The General Games (2) - 68

"Thunk!"

The gun fell out of my hands as they shook uncontrollably.

As they escorted me out of the room, I just walked as if I was in a trance.

The fact that this was my second time doing this didn't make it any easier for me.

I mean, would killing the person that gave you life be easy in any life, no matter how many times you've done it?

Of course, this was assuming you weren't a psychopath or a sociopath.

Or, you were just emotionless, like the protagonist of this novel.

I still remembered throwing the novel across the room when I read about him killing his mother without even blinking, as his dad was watching from the next room, nodding approvingly.

It was a completely messed up scene that almost made me drop the novel, but, of course, my curiosity of what the games would be won out in the end, and I finished the novel, ultimately leading me to where I was today, going through this damning experience a second time.

Mindlessly floating up to my bunk, I just laid down and stared blankly at the bunk above me.

Even when I felt the protagonist's gaze on me, I didn't do anything, as I was still too out of it to be worrying about anything.

But, you see, the thing that marked me different from a lot of the other children was that... I never cried.

I didn't even let a single tear spill out of my eyes, as my mind became hardened.

And now, because of that, I was probably on the "Watchlist" of the "Minders", the name of the workers that controlled this game.

I had repressed my tears just for this reason.

Why? Because, on the next test, if you were on the Minders' Watchlist, you would be given a huge advantage, and I wanted that.

Anyways, I was broken out of my trance by the robotic voice.

"All numbers, please move to the Assembly Hall."

I rolled off my bed without thinking, and flew down at a moderate pace.

Walking through the door that had appeared, I found myself in front of a seat with my number on it.

Looking around at the nostalgic sight, I couldn't help but sigh at the magnificence of the Assembly Hall.

Honestly, it was more like a concert hall for classical music, with a beautiful mahogany stage made of carved wood that boosted the acoustics naturally and a chandelier larger than an elephant hanging from the humongous ceiling, lighting up and showcasing all the intricate details of the Hall.

This time though, unlike my previous run-through, I was sat up high above the regular children, up in the stands, in a fine velvet chair inlaid with gold.

And, sitting around me were some of the main characters of the novel.

Seeing this, I knew that I had ranked in the top ten on the intelligence tests.

As if agreeing to a silent pact, we all stopped looking at each other suddenly and kept our eyes forward, focused on the stage.

Then, finally, an impeccably dressed man stepped out onto the stage and stood on the singular podium that was there, looking down on all the kids below us, a plain black mask covering his face so that we could only see his sharp eyes.

"Hi, my name is Axim, and I am one of the Minders."

Knowing better than to do anything, we all kept silent.

"All of you have gone through two hard tests already, but you must know that a general never stops, as he never has a day of rest."

"So today, I'll be announcing the rankings from the first test, eliminating the ones that failed it, and then reshuffling the numbers accordingly."

As only silence met the Minder's announcement, I could only applaud these children for not whispering or shouting out.

I mean, I had always been annoyed by the reactions that "regular" people would have, like during the admissions ceremony for the L, or when Ms. Krenshaw was explaining the rules for our first test.

Well, anyways, seeing that none of the children had moved a muscle, the Minder smiled, and then stepped down, revealing the ranking list behind him along with our results.

The results were the number of questions we got right, split by the 5 tests we took during the 3 day period, all with a maximum score of 1000 points.

[1. Number 212 - 1000, 1000, 1000, 999, 999

1. Number 848 - 1000, 1000, 1000, 1000, 998

3. Number 1 - 1000, 999, 998, 980, 961

4. Number 7 - 999, 973, 988, 950, 991

...]

I really didn't pay that much attention to any of the results afterwards.

After all, I knew that the rankings were going to be majorly shuffled after seeing the top results.

You see, our numbers from before had been our seed numbers, all based on our performance in the outside world before being "donated" to this facility.

And, although the rankings would be reshuffled, our numbers still wouldn't change, as we would just get a number in roman numerals next to our identification number, indicating our rank.

So now, the number on my uniform would be "212 - I", indicating that I was former seed 212, but now I was rank 1 after the first test.

Now, let's talk about the other children on the rankings.

Number 1 was obviously the protagonist of this book, and he did pretty well, ranking first in both the original novel and my previous run-through with the exact same score shown above.

Number 7 was the protagonist's future lover, who, after being able to break through his fucking thick, icy shell, would also be the one that killed him in the end.

But, here was the surprise.

Number 848.

I mean, it was obvious who that was, Ms. Krenshaw.

I was surprised a little, but understood, as she was regarded as one of the best teachers in the L after all, so she should know her stuff.

She actually even tied with me, getting only two points off from a perfect score, and only on the last test.

Some would even say that this was a more impressive achievement than me.

I mean, I was only put up first because my seed number was higher, probably.

Anyways, after they all escorted the ones that had failed the test out, again, definitely doing nothing to them, Axim stood back up on the podium.

"Now that we have dealt with the... lesser ones, let me announce the next test."

"It is called, Capture the Banner."