Chapter 12 - Entrance Exam: Stage One

Today was the day. The twenty-eighth of December, 2115. The day of my entrance exam. It was scheduled to start at 8 AM, but I had arrived at the X-Warrior Academy at 7:30 AM just to be safe. I had my X-Blasters strapped to my wrists, with my X-Pistols holstered on either side of my waist and my X-Blade handles were placed horizontally on my lower back under my jacket. I also latched on a strap to the frame of my glasses to keep them from falling off my face while moving fast.

Once I showed the security guard my application, he let me in and informed me where to go. The X-Warrior Academy was a pretty large building with two floors, the ground floor had a large auditorium and a bunch of big training halls, the first floor had the classrooms, washrooms, cafeteria and locker rooms, and the second floor was mainly for the staff operations.

The applicants for the entrance exam were to gather in the auditorium by 8 AM, so that's where I was right now. Tch, how stingy, they didn't have any chairs in here. What, were we supposed to stand the whole time? So not cool.

I made my way over to the back wall and leaned back against it, as more applicants began streaming in. There sure are a lot of them, some of which looked a bit older than me. Well, not everyone applies as soon as they turn twenty, some waited till they felt they were better prepared, while others had already attempted and failed the exam previously.

I'd gone to sleep really early last night since I'm not a morning person, so I felt fairly well awake, the last thing I want is to mess up due to sleepiness. The number of applicants in the auditorium was now more than fifty, it was just past 7:45 AM and more were still walking in. Ugh, too many people.

"Well, well, would you look who it is? What an unpleasantly familiar face we have here," Suddenly remarked someone, walking over to me.

Huh, was he talking to me? I glanced over to see who it was, and let out an internal groan as my expression morphed into a frown. Ugh, it's this guy...totally slipped my mind that he'd likely be here today too. Tairo Najimi, one of the main reasons why my school life had been less than desirable. He wasn't alone, I recognized a few more of my old classmates with him though I didn't know their names, and another familiar face...Bytra.

"Hey, didn't you fail the Awakening Procedure? Are you seriously taking on this entrance exam as a Dud? How laughable," Snickered Tairo, with a look of amusement.

Huh, I wonder how he knew that. After I went through the Awakening Procedure on my fifteenth birthday, I never went back to Regal High School for any reason after I transferred to Prosaic High School. Also, I didn't 'fail' the Awakening Procedure just because I didn't become a Prodigy.

"I have nothing to say to you, so get lost," I sighed irritably.

Hm, guess even with extra sleep time, I'm still not a morning person.

"You're ever the rude bastard, aren't you?" He replied with a cocky laugh.

"Well, he is total scum, we all know that," Agreed one of the others with him.

"Yeah, I hope he like, dies or something today," Laughed another.

"Now, now, let's not stoop down to his level, guys," Chuckled Tairo, with a slight smirk, "Hey, Bytra, I hope you're doing alright, babe, seeing this freak must bring back some painful memories, huh?"

'Babe'? Heh, talk about a match made in hell.

"Nah, I'm over it. If anything, I just feel sorry for him, he's so pathetic and pitiful," She responded with a slight laugh.

God, I hate this bitch.

"Talk about the pot calling the kettle black, huh," I replied with a yawn.

"Huh, what did you just-!?"

Thankfully, this pleasant interaction was cut short by the auditorium door swinging open and a small group of adults walked in, before closing it and heading for the front of the room. Nice timing, I was starting to get more than a little annoyed. The people who walked in stood in front on the platform at the head of the room, and one of them stepped forward to the podium, clearing his throat and tapping on the microphone to get everyone's attention, the chatter in the auditorium slowly dying down into silence.

He was a middle aged man, with a gray, balding head, black eyes, darkish skin, a neatly trimmed goatee and was wearing a suit.

"Good morning, young applicants, I hope you are all doing well. I am the director of this Academy, Sree Singh, and I wish you all the best of luck with today's entrance exam. Now, a word from the instructor in charge of said entrance exam," He greeted us, before turning the podium over to one of the others standing behind him.

She stepped forward and took his place at the podium, clearing her throat. She was quite a sigh, her short hair was dyed a whole bunch of colors and spiked up, it kinda looked like a skittle puked on her head. She had a fair complexion, blue eyes and a strong build, wearing navy blue trousers and a white shirt under a navy blue coat. Must be a uniform for the instructors, the others standing behind her excluding the director were all wearing the same thing.

"Alright, applicants, listen up! You can call me Instructor Annika Mikhailova, I'll be in charge of your entrance exam today, so pay attention. This exam will consist of two stages, the first will have you each take on low level Mutants and the thirty-two of you that kill the most of them will progress to the second stage. I'll give you the details on the second stage after the first stage is over," She instructed, keeping it brief and straightforward.

She then explained how the first stage would be administered. There were seventy-three applicants in total and the Academy building had fifteen training halls, all of which were vacant. The applicants were evenly divided across the training halls, specifically thirteen groups of five and two groups of four.

The training halls were massive spaces, and a teleportation platform had been placed by the back wall of each of the halls. Here's how it would work, each of the applicants would be given five minutes, and in that time, they'd have to take on J-Ranked Mutants one by one. The teleportation platform would teleport one into the training hall, and would teleport in another one as soon as the first one's vital signs ceased, and that would be repeated with every kill. The top thirty-two in terms of number of kills would move on to the second stage. Much to my dismay, I was sorted into a group of five that included Bytra and one other of my old classmates.

