Mo Yin spent her time in a rented room at an inn. Most of her time was spent reading up on information about the word. Although she had received the basic background information from 013...well, it was too basic. She could sum up what she had read in two sentences. Sometimes Mo Yin felt like 013 is either slacking off on its job or deliberately making things harder for her.
She had also spent a lot of time making a few pieces of artifacts. Some were sold through Emerald Corp.'s daily auction but the majority were kept by her for future uses.
After five days were up, Mo Yin took her already packed luggage and checked out of the inn room.
The annual testing day for Five Year Institute was held at six o clock in the early morning but many people would get there early in order to secure a spot in the front line. By the time Mo Yin got to the testing site, a long line had already formed.
The testing site was held at the front gate of the Five Year Institute. The gate was of a simplistic design but it was exaggeratingly tall. A wall also fenced off the property of Five Year Institue from the rest of the city.
Mo Yin peered to the front of the line. From the front gate, the building of the institute itself couldn't be seen. She only saw a flat field of grass that stretched into the horizon like a safari grassland. It looked extremely out of place in the city.
When it was nearing the testing time, the gate to the institute opened and a young man walked out. The young man looked like he was in his early twenties. He wore the black uniform of the Five Year Institute showing that he was a student.
The young man stood in front of the line and surveyed the crowd. His striking crimson hair was slightly long and the loose strands of red hair stuck to the back of his nape.
The young man checked the time. He then mouthed to someone behind the gate wall:
Do we start?
He seemed to have gotten an affirmative response. Clearing his throat, he faced forward and addressed the crowd.
"The annual testing for this year will begin now. If you're only here to test your ability then may I ask you to form a line on the left. If you're here to test your ability and to enter the institute then please form a line on the right."
The young men spoke concisely and the crowd divided neatly into two groups according to his instructions. Mo Yin followed the crowd of people and walked to the right line.
When the young man saw that the two lines were formed without any problems, he continued to speak, "Four people from each line will be tested at a time. When it's your turn, please walk through the gate. People on the left line will head to the left side of the wall and people from the right line will head to the right side. Behind the gate are private testing stations set up by seniors."
"For people that are here to accompany someone but have no intention of enrolling or getting tested, we ask you to wait patiently outside the gate. For confidentiality purposes, only one person should enter a testing station at a time. That's all the rules. Now would the first four people from each line please enter?"
After the young man had finished speaking, he retreated off to the side. It seems like his role was not only the announcer but also the security guard to make sure that everything proceeds smoothly.
The four people from each line passed through the gate. As they turned around the corner, they disappeared behind the surrounding gate wall. The crowd was unable to see anything that was happening behind the wall.
Like this, the wait was quite boring, each group took about ten minutes to be tested. There was nothing to see or do as the line slowly inched forward bit by bit.
When it was finally Mo Yin's turn, several hours had already passed. She sighed. No wonder the testing was held so early in the morning. Behind her was still a full hundred people waiting for their turn. Several more hours were still needed to test them all.
Mo Yin carried her suitcase and headed right as she walked through the gate. As soon as she turned right, she saw four white tents which should be the testing stations.
Mo Yin picked one and walked in.
The inside of the tent was pretty spacious and it was well lit by several lamps that were hung on the tent wall. There was a man sitting at a desk at the back of the tent. He also wore a black uniform and his age was similar to the red-haired man from outside.
"Welcome, have a seat." The man motioned towards the chair that was in front of his desk. He held a pen in his hand and on his desk were stacks of papers.
Mo Yin headed on over and sat down onto the chair.
The man asked, "Name?"
"Mo Yin." She decided to use her own name since she didn't know her body's name.
The man took a fresh piece of paper and wrote her name down.
"You're here to be tested and enrolled, correct?"
Mo Yin nodded.
"According to the procedure, I have to warn you that although our institute accepts the entrances of all students regardless of their ability potential or strength, you will still be eliminated once you enter the institute if you don't have what it takes. If you are eliminated before the five year period of your schooling is over, then you will have to pay a monetary compensation fee towards the school."
"It doesn't matter if you only stayed for a day before dropping out. You still have to pay."
"Oh, but if you used extra resources during your stay at the institute than you will have to pay more of course."
The man said this all in a single breath with a very serious expression on his face.
"If you understand and agree to all of the following conditions then we may proceed with the testing. Please hold onto this."
The man held out a thin metallic stick that was about 24 inches in length. The stick had a grip on both ends of it and very much resembled an awkward-looking dumbbell.
"Hold onto the end with your hand. For safety measures, we're not allowed to directly come in contact with an awakening ability user because we don't know what their ability might be. I will share some of my energy with you through this in order to stimulate your ability into appearing. All you have to no is relax and try to cooperate with my energy."
Mo Yin held onto the grip and nodded her head, "Okay."
"Then I will begin. Remember, relax and don't fight against my energy."
