The Written Exam

Within the main lounge of the Z Stadium.

.

*pat*

Irvine pasted a triangular-shaped label with his participation number on it over his white shirt.

The printed text on the label had a number '#038' that was clearly visible with its bold lettering.

Even though he had directly headed towards the main entrance right after the announcement had started broadcasting, he still ended up waiting in line behind dozens of other people before eventually getting this number.

'Well, naturally I won't be the only one knowing how this works.' He unconcernedly shrugged it off.

In the end, many of the participants here had either done their research beforehand or were not attending the exam for the first time. At least his number was not as high as some people.

Irvine took a sidelong glance at the figure behind him.

Medea was also wearing the same kind of label as him, but with the number '#127' written on top.

"?" Noticing his glance, Medea shot him a confused look for a second before asking,

"What is it?"

"Nothing."

Truth be told, the matters regarding the participants' numberings didn't really mean much within the context of the exam itself.

But the reason that Irvine was so keen on getting a lower number was because then, he could get called out earlier and be put in an earlier batch during the Physical and Practical part of the exams.

This, in turn, would allow him to catch the college scouts' attention earlier on, when their energies and focus were still at their highest.

These kinds of things might not have mattered much to the college players here. But for the high schoolers who hadn't gotten any invitations like Irvine, this might just be their last chance in getting an athletic scholarship.

Of course, if one actually managed to pass the entire thing and become a Starseed, it also wouldn't have mattered either way.

But Irvine personally believed that every plan need a backup.

If, for some reason, his total score truly didn't make it pass the final scoring baseline. He could only hope that his earlier appearance in the tests could attract the attention of some of the college scouts watching today.

.

"It's about to start right? Where should I go?" His sister, Althea, was also standing close to him currently, albeit without a tag number on her.

"Hm, you can start picking your spot on the seating area of the stadium. Should be completely empty right now."

The scouts wouldn't arrive until right before the start of the Physical Exam.

"What'll I be watching?"

"People preparing the Arena field? The Written Exam is in the meeting rooms so..."

"..." Althea showed a sullen look on her face. She basically had to wait until the Written Exam was over before she could watch anything interesting.

"Haha, don't worry. This part of the exam is the fastest and most straightforward. It'll be over by noon while the rest will begin after lunch. Wait for me alright?" Irvine comforted.

*nod*

"Okay, we should probably go too." Irvine saw the waves of people heading towards the side hallway from the main lounge and reminded Medea.

"Yeah." She replied, "How do we know which room we should be in?"

"I think they put a label on each door with a range of numbers corresponding to ours... We'll probably be in different rooms though." Irvine smiled pointing at the tag label on her shirt.

.

.

The Written Exam promptly begin at 9:00 AM sharp.

The test had a time limit of 180 minutes and work like a regular school exam.

The exam papers itself would consist of mostly multiple choice with a few short answer and essay questions numbering 100 questions in total.

Irvine, of course, had had the experience in taking this exam back when he was in college the first time around.

After further studying these past weeks, he currently had no problem with any of the Arena-related side of the questions, and only needed to revisit some of the law-related questions regarding metaphysical abilities that came with Gene Modifications.

The way the Arena License Exam worked was, each of the three separate exams have their own minimum benchmark that would automatically fail the examinees should they not meet the required score.

Only after they passed all of the three minimum requirements would an examinee's Total Score become valid for the counting.

And as for the Written Exam, they have the highest minimum score requirement even compared to the other two. Their maximum score was 100 with the minimum benchmark of 70 for passing.

This was the government's way of making sure that the athletes that would be getting their genes modified, knew the expected code of conducts they should bring to society, and the responsibilities and laws that came together with their newly given powers.

.

3 Hours went by quickly in multiple meeting rooms of Z Stadium.

Irvine had finished rather early in the latter half of the test, but he'd decided not to submit the papers and read through his answers a couple more times to make sure he hadn't make any obvious mistakes.

Inevitably, there were some questions which he was not entirely sure the answers for. But through his own mock-up grading, he's quite confident that his score would easily pass the 85 marks.

*DING* *DING* *DING*

The bell had come soon after the thought, multiple examiners started to shout for the examinees to put their pen down.

"Stay on your seat until we've collected all the papers!" One of them shouted at the room full of people.

*phew*

Irvine exhaled a breath of air as he put his pen down and let the examiner take his papers.

Around him, many of the people in the room had also started pack their belongings, clearly preparing for lunchtime and the Physical Exam that would come after, during the afternoon hours.

The first day of the License Exam was purely arranged for the examinees' Written and Physical Exams, while the second day was fully set aside for the Practical Exam.

.

After all the papers were collected properly, Irvine followed the wave of people from his no.1 meeting room outside towards the hallway and met up with a slightly tired-looking Medea.

"How'd it go?" He greeted casually.

"Not bad, I should... Be able to, pass." Medea was nodding her head along, but her tone of voice had made it seemed like she was not fully confident with her result.

'Oh, I didn't know she was not good at studying. Her outward appearance made her look like a straight A student.'

"I'm sure you did great. They will only announce the Written Exam's results at the end of today, don't let the worries affect your performance for the next exam." Irvine seriously advised her.

"Yeah..."

"I'm gonna go find my sister and look for something to eat nearby. What's your plan for lunch?"

"...I'll be coming with if that's alright. Thea has invited me as well."

"Sure."

.

.

For lunch, the three of them had found a cozy little family diner near the area of the stadium. But to Irvine's surprise, another coincidental encounter had greeted him on the location.

"Ah."

"Those two guys are also..."

A pair of one dark-skinned and one large-built young men were sitting one table over across from them at the diner.

Althea had seen the familiar triangular-shaped tag labels on both their chests and point it out to Irvine.

