsuccessful, all of them spent far more time than normal in their interviews—I overheard people talking about it. Combined with my own experience, I accidentally wandered into a job fair, yet I was still dragged into an interview for half an hour—the interviewer's delaying tactics are blatantly obvious! There must be something fishy going on!"

"But it seems that the interviewer's procrastination tactic failed."

Hugo glanced at the queue in front of him and suddenly said—

"Many people here are applying for interviews at different companies at the same time. The line at this iron smelting company is so long that more than half of the applicants have already left. By some twist of fate, the person who scared the interviewer might already be in front of her in the queue..."

Before the detective could finish speaking, the crowd at the front of the line suddenly erupted into a frenzy, like boiling water.

Exclamations of surprise came from afar...

"Oh no! Our supervisor has been attacked! He's bleeding heavily from his nose... Quick! Get him to the hospital!"