Eden was in the middle of setting up his tent when he got a visitor.
"Hey, you are the guy who had an output of five, right?" a black dude in a black hoodie said.
"Yeah, how can I help you?" Eden asked.
"Can we talk?" the dude said and pointed at the lake nearby.
Eden nodded and followed him.
Eden wasn't worried about him attacking him, as they weren't allowed to do that on the school premises.
"So what is it that you want?" Eden finally asked after they had walked for a while.
"Did you rig that energy level test?" the black dude asked.
Eden was caught off guard by the question. He couldn't believe that someone would have cared about his result to the extent of coming to ask him about it.
"No, I did not rig it," Eden answered with a straight face.
"Look, there ain't no one around, you can tell me."
Eden was speechless at this point. He was telling the truth—he didn't rig his result—but his results were too unbelievable.
How could someone who had activated their life core have an energy output of five?
"Look, dude, I don't know what to tell you but I didn't rig the score."
The black dude looked at Eden, and he felt like he wasn't lying, but his results were just too unbelievable.
"Oh well, just thought I had the chance to recruit a powerful guy," the black dude mumbled and began to walk away.
He hadn't gone far before he stopped and turned around.
"Oh, by the way, my name is Damian," he said, then continued walking.
Eden just shook his head and went to sleep.
************
Damian then arrived at a tent that was filled with three more people.
Two girls and one boy were all sitting in the tent.
After Damian arrived, they bombarded him with questions.
"What did he say?" "Was he pretending?" "How powerful is he really?"
"Hey guys, calm down," Damian said with a chuckle.
"He told me he didn't rig the results, that was his true score."
After Damian said that, there was silence. There was something really off about this group, and it seemed like they knew something about these trials that no one else knew.
************
In the castle of Honors Academy, on the top floor, the middle-aged man from earlier stood in a large hall waiting for someone.
After a while, the sound of doors opening was heard before a man walked out.
"You said you had something to tell me, spit it out," the man that walked out of the door said.
If Eden was here, he would have recognized this man as none other than Teacher Ben, whom he had met at the target zone.
"Sir, there was a problem during the energy level test," Adrian, the middle-aged man, said.
"Problem as in machine malfunction or?"
"I hope it was a machine malfunction, but it is not. One of the trial candidates had an energy level score of five."
"What? Had he activated his life core?"
"Yes."
Ben then went into thought. The possibility of something like this happening was low—next to impossible.
"Don't worry, this year's test has been modified. He would not be able to pass the test."
************
The next day
Eden woke up nice and early, took a bath, and went to the hall from yesterday in preparation for the test.
Adrian walked into the hall. As he gazed across it, he seemed to meet Eden's gaze. He locked eyes with him for a while before moving on to the podium.
"Welcome everyone. We have all done our tests yesterday, but this is the day that we will choose who will stay and who will leave us."
"Today is the day of the trials, so if you all could just follow me."
Everyone followed behind Adrian. They were all expecting a training ground or underground sector for the trials, but they were just led to a room.
The room was covered with blue-colored lights, and there were pods all over it.
A blue liquid could be seen inside all of these pods.
Everyone was confused by what they were seeing, as this was not what they had expected.
"Welcome to Honors Academy's state-of-the-art trial pods. They were specially created to provide a suitable environment for all the trials that you will perform without putting you in real danger," Adrian explained.
After the explanation, though some people were still confused, many understood what these pods were for.
What they didn't get was how it would change their performances, as most of the people here trained to physically do the trials, not by pods.
Hiss
All the pods opened in synchronization.
"Please, everyone, get into a pod," Adrian said.
Everyone rushed to find a pod. Lots of people went for the first pods, as they believed they were better than the others.
Eden didn't bother with that and went to the last pod at the back of the hall.
As it turned out, Mia used the pod right beside him. Whether that was a coincidence or intentional, it didn't matter now.
After everyone had gotten into a pod, they all heard a computer voice.
(Pods are closing... initiating immersive world experience)
Buzz
Everyone felt a little jolt as the pods closed. Then there was a feeling like their souls had left their bodies before everywhere went black.
Eden woke and saw himself in a large cornfield.
He looked at his arm and everything around him.
He could hardly differentiate between real life and this.
While he was still wondering what trial this was, the sky started to darken.
Then red meteors began to fall from the sky.
There was no need for any more explanation—this was the fire element trial.
BOOM
A huge explosion resonated across the cornfield. Eden immediately lay flat on the ground to avoid the bombardment.
But it seemed his efforts were in vain, as he looked up at the sky and saw a meteor crashing towards him at astonishing speed.