Five minutes, huh? Hm, this might actually work in my favor, J-Ranked Mutants were supposed to be weak, so I could easily just spam kill them using my guns as soon as they teleported in. If my energy bullets aren't strong enough to kill them with one shot each, I'll have to increase the output setting, that'll consume more XFE but it'll subsequently increase the power of the fired shots.

The assigned order was done at random, my turn would be fourth in the group I was in. Good, that'll let me see three others go before me, which should give me some idea of how many Mutants I should aim to take out as a safe margin to pass the first stage of the exam.

The first person who went managed to take out seventeen of them. His Manifestations were strong but he was too slow, the J-Ranked Mutants may be weak but they were all fast enough to evade him for while before he was able to kill them.

The second person who went was Bytra, and she did a lot better, taking out forty-five of them in her five minutes using her manifested purple thorn whip. She started off really strong, but seemed to get tired towards the last three minutes or so after swinging that thing around ceaselessy. Seriously? That was some pretty low stamina for a Prodigy, but then again, I doubt everyone trained as hard as I did, so I might actually have more stamina than some of them did, even if my brute strength was inferior.

Next up was the other former classmate who was in this group, er...never mind, I have no idea what his name is. Anyway, he took out twenty-eight of them. Cool, looks like it's my turn now. Hm, I'll use my handguns instead of my wrist-blasters, I'll go for the option with the longer range and faster output speed. As I began heading to the middle of the training hall...

"Heh, can't wait to see how the Dud flops," Snickered the guy who went before me as he walked past me.

I didn't say anything...I'm not exactly the witty type who has a clever comeback for everything, so I'll just have to let my actions do the talking. I took my place in the middle of the training area, drawing out my handguns and getting ready to fire as the countdown began, my sights locked onto the teleportation platform ahead of me. First things first...

"<Activate Anomaly, Tier One: Save>."

Just a few seconds left. Three...two...one!

The instant a Mutant got teleported in, I swiftly took aim and fired with my right X-Pistol, nailing it right in the center of it's head. It took a couple of seconds for the next one to arrive, and once again, I took it out with a headshot the moment it appeared.

So, these things really are weak enough to be killed with a single solid hit. Let's see, it takes about two seconds for the next Mutant to appear after the previous one is killed and it takes about a second from the moment I fire my gun and the energy bullet hits my target...so at most, I'd be able to kill a hundred of them if I keep up this intensity. A hundred shots with my X-Pistols would consume, let's see...forty percent of my total XFE.

Well, a hundred is kinda much though, I think I'll just keep going at this without a fixed number in mind. A minute had gone by so far, and I've taken out eighteen of them already, two less than the maximum rate I'd calculated.

On another note, the appearances of these Mutants was truly fascinating. One looked like a cross between a dog and a Goblin from fantasy games or series, another looked like a chicken with the head of a reptile, it was a plethora of creatures that looked like a bored ten year old had thought up by combining different animals and monsters.

No animals existed outside the Sanctuary, at least not in any form resembling what they had been before WWIII. But there were plenty in the Sanctuary, farm animals, pets and even some strays here and there. There were also a couple of zoos in two of the other quadrants. Back to the matter at hand, three minutes were up and I'd taken down fifty-one, nine less than the maximum I'd calculated.

My current rate is seventeen per minute, based on that, I should be able to get past eighty by the end of my five minutes pretty easily. Also, this was starting to get ridiculously boring. It was like the easiest game of whack-a-mole ever, the instant the Mutants popped into view, I popped a bullet into their heads and killed them instantly, then the next one appeared and the cycle continued.

I suppose I should be glad that I'm doing so well, but still...I couldn't help but feel bored out of my mind. Also, this was my first time killing a living creature...but I had no notable feelings about it. The Mutant corpses had begun to pile up on the teleportation platform, so the instructor in charge of the five in this training hall stepped in quickly to brush them off, using his X-Ability to do so, specifically his Primary Manifestation, a large pair of blue energy arms manifesting from his upper back, like from where you'd imagine wings growing from, but they were arms instead.

He used them to push the corpses off the platform so that it wouldn't break under the weight. That costed me a few seconds, but it was whatever. Alright, I've taken out seventy-six of them and there's eleven seconds left...at most, I can take out four more at the most.

A weird mongoose-bug combo Mutant showed up next, I blasted it between the eyes, the next one looked like a crow combined with a...uh...I'm not sure what that is? Two seconds left, looks like just I can only take out one more. The moment it appeared, I aimed both handguns at it and fired, blasting through both of its eyes and killing it.

Whew, finally done. Seventy-nine, huh...not bad, but if it turned out to not be enough, I'll have to use my ability to go back in time and try again. I turned around and headed back to the sidelines of the training hall where the other applicants were...and felt more than a little uncomfortable and awkward as I noticed that they were all staring at me in utter shock.

Especially whatshisface from my old school and Bytra. What, had they put me down so much that, in their heads, I was a completely incompetent and useless person? Either way, I had to say...I was loving the looks on their faces right now...

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