Eliseo sits outside the orientation room, waiting for the student before him to finish. Course materials for social work are strewn across his lap, all procured from the secondhand market, though he hasn't thumbed through them in a while. This was never part of his life plans during middle school. He used to be praised for his talent by his Originium Arts teachers, and daydreamed of being recruited by both R&D and military firms. Of course, he also remembers not having spare money for a proper Arts Unit that met course safety standards, always using faculty equipment loaned to him by the teaching staff instead. This went on until one day a student tossed a broken staff at him in front of the rest of the class. Amidst all their jeering and laughter, he chose to silently pick it up, take it home, and spent a good week fixing it. In his mind, at the time, as long as he could lean on his exceptional talent, then the jeering from his classmates was something he could put up with. He used that old staff for the next two school years. In the end, he took it apart, sold the Arts Unit—the only part that was worth anything—and then confronted the one who'd humiliated him and fought with him. He'd realized his supposed 'talent' wasn't even capable of letting him surpass those classmates with keener, smarter weapons, let alone the geniuses of his major and his professors who had the backing of experimental funding. Eliseo could almost imagine how they, just like his classmate who threw him the broken staff, would disdainfully toss him outmoded equipment, or flaunt some enviable academic achievements in front of him, all while boasting themselves as his savior. And that same afternoon, he flipped two pages back in a monthly magazine to see an Infected survivors' report from the Maylander Foundation. It occurred to him: maybe if he got into Infected social work, he wouldn't be looked down on any longer. After all, the Infected were in even worse of a position than him, and always in need. Now it was time for him to be the savior— The professor inside calls his name. Eliseo gets up and heads in. He thinks he knows what the professor's going to say. He's going to be warned: social work requires patience first and foremost; some cases will be exceptionally tough to handle, hopefully he's mentally well-prepared for this... But after Eliseo sits down at the interview desk, the professor smiles and greets him with a question. 'Why do you want to become a social worker?' He finds himself at a sudden loss for words. The professor silently gazes at him for a moment, then gently speaks. 'Social workers try to push for society to develop, because we believe everyone can change. 'Everyone deserves a better life, where their background and their past don't hold them back. 'Just like you and I.'