Irvine was lining up on the side of the field, falling in-line with the long rows of 20 people according to his number.
The 20 people in each row would be separated into different batches which, according to the number of participants, would roughly account to an amount of 16-17 batches in total.
With him being the number #038 examinee, he was naturally sorted into the second row from the front.
'Second row's not that bad in terms of exposition... Now everything will come down to my own performance!' Irvine's eyes were filled with determination as he nodded to himself,
'My second chance starts here.'
.
After another long-winded explanations about the exam being carried out by the announcer, The 1st batch were finally called out to start their chain of tests following the sound of a whistle!
*FWEET*
With their spirits ignited by the sound, the twenty people from the 1st row stepped forward energetically.
Irvine watched as the row in front of him began their trials in earnest, starting from the 100 meter dash, then the vertical jumps, to many others less-specified drills.
The longer he watched the scenes of the test, the more reminded he was of the difficulty a normal high-school player would face in the License Exam.
'As I thought, the difference is clear...'
Taking the 100 meter dash as an example,
When the 1st batch of examinees had just begun their runs from the same starting line, the distance that had been created between the front half and the rear after they'd passed the halfway mark was enough to differentiate the high schoolers from the college freshmen.
During that test, the fastest person to reach the finish line had completed it with the record of 9.58 seconds while the last one to arrive reached that same line in barely under 11 seconds.
Such a difference in time would've been unprecedented in a normal race settings. But in this exam,
'The people with over 10.5 seconds were probably all early Stage-1 high school students...' Irvine concluded.
If there was one disadvantage that had come with Genetic Enhancement in this age of space travel, it would be mankind's over reliance on their Muscle Strength's quantity rather than their proficiency in muscles utilization and coordination.
Thinking of the olden days, when humans were still living in the original earth. A record of 9.6 seconds were already achievable even back then, though the best of the populations were probably only at a peak Stage-0 Human at the most.
But now, an early Stage-2 Human with over 20.0 points in Muscle Strength were barely achieving the same result and getting the first place for it.
It all came down to their proficiencies in using their muscles.
The correct postures, the correct movement sequence.
Most of these standards had all been in constant degradation ever since. All in the favor of rising the base quality of one's body like the strength of the muscles and the density of the bones.
Things that were achievable through the Genetic Enhancement technology.
Irvine knew that there was no one to blame for this, as it was just the natural progression of humanity's science.
'But if I were to compensate for my shortcomings in physique in this exam, my only way is to build a solid foundation in the correct utilization of my Muscle Strength. A more efficient muscle coordination.' He reminded himself.
Muscle Coordination!
This was something that he had previously required to learn to do during his time at the Pro League.
For this purpose, Irvine had been setting aside some practice time this past week to relearn the correct postures and sequences for basic muscles applications.
His current younger body couldn't remember the feel anymore, so he had to research the things that he'd forgotten through the internet.
After all, it's not like the records for such topics were lost in time.
They were even still being used and developed today. It was just that they had been put back behind the advancement of Muscle Strength in terms of priority,
In today's society, only those who competed at the highest level and had achieved a significant level in their Physical State would start minding things like muscle coordination and other ways to improve after one's bodily potential had reached their limits.
The study and application for proper muscle coordination specifically, was something that was only done by military personnel and OPL athletes.
.
The tests for the 1st row went on for quite a while longer.
In the end, the highest record for 200 meter dash was also taken by the same person with 19.24 seconds on time.
For the bench press however, the highest record was achieved by an entirely different person from the previous one, with 210 kg in a single rep. The same guy had run in 8th place during the 100 meter dash.
"But it's still a decent record for this place." Irvine commented in a low voice.
.
.
The 1st batch ended their runs shortly after the end of the final full-minute dodge test.
On the audience seats, specifically the frontrow seats a couple distance away from Althea.
Various scouts were recording the results of some of the first row participants.
It was unknown whether they were noting down a promising high schooler or some other college's freshman.
But in-between the people who were busily taking down notes, some were still just watching the exam leisurely without writing or recording anything down.
"What do you think?" John Lambert spoke to his side without turning his head. He was grinning the whole time with a mischievous look on his face.
"There's nothing to think. The first few batches don't have any Tier-1 college players, most of them are filled with high school students and non-first timers." Rory answered him while implying that the people in the earlier batches wouldn't amount to much.
As an experienced scouts, both John and Rory naturally knew the kinds of people that would try and grab the lower numbers for the exam.
"Well, Obviously. I'm asking if you have your eyes set on some barely legals already?"
"...Can't you speak more decently? And even if some high school players happen to catch my attention, I wouldn't be telling you about it."
"Heheh, fair enough. Oh look, the 2nd batch has started, let's watch now."
*nod*
"These examinees had gone the extra length of getting a lower number. It would only be proper for us to pay attention."
Although the two of them were speaking as if they held some expectations, both of them knew that the other person was still only looking halfheartedly at the field, as shown by their distracted expressions.
.
After coming to License Exam events multiple times, many of the scouts here could already calculate their own estimation of the scores based on what they'd seen of the participants' records.
During the 1st batch's run, simply by cross-referencing the list of high school participants with their estimated scores. John had already concluded that none of them were likely to pass to the Practical Exam.
The high school student with the likely best score just now had barely reached a low-to-mid 50s by his estimation of the performance.
'Nothing to see here...'
Even if John hadn't been watching the tests seriously, it was not a hard thing for him to keep track of the examinees results for a short period of time.
A good scout needed to have some decent multitasking skills and memory retentions. After all, in most matches or events, they needed to pay attention to many people all at once.
