.
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On Sunday of April 22nd.
The date and place for the Arena Athlete License Exam was finally announced for all the participants to see on the OPL's website.
It had been officially approved that the Zeta City's exam was to be held on the weekend of the 28th and 29th of April, at the Z Stadium of Zeta City. The homeground of the Androids.
The event would span the duration of two days, each starting from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM. During which, the participants numbering more than 300 people would be required to complete a series of rigorous mental and physical activities, all divided into 3 separate phases:
1. [The Written Exam] that tested an athlete's knowledge on the sport and the laws pertaining to people who had undergone a Gene Modification.
2. [The Physical Exam] that tested the athlete's current physical capabilities to match the required level of at least college Arena's standards set by the OPL.
And last but not least,
3. [The Practical Exam]. The test that determined one's proficiency in Arena-related skills and abilities. This exam was further categorized into 4 different formats depending on the participant's preferred position in an Arena match. (Guard, Ranger, Fielder, and Solver)
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The three exam phases would each have different points distribution and minimum benchmark where, at the end, all of them would be tallied together into their accumulated total scores.
And this total score, was the thing that would determine whether an applicant passes their License Exam or not.
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For Irvine, the rest of the days had passed by in a flash after that announcement.
He had continued with the same strict training routine coupled with his daily sparrings against the other members of the Orthos Gym.
In these sessions, Medea would help him in conditioning his technical aspect, while Dylan and the rest of the guys would get him prepared in facing people with stronger physiques.
It was the natural choice since aside from him and Medea, the rest of the gym members were all older trained people in their mid-to-late 20s.
Most of them had already achieved Stage-2 Humans long ago with Dylan even at the later end of Stage-2.
Hours and days passed by with him getting slightly less interactions with his family because of the times he had to spend at the gym after-school.
.
By Friday, his scanned Muscle Strength had once again achieved another level-up, passing through Medea's initial points 2 weeks ago by 0.4 and staying at 17.5 points.
However, in these two weeks, Medea had also not been idling by.
She had successfully increased her Muscle Strength by a whole point! Inching ever closer towards the 20.0 points limit of Stage-1 Human at 18.1.
It had seemed that during the last few days, Medea had started to try the same sped-up muscle-tearing cycle routine that Irvine had been doing these past 2 weeks.
But after the first two days, she had been stopped by her personal trainer who had mentioned that the mental stress she'd sustain from it could prove to be detrimental for her exam's performance in a few days.
With restoration pods, even though your muscle tissues could be fully healed and regenerated within a short amount of time. It wouldn't stop either the depletion of stamina or the brain's exhaustion that kept signalling one's body to rest.
The strain on one's mental health was always a real concern for the people doing this regimen for the first time in their life.
.
And then,
The time eventually arrived.
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Saturday morning, the 1st day of the exam.
*DING*
Irvine was woken up at 6:00 AM sharp by an incoming message to his phone.
He turned on the screen only to find a single line of message from Medea with the word: [Ready?] on it.
*pfft*
'Is she nervous?' Seeing the message, Irvine only shook his head with a laugh before getting up.
[Ready.] He typed back a reply.
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Irvine stood up from his bed, wash-up, and put on a set of white training clothes while placing another set into his bag as an emergency.
He went down the stairs of his house and was about to leave through the front door when he noticed that everyone in his house were already awake with proper breakfast on the table of the dining room.
"Morning mom, dad." He greeted, "Why are you up this early?"
His dad was casually scrolling through the news with his tablet device while sipping his coffee when he replied,
"Well, your mom forced me to--"
*THWACK*
However, before he could finish his sentence, a wild ladle suddenly hit the back of his head.
"Dear."
*cough* "--I mean, it's your big day isn't it? We just want to wish you luck." He corrected.
"That's very... Unfortunate of you, dad." Irvine smiled wryly at the scene and turned to the side,
"What about you Thea?"
Sitting beside Mr and Mrs Lang, Althea was silently eating her toast with little to no expression on her face.
"I'm not wishing you luck..."
"Haha... Right then, I should be off if I were to arrive a little early, so I'll take that delicious breakfast to go, thank you!"
