20 End of Day 1
When Irvine finally came out, the first scene he saw was that of the other examinees from his batch looking at him with widened eyes.
'?'
With the number #038 on his tag, his turn for the full-minute dodge test had come third to last in his group.
Aside from the two numbers behind him, the scores had already been pretty much set for their entire 2nd batch.
At first, Irvine himself had not been feeling self-conscious enough to realize the reason for the gazes put on him. But then,
'Ah... Right, so that's why.'
Only after he'd looked up at the stadium's monitor did Irvine finally come out of his trance-like state and understood the shock of the people.
.
Full-minute Dodge:
1. #038 : 2 hits
2. #026 : 4 hits
3. #033 : 4 hits
...
'That's right, this was just the Arena License Exam... A score like this must've been quite rare.' He noted in his thought.
Rare was pretty much an understatement for Irvine's situation.
For full-minute dodge test, it was not an unusual thing to see multiple people achieving the same scores. But Irvine had suddenly come out and beat the highest scores by 2 points all on his own.
At the start of the tests, many of the people from his batch had failed to take notes of him because of his average rankings in all the tests. Especially since the participants didn't really know the college students from the high schoolers.
But even if they had missed him previously, it was with no doubt that his current scores had helped all the people today to etch his number in their minds.
Irvine's score of 2 hits was not only the highest score from his 2nd batch, but also the highest score overall ever since the start of the exam!
Granted, there were only 40 people who had completed their Physicals at the moment. But even then, the score was still not something to scoff at in all the history of the License Exam.
.
.
*hustle* *bustle*
Amidst all the shock-and-awes. One of the groups of people getting most of the surprise was undoubtedly the scouts and representatives in the audience seats.
Presently, most of them had turned either frantic or eerily quiet as they watched the toppled high scores on the screen.
Some of them had started jotting things down on their pads while others were busily making calls and talking to others in a muffled voice.
One thing to be sure was that almost none of them were staying still without doing anything.
Even Althea who wasn't really accustomed to the standards of the exam test results knew the significance on getting the the top spot in one of the test's rankings.
Her eyes had widened with surprise and joy the moment she'd noticed the people around her looking at the monitor and talking about her brother's tag number.
And when she herself had found out the scores through the monitor, her mouth had been unable to control its muscles as it curved up involuntarily.
She had to put both of her hands on it in a failed attempt to cover the smile, but it was of no use to anyone who could see her right now.
"He actually made it...!" She muttered in a very soft tone of voice.
.
"Damn, now this is unexpected..." This kind of development at the end of his tests was something very much outside of John's expectation.
Previously, John had thought that he still had to wait until Irvine's Practical Exam was over to see the level of his knowledge and techniques in Battle Arena.
This had been an assumption based on the possibility that Irvine would have achieved the same middle-ranked result for his full-minute dodge test.
'But now,'
If nothing else, Irvine's dodge test results had proven that he was, at the very least, proficient in combat-related fighting skills. Which was to say, one of the larger fraction of a required Battle Arena skillset.
With this kind of outcome, the Practical Exam tomorrow might as well be just a formality at this point.
John truly had no other choice but to start making some calls now that this had happened,
'A most possible Starseed... It might become disadvantageous for me if I waited for the Practical Exam results tomorrow.' His face had turned grave at some point in time.
*tap* *tap* *tap*
'?'
Just as he was thinking that, John finally noticed that the man beside him had already took out a mobile phone and were typing some kind of text messages to someone.
At this moment, Rory's face had somehow turned even more serious than the usual as he tapped away at his phone in one hand with great speed.
"...Hey, you're not really thinking of getting a head start on me, are you?" John said mockingly.
"Head start on what? I'm texting someone."
"Acting dumb doesn't suit you." John decided to ignore him as he took out his own mobile device and started dialing a number.
"..."
*beeeep* *beeeep*
*click* [Hello?]
"Hey, it's me." He spoke in his easily recognizable casual tone, "Help me get any videos you can find on Greenwood High School's Arena matches within this past 3 years, will you?"
