"Alright, that's time unfortunately," Aghatya announced semi-apologetically, sending ripples of anxiety through Azario.
"This room has speakers perfectly distributed throughout they will be conveying the sound of my voice to you, this will be to ensure that there is no discrepancy in the time it takes for my voice to reach your ears. Making this as fair as possible" he detailed.
"What?" Azario felt immense confusion.
"The way this will work is that the first 1000 people who raise their hands the quickest, will be able to take the archery test."
'How is that even remotely fair? So only the strong can even be allowed to take the archer test?' he noted feeling indignation.
"You may feel that this is unfair, but this will ensure that only the keenest and of course, physically able, will get the chance to be able to get into the archery class. Otherwise, it would be too much of a hassle."
"Think of it as survival of the fittest," he added.
'Just because you have high physical ability doesn't mean you would make a good Archer' Azario remarked with contempt.
'Damn how are we going to get picked in a room full of gym rats' Azario worried, biting his lip.
'What's the fastest way to do this?' his mind scrambled, desperately searching an answer.
"Alright," Aghatya uttered with stark calm.
"Now when I say go, raise your hands if you want to pick archery,"
Deemas still had not turned around to face the screen. Azario glared onto Deemas' eyes, trying to communicate that he should raise his hand but Deemas' hands were still balled into fists.
"On 'go'," Aghatya stated.
Extreme anxiety smoldered in the pit of Azario's stomach, his heart starting to accelerate in anticipation.
'What do I do?'
"3"
'I need to-'
"2"
'Whip it like a jab!'
"1"
Azario quickly tried to indicate this to Deemas, pointing at his shoulder, as he shrugged it fast,
"GO!"
He saw the motion blur of arms all around him. Caught off guard, Azario jolted,
"HA!" he hollered with maximal effort.
Forcefully whipped his shoulder up and shooting his arm up at the same time. Every fiber of his being, willing his arm to move as fast as possible. His mind no longer needing to focus on his arm anymore, looked at Deemas-whose arm was not raised at all.
"What the hell… WHY!?" Azario spat-subconsciously raising his voice.
"Silence! I will not tolerate such conduct!" Aghatya verbalized, his indignation being clear for the first time in his voice. His face briefly morphing into icy fury.
"You do not need to keep your arms raised anymore," he shared neutrally.
"We are now going to display the numbers of the people who got in."
Azario was too aggrieved to care whether he got in or not, giving the unresponsive Deemas a steely look.
Aghatya's magisterial voice commanded Azario's attention.
"You have two minutes to find your number. This is in order of those who raised their hands first"
'They even know that? Is there sensors in here or something?' Azario considered skeptically.
He begrudgingly looked over the long list, to his surprise his number was on the list and to top that. It was pretty high up, a shy smile tugged at the corner of his lips, which eventually broke out into a sheepish grin. He thoughtlessly looked at Deemas, who was looking at the list. His happiness vanished, replaced by cutting resentment. A moment later his eyes widened, he looked back at Azario in surprise, whose anger in response flared up even more, giving Deemas a death stare. Deemas' astonishment subsided, replaced by a deadpan look as he turned away, throwing more oil to the fire. Azario began poking at Deemas's shoulder aggressively in order to get his attention.
Aghatya shifted.
"Now, on 8:00 AM Tuesday you people will go to your respective tests, which will last no more than an hour. Do not worry though, the majority of the time will be taken due to processing, since we have limited testing equipment," he informed.
Azario's face went white.
'Damn! How long have we been out for? Mom's gonna be worried sick and she's all by herself now,' he contemplated with worry.
'****!' he cursed, his mind full of anguish.
"Another thing, train hard because there will be a tournament for spearman, an elimination shootout for archers and a virtual war at the end of each week for both. These 2 events will be held Saturday and Sunday respectively. The mock war will include the archery class and some virtual soldiers against the spearman class allied with virtual Archers. Every week the pain perception will go up by 10% starting from 10%," A tense shift could be felt in the atmosphere.