"Yep." Irvine calmly nodded.

'#222' and '#223' were printed clearly on Derrick Wallace and Greg Clayton's number tags.

The two college freshmen were eating their lunch with the same slightly tired look on their faces.

"--Yep. I should be fine. I've looked through my answers more than twice already!" Derrick reaffirmed himself.

"Good for you Wallace..."

"What...? don't tell me you did badly in there?"

"Nope, I felt unexpectedly confident with my answers."

"Then why the long face?"

"Don't you remember? The last time I felt this good about a test, I ended up getting the lowest mark in class and became the only one that had to retake the exam..." Greg had a blank look on his face as he said that.

"...You're right." Derrick remembered the confident look on Greg's face when he had just finished the test for a certain class last semester.

"I'm dead aren't I?"

"You just might be..."

The two of them were already confident enough with their skills and physiques to pass their Physical and Practical Exams with ease. For them, the real hurdle of this 2-day event lied in the written test that they'd just finished.

.

.

"Seems like even the college students struggle with the Written Exam..." Medea who had been listening in on the two's conversation commented towards Althea and Irvine.

"Can't be helped really, it's a very specific set of questions that was obsolete enough to be ignored on a regular daily basis." He chimed in.

Even the Battle Arena questions in the test covered some very detailed and specific situational rules during matches that even normal fans were hardly aware of.

"What are your plans for the Physical Exam?" Medea asked curiously.

"Hm..."

"Physical Exam is a bit more important for me who haven't gotten any invitations or scholarship offers, so--"

"I've been meaning to ask about that too actually. How is it that YOU of all people didn't get even a single invitation?"

As one of his sparring partners and a fellow Red team teammates in Orthos Gym, Medea was very clear on Irvine's skill levels as a player or even just a fighter in general.

Which was why, it had made her even more confused when she'd heard that neither Greenwood High nor Irvine himself had ever done anything notable enough for him to get an athletic scholarship offer.

"It's a real shame isn't it?" Irvine just laughed it off as if it was someone else's problems.

In this instance, the one who had been showing the most confused look between the three was Althea.

"Is my brother that strong?" She asked innocently.

"Haven't you watched your brother play at all?" Medea replied with a question of her own.

"I, have... Coincidentally, when I was passing by." A hint of blush appeared on Althea's face when she'd heard the question.

She hadn't really watched many of her brother's game, but she HAD seen some.

Just that, at the time she was still hiding the fact that she loved Battle Arena, so she could only caught glimpses of them before walking away not wanting to get noticed.

"Then how come you're asking this?"

"Because I don't think his skills were that... Good. That time." She bluntly replied while holding on to some reluctance.

Of course, even without him getting transferred back to his past teenage body, Irvine was still one of the top 2 players of Greenwood High along with Grant Dunn.

But for an amateur fan like Althea who grew up watching professional or college matches, she could only give such an evaluation when she'd seen him play.

"...Your sister has a very high standard." Medea turned towards Irvine to comment.

"Haha."

"Anyway, you were saying? ...Your plans?"

"Not much really," He replied.

"The Physical Exam, just like the rest, has a maximum score of 100. But unlike the Written Exam that has a minimum of 70 for passing, the Physical only need 60 points. The Practical Exam has an even lower requirement with 50 points for passing."

"70, 60, and 50. Only after you've achieved at least 180 points with this composition would your total score be eligible for the final counting." Irvine stretched out three of his fingers.

"But as the announcement broadcast this morning has mentioned, this year, the total score's baseline for passing is 220 points!"

"..." Medea's face also turned serious when she remembered the morning's announcement.

"High school examinees like us with lower Muscle Strength and Physical State have the clearest disadvantage with this second exam. Based on the mock-up grading I did on my written test..."

"...I think I'll still be able to somehow manage with tomorrow's Practical Exam as long as I reach the minimum 60 points for this one." Irvine picked up a single french fries and put it in his mouth after he's done with his self-assessment.

He took the lowest estimated result for his Written Exam which was 85, and add it with the minimum passing requirement for Physical which was 60.

145 points.

With that number, he'd still need to get another 75 points during the third and final test to ultimately pass the whole License Exam.

'75 points is a rather high target with Stage-1 Human body, but I think I'll barely manage.'

In the end, the Practical Exam was still a physical activity. Even though it put more emphasis on the technical and match-related aspect of Arena, the disadvantage in having a weaker physique still existed.

Irvine had taken in the worst possible score to pass the second exam, and used that scenario to prepare his mental state for the third.

.

"S-so let's say my Written score is 70... Do you think I will still have a chance for the rest?" Medea was feeling rattled when she tried to put the whole exam's scorings into perspective.

After being around Irvine for the past two weeks, she had started believing in his eyes for assessment. Whether it was on matches analysis or a player's evaluation, Irvine had occasionally shown himself to be more of a coach than a player.

That was why she had had no problem in asking his objective view on the matter right this moment.

"Did you pick the Ranger category for your Practical Exam?"

"Of course..."

"...Then It is still possible. Don't worry too much, your written test score might still be higher than you think."

*SIGH*

A huge sigh of relief quickly grip her heart after she'd heard Irvine's thoughts. She had been feeling rather unsettled ever since Irvine had finished his analysis on the scores.

'With her 18.1 Muscle Strength. Her best case scenario for Physical Exam would be getting it up to 75 points. which means after that, she'll need another 75 from Practical.'

With Medea's technical skills as a Ranger of pure accuracy, 75 points was also within the range of possibility.

Unlike Guards or Fielders, Practical Exam for Rangers was the least demanding in terms of body strength requirement.

It might even be easier for Medea to get a 75 in the Practical than him.