[Huh? Which school is tha--]
*beep*
John quickly hung up without listening to the reply. He then turned towards Rory and said provokingly,
"Who communicates with texts in this day and age?"
"I don't know what you're talking about." Rory pushed up his glasses with the same pokerface.
If one could look at the screen of his phone right now, a text with roughly the same message as the content of John's call was written on it.
[Greenwood High match videos. 3 years or newer. ASAP.]
For the both of them, the earlier they could confirm Irvine's skills and records, the faster they could make their move and approach Irvine after today's exams were over.
'But his talents might've just bloomed recently. In which case, there'll be no way for us to confirm his actual aptitude for Arena until tomorrow...'
.
.
The group with the least amount of reactions to Irvine's score was, of course, the examinees that were still on the line-up.
Even though the score had been rather eye-catching for them. It wasn't that much of a difference to the time they saw other people getting top scores in the rest of the previous tests.
Add to the fact that they still didn't know that number #038 was a high school student. It was just another great score being posted from their point of views.
But amidst the rest of the participants lining up on the side of the field. One person was looking at the stadium's monitor with a kind of sharp look in her eyes.
"There it is..." Medea mumbled with an almost inaudible voice.
Contrary to the scouts or the examinees in Irvine's group, She hadn't been that surprised when she saw him acing one of the tests.
She already had a feeling that someone like Irvine would do something that would attract the crowd's attention one way or another in this exam.
It was just a question of whether it'd be done during today's or tomorrow's exam.
"Soon enough it'll be my turn." She firmed her resolve while looking at the large monitor hanging on the side of the field.
Her exam number was #127, which put her at the front half of the 7th batch for this exam.
Although it could still be counted as the earlier half of the group, and she herself had been patiently watching the tests until now. At this moment, she was suddenly overcome with impatience and itching feelings that's making her raring to go.
.
.
After the initial reactions of Irvine's dodge test score, the Physical Exam had smoothly continued on.
Irvine was now resting himself at the other end of the field along with the other 1st and 2nd batches of participants on their designated area.
Following the subsequent batches of examinees coming out for the tests, the earlier shocks amongst the scouts had also slowly subsided.
Most of them had gone back to focusing their attention towards the next few groups of people doing the exact same set of activities.
However, the one main difference was that, in each of their itinerary, a single extra name and schedule had been logged inside.
Examinee number #038, Irvine Lang.
.
Group after group come out without anymore hectic reactions from the scouts.
That is, until the 7th batch began their run.
After getting their full list of participants, a single name had been mentioned by the scouts more often than others.
The number #127 examinee, Medea Dormer.
Almost everybody on the audience seats had known about this particular high school prodigy beforehand.
Within the small circle of college scouts, her participation in the License Exam had been one of the sought after topics ever since she had resigned from her champion school's Arena Team to prepare herself for it.
Currently, the 3 Starseeds that had already appeared within this academic year were people who had suddenly risen out of nowhere without any prior notable records among them.
One of them was a home-schooled teenager who was the son of a famous pro player from previous generation, while another was a bench player in some famous high school in Central Sector who, for some reason, had never been put to play by his school's Arena coach.
Unlike them, Medea was a renowned high school player who had gone through the regular route. Raising her fame and skills little-by-little through competitions with her school team.
With her stellar records, many people in the field had been speculating whether she'll become one of the Starseeds of her own generation.
And today was finally the deciding moment for those speculations.
.
At the start, Medea had achieved roughly the same score and records as Irvine did. Placing herself among the middle-bottom of the rankings each and everytime.
Personally, she had beaten Irvine's records for 100 meter dash and vertical jump, while her 200 meter and bench press records still lose out a bit compared to his.
But the reason she was staying at the middle-bottom of the ranks instead of a clear middle was because the further back one's number was, the fewer high school participants there were amongst the group. Making it that much harder to rise up.
.
.
On the audience seats.
John and Rory were also watching with the same interest at Medea's results.
"Peak Stage-1 performance as well." Rory commented,
"Or maybe, just like that number #038, she's just good at using her muscles eh?" John piled on his own guesses.
