Chapter 29: A Parting of Ways

When Feng Biao was informed to come to the gate of the HCF's boot camp he knew what was coming. All those recruits near him did as well. Tang Ruolan entered his eye line and coughed a bit before speaking.

"Today you will be informed of the Marble you will be entering, and due to gracious circumstances on the part of the Song family, you will also be directly going to those Marbles today."

Murmuring began as a man appeared beside Tang Ruolan. Quite literally, he had appeared out of thin air.

Feng Biao squinted upon seeing him, he was familiar? Yes, he looked a bit like an older-

"Hey, dad!" Hunter said waving at the man who unmistakably shared key features with Hunter. Their jawline looking almost like exact replicas, their eyes sharing the same shape.

It helped that Feng Biao had mostly only seen those of Chinese ethnicity his whole life. A man who looked like Hunter, someone clearly not Asian, stood out.

The man smiled as he waved back to Hunter. A smile usually earned by children who threw tantrums while their parents were shopping.

"Ahem, Hayden Jackson has generously been paid for by the Song family to escort all of you to your assigned Marbles today," Tang Ruolan continued.

"Look at your PDS, they have the Marble your exam will take place in."

As the recruits pulled out their PDS Hayden Jackson began speaking.

"Now can we make an orderly line? My Divine Ability is pretty simple, imagine the name of the Marble you need to be sent to, I can make a path for you there. Before you get any funny ideas I know exactly where the door leads to and I decide if it opens or not."

So a line was formed, and the Marked watched as Hayden would hold his right hand in front of a Marked and a door would form below them. When it opened they would fall out of view and the next recruit would step forward on the solid ground that reappeared afterward.

Feng Biao recognized the Mark Hayden had. That weird 4 was a Mark for the Roman pantheon, and the two stars located above and below it meant he held a True Divinity.

"Which Marble are you going to?" Hunter asked Feng Biao.

"Oni Mountain, you?"

"They're sending me to the fucking Giant's Corpse," Hunter said shoulders slumped.

Hearing that Feng Biao looked around to see where Song Zhilan was, but he didn't spot her. Before he got a chance to think more on that his turn had come, and it was time to go.

"Think about the name of the location, trying to picture what it looks like isn't important."

So Feng Biao closed his eyes and imagined Oni Mountain.

No door appeared, however.

"No, no, not the name of the Marble, the location on Earth where it is. My doors can't go inside Marbles."

So Feng Biao hurriedly remembered where Oni Mountain was located, Mt. Ooe.

"There you go, Oni Mountain huh? Good luck," and with that a door appeared beneath Feng Biao's feet and swung open sending him flying out the other end. Finding himself entirely upside down from where he appeared he quickly brushed himself off and looked around.

A shimmering wall was nearby and a man in a suit was beckoning him to join a group of recruits who had taken a seat in an outdoor facility close to it.

His PDS buzzed physically and opening it he found instructions, the exact contents of the exam.

"Make it to the summit of the Oni Mountain. Only those found to be at the summit at the end of the exam will pass and that is the only judgment for passing. You have three weeks to reach the summit."

"Ridiculous!" Feng Biao heard a recruit exclaim.

"Settle down everyone," the man said as he took out a vape and inhaled.

"Look, I don't make the rules I follow em'. Is this years' exam kinda hard? Yeah, but it's doable. My name is Kobayashi, and I hope to see you at the summit."

"It's pretty easy isn't it?" A recruit said aloud, "Does anybody have a Divine Ability that can fly?"

Suddenly discussion sprung up among the recruits. A search went on for anybody who fit the bill. However, none was found.

It seemed to Feng Biao that the HCF had intentionally separated those with Divine Abilities relating to flight away from those taking this exam.

"Yeah, no, flying is a terrible idea," said Kobayashi who Feng Biao assumed must be the one in charge, even though he was dressed quite casually.

"Why?" said a female recruit.

"Because the Fragment in that Marble over there will spot you and getting his attention is a bad idea," Kobayashi said as he pointed at the person who asked why.

"You might be under the impression we split off people who could just get to the summit in a flashy manner to make the test fairer, but the truth is it was done to lower the risk of you all dying," said Kobayashi as he took a drag from the vape.

"So can we go?" said a recruit who stood up from his seat.

"I ain't stopping ya'," said Kobayashi as he exhaled a cloud of smoke.

With that, some recruits uneasily stood up while others simply marched forward. They all walked towards the shimmering wall separating the mountain from something else. All were unsure of where they would end up.

The reason why a conversation about forming groups had not started was simple. In a Mythological Marble no matter where one entered it the location one exited was always somewhat random. You were sure to end up near the interior barrier, but no one could ever be sure where.

Another issue compounding this was the immense size of Mythological Marble's. For instance, Mt. Ooe on Earth was not considered a very tall mountain, but within the Marble the version found was estimated to be around 15,000 meters. In comparison Earth's Mt. Ooe had been recorded at a mere 480 meters.

"I'm really doing this," Feng Biao thought as his heart raced. For he was truly excited. It made him remember a conversation with Wang Hao.

"When someone cooks for the first time they'll be scared of burning the food. With some practice that goes away."

"Were you scared when you first started cooking?"

"No, all I could feel when I first touched a stove was happiness. If you ever feel that way about something don't ever stop chasing it."

Feng Biao understood what Wang Hao meant. Fear was a natural response, especially to doing something new. It was human to think about what if something went wrong.

But some people, with some things, the reaction was different. Feng Biao could feel happiness at the prospect of the unknown instead of fear. And he felt like he knew what he wanted to do in the future.

So he took a step forward into the mirage-like substance that flowed like water. And he disappeared.