"The winning team and the top 3 scorers overall get a reward of longevity pills that will extend your life by approximately 20% of your biological lifespan,"
Uncontrollable astonishment was plastered on all the faces in the room. Aghatya smirked in response.
"Yes longevity pills, this must sound… fantastical but this is indeed reality. Such is the greatness of the vertex's technological advancements," he explained, an undeniable sense of pride being projected in his words.
"To put your minds at ease…" he began with trepidation, almost signaling to something.
"Let me put it in layman's terms, the way it works is by extending the ends of your chromosomes that become worn down gradually after every replication, eventually reaching your genetic material and impacting you irreparably. It also removes pseudo dead cells. Kind of like those creatures in your movies like…" Aghatya continued his voice ceasing into thought.
"Like Zombies. Known academically as senescent cells that continue to linger, contributing to aging."
'My brain turned off at 'removing pseudo dead cells,' Azario proclaimed, puzzled.
'So we have a zombie outbreak in our body that is slowly but surely going to end us,' Azario deduced, feeling perplexed.
"You just can't make this stuff up," he mused.
"And for the tournament on Saturday, you will spend the day fighting everyone in your class with the same level of pain perception as the mock war. For archers the shootout will go up in waves of virtual warriors until you forfeit or lose and just like with the war the first three places of these events will be rewarded handsomely but this time with bone pills, which strengthen your bones by increasing their density."
'Bone pills?' Azario parroted in his mind.
Clasping his arms behind his back, Aghatya continued.
"Now that you understand the stakes, all the people taking the archery test, kindly move to the right wall of the room and those taking the spearman test kindly move to the left wall of the room," he ordered.
Everyone moved to their designated areas succinctly except from Azario and Deemas, who were locked on each other feeling a lingering sense of attachment and concern. Despite still feeling the embers of outrage, a mixture of despair and exasperation clogged his throat, yearning for a way to stay with his brother. Deemas looked back, his face faintly tinged with the same emotions. The sentiment radiated off of them, somehow feeling like hands interlocking together. An impassive voice disintegrated any delusion remaining.
"5678, 5677 get a move on will you."
Aghatya crossed his arms.
"You'll get opportunities to see each other," he conveyed, surprisingly unable to conceal the unmistakable warmth.
Despite putting his emotions to ease, Azario still felt an immense unbreathable pressure on his chest as they turned away from each other, going to their respective sides of the room.
"That is the end of the debrief today. This is your leader and I hope to see you guys healthy and strong when we meet next…" Aghatya stated unemotionally, but he deliberated a split-second, raising his chin.
"For the sake of the entire world," he declared emphasizing the grave importance of each syllable.
Sliding door ways formed on featureless white walls on either side of the room.
*Clunk Clunk Clunk*
As if on cue, the two vertex enforcer robots noisily made their way to the newly formed doors, their legs hitting the ground, as they moved their legs cross-ward in tandem. With the robots standing menacingly by each sliding doorway, they motioned with their hands for people to go through them. Hesitantly, the archery and spearman groups began to funnel through their designated doorways. Azario kept looking at the Deemas who;s attention had diffused to the surrounding people. Azario kept looking anxiously even as he went through the doorway, losing sight of Deemas.
Feeling his distress amplify
"Haa," he sighed.
As he passed through the small doorway, he noticed that there was only one way, as there was a white wall was on his left. He followed the group of people, who started to converse with each other in hushed tones.
'No way they built this 'facility' like an underground maze network, that wall must open up too,' He guessed.
'This place is ridiculously protected, escape might just be a pipe dream'
He thought about examining the wall but people behind him rushed him forward.
"Keep moving," a handful of them urged, the voices sounding oddly desperate.
"What the hell?" he muttered to himself.
Seeing that none of the people in front or behind him wished to converse with him, he kept to himself. Silently walking along, Azario felt apprehension as to what would happen next. They walked for a long unknown while down the seemingly endless hallway, time flowing painfully slowly with the surroundings unchanging.
