After that harrowing session, the test goes on like a semicolon, not a full stop.
The third test is a literacy test, there is nothing wrong so far as you scribble the precious papers with sentences like some intelligent confidant. Sitting on an ergonomic chair with a small platform for writing attached to it feels like you're back in school again. Listening to the hapless mouths of teachers and lousy dilly dallying of classmates who were actively preventing the message from the front speaker to be coherently audible for you. But why, why don't you remember their faces? Why are you chipping the paper with black and dry ink from the ballpoint pen? Why do you scratch and tear the paper? Why is there a hole on everyone's face?
All those memories become a blur.
The moment you realise it, you step on the brakes of your motoric exo-muscle, stopping the mindless writing of mundane questions on the paper. Feeling empty, everything feels empty as of late. To counteract the anti-comfort within your heart, you inject your brain with more dopamine.
Concentration occurs when the brain's prefrontal cortex, which controls high-level cognitive tasks, is awash with the right cocktail of neurotransmitters, hormones, and other body chemicals, particularly the 'pleasure chemical' called 'dopamine'. Normally, humans can't consciously manage the amount of those temporary drugs to control what you should feel, but after using the same method of relieving your anxiety with the carrot and stick approach, you feel addicted to it. There might be a side effect but it's a must for you to increase your dopamine to get anything done.
Because, why stop? It turns a deadly fight into a pleasure, you're not too far gone into the spiral but laziness takes you over, so—
"And done, anything else?" you ask, giving the paper to the supervisor.
"Thank you for following this test, miss Pitka." The supervisor then bows and leaves the room.
The confident Ferrakhian appears in the frame. Either she will take you to another room for a test or something regarding the end of this examination charade.
"Alright, Princess, that concludes the test! Your acquaintance by the name of Compose is currently waiting for the two of you in the lobby's restaurant," says Seizequill, scribbling on the note while licking her lips. "The only thing left is your codename, do you want to suggest one or leave it to us to name you?"
You raise your left eyebrow. "This feels too fast, normal recruitment isn't like this, isn't it?"
"Definitely, not like we do this all the time."
Remembering the unsatisfactory consensus, you look away from the Ferrakhian and just go straight to the door. "Long Leggy, the same as my former acquaintance."
A little lie won't hurt.
"That is a precarious codename but sure! Oh, the elevator is on the right, by the way."
You immediately turn your direction right after passing the doorway. "Appreciated."
Another two figures follow your lead into the elevator, a telepathic transmission is being read out loud in your brain in the sound of a playful devil. "Yo! How's the test for you?"
"I feel tainted." you reply, through the same telepathy line.
"You can just insist on going into the chamber still with your clothes, you know? Just, walk away, hahahah."
"WHY I DIDN'T THINK OF THAT!?"
"Anywho, I failed the Tactical Acumen test, sounds too complicated for my taste."
"You're a boomer, alright."
The four of you reach the inside of the elevator. Seizequill then pushes the L button, going to the lobby.
Seizequill with her smirk, Fetalis with his serious expression, Lues with her crazy grin, and you with the plain face obviously showing everyone who takes a glimpse to know that you're dying inside.
"You submit 'Long Leggy' as your codename, right?" Is the message Lues sends to your inaudible transmitter.
"Yeaaaahhhh, though, I'm wondering how you did that carnage on the test range. Doesn't your mana come from me?"
"Hmm~ those target pillars' circuits are scoring the exerted force, not only one time, but overtime. Those plebeians keep sending temporary destruction within the blink of an eye. Of course, the pillar only scores those amounts of damage. The thing is, the pillar regenerates at a high speed so you can just cast a simple tint virus that duplicates while annihilating the material overtime and let the scoring system do their job."
A ding sound can be heard, revealing the still crowded place full of third party and Assailant personnel. The windows and the far-open door of a small square scenery from afar, allowing your sight to be entranced by the night world within the colorful Citadel full of life from the building's light and signs. Your gaze is far.
Enamoring shines, of a familiar view that echoes in your mind. Was this a beckoning of your life before all of this? Before you just suddenly came to be. Came to be inside this body. A small hint of nostalgia, melancholy before it's drowned out by the regular surge of dopamine in your brain.
"Even from inside, you can tell that the citizens enjoy living here," you subconsciously say.
"Better than the past, those people won't fear the menace from outside of the wall," replies Lues.
Seizequill interjects, "We're trying hard to survive, of course. Not everyone is even trying though."
There was a hint of vitriol in her words yet they were overshadowed. You shot her an unknowing sidelong glance as you exited the lift. What did she mean by that? Tapping her own earpiece, she uses some spells to obstruct your hearing. You couldn't care less, or do you?
The four of you then go to the quarter circle hallway to the back of the reception area. A fancy public restaurant can be seen where one of the circle tables is occupied with Chronos dining delightfully. A half quarter of her meal was already consumed alongside another quarter of a plate next to her. A sentient cube is also present on top of the table.
One, two, three, four, five—you bloody damn wonder who's plate was that for?!
"CHROONOSSS!!"
"Oh, there you guys are! Was waiting for you all."
A messy dinner is in bound.
After some dandy talk in the restaurant with the five misfits, both you and Lues are given your ID cards after a sleek feline operator with glasses comes bringing another slightly bigger obsidian black cards on the plate as if it's an exotic food, of course, for the new personnel of Assailant. You then take a look at the bigger card, the golden sentence 'Operator Class' is engraved on the top left within the frame.
Codename: Long Leggy
Department: Assailant
Assailant Class: Aggressor/Tactician/Annihilator
Race: Primordial/Vampire
Rank: C
Mana Conductivity: S
Combat Experience: Unknown
Tactical Acumen: A+
Leadership: A
Resilience: A
Literacy Status: Literate