"Why are you in such a rush?" His mom asked concernedly.
"Just trying to get a good number so I can finish a little early too. Don't worry mom, after these 2 days, I'll be able to afford less time on the gym and come home earlier."
"I'm not worried." She smiled, "Well, like your father said before, good luck out there! I know you'll do well!"
"Of course!"
Irvine swiftly grabbed his breakfast and put it in a container before preparing to leave once more. But this time, he suddenly noticed that his sister also stood up from her side of the table and walked towards him.
"What are you doing?"
"Hm? I'm going to watch the exam too, why?" Althea stated her intent to him matter-of-factly with a straight face.
His parents had had no reaction to her statement, as if they had already known beforehand that she was going with him.
"Oh... Great!" Irvine was surprised for only a second before changing his face into a smile, "Come on then."
.
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In another household, a red haired old man with well-defined muscles was leaning on a pillar of his house, watching his daughter hectically running around multiple rooms trying not to forget what to put in her bag.
"Ah, water bottle!" The similarly red haired teenage girl shouted. It was, of course, the one and only Medea Dormer.
"This is such a weird scene..." Her father commented in a low voice, "I've never seen you this nervous before, even during last year's championship."
*step*
Hearing the man's words, she suddenly stopped in her tracks to retort, "...I'm not nervous."
"Now you're just lying to yourself, this is sad."
"Shut up! There's more pressure when there's someone to compete against..."
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7:48 AM, Z Stadium Building's entrance.
Even in the middle of a bustling city. The air around the broad sidewalks of the stadium was filled with freshness.
Even though the rest of the city were not that busy with cars or pedestrians on a Saturday morning, the front of the stadium was almost crowded with many different people wearing gym clothes and tracksuits idling around.
Some were big and tall while others were smaller and shorter, but most of them were wearing the same tense look on their faces.
Irvine had arrived on the premise with his sister from the closest monorail station, 15 minutes of walk away from the location.
Both of them were currently sitting on a nearby sidewalk bench while looking around the people on their surroundings.
"These are all examinees...?"
"Yep. Most of them are college students."
"How strong are you compared to them?"
"Physically? Probably among the weakest." Irvine answered casually, not feeling any pressure. Which just caused Althea to continue asking.
"Are you confident in passing?"
"Kind of, yeah."
These past two weeks, the result had been way better than his initial expectations. And it all could be contributed to the free access of restoration pods in the Orthos Gym.
'I've actually passed 17.0 points in Muscle Strength within 2 weeks... And I've also completed the soft grapples.'
It was not wrong to say that Irvine was currently in his best possible shape overall.
"How strong are you compared to pro players?"
"Are you kidding...?" A rare distorted face appeared on her brother's face after hearing her question.
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"Lang."
After another couple minutes of waiting, a familiar figure had also safely arrived on the scene carrying a single-strap sports bag with her black tracksuit and tied-up hair.
Medea had located Irvine's position rather quickly right after she'd arrived.
"Hey." Irvine, in turn, also raised his hand in greeting.
*step* *step*
"...There is a lot of people." Medea muttered.
"Yeah, there is."
"By the way, who's this?" She pointed towards Irvine's side, where Althea had been sitting comfortably while looking at her.
"My sister, she's here to watch. Thea, meet Medea Dormer, former Arena high school champion. She also works out in Orthos."
"Ooh..." Unexpectedly, Althea seemed to be pleasantly surprised at the introduction.
"You're a woman champion." She stated, confirming the obvious.
"Yeah?"
"That's cool..." Althea mumbled under her breath, "You must be stronger than my brother right? Our Greenwood High can't even pass the qualifiers after all."
"Hmm, I like you, you have good eye."
"..."
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"Well, you guys can talk here and get yourselves acquainted for a while. I'm going to walk around a bit." Irvine stood up from his seat.
""For what?"" Two overlapping voices resounded at the same time.
"Haha... You know, I think you guys might have a lot of thing in common."
"Like what?" Medea asked curiously as she eyed Althea.
"Personalities and stuff? Well, one of you is more mature than the other though."