"How long have we been walking? It feels like ages~" he groaned.
Feeling starved for stimulation, Azario looked to the people in front and behind him contemplating whether to converse with them. Ultimately deciding it would be too much effort, he continued walking, suffering in silence. A while later, the hallway opened up to a greatly spacious hall.
'Finally!', he thought, his shoulders easing with relief.
As he made it to the opening of the hall, he could see that many people already stood in front of another smaller screen, filling up half the hall. Like in the previous hall there were two vertex enforcer robots on either side. He felt greatly disorientated for a few seconds.
'I almost thought that we somehow made it back to the previous hall but this one is way smaller and why is there an extra vertex enforcer?'
The hall was almost a mirror image of the previous, but a third robot was standing halfway into the hall on Azario's left-hand-side wall.
"Keep moving!" the frustrated voices once again hounded.
Waking Azario from his deep contemplation, he walked into the hall, taking his place among the crowd. This time he wasn't as far from the screen. It once again displayed a live video but this time it was an ordinary looking brown-haired woman with an obviously fake business smile. More people kept pouring into the hall. In no time it became packed with people, demanding silence falling on the woman. Her lips quivered.
"Sh-should I start?" She voiced with noticeable trepidation.
"Hello Everyone, I-I'm Emily Woods. I apologize for my nervous behavior but this is my first time doing something like this, haha"
she continued after her nervous laugh. The video showed her eyes dart to a specific part of the screen; her face tensing worryingly.
"I'm the world record holder for the most accurate shots from a bow in 1 minute," she breathed out with unmatched haste.
"And so I've been have been chosen to be the archery teacher of tier 1 archery students," she finished.
"Wow, did they light a fire under her? I almost didn't catch that," Azario mused jovially.
'She's most likely not here willingly,' he inferred.
Emily hunched forward.
"I am here to announce what the test will be about."
Azario's breath got caught in his throat, he felt his dread squirm in acknowledgement.
"The test will be split into different parts."
"Ugh" Azario already felt like protesting.
She leaned forward.
"The first part is about how accurately you can shoot 10 arrows, the second part is how many targets you can hit in one minute,"
'Alright that makes sense.'
"The third is how well you can evade potential pursuers."
'What? How does that have anything to do with archery?' he scowled.
"It will see how long you can avoid being 'tagged' by a 'group of people' for 2 minutes."
Azario's fists clenched.
'This is so ******** and why is she stressing the words out,' Azario reflected sorely.
"The pass rate is 50%"
"Thank God," Azario exhaled in relief.
"So, you have to do better than 50% of the people here"
Azario tensed, feeling like a fickle marionette.
'Dammit man, that's not how you do tests,' he complained.
"Of course if you only are able to do 50% better than you will get into tier 3, which is the lowest tier who shall receive only 1 neuron pill. Neuron pills significantly encourages neu-neuronal growth helping you to learn more quickly and make you more intelligent," she enunciated almost robotically, her eyes seemed to be moving along, as if reading off a script.
Azario raised an eyebrow.
'A pill that can make you more intelligent? This just sounds like some cultivation book. No way, this is possible in reality,'
"If you get better than 33% then you will be in tier 2 and receive 2 neuron pills, which do indeed double the effect if taken one after the other."
'So, the higher the tier you are in, the faster you learn? That's just…oppressive'
"To get into tier 1 you need to get top 16.6% they will receive 3 neuronal pills. If you get into the top 10% of each set, you will receive an extra neuronal pill but for tier 1, they will receive a Recovery pill which help's your muscles recover and removes mental fatigue"
"And that is all… I think?", she muttered nervously, while looking at a particular spot again for an instant.
She straightened her posture with confidence.
"All right, your test starts now."
Azario's heart sunk.
'No way! I need more time to think!' he pleaded, his face looking tormented.