Different from Irvine, even if Medea happened to get far better scores and caused an even greater surprise today, there would hardly be any actions to be taken by the scouts aside from simple reporting.
That was because most schools in the Northern Sector had already sent in their offers and invitations to her. This was the case with Verdante and Ravenville as well.
All they could do now was watch if this prospective player of theirs would rise and become another Starseed, or would she miss her timing and be forced to get her license right after college had started.
"Well, she'll pass this Physical Exam no problem at least."
"Agreed."
Just like Irvine, her score before the dodge test was also estimated to be between 65-68 points. Which was already well beyond the required 60 points.
In front of their eyes, Medea was currently trying hard to dodge multiple balls coming at her inside the transparent glass box.
Half of the minute had already passed, but she'd already been hit with 3 different balls.
In the end, she only finished her test in 5th place with a total of 5 hits on her, sharing the same score with 2 other guys.
Unexpectedly, the 1st rank in her batch had finished the test with only 3 hits, getting him the overall second-best score of today.
But this, in turn, had made both John and Rory even more alarmed and curious as to the actual prowess of the unknown athlete called Irvine Lang who managed to get only 2 hits for his test.
.
.
"Ah, damn!!"
On the field, Medea was sulking a little because her final test's result was extremely far from Irvine's. But she had known that it was inevitable when she had gotten her third hit within the first 30 seconds.
Her 7th batch of examinees had completed their entire run shortly after her turn on the glass box. She was now standing on the same area as the rest of the finished participants.
"Hey." A familiar voice suddenly called out to her from a slight distance away.
"Good try." Irvine raised and stayed his hand in the air as he walked over towards her direction, offering a high-five for her performance.
"...Are you gloating?"
"Why would I gloat? I'm not even ranked within the top 20 overall." He felt speechless at the girl's snarky comment.
"But you're first in one of the tests right now."
"And what's the point if I don't pass in the end?"
"..."
*TAP*
In the end, Medea didn't bother to argue any longer and just replied to his stretched hand with her own.
"...You should be getting many invitations after this."
"I think so too." Irvine nodded, opting to answer with his true thoughts instead of giving a halfhearted humble reply.
"So, how is it?" He followed through with another question.
"How is what?"
"This is the end of our first day in the License Exam. What do you think?"
"...I think I'll feel either better or worse depending on the result of the Written Exam."
"Haha."
.
.
The two of them continued to watch and chat for the rest of the latter half of Physical Exam.
When the batches containing participants numbering #200 and above finally come on stage, everyone suddenly began to see a consistent increase in the tests' high scores getting updated with each group of people coming out.
From this point forward, most of the examinees doing the tests were all players from the Tier-1 colleges.
Unlike the earlier groups, where there were still some college players in their peak Stage-1, right now, those that hadn't achieved Stage-2 Human were all at the very bottom of the rankings no matter how good they are.
Some of the unlucky high schoolers who got a high number during their first entry stood out like a sore thumb in their own way at this time of the exam.
.
On the audience seats.
The scouts from Tier-2 and below colleges, which made up the majority of the people there, had already stopped gathering any sorts of data and were now just watching leisurely on the exam.
From this moment until the end of the whole Physical Exam, the ones who had finally started to get busy with their memos and notes were the Tier-1 representatives!
John and Rory were not the only Tier-1 scouts coming today, and they also were not the only rivals against each other.
Both of them were recording and taking notes at the same time for players that might become their enemies when the new academic year eventually started.
Time went on quickly with astonishing physical scores getting overwritten left and right.
By the end, the bench press high score was updated to 260 kilograms while the 100 meter dash top speed became 9.08 seconds.
It was during this revelation that Medea felt glad the Arena License Exam wasn't built with competition and limited quota format. Because that would make any hope for Starseeds disappear.
.
Before long, all the participants were finally finished with their exam and all of them were gathered together in the middle of the field.
Now, it was finally the time to show the total results for both the Written and Physical Exam!
The time when most of the License Exam's participants would get eliminated even before starting their third and final Practical Exam.