"Obviously." She straightened her back subconsciously.
"...I'm talking about my sister."
"..."
"Anyway, I'm just going to see if there's any player I can recognize. Bye." Irvine left the scene in a rather hurried manner after that.
One thing that he'd realized after coming back and coincidentally meeting Medea was that; it was a very exciting experience discovering a future pro players or even all-star players in their younger years.
Irvine had pretty much remembered most of the faces of players around his generation who had made it into the Pro League in the future. As a matter of fact, the reason he was leaving for a walk was because he had noticed one such faces from amongst the crowd of people.
.
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In the crowd, a dark-skinned youngster with dreadlocks and a light jacket was standing silently with raised head, looking at the tall perimeter walls of the Z Stadium with awe.
His name was Derrick Wallace.
Irvine remembered him as the Ace Fielder of his college during his junior and senior years before getting drafted into the OPL. He ended up playing for the Alpha Centaurs right after that.
Derrick was someone in the year before him, which made him a college freshman about to become a sophomore currently.
'He was famous for his speed.' Irvine recalled.
In the middle of his observation, A large man had suddenly walked up to Derrick and slapped his back from behind hard enough for the sound to echo.
*SLAP*
"Agh!"
"Heheh, nervous?" The big towering guy asked. The man was sporting a crew cut hair with beard thick enough to be mistaken as a middle-aged man.
"..."
*SIGH*
"Why would I be nervous, it's pretty much a guarantee for us." Derrick shook his head.
"Harh! That's the spirit! Next semester is gonna be our turn to become the starters, I can't have you go soft on me." The big man laughed.
"I'm not nervous... I was just wondering when will it be my turn to actually play in stadiums like this?"
"Oh, you're thinking of joining the Androids?"
"Heh, you're saying it like me playing in the OPL someday is a done deal Clay."
"I don't see the problem."
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In the distance, Irvine was watching their entire interaction with an amused expression on his face.
The big guy who had approached Derrick Wallace was the future starting Rear Guard of the Zeta Androids, Gregory Clayton. He was also a player from the same year as Derrick.
'They're from the same school? Small world... Come to think of it, Zeta City actually does very well in producing an adequate amount of pro players every year.'
In the OPL yearly draft, roughly 150-200 college graduate players would get drafted and distributed into the 21 teams of the Olympus Pro League.
These hundreds of players had come from the 21 different cities in Olympus.
While some cities might produce a lower than average numbers of pro players, others were more well-known in producing talents because of the larger quantity of universities within that city.
In that sense, Zeta City had actually been doing rather well themselves. Because the numbers of players getting in the OPL from their city had at least put them slightly above average in rankings.
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But matters regarding the pros were still a ways away for Irvine, so he decided not to ponder on it too much and continue on with his own 'scoutings'.
After seeing the two future pro players who attended the same school, Irvine also recognize a few more people from the crowd.
A Solver with a medium-sized afro, a short-haired female Guard. All were people who would make it as pro players in the future.
But before he could try to find any more, the large jumbotron at the side of the stadium building was suddenly turned on. Showing the figure of Reginal Hudson, Head of OPL Branch Office on the screen.
The time was currently 8:15 AM.
[Good morning players and athletes who have arrived and joined us today!]
His voice was stern and full of charisma, contrary to his half-dead appearance a week ago when the whole office were busy preparing for the event.
[For today's schedule, the first phase of the License Exam, which is the Written Exam will begin at 9:00 AM sharp in the various meeting rooms located on the first floor of the Z Stadium building...]
Reginald had started explaining the flows and procedures to be followed during the exam.
[But before we can begin each individual exam. For everyone who has already arrived, please line up in front of the stadium's main entrance for our exam officers to record your participations and hand you your exam numbers. This numbers will be...]
Even before he'd begun his speech, Irvine had already started to walk towards the main entrance to line up early for his exam number.
Over the course of his wait, he had discovered at least 4 college freshmen who would end up making it into the Pro League in this exam.
Each of them were powerhouses who'd become one of the core strengths of their college teams come new academic year.
"This is it. The License Exam."