The final group entered the hall, and the doors closed behind them.

Ed immediately felt a change in the atmosphere, as everyone stopped talking amongst themselves the instant the doors shut and looked up at the stage.

A piece of cloth floated up from the stage floor until it was fully unfurled and facing everyone. It was a black hooded cloak. The figure was vaguely humanoid, but lacked any discernible features.

Ed couldn’t even see the person’s face from where he was sitting, he just saw a black void. It was like the cloak had gained a life of its own and stood up.

“Welcome everyone, I hope you’ve had a wonderful morning so far,” a magnetic voice travelled through the hall with ease despite not being loud. It was like the person was standing right next to Ed instead of far away on the stage.

“As everyone already knows, you all have recently been in charge of the newest batch of interns in this universe. This is the first proper batch beyond the initial test, so you should know how much of an honour it is that you were all selected.”

The cloak’s speech reminded Ed of some stories he had read online before all of this went down. Stories of Bosses that would always talk as if giving people more work was an honour and a benefit.

He felt that the cloak was a bit arrogant and up themselves.

“Some of you are people that have done this before, and some of you are new faces doing this for the first time. You must remember that this is a heavy responsibility. The leaders have put you in charge of the future growth of the company. So make sure you thank them for this opportunity.”

This is going to take forever, isn’t it? Ed could already feel that most of his day was going to be spent sitting here bored out of his mind. His only hope was that Buddie would take it easy on him if he wound up sitting here for the entire day and couldn’t complete this work.

The cloak continued to extoll the greatness of the company and the leaders above them, as well as about how amazing this opportunity was. It felt like they went on for hours essentially repeating the same thing without ever getting to the point.

This must be the cruellest form of torture ever conceived. Buddie has finally figured out how to break me. Ed’s eyes darted around, trying to gauge the reactions of everyone around him.

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The constant droning of the speaker’s voice filled the room like background noise.

Ed could see that there were some people who were just as bored as he was. Some were looking at the cloak, but it was clear that their mind was elsewhere. Some were looking everywhere but the stage. And there were even a few people who were openly sleeping, and even snoring.

Despite that, the speaker continued talking as if nothing was going on. Ed felt that the cloak would continue on like this even if everyone left the room.

It was kind of impressive actually. And somewhat sad.

Ed had a feeling that the people who were acting like him had experienced all of this multiple times before. He didn’t know if he could stand this drivel more than once.

The rest of the people were looking up at the stage with a level of zeal that made Ed uncomfortable. They were latching onto every word the person said with rapturous fervour.

It was like they were treating the company as a god, and the speaker as a priest praising said god.

It was almost creepy. He didn’t like the look in their eyes at all.

There was also one group that was looking very nervous, and Ed wasn’t too sure why. How bad did they mess up?

After observing everyone for a while, Ed finally turned his attention back to the stage.

“...You all have done a wonderful job supporting your batch of interns. You have lived up to the expectations of your superiors. Can the healers please pass their reports to the person waiting by the front of the stage.”

Ed looked to beneath the stage, and saw that the space was empty there. Must be another healer. He sensed movement on the chair next to him, and watched as a series of papers briefly passed through the air near the stage before disappearing.

So stuff stops being invisible the moment they stop touching it. That’s interesting. I wonder how far their powers extend?

The passing of papers was just a brief moment, as the person continued talking on stage even as it was happening.

“Although there is no longer a limit to the amount of people we will be hiring today, there are still some people who won’t make the cut simply because they haven’t met the requirements. I will now be going through and telling you all who has officially been hired as of today.”

A piece of paper floated down from the sky above, stopping in front of the cloak and floating there.

“Starting from group A, You were in charge of twenty interns for the HR department. Out of the twenty, seventeen of them are being hired. Sami, John, and Amanda are the three that will not be hired. You know what you need to do.”

Finally, we’ve got to the important part. I can’t believe it took them so long to get to this. We could have all been done by now. What even is the time?

“From the information I’ve been given, your group has done a great job taking care of the interns. You will be rewarded and will be asked to participate in this again with the next batch of interns. You have really made the leaders proud...” They continued on like this, going on a tangent about the company for several minutes, almost repeating exactly what they had been saying previously.