Just as John was thinking that, the 2nd batch of examinees had slowly started doing their tests following the first one.
.
.
As usual, the examinees began with the 100 meter dash test.
'The guy this time is a little slower than the previous one, huh...' John noted.
Right at the moment when the last person crossed the finish line, the stadium's scoreboard / monitor quickly refreshed itself, showing the completed results of the first test.
1. #033 : 9.69 sec
2. #027 : 9.72 sec
...
The first few results were still within his expectations, but.
"Nn?" Suddenly, one particular number caught his attention.
...
9. #038 : 10.12 sec
...
'Number #038 is a high schooler. A peak Stage-1...?'
The only reason it had caught his attention was purely because that participant was the first high school student to have gotten into the front half of the rankings in one of the tests today.
John casually took out his mobile phone to confirm the entire list of participants for the 2nd batch.
'There're 9 other high school students aside from him in this batch. Which means #038 had to pass 2 other college students to get that ranking...'
'Interesting, a speed-type player? Maybe he's a Fielder.' John smiled approvingly at Irvine's figure on the field.
Unbeknownst to him, Rory beside him was also doing the same thing. He took out his mobile device for a moment to recheck the participants list for the current batch.
After a simple sidelong glance, he continued to watch the next test quietly.
Though it was rather uncommon, up to this point, nothing was out of the ordinary with the performances just yet.
The 2 college freshmen that Irvine had beaten were not speed-type athletes in the first place.
And plus, cases like this had happened quite often with people not of Battle Arena backgrounds trying to get an Arena Athlete License simply because their Physical States had reached peak Stage-1 by high school senior year.
For the scouts, it was always an interesting spectacle to see someone like those achieving great results in the second exam.
Of course, for these types of people, the third Practical Exam would likely to be their downfall. But techniques and skills were things that're easier to raise than physiques.
Many college scouts and representatives liked to nurture these types of people and would choose to give them a chance if they performed good enough for their second exam.
.
.
Down on the field, the Physical Exam continued to the next test without any problem.
But right at this moment, on the audience side. A young teenage girl with straight black hair had suddenly begun to stand up and approach some of the scouts around her to talk to.
"U-um, excuse me. What do you think of examinee number #038?"
It was Althea.
The girl had bravely decided to stand up and approach one of the scouts close to her for an opinion.
"Number #038? Oh, the high schooler... What, are you his agent or something?" The scout in front of her replied with an amused look without even turning his head.
"N-no, I'm... A family."
"Oh, haha." The look on the scout's face softened quite considerably at the revelation.
For him, it was a very heartwarming experience whenever a friend or family member of a participant asked his opinion in a clumsy attempt to get the young athlete to be noticed more.
"He's good. Currently he has the best score amongst the rest of the high school students in his batch." The scout gave a perfunctory answer.
"Don't you think he'll also do well in a college setting?" Althea quickly asked again.
"Hoho, calm down there little agent, they're barely finished with the first test and is still doing the second one."
"! Th, thank you for your time. Please tell me your thoughts after all the tests are over." She bowed a little with a blush before turning away.
"Sure, sure." The scout smiled politely and send her off with his gaze.
'It seems like I'm too early... So embarassing!' Althea's face was flushed red, but she still didn't stop there.
'If I start asking after the tests are over, I wouldn't be able to reach as many people. At least like this, they will have a bigger impression on him if brother actually does well.'
This had been her plan for coming here from the start. Althea thought that she could do her part to help increase her brother's exposures by going through the scouts from the audience seats.
Whether or not Irvine could actually do well enough for the scouts to make a move on him was another problem. But like this, she could at least make sure some of the scouts wouldn't miss out on evaluating him.
"But that guy said that brother has the best score? Isn't he in 9th place on that race?"
Because of her nervousness, Althea ended up not listening to the entire words of the first scout.
.
The teenage girl continued to go from scout to scout asking the same question to a lot of other people.
This action, of course, hadn't gone unnoticed by everyone present.
"Hahah, What a nice kid! I wonder who she's promoting in this batch?" John laughed at the spectacle in front of him.
"One of the high school athletes for sure. What's the point in promoting a college player?" Rory replied sternly next to him.
"It's not uncommon to see something like this in a scouting event, but it's usually either the agent, the mom, or the dad who's doing it for the OPL draft. This girl has a good head on top of being mature enough to do this on her own." John smiled kindly at Althea's effort.
"Maybe it was her brother or boyfriend who told her to."
"Well you can ask her that yourself, she's coming here now." He pointed with his chin.
Right after he said that, the figure of Althea slowly approached the two of them from afar.
Truth be told, Althea herself was not quite sure about the two of them. Because unlike everyone else, these two were just watching and chatting comfortably away from the others.
Even though she had seen some others who also only watched and not taking notes, at least they were watching the exam seriously without outside interactions.
'Those guys that are not taking notes are always the strict ones.' Althea remembered her past couple interactions.
Most of them had made some strict and harsh comments for her, the like of "Not interested." or "Still just a high school student level."
In the end, Althea had still decided to approach them because most of the people who're here today would most likely be college scouts or representatives.
There weren't that many family members who had come to watch the exam and the ones that did could easily be differentiated with one look.
.
"Excuse me, wh-what do you guys think of the examinee number #038?"
When he said this, both John and Rory turned their heads at the same time towards her.
"Oh! #038 huh..." John once again grinned with a mischievous glint in his eyes.
However,
Before either of them could reply to her, the second test which was the standing vertical jumps had just finished for the 2nd batch of examinees.
The stadium's monitor was quickly being refreshed with new results getting updated.
1. #027 : 139.7 cm
...
9. #038 : 121.3 cm
...