Like Lucius told him ahead of time, Andrew was laid to a bed.
On the comfortable bed, a console was placed over his head.
The process of checking a neural aptitude was very easy. Instead of exposing a human directly to the rigors and stress of a real mech neural connectivity, a virtual mech was a vastly washed down version of it and a far safer version.
Instead of the real thing, by letting a human pilot a virtual mech through a console, from his performance parameters and all that, they would determine his neural aptitude.
Of course, they had more organic ways to confirm abnormal results, most especially in the case of the rare Grade A aptitude mech pilots.
As soon as the console was switched on, in reality, Andrew slept off as he woke up the next moment inside a virtual mech in a virtual world.
At this moment, he was inside the cockpit of a sword-wielding 3-meter-tall mech and he seemed to be in an endless grassland.
Standing before him was an opposition mech, a sword-wielding 3-meter tall mech too.
"The test is simple". A voice reverberated the next moment.
"Fight and defeat the enemy mech".
Well, that was where the problem stemmed from.
They say he was an elite policeman and a mech pilot before the accident, but Andrew knew the truth that it was a lie.
In actuality, he was just a 3rd year university student with little to 0 experience on combat apart from his petty fights in school who reincarnated into this body.
Andrew could not help it though. As the opposition mech that wielded a sword walked towards him, he also controlled his mech to respond.
Besides, as the mech walked towards him, he could not help his pulse racing as a feeling of excitement started coursing through his body.
Having stayed alongside mechs, mech technicians, and mech pilots for so long in the Lucius Mech Company, he knew exactly what to do to control the mech.
{Neural Connectivity: Stable}
{Data Transmission Stress: Normal}
{Mech Pilot Andrew is stable.}
To pilot a mech once the neural connection was established, all the mech pilot needed was to think and will for his mech to make an action and through the connection, the mech would do the rest.
Of course, there were limitations.
A combat mech could not beat the law of physics.
You cannot expect a humanoid mech to go down on all fours like a bestial mech and start running like a Cheetah.
Depending on the class and type of every mech, mech pilots would improvise to bring out their full strength.
Besides, the muscle strength required to physically make a 3-meter-tall giant metal move through physical effort alone was inefficient, and hence the need for the neural interface.
Andrew took the initiative.
Thud!
Andrew's mech took a heavy step as it swung its sword the next moment, forcing the enemy to react by also swinging its sword.
Clang!
The battle started immediately.
Interfacing with a mech for the first time, it was inevitable, it was rough.
His excitement and heightened emotions didn't help much as despite how much he already imagined and envisioned this moment ahead of time, the real thing was so much different.
Andrew botched his instructions so much that he made a total mess of it.
His mech was scrapped by the enemy mech within just 30 seconds.
Andrew lost woefully but in this short time, the observers and analysts backstage managed to get what they wanted, data to know the current neural aptitude of the returning police officer.
After taking a few minutes to recover from the adrenaline rush, Andrew stood up from his bed only to be greeted by the head of the Philadelphus police.
The Sergeant was all smiles but Andrew could sense an undertone of disappointment from him. "Congratulations Andrew, you passed, welcome back to the Philadelphus police".
"…"
Andrew was baffled on hearing this despite his awful performance but he was happy nonetheless. He smiled brightly at the Sergeant.
They shook hands even as the Sergeant kept his smile. "Like Lucius deduced, not only did you not regress, for the first time in the history of our planet as a whole, a mech pilot's neural aptitude managed to increase".
"This is unprecedented!" The Sergeant sounded excited.
"So?" Andrew looked at the Sergeant, waiting for his result.
And then, swiping his left hand at the air before them, the Sergeant conjured a virtual screen out that displayed the result.
{Neural Aptitude Test Result:}
{Name: Andrew McTate}
{Neural Aptitude: C}
"…!" Andrew's eyes widened in surprise having read about this before now. "My neural aptitude upgraded!"
"Yeah, it did and it's crazy". The Sergeant laughed.
…
After the neural aptitude test, more tests were run by the analysts.
To the Sergeant's disappointment though, despite the fact that Andrew's base aptitude increased, for some reason, his combat power regressed massively.
It was almost as if Andrew was piloting a mech for the first time.
No finesse, no control, just wild and unbridled.
"The human-machine project was not perfect after all". The Sergeant sighed. "Anyways, congrats Andrew, welcome back".
And then, he left.
When Lucius Volstad got the news, the mech designer was ecstatic since he just got a whole bunch of research data to work with and experiment on.
That morning, Andrew returned to the Lucius Mech Company.
Inside his room, he reflected back on the welcome party and what followed.
As he thought of it, he could not help a smile blossoming across his face, he chuckled. "I love mechs".
And this was when something shocking happened.
Something different from his normal computer system superimposed displays, this one was different. Instead of a red interface, it was blue.
'What the heck!'
~__________~
[Reincarnation Successful!]
[New host acquired!]
[Ultimate Simulation System initializing…, please wait…]
[New User Detected…]
[Analyzing mental condition…]
[Result: Stable]
[Analyzing physical condition…]
[Result: Stable]
…
[Current system activation success rate: High!]
[Commencing system activation…, please wait…]
***
The blue interface screen disappeared.
"…!"
Spooked, Andrew just stared and thinking back now, he felt like he had seen this interface sometime before now.
And finally, this was when information of the weird old man came back.
For the past 6 months, he always knew that he reincarnated but unknowing to him, he already forgot so many details of how it happened.
Now, he remembered everything, from how he met the weird old man on singlets and pants to how the system lit up on the day he reincarnated here.
And then, the blue interface screen lit up again.
***
[Ultimate Simulation System activated successfully!]
>The Ultimate Simulation System is a system that enables you to simulate any and every scenario in the world in your mind in a time-locked space<
[Current System Level: 1]
[Current Daily Simulation Tickets: 1]
[Simulation time frame: 30 minutes]
[Requirement to upgrade system level: Locked!]
…
[System hint: Do you want to use your daily simulation ticket to simulate your battle in the grassland against the sword-wielding enemy mech with a teacher?]
~________~
"…"
Speechlessly, Andrew just stared with widened eyes.
He gulped, then stealing a glance around to confirm that no one was spying on him, he focused back on this blue interface, then he muttered. "Yes".