Chapter 7: Research, Reset and Reject.
Mike returned back to the group of students.
Rebecca took a look on the screen of the Palmtop PC and said,
"Now I believe there was another level 1 ability user here. Tristan right, isn't it?"
Rebecca asked him to step forward to take his test. Tristan did as he was told and stepped forward. Rebecca asked Tristan about the ability he Possess, the same question she asked Mike.
Tristan felt a bit skeptical about the whole process. He knew that Rebecca probably had information about him from his previous school. It was no secret that he was always a level 1 ability user and had never used any ability before. The problem was, Tristan was struggling with , how to answer her question.
Tristan had done some background research on his own before coming to the military academy. He wanted to be prepared and understand more about all of this.
During his research, Tristan learnt that if you didn't have an ability, the military would give you an ability book. It was the same book handed to everyone, and it was an Earth base ability book.The military did this so that students without abilities would feel grateful to them. Plus, they had exclusive access to all the Earth ability books. If you wanted to improve your Earth ability, you had to play nice with the military.
When Tristan discovered the system and realized there were other abilities he could use his opinion changes. But first, he thought having the Earth ability was a good option. Even if he didn't want to join the military after three years, having an Earth ability would be useful for employment, especially in construction.
Tristan was faced with a problem. Since he already had the system, he didn't thought learning an ability from an ability book will be useful. It was practically useless to him. Plus, he was sure that the military would keep a close eye on him and the other students who received the ability book. The teachers would expect him to use the Earth ability next time they saw him.
As Tristan was processing all of this, he heard a message from the system. "System reset begins in 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1." The system was going to be unavailable for the next two days. Tristan was taken aback by this news.
After taking a deep breath, Tristan responded to Rebecca's question. "I don't have any ability, none at all." He muttered to himself, "Back to scratch ."
Tristan pondered how he would tackle the test without the help of the system. Just like before, a mysterious hooded man standing by her side handed her another book , which was then passed on to Tristan by Rebecca.
Initially, Tristan took the book from Rebecca, thinking it might be useful. However, a thought crossed his mind. He wondered, "Do I really want the military and the teachers to have their eyes on me? What about the system?"
Although Tristan had contemplated learning the earth ability from the book, he hesitated. He was worried about what would happen when he gain access to the system back. "Would he be able to utilize the ability he had gained?." He thought about the possible outcome of it. If the outcome wasn't what he accepted, his efforts would be wasted and questions would be asked.
These questions would need to be addressed later on if it came to their noticed especially the teachers would be the ones to asked the most questions. Explaining it to them would be quite challenging.
"I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I don't want it. I hope you understand," Tristan said as he returned the book to Rebecca.
Both Rebecca and the students watching stood there were puzzled by his behavior.
Rebecca hadn't experienced anything like this before and in her five to six years of service as an instructor , these was her first time in many years . It was quite a rare occurrence for someone without an ability to reject an Ability Book provided.
They were rather grateful for it like Mike was.
"Excuse me for a moment, please," Rebecca requested, stepping away from the group of students to have a private conversation with someone on phone.
"Please , Yes,he has reject the ability book . What is the next move?". Rebecca said through her earpiece.
"Just let him continue with the test." said by a mysterious voice from the other side.
On the other side, the mysterious man disconnected the call, intrigued by Tristan's rejection of the ability book. He then thought Tristan was an interesting boy. He decided to dig deeper into Tristan's file. The fact that he had no ability and also has no association with the group know as the cent was penned down.
"Tristan, huh? Let's see how you fare in this crazy and cruel world," the man muttered to himself.
The scene shifted back to the testing field , Rebecca had finished the call with her superior and started to head back over to the group of students.
"Sorry for the delay," she apologized. "Since you're not taking the ability book, we'll proceed with the test." Rebecca said.
Tristan couldn't shake the feeling that this was all some kind of twisted joke. If they already knew he had no ability, why put him through a test with predetermined results?, so what is the need for him to take a test that the results had been predetermined. Tristan felt the only reason they wanted him to go ahead with the test was to humiliate himself and make him feel small at their present. And when that happens, he would eventually come back to them and beg for the ability book , that was being given out by the military.
"Please this way, follow me"
"Alright, lead the way," Tristan reluctantly agreed, following Rebecca to the testing area.
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