As the first round began about the neurosurgery questions, one doctor asked:
"Describe the surgical management options for a patient with a complex spinal cord tumor involving the cervical spine and discuss the potential complications and postoperative care considerations."
The question that was asked required knowledge of both surgical techniques and the management of spinal cord tumors, as well as an understanding of potential complications and postoperative care specific to this type of surgery.
It was one of the most difficult questions asked to first-year neurosurgery residents and many failed to answer it even though they had been through it during hospital rounds.
Alex smiled, for the answer was on the tip of his tongue.
"The surgical management options for a complex spinal cord tumor involving the cervical spine include resection, radiation therapy, and/or chemotherapy."
"Complications may include spinal cord injury, neurological deficits, infection, and instability. Postoperative care involves close monitoring, pain management, rehabilitation, and long-term follow-up."
"Do you want me to elaborate more on any point or is this enough?" Alex challenged the doctors while brimming with confidence.
He didn't even need to take a look into the system as his knowledge in neurosurgery was top tier in itself.
The doctor that asked the question nodded. "Elaborate on resection, neurological deficits, and postoperative monitoring."
"Certainly." Alex said and started answering them.
The questions that the doctors asked were related to first-year neurosurgery residency. There weren't many challenging ones and the round ended in ten minutes.
The second round began and lasted for a good thirty minutes.
Neurosurgery residency was a six year postgraduate program that one needed to complete to be officially called a neurosurgeon.
That, along with four years of undergrad plus two years of internship made up a total of twelve years.
This was the norm almost everywhere in the world and the number of years a student would need to study was roughly the same, be it any country.
Although the student would be called a neurosurgeon officially, whether they would become a neurosurgeon successfully was a completely different question altogether.
Most of the people wouldn't have the confidence to perform complex brain surgeries even after so many years of training and would assist established surgeons instead to learn more.
Nobody wanted a lawsuit or the patient under them to die in their hands.
It would take a lot more years to be successfully established, but thankfully, in Alex's case, he didn't lack any confidence in his previous life and had become an established neurosurgeon right after getting his postgraduate degree.
The questions were easy to answer and although it took some time, Alex finished everything till round five and was now on the last round.
The doctors took a break for a minute and this meantime, a student stood up and said loudly:
"I don't understand, how did you get the knowledge of all this? You were with us the whole time, attending lectures, doing practicals, and whatnot. Where did you get the time to learn everything?"
"Surely you got the blessings from the Gods, didn't you?"
An accusation as made at this very moment and all eyes focused on Alex, forgetting about the rude interruption of this student.
Even the professors were quiet as they found things to be fishy as well.
The Dean didn't speak either in Alex's defense and patiently waited to see how Alex would handle it.
Alex, looking at the heckler, asked calmly, "Say, if I were to have blessings, do you think I would go through all this hassle? Give tests, waste my time, and so on and so forth? Wouldn't I just join the big leagues and become a Blessed?"
"How would I know? You may have some other motives to have not gone to them." The person answered.
Alex smiled. "Let's assume I do have an ulterior motive. Then what? What am I going to achieve by it?"
The person knitted his brows. Now things were taking a weird turn. He didn't expect Alex to be so rational and question him back like this.
He fully expected Alex to have gotten his ego hurt and lash out on him, not just outright taking the questions and then questioning him back.
Had Alex lashed out, things would've been so easier…
Nevertheless, he wasn't going to back down.
"If I am not wrong then…" the person began speaking, "aren't our degrees valid in almost the entire world? You could take advantage of it by infiltrating other countries in the name of healthcare, for all we know. Who is to guarantee such a thing won't happen?"
The student's claims weren't wrong and he was asking relevant questions even though things may seem to have gone off topic.
Alex was calm despite such accusations. "Hmm… say, what makes you think the opposite won't happen? What makes you think I wouldn't go to a different country and instead help them? From where is the sland—"
"JUST ANSWER ME! STOP QUESTIONING ME BACK!" The student yelled, yet not even a single person stopped him.
"ARE YOU A BLESSED OR ARE YOU NOT!?"
Alex was still calm. "I am not."
"PROVE IT!"
"How?"
"We'll take you to The Association to test if you really are a Blessed or not. Everything will be proven there."
The Association of the Blesseds was an organization that kept records of all the superhumans in the world.
Its headquarters weren't located in any country specifically as it didn't belong to any nationality and was an entity of its own.
The headquarters were on a satellite sky island that was high up in the sky, constantly revolving and changing places on Earth.
It was shortly referred to as The Association by many and had branches in almost every country except for the ones with a low population or less area.
Hearing such a thing, Alex's calm face turned slightly grim.
Things didn't appear to be going right from this point onwards, no matter from what way he looked at.
If he went to The Association, there were so many ways in which a mishap could occur.
Some envious or jealous student might end up stabbing him halfway through the journey or some girl crushing on him hard might kidnap him or some guy might…
The room for something wrong to happen was absolutely high and not worth the risk.
He may end up losing his life which was bad. He'd rather not have his degrees than go through such a hassle.
However, Alex wasn't someone who would back down so easily.
He looked at the student straight in the eyes and said, "I'll go with you, but I have some conditions…"