“Now, I will explain the next phase to you!”
Gradier Xanatus voiced out next.
The hall quietened down after he said that. The participants perked their ears to make sure they listened to every detail.
“Oh right, before that, your assessment score for the endurance test will now be revealed,” Gradier Xanatus said while snapping his fingers.
Snap!
Zing! Zing! Zing! Zing! Zing!
Small holographic squares started appearing in front of the participants. In a few seconds, everyone could see holographic projections in front of them.
On the holographic projection, a list was displayed.
‘Endurance score’ was the first on the list. The endurance scores ranged from one to ten.
-“I got a six,”
-“I got a five,”
-“What did you get? A seven?”
-“I got a five-point five,”
Voices of different participants discussing their friend’s assessment test result could be heard.
Angy checked hers and saw the score ‘7.7’. She smiled after seeing her score and looked ahead for Gustav, but he was far away, so she couldn’t see him properly.
‘I wonder what his score is?’ Angy wondered.
Gustav got to the hall before her, so they were seated in separate positions.
So far, only three people had gotten beyond the score of seven, and that was Glade, Teemee, and Ria.
The people sitting around them shouted it out when they saw it.
Teemee had a score of 8.3, while Ria had a score of 8.
-“She has got to be the highest!”
-“A score of 8.9,”
-“Wow, who is she?”
The people around Glade reacted with shocked looks when they saw her score.
‘She must have been the first to arrive then?’
They all felt that she must be quite powerful and decided to be on the lookout for her.
What they didn’t know was Glade was currently wondering within herself what a particular person would get since she managed to get such a high score, ‘Maybe he got a ten,’ she stared at the side of a blonde boy’s face three seats ahead.
The same question was on the mind of Teemee and Ria.
Gustav stared at his assessment score with a look of confusion.
“Erm, excuse me,” Gustav voiced out while raising his hand.
The hall quietened after hearing him. Although his voice was low, it sounded pretty compelling and powerful that everyone turned and focused on him.
“Is there a reason why my score shows this? I don’t know what this means,” Gustav pointed at his assessment score, which had a ‘+’ sign in front of it.
Everyone also stared at it with a confused expression.
“Oh yes, that,” Gradier Xanatus said with a smile.
“This simply means your score for endurance hasn’t been assessed… Or rather, it is still being calculated,” Gradier Xanatus said.
Chatter! Chatter! Chatter!
The whole place became noisy again after hearing that.
-“Does that mean he was so bad that his score couldn’t be calculated?”
-“I don’t think that’s it. I remember he got there before I did,”
-“What exactly does that mean?
“Your performance was beyond the prescribed level for that phase, so you might need to be reassessed,” Gradier Xanatus added.
Gasp!
The entire hall became extremely shocked upon hearing the last statement of Gradier Xanatus.
‘Performance… Beyond the level of the first phase? Doesn’t that make him the highest?’
Everyone turned to stare at Gustav again with their mouths agape.
Angy smiled after seeing everyone’s reaction.
‘As expected of him… Everywhere he goes, people are always amazed by his deeds,’ she said internally.
“Oh, I see,” Gustav didn’t need any further explanation to understand what was happening.
‘Hmm… Maybe I should have tried less. Being on the receiving end of this kind of attention is pretty weird,’ Gustav said internally as he took his seat.
Chatter! Chatter! Chatter!
The participants within the room were astonished and started chattering about him after realizing that he must have been the first to arrive and not Glade.
‘As expected of someone that arrived thirty minutes earlier… He even got beyond a perfect score,’ Gladier, Teemee and Ria had thoughts similar to this as they smiled wryly.
Who knew how they’d feel If they were told that Gustav also rested for several hours before deciding to continue moving.
Gradier Xanatus coughed twice, causing the place to quieten again.
“As you can see, there are other candidate assessments besides endurance that haven’t been calculated yet,” He said.
Everyone nodded as they stared at the others.
Apart from endurance, there was also strength, combat prowess, mental capacity, and six others.
They had no score in front of them like the others.
It would seem that these assessments would be calculated as the entrance test continued.
“Now, the next phase will be based on mental capacity,” Gradier Xanatus continued.
“You all will be immersed in a space along with participants from the other floors. In this space, every object, sound, landscape can either be real or be an illusion. In this phase, you have to differentiate between reality and illusion. In other words, your senses will be tricked. So, the aim of this test is to see how you lots can handle it…” Gradier Xanatus added.
‘So, it turns out there were other floors where tests were also going on,’ Gustav said internally after hearing Gradier Xanatus’s explanation.
He felt like the numbers should have been higher than they were from the onset.
This made everyone realize that Gradier Xanatus wasn’t the only supervisor in the building. He was only in charge of the batches transported to this floor when everyone arrived inside the tower.
“Lastly, you all have six hours to find a way out of this space after being sent in. That is the greatest challenge since the entrance or exit you find might just be an illusion,” Gradier Xanatus explained.
The participants became tensed upon hearing that. They never thought they’d have to go through such a complicated test. They currently couldn’t imagine how they were going to be able to differentiate illusion from reality.
