I ate a quick breakfast with my family in the morning and picked up my bags that contained most of my daily necessities before bidding my family goodbye.

Now, it wasn’t the kind where it felt like I was leaving for good but more like I was going on a long trip.

Also, no one actually called me to the island, I just thought that since the place was complete, I might as well move some of my stuff over there and see if they needed any help while I was there.

I moved to a place out of sight and created the teleportation door to send me towards the island.

When I appeared at the usual chalet building, I found the place to be completely empty.

I could still hear sounds coming from the direction of where the Bunarfs had set up their own temporary living space but this building that my Guardians and I had used as our temporary base was now deserted.

Hmm... I guess this shouldn’t be surprising since we only thought of using this place for clearing that rift and now that it’s cleared... There’s no need to stay here anymore.

Speaking of which, we would still need to periodically go into the rift to clear out any stragglers since there were still Anomalies around.

The Bunarfs had done their best to fortify the tunnels so they could mine to their heart’s content, but that doesn’t mean they did not come across some small pockets of Anomalies as they prospected for more materials.

The memory of the Rift Breakout in Chiang Mai resurfaced and I frowned a little, wondering if the rift here might also be on the verge of a Rift Breakout as well.

I believe Olivia should have a good idea about its limits though, so it should be fine.

My gaze shifted to the tower that stretched up towards the sky and figured everyone else was gathered there.

I opened another teleportation door and jumped through it, appearing in front of the tower.

The moment I stepped through it, I couldn’t help but look up in awe.

When I first saw it when the bunny girls finished the exterior, I already thought it was impressive looking.

But in the span of time that we were in Thailand, it seems like the Bunarfs thought they could do better and went ahead to remake certain parts of it and even add on more stuff around it.

The tower itself was more impressive now as they added a bit more at the top and even decorated the exterior with lights, markings and also additional support structures fitted on the sides.

Then there’s the area around the tower where they had flattened out the surroundings to change the previous grassland into an actual lobby that was decorated with greenery.

If you were to ignore the fact that the area behind me was still just basically a forest of trees with a simple paved road running through it, this place now looked like an actual office building with a proper entrance that was located by the seaside.

No... It actually looked more like a high class hotel now that I think about it...

Something tells me that the bunny girls had been looking through the architecture of modern buildings and decided on this design after looking through the internet.

There were a few Bunarfs that were still working around the area, mostly cleaning up and doing the finishing touches on the building.

But as I was thinking of moving towards the building, someone shouldered past me roughly, pushing me aside.

I had already noticed someone coming up from behind but thought they would walk around me so I was quite surprised and caught off guard by that shove.

I turned to look, thinking it might be Kris or one of my Guardians playing a prank on me, only to see some guy I didn’t recognise strutting forward while shooting me a sneer.

With him were three other guys who I’ve definitely not seen before walking alongside him.

Who the heck?

"Look at him. Must be some lost guy standing in the middle of the road."

"Does he not know where he is?"

"This guy damn blur sia..."

"Don’t block the way lah."

What? Huh? Who??

I watched the group of four guys walk towards the building, still laughing amongst themselves.

I was still confused by the sudden appearance of these strangers when a voice spoke up from behind me.

"Are you alright?"

I turned to see... A person wearing a brown hooded cloak that covered basically their entire body from head to toe.

I could only see the barest hint of chocolate coloured skins peeking out from underneath the hood and a hint of blue coloured hair.

The voice clearly sounded feminine so I assume this person was a female at least.

"I’m fine. Don’t worry about it," I assured her, rolling my shoulders to show that I was fine. "What are you doing here?"

Why are there so many strangers on my island today? Is there something going on that I don’t know about?

She seemed surprised by my question as she tilted her head slightly, "Eh? Ummm... Are you also not here for the same reason? Or am I in the wrong place? This is where they are holding the final tests for new Guardians, right?"

Test for new Guardians? Oh! I think I remember Olivia saying something about that...

She did tell me they were in the process of hiring new people to work on the island under me as staff members but I didn’t know that also included new Guardians as well.

Obviously, I also didn’t know it would be today of all days... Like literally, this is a day after we returned from Thailand, you know? And Olivia’s already basically jumping back to work? Does she not take days off at all?

No wait, we did take a day off while in Chiang Mai so technically she already had a day off...

Also... I appeared here without my mask since I was thinking that there would only be familiar faces here anyway and the Bunarfs know me as ’Qing’ already so there was no problem with just appearing as myself.

That’s probably why the people from earlier and this woman don’t recognise me.

Anyway... I suppose I should just let her know that she was in the right place or else I might accidentally sabotage a potential coworker.

"Ahem... No, I believe you are correct. I just thought maybe you might be here for another reason," I explained lamely.

She let out a sigh of relief, "I see... In that case, we should hurry, shouldn’t we? It would not be good for us to be late."

Unexpectedly, she grabbed my hand and started pulling me along behind her.

I had no choice but to run after her or else she might end up hurting herself if I were to just force her back.

As we entered the building, I got a chance to look at the furnished interior for the first time and instead of the empty halls like before, this floor had been refurbished into a proper entrance lobby.

There was a reception counter and seating area for visitors and the blast of cold air as we entered meant they even set up air conditioning inside the building as well.

I thought I might see some high tech stuff here but it looks like the Bunarfs had opted to stick to using modern technology instead so there wasn’t anything that looked out of place here.

Although... If the first floor of the building was already this well designed and furnished... I’m a little excited to see what the rest of the building looked like. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

In front of us was a small crowd and all of them seemed to be queuing up at the reception counter presumably to register themselves or something.

I wondered what was going to happen to me when I reached there and the person at the counter figured out I’m an ’intruder’ here?

That thought went out the window when I realised who it was that was standing behind it.

While two Bunarfs were overseeing the registration for the participants, which was already something surprising to begin with, behind them was Kris who was eyeing everyone in front of the counter critically.

The moment I stepped up to it with the cloaked figure, his eyes suddenly lit up.

He was probably going to ask me what I was doing here until the cloaked figure spoke up.

"Umm... Partanarulia... Here for the Guardian trials? And umm... So is he."

The Bunarfs also recognised me and looked confused as to why I was here.

To them at least, the person named ’Qing’ should already be a Guardian.

Kris immediately took over, "Ah yes!! Both of you are right on time! What did you say your name was? Ah yes! That’s right! Both of your names are right here! Follow them towards the testing hall please!"

...

You know what, I might as well just go along to see what the potential new recruits are like.