Right after the man finished saying this, he began to release a thread of his energy. Mo Yin felt an energy fluctuation from her fingertips and the palm of her hand. Knowing that this was part of the process of awakening her own ability, Mo Yin didn't put up any defenses to reject the energy. She allowed the energy to envelop her, coaxing her into a trance.
In Mo Yin's mind of consciousness, she was pulled into a white space. This must be this world's version of one's spiritual sea.
"..."
Mo Yin looked around at the endlessly white space. If she didn't know any better, she would've thought that she had returned to the system space.
Mo Yin sighed. She wondered if Mo Sheng missed her…
Pulling her mind away from her off-trail thoughts, Mo Yin once again surveyed her surroundings, this time observing it in further detail. There was nothing where she standing so Mo Yin began to walk around in an attempt to trigger something into happening.
Ping.
After walking around aimlessly for a while, a black cube flashed into existence. It chose to appear right in front of her face so she had to take a step back to look at it clearly.
The black cube was three dimensional and was suspended in midair without moving. The cube was roughly the size of her head and was sharp and sleek. The surface of the cube was entirely black.
Ping.
The black cube shrunk until it was only the size of a gambling dice.
Ping.
In a blink of an eye, the black cube became the size of a house. It continued to expand until it covered the sky of the white space. Mo Yin had to duck in order to avoid being hit by the black cube.
Ping.
It became the size of a bean.
Ping.
It was the size of a small planet.
Ping.
Ping.
Ping.
Mo Yin found a safe corner off on the side and watched the out of control cube shrink and enlarge repeatedly back and forth. She wondered how long it was going to continue acting like this.
Ping.
Ping.
Ping.
After an unknown amount of time had passed, the black cube reverted back to its original size and bobbed up and down in the air as if it was huffing and puffing after a round of strenuous exercise. It then slightly tilted sideway towards Mo Yin and bobbed again in the air.
...Why does she feel like it was asking her something? Something along the lines of 'That was so tiring, do you need me to show it to you again?'
Seeing that Mo Yin wasn't reacting to it, the black cube bobbed even more furiously in the air.
Mo Yin wasn't sure what she was supposed to say. She blindly said, "Uh-huh...no?"
What she said seemed to have appeased the black cube.
Ping.
The black cube disappeared from the space, leaving behind only the white expanse of emptiness.
Mo Yin supposes that this means her ability tutorial was over.
Soon after the departure of the black cube, the white space around her began to fade away. She was pulled out of her mind of consciousness and when she awoke, she was still sitting on the chair in the testing station tent.
"Awake?"
The man wrote something down onto the paper.
"As for what your ability is, the one that knows it the best is yourself. However, I'm guessing it's an ability that's related to the space series."
He pointed towards the stick that was used as an intermediate for transferring energy. It had shrunk to the size of an ear pick. He also looked at the lamps that had become the size of flickering firefly butts causing the entire room to become much dimmer. The man also lifted his feet. His shoes had more than quadrupled in size. It was now big to house a small family of animals.
"...If you are expelled, I'm adding this to your compensation fee." The man wrote down the total cost of damage done onto the paper. "Place your hand on this crystal. I need to check how old you are. You'll be surprised by how many people would try to lie about their age every year in order to make themselves look more impressive."
Mo Yin cooperatively placed her hand over the crystal. She was actually quite curious about her age too.
Shing. The crystal glowed a little bit and a number showed up on the surface.
"Nine years old. Alright, we're done. Let me issue you an ID."
The man jotted down the last bit of information onto the paper. When he finished writing the last words, he ripped the paper in half and it automatically caught on fire. The man pulled out a card from the burning fire and the paper burned away into nothing.
"Here." The man handed the card over to Mo Yin. The card was extremely thin and was silver in color. On the front was the Five Year Institute's crest. "Go outside and find the big sister that's standing by the end of the fourth tent. She is the senior that is in charge of the people that have already finish registering."
Mo Yin shoved the card inside her pocket and picked up her suitcase. After exiting the testing station, she walked down left. By the fourth tent, there was indeed a group of people that was led by a woman who was wearing the institute's black uniform.
The woman spotted Mo Yin and waved a little.
"Are you done registering? New students over here please."
Mo Yin walked over to the group and waited. Aside from her, there were already more than two hundred other people. However, even though there were so many people gathered in one spot, it was relatively quiet. Not one caused problems and the talking noise was always kept at a low volume.
Mo Yin noticed that the group's age range was quite varied. There were some that looked about the same age as her while some were in their teens, 20s or even 30s.
There were different levels of training available at Five Year Institute. Of course, classes weren't determined by age. At Five Year Institute, your ability dictates everything. As long as you have the ability, even a five-year-old can attend the same class as a thirty-year-old man or vice versa, it is possible for a thirty-year-old man to end up in the same class as a group of five-year-olds.
Don't like it? Want to quit? No one's stopping you, the Five Year Institute won't miss you. Oh, but of course you have to pay the compensation fee first for wasting the institute's time.