2 Two minute man

"Reason, logic, and deduction. I am convinced these intangible qualities are what I need to succeed. The things I need to survive past this.

"So calm down. It's OK. How hard can it be? Let's think about this. Take it step-by-step and go through the question again: 'If two of five cups are finished in a quarter of an hour, how many more cups will be used in a third of this time?'"

A: 5, B: 3, C: 1, D: None of the above

"Argh, this makes no sense! What logic? What deduction? Is the question even reasonable?"

Once upon a time, Peter Dovic was talking to himself again. Peter was now an old man. Being less harsh you could call him a well-aged man. Or as he called himself, a mature man. He was soon clocking forty and could be said to have just peaked the prime of his life. At this age, we are advised to maximize our social capital, solidify our investments and plan towards a steady early retirement at 50. Risking starting from scratch right now is not advised. All the same, Peter was duped into reinventing himself. As the sucker he was, he fell for it.

He was convinced to do two of the most dangerous things, hurt his brain by thinking and hurt his body by exercising. This led to his current predicament of attempting this 15 minute - 40 question IQ test. He was confident that he had answered no less than two correctly and was currently on the twelfth one. He was sweating profusely. On top of that, he felt suffocated and was taking deep breathes to try and calm himself. He was sitting in writing pad chair cramped in a whitewashed room small enough to be a closet. In fact, it was a closet. He looked at the countdown on his digital watch. It read 03:31, it looked like he would not make it through again.

"I'm coming out of the closet!", Peter screeched as he bolted upright and bust through the door into the sitting room then collapsed on the sofa.

"That's telling. Hmm, two minutes. That's worse than last time.", a slightly hoarse voice replied from the adjacent room.

"Not two minutes three. Three. Three and fifty seconds! That's almost four minutes. Four minutes OK!?". Peter rebutted breathlessly in between his heavy panting while trying to flash his watch.

"Hur, Hur. If I say its two then it's two. Funny you think four is anything.", came the reply following which an old man walked in from the kitchen holding a steaming mug in each hand.

"Stingy old man.", Peter murmured as he glared at him through the corner of his eyes.

"Beg your pardon?", the old man asked in a slow and threatening tone.

"No. Nothing."

"What nothing? Repeat what you said."

"Said sti..illy old men. Ok, silly of me.", Peter stammered out as he scratched the top of his head.

"Good, now drink up it will help you go longer.", the old man nodded approvingly as he shoved a mug in front of his face.

The odoriferous smell from all those blended vegetables immediately hit his brain. He cringed at the memory of horrific taste he experienced when he had to chug it down in the morning.

"Isn't one a day the recommended amount?", he muttered in a whimper.

"What? Don't you want to be like the sata man from the comic books?", the old asked back with a raised eyebrows and a smile.

"What sata man? It's Saitama, Saitama, OK!", replied as he frowned brows. "And it's manga, not comic books.", Peter rebutted. In Peter's eyes, the smile looked extremely nefarious and very much like those degenerates would give to a child as they presented their lollipops.

"Yes, yes just as you said. Drink up then do the 100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups, 100 squats and 10 km run then you will be invincible. Hur, Hur.", the old man replied as he repeatedly nodded. "Plus one for me and one for you. You wouldn't chicken out of doing this with old me, right?", he continued.

Peter finished drinking down the mug as he glared at the old man's smile. He could swear this old guy had lollipop experience. The old man was Bito Smithson, a former cadet training officer. More importantly, he was a white-bearded old man. You know 'that' white-bearded old man? You had to listen to these guys to amaze the world in a single feat, right? This was the hero flag, right? It was not a senile old man playing a prank on him, right?

As Peter was lost in thought, Bito exchanged the empty mug Peter was holding with the full one then commanded, "Good, now drink."

Peter first froze in a daze then replied, "What do you mean drink? I just finished. This is yours!"

The smile was wiped off Bito's face as he replied with a deadpan expression, "Hmm. I'll have no tricks from you, look mine is empty yours is full. Drink."

Peter was flabbergasted. Was this the legendary thick-faced shameless? Or short-term memory loss? Was he going senile? Oh no! It really was a senile old man!