Industrial Revolution of the Mage Lords

Chapter 483 Archives Management Talent
With a heart full of hope and joy, Dave spent his first month in the North working diligently in the canning workshop.

When he received the envelope containing his salary from his supervisor, he couldn't help but tear up... In the past month, his life had changed dramatically. He no longer had to huddle in the dilapidated shanties in the lower city of the old royal capital and worry about having enough to eat as soon as he opened his eyes.

Although I didn't recognize the characters and symbols on the thin paper banknotes, the amount was always correct... The salary was 60 gold yuan, and I received a total of 6 gold yuan banknotes. There was no blatant exploitation, secret deductions or malicious delays. Even the salary payment time was exactly the same as promised when the work contract was signed.

He also truly took the first step towards the beautiful life he imagined.

The free shelter apartments can only be lived in for one month. After all, more migrating civilians will continue to pour into Spark City. Not only the East Gate shelter area, but even the new shelter area at the Southwest Gate is currently facing housing shortages.

Next... he would take the regularization certificate signed by his supervisor and go to the city hall to apply for a city residence permit. At the same time, under the arrangement of the Housing Rental Management Department, he could rent a smaller single apartment for about fifteen gold yuan and move in.

His monthly salary is 60 gold yuan. If he has to work overtime, he will receive additional salary subsidies. Excluding rent and food, he can save at least 30 gold yuan a month. If everything goes well, he can save enough for the down payment of the cheapest one-bedroom apartment in a year at most.

This installment home purchase policy for formal residents was announced by a local worker who had always taken good care of him. From the moment Dave learned about it, he had been eagerly longing for it all the time.

He really wanted to have a house of his own...

With a nervous and excited mood, Dave knocked on the door of the workshop manager's office and carefully asked him for half a day off tomorrow so that he could go to the city hall to apply for a permit to enter the city.

The supervisor was a slightly plump middle-aged local man. Upon hearing this, he smiled and took out a prepared approval note from under his desk, attached a page with a few short lines of words on it, stuffed it into an envelope, and handed it to Dave.

"Give this letter of recommendation and your permanent residency permit to the city hall official who will be meeting you tomorrow," the supervisor said, handing him the envelope and adding, "Once you've obtained your city entry permit and rental housing, don't forget to apply for nighttime literacy school! Dave, literacy is a must-have skill for everyone in Spark City."

Dave subconsciously took the envelope and nodded in confusion. "Thank you, Supervisor! I will definitely go to the literacy school on time, but...what is a letter of recommendation?"

The supervisor blinked mysteriously and chuckled, "Of course, it's an evaluation of your performance during this month's internship!"

……

Since he seldom wandered around the city, the illiterate Dave got up early the next day and asked for directions along the way. He was guided to the gate of the city hall by kind local residents.

Only when he entered the hall did he realize that this two-story cement and stone brick building, which looked ordinary from the outside, was actually so spacious and open inside. The reception hall, which was hundreds of square meters in size, was bustling with people. Countless people were coming and going, busy shuttling around with documents in their hands. Residents who came to consult and handle various matters lined up in an orderly manner and stood in front of windows with different signs.

Seeing him standing at the door with an uneasy look on his face, the receptionist who came to inquire about him quickly led him to the window of the Population Management Department. Just as Dave was obediently queuing at the end of the long line, the sharp-eyed receptionist noticed the envelope he was holding tightly in his hand... and the red seal on the envelope.

Talent recommendation application? The receptionist muttered softly, stretched out his hand to stop Dave, and said softly: "Sir, please follow me to the office. Your entry permit and identity verification procedures will be processed here..."

Chengpi, the deputy director of the City Hall responsible for population management, hurried in. "A talent recommended by the canned food processing factory? What special skills? Born a noble from the Southern Territory? Why didn't I hear about this in advance?" He bombarded the office with questions, startling the receptionist and administrative staff. They quickly replied, "A poor man relocated from the old capital. His special skills... are said to be excellent... comparable to photographic memory..."

Orange Peel curled his lips, looking somewhat unhappy. "Ever since we issued the nationwide talent recommendation policy, we've received countless exaggerated recommendation applications. Don't you guys verify them beforehand?"

He then turned to look at Dave, who was huddled trembling beside him, and pointed to the thick file on the desk. "I'll give you a quarter of an hour. Can you memorize all the data in this document?"

Dave had no idea what a talent recommendation application was, nor did he know why so many unexpected things had happened after being inexplicably dragged into this room. Wasn't he originally here to apply for a city entry permit? Why did he suddenly offend these officials?

He swallowed hard and said with difficulty: "My dear stewards, I... I can't read."

Orange Peel took a deep breath and was about to explode when the officer interrupted and explained, "The factory manager wrote to me, saying it only took him half a day to memorize the corresponding locations of dozens of different labels on cans... He could remember the type, name, weight, and production date."

The work of labeling food cans is indeed a simple yet boring job. The reason why alchemy beasts are not used to replace human labor is simply because alchemy beasts cannot distinguish the types of cans corresponding to different labels.

With the rapid development of the territory's food industry, a wide variety of canned goods are delivered from processing plants every day. In order to facilitate sales, transportation and storage, even the same ingredient will be packaged into cans of different sizes according to different quantities... Not to mention the cans for "export sales", which need to be strictly marked with production batches and dates to avoid stagnation and corruption.

Skilled workers who have been doing this job for a long time are naturally not unfamiliar with this... Even if they forget occasionally, they can quickly check through the label catalog. However, Dave is completely illiterate. He only relies on forcing himself to memorize the pattern colors and text shapes on each label. He can actually get started quickly in a very short time and has not made a single mistake during the entire internship month.

This has to be said to be a talent far beyond that of ordinary people.

After hearing this, Orange Peel was skeptical and asked someone to bring a thick stack of occupational information registration cards, spread them out in a shuffle and placed them in front of Dave... He found that Dave was able to put them back into the file box in an orderly manner just by remembering the shape of the words and the seal patterns on the cards, even though he was completely illiterate. He didn't even make any mistakes in the numbers.

The officer leaned close to Chengpi's ear and whispered, "Isn't the newly established Archives Management Department in need of someone with a photographic memory and exceptional memory?"

"But he can't read at all!" muttered the receptionist who first discovered his talent, making Dave's face turn red instantly.

Orange Peel slapped his forehead and said decisively, "If he can't read, then go learn! He has such a good brain, learning to read shouldn't take much effort..."

He lowered his composure and gently asked the bewildered Dave, "If we transfer you from the cannery to the City Hall Archives Department, would you be willing? Of course, before that, we'll send you to the Territory Public Academy... for a month of literacy training."

Dave had no idea what file management was, but it seemed to have something to do with his good memory...otherwise he definitely wouldn't be qualified for this job.

He mustered up his courage and asked cautiously, "Then...then how much is the monthly salary for file management?"

(End of this chapter)