"Giant Pharmaceuticals is a well-known gene potion manufacturing company in the solar system, specializing in developing new genetic agents. With abundant financial resources and R&D capabilities far surpassing its competitors, the company is located in Shitai City on Mars. It is now recruiting sixty gene scholar interns, with outstanding performers eligible for full-time positions. Interested parties should apply quickly! Base salary: 50,000 star coins..."
This was a posting on the solar system's top recruitment website, Starry Sky Recruitment, prominently displayed on the homepage. It had been up for over sixty days and still hadn't been taken down, clearly indicating the slots weren't filled yet.
Although it was only for gene scholar interns, it was still a high-end industry with extremely high barriers to entry, and few people possessed the necessary skills. Additionally, formulating gene potions was a precision-intensive task; even a slight deviation could drastically reduce effectiveness or lead to complete failure.
Feng Lin had witnessed this firsthand. In the gene notes, the gene scholar Ailos Lincoln had failed over a thousand times while attempting to brew the Blood Boiling Potion, and it was unclear if he ever succeeded. Such stringent requirements made the standards for geneticists incredibly harsh.
So, despite the generous recruitment benefits from Giant Pharmaceuticals, the vast solar system and its abundance of talent couldn't fill the positions in over two months, indicating the admission criteria must be extremely high.
Feng Lin wanted to give it a try.
Shitai City on Mars?
Although Mars was a bit far from Earth, this wasn't the ancient Earth era; interstellar travel had become commonplace. At least Mars, within the solar system, was the nearest habitable planet to Earth, far better than hellish planets like Jupiter, Serpent King Star, or the Insectoid Star. Besides, with passenger spaceships available, this distance was nothing.
He knew Shitai City!
When Mars was first developed, it was a barren desert planet with no water and constant howling winds—a desolate wasteland. To harness Mars's abundant wind energy, the earliest pioneers blasted a stone mountain in half, creating a stone platform where they built Mars's first city, Shitai City.
The planet and the city posed no issues.
Feng Lin was thoroughly tempted.
While 50,000 star coins a month was substantial, it wasn't what truly mattered to him. What he valued was that since Giant Pharmaceuticals was a gene pharmaceutical company, it must house the legacy of geneticists. If he could intern there, he might learn systematic geneticist knowledge.
What? Still attend school?
Feng Lin didn't see the need. With a vitality of 3.3, he was already top-tier at his Earth middle school; further study wouldn't teach him much, and wasting time there was pointless. He just needed to wait for the college entrance exam.
So, regardless of whether his homeroom teacher agreed, he planned to take leave.
Cultivation was the foundation.
He had already passed the exam qualification test; could they prevent him from taking the college entrance exam? For a high school, the graduation rate was paramount, and students who excelled in the exam were treasures. Feng Lin, as a gifted candidate receiving full support, deserved some privileges.
He was confident about this, without any worry, and began seriously considering the internship.
This internship opportunity was a once-in-a-lifetime chance he couldn't miss.
Feng Lin was determined. The only challenge was that securing the internship required passing an interview; without real skills, he wouldn't get in. He had to take it seriously, temporarily setting aside cultivation to repeatedly review the gene notes.
The gene note chip was incredibly detailed, well worth the 40,000 star coins spent. A holographic projection appeared before him, displaying every detail of potion preparation, with thorough explanations of ingredient ratios.
The increase in vitality not only boosted his strength and speed but also sharpened his thinking and memory. He quickly memorized the potion formulas, preparation techniques, and timing of each step, committing the notes to heart.
Unfortunately, he lacked the money to buy equipment and materials for practice. He had to let it go, having mastered the details; now it came down to on-the-spot performance, and as long as there were no major mistakes, it should be fine.
Feng Lin then carefully crafted a resume and sent it via email to Giant Pharmaceuticals' public mailbox. Within an hour, he received a reply, saying they would arrange a virtual interview.
Such efficiency showed they were eager for talent.
"A virtual interview?" Feng Lin found it a bit troublesome.
Interstellar network technology had advanced, forming a network covering the entire galaxy, known as the Star Network. It created a digital virtual universe where people could connect via virtual devices and move freely as electronic avatars. The so-called virtual interview meant logging into the virtual network for face-to-face recruitment.
The difficulty was that virtual devices were expensive, and his home didn't have one, with too little space to accommodate it anyway. He had no choice but to go to a virtual internet café, a place for those without home virtual devices to access the Star Network.
Feng Lin left the house and soon found a nearby café. Despite being just a café, it occupied an entire ten floors of a skyscraper. Stepping out of the elevator, he saw rows of virtual bio-pods resembling life-support capsules everywhere.
Once inside, a person's nerves would connect to the device, entering the virtual universe. Everything that happened there, every sensation, could be simulated 100%, though one could manually lower it to 60% or even none. Of course, the lower the simulation, the poorer the realism.
Although entering the virtual universe was common, this was Feng Lin's first time at his age. Given his family's circumstances, just having enough to eat was a luxury; entertainment like this was out of the question.
He paid ten star coins for two hours, then found a secluded, undisturbed virtual bio-pod and climbed in.
Cold metal neural connectors pressed against his skin, causing a slight sting before returning to normal.
Buzz!
A sharp vibration sounded in his ears.
A burst of colorful lights shot into his eyes like meteors, and his body felt a rapid descent, as if falling through a bottomless tunnel. The sensation was unpleasant, with data streams flooding his mind like a tide, threatening to burst it.
Feng Lin knew this was just the initial discomfort of connecting to a virtual device for the first time. He remained calm, quickly adapting, and the falling sensation abruptly stopped, replaced by solid ground beneath his feet.
Coming to his senses, he found himself standing in a vast, boundless starry world.