Optimus City

Thankfully, the rest of Shivan's trip was uneventful. At the next station, the individuals he had confronted got off without making a fuss.

Soon afterwards, train crew members served dinner when the sky got darker and people quieted down. The murmurs eventually stopped and it got peaceful enough for Shivan to sleep.

Fortunately, Shivan awoke an hour before the train arrived at Optimus City, the capital of Pelentia. Though, even if he overslept, the crew members would have notified them.

While Shivan waited for the hour to pass, he thought about what he would see in Optimus City. He had seen pictures and videos on the internet prior to this, though they didn't give him the full picture.

An hour soon passed for Shivan while he was playing games on his phone and the train soon arrived at his destination. 

He got off along with most of the other passengers. Well, that was expected. It was the capital city after all.

As Shivan exited the train, the first thing he experienced was a collision of heat, caused by the summer heat. Outside the train, the temperature was much higher and that caught him off guard,

Following the heat was the terrible taste of the polluted air. It was much denser than he was normally used to. Shivan felt that the air back home had suddenly become super crisp.

But that was not the main issue. It was the noise. It was loud.

Very loud.

Shivan could barely think and he tried to ignore it as much as possible.

After collecting his suitcase, Shivan tried to leave the station in the calmest manner possible. The noises made him feel disoriented and could just about walk in a normal manner.

But, outside the train station was even more noise. It was the worst racket he had experienced.

The decibel level of the surroundings wasn't the issue. It was the sheer number of different voices, having different conversations that bothered him.

His brain could barely keep track of it all. Shivan could deal with loud noises. The volume here didn't compare to the sound intensity level when he visits the New Year's Festival every year.

To stop himself from collapsing, Shivan leaned against the wall as he let his brain attempt to adapt to the commotion.

Shivan tried putting his headphones on and hoped it would magically get rid of all the noise. But all it did was reduce the sound intensity level of the surroundings. Which wasn't the issue. Though it did help him, so he left it on.

Eventually, he got used to it, but not before leaving him with a massive headache. His opinion of Optimus City had fallen to an all-time low.

Though the noise was still there, Shivan could filter out enough of it so he was capable of analysing his surroundings. The city was very different to the small town compared to the small town he lived in.

Across the city, there were massive skyscrapers with massive billboards advertising various products along tens of thousands of people walking along the sidewalk. Fumes from vehicles spilt out every second. It was a lot for Shivan to process. 

Yet, to Shivan wasn't exciting.

'I've heard that people feel excited when they first visit the big city. I can feel none of that.' He lamented to himself.

Reality had felt as dull as ever. The only change he noticed was his annoyance at the amount of conversations that were occurring around him.

'Well, I just arrived here. Maybe PCA will be different.'

When Shivan entered the destination on his phone, he discovered that there were three ways to reach the PCA.

The first was to take the train, the second was a catch a Nova (Taxi) and the third option was to walk.

Walking was immediately out of the equation as it would take several hours to reach his destination.

So the other two options were taken into consideration. Initially, Shivan was going to choose to take a Nova, but then he realised that he was better off taking a train.

He would be able to discover how to metro system if consistently took it. He would have to depend on it to get around the city.

But first, he had to get breakfast. He hadn't eaten anything since yesterday. After ordering a breakfast meal from a nearby cafe, Shivan searched for the nearest metro station.

To Shivan's relief, the metro train station was right next to the passenger train station. After buying a metro card, he attempted to find what destination he had to go to.

He stared at the metro map layout for a good 10 minutes before giving up and resorted to asking another person about how he could reach his destination. 

From there, he managed to get on the train he needed to catch. Thankfully, for his sanity, the train he was on was quieter.

As he sat on the train, he noticed a couple of people around his age having abnormally high mana levels.

'So these guys are applying for PCA?' Shivan didn't linger on it for long. He only found it mildly interesting at best. 20 minutes later, he was at his destination.

The air here was much fresher and the atmosphere was wildly different from the CBD.

The mana density was also much higher here than anywhere else he had ever been before. 

As he walked towards PCA, he saw the trees and fauna of different shapes, colours and sizes that were lining the concrete paths.

The PCA was an amazing futuristic structure. It almost looked like something out of a sci-fi film. Images and videos couldn't convey the majesty of these buildings.

The latest state-of-the-art technology was implemented in this school. It was a school fitting of title of being the best in the country.

At the front of the school, several thousand students were lined up in queues, waiting their turn. They were all chatting excitedly.

Shivan joined the smallest queue and waited for his turn.

'This is going to be a hassle.'

Half an hour later, it was finally his turn. 

However, the administrator at the desk in front of Shivan completely ruined his mood.

"Unfortunately we don't have someone named Shivan De-Wani on our list."

"Huh? Have you spelt it incorrectly?"

The administrator turned her tablet around and showed him the details. Everything was correct, from the name and the 3-digit code that was sent along with the email.

"Unfortunately, you are currently holding the line. I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

The administrator had pegged Shivan as someone who was desperate to enter the school and couldn't pass the initial exams.

Before she could beckon him to leave, he quickly pulled up the email showing his invitation to enter the school.

"Look, here it is, my name and code."

The administrator quickly glanced at the email before replying, "Um, Mr De-Wani, this is the line for applicants for the entrance exams. You're a gift user, right? The line for you guys is over there."

She then pointed at the desk at the end of the row, with only one person in line. 

'Wait, so I spent half an hour here for nothing?' He sighed and left the line. With this massive headache, today had just been a shitty day.

Shivan then arrived at the intended desk just after the person in front of him finished up. 

The administrator here confirmed my identity before directing him to the building to the left of him.

Shivan followed his instructions and arrived inside a small building with 10 other people inside. There was one thing he immediately noticed as sat on his seat.

'They're all gift users. And